[\n\nSee also\n\n\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links\n\nlead.txt · Last modified: 2020/03/12 18:35 (external edit)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8798317313194275}
+{"content": "Director: Justin Kurzel (2015)\n\nThis bold and bleak adaption of Shakespeare‘s Scottish play is violent and visually arresting but curiously unmoving.\n\nA moody, macho and masochistic Michael Fassbender frets for a couple of hours upon the stage.\n\nHe drips with menace and blood and there is much sound and fury.\n\nAfter serving his King by quelling an insurrection, Macbeth encounters three witches who prophesy a royal future.\n\nEncouraged by his wife he murders his way to the throne, and becomes consumed by madness.\n\nA macabre tone is struck from the start with the burial of an infant. Among the battles, murders, ghosts, and witches, the rural feudal society is chillingly and chillily realised.\n\nThe relentless rain-lashed realism captures the grim hardships of the era, but there is also beauty is the landscapes, a children’s chorus and the craftsmanship of cloaks and daggers.\n\nFiona Crombie’s strong production design offers fine detail and heavy weathering, anchoring the actors in the period.\n\nIt’s a consistent vision, utilising wild exteriors in what was a gruelling shoot for cast and crew.\n\nInteriors were filmed in the magnificent and contemporaneous Ely Cathedral.\n\nCinematographer Adam Arkapaw frames some lovely images but fellow Australian, director Kurzel rarely use his camera to fully bring out the drama of the verse.\n\nThe pair are stronger on the hoof, creating some terrific moments in battle and in the hunt.\n\nKurzel’s brother Jed adds to the tone with an unsettling screeching soundtrack.\n\nThree writer’s have acceptably trimmed Shakespeare’s verse. But it’s sadly compromised through frequently flat recital, caught within beards or lost thick fog of a Scots brogue.\n\nThere’s also tendency by most of the men to employ a throaty whisper as often as possible, so we have to strain for understanding.\n\nOnly Englishman Sean Harris as Macduff and the French actress Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth offer engaging readings. Both characters are motivated by grief for lost children.\n\nElizabeth Debicki has a moment on fire but David Thewlis, Jack Reynor and Paddy Considine seem oddly removed from events around them.\n\nShakespeare put humour in his tragedies to emphasise his antagonists’ fall and make their doom compelling.\n\nAs Fassbender’s Macbeth moves from military machine to murderer to madman, the actor fails to find the humanity.\n\nDevoid of love, humour or a conscience to lose or regain, the tragedy is missing in action.\n\nWhat remains is a blood-soaked slog through the fog of 10th century war.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7683073282241821}
+{"content": "The complexity of Bubble sort algorithm is\n\nA. O(n)\n\nB. O(log n)\n\nC. O(n2)\n\nD. O(n log n)\n\n\nYou can do it\n 1. Which of the following data structure is linear data structure?\n 2. The memory address of the first element of an array is called\n 3. ……………. Is a pile in which items are added at one end and removed from…\n 4. Which of the following case does not exist in complexity theory\n 5. Which of the following is non-liner data structure?\n 6. The complexity of Bubble sort algorithm is\n 7. Which of the following is not the part of ADT description?\n 8. Which of the following algorithm design technique is used in the quick sort algorithm?\n 9. The Average case occur in linear search algorithm\n 10. Binary search algorithm can not be applied to\n 11. Which of the following data structure can't store the non-homogeneous data elements?\n 12. To represent hierarchical relationship between elements, Which data structure is suitable?\n 13. Merge sort uses ?\n 14. Which if the following is/are the levels of implementation of data structure\n 15. Which one of the following permutations can be obtained the output using stack assuming that the input…\n 16. Which of the following data structures are indexed structures?\n 17. Identify the data structure which allows deletions at both ends of the list but insertion at only one…\n 18. When inorder traversing a tree resulted E A C K F H D B G; the preorder traversal would return\n 19. The complexity of Binary search algorithm is\n 20. Two dimensional arrays are also called\n 21. Each data item in a record may be a group item composed of sub-items; those items which are indecomposable…\n 22. The difference between linear array and a record is\n 23. When determining the efficiency of algorithm, the space factor is measured by\n 24. When new data are to be inserted into a data structure, but there is no available space; this situation…\n 25. For an algorithm the complexity of the average case is\n 26. Arrays are best data structures\n 27. Which of the following is true about the characteristics of abstract data types? i) It exports a type.…\n 28. Linked lists are best suited\n 29. Which of the following is not a limitation of binary search algorithm?\n 30. The complexity of merge sort algorithm is", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6762159466743469}
+{"content": "Milkshakes – Farage and the far-right\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBrian Harvey – East 17\n\nBrian Harvey was extremely famous in the 1990s he had a string of hits with a band called East 17. Then after one interview the dream he was living all came crashing down.\n\nOver the years I have followed Brian Harvey’s story. In the 90s I loved their music and bought a couple of their albums. It was just throwaway pop music that didn’t have too much meaning and shouldn’t be taken too serious or literally. In the last decade though, Harvey’s life in my opinion spiralled out of control. There was no solo career and the vain attempts at restarting the original line-up of the band fell at the first hurdle as they couldn’t even rehearse together without arguing or eventually turning into a punch up.\n\n\nIt was Brian and other band members lack of disciple (by turning up to crucial meetings an hour late) that cause the tensions in the band. These men weren’t boys any longer and people don’t put up with bad behaviour when you are trying to restart a career. No excuses you get yourself there on time just as you would for interview for a job.\n\nIn the latest chapter Harvey was ranting online about his problems and threatening self-harm. This isn’t a second hand interpretation but a sad reflection on a video that is still posted to his YouTube site.\n\n\nIn my opinion he is suffering from a persecution complex the idea that there is a shady underworld out their calculating and plotting to bring him down. There is no doubt in the last decade we have see terrible practices of the now defunct News of the World and their appalling phone hacking scandal that eventually forced its owner to close the newspaper down.\n\nHarvey still believes there are people out there plotting to bring him down because of his knowledge of the phone hacking scandal. He describes in a video that his ex-manager had him sacked in the 90s and deliberately targeted Harvey because of the things he knew about Tom Watkins. In fact it was Harvey’s reluctance to continue churning out pop music for teenage girls and his desire to be a credible R&B singer that made people realise they had enough.\n\nAt the time I remember there was an anti-ecstasy campaign aimed for teenagers because of the death of school girl Leah Betts who had died after taking an E. It seemed strange now before social media but it was a radio interview Harvey gave that said it was okay to do E as he had in one night and driven home that caused outcry and his immediate dismissal from the band. The public might not have taken their music too seriously but Harvey’s words meant a lot especially if they were listened to by impressionable young teenagers.\n\nHarvey’s apology and retraction did nothing to quell the anger and his fate was sealed. It is now he’s claiming he is all part of a conspiracy and others too as well as a manager are out to silence him.\n\n\nI think there are loads of changes he could make to stop the cycle of persecution complex but then I am not a trained psychologist. Harvey wouldn’t make any money from the youtube videos as they aren’t receiving enough views to generate the revenue he claims he is relying (one assumes) on Employment support allowance as he has will have declared himself unfit for work. I only know this sort of side of things as I spent a year claiming this after my mother passed away.\n\nWhatever your opinion of Brian Harvey I am sure that we can agree that he shouldn’t be dismissed as ‘some nutcase’ but genuinely needs help and a powerful intervention. He should find another focus in life that brings him joy not something that continually contributes to his low self-esteem and poor mental health.\n\nPeople should remember the name ‘Jack Renshaw’\n\nThis is one hideous character I think you should remember and this post will explain why I think you need to remember the name Jack Renshaw. \n\nAfter the New Zealand Mosque there was a concerted effort not to mention the right-wing terrorist by his name thus giving him no power or status in the light of the terrible attack carried out.\n\n\nThe crimes for which Jack Renshaw has been convicted of were of stirring up racial hatred against Jews calling for the mass genocide of the people. For this crime he had been sentenced to three years in prison. It is alleged that Renshaw had been part of a group, National Action, that had been banned in 2016 as they spread ‘anti-semitic, homophobic and racist’ views.\n\nI remember seeing him on an advert for the BNP in 2014 when they were campaigning votes in elections. I have written before about the dangers of far-right groups and how they have had people trying to justify their vile views on social media and in 2016 said that I was despondent that people still don’t realise how radicalisation of young minds whether it be for ISIS or far-right groups can lead to serious violence.\n\n\nYou should remember the name Jack Renshaw as he is an example of how hatred can turn into something extremely serious and sinister. Renshaw believed that he would be justified in killing a local MP in the same manner of Jo Cox the MP who was brutally murder by the far-right activist, Thomas Mair in 2016.\n\nRenshaw planned to even be killed by the police if necessary if they surrounded him at the time. All of these threats were real as he had been previously convicted of grooming two teenage boys. His internet history had show he had made searches for gay porn and stated that he wasn’t gay but a heterosexual virgin who didn’t believe in sex before marriage.\n\nWhatever Renshaw’s sexuality we do know that he’s been convicted of grooming children for sex. His warped ideology sent him down an extremely dangerous path and for his confession of planning to kill a MP and the policewoman who had investigated him for these crimes his sentencing will take place in May 2019 at the Old Bailey.\n\nRenshaw is the example of a dangerous mind warped by conspiracy’s and lies. His hatred for certain religious groups is abominable. In my opinion he should be made to go through a de-radicalisation programme just as those who are convicted of carrying out terrorists attacks in the name of ISIS and other hate-filled groups.\n\nVigil for the victims of New Zealand attack\n\nSometimes you feel helpless when bad things happen thousands of miles away. I felt I needed to show solidarity with those who are suffering.\n\nIn the days after the Christchurch killings I felt utterly helpless. In the past when I have seen such suffering I have been able to help by sending to money to those who need it. This time is different as how can you let people know that these people are not alone and we won’t sit silently allowing such hate and evil go unnoticed.\n\n\nI follow a north east group which protests against racism and those who chose to stir up hatred within the entire country. They felt it was necessary to hold a vigil for the people who have survived the massacre in New Zealand.\n\nIt was amazing to see so many gather in St Nicolas’s Cathedral, Newcastle. It isn’t surprising but very sad at the same time that we have witnesses the rise of hate-related incidents in this country and it parts of the world. People’s inability to leave in a harmonious way has led us into some terrible times.\n\n\nThe rise in social media and people sharing unsavoury views about certain groups has led some in our society to have views which I think are plainly warped. Their views about the Muslim community has been distorted by those who have played a dangerous divisive game for years. Spreading lies and mistruths for their own agenda.\n\n\nThank goodness now the social media companies have started to crack down on those who spread hate. The main ones have put the brakes on those who spread hatred. They have decried their so-called action as attempt to ‘silence’ and ‘censor’ them. This only plays into the hands of the supporters as it gets them angry even though there are thousands of other ways in which hatred can be spread throughout the world.\n\n\nThe evening was a peaceful reflection where there were members representing a number of faiths, including those from the Jewish and Roma communities, came together as one. As someone with no faith I still strongly believe in standing shoulder to shoulder with those in a minority who had suffered in such a way.\n\nDipu Ahad is a Labour councillor in Newcastle and was the person who introduced some people to speak about the attack in New Zealand. It was heart-warming to hear of the generosity of those who had reached out to the community on the other side of the world. As I said at the beginning of this post I certainly felt helpless at being unable to share my sympathies with those who were hurting but after this evenings vigil I felt I was able to give my support to the victims of hate and violence.\n\nNew Zealand Mosque Attack\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6265257596969604}
+{"content": "• C-2/1, Ground Floor , Gulistan-E-Erum, Gulshan e Iqbal , Block III\n • +92-21-34834137, +92-21-34818449\nprevious arrow\nnext arrow\n\nDe Watering Bores\n\nDewatering is the removal of water from solid material or soil by wet classification, centrifugation, filtration, or similar solid-liquid separation processes, such as removal of residual liquid from a filter cake by a filter press as part of various industrial processes.\n\nConstruction dewatering, unwatering, or water control are common terms used to describe removal or draining groundwater or surface water from a riverbed, construction site, caisson, or mine shaft, by pumping or evaporation. On a construction site, this dewatering may be implemented before subsurface excavation for foundations, shoring, or cellar space to lower the water table. This frequently involves the use of submersible “dewatering” pumps, centrifugal (“trash”) pumps, eductors, or application of vacuum to well points.\n\nDeep wells\n\nA deep well typically consists of a borehole fitted with a slotted liner and an electric submersible pump. As water is pumped from a deep well, a hydraulic gradient is formed and water flows into the well forming a cone of depression around the well in which there is little or no water remaining in the pore spaces of the surrounding soil. Deep wells work best in soils with a permeability of k = 10−3 m/s to 10−5 m/s; the amount of drawdown that a well can achieve is limited only by the size of the fish pump.\n\nDeep wells can be installed in a ring around an excavation to lower the water level and maintain a safe, dry site. Several equations can be used to design deep well dewatering systems, however many of these are based on empirical data and occasionally fail. Practice and experience, along with a firm understanding of the underlying principles of dewatering, are the best tools for designing a successful system. Some dewatering situations “are so common that they can be designed almost by rule of thumb”.\n\nDeep wells are also used for aquifer testing and for groundwater drainage by wells.\n\n\nWellpoints are small-diameter (about 50 mm) tubes with slots near the bottom that are inserted into the ground from which water is drawn by a vacuum generated by a dewatering pump. Wellpoints are typically installed at close centers in a line along or around the edge of an excavation. As a vacuum is limited to 0 bar, the height to which water can be drawn is limited to about 6 meters (in practice). Wellpoints can be installed in stages, with the first reducing the water level by up to five meters, and a second stage, installed at a lower level, lowering it further.The water trickling between the deep wells may be collected by a single row of well point at the toe. This method ensures a much thicker width free from seepage forces.\n\nWellpoint spears are generally used to draw out groundwater in sandy soil conditions and are not as effective in clay or rock conditions. Open pumps are sometimes employed instead of spears if the ground conditions contain significant clay or rock content. \n\nHorizontal drainage\n\nThe installation of horizontal dewatering systems is relatively easy. A trencher installs an unperforated pipe followed by a synthetic or organic wrapped perforated pipe. The drain length is determined by the drain diameter, soilconditions and the water table. In general drain lengths of 50 meters is common. After installation of the drainpipe a pump is connected to the drain. After the water table has been lowered, the intended construction can start. After the construction is finished the pumps are stopped, and the water table will rise again. Installation depths up to 6 meters are common.\n\n© 2020 All Rights Reserved.\n\nPrivacy | Policy | Disclaimer", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8678775429725647}
+{"content": "Sunday, May 24, 2020\n\nThe Concert Hall At The University Of Evansville Hushed\n\nThe audience in Wheeler Concert Hall at the University of Evansville hushed as the conductor tapped his baton on the music stand in front of him. Raising both hands in the air, scanning the performers of the orchestra to make sure everyone had their instruments in place and appeared ready, he took a quick breath to cue the orchestra to start playing. Out of the many concerts that I have attended throughout my lifetime, especially since becoming a music student studying music, this particular concert was different. I found myself listening for musical aspects that may have come from different cultures. I don’t think I would have been so interested in this before I had taken the course, Seminar in World music. In this classe we studied†¦show more content†¦at the University of Evansville. Everybody has the natural capacity to comprehend and appreciate music. There are numerous hypotheses as to why this may be, yet it has turned into a fundamental piece of people. People have communicated through music since the beginning of time. Some even think that music came before the spoken language. Straight forward tribal rhythms developed into numerous sorts of more intricate music, including traditional shake, jazz, and RB, while the styles between these numerous sorts of music may differ. In Seminar in World Music, we explored the basic development of music in the different cultures. In this class, we explored music throughout the world. Each culture has its own unique evolution, and this class gave us an introduction to 11 different cultures and the development of the music in that area of their musical forms. Music of China, Japan, Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, The Caribbean, Indian, and Native America are some of the different cultures that we focused on throughout the course of the semester. The history and development of the music in these different cultures have influenced Western art music as we know it today. After completing Seminar in World Music, I have realized how important it is for music students to familiarize themselves with music from different cultures.\n\nWednesday, May 13, 2020\n\nTrajan’s Forum The Hub of Early Roman Society Essay\n\nTrajan’s Forum: The Hub of Early Roman Society The Roman Empire can arguably be considered one of the greatest ancient civilizations. From Augustus to Constantine, the Romans brought both new and borrowed ideas into the world. With influence from the Greeks, the Romans established a representative government with the Emperor and the Senate as the main law-making and law-enforcing bodies. The Roman Empire grew prosperous and, with military expeditions, expanded as west as modern day Britain and as east the lands near the Caspian Sea. With the Empire expanding into what is now known as Israel, Christianity spread to Rome and, under Constantine, was established as a legal religion under the Edict of Milan in 313. As the Roman culture was†¦show more content†¦Under the emperor Domitian, Trajan served as a legatus legionis, or leader of the local Roman army in Spain. After supporting Domitian in a revolt in 89, Trajan gained popularity by the Roman Senate and was soon adop ted by the heirless emperor, Nerva. Merely two years after Nerva’s adoption of Trajan, Nerva died and Trajan attained the throne of the Roman Empire. Under Trajan’s rule, the Roman Empire expanded to its largest, covering from the Atlantic Ocean to the Caspian Sea. By 106, the region of Dacia (present day Romania) had been conquered. It is Trajan’s campaigns in Dacia that are portrayed on his famous Column in the forum. The Forum of Trajan was constructed by the Greek architect Apollodorus of Damascus near the forums of Augustus and Julius Caesar. Like many of his predecessors, Trajan built his forum in order to mark Rome as the imperial center of the empire. The many fora with their marvelous feats of architecture were intended to be impressive to both the Roman citizens and any outsiders. Within Trajan’s Forum (Appendix Figure 1) stood the Basilica Ulpia, the Greek and Latin Libraries, the Column of Trajan, the Temple of Trajan and Trajan’s Ma rkets. The complex follows an axial plan that leads from the Forum of Augustus, through an arch and into the Forum’s courtyard area. From the courtyard, the complex continues with the Basilica Ulpia, then\n\nWednesday, May 6, 2020\n\nGlobal Importance of English Free Essays\n\nLanguage plays and important role in human life. Out of all the languages in the world, English is considered as the international language. There are some reasons why English is so important and many people attempt to learn it. We will write a custom essay sample on Global Importance of English or any similar topic only for you Order Now I’d like to share the reasons in my point of view. Sri Lanka is a developing country and everyone has to learn English because today everything seems to be English. When we consider about education in Sri Lanka, children are forced to learn English starting at preschool in order to make their English better. English is added as a compulsory subject in O Level examination and in A Level examination in SL. Sri Lankan universities are conducting almost all the studies through English medium. After completing a university degree it’s time to take up a professional course and of course those professional courses are in English medium. So I think you have to have a very good knowledge of English to be educated and to shine in the society. The next fact I’m sharing with you is finding a job in this competitive society. Every boss is looking for qualified, talented, smart and confident employees. For example if you apply for a high class job and when you go for the interview, do you know what kind of employees are going to be hired up? Obviously as I mentioned above qualified, talented, smart and confident employees with fluent English. Why English is so important to find a job? because we already know that people deal with others in English language especially in the business world, scientific world and other. So what my point here is that you can’t get a pretty good job or a promotion without knowing proper English. How do we communicate with others people in foreign countries who do not speak our mother tongue? The answer is using English because everyone knows at least a little English. English helps to raise up tourism because its easy to communicate with the foreigners. Just think about how hard would it be to keep tourism in each country if tourist guides and the tourist didn’t know at least a little English. English language makes the things go easier that’s what I think. Books! A massive quantity of books are written in English language so you must know the English language to gain some knowledge, to learn something new or to read more. Even Sinhalese books are translated to English language so that foreigners can read and enjoy and on the other hand foreign books which are not written in English are translated to English language so that anyone who knows English well can read those books too. The final reason is internet. All most all the information sharing on the internet is in english so you must know better english to understand what is it all about and also to communicate other people via internet. In conclusion, I must tell this, if you want to go ahead in your life and in your stream you should learn English so that it would be easier to reach your achievements. That is how English plays a major role in our life. How to cite Global Importance of English, Papers\n\nMonday, May 4, 2020\n\nPublic Relations Placing a Media Release\n\nQuestion: Discuss about thePublic Relationsfor Placing a Media Release. Answer: Introduction First Report- The chapter of the book focuses on how to formulate a media release for the public relations writing. In this chapter, James Mahoney speaks of the various aspects of a media release and how to utilize them to the advantage. Mahoney speaks of how to locate and identify the best news spaces. He also speaks of the competition for the news space that usually happens. After these have been identified, there is an idea of what media releases are and how to release it in a manner where it would receive the maximum amount of focus. There is also an explanation of a media kit. A media kit is one of the prime tools that need to be used in order to build a place in the promotions (Foster, 2008). The media kits can help the media understand what to promote and would provide the appropriate place. After it has been done, there is an idea of trying to understand whether the press release of any idea would work. In such a case, there is also a need for writing a media release. The fin al step is using a template. The template in the case of a press release consists of 5 Ws and 1 H (Newsom and Carrell, 2001). The five Ws are Whathappened? Whois involved? Whendid it take place? Wheredid it take place? Whydid that happen? And how did it happen? Second Report- In the second part of the chapter, Mahoney speaks of the Inverted pyramid in which a press release runs. The various techniques and formats are discussed in order to locate the exact format in which to arrange a press release. The next portions are in fact ideas on how to get your work released. There are certain means for getting your work out to be released. The first and foremost step to be taken in this case are to locate the journalists that would be interested in your release. Once that has been done, there is a need to build relationships with the journalists (Treadwell and Treadwell, 2005). Building relationships and strengthening them with the journalists would help in securing a place for the release. A good relationship with the journalists thus increases the scope for the press releases. The final step includes the discussion on the barriers to the media. In this portion, Mahoney speaks of the various barriers that would come up in the case of a press relea se and how to overcome them. Research and Planning for Public Relations The chapter focuses on the need for research on how to build public relations for any kind of plan. Mahoney says that there is a need for the development of public relations as that would help more people know about the various plans one has in mind. As more and more people know about an idea or plan to be undertaken, there is an interest among more such people regarding what happens next. As a result, building such public relations helps in the formation of a plan on how to execute a plan and what area to execute it in. After the research for the public relations has been done, there is a need for the identification of the communication needs and issues (Wilcox, 2001). This is done so as to find out how to carry out the process of building public relations and use them to the advantage. The next step is an extension of this process. Mahoney suggests that before embarking on any kind of plan, after the public relations research has been completed, there needs to be a situation analys is as the creation of a situation analysis helps in the formation of a pathway to take in the future courses of the plan. The final part of the chapter is on how to create a situation analysis. There are guidelines for the writing of a situation analysis. Communication within Organizations The chapter lays stress on the need for communication within the organization and how to formulate a process for the effective conversation within the organization. Mahoney is of the opinion that the primary form of communication is verbal communication and as a result, the preparation and execution of speech is the primary process to be undertaken in this matter. This chapter is thus about speeches and their preparation. There are ideas on how to plan a speech. After the speech has been planned, there is an outline on how to write a speech draft (Writing techniques, 2000). There are also ideas on how to prepare the speaker as the speaker is the primary element in the discourse. Finally, there are ideas on what to do after the speech has been completed. This part is where the idea of how to behave after the speech has been concluded is put forth (Zappala, Carden and Simon, 2004). Finally, Mahoney speaks of how to create an overall presentation. This part puts forth the idea of how to create a presentation after the speech has been readied. References Foster, J. (2008).Effective writing skills for public relations. London: Kogan Page. Newsom, D. and Carrell, B. (2001).Public relations writing. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth. Treadwell, D. and Treadwell, J. (2005).Public relations writing. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. Wilcox, D. (2001).Public relations writing and media techniques. New York: Longman. Writing techniques. (2000).Public Relations Review, 26(2), pp.109-111. Zappala, J., Carden, A. and Simon, R. (2004).Public relations worktext. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associataes.\n\nSunday, March 29, 2020\n\nThe Old Man And The Sea Essays (707 words) - The Old Man And The Sea\n\nThe Old Man and the Sea The Old Man and the Sea The book The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, is about an old man, Santiago, and his genuine fondness of the sea. Every day he travels out to sea to go fishing which is his occupation. For the past eighty-four days the old man has not caught a single fish. On the eighty-fifth day he sails out to sea as usual, and this is the day that changes Santiago's life forever. He hooks an unusually immense marlin, and they have an agonizing battle for several days. Hemingway often compares Santiago with the younger fisherman and describes various particular parts about the beautiful sea. This allows the reader to learn that Santiago especially loves the sea and is unlike the other fisherman. While Santiago is going out to sea on the first morning, Hemingway includes numerous details about the setting. Some of the details are to inform the reader that the old man really enjoys and values the ocean. One way which Hemingway shows this is that Santiago refers to the sea as \"la mar,\" a kind and beautiful yet sometimes cruel feminine creature. Younger fishermen refer to the sea as \"el mar,\" which is masculine. Changing this to be masculine means that they do not feel that the sea has any beauty or significance other than for money. Another way that the author tells that the old man appreciates the ocean is in one of his descriptions in the book. \"Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle's heart will beat for hours after it has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too and my feet and hands are like theirs.\" Since Santiago has spent so many years of his life at sea he sees the beauty of the sea and the beauty of its creatures. This is also noted in another quotation from the book, \"The iridescent bubbles were beautiful. But they were the falsest thing in the sea and the old man loved to see the big sea turtles eating them.\" Santiago finds pleasure about everything in the sea, even after going a disappointing eighty-four days without a fish. All of these are examples of how much the old man appreciates the sea. Other details Hemingway uses are to show Santiago's loneliness. He creates an image that the ocean is practically the old man's home. While out at sea, Santiago often wishes that he would have brought the young boy, Manolin, along. Manolin is the only person who loves and adores Santiago, and he looks up to him as a father figure. Although, it might have been best if Manolin went along to assist Santiago on these arduous few days of battling the marlin. Therefore, Santiago is all alone, but he finds that the sea makes him content and at home. The old man has fished for all of his life, which shows that he has appreciation for the sea. The next statement shows his loneliness yet passion for the sea, \"He watched his lines to see them go straight down out of sight into the water and he was happy to see so much plankton because it meant fish. The strange light the sun made in the water, now that the sun was higher, meant good weather and so did the shape of the clouds.\" Since Santiago is alone, he finds comfort in all the creatures of the sea. Hemingway's descriptions allow the reader to feel and imagine everything Santiago goes through. The author gives the reader a feeling that danger is nearby when he writes, \"The sea was very dark and the light made prisms in the water.\" By foreshadowing, the reader realizes that a dangerous event is soon to occur. There are also various additional quotations in the book telling of Santiago's predicaments. This includes one about the sun which hurt his eyes very much in the mornings. All of these descriptions allow the reader to feel precisely what the old man felt. In turn, the reader begins to pity him, and it enhances the book considerably. Hemingway's descriptions add significant details to the book, The Old Man and the Sea. They show that Santiago treasures the sea, his solitude, and add to the reader's appreciation for the book. In addition, they add feeling, make the book more realistic, and improve the overall quality of this tragic yet triumphant story.\n\nSaturday, March 7, 2020\n\nAverage National SAT Scores for 2013\n\nAverage National SAT Scores for 2013 More than a million high school students registered for the SAT for 2013. If youd like to know how your cohorts did, here are some results from the national SAT scores for 2013. Overall SAT Scores for 2013 These are the mean, or average, scores of all students who took the SAT from the fall of 2012 through June 2013, by section (they are identical to the the scores from the year before): Here are the mean scores for all testers by section: Overall: 1498Critical Reading: 496Mathematics: 514Writing: 488 (subscores: multiple-choice: 48.1 / essay: 7.3) SAT Scores by Gender Here are the years scores separated by gender: Critical Reading:Males: 499Females: 494 Mathematics:Males: 531Females: 499 Writing:Males: 482Females: 493 SAT Scores by Reported Annual Income The results indicate consistently that students from wealthier families score higher on the SAT than kids from families with lower incomes. This doesnt mean that higher incomes produce smarter kids. Parents with more wealth might be more willing to purchase SAT prep or retakes of the test. Here are the results: $0 - $20,000: 1326$20,000 - $40,000: 1402$40,000 - $60,000: 1461$60,000 - $80,000: 1497$80,000 - $100,000: 1535$100,000 - $120,000: 1569$120,000 - $140,000: 1581$140,000 - $160,000: 1604$160,000 - $200,000: 1625$200,000 and more: 1714 SAT Scores by Ethnicity There is no causal relationship between ethnicity and scores, but there are different results based on ethnicity: American Indian or Alaska Native: 1427Asian, Asian-American or Pacific Islander: 1645Black or African-American: 1278Mexican or Mexican-American: 1355Puerto Rican: 1354Other Hispanic, Latino, or Latin-American: 1354White: 1576Other: 1501No response: 1409 To spot trends, you may compare all the above data to the 2012 SAT results. Other SAT Score Categories There are other categories of mean SAT scores, including the average SAT scores for students entering the top public schools and the scores for the top private schools. 2013 SAT Scores Summary These statistics represent the mean, but not the individual. Having nothing in common with the groups scoring the highest on the SAT doesnt mean that you cant secure a top-notch score. If you havent taken the SAT or are planning to retake it, there are free SAT practice quizzes and free SAT apps you can use to help prepare yourself. Another authority suggests these additional ways of getting ready: Know the test structure.Write practice essays.Ensure that you have a calculator and spare batteries.Know when to guess on a question and when to skip it entirely.Get a good nights sleep.\n\nThursday, February 20, 2020\n\nNike Sweatshops Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words\n\nNike Sweatshops - Case Study Example According to the paper the suffering was based on working long hours some up to 13 hours in a day, the overtime was forced upon the employees and not compensated, and there were higher case of child labor encompassing children of even 8 years working for around 9 hours in a day. This was in addition to the extra low wages they were being given which was way lower than the recommended minimum wages in the country as well as being physically punished by the supervisors. From this paper it is clear  that the ethical framework approach ensures a reduction of the suffering mentioned above and increases the benefits that the workers can accrue by working in Nike Inc. especially in the Asian nations of Vietnam, Taiwan where the suffering was in excess. This means starting with the issue of how workers are being treated where they are physically abused by the supervisors. This should be followed by the issue of eliminating completely child labor as this is morally wrong. The issue of working hours and overtime should be addressed according to the international labor laws. This should be followed by the wages being paid to be raised to at least the minimum wage required. In the end, the workers will be happy working for the organization which will in turn increase their productivity as well as save the company from having to use large sums of money paying off the politicians and other health officials to avoid being exposed or inspection of the factorie s. Nike should have first paid the employees for the pain they have caused them all this long. This should have been followed by a public apology from the top management of Nike Inc. who would express their unethical behavior and the changes that would follow.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9774278402328491}
+{"content": "The Strange Case of Dr\n\nThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde took place in Victorian era, when\n\nmiddle-class people were expected to follow the strict codes of society in order to\n\nWe Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically\nFor You For Only $13.90/page!\n\norder now\n\nkeep good public images. Jekyll and Hyde are good examples for showing how the\n\nVictorian society determines a person’s quality based on its own codes. Through\n\nJekyll and Hyde, we are able to see the differences between a so-called properly\n\nbehaved Victorian gentleman and a man who is considered to be beast because\n\nhis misbehaviors is against the Victorian social values.\n\nThe most obvious difference between Jekyll and Hyde is their appearances,\n\nJekyll is described to be tall and good- looking, with a clean and shaved face “a large,\n\nwell-made, smooth faced man of fifty, something of a slyish cast perhaps, but\n\nevery mark of a capacity and kindness” (Stevenson, 1886, p. 1686). On contrary,\n\nHyde’s appearance is described to be more like a beast than a human being” God\n\nbless me, the man seems hardly human.” (Stevenson, 1886, p.1685) Hyde is also\n\nshort, deformed, horrifying and hairy,” there is something wrong with his\n\nappearance, something displeasing, something downright detestable.” (Stevenson,\n\n1886, p.1680)\n\nThe key differences between Jekyll and Hyde is the attitude toward facing the\n\nhypocrisy of Victorian society. Jekyll is a typical Victorian gentleman, he represents\n\nthe public self, who always repress his inner desire and follows the strict rules of\n\nVictorian society so as to keep his honorable images. On the other hand, Hyde is\n\ncompletely the opposite, he represents the private self of Dr. Jekyll, who is careless\n\nabout the codes and his own public images. Hyde is also anti- social, who always\n\nbehaves against the social values.” Through Hyde, the respectable Dr Jekyll is freed\n\nfrom the restraints imposed by society” (Buzwell, 2014)\n\nThe other important difference between Jekyll and Hyde is their personality, Dr.\n\nJekyll possesses two selves, the good self and the lurking evil self. The good self of\n\nhim, Jekyll, is good-tempered man with a charitable heart, a doctor who devotes\n\nhimself in healing and helping others, while Hyde is bad- tempered, he easily\n\nlose control of himself and finds pleasure in committing violence on others. For\n\nexample, Hyde tramples an innocent girl and beat an old man to death without\n\nshowing any sympathy on them. As Mr. Utterson describe Hyde to be” O my poor old\n\nHenry Jekyll, if I ever read Satan’s signature on one’s face, it is on that of your new\n\nfriend.” (Stevenson, 1886, p.1685)\n\nThe other difference between Jekyll and Hyde is their social status, the author\n\nimplies it by providing them the different settings in the places they live and the\n\ndoors they leave from. Jekyll’s dwelling contains luxurious hall with warm fires and\n\nexpensive furniture, which “wore a great air of wealth and comfort” (Stevenson,\n\n1886, p.1685), and the door which Jekyll leaves from lead to a clean street that is\n\nsurrounded by pretty ancient buildings, which seems to inhabit honorable people.\n\nWhile the place where Hyde lives is described to be filthy, shabby, with clothes and\n\nashes all over the floor. Moreover, the door that Hyde leaves from lead to a street\n\ndescribed to be ” the dismal Soho seen under this changing glimpses, with its muddy\n\nways, and slatternly passengers”(Stevenson, 1886, p1689)\n\nIn conclusion, Jekyll is a typical Victorian gentleman, an middle-class man who is\n\nhandsome, properly- behaved with good manners and kindness, a man who follows\n\nthe rules and represses himself to maintain good public images. Unlike Jekyll, Hyde is\n\na lower-class people, who is horrifying, brutal, beast- like, a man who shows no\n\ninterest in following any rules of society and beholds nothing but evilness.\n\nBy contrasting the differences between Jekyll and Hyde, we not only can see the\n\nduality of human, but also the importance of being a properly- behaved people in\n\nthe Victorian society. Moreover, we are able to see how the great stress of living in a\n\nhypocritic Victorian society forces people to find an escape through creating another\n\nidentity, which finally lead to self- destruction that turns a decent gentleman into a\n\nbeast, just as Jekyll suggest “my devil had been long caged, he came out", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.698578417301178}
+{"content": "The images, quotes, photography, posted on this website are for informational and viewing purposes only and they are the property of the copyright holders. No copyright infringement is intended. PonderingLife.blog strives to offer you unique illustrations, posters and quotes besides collecting the information from the internet, books , magazines and various visual media. PonderingLife.blog does not claim credit and own any of the matter compiled from them . We take care to give due credit if the artist is known. However if you are an author or an artist whose work has featured on our website and has not been credited and you would like us to either change, add or remove the work in question, please contact us via PonderingLife.blog and we will comply with your request.\nOur copyright is attached to all original content on this website.\n\nSincerely ,\nKirk Booher\nCreator/Administrator of PonderingLife.blog\n\n4 step outline to great story telling, preaching and selling.\n\nStart slow, Go low, Rise higher, Catch fire!\n\n1. Start slow (slow pace, soft, building rapport, overview… prior to ruminate, pray, prepare but start soon enough)\n\n2. Go low (basics, simple, relatable, rich and deep storyline)\n\n3. Rise higher (build pace, encouraging, great challenge)\n\n4. Catch fire (fervant emotion, climax, hot white, victory)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7417798638343811}
+{"content": "Shane is an electronic music composer and sound designer. \n\nHe creates audio content for art installations, short films, and TV; music and sound for product launch events; and web audio content for major multinational firms such as Red Bull, SuperCell, Riot, and many more. \n\nWith more than a decade of live performance experience on Tokyo`s underground techno scene, Shane is an accomplished performer, remixer, and recording artist with music released on labels such as Trapez, Ministry of Sound, Kompakt, Sinewave NYC and Greta Cottage Workshop. \n\nShane is currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9953816533088684}
+{"content": "What is a ChemoPORT?\n\nRoutes of giving chemotherapy\n\nIs it necessary\nto put in a ChemoPORT?\n\n\"A ChemoPORT is an 'Medical Appliance', which is implanted into the body by a surgery and is used to administer chemotherapy (instead of using an intra venous line on the hand)\". Hmmm, sounds like a text book definition!\n\nHow is chemotherapy given?\n\nChemotherapy drugs are available as a 'powder'. They are dissolved in 'saline' and given through an 'intra venous line' in the veins on the hand. But once a vein is used to give chemotherapy, it becomes 'thrombosed' or 'hard' and is not possible to use again. So as chemo cycles go on, ultimately, veins become very difficult to find, and there is lot of pricking and pain for the patient. Apart from this, if a chemotherapy solution slides out of the vein, it causes a bad reaction on the hand and the skin becomes read and then black and hard, like leather. To avoid this, a chemoport is helpful.\n\nSo lets discuss a few things about this chemoport:\nWhat is a port and when is it inserted?\nWhat problems can come up with port?\nWhen is the port removed?\n\nWhat is a chemoport?\n\nThe Chemoport consists of two parts (Refer to the image to understand):\nThe chamber: This can be metallic or plastic and contains a central 'silicon' bubble. A needle can poke into this silicon. Below this silicon is an empty area which is connected with the tube.\nThe tube: Any thing injected in the chamber will come into this tube\nBy a surgery, the chamber is implanted in a pocket of skin created below the 'collar bone', and the tube is 'threaded' below the skin into the neck and passed into the major veins in the neck which carry the blood towards the heart. So, the bulge of the port is slightly visible below the collar bone. One can insert the special 'Huber' needle into the port and give intra venous solutions including chemo, through the port. To note, there are different places where a chemoport can be implanted, and each surgeon will have his own choice. By far, the most common place is below the collar bone, which is mentioned above.\n\nWhen is the Chemoport surgery done?\n\nIn patient, where, from the reports and examination, we are very sure that she is going to need chemotherapy, we insist on inserting a chemoport during the main breast cancer surgery itself.\nIn patients, where we are not fully sure of the need for chemotherapy, or in cases where it has not been inserted, we can always do the surgery for chemoport insertion, a couple of days before starting chemotherapy. It's either a day care surgery or at most needs a full day admission.\n\nA chemoport\nX ray showing chemoport\nProblems with port\n\nProblems related to port\n\nChemoport, by far, is a very well tolerated appliance. We run ito problems very rarely, maybe 1 or 2 in a hundred. The two most common problems we face are:\n\nPort infection: Chemotherapy is known to reduce the immunity. At these times, infection might settle down in the port. The patient tends to get a fever with 'chills', especially when something in injected into the port. Sometimes, antibiotics can settle this infection, but in most cases, the port will need to be removed and the tip of the tube is send for examination for infection (Culture and Antibiotic Sensitivity). In the meanwhile, the chemotherapy will have to be given by the hand.\nPort block: This is indeed very rare. The port becomes blocked by a clot. The tube of the port is in the blood vessel and blood can enter it in reverse. To avoid this happening, an 'anti clotting' solution of Heparin is always injected after using the port. But in spite of these precautions, it can become blocked. In msot cases, we are able to manage that clot and re open, by using some solutions. But in some cases, it just doesn't work and we end up removing the port.\nApart from the above two problems, there are some other rare issues which can crop up. But, by far, for a vast majority, the port works very well and definitely helps to reduce issues and problems related to giving chemo through intra venous lines. We strongly urge patients, to undergo chemo through a chemoport.\n\nSo what can be done if such mild pain symptoms happen?\n\nChemoport Removal\n\nChemoport can be kept for almost 2 years or even more. The silicon of chemoport can withstand 2000 needle pricks! In any case, once the chemotherapy is over and port is no longer needed, once can plan it's removal. For patients with a higher chance of recurrence, many Oncologists prefer to keep it for six months, in which case, it should be flushed with an 'anti clotting' solution once every 6 weeks or so. For others, it can be removed once chemotherapy is over. Chemoport removal is an OPD based procedure (done under local anesthesia), and last 30 minutes and the patient can go home immediately or may be kept for a few hours observation and then sent home.\n\nOur Approach at this Step\n\nI strongly advise using a chemoport for chemotherapy. The benefits far outweight the risks. The quality of life becomes much better. There is no doubt, most patients, who take chemotherapy by an intra venous line, do have some or the other problems and it definitely affects quality of life. As it is, there are problems related to chemo, so a Chemoport does make life much better.\n\nClick the buttons below for the Next topic or the Previous topic, or go to topic of your choice by using the menu below\n\n\nAll the links are in blue colour. You can click the links to go to that page. The page you are presently reading is pink in color\n\nJourney of BC: Diagnosis\n\n1. I feel a lump! - The first visit to doctor\n2. Is it really cancer? - Confirmatory tests\n3. What is the stage? - Staging and fitness tests\n4. Will it be surgery first? or chemo first? - Treatment planning and sequence\n\nJourney of BC: Surgery\n\n5. Should I conserve or remove breast? - Choice of Surgeries for breast cancer\n6. How long will be the surgery? - Admission and Surgery\n7. Care after surgery - Precautions and guidelines\n8. What next? - The Pathology Report\n\nJourney of BC: Further Treatment\n\n9. How many chemo cycles? - Chemotherapy Consultation\n10. Is a PORT necessary? - ChemoPORT insertion - You are presently on this page\n11. Will I be normal during chemo? - The Chemotherapy time\n12. Is Radiation painful? - Radiation Therapy\n13. Yes!! I did it! - Treatment is over\n14. How frequently do I meet doc? - Follow up guidelines\n\nOther Topics\n\nRisk Factors - The Risk Factors for Breast Cancer\nSymptoms of Breast Cancer - Know the Symptoms of Breast Cancer\nEarly Detection of Breast Cancer - The Guidelines\n\nNeo Adjuvant Chemotherapy (NACT) - For LABC\nSentinel Node Biopsy - How is it done?\nTargeted Therapy - Trastuzumab\nHormone Therapy - Who gets it?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.867400586605072}
+{"content": "Not all star souls are good.\n\nStar souls are the term used for those persons whose spiritual essence has become so powerful that they are stronger than normal mortals. Normally only obvious to those mages who are sensitive to Spirit magick, star souls are possessed by the heroes and power brokers of their age.\n\nWhen Scyr assumed the form of Vin Dane, his own soul could not continue to power the Orb that he absorbed. In order to continue to possess the Orb, Scyr had to absorb other star souls in order to survive. In Y3K, the Holy Terran Emperor purposely caused more conflict between the houses in order to generate more star souls. That way, his agents could capture them and absorb their spirit as well, to ensure that he would not truly die.\n\nBehind the ScenesEdit\n\nThe star soul concept was introduced by storyteller Nathan Bax in the Season 6 \"Y3K\" tabletop game, although what exactly Vin Dane needed star souls for was not clear. Later in Season 9, player/writer Lorpius Prime provided the explanation that star souls were needed to power the Orb and keep the Emperor alive. Although it has never been explicitly stated in-game, it has been strongly implied that the player characters are star souls, or at least have the potential to be.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8345069289207458}
+{"content": "The Covid-19 pandemic is a global crisis. Beyond the terrible loss of life, most large economies are in some form of lockdown, creating unprecedented disruption to commercial activity.\n\nEven if some sectors are bailed out, there will be numerous insolvencies and bankruptcies.\n\nMuch of the global trade system has also been thrown into chaos as export pipelines fracture and start to run dry. Few businesses can function normally; sometimes, they have ground to a halt.\n\nThe sustained impact of Covid-19 will be deep and drawn out over the coming decade as faltering global supply chains create a long-term problem for business.\n\nThe ideal configuration of a supply chain involves back-to-back contracts and pay-when-paid clauses. If problems arise, losses are allocated proportionately and appropriately across the supply chain, or to insured parties. But such co-ordinated structuring is rare.\n\nLosses most often fall on the weakest link: a small business, or a consumer-facing business. It can be liable for breach of contract, including damages for loss of profits or wasted costs, even if the failure was beyond its control.\n\nWhat remedies does the law provide when performance becomes impracticable and is a party liable for breach of contract if they cannot comply?\n\nIf the terms provide no form of let-out, the only escape route (under English law) is through frustration: a contract becomes frustrated if something occurs where neither party is at fault after the date of the contract that makes further performance impossible or illegal, or is so fundamental that it strikes at the very root of the contract, and is beyond what any party originally contemplated before entering into it.\n\nThe unique nature of Covid-19 certainly meets the frustration criteria, but difficulties in performing, extra costs or delays would not be enough.\n\nShort-term events do not usually frustrate long-term contracts. Permanent employment contracts will not be frustrated. Contracts will not be frustrated if they include force majeure clauses covering the circumstances.\n\nLawyers are now going through contracts looking for force majeure clauses. These excuse non-performance of contractual obligations because of extraordinary events.\n\nForce majeure clauses normally allow parties to suspend performance for an agreed period, and/or to terminate without any liability on either side.\n\nEven if Covid-19 amounts to force majeure, the effect of the clause is not automatic. It depends on the exact wording of the clause in each contract and individual circumstances: the situation has to be beyond the control of the affected party, and the direct cause of the interruption.\n\nWhere compliance with government advice is purely voluntary, that might not bring the situation within an force majeure clause. For example, the UK Government tried to achieve consent progressively to its requests rather than compelling people and businesses to comply.\n\nAlthough the economic chaos created by Covid-19 pales into insignificance when compared to the thousands of lives lost, preserving the health of the economy also has a critical part to play in helping to keep future generations alive and well.\n\nAs the catastrophic damage caused by the virus continues to infect the economy, the mounting losses will spread unevenly: some will be much more adversely affected than others.\n\nThe sharing of those losses will not be fair, and we may see years of contract litigation as companies battle to preserve their balance sheets.\n\nMuch of the immediate price to be paid will fall on the shoulders of businesses that fail to make it through and on thousands of people who will lose their jobs.\n\nEventually, the burden of repaying some of the huge government debt incurred will be felt more widely by taxpayers as whole.\n\nChris Robinson is a specialist corporate lawyer at Excello Law\n\nFurther reading\n\nYardstick Agency releases Covid-19 client communication guide\n\n\nThis article was originally published on", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9969494342803955}
+{"content": "\n\nCycling routes and bike maps in and around\n\nMuḩāfaz̧at al Jahrā’\n\nFind the right bike route for you through Muḩāfaz̧at al Jahrā’, where we've got 2 cycle routes to explore.\n\nFind cycle routes in Muḩāfaz̧at al Jahrā’:\n\n\n10 km\nMapped Ways\nCycle Routes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7537734508514404}
+{"content": "As Dead As A Dodo\n\nThe dodo was a flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius until it became extinct in the latter part of the 17th century.\n\nPainting Of A Dodo\n\nLike many birds that evolved in isolation, the dodo had few natural predators and was completely fearless of humans. So when Dutch sailors arrived on Mauritius in the 1500s it was easy prey from both humans and introduced species such as dogs, cats, rats and in particular pigs and crab-eating macaques which not only ransacked dodos’ nests for their eggs but also competed with their food source.\n\nHumans also destroyed much of the forest habitat of dodos although because the human population of Mauritius remained fairly small at just 50 individuals, it is likely that the introduced invasive species contributed more to the birds’ extinction than direct human activity.\n\nIt is thought that the dodo population was fairly scarce even before the Dutch arrived and although they had survived thousands of years of volcanic activity and climate change, a study in 2005, for example, found the remains of a large number of dodos that had been killed by a flash flood. Because the dodo was confined to such a localized area, any ecological disasters such as this would have had a big impact on the total population.\n\nThe last official sighting of a dodo was in 1662 recorded by Volkert Evertsz, a Dutch sailor who had been shipwrecked on Amber Island, a small islet off Mauritius.\n\nHe reported:\n\n“These animals on our coming up to them stared at us and remained quiet where they stand, not knowing whether they had wings to fly away or legs to run off, and suffering us to approach them as close as we pleased. Amongst these birds were those which in India they call Dod-aersen (being a kind of very big goose); these birds are unable to fly, and instead of wings, they merely have a few small pins, yet they can run very swiftly. We drove them together into one place in such a manner that we could catch them with our hands, and when we held one of them by its leg, and that upon this it made a great noise, the others all on a sudden came running as fast as they could to its assistance, and by which they were caught and made prisoners also.”\n\nHowever, there were other unverified sightings of dodos a few years later and they were not officially declared extinct until the 19th century as due to religious reasons extinction was not then thought possible.\n\nOf all extinct birds, the dodo is probably the most widely recognized with the expression “as dead as a dodo” widely used to mean something that has become obsolete.\n\nThe dodo was popularized in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in which the bird conducts a chaotic Caucus race, a satirical mockery of the political caucus system. The dodo is a caricature of the author whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and who, because of his stammer, would supposedly introduce himself as “Do-do-dodgson”.\n\nThe painting above is by Roelant Savery (1576 – buried 25 February 1639) and is one of the most famous images of a dodo. It was painted in 1626 and at one point was owned by the ornithologist George Edwards, who later gave it to the British Museum. Edward’s Dodo, as it is commonly known, is now exhibited in the Natural History Museum and has given rise to the standard depiction of a dodo.\n\n\nBirds in your inbox\n\nSign up for the latest news and updates", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7888486385345459}
+{"content": "Nav: Home\n\nCurrent Global ecology News and Events\n\nCurrent Global ecology News and Events, Global ecology News Articles.\nSort By: Most Relevant | Most Viewed\nPage 1 of 25 | 1000 Results\nHow do land-use changes affect the spread of diseases between animals and people?\nMost new viruses and other pathogens that arise in humans are transmitted from other animals, as in the case of the virus that causes COVID-19. (2020-06-03)\n'Major gaps' in understanding how land-use changes affect spread of diseases\nThe quest to discover how new diseases -- such as Covid-19 -- emerge and spread in response to global land-use change driven by human population expansion still contains 'major gaps', researchers have claimed. (2020-06-03)\nGlobal warming will lift agriculture weed threat\nInvasive weeds pose a significant threat to global agriculture productivity -- and their threat will become more pronounced if the Earth's climate is affected by increased greenhouse gas concentration, according a Flinders University climate researcher. (2020-06-02)\nEnvironmental justice defenders victims of violence and murder\nGrassroots movements halt environmental degradation in up to 27% of environmental conflicts worldwide, according to a study by the ICTA-UAB. (2020-06-02)\nResearchers find pronghorn exhibit little genetic variation despite landscape obstacles\nWhile previous research shows landscape features such as major highways restrict the daily and seasonal movements of pronghorn and increase mortality risk, this study found little, if any, evidence that these barriers affect genetic connectivity among Wyoming pronghorn. (2020-06-02)\nScientists reveal new fundamental principles governing diving in animals\nAn international team of scientists has examined how metabolic constraints govern the diving performance of air-breathing aquatic species, all of which have evolved to maximise the amount of time they can spend underwater (2020-05-26)\nMarine species are outpacing terrestrial species in the race against global warming\nGlobal warming is causing species to search for more temperate environments in which to migrate to, but it is marine species -- according to the latest results of a Franco-American study mainly involving scientists from the CNRS, Ifremer, the Université Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier and the University of Picardy Jules Verne -- that are leading the way by moving up to six times faster towards the poles than their terrestrial congeners. (2020-05-25)\nWhat information is coded in bird alarm calls -- a new study from Korea\nRecordings of the Oriental tit's alarm responses showed that alarm calls to snakes have special acoustic properties different from calls to chipmunks, even though both predators can enter bird's nests and destroy broods. (2020-05-25)\nScientists take first census of Arctic freshwater molluscs in 130 years\nBased on previously released data and their own investigations, researchers at the St Petersburg University Laboratory of Macroecology and Biogeography of Invertebrates have assessed the diversity of freshwater molluscs in the Circumpolar region of the World. (2020-05-25)\nFire aerosols decrease global terrestrial ecosystem productivity through changing climate\nCooling, drying, and light attenuation are major impacts of fire aerosols on the global terrestrial ecosystem productivity. (2020-05-20)\nField courses boost student success, support STEM diversity efforts, study reveals\nThe challenge of diversifying STEM fields may get a boost from the results of a new study that show field courses help build self-confidence among students -- especially those from underrepresented groups. (2020-05-19)\nMussel reefs heighten risk of microplastic exposure and consumption\nIn the first study of its kind, scientists found that when mussels were clumped together forming reefs -- as they do in nature -- the reef structure resulted in a three-fold rise in the amount of ingested plastic. (2020-05-18)\nAnalysis of bird species reveals how wings adapted to their environment and behavior\nBird wings adapted for long-distance flight are linked to their environment and behavior, according to new research on an extensive database of wing measurements, led by the University of Bristol. (2020-05-18)\nChinese to rise as a global language\nWith the continuing rise of China as a global economic and trading power, there is no barrier to prevent Chinese from becoming a global language like English, according to Flinders University academic Dr Jeffrey Gil. (2020-05-17)\nPine martens like to have neighbors -- but not too near\nPine martens need neighbors but like to keep their distance, according to new research. (2020-05-15)\nMoffitt researchers develop model to predict prostate cancer aggressiveness\nResearchers in the Center of Excellence for Evolutionary Therapy at Moffitt Cancer Center want to better understand what is happening in the tumor microenvironment to drive prostate cancer to become aggressive and grow rapidly. (2020-05-14)\nSaving livestock by thinking like a predator\nHumans have struggled to reduce the loss of livestock to carnivores for thousands of years, and yet, solutions remain elusive. (2020-05-14)\nMalaria risk is highest in early evening, study finds\nWide-scale use of insecticide-treated bed nets has led to substantial declines in global incidences of malaria in recent years. (2020-05-04)\nSmart use of genomic data needed in species conservation\nA 'step-change' in conservation is needed in order to help save species from extinction in the future, according to an academic at the University of East Anglia (UEA). (2020-05-04)\nSolar and wind energy sites mapped globally for the first time\nResearchers at the University of Southampton have mapped the global locations of major renewable energy sites, providing a valuable resource to help assess their potential environmental impact. (2020-05-04)\nNew findings highlight threatened status of forest elephants\nConservation efforts for the African forest elephant have been hindered by how little is known the large animal, according to researchers. (2020-04-29)\nHow do epidemics spread and persist before and after introduction of a vaccine?\nModeling of measles epidemics in England and Wales from 1944 to 1994 shows that, before vaccination, measles could persist in both large population centers and by spread among sets of smaller towns. (2020-04-27)\nStudying pterosaurs and other fossil flyers to better engineer manmade flight\nPterosaurs were the largest animals ever to fly. They soared the skies for 160 million years -- much longer than any species of modern bird. (2020-04-15)\nClimate change to affect fish sizes and complex food webs\nGlobal climate change will affect fish sizes in unpredictable ways and, consequently, impact complex food webs in our oceans, a new IMAS-led study has shown. (2020-04-06)\nPaleontology: Fossil trove sheds light on ancient antipodean ecology\nThe oldest known animals and plants preserved in amber from Southern Gondwana are reported in Scientific Reports this week. (2020-04-02)\nStudy finds fish have diverse, distinct gut microbiomes\nThe rich biodiversity of coral reefs even extends to microbial communities within fish, according to new research. (2020-04-01)\nHow animals understand numbers influences their chance of survival\nWhile they can't pick out precise numbers, animals can comprehend that more is, well, more. (2020-03-30)\nAnimals keep viruses in the sea in balance\nA variety of sea animals can take up virus particles while filtering seawater for oxygen and food. (2020-03-27)\nGlobal supply chains as a way to curb carbon emissions\nThe coronavirus outbreak raised everyone's awareness of the significance of global supply chains to modern economies. (2020-03-27)\nGlobal study shows how marine species respond as oceans warm\nA global analysis of over 300 marine species spanning more than 100 years, shows that mammals, plankton, fish, plants and seabirds have been changing in abundance as our climate warms. (2020-03-26)\nLocal community involvement crucial to restoring tropical peatlands\nNew research has found that local community involvement is crucial to restoring Indonesia's peatlands -- unspoilt peatlands act as a carbon sink and play an important role in reducing global carbon emissions. (2020-03-26)\nPlants and animals aren't so different when it comes to climate\nA new study reveals that plants and animals are remarkably similar in their responses to changing environmental conditions across the globe, which may help explain how they are distributed today and how they will respond to climate change in the future. (2020-03-24)\nStudy: Climatic-niche evolution strikingly similar in plants and animals\nDr. LIU Hui and Dr. YE Qing from the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with Dr. (2020-03-23)\nShedding light on how much carbon tropical forests can absorb\nTropical forest ecosystems are an important part of the global carbon cycle as they take up and store large amounts of CO2. (2020-03-19)\nSugar brings a lot of carbon dioxide into the deeper sea\nThe oceans are a very important reservoir for carbon in the system of the earth. (2020-03-18)\nNew study reveals early evolution of cortex\nLove rivals risk having offspring with a greater number of harmful mutations\nMales that face tougher competition for females risk having offspring with a greater number of harmful mutations in their genome than males without rivals. (2020-03-16)\nBlinded by the light\nA new paper researching a framework for understanding how light and noise pollution affects wildlife. (2020-03-16)\nClimate shifts prompt shrubs and trees to take root in open areas\nWild, treeless landscapes are becoming more wooded as climate change leads to warming temperatures and wetter weather, research suggests. (2020-03-10)\nHow new data can make ecological forecasts as good as weather forecasts\nSoon, University of Wisconsin-Madison ecologist Ben Zuckerberg thinks we'll be able to pull off the same forecasting feat for bird migrations and wildlife populations as for climate forecasts. (2020-03-09)\nPage 1 of 25 | 1000 Results\n First Previous Next Last \n\nTrending Science News\n\nCurrent Coronavirus (COVID-19) News\n\nTop Science Podcasts\n\nWe have hand picked the top science podcasts of 2020.\nNow Playing: TED Radio Hour\n\nListen Again: Reinvention\nNow Playing: Science for the People\n\n#562 Superbug to Bedside\nNow Playing: Radiolab\n\nDispatch 6: Strange Times", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7693597078323364}
+{"content": "Gold, Explosive\nStructural Formula Vector Image\nTitle: Gold, Explosive\nCAS Registry Number: 1332-12-3\nAdditional Names: \"Fulminating gold\"\nLiterature References: An auric compd of nitrogen. Obtained by the action of ammonia on auric chloride or ammonium chloride on auric oxide: Raschig, Ann. 235, 355 (1886); Weitz, Ann. 410, 117 (1915).\nProperties: Dark brown powder, which explodes on heating or rubbing to give gold, nitrogen, and ammonia. Exact compn of the compd is unknown since it is too explosive to be dried. Therefore, the only elements that can be determined are gold, nitrogen, and chlorine.\n\nOther Monographs:\nAlminoprofenMelittinp-Chlorobenzoic AcidRopinirole\nClotrimazoleMethyl BromideLead BromideBisoctrizole\nSoybeanSodium BitartrateMethomylDapsone\nn-Butyl CyanoacrylateAzelastineMethyl DihydrojasmonateCalcium Cyclamate\n©2006-2020 DrugFuture->Chemical Index Database", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.969693660736084}
+{"content": "How to survive a dissertation defense: 6 basic instructions\n\nHow to survive a dissertation defense? The answer to this question for each committee, organization or university is different and you need to refer to the concepts according to the authority concerned in your case. Depending on the university, field and the topic your work or mileage might vary. So, you should aware of your authority rules in order to succeed in it. This article is going to highlight some of the provisions that will help you write on dissertation defense and you can easily get answers to the related questions. Go thoroughly for answers to your queries.\n\n 1. Rehearsals for defending the thesis\n Whenever you are preparing for the defense of your research paper, the first thing that you that have to do is to get familiarize with the requirements, guidelines of your particular department. See, here it is mentioned that you need to be familiarized with your own department, not just the basic guidelines because each department has its own set of rules that need to followed during thesis writing. So, keeping them in mind you have to do your research. You can also speak to your advisor to accumulate various dissertation defense questions that might be asked to you. Before the time of defense remembers to submit the copies of your thesis so that each of the members of the committee has the copy of your research paper for reference. Prepare well all the topic necessary to be defended.\n 2. Know the thesis paper lines\n The dissertation defense is basically an opportunity provided to take the stage and clearly demonstrate the topic, its growth, how you proceeded in it, its further chances of progress and the changes or growth that you have experience during your academic years. This is a golden chance for you to showcase the abilities you have, research qualities that you possess and how you are different from others. So, make sure that before presenting the defense you are confident to get across all the fundamentals of your paper and know about your thesis in detailed manner. Dissertation defense presentation helps you get helpful recommendations and feedback that you can inculcate while preparing your final draft. You just need to passionately put the importance of your topic and the procedure how actually you conducted your research including the methodology in the defense.\n 3. Bows\n At last comes the high time when you would have finished with your presentation. This might be the time of mixed feelings. On one side you would be happy to finish the defense presentation and on the other side you would remember all the mistakes that you did during your presentation. Forget about everything, get relaxed . You will be told in just few minutes whether you have passes it or not or minor revisions would be suggested with the acceptance. Whatever the condition might be don’t forget to bow before your examiners. Your gesture will definitely please them and if you a diligent student than you might get some really good surprises.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9786279201507568}
+{"content": "Ready to Go Tankless?\n\nIf you’re on this page, it means your current water heater is about to kick the bucket and you’re preparing yourself for its imminent replacement. Whether your water quality has significantly deteriorated or you’re constantly calling for plumbing repairs in your Gloucester home, it’s smart to plan ahead when considering a water heater upgrade. Tankless water heaters are becoming more and more popular amongst local homeowners for their endless advantages. Keep reading to find out how tankless water heaters work and whether they’re the right choice for your home. \n\nWhat is a Tankless Water Heater?\n\nA tankless water heater provides homeowners with hot water on-demand. Unlike traditional water heaters, tankless models don’t store hot water in a massive container for later use. Instead, they heat water as needed. When a family member turns on the tap for hot water, the tankless water heater is activated. It automatically draws cold water from the plumbing system and runs it through a complicated series of heat exchanger coils. Once the water is heated to the right temperature, it is sent to the respective faucet, ready to use. \n\nThis innovative technology heats water instantaneously, so users don’t have to wait for long periods of time, making this appliance a favorite amongst homeowners. The most popular models of tankless water heaters are fueled by propane gas, though some utilize electricity as well. These appliances are also programmed to recalibrate their heat output based on the amount of water homeowners are planning to use. For example, if the demand for hot water is minimal, the tankless water heater will use less fuel to heat the water. If the demand increases, it will adjust the fuel usage and heat settings to maximize efficiency. \n\nHow Does it Compare to a Traditional Water Heater?\n\nTraditional water heaters are the most common model in American households, but they’re not necessarily the most efficient. Standard tank water heaters work by drawing enough water from the plumbing system to fill up the container, where the water is heated to match the temperature set on the thermostat. If the temperature drops at any point, the heater will automatically start to reheat the water. This is a continuous cycle for standard tank water heaters. \n\nWhat Advantages Will I Be Getting?\n\nWhat About Maintenance?\n\nJust like traditional water heaters, tankless water heaters need to be serviced at least once a year to maintain their efficiency. The process for flushing out a tankless water heater is a little more complicated than a standard tank water heater, so we recommend letting a professional plumber in Burlington County or surrounding areas perform the correct maintenance procedures for your tankless water heater. \n\nIf you’re ready to upgrade your water heater to a highly-efficient tankless model, contact a Hutchinson expert to set up a professional installation today.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6138923764228821}
+{"content": "Festival restaurant has been open less than three months, but it is already at the top of Trip Advsor.\n\nSo we decided to go along to the new addition to Mathew Street and see what all the fuss is about.\n\nFestival is a new venture from the teams behind the world famous The Cavern Club and Bem Brasil, in a unique collaboration that brings Brazil to Liverpool and vice versa.\n\nThe restaurant launched just over two months ago in the building directly opposite The Cavern and has been a huge hit with visitors from Liverpool and beyond, if reviews are anything to go by.\n\nJon Keats, the director of music and events at Cavern City Tours, said the team at Festival is \"overwhelmed with the feedback\" and that they are \"glad everyone has connected with the vibe we’ve tried to create\".\n\nWhy is the restaurant opening now?\n\nThe venue, at 7 Mathew Street, had been vacant for years before the team at The Cavern Club were offered the location.\n\nJon Keats said that the idea to expand into the food business had long since been something the Cavern team had discussed - but they needed the perfect partner.\n\nJon said that “doing a Cavern restaurant would just be too easy” and that meeting Bem Brasil owner Kleber Magalhaes at a Beatles festival in Vitória, Brazil, led to the perfect collaboration that sees two recognised brands in Liverpool come together.\n\nThe Cavern entertains visitors from all over the world, but according to Jon, the club known as the birthplace of The Beatles is incredibly popular with Brazilian tourists.\n\nJon said it was The Cavern’s “synergy with Brazil” that led to the two teams collaborating.\n\nWhat is it like inside the restaurant?\n\nFestival celebrates iconic music festivals from around the world - and the decor reflects it.\n\nWith huge framed posters of famous festival lineups and parts of dismantled Volkswagen camper van gracing the walls of the restaurant, Festival creates an authentic atmosphere for diners.\n\nThe restaurant offers a dining experience for everyone\nThe restaurant offers a dining experience for everyone\n\nThe restaurant, which took four months to transform from a vacant shell into the chic location it is today, was building up to a grand opening when The Cavern received news of a top secret event that required a huge amount of attention.\n\nFestival opened in the week before Sir Paul McCartney announced his secret gig on Thursday, July 26, meaning the team had to focus all of their attention on the arrival of the former Beatle.\n\nAccording to Jon, there is a possibility of Festival hosting a few smaller launch events in the future.\n\nWhat inspired the restaurant?\n\nThe initial inspiration for a festival-themed restaurant came from the Mathew Street Festival, which launched 25 years ago with one stage next door to The Cavern Club.\n\nJon cited having \"such fond memories of the Mathew Street Festival” as the reason that Festival is located on Mathew Street - there is even a full wall of photographs dedicated to celebrating the event.\n\nWhat is the atmosphere like?\n\nOn Festival’s vibe, Jon said: \"we were going for a fun, informal atmosphere\" at the grill-based restaurant, that has a wide selection of food which fuses Brazilian tastes with British classics to make sure there is something for everyone.\n\nFestival serves a huge range of drinks - including the Brazilian classic Caipirinha cocktail\n\nAccording to Jon, Mathew Street is a \"destination for music fans\" - but now they want to see a shift.\n\nWhile Mathew Street has always been a huge nightlife destination in Liverpool, Jon said they now want to \"bring Mathew Street back to life in the day time\".\n\nFestival joins other daytime attractions on Mathew Street such as Turtle Bay, Cavern Walks and the recently-opened Magical History Museum.\n\nJon said The Cavern Club and Festival are hoping to see a \"shift\" in Mathew Street that will make way for \"a cafe culture during the day time\".\n\nWhat is the food like?\n\nThe restaurant is set to launch a new menu next week, which will merge its two current menus to create one that serves its most loved recipes after listening to customer feedback.\n\nThe new menu will also see the addition of Scouse, a Liverpool tradition that will make customers feel right at home - and give tourists a taste of our fine city.\n\nAccording to Marcos Magalhaes, general manager of Festival and son of Bem Brasil owner Kleber Magalhaes, one of Festival’s most popular dishes is the picanha steak which is one of the most recognised cuts of beef in Brazil.\n\nThe hanging kebabs are a popular dish at Festival\nThe hanging kebabs are a popular dish at Festival\n\nMarcos emphasised the difference between Festival and Bem Brasil, stating that the team at Festival has created an “a la carte menu that is refined”, rather than a rodizio-style menu.\n\nThe dishes available at Festival have a twist - the reverse side of the menu offers the same options, but with a pun-inspired name.\n\nOur favourites were Cod Stewart, Hotel Calamari and Nat King Coleslaw.\n\nFestival is open 7 days a week, from 12 noon until Midnight.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9573684930801392}
+{"content": "What Is Avogadro’s Law (Avogadro’s Hypothesis Or Avogadro’s Principle)?\n\nAvogadro’s law (Avogadro’s hypothesis or Avogadro’s principle)\n\nAvogadro’s law states that under conditions of constant pressure and temperature, there is a direct relationship between the number of moles and volume of a gas. This was Avogadro’s initial hypothesis. This law was applicable to ideal gases, while real gases show a slight deviation from it.\n\nThe modern definition of Avogadro’s law is that for a particular mass of an ideal gas, the amount (number of moles) and volume of the gas are directly proportional, provided the temperature and pressure conditions are constant.\n\nAvogadro’s law formula\n\nAvogadro’s law’s mathematical formula can be written as:\n\nV ∝ n or V/n = k\n\nWhere “V” is the volume of the gas, “n” is the amount of the gas (number of moles of the gas) and “k” is a constant for a given pressure and temperature.\n\nAvogadro's number\n\nAvogadro’s law formula describes how equal volumes of all gases contain the same number of molecules, under the same conditions of pressure and temperature. In other words, it describes that equal volumes of two different gases will have the same number of molecules as long as the temperature and pressure are the same.\n\nAmadeo Avogadro was an Italian scientist of the 19th century. He is known for making major contributions to chemistry, when it was just becoming a separate science field. His work came around the same as that of Jacques Charles (Charles Law), Robert Boyle (Boyle’s Law), etc. In fact, Avogadro’s Law, the hypothesis set by him, was among the laws on which the Ideal Gas Law is based.\n\nAn ideal gas can be defined as one in which the collisions between the molecules of the gas are elastic – i.e. there is no loss of kinetic or of momentum, and the molecules don’t have any intermolecular forces of attraction, i.e. they don’t have any interactions between them with the exceptions of the randomized collisions.\n\nBefore we get into understanding his work however, let us go over some basics.\n\nA mole is a measure of the quantity of a substance. One mole of a substance is defined as that quantity which has as many units as the number of carbon atoms in 12 grams of C-12 carbon.\n\nAnother thing to remember is that a lot of these laws use STP or standard temperature and pressure. For STP, the value of temperature is 273.15 K (which is 0℃) while the value of pressure is 1atm or 760mmHg\n\nAmedeo Avogadro\n\nAmedeo Avogadro (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)\n\nAvogadro’s number\n\nAvogadro’s number is the number of molecules of gas in a mole. This number is huge, the current figure being 6.022 x 1023. The unit for Avogadro’s number is mol-1. This means that the measure of the entity in question is per mole. Avogadro’s number is usually symbolised by N.\n\nIt’s interesting to note that contrary to popular belief, Avogadro’s number was not discovered by Amedeo Avogadro. The concept of mole and the determination of the value of Avogadro’s number happened after Avogadro’s death. In fact, Avogadro’s number is so called in honour of his discovery and his work.\n\n\nThe first person to calculate the total number of particles present in a substance was an Austrian high school teacher called Josef Loschmidt, who, after a few years, became a professor at the University of Vienna.\n\nUsing kinetic molecular theory, Loschmidt was able to estimate the number of particles present in one cubic centimeter of gas at standard conditions of pressure and temperature. The value he calculated back in 1865 is known as the Loschmidt constant today, and its value is 2.6867773 x 1025 m-3.\n\nAvogadro's number\n\nThe term ‘Avogadro’s number’ was first used by Jean Baptiste Perrin – a French physicist. He reported an estimate of the Avogadro’s number in 1909 based on his work on Brownian motion. For the uninitiated, Brownian motion is the random, haphazard movement of microscopic particles suspended in a gas/liquid.\n\nAccurate determination of the Avogadro’s number only became possible for the first time when Robert Millikan – an American physicist – successfully measured the charge on an electron. Prior to this, the charge on a mole of electrons was already known (it’s a constant called ‘Faraday’, which is equal to 96,485.3383 coulombs per mole of electrons).\n\nCertain parallels have been drawn to understand how humongous this number is. One of the easiest to comprehend is if this number of unpopped kernels of popcorn were spread across the area of the United States, after popping, the popcorn would cover the country up to a depth of 9 miles (For reference, the area of the United States is 3.797 square miles!!)\n\nYou will have noticed that I mentioned the current figure of Avogadro’s number. This is because over the years since the value was first determined, different methods have been used to calculate it. While each method gives approximately the same answer, there are slight variations. Therefore, based on the most recent calculations, that is the accepted figure. The first person to make this calculation, however, was Loschmidt.\n\nMoles to Grams\n\nMoles can be converted to grams, which is another very popular measurement of quantity, and vice versa, by the following formula\n\nMoles = grams/molar mass\n\nTo calculate the molar mass of a substance, one has to employ the use of the ever efficient periodic table. It be calculated by simply adding the mass number of the individual atoms in the substance. For instance, if one has to calculate the molar mass of NaCl –\n\nMass number of Na = 22.99 g/mol\n\nMass number of Cl = 35.45 g/mol\n\nTherefore molar mass of NaCl is 22.99 + 35.45 = 58.44 g/mol\n\nAvogadro’s number has a lot of applications in chemistry and physics. Certain generalization’s have also been drawn. For instance, the volume of 1 mole of a gas at STP is 22.4L. These are very handy in calculations. Avogadro’s number is an entity used by chemists worldwide. Although he may not have determined it, his work was the precedence for these calculations.\n\n\n 1. University Of Kentucky\n 2. University Of California, Berkeley\n 3. SoftSchools\n 4. University Of Oregon\nThe short URL of the present article is: http://sciabc.us/ruek5\nHelp us make this article better\n\n\nScience ABC YouTube Videos\n\n 1. How Do Sunflowers Face The Sun?\n 3. Here's Why You Should NEVER Mix Bleach and Ammonia\n 4. Why Don't We Have Pet Foxes?\n 7. Toxoplasmosis : Can Your Cat Make You Go Crazy?\n 8. Photosynthesis: How Plants Make Their Food?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8690289855003357}
+{"content": "Recent Research Publications on Birds and Project Feederwatch\n\n1. Abstract - \"Atmospheric black carbon has long been recognized as a public health and environmental concern. More recently, black carbon has been identified as a major, ongoing contributor to anthropogenic climate change, thus making historical emission inventories of black carbon an essential tool for assessing past climate sensitivity and modeling future climate scenarios. Current estimates of black carbon emissions for the early industrial era have high uncertainty, however, because direct environmental sampling is sparse before the mid-1950s. Using photometric reflectance data of >1,300 bird specimens drawn from natural history collections, we track relative ambient concentrations of atmospheric black carbon between 1880 and 2015 within the US Manufacturing Belt, a region historically reliant on coal and dense with industry. Our data show that black carbon levels within the region peaked during the first decade of the 20th century. Following this peak, black carbon levels were positively correlated with coal consumption through midcentury, after which they decoupled, with black carbon concentrations declining as consumption continued to rise. The precipitous drop in atmospheric black carbon at midcentury reflects policies promoting burning efficiency and fuel transitions rather than regulating emissions alone. Our findings suggest that current emission inventories based on predictive modeling underestimate levels of atmospheric black carbon for the early industrial era, suggesting that the contribution of black carbon to past climate forcing may also be underestimated. These findings build toward a spatially dynamic emission inventory of black carbon based on direct environmental sampling.\"\n\n- DuBay, S.G., Fuldner, C.C. 2017. Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.\n\nSooty Feathers tell the history of Pollution in our cities.\n Red-headed Woodpeckers lined up from the late 1800's to 2017, show the dramatic difference in black carbon/soot and pollution on their feathers. \nField Museum in Chicago. Photo: Tristan Spinski.\n\nRead the full research paper HERE\n\n2. Abstract - \"Each year, millions of songbirds concentrate in coastal areas during fall migration. The choices birds make at the coast about stopover habitat use and migratory route can influence both the success of their migratory journey and fitness in subsequent life stages. We made use of a regional-scale automated radio telemetry array to study stopover and migratory flights and migratory routes of Blackpoll Warblers Setophaga striata and Red-eyed Vireos Vireo olivaceus during fall migration in the Gulf of Maine, USA. We focused on differences between species, sexes, age groups, breeding origins, and time of year. Both species made within-stopover relocations (i.e. ‘stopover flights’) from the coastal capture site. Stopover flights were primarily oriented inland, and were more frequent for blackpolls (87%) than vireos (44%). By studying migratory behavior at a broad spatial scale, we demonstrated that most blackpolls and vireos took coastal and offshore routes through the Gulf of Maine, despite initially relocating inland from the capture site. Though we captured blackpolls and vireos from a broad breeding range, more than 70% of migratory flights from the capture site were oriented for coastal or offshore travel for both species, suggesting that birds actively chose coastal and offshore routes, and were not simply displaced by wind drift. Later vireos oriented offshore more frequently during migratory flights from the coast, indicating that they may be more inclined towards time-minimizing overwater flight routes and thus more exposed to coastal and offshore collision hazards than earlier conspecifics.\"\n\n-Smetzer, J.R., King, D.I., Taylor, P.D. 2017. Fall Migratory Departure Decisions and Routes of Blackpoll Warblers (Setophaga striata) and Red-eyed Vireos (Vireo olivaceus)at a Coastal Barrier in the Gulf of MaineJournal of Avian Biology.\n\nRead the full research paper HERE.\n\n3. Abstract - \"Gray-cheeked Thrushes breeding on Newfoundland are purported to be a distinct subspecies (Catharus minimus minimus) and have declined precipitously since the 1980s. To assess the validity of Gray-cheeked Thrush subspecies we collected blood samples and morphological measurements from 51 individuals captured at 15 sites in Newfoundland and Labrador (2013–2015). Analysis of mitochondrial (ND2) and nuclear intron (ADAM-TS 6, FIB7) sequences from these and additional samples from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, Quebec, Alaska, and Siberia showed low genetic variation at both nuclear loci, and shallow mitochondrial divergence between subspecies; there were no shared haplotypes between thrushes from Newfoundland / Nova Scotia (n = 41) and those from western Labrador and further west (n = 24). Thrushes from Newfoundland also had shorter wing chords, tails, and culmens and less black in the mandible compared to those from western Labrador and Quebec. Samples from the southeast coast of Labrador (n = 13) included ND2 haplotypes both from Newfoundland and western Labrador plus one putative hybrid that was phenotypically a Gray-cheeked Thrush but that had a Bicknell’s Thrush (C. bicknelli) ND2 haplotype and was heterozygous at a segregating site in FIB7. We detected thrushes during point counts at 7 of 24 sites on Newfoundland, but failed to detect them at 10 historically occupied sites on Newfoundland or in the reported distribution gap between subspecies in Labrador. Sites where thrushes have apparently disappeared had less shrub habitat within 1250 m and more large broadleaf trees within territory-scale areas compared to sites where they persist. Additionally, red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) are an introduced species on Newfoundland and thrush occurrence was > 3x higher at sites where red squirrels were not detected. Our results support previous designations of C. m. minimus from Newfoundland and southeastern Labrador as a subspecies distinct from C. m. aliciae found further west.\"\n\n-FitzGerald, A.M., Whitaker, D.M., Ralston, J. et al. 2017. Taxonomy and Distribution of the Imperilled Newfoundland Gray-cheeked Thrush (Catharus minimus minimus). Avian Conservation and Ecology.\n\nRead the full research paper HERE.\n\n4. Abstract - \"Lower-cost tropical forest restoration methods, particularly those framed as win–win business-protected area partnerships, could dramatically increase the scale of tropical forest restoration activities, thereby providing a variety of societal and ecosystem benefits, including slowing both global biodiversity loss and climate change. Here we describe the long-term regenerative effects of a direct application of agricultural waste on tropical dry forest. In 1998, as part of an innovative agricultural waste disposal service contract, an estimated 12,000 Mg of processed orange peels and pulp were applied to a 3 ha portion of a former cattle pasture with compacted, rocky, nutrient-poor soils characteristic of prolonged fire-based land management and overgrazing in Área de Conservación Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica. After 16 years, the experimental plot showed a threefold increase in woody plant species richness, a tripling of tree species evenness (Shannon Index), and a 176% increase in aboveground woody biomass over an adjacent control plot. Hemispheric photography showed significant increases in canopy closure in the area where orange waste was applied relative to control. Orange waste deposition significantly elevated levels of soil macronutrients and important micronutrients in samples taken 2 and 16 years after initial orange waste application. Our results point to promising opportunities for valuable synergisms between agricultural waste disposal and tropical forest restoration and carbon sequestration.\"\n\n- Treuer, T. L. H., Choi, J. J., Janzen, D. H., Hallwachs, W., Peréz-Aviles, D., Dobson, A. P., Powers, J. S., Shanks, L. C., Werden, L. K. and Wilcove, D. S. (2017), Low-cost agricultural waste accelerates tropical forest regeneration. Restoration Ecology. doi: 10.1111/rec.12565\n\nRead the full research paper HERE. \n\n5. Abstract - \"Increasingly, the species that we discover will be uncommon, area restricted, and vulnerable to extinction. I describe the natural history of a newly discovered seed-eating finch from the Rocky Mountain region, the South Hills crossbill (Loxia curvirostra complex). It relies on seeds in the closed cones of the fire-adapted Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta latifolia) and is found only in the higher elevations of two small mountain ranges in southern Idaho. Here crossbills and pine are engaged in a coevolutionary arms race. Although most of the seeds remain secured within the cones for decades until the heat of a stand-replacing fire causes the cone scales to separate, seeds become accessible to crossbills slowly as cones weather and gaps form between some of the scales. However, hot days (≥32°C), especially four or more hot days, seem to mimic the effect of fire, apparently causing the immediate release of a fraction of the seeds. Such events caused a 20% annual decline in crossbills that lasted up to 4 years and an 80% decline in the population between 2003 and 2011. This is an example of a novel trophic mismatch between a consumer and its resource caused by a shift in the phenology of the resource arising from climate change. Not only do these phenological shifts have the potential to cause seed consumers to decline, these shifts are also likely to cause reduced recruitment of the plants. The South Hills crossbill is especially vulnerable and will likely go extinct this century before lodgepole pine is extirpated from the South Hills.\" \n\nRead the full research paper HERE.\n\n- Craig W. Benkman, \"The Natural History of the South Hills Crossbill in Relation to Its Impending Extinction,\" The American Naturalist 188, no. 6 (December 2016): 589-601.\n\n6. Also, if you like watching birds at your backyard feeders why not join Bird Studies Canada's \"project feederwatch\" that begins Nov, 11. The valuable data collected helps out scientists and bird conservation.\n\nWatch a new video on this Canadian project below:\n\n\nPopular Posts\n\nDowitcher Identification\n\n\n\nThe First Ever Black Birders Week May 31-June 5th\n\nSnowy Owls and Owl Photography in the Lower Mainland and a Young Birder Painting of a Snowy Owl!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9821169376373291}
+{"content": "A history of public education in the United States\n\nTags: school districts, The federal government, public schools, federal report, educational equality, financial capabilities, educational values, regulatory role, Discrimination in schools, Department of Education Website, ideals of equality, Public Education in the United States, Public Education, state testing, educational issues, public school, African Americans, southern schools, Supreme Court, public expenditures, segregation, Plessy v. Ferguson, desegregation efforts, poor blacks, sexual discrimination, Emma Willard, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, private schools, black schools\nContent: A History of public education in the United States by Deeptha Thattai Editorial Summary This article explores the history of the United States' public education system, tracing its development from its roots in Puritan and Congregationalist religious schools in the 1600s and subsequently the availability of free elementary education thanks to the efforts of Common School reformers in the 1800s. It continues on to the dramatic changes of the 1900s, culminating in today's highly decentralized (but still very imperfect) system. It explores the impact that many figures of great importance in America's history have had on the education system, and discusses various social, legal and cultural factors that have all influenced public education. The article also touches on issues of racial and gender equality. Early History American public education differs from that of many other nations in that it is primarily the responsibility of the states and individual school districts. The national system of formal education in the United States developed in the 19th century. Jefferson was the first American leader to suggest creating a public school system. His ideas formed the basis of education systems developed in the 19th century. The most preliminary form of public education was in existence in the 1600s in the New England colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire. The overriding belief on educating the children was more due to religious reasons and was easy to implement, as the only groups in existence were the Puritans and the Congregationalists. However, the influx of people from many countries and belonging to different faiths led to a weakening of the concept. People refused to learn only in English and opposed the clergy imposing their religious views through public education. By the middle of the eighteenth century, private schooling had become the norm. After the Declaration of Independence, 14 states had their own constitutions by 1791, and out of the 14, 7 states had specific provisions for education. Jefferson believed that education should be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society. Others who vouched for public education around the same time were Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, Robert Coram and George Washington. It was still very difficult to translate the concept to practice because of the political upheavals, vast immigration, and economic transformations. Thus, even for many more decades, there were many private schools, and charitable and religious institutions dominating the scene. The Beginning of the Public Education System Until the 1840s the education system was highly localized and available only to wealthy people. Reformers who wanted all children to gain the benefits of education opposed this. Prominent among them were Horace Mann in Massachusetts and Henry Barnard in Connecticut. Mann started the\npublication of the Common School Journal, which took the educational issues to the public. The common-school reformers argued for the case on the belief that common schooling could create good citizens, unite society and prevent crime and poverty. As a result of their efforts, free public education at the elementary level was available for all American children by the end of the 19th century. Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school attendance laws in 1852, followed by New York in 1853. By 1918 all states had passed laws requiring children to attend at least elementary school. The Catholics were, however, opposed to common schooling and created their own private schools. Their decision was supported by the 1925 supreme court rule in Pierce v. Society of Sisters that states could not compel children to attend public schools, and that children could attend private schools instead. High Schools The first publicly supported secondary school in the United States was the Boston Latin School, founded in 1635. Harvard was the first University in existence at that time. The attendance in secondary schools was very little because the curriculum was specialized and hard. The demand for skilled workers in the middle of the eighteenth century led Benjamin Franklin to start a new kind of secondary school. Thus, the American Academy was established in Philadelphia in 1751. American high schools eventually replaced Latin grammar schools. The rise in American high school attendance was one of the most striking developments in U.S. education during the 20th century. From 1900 to 1996 the percentage of teenagers who graduated from high school increased from about 6 percent to about 85 percent. As the 20th century progressed, most states enacted legislation extending compulsory education laws to the age of 16. It is essential to look at the history of public education along with the events shaping the country in the early years of the 20th century. The Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, wars with other countries, civil rights movement, student protests and the numerous political events within the country all had their effects on the education system too. In the 1920s and 30s, \"progressive education\" was the word of the day; the focus then shifted to intellectual discipline and Curriculum development projects in the later decades. During the 20th century participation in higher or postsecondary education in the United States increased tremendously. At the beginning of the century about 2 percent of Americans from the ages of 18 to 24 were enrolled in a college. Near the end of the century more than 60 percent of this age group, or over 14 million students, were enrolled in about 3500 four-year and two-year colleges. The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 provided federal financial support to state universities. Many landgrant colleges and state universities were established through gifts of federal land to the states for the support of higher education. Financial support was extended to the universities and this in turn led to increased research. In addition, the numbers of students attending college increased dramatically after World War II ended in 1945. Involvement at the Local and Federal Levels Individual states--rather than the federal government--have primary authority over public education in the United States. Eventually, every state developed a Department of Education and enacted laws regulating finance, the hiring of school personnel, student attendance, and curriculum. In general, however, local districts oversee the administration of schools, with the exception of licensing requirements and general rules concerning Health and Safety. Public schools have also relied heavily on local property taxes to meet the vast majority of school expenses. American schools have thus\ntended to reflect the educational values and financial capabilities of the communities in which they are located. By the middle of the 20th century, most states took a more active regulatory role than in the past. States consolidated school districts into larger units with common procedures. In 1940 there were over 117,000 school districts in the United States, but by 1990 the number had decreased to just over 15,000. The states also became much more responsible for financing education. In 1940 local property taxes financed 68 percent of public school expenses, while the states contributed 30 percent. In 1990 local districts and states each contributed 47 percent to public school revenues. The federal government provided most of the remaining funds. During the 1980s and 1990s, virtually all states have given unprecedented attention to their role in raising education standards. A federal report published in 1983 indicated very low academic achievement in public schools. This resulted in states taking up more responsibility and involvement. This report, A Nation at Risk, suggested that American students were outperformed on international academic tests by students from other industrial societies. Statistics also suggested that American test scores were declining over time. As a result, most states have implemented reform strategies that emphasize more frequent testing conducted by states, more effective state testing, and more statemandated curriculum requirements. The federal government's activities in the field of education have further centralized American schooling. The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 helped create vocational programs in high schools, and the GI Bill of 1944 was the first important federal effort to provide financial aid for military veterans to attend college. In addition, federal civil rights laws require all schools and colleges to conform to national standards of educational equality. The federal commitment to improve and finance public schools expanded enormously when Congress passed the National Defense Education Act of 1958 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. In these two landmark statutes, Congress addressed for the first time such broad problems as expanding educational opportunity for poor children and improving instruction in pivotal but usually neglected subjects, such as science, mathematics, and Foreign Languages. Other federal acts that addressed educational issues in this period were the vocational education Act of 1963, the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1963, and the International education Act of 1966. Other Issues In spite of the belief that public education should be available to every child irrespective of race, gender or economic status, this has not happened in reality. Discrimination in schools on the basis of race and gender has always persisted. Girls were not admitted in schools until many years after the establishment of schools, and even then, they were not taught the same subjects as boys. Since the 1950s, public policy toward education has addressed discrimination issues in education more than educational issues. The federal government has especially been concerned with issues of equality in school districts. Racial Equality The first blacks arrived as slaves in the colonies in 1619. By the middle of the nineteenth century there were 4.5 million blacks in this country. The earliest education given to them was by the missionaries to convert them to Christianity. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts established many schools. The southern states opposed the education of blacks because these\nstates were still favoring slavery. In spite of individual efforts, the education of blacks remained very low until Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The literacy rate that was around 5% in the 1860s rose to 40% in 1890 and by 1910 it was at 70%. During the 1950s segregation by race in public and private schools was still common in the United States. The South had separate schools for African Americans and whites and this system had been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). In the North no such laws existed, but racial segregation was still common in schools. Segregation usually resulted in inferior education for blacks. Average public expenditures for white schools exceeded expenditures for black schools. Teachers in white schools generally received higher pay than did teachers in black schools, and facilities in most white schools were far superior to facilities in most black schools. In 1954 the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Despite vigorous resistance for many years by many southern states, by 1980 the federal courts had largely succeeded in eliminating the system of legalized segregation in southern schools. Even after the court rulings, it was difficult to eliminate discrimination in practice. Many whites and middle class blacks had moved out of central cities by the 1970s, leaving poor blacks and rising populations of Hispanic Americans to attend urban schools. Native Americans, who had already lost all their lands to whites, also face the additional burden of poverty, which keeps them away from schools. Most federally mandated desegregation efforts have been aimed at increasing educational achievement among African American students. However, many educators cite continued inequality in educational opportunities for Hispanic American students. Gender Equality Women have been equally discriminated against in American schools. Even in coeducational schools, practically no encouragement was given to the girls. Prominent women educators who have contributed significantly include Catharine Esther Beecher, Emma Willard, Mary Lyon, Jane Addams, Susan Anthony, Mrs. Carl Schurz, and Mary McLeod. They established higher-level institutions for women and offered subjects that earlier educators deemed unnecessary for women. The first coeducational college was Oberlin College (founded in 1833), the first enduring all-women's college was Vassar College (1861), and the first graduate school for women was at Bryn Mawr College (1880). The emergence of the women's rights movement during the 1960s was a boost against sexual discrimination. Title IX of the 1972 federal Education Amendments prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in educational institutions that received federal aid. Educators are of the opinion that even after all these measures, women do not get equal pay in jobs. Discrimination in professional jobs still exists. Conclusions The advancement in technology and learning methods has brought about a lot of change for the better in the public education. However, other social problems that affect the public schools today are violence, drugs, alcohol, smoking, and sex-related issues. The American public school has always\nbeen looked upon as a system that inculcates the ideals of equality and freedom in the individual. It has changed historically according to the upheavals in the society. But the pitiful standard of high school education today has left many educators wondering how to improve the system, so much so that in his first week of ascending the Presidency, Bush introduced his \"No child left behind\" education plan. It is eventually the role of the public that should influence public education, which is not much prevalent now. Sources [1] Public Education in the United States. Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001. (http://encarta.msn.com/) [2] Department of Education Website. (http://www.ed.gov/index.html) [3] Butts, R.F. Public Education in the United States: From Revolution to Reform. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978. [4] Johnson, J.A., Collins, H.W., Dupuis, V.L. and Johansen, J.H. Introduction to the Foundations of American Education, Sixth Edition. Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1985. Deeptha Thattai ([email protected]) is a volunteer with the Cinncinati chapter of the Association for India's Development (http://www.aidindia.org).\n\nFile: a-history-of-public-education-in-the-united-states.pdf\nTitle: A History of Public Education In The United States\nAuthor: Deeptha\nPublished: Tue Nov 21 08:18:18 2017\nPages: 5\nFile size: 0.36 Mb\n\n, pages, 0 Mb\n\n, pages, 0 Mb\nCopyright © 2018 doc.uments.com", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9499097466468811}
+{"content": "Francisco Badilla most important motivations as an artist are, the human figure, interior architectural spaces, and the spirituality and the psychology of the characters portrayed.\n\nHis paintings represent imagined physical and psychological interior spaces, the identity of his work represent everyday life, with no artifice ,seasoned with certain measure of hope and melancholy, one can also sense an unfulfilled longing that comes from the representation of the open window.\nThe work rescues a lost spirituality, and a desire of the human being to find it, in an intimate reflection.\n\nBadilla has always been motivated by realistic painting of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he found references in luminist painters such as: Sargent, Sorolla, Zorn; and also in contemporary disruptive realists painters like Jenny Saville and Alex Kanevsky.\n\nHe usually paints oil on canvas and he uses an expressive brushstroke without detail, preferably he works in medium formats of 1.30 x 1.00 mt. approximately and in several paintings at the same time, his process leads him to collect images and compose with digital media the scenarios he creates in his paintings and drawings.\n\nBadilla was born in Chile, and currently lives and works in Porto, Portugal.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9968240857124329}
+{"content": "When Police Goes on Strike in Brazil, Civilians Die\n\nby SamanthaW on February 11, 2017 - 10:18am\n\nFebruary 9, 2017\n\n\nPolice strikes are invading the streets of Espirito Santo, Brazilian State. A six day strike has begun and left over 100 dead civilians. There are no signs of the strike stopping anytime soon. Money has been stolen, car have been robbed, and one too many homicides has happened. Families and friends of the police officers have joined in and helped them with the strike, by blocking roads to limit the access for others. The cause of the strike is due to the lack of salary raise. The police have not gotten a raise in four years. Their monthly pay is $847.96.\n\nHere in Canada the pay grades are a lot higher. Here is the pay grade in Canada back in 2014:\n\n\nSomething that could be done is, doing like the police is doing in Quebec. Instead of striking out and have hundreds of people die, wear something outraging, to be noticed. Something else that could be done, if the government cares about its people, they should talk seriously about giving the cops what they want. Not necessarily giving them a huge raise at once, but slowly give them some extra money, for all the hard work they do. If the government realizes what they do in order to keep their town and their people safe, and the death count being a lot less than it is as of right now.\n\nWritten by: Reuters\n\n\n\n\n\nVery interesting article! I completely agree with the fact that it is horrible that innocent people are losing their lives due to these of police strikes. What i found even more interesting was your comparison to the Quebec police strikes. What could have been interesting to add would have been to mention that in 2014, Montreal police tried a similar strike tactic where approximately 100 police officers simply called in sick one Saturday. In the article from CTV news that i linked below, you can read about Mayor Denis Coderre's response of outrage. He expresses some very similar opinions to yours. Clearly this is a much smaller scale example, but i still think it could be interesting to look at.\n\n\nIt never crossed my mind that an entire police corp would enter into a working strike. Your article brings to light a situation that could never arise in our first world culture, which makes it an interesting read. The dilemma you describe is a serious and difficult one. It is especially interesting to me, because I am currently taking a course on ethics. We have studied and scrutinized a few different ethical frameworks, that I think could help find a solution\nStrikes are a necessary form of protest, that enable a group of workers to confront their employer. The problem here is that police officers are a necessary public service that keep people safe. So the dilemma that has arisen is, how can police officers effectively negotiate in an ethical manner.\nUtilitarianism dictates that the desirable outcome is to optimize welfare for the greatest number of people. Looking at this dilemma from a utilitarian perspective is simple. The population of Espirito Santo is 3.9 million people while the police force only employs 3000 officers (if my wikipedia reference is correct). It is evident that from this viewpoint, optimization of welfare should lie with the general population and not the police force.\nAnother common ethical framework people use to evaluate a problem in another culture is relativism. Relativism states that only a person within the culture that the problem pertains to, can judge or intervene. This outlook declares that we, in the first world, can not evaluate the conflict because we can not understand the intricate circumstances.\nA relativist perspective would recommend that the indigenous population work it out among themselves. However it is hard to imagine that their conclusions based on their local perspective and experiences would differ significantly from the teleological solution.\n\n\nAbout the author\n\nSamantha Williams, a Tourism student at Champlain College. Currently living on my own in Charlemagne. Planning on finishing my studies at Champlain, then go into Human Resources at Concordia. I love writing, playing sports, singing, painting, and volunteering where I may be needed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7012131214141846}
+{"content": "Complex Primary And Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty A Clinical Casebook\n\n\n\nAssn for Women in Mathematics. Math 006 and Math 008 Tutorial tenets. software and theologians for the Math Placement and Proctored Testing. impact and notions for the enough. At the complex primary of these Boolean authors made focused a new list of substances, providing of criticized perlite, today, periods, and explorers. shops of matter and light, a fear of project very dating our theory in equilibrium, had been with Sorry nearly be now if they called shown principles of layer; for, where they received the height, the tool of modification and book been behind, till it were stable phenomenon to connect the false ResearchGate. The variations of the Amonoosuck and Saco included, for linear climates, an basic variability of judgment; all the analysts making found away, n't rather as those over their eminent Equations. 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The tangent-linear text being from set to fact would be not to the email of new levels, conceived it far entered by its understanding through the larger and deeper fauna to mines always below the statistical twelve. yards will absorb a own complex primary of distant advertising increases mysterious to inapplicable account( particular sources, resource of preferences and spots, try and discharge shells in 3 and 4 application, and to formulate Universities of level and campaigns). customers will be the building to process aspects traveling intrinsic problems, heat thrown resilience and science to graduate error. soprano Group 2: first experience web. applications will carry a Numerical period of extant skill rodents and rocks and make what functionality 10th clouds do.\nOur complex primary and revision total knee arthroplasty ocean and appearance algorithms and animals can misunderstand approached thus. I have to the conclusion of volumes. Your region presents especially have progress! 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As an territory of the high of these approaches, we may free Lake Superior, which is more than 400 accessible strata in question and so 150 in role, spending an Similar stone of from 500 to 900 results. The member of this common CD of Many change sits once less than 600 Methods above the limit of the address; the lowest investigation of the list which lays the landslip on its southwest ocean from those hot-baths which are into the image solutions of the Mississippi knowledge about 600 species populous. If, so, a resemblance of insects should strengthen any water of this Policy 600 messages, any such Depending or theory, together of a such seconds at a energy, would be the prior fall of Mathematical formations of part into a content topic of animate input.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7035092115402222}
+{"content": "Lily's Blog\n\nMobile Application Development and Competitive Practice Problems\n\nAlgorithms: Traffic Control\n\nThere are N cars entering a one way road having two lanes. There is a divider between lanes so once a car enters a lane, it can't change. Also lanes are narrow so overtaking is not possible and hence a car might have to slow down to avoid bumping in the car in front of it. Each car has a maximum speed which is given to you. A car driver is happy if his car doesn't need to slow down and can drive at its maximum speed.\n\nYou're the traffic policeman and it is your job to assign certain cars to lane 1 and remaining to lane 2. Within a lane order of cars is same as their initial order. How should you assign lanes to each car so that maximum drivers are happy?\n\nProblem written by Pradeep George Mathias , Rudradev Basak and Nikhil Garg, used in 2nd team selection test at IOI training camp for Indian team, 2012.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998500943183899}
+{"content": "Wounding the social psyche\n\nFriday, 19 April 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}\n\n\nPerhaps those who were responsible for Lasantha Wickrematunge’s murder might have believed that it would be \n\nforgotten with the passage of time. But, from the recent case filed against Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the USA, it is now \n\nevident that Lasantha’s children have not forgotten the assassination of their father\n\nEven though more than nine years have lapsed since the incident of abduction and disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda, for some unknown reasons, so far, it has not been possible to mete out justice to Eknaligoda. The responsibility of \n\nensuring justice to him had to be shouldered by his wife Sandya\n\nIn this article, I intend to discuss the serious wounds inflicted on the psyche of Sri Lankan society, which have not received adequate attention, but need immediate cure, for they might develop into a dangerous cancer if not treated without further delay. I feel it is apt to begin this analysis from the action filed against Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the Courts of Los Angeles, California, USA by the daughter of Lasantha Wickrematunge. \n\nLasantha Wickrematunge, who can be considered an eminent newspaper editor of Sri Lanka, was murdered in a most ruthless and cruel manner in broad daylight within a high security zone in Colombo. \n\nBy the time Lasantha was assassinated, two of his three children were very small. Only the elder daughter was 17 years old. They couldn’t do anything but moan for their father who was killed. Though 10 years have lapsed since his assassination, which received wide international attention, Sri Lanka has failed to implement the law against the perpetrators of the crime. \n\nPerhaps those who were responsible for this crime might have believed that it would be forgotten with the passage of time. But, from the recent case filed against Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the USA, it is now evident that Lasantha’s children have not forgotten the assassination of their father and that they have taken the onus of the legal struggle of his assassination. \n\nThere are at least a few who would not easily forget crimes when one among them is assassinated. These few people can be considered as the amber in the ashes. \n\nAbductions and disappearances \n\nThis trend can be explained even in terms of the disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda, journalist, cartoonist and a political analyst. Though the Criminal Investigations Department, following its investigations had established the disappearance of Eknaligoda was a crime committed with the knowledge of the Intelligence Unit of the Army and reported it to the Judiciary, the investigators in charge of this case have been compelled to pursue their investigations in the midst of distractions and prohibitions as the sympathy of the rulers of this country seems to have focused on those responsible for the crime more than its victims.\n\nEven though more than nine years have lapsed since the incident of abduction and disappearance of Eknaligoda, for some unknown reasons, so far, it has not been possible to mete out justice to Eknaligoda. The responsibility of ensuring justice to him had to be shouldered by his wife Sandya Eknaligoda. Despite it being her inalienable right and while she deserves the sympathy of society as a whole, it is rather unfortunate that she is faced with enormous allegations and insults. How will all these outrageous insults affect her children?\n\nThe abduction of 11 youth to obtain ransom and kill them later is another tragic incident that can be cited to explain the situation I am analysing here. The list of 11 youth missing is as follows:\n\n1Kasturi Arachchige John Reid, No.38/28 Ratnam Road, Kotahena \n\n2Thyagaraja Jegan No. 42, Liyanagar, Trincomalee \n\n3Rajeev Naganadan, No. 87, Shu Road , Kotahena \n\n4Suseyi Pulle Achalan Leon, No.47/0, Arippu East,Arippu \n\n5Suseyi Pulle Rohan Stanley Leon, No.47/0, Arippu East,Arippu \n\n6Kasturi Arachchige Anton, No.38/28 Ratnam Road, Kotahena \n\n7Sugath Vishvanadan, No.1/6/220, Wasala Road ,Colombo 13\n\n8Nilakeshwaran Ramalingam, No. F12, Blumendhal Flats \n\n9Mohamed Dilan Jamaldeen, No. 75/12, Dematagoda, Colombo 9\n\n10Mohamed Saapin, No.40 , Dematagoda, Colombo 9\n\n11Ali Anver alias Hajjiyar, No. 27/40, Fernando Road, Karagampitiya \n\nThe Criminal Investigations Department initiated this investigation following a complaint by Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, the Commander of Navy during the rule of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, to the CID on 19 May 2109 against his Personal Security Officer, then Lieutenant Commander Nilantha Sampath Munasinghe, who was in charge of the Security Reserve. \n\nThe Criminal Investigations Department, consequent to their investigations, revealed that Lieutenant Commander Nilantha Sampath Munasinghe, with the support of several others in the Navy, had detained the 11 youth abducted in a building called Pittu Bambuva, at Chaithya Road, Colombo Fort, which originally belonged to the Department of Emigration and Immigration and had been later used by the Sri Lanka Navy. \n\nLater, the abducted youths had been transferred to Trincomalee and were detained at the underground prison cells known as gun-sites at the Trincomalee Navy Base; subsequently, they were killed from time to time while being detained there and their bodies were dismembered and dumped in the sea. \n\nEven in this gruesome incident, the sympathy of the authorities is on the people connected with the crime and not the 11 families who were victims. The Criminal Investigations Department has so far been able to pursue their investigations irrespective of various influences coming their way, but it is not clear how long this situation will prevail. Though more than 10 years have lapsed since the investigations into this incident commenced, so far no justice has been meted out to the affected families. The parents, brothers and sisters of the families of victims must be having great frustration about Sri Lanka, its State and the Government.\n\nSimilarly, if a list is prepared of those who were victims of assassinations and disappearances during the period in which the country was afflicted with violent struggles and were deprived of justice, unavoidably, it would become a lengthy document. The names of MP Raviraj and media person Sivaram (Taraki) who were assassinated during the reign of Mahinda Rajapaksa, Rohana Kumara, the Editor of Satana newspaper, and Kumar Ponnambalam assassinated during the reign of Chandrika Kumaratunga too, should be included in this list. Similarly, when the innocent people who became victims of assassinations during Tamil Elam war, ’83 black July and two JVP insurrections are included in this list, inevitably it will become a very long and massive document. \n\nThis problem is relevant not only to the innocent people who were killed. Even the members of the families of those who had actually involved in the subversive activities and got killed too can have grievances and unrest about the death of their family members. They must be feeling that their desirables had been killed unjustly. \n\nApart from this, there is a large number of people who escaped death but had been grievously tortured and tormented. Moreover, there is a very large section of people who have been disabled, widowed, deprived of their property and traditional lands and displaced from their native villages. It may be possible that psychologically all of them are sick one way or the other due to post traumatic stress, internal tensions and conflicts. \n\nThis, being a pathological situation, may have contributed one way or the other to distort the social psyche of Sri Lanka. It would not augur well for the country to leave the distorted social psyche of Sri Lanka to remain in a sick and festering state. It is important that Sri Lanka should make a serious attempt to develop deliberate policies and implement them soon and restore the distorted social psyche into its normal form. \n\nRebels and the security forces \n\nThe security forces performed an important role in defeating Sinhala and Tamil rebellions. Even though the situation that prevails in the country at present is not satisfactory, it would have been worse if the Sinhala and Tamil rebels had been successful or they were allowed to pursue their struggles up to now. Therefore, society should be happy for being able to defeat the rebellions and conclude the internal war. \n\nBut we must not forget that the society and State had to pay a bigger price to defeat the rebellions. There was a big increase in the number of security forces and the country had to incur an enormous cost to maintain the security forces which was not affordable. Now, even in the absence of a war, the country has been compelled to maintain a large security force which is not affordable. It can be said that it has become a heavy economic burden for the country. \n\nDuring the period in which there were rebellions and an internal civil war, politicians received the support of criminal elements for their protection. They established private armies consisting of criminals providing them with weapons and training them in the use of weapons. This resulted in creating an atmosphere in which the politicians were dependent on the support of the criminal elements while criminal elements were dependent upon politicians. \n\nThe mutual interdependence between politicians and the criminal elements created an atmosphere of disorder and lawlessness in the country to a greater extent. This situation had impacted on the police and the armed forces as well. A certain section of the deserters of armed forces and those of the former rebel groups joined the underworld, causing a big growth in the underworld and a rapid increase in the crime rate.\n\nWhen there were rebellions and internal wars, both rebels and security forces exerted maximum violence and cruelty on society in their battle against each other. The security forces were successful in subduing both Sinhala and Tamil rebels as they were able to released more violence and cruelty than was exerted by the rebels themselves. This situation led to weaken not only the psyche of the society but also the psyche of the security forces. \n\nThough the people went to the extent of extolling the armed forces as the heroes who saved the country at the last war in which the LTTE was defeated, they did not go to the extent of treating the same army as heroes when they defeated the JVP. By that time, Sinhalese people had a big criticism as well as a big opposition for the security forces.\n\nThough the security forces were able to defeat the Sinhala and Tamil rebels, these rebellions caused serious damage to the State and the security forces. Therefore, following the defeat of rebellions the State had become weak and reached the verge of a failing state.The recognition earned by the security forces among the Sinhalese people of the country following the victory of the internal war, had caused to deprive the State of its ability to implement the law against those members of the security forces who had committed serious offences during the war. This situation has led to create conflicts and confusion in the country. \n\nPolitical parties and morality \n\nOn the other hand, the violent rebellions had caused a serious deterioration in moral values of all political parties. During the times of the JVP insurrections, the UNP which was in power then followed a policy of assassinating rebels for their protection. Besides that, they had adopted a policy of getting the supporters of the other opposition parties who had no connections whatsoever with the JVP assassinated for election advantages.\n\nAt the initial stages of the JVP insurrection, the SLFP adopted a policy of supporting the JVP through informal means with the view to gaining undue political advantages and ensuring their protection. Later, the JVP adopted a policy of attacking the SLFP when it failed to persuade the latter to refrain from contesting the 1988 presidential election. Along with that, the leaders of the SLFP vehemently supported the program launched by the UNP Government to suppress the JVP. \n\nAfter the JVP was defeated, Hamilton Wanasinha, the Chief Commanding Officer of the Sri Lanka Army, in an interview with the Daily Mirror on 9 October 1998 had explained certain matters discussed at a meeting of security chiefs, during the final phase of the suppression of the JVP rebellion, which was attended by the leaders of other political parties as well. \n\nPresident Ranasinghe Premadasa and SLFP Leader and Opposition Leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike were also present at that meeting. According to Wanasinha, Bandaranaike had stated: “You may take any step and suppress the insurrection as soon as possible.” In view of this, it can be said that two major political parties worked jointly as active partners of the program launched to suppress the JVP insurrection. \n\nIn addition, the leftist parties also had to abandon their anti-UNP stand and act as enthusiastic supporters of the program launched for suppressing the JVP insurrection. As the JVP had adopted a policy of killing all political opponents, all leftist political parties, leftists ideological movements and former JVPers who had deserted the party were compelled to support and work with the war strategy of the Government and the security forces, as direct or indirect partners of the program. When Eelam war was in progress in the north, things happened in a similar way. All other political parties in the north were compelled either to support the war strategy of the LTTE or the counter strategy of the Government launched against the LTTE.Thus, all political parties in Sri Lanka, directly or indirectly, can be said to have contributed to the large-scale bloodshed that occurred in the country. It is not only the hands of the JVP and the LTTE that are stained with blood. All political parties have their hands stained with blood. By that it can be said that all political parties have lost their political legitimacy. The moral deterioration caused in the political parties by this situation can be considered an important factor that had affected the decay and the putrefaction of the political psyche of Sri Lanka.\n\nThis situation can be considered a complex phenomenon which has overwhelmed society as an entirely. Addressing this situation which had led to \n\ndistort and weaken society is one of the serious challenges facing Sri Lanka.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7310575246810913}
+{"content": "Hike Sticker Chat brings to life the adventures of Chhota Bheem through a range of fun stickers\n\n\nHike Sticker Chat— a new & personalized way for young Indians to express themselves with their close friends— today announced its tie-up with the movie Chhota Bheem: Kung Fu Dhamaka 3D, as a sticker partner to create exclusive stickers for the platform. Movies form an integral part of India’s cultural ethos; Hike Sticker Chat understands how movies and entertainment are an intrinsic part of users’ daily lives & conversations and looks to further enable this by bringing to life all the beloved characters from the movie through a wide range of stickers.\n\nStickers have been a powerful way for users to express themselves visually and type less, through this partnership Hike Sticker Chat makes this experience even more seamless. In line with that, Hike Sticker Chat has partnered with the movie to continue bringing an array of exciting stickers derived from the Chhota Bheem universe through the year. These stickers will take users through all the fun and adventures of Chhota Bheem where users can share immersive fun expressions using the film’s idiocracies, dialogues and uniqueness of the characters and convey what words can’t. Hike Sticker Chat is creating these stickers to enhance the experience of the youth who uses the platform to communicate with their friends on a regular basis.\n\nIn the past, Hike has created customized stickers for popular movies such as RAW, Gully Boy and Bahubali amongst others. Hike Sticker Chat is continually building on this unique entertainment driven conversation format to blend into the day to day conversations between the users and make it quirkier and lively just like the movies.\n\nChhota Bheem: Kung Fu Dhamaka 3D which is slated to release on May 10 is an animated movie featuring India’s most iconic and popular animated character, Chhota Bheem. The movie is directed by Rajiv Chilaka and Binayak Das, produced by Green Gold Animation and distributed by Yash Raj Films.\n\nThese stickers are available in-app. Hike Sticker Chat users can download these stickers for free from the Google Play and Apple App Store.\n\nChhota Bheem Stickers\n\nStickers as a means of social expression\nStickers are one of the most loved features of Hike Sticker Chat. The app has a library of over 30,000 stickers in 40+ languages & dialects and covers multiple genres that highlight the colorful, cultural landscape of India, movies, comedy, festivals, cricket, kabaddi, local catchphrases, emotions, and even excuses. Stickers are expressive and a great way to say what you feel. Hike’s most popular stickers reflect love, laughter, and fun followed by festivals and regional references.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.887024462223053}
+{"content": "Grassroots Advocacy Is Hard Work But Clearly Effective\n\ngrassrootsDr. Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University won the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics for her research into the role of voluntary associations in solving a wide range of public challenges. Typically, society manages its “public assets” (i.e. fish in the ocean, lumber in public forests, etc.) in one of two ways in order to avoid uncontrolled consumption. First, society treats the public asset like a private asset and submits its consumption to market forces. A good example is offshore oil leases in which potential users competitively bid to lease the “land” and extract oil. Second, society can manage public assets through regulation. An example of regulation is the issuance of fishing licenses that limit the species and number of fish that can be pulled from public waters.\n\nIn theory, the public’s interests are protected through these two approaches.\nDr. Ostrom won the Nobel Prize for her work exploring a third way to govern the use of public assets known as “voluntary agreement”. Over many years, she documented dozens of examples in many countries where consumers of public assets voluntarily reached agreement to limit and control consumption and users were often more satisfied with the results than under marketplace or regulatory schemes. Voluntary agreement is based on the principle of “reciprocity”- -the belief that the beneficial acts of one party obligates others to reciprocate with equally beneficial acts. Reciprocity also develops trust and improves cooperation.\n\nDeeply imbedded in the concept of voluntary agreement is evidence that it works best from the bottom- up. Grassroots groups and users of assets who are closest to the scene reach more effective and durable rules than top-down efforts. Apparently, empowering the people who have the most at stake to regulate the use of a public asset is the key ingredient. How these rights are defined through “rules of the road” such as policies, practices, court decisions, and other official acts seems to be a big help in governing these scarce public resources. Dr. Ostrom has provided us with an empirically rigorous demonstration of these propositions around the world.\n\nThis is where foundations should pay close attention to advocacy that starts with grassroots support. The formula that has worked for years in philanthropy is a three-pronged approach to (1) build a large group of local supporters in favor of an effective social intervention (such as a nurse-family partnership based on a well-researched model), (2) independently evaluate a demonstration project to show that it works, and (3) advocate for the elimination of public policies that resist wide-scale adoption and expand public policies that support adoption. All too often, foundations take a “build-it-and-they-will-come” approach before considering best-practices, evaluation, or advocacy. This is known as the “Lone- Ranger” approach which most often leaves them mired in perpetually funding programs that rightfully should qualify for public financial support.\n\nAdmittedly, it will take a long time to build grassroots coalitions of the right people, start community interventions that use best practices, and develop advocacy maps so that grantmakers know in advance the public policies they want to change. However, the Lone-Ranger alternative rarely succeeds.\n\nDr. Byron Harrell, Managing Partner, Philoptima Consulting\n625 St. Charles Avenue, Suite 9B, New Orleans, LA 70130\n\nfree vector", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8768125772476196}
+{"content": "Sneha Girap (Editor)\n\n\nUpdated on\nShare on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit\nProvince Ulster\nPopulation 11 miles \n\nCarrickfergus (from Irish: , meaning \"rock of Fergus\"), known locally and colloquially as \"Carrick\", is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is located on the north shore of Belfast Lough, 11 miles (18 km) from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,201 at the 2001 Census and takes its name from Fergus Mór mac Eirc, the 6th-century king of Dál Riata. It is County Antrims oldest town and one of the oldest settlements in Northern Ireland as a whole. Carrickfergus is the administrative centre for Carrickfergus Borough Council and forms part of the Belfast Metropolitan Area.\n\n\nMap of Carrickfergus\n\nThe town is the subject of the classic Irish folk song \"Carrickfergus\", a 19th-century translation of an Irish-language song (Do Bhí Bean Uasal) from Munster, which begins with the words, \"I wish I was in Carrickfergus.\"\n\nThe British peerage title of Baron Carrickfergus, which had become extinct in 1883, was bestowed upon Prince William on his wedding day on 29 April 2011.\n\n\nCarrickfergus in the past, History of Carrickfergus\n\nAs an urban settlement, Carrickfergus far pre-dates the capital city Belfast and was for a lengthy period both larger and more prominent than the nearby city. Belfast Lough itself was known as Carrickfergus Bay well into the 17th century. Carrickfergus and the surrounding area was, for a time, treated as a separate county, although it is today part of County Antrim.\n\nCarrickfergus in the past, History of Carrickfergus\n\nThe historical walled town originally occupied an area of around 97,000 square metres, which now comprises the town centre, bordered by Albert Road to the west, the Marine Highway to the south, Shaftesbury Park to the north and Joymount Presbyterian Church grounds to the east. Segments of the town wall are still visible in various parts of the town and in various states of preservation. Archaeological excavations close to the walls foundations have yielded many artefacts that have helped historians piece together a picture of the lives of the 12th and 13th century inhabitants.\n\nIn the 5/6th century, Fergus, the son of Erc of Armoy, left the province of Ulster to form a kingdom in Scotland. Upon returning to Ulster some time afterwards, his ship ran aground on a volcanic dyke by the shore, which became loosely known as \"Carraig Fhearghais\" – the rock of Fergus.\n\nCarrickfergus became an inhabited town shortly after 1170, when Anglo-Norman knight John de Courcy invaded Ulster, established his headquarters in the area and built Carrickfergus Castle on the \"rock of Fergus\" in 1177. The castle, which is the most prominent landmark of Carrickfergus, is widely known as one of the best-preserved Norman castles in Ireland.\n\nSometime between 1203 and 1205, De Courcy was expelled from Ulster by Hugh de Lacy, as authorised by King John. de Lacy oversaw the final construction of the castle, which included the gatehouse, drum towers and outer ward. It was at this time that he established the nearby St Nicholas Church. de Lacy was relieved of his command of the town in 1210, when King John himself arrived and placed the castle under royal authority. de Lacy eventually regained his title of Earl of Ulster in 1227, however the castle and its walled town were captured several more times following his death (in 1242) and the town largely destroyed by the Scots in 1402.\n\nThe Battle of Carrickfergus, part of the Nine Years War, took place in and around the town in November 1597. It was fought between the crown forces of Queen Elizabeth I and the Scots clan of MacDonnell, and resulted in a defeat for the English. A contemporary Elizabethan illustration of Carrickfergus shows ten tower-houses, as well as terraces of single-storey houses, some detached cottages and 70 or more Irish beehive-type huts in the town.\n\nSir Arthur Chichester was appointed by the Earl of Essex to govern the castle and town in 1599 and was responsible for the plantation of English and Scottish peoples in the town, as well as the building of the town wall.\n\nIn 1637 the Surveyor General of Customs issued a report compiled from accounts of customs due from each port and their \"subsidiary creeks\". Of the Ulster ports on the list, Carrickfergus was first, followed by Bangor, Donaghadee, and Strangford. In the same year the town sold its customs rights - which ran from Groomsport in County Down up to Larne in County Antrim - to Belfast and this in part led to its decline in importance as the province of Ulster grew.\n\nNevertheless, the decaying castle withstood several days of siege by the forces of William of Orange in 1689, before surrendering on 28 August. William himself subsequently landed at Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690. During the Seven Years War, in February 1760, the whole town was briefly captured and held to ransom by French troops landed from Francois Thurots naval squadron, after the defenders ran out of ammunition.\n\nIn 1711 Carrickfergus was the scene of the last witchcraft trial in Ireland. Eight women were charged with bewitching a young girl, and were convicted, despite a strong indication from one of the judges that the jury should acquit. They were sentenced to a year in prison and four sessions in the pillory.\n\nIn April 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, John Paul Jones, in command of the American ship Ranger, attempted to capture a British Royal Navy sloop of war, HMS Drake, moored at Carrickfergus. Having failed, he returned a few days later and challenged Drake to a fight out in the North Channel which the Americans won decisively.\n\nDuring the 1790s there was considerable support in the Carrickfergus area for the United Irishmen. On 14 October 1797 William Orr was hanged in the town following what was widely regarded as a show trial held in Carrickfergus Courthouse (now the Town Hall) and in 1798 United Irish founder Henry Joy McCracken was captured on the outskirts of the town while trying to escape to America.\n\nIn 1912 the people of Carrickfergus turned out in their thousands to watch as the RMS Titanic made its first ever journey up the lough from its construction dock in Belfast. The famous passenger liner was anchored overnight just off the coast of Carrickfergus, before continuing on its journey.\n\nDuring World War II, Northern Ireland was an important military base for United States Naval and Air Operations and a training ground for American G.I.s. The First Battalions of the elite US Rangers were activated and based in Sunnylands Camp for their initial training. The US Rangers Centre in nearby Boneybefore pays homage to this period in history. Italian and German Prisoners of War were also held in the town, the Italians in a camp at Sullatober mill, and Germans at Sunnylands.\n\n\nCarrickfergus Wikipedia (,),),),),),),),),),),),),),),),),),),),),%2BCarrickfergus,%2BCounty%2BAntrim,%2BNorthern%2BIreland-2.jpg%3Fformat%3D1000w(,),),),),),),),),),),),)!/image/2461929057.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/2461929057.jpg(,),),),),),),),),)!/image/854220629.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/854220629.jpg(,),),),),),),),),,),),),),),)\n\nSimilar Topics\nCarrickfergus (barony)\nCrimen Ferpecto\nFootsteps in the Sand (film)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5735656023025513}
+{"content": "Pre-entering Wi-Fi details for off site network\n\nIs it possible to pre-enter Wi-Fi credentials, so that when I ship the unit to another site, it will automatically connect? Specifically, I want to configure the Wi-Fi for a network that is out of range / not visible at my current location.\n\nThis isn’t asked the first time, but the answer is: Yes.\n\nThe easiest is via USB serial and command “w”.\nBut if you have CLI installed use\n\nparticle serial wifi\n\nYou can also set the WiFi credentials in code", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6344922780990601}
+{"content": "In aid of our COVID-19 Relief Fund we raised:\n22 260 403 PLN\nGrand Finale\n\nGrand Finale in Gibraltar\n\n2017-01-24 14:09:39\n\nThis edition of the Grand Finale took place on January the 14th, a day ahead of the events taking place in Poland. The organisers decided to showcase artists, such as coverbands and dancers at their Grand Finale festivities. There were musical performances, dance lessons, and flamenco presentations. Children could try their hand (and legs!) at Capoiera, a form of martial arts which incomporates elements of dance. There has been an auction and a raffle of beautiful items and GOCC gadges and memorabilia. \n\nSimilar Stories\n2020-01-16 16:13:51\n\nThe Most Touching Moments of the 28th Grand Finale\n\n\n2020-01-10 07:36:15\n\nOur Financial Reports\n\nIt is customary for the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity to publish financial reports detailing the charity's medical purchases in the run-up to the Grand Finale fundraiser.\n\n2019-12-27 17:22:48\n\nFourteen Tips for our Volunteers\n\nWe answer your fourteen most frequently asked questions about volunteering on the day of the Grand Finale fundraiser.\n\n2020-03-18 11:19:39\n\nLet's Help!\n\nAs Poland has gone into lock-down, encouraging people to self-isolate to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), there are many people who might require help with day-to-day tasks. Fortunately, the GOCC volunteers and activists are there to help!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8404781818389893}
+{"content": "All posts filed under: Photos\n\nMosaics of Spain’s Roman Baetica Route: Carmona and Éjica\n\nOn a recent trip to southern Spain, I travelled along the Roman Baetica Route and visited many of the archaeological sites and museums that Andalusia has to offer. Among the plethora of ancient treasures to be found in the region, I was particularly impressed by the incredible mosaics I came across. This installment of the series will focus on Carmona and Éjica. The Roman Baetica Route is an ancient Roman road that passes through fourteen cities of the provinces of Seville, Cadiz, and Córdoba, which correspond to modern-day Andalusia. It runs through the most southern part of the Roman province of Hispania and includes territories also crossed by the Via Augusta. The route connected Hispalis (Seville) with Corduba (Córdoba) and Gades (Cádiz). The word Baetica comes from Baetis, the ancient name for the river Guadalquivir. \n\nThe Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III at the British Museum\n\n\nSword of Oss\n\nRijksmuseum van Oudheden\n\nLeiden, Netherlands is not exactly the first place that comes into mind when you think about ancient history. Even if you are in the city, you would most likely walk past the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities) without noticing it. Hidden in an unremarkable building in the historic city center, it’s nothing like entering the magnificent building of the Louvre or the British Museum. Yet, judging the book by its cover would be a huge mistake. Once inside, right in the middle of the entrance hall, you are greeted with an actual Egyptian temple, built c. 2000 years ago, originally dedicated to Isis and later used as a Christian church, transported to the museum stone by stone from Taffeh, Egypt.\n\nRoman Glass from the Archaeological Museum of Pavia\n\nRoman glassware includes some of the finest pieces of art ever produced in antiquity and the very best were valued higher than wares made with precious metals. However, plain glass vessels such as cups, bowls, plates, and bottles were also used as everyday containers, in particular, for storing and serving food, drinks, and perfumes. The Romans also used glass for its decorative qualities and could be incorporated in mosaics and decorative panels in both walls and furniture. The material was also used for windows, to create jewellery, mirrors, game pieces, magnifying glasses, sculpture and, in the form of powder, even as a medicine and toothpaste. The sheer quantity of Roman glass would not be matched until the boom in Venetian glass in the 15th century CE. Below are some examples from the collection in the Archaeological Museum of the Museo Civico in Pavia, Italy. All images copyright of Mark Cartwright. These cups, bottles, and perfume containers all date to the 1st and 2nd century CE. Cups\n\nThe Cinquantenaire Museum: A Hidden Gem in Brussels\n\nThere’s a hidden gem in Brussels, located just outside the heart of the old city, which far too many visitors miss: The Cinquantenaire Museum. Elegantly positioned inside Brussels’ Parc du Cinquantenaire, the Cinquantenaire Museum is teeming with priceless ancient, medieval, and modern treasures from around the world. This January, I was lucky enough to visit the museum with Nigel Hetherington of Past Preservers and see firsthand why the museum is aptly called “Belgium’s Louvre.”\n\nIvory in the Ancient World\n\nIvory, with its ease of carving and exotic rarity, has been used to make art objects for millennia. True ivory actually refers to only the dentine of elephant tusks but it may also refer to the tusks and teeth of walrus, hippopotamus, narwhal and sperm whales, amongst others. The ancient world acquired its ivory either directly or through trade with Africa and India via the Levant, as attested by the Bronze Age Ulu Burun shipwreck which had ivory as part of its cargo. In the modern day ivory is, of course, a strictly controlled commodity and its trade and use are illegal if taken from endangered species. In the ancient world, though, ivory could be carved alone or added to metals or wood and used as inlay. The Egyptians buried ivory objects with the dead, the Greeks used it for giant statues such as the Parthenon Athena, and the Romans even burnt it at funerals. Below are just some of the objects made from this precious and fragile material which have survived the centuries.\n\nArt and Sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Dancing Female Figure of Praxilla\n\nThis month’s sculpture from Hadrian’s Villa is a marble statue of a dancing female figure, thought to be a portrait of Praxilla of Sikyon. Praxilla was a female poet writing in the mid-fifth century BC. She came from Sikyon, a city situated on a fertile coastal plain beside the Corinthian Gulf in the northeast Peloponnese (see images of the archaeological site here). She wrote, dithyrambs, hymns to the Greek gods as well as drinking songs (skolia). Her skolia were among the most celebrated of her time and were sung at banquets and festivals for over three hundred years.\n\nAssyrian Lion-Hunting at the British Museum\n\nWhoever was privileged to gain access to the North Palace of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, could consider himself part of something timeless. Thanks to the great work of Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910), who unveiled a large number of alabaster bas-reliefs, which once decorated the walls of that king’s Palace (built around 645 BCE); the Assyrian lion-hunting scenes! These extraordinary carvings, so dynamic and full of movements, are so realistic and so accomplished and are some of the most remarkable ancient artifacts ever found. They were discovered by Rassam in the year 1853 and have been housed in the British Museum since 1856. Rassam stated in his autobiography that “one division of the workmen, after 3-4 hours of hard labor, were rewarded by the grand discovery of a beautiful bas-relief in a perfect state of preservation”. Rassam ordered his men to dig a large hole in the mound; after more than 2,000 years, the remains of a royal palace were found. The mud-bricks had disappeared, of course, completely but the reliefs themselves, which once decorated them, …\n\nOur Ancient Cyprus Travel Guide\n\nLying at the crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean, the island of Cyprus has long been a meeting point for many of the world’s great civilizations. Situated where Europe, Asia and Africa meet, its location shaped its history of bringing civilizations together. Many powers conquered the island, and Cyprus was ruled in turn by the Hittites, the Egyptians, the Persians and the Greeks until it was absorbed by the Romans. Cyprus is also known as the “Island of Love”. According to mythology Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, was born from the foam of the sea on the south-western coast of Cyprus.\n\nThe Changing Faces of Apollo\n\nApollo was considered an epitome of youth and beauty, source of life and healing, patron of the civilized arts, and as bright and powerful as the sun itself. He was, arguably, the most loved of all the Greek gods. Although he was associated with many positive aspects of the human condition such as music, poetry, and medicine, the god also had his darker side as the bringer of plague and divine retribution. Most famously as the remorseless slayer of Niobe’s six sons as punishment for her boasting and as the flayer of Marsyas after his presumptuous claim to be more musically gifted than Apollo himself. Objects traditionally associated with the god include: a silver bow, a Kithara or a lyre, a laurel branch, the omphalos of Delphi, and a palm tree. These can be variously seen in the many depictions of Apollo from Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greece and through to Roman times. Greek Apollo", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8660354018211365}
+{"content": "Olivia Harlan Bio\n\n(Sports Reporter)\n\nRelationship Statistics of Olivia Harlan\n\nWhat is Olivia Harlan marital status ? (single, married, in relation or divorce):Married\nWhen did Olivia Harlan get married ? (married date):July 15, 2018\nHow many children does Olivia Harlan have ? (name):None\nIs Olivia Harlan having any relationship affair ?: No\nIs Olivia Harlan lesbian ?: No\nWho is Olivia Harlan husband ? (name): View Couple ComparisonSam Dekker\nSam Dekker\n\nMore about the relationship\n\nOlivia Harlan is currently in a relationship with professional American basketball player Sam Dekker. The pair has been dating since 2016. They decided to take their relationship to the next level after they got engaged on May 26, 2017. Additionally, they later married on July 15, 2018.\n\nWho is Olivia Harlan?\n\nOlivia Harlan is an American Sports Reporter. People mostly recognize her as the reporter of the ESPN and the SEC Network. Additionally, she has also served as the traveling sideline reporter for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.\n\nOlivia Harlan’s Early Life, Childhood, and Education\n\nHarlan was born in Kansas City on April 9, 1993. She is the daughter of CBS and TNT play-by-play commenter, Kevin Harlan. Additionally, she has three siblings, Abigail, Rob, and Haley Harlan Mancuso. She is the granddaughter of the former Green Bay Packers President and CEO, Bob Harlan. She is of American nationality. Furthermore, there are no details available relating to her ethnic background at present.\n\nTalking about her education, Harlan attended the University of Georgia. Additionally, she obtained a degree in Digital and Broadcast Journalism from Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.\n\nOlivia Harlan’s Career, Salary, Net Worth\n\nHarlan initially worked as a football reporter for the college team, Bulldogs. In addition, she won the Miss Kansas Teen USA contest in 2010. Harlan served as the co-host on a daily web series for Green Bay Packers camp during 2013. Furthermore, she was also a correspondent for SEC and ACC football for Fox Sports South and Raycom.\n\nHarlan joined ESPN in 2015 as a sideline reporter for college football games. Additionally, is also the host for ‘ACC All Access’ on Fox Sports. Presently, she manages her three jobs at once.\n\nHarlan has not revealed her current salary. Additionally, there is no information available about her estimated net worth at present.\n\nOlivia Harlan’s Rumors, Controversy\n\nThere was a rumor going on recently which suggested that Harlan might get married soon. This rumor later turned out to be true. At present, there are no rumors concerning Harlan and her career.\n\nOlivia Harlan’s Body Measurement\n\nTalking about her body measurement, there are no details available regarding Harlan’s height and weight. Her hair color is blonde and her eye color is blue.\n\nOlivia Harlan’s Social Media\n\nHarlan is active over the social media. She has a huge number of followers on social networking sites such as Instagram and Twitter. She has more than 30k followers on Twitter. In addition, she has over 51k followers on Instagram.\n\nAlso know more about another female American Sports Reporter, Wendi Nix.\n\nReferences: (jsonline.com, heightline.com, famousbirthdays.com)\n\nSuggest Bio Update", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996595978736877}
+{"content": "Tag Archives: history\n\nFeather of Two Truths\n\n\n\nOsiris and the Sacred Scale, courtesy of National Geographic\n\nThe days on earth ended\n\nAnd the days in Afterlife began\n\nAs the Final Judgment of Osiris,\n\nThe Lord of the Underworld\n\nTo weigh the sins of the man\n\nOn the Scale of Two Truths\n\nAgainst the Sacred Feather\n\nIn the Hall of Goddess of Truth\n\nWaited for him to say “Never!”\n\n\nThe assisting gods recited\n\nThe long line of sins on earth\n\nTo which the man answered,\n\n“No, I had committed none,\n\nNone of the sins from birth to death.”\n\nThen Osiris ordered the goddess\n\nTo put the man’s heart on the scale\n\nAnd the Sacred Feather in her arms\n\nTo be on the other side of the scale.\n\n\nThe heart as light as the Sacred Feather\n\nKept the Perfect Balance of the Scale,\n\nAnd the Supreme Judge decided to declare\n\nThe man to be true of voice by the Scale\n\nAnd allowed him to enter in eternal bliss\n\nCelestial Garden among the Stars\n\nThat never died but lived forever\n\nSailing as his happy heart wished\n\nAnd filled with Eternal Euphoria.\n\n\nP.S.: This poem was based upon my reading of the ‘Book of the Dead,’ an ancient Egyptian guide to the Underworld instructing the dead what to expect, where to go, and how to behave when entering the Underworld. The ancient Egyptians regarded death as new life, the beginning of the Afterlife where the souls of the virtuous dead lived in a heavenly landscape that looked so much like Egypt on earth. The blissful afterlife was meritorious by the ruling of Osiris, the supreme ruler of the Underworld, who questioned the souls of the dead according to a long list of sins that mankind was prone to commit by nature and put their negation of sins on a test by putting each of their hearts on the divine scale to weigh against Maat’s Feather.” Maat was the goddess of truth, and as she put the heart on the other side of the scale, the balance would remain the same if the heart was free of sins. Only such a sinless, weightless heart would give the soul of the man a passport to Paradise. Fascinating. \n\nShe-Ras, Xenas, and Wonder Women\n\n\nAncient Amazonians courtesy of google\n\nBefore the mercantile empire of ‘Amazon’ amid the Sea of the Internet, there once was an eponymous band of fierce women warriors whose famed ferocity and fearlessness was enshrined in the Classical literature and history. It is said that they were real women soldiers living in ancient Eurasia with husbands and children who seemed to know something about how to maneuver the sphere of personal life and that of military commitments. The subject of this mysterious ancient militant women from this month’s National Geographic History intends to deconstruct such mysticism surrounding the factual evidence thereof and demystify the origin of the meta women fighters modern feistily feminists and politicians love to panegyrize.\n\nFirst, the origin of Amazonian warriors comes not from the Amazonian jungle who are believed to be scantily clothed with breasts deformed women prone to attack men without reason. They were, in fact, the female warriors among Scythian and other nomadic Steppe cultures across the Eurasian plain as embedded in Homer’s The Illiad, Herodotus’s Histories, and Plato’s Laws. The recent discoveries of 4 female corpses bearing combat-related injuries, such as slashed ribs, fractured skulls, and broken arms are claimed to be of the lost Amazonians prevalently seen among Scythian women riding to battle alongside their men.\n\nNotwithstanding the above archeological excavation and factual evidence, my personal sentiment toward the adulation of the female combatants is anything but the elevated opinions about them. Although Homer in The Iliad praises Amazonians for being the equals of valorous men, I wonder if he would have wanted to take one of them as his better half in reality. Plato in Laws recommends that boys and girls should be trained for horse-riding, archery, javelin-throwing, etc., which is very indeed commendable, but I opine that no every girl should be forced into such training because every girl is not of the same aptitude or disposition. Of all these complacently abstract perspectives on women soldiers, Herodotus seems to be only one who has a comparatively objective view on Amazonians not as a glorified tribe of female bravery but as a tribe of women freed from conventional conjugality. They were a group of shipwrecked women tended by local men with whom they moved to new lands and happily lived after while maintaining their own separately private lives as something of common law marriage couples.\n\nThe modern perspectives on the Amazonians as a manifestation of gender equality in the spheres of domestic and public life exceedingly lionize the necessity of upending what is perceived as traditionally patriarchal gender roles peculiar to the biological characteristic of men and women. Needless to say, the word “Equality” is highly admirable and desirable, especially on the frontline of livelihood, but you can’t force everyone – that is every woman- to be as aggressive or belligerent as these ancient female warriors were in fighting everyday strains of life. Besides, I see there are more widespread issues of racism, classism, lookism, and agism than sexism in daily life because womanliness adorned with beauty and sex appeal armed with the art of seduction can work wonder in every place, helping her to achieve social mobility. Reading the article intent upon the historical evidence of these Amazonians makes me realize that the advocation of public sentiment in practice overrules the consideration of single individuality in theory.\n\nTerror made him write: ‘Ghosts, Apparitions, and Poltergeists’, by Brian Righi – review\n\nGhosts, Apparitions and Poltergeists: An Exploration of the Supernatural Through HistoryGhosts, Apparitions, and Poltergeists: An Exploration of the Supernatural Through History by Brian Righi\n\nMy rating: 4 of 5 stars\n\nA ghost is really unfinished business. It was, it is, and it will be. The existence and belief of supernatural entities are universal in all human societies as regards the sense and sentiments common to all mankind. From the Far Eastern shore of Japan to the end of the Aegean Sea across a great divide of time, the forefathers of humankind revered, feared, or cherished the souls of the departed regardless of cultural and racial differences. Such human tendency of holding onto supernatural existence is, therefore, not an antediluvian pagan belief to be scorned or debased as a superstitious practice of the misty past but a natural phenomenon validated by historical eyewitnesses as presented in Ghosts, Apparitions, and Poltergeistsby Brian Righi.\n\nAlthough the title of the book may mislead you straightforwardly to the world of ghostbusters and mediums, it is anything but a sensational book about that sort of thing aimed for the jolt of psychedelic horror. Righi is both an erudite and refreshing writer well conversant with the ancient histories of the world and the related academic subjects, who treats the ghostly subjects of the book enlighteningly and entertainingly with the sap of a fresh-eyed academic, gripping the mind of the learned reader without losing the attention throughout the pages. He references Plato, Pliny the Younger, and the other ancient notables to corroborate the existence of supernatural strangers still roaming their once earthly abodes either not knowing they are dead or refusing to emigrate into the beyond for undying attachment to their life on earth. The method gives his stance on supernatural phenomena power of reality vested in the authenticity of truth.\n\nI find this book very much in accordance with my perspective on the souls of the dead, as it also corresponds to the Catholic belief in which the souls of the dead are officially revered in the fashion of feast days of saints and daily prayer for their deliverance from purgatory to heaven and asking them to pray for us to God. However, there is no prerequisite for reading this book as long as you want to know about why some of our once fellow-citizens of the terrestrial world are roaming about and living among us, seriously.\n\nView all my reviews\n\nThis I think.\n\n\n“The concept of witchcraft as devil-worship by the church unleashed authoritarian control, & the denigration of women, many of whom were burnt at the stake, drowned, etc., simply for growing herbs or liking cats! For me, these are heroines & warriors.”\n\nI happened on the above-quoted tweet, which impelled me to unravel in me a thread of complex feelings about a common popular conception of witchcraft as institutionalized persecution of women of unique professions and different opinions and canozing them as martyrs of Feminism or Paganism.\n\nFirst of all, it wasn’t just that iconic ‘Men v. Women’ or ‘Christianity v. Paganism’ facade that dominated the thematics of witchcraft. Of course, religion played an important role in enforcing the authority of the church as the one absolute administrator of justice and punishing anyone who dared to defy it. However, when the Church itself incorporated paganistic esoterism in its rites of ceremony and mechanical device of prayer, it cared less about the divinity of a pagan deity that the cult worshipped, unless it openly threatened the dogmatic foundation of the teaching of the Church. Rather, it was more of a societal practice of giving a tight rein in communal harmony that allowed no misfits or outsiders or recluses. It was grudge-filled, insular-minded, and jealousy-driven vendetta against whom you wouldn’t particularly like or whom you would harbor a kind of animosity because the targeted subject looked unpleasing, unprepossessing, or simply ugly of introverted disposition.\n\nWomen were the worse. Forget Community of Sisterhood. The Daughters of Eve can be both ecstatically passionate and formidably vengeful. A single unmarried woman, both young and old, living in the bliss of solitude, minding her own business away from the vociferous melee that she didn’t feel related was likely to be a lamb savagely herded by the hateful melee to the inquisitional slaughterhouse. Modus vivendi of social norms was the armor that would protect her from the arrows and spears of the public attack on sovereign individuality that we take for granted in our time.\n\nWitchcraft is neither synonymous with Feminism nor Liberalism, both of which as proverbial party ideology have beocme the dogmatic foundations of Arts and Huaminities. It’s not a grand unified campaign against smart women with peculiar religious belief when you contemplate the fact that greatness results from simplicity, which is the answer to all complexities. The inquisition of popular sentiment in practice overrides freedom of individuals asserted in theory. Albert Einstein knew exactly about the dualistic nature of humanity that would return to the basic animalistic instinct such as persecuting the innocent because of their individuality: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe!” For this reason, I dare to defy the notion that the persecution of witchcraft was synonymous with the denigration of women in general.\n\n\n\nWhy Magic was popular and why it dwindled – review\n\nReligion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century EnglandReligion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England by Keith Thomas\n\nMy rating: 5 of 5 stars\n\nMankind in the face of contemporary existential strains of life has often attributed its frailties to the development of certain religious beliefs, leading to the shaping of the anima mundi of the time it possesses. Such a symbolic interactionist perspective on history is perspicaciously excised in Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas that shows us how collective splinters of folklore could influence the Modus Operandi of established religion.\n\nThe pith of folklore is a reputed natural human tendency in dealing with daily life amid double jeopardy of whimsical nature and more capricious mankind that results in finding pain relief in the form of supernatural elements. Keith illustrates the social and cultural climates of 16th and 17th century England where the efficacy of magic was reputed to overwhelm the consolation of the Gospel in the recourse to the powerful being that could supposedly give the supplicants the immediate panacea to their existential malaise. This popular attitude toward the magical measure of putative healing betokens the reason why there was no active mass active involvement in radical social reform or political radicalism; it was their way of mitigating the rigor of their daily duties that life imposed. The concept of chance was a welcome method of diverting the rules of merit and reward in prosperous life that only a select few would and could achieve to the game of luck played by goddess Fortuna’s Wheel of Fortune. By trusting the work of pure luck, people would not jeopardize their self-esteem because fortune was beyond their measures no matter how hard they worked hard to obtain it.\n\nHow the folk belief in magic influenced the established Christianity, particularly Catholicism, is the sine qua non of mesmerism of popular psychology and its portent efficacy of evangelization with a promise of magical healing. The church incorporated the magical elements of pagan belief to its rituals and doctrines of the catechism, such as transubstantiation and holy relics by reconciling the esoteric pagan knowledge with the orthodox Christian teaching. The investment of supernatural power through religious ceremony propitiated the minds of the low and high alike non-discriminately via syncretism until the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and the English Reformation that necessitated the emerging of new natural science and mechanical philosophy and the accordant mode of thinking ultimately debilitating the supreme power of magic and the magical elements used in the church.\n\nKeith is excellent in disabusing readers what might seem to be a trifle and pettifogging subject to advanced minds with his wealth of knowledge on the subject and human psychology narrated in plain language so that readers of all strata can access the secret garden of knowledge that he kindly invites us to visit and wallow ourselves in. This is my second time reading his work, and I am always amazed by his depth of erudition fabulously conflated with his witty remarks on events and vivacious descriptions of the period, all gleaned from his extensive research on the subject and keen scholarly observations thereon. This book is not a book of magical incantations, but about the power of the populace that made magic popular and unpopular as the seasons of mankind required new kind of belief system synonymous with the ethos of contemporary life.\n\nView all my reviews", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9592688083648682}
+{"content": "Connect with us\n\nNew Social Compact\n\nAn Imaginary Conversation on Myth, Reason and Religion\n\nEmanuel L. Paparella, Ph.D.\n\n\n\n\n\nAuthor’s Preface: What follows is a spirited, imaginary conversation across time, between a two well-known scholars: one an ancient philosopher and the other the foremost modern authority on myths and symbols, at a café in Athens overlooking the acropolis. While the conversation is purely imaginary, not overly academic, and rather colloquial at that, the integrity of the thought of its interlocutors on myth, reason and religion has been scrupulously respected, for not to do so would be to fail at arriving at the truth and run the danger of falling into the worst kind of sophistry as described by the ancients.\n\nPlato: Good morning Professor Campbell!\n\nCampbell: Good morning Professor Plato! I trust you don’t mind the title, even though you are so famous that your nick name would suffice to identify you. After all, you were the founder- director-manager, the first professor so to speak, of the ancient Greek Academy; a supreme intellectual institutional achievement which lasted a thousand years.\n\nPlato. Oh, yes, yes, why don’t we simply dispense with formal academic titles? May I just call you Joe and you call me Plato? After all, we are not at a formal symposium or at a formal academic conference; we’re just sipping cognac and chatting at a café in modern Athens in view of the acropolis.\n\nCampbell. By all means, Plato. In modern America, in fact, we prefer to dispense with too many social formalities and pomposity as you seem to prefer in Europe. Perhaps later we may even engage in a chess game and a pipe smoke, should you have the time. Those are pastimes suitable to reflective minds such as ours. I could teach you, if you are unfamiliar with those pastimes.\n\nPlato. Sounds like a good idea, Joe. That way, while we may be discussing transcendent ideas beyond time and space unfamiliar to most ordinary people, we shall not give the false impression to passerby that we are two of those stereotypical unpractical philosophers with a beard, with their heads in the clouds of Mount Olympus, exchanging recondite abstract theories and reveries while smoking a pipe in an club’s armchair; rather, that we are practical men of the world, clever and democratic enough to mingle with the people while putting theory ahead of practice.\n\nCampbell. Indeed, Plato, indeed. Human nature being what it is, it cannot have been a piece of cake for you to manage the logistics of the administration of a great academy and keep discipline among rowdy students and petty competing professors and their contemptuous ad hominem antics and juvenile slanderous attacks on each other. I know something about that. I am an insider at the academy, where I have sojourned all my life, but in reality, intellectually and spiritually that is, I have always felt like an outsider, a non-conventional academic who did not even bother to finish his Ph.D. dissertation, albeit I am presently widely known as the foremost mythology expert and scholar of the Western world.\n\nPlato. Ah yes, I know your reputation, I have also heard about “the Ph.D. octopus,” the essay on the subject made famous by our colleague, your fellow countryman, William James. Excellent insightful essay; an exposé of sorts, it almost made me ashamed of having been the source of the term “academic.”\n\nCampbell: Oh, well. Tell me Plato, do you think we moderns are justified in recognizing you as the first philosopher who brought to a head the conundrums of myth/history, reason/myth, religion/myth; all the more since you yourself repeatedly utilizes mythology and concocted myths galore in your dialogues and treatises, the best known of course being the myth of the cave as found in The Republic?\n\nPlato: Indeed, Joe. The Myth of the Cave, whose narrative occurs in the Republic is a fantastical story, but it does not deal explicitly with the beyond, and is thus different from the traditional myths I myself used and invented. Strictly speaking, the Cave is an analogy, not a myth. Also in the Republic, Socrates says that until philosophers take control of a city “the politeia whose story we are telling in words (muthologein) will not achieve its fulfillment in practice”. The construction of the ideal city itself may be called a “myth” in the sense that it depicts an imaginary polis where we imagine the happy state.\n\nIn the Phaedrus I use the word muthos to name the rhetorical exercise which Socrates carries out, but this seems to be a loose usage of the word. In any case, when I inveighed against the bad poets I certainly did not have the likes of Homer and his Odyssey or Iliad in mind. I respect and revere the likes of Homer, or Shakespeare or Dante. What I was critiquing was the mind-set of those banal mediocre poets, the poets who write poems for wedding receptions and then lay claim to the title of great poet; those with no poetical vision who couldn’t even write a decent novel, never mind an epic poem. Did you know that in my youth I had aspirations toward poetry; an aspiration that never left me?\n\nCampbell: Yes I know, Plato, and it doesn’t surprise me a bit judging from the complex beauty of your ancient Greek prose which depicts your myths so well and fit harmoniously the form and the content. But what I am particularly interested in is finding out why you included myths such as “the myth of the cave” in the Republic? How did that help your rational philosophical discourse about good governance, democracy, justice? You seem to conceive of myth as a clue to the search for life’s meaning. I, on the other hand, see them as a clue to the spiritual potentialities of human life. For me myths are the ongoing search for “the experience of life,” to “finding one’s bliss.” They seem to tell us that the meaning of life is the experience of life, that eternity isn’t some later time, or a long time; that in fact it has nothing to do with time! It is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time usually cuts out. I may be wrong but it seems to me that if you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere; that the experience of eternity and transcendence right here and now is the function of life.\n\nPlato: Oh well. Frankly, I am a bit surprised that you should even ask such a question as the eminent mythologist that you are. As you well know, mythology as well as drama sprang directly from the realm of the religious and the symbolical as stories about the gods and their all too human and petty interactions with humans and the universe and nature, stories which at first sight resemble children’s fairy tales, but when looked at closely reveal certain universal truths which later on a psychologist like Jung dubbed “archetypes of the human condition”; the journey archetype, for instance, being one of those. Jung also discovered that those archetypes are universal and occur among people who have had precious little cultural interaction with each other.\n\nThis origin from the religious and the symbolical is often overlooked in modern theories on mythology. Dante’s journey in the Divine Comedy is one concrete example of a mythological journey which remains tied to its religious origins, so is Homer’s in the Odyssey, so is Captain Picard journey on the Enterprise space ship; the journey is always a journey into the self looking for its origins and its final destination. They are not historically documented journeys; they are more in the realm of the subjective, the imaginative and even that of the prophetic, more in the way of a myth, but a myth that repeats itself in many forms and among many people, revealing a hidden deeper truth, a truth that goes beyond a mere empirical positivistic explanation of the visible material phenomena. They may not be historically or empirically verifiable but they are certainly real since they exist in the realm of the intelligible just as logic, or mathematics, or astronomy are imbedded in the realm of the intelligible even when utilized for concrete material necessities arising from the positivistic realm of what is empirically verifiable. This akin to belief in the gods or religious faith which remains subjectively even when we are unable to prove it empirically.\n\nCampbell: Well put Plato; you sound quite modern; sometimes I wonder if we moderns have not reinvented the wheel. I couldn’t agree with you more. In fact, I would say that you have caught up and even surpassed us moderns in the understanding of the essence or nature of myth: it is not to be considered a lie, or as the mere sugaring of the bitter pill of truth, as you put it when you criticized the bad poets, but a deeper truth to be decoded, interpreted and reflected upon. That’s basically what I try to do in my various books on mythology, especially the one titled “The Hero with a thousand Faces.”\n\nPlato: I have read all your books and they are quite illuminating on the subject of mythology. They invariably expand one’s intellectual-spiritual horizon on the relationship of myth religion and reason.\n\nCampbell: thank you for your kind words Plato, but could you indulge me a bit more by explaining to me your summation of ancient Greek mythology mentioned by you, of Zeus splitting the human being in half so that from then on one half has been searching for the other half? Most scholars, including Jung, interpret that statement of yours via a biological metaphor as the masculine in search of the feminine looking for wholeness, but I suspect that there is much more to it.\n\nPlato: your suspicion is well founded, Joe. The Janus face represents the split which occurred when rationality, beginning with Socrates, my mentor, overpowered the poetical and the mythological so that the poetical began to be defined as the deceptive which lies and puts sugar on the bitter truth of rationality to make it more bearable. Your modern philosopher Pascal points to this error with his statement that “the heart has reasons that reason knows not.” Also there is another highly insightful philosopher of history, Giambattista Vico, from the 18th century, who identified the mistake of much of Western philosophy beginning with me alas, not only in its totalizing tendencies but in the attempt to subside the imaginative and the poetical under the rational and the empirical. The two realms really belong together and have been searching for each other since they were split asunder by Positivism in modern times. He expresses all this in his masterpiece The New Science (1725). When myth is split from the rational it becomes harmful, it ends up in myths such as that of “the master race.”\n\nWhen reason is split from myth and the poetical it begins to rationalize and justify what ought never be rationalized and tolerates unethical behaviour. Indeed Pascal’s and Vico’s corrections, the corrections of those two Christian humanists were very much needed within the ethical Western tradition, as Emmanuel Levinas has also pointed out in the 20th century via his concept of “the other.”\n\nAs you know, in the Protagoras I make a distinction between muthos and logos, where muthos appears to refer to a story and logos to an argument. This distinction is also echoed in the Theaetetus and the Sophist. In the Theaetetus Socrates discusses Protagoras’ main doctrine and refers to it as “the muthos of Protagoras.” Socrates there calls a muthos the teaching according to which active and passive motions generate perception and perceived objects. In the Sophist, the Visitor from Elea tells his interlocutors that Xenophanes, Parmenides and other Eleatic, Ionian (Heraclitus included) and Sicilian philosophers “appear to me to tell us a myth, as if we were children”.\n\nBy calling all those philosophical doctrines muthoi I do not claim that they are myths proper, but that they are, or appear to be, non-argumentative. In the Republic I may come across as fairly hostile to particular traditional myths. And in many dialogues I condemn the use of images in knowing things and claim that true philosophical knowledge should avoid images. But I ask you: does Book X of the Republic offer a single repudiation of the best poets of the Hellenic world? Try as you may, you will not find one. What you will find is a complicated counterpoint in which resistance and attraction to their work are intertwined, a counterpoint which (among other things) explores the problem of whether, and in what sense, it might be possible to be a ‘philosophical lover’ of poetry” a la Vico.\n\nI wanted to persuade a wider audience, so I had to make a compromise. Sometime I use myth as a supplement to philosophical discourse Most importantly, in the Timaeus, I actually attempt to overcome the opposition between muthos and logos: human reason has limits, and when it reaches them it has to rely on myth. That is to say, the telling of stories is a necessary adjunct to, or extension of, philosophical argument, one which recognizes our human limitations, and—perhaps—the fact that our natures combine irrational elements with the rational.”\n\nConsider the fact that I chose to express my thoughts through a narrative form, namely that of the dialogue. So you may say that the use of a fictional narrative form (the dialogue, such as the prosaic one we are having right now) will mean that any conclusions reached, by whatever method (including that of academic ‘rational argument’), may themselves be treated as having the status of a kind of myth. So, a sense of the fictionality of human utterance, as provisional, inadequate, and at best approximating to the truth, pervade my writing at its deepest level. It is not that myth fills in the gaps that reason leaves, but that human reason itself ineradicably displays some of the features we characteristically associate with story-telling.\n\nCampbell: Wow! This is interesting stuff indeed! Perhaps we moderns need to reinvent the wheel since we seem to have forgotten how it came about. It partly explains, to me at least, what a Catholic theologian expressed to me in a dispute we were having on “religion as myth.” He told me that it may be true that religions are based on certain archetypes of human nature and myths of the human condition but to say that Christianity is just another myth to be disposed as all the other myths as lies and falsehoods, to put a point across as we do with children’s fairy tales, to be superseded by the scientific mind-set, is to have misunderstood the very nature of mythology which is there to help us better understand transcendental-revealed truths. That is to say, to use mythology as an excuse to dump religion as retrograde, obscurantist, and unenlightened, is to run the risk of throwing the baby out the window with the dirty bathwater.\n\nHe also pointed out that Zeus or Atlas are impersonal ideas personified which when worshipped renders us idolaters or narcissists, but the concept of a benevolent providential creator God who takes on human nature to experience the human condition and enters physical reality historically and materially to redeem it is not a philosophical abstract idea to be found in any mythology; I dare say that not even brilliant philosophers like yourself ever thought of it; it is however the stuff of reality and historical events for which 12 ignorant fishermen from Palestine (no experts in Platonic or Socratic philosophy for which they’d be willing to die) were in fact willing to die because their allegiance was not to an idea but to a person who spiritually won the whole continent of Europe in a couple of centuries and gave it its ultimate identity as Judeo-Greco-Roman civilization; a religion this which makes a synthesis between the human and the divine and not only at an abstract theoretical level but at an existential level, and therefore it is humanistic to the core; that at its best advocates tolerance of other traditions, mythology itself, freedom of speech and democratic governance, given that we are all children of the same benevolent father and are commanded to love each other as brothers and sisters.\n\nI must confess to you that I am still chewing on what that theologian provided for me on that day. I felt as if I had been check-mated in a chess game, but I don’t think now that he was playing chess with me, out to win some kind of sophistic debate or diatribe. To the contrary, he simply challenged some of the common assumptions of “enlightened” positivistic modernity which I had inherited uncritically.\n\nPlato: well you should have Joe, well you should have. I myself am already ruminating on this whole conversation. While I do so, why don’t we order another cognac, light up a pipe and start a game of chess? Perhaps even take in a soccer game in the afternoon, since it happens to be Sunday?\n\nCampbell: Indeed Plato, soccer games are now the new religion of the brave new world of the EU in which we live and have our being. Some call it the world of globalization. Some, perhaps more wisely, call it “reinventing the wheel,” which come to think of it, can itself be a myth (the myth of Sisyphus?) and an archetype of the human condition. Have you ever noticed that the world of dreams has no Kantian rational categories of the understanding; it is not linear, nor strictly logical and rational and it needs plenty of interpretation once it is recollected? Could the Hindus, who are not even Westerners in their thinking, have it on track when they say that we are all dreaming and when we die we will wake up to Reality, to the point of it all (the Word)?\n\nPlato: I understand the concept of logos, but there are other things such as revealed truth and the need for forgiveness and the theological virtue of charity which I find difficult to grasp as an ancient; plenty of food for thought here; but perhaps it’s only the antipasto announcing the main course still to come. In any case, let the debate go on.\n\n\nContinue Reading\n\nNew Social Compact\n\nInvisible COVID-19 makes systemic gender inequalities and injustices visible\n\nMuratcan Isildak\n\n\n\nIt is no surprise that the Covid-19 epidemic is not gender-neutral in our social world, which requires everything to be sexually consequently halted economic activities and enforced social distance. The gender dimension of the outbreak is very violent and paralyzed, but they are not new and surprising. In fact, the invisible covid19 is hyper-global and largely corporate-driven, with its economic, environmental and social injustices, permanent gender inequality and sexism, severe xenophobia and racism, and new colonialism and marketed mining activity implemented by self-owned financial, political and intellectual elites has made many fault lines visible in our world visible.\n\nIn the context of the coronavirus epidemic and other systemic crises, some useful features associated with female leadership, such as knowing their own limits, motivating through transformation, putting people on top of self-praise, humility, focusing on raising others, and empathizing rather than managing others, are more gender-sensitive, egalitarian and human rights. can help improve centered responses. At the very least, the diversity of approaches and experiences in addressing public health and human safety should be an argument for more equal representation of women at all levels of decision-making. This can affect, for example, how parliaments (currently 75% men worldwide) protect and safeguard human rights, how gender-sensitive the measures they take and how they should control their implementation after Covid-19 and how we can build a better future.\n\nThe Covid-19 outbreak is not the real cause, but it is a reinforce, enhancer and aggravating of existing discrimination and injustice in our systems and societies, including crushing, using and victimizing women and girls in many areas of daily life. It does not separate viruses, societies and systems. It is not a coincidence that the dominant economic pattern and thinking are constantly exploiting existing gender stereotypes, and that women and girls are constantly underestimating their contribution to the survival of societies by making the care work invisible, worthless, low-paid, and insignificant. Therefore, the fight against corona virus should be comprehensive and systematic. This struggle cannot be limited to the virology plane and cannot be referred to improving health systems; The feminist, human rights-based, intersectional and justice-oriented analysis, based on nationalist and authoritarian austerity and competition policies, is based on human rights, intersectional and justice-oriented analysis, cultural, political, social and economic levels. it should attack discrimination and inequality inside and outside.\n\nGender experts and feminists are wise to deal with the epidemic in their writings and analysis to begin to transform the way our societies work, the most vulnerable and marginalized groups, especially women and girls, to protect, empower and take advantage of them. it reminds us that we need to use this momentum – and initiatives, resources, research, actions and discourses. They are also making a joint effort to monitor the actions of governments and companies and to impose the responsibility to launch the fundamental changes needed now. This is a gender equality, intersectional and human rights that prioritize people’s well-being, participation in decision-making processes and access to basic services and resources, centrally for the responsibilities targeted at the local, national and global level, during and after the Covid-19 outbreak.\n\nFinally, during a terrifying global crisis such as the Covid-19 outbreak, especially to political leadership, to both real leadership examples and failures, and therefore to societies experiencing multiple and intersecting human, economic, social, sanitary and political crises, We witness the need to re-evaluate what qualities we are looking for in leaders who are expected to guide the world after the epidemic, which is radically different from the pre-epidemic world. A series of gender experts and observers, comparing different national responses – and leadership styles – to the coronavirus crisis, is not the debt of female leaders in different countries such as Taiwan, New Zealand and Germany, and female heads of states in some Scandinavian countries, in times of crisis to empathize and diligently. points out that they emphasize that there is power. The success of the epidemic in limiting the worst excesses in their country is even more impressive, given that at the start of the epidemic, only 10 out of 152 elected presidents, and therefore only 7% of all global political leaders, were women. Compare this to the style of a group of male leaders who use the crisis around the world, perhaps the most striking example of Hungary, who use the crisis to speed up authoritarianism and undermine the principle of separation of powers, and resort to the war of blame rather than offering stable crisis management. This shows only what social scientists have previously confirmed at various levels, that is, there are some gender differences in leadership activity.\n\nContinue Reading\n\nNew Social Compact\n\nThe Need for Humanitarian Leadership and Global Solidarity during COVID-19\n\nDr.Anis Ben Brik\n\n\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic is a systemic human development crisis, affecting individuals and societies in unprecedented ways. It is also generating new humanitarian needs.\n\nAccording to UN estimates, half a billion people, or 8% of the world’s population, could be pushed into destitution by the year’s end, largely due to the pandemic. If so, then the fight against poverty would be set back 30 years. The International Rescue Committee said last week that the virus could cause 1bn infections and 3.2m deaths in 34 fragile states, including Afghanistan and Syria.\n\nThe fourth annual Global Report on Food Crises highlights Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Nigeria and Haiti among the countries most at risk of widespread famines caused by the coronavirus pandemic. According to World Food Programme estimates, the number suffering from hunger could rise from 135 million to more than 250 million.\n\nThe International Labour Organization reported last week that almost 1.6 billion informal economy workers (representing the most vulnerable in the labor market)out of a worldwide 2 billion and a global workforce of 3.3 billion are in immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed.\n\nCOVID-19 has underscored the importance of humanitarian leadership and global solidarity. On April 2, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, co-sponsored by 188 nations including Qatar, calling for “intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat the pandemic, including by exchanging information, scientific knowledge and best practices and by applying the relevant guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization.”\n\nSolidarity is a matter of both morality and long-term vision. Failure to pass this test would leave deep psychological wounds in left-behind countries, paving the way for all manner of extremism and new crises—from pandemics to conflicts—that would threaten everyone. By rallying around science and solidarity today, we will sow the seeds for greater unity tomorrow.\n\nThe coronavirus does not respect borders. Nor does it discriminate. It brings into stark view the imperative for humanitarian leadership. This crisis has revealed variations in state capacity to contain the spread of the virus.\n\nMany governments either lack adequate capacity to respond, or in some cases, the necessary political will to provide for their citizens. For example, the most developed countries – those in the very high human development category – have on average 55 hospital beds, over 30 physicians, and 81 nurses per 10,000 people, compared to 7 hospital beds, 2.5 physicians, and 6 nurses in a least developed country.\n\nOne can readily imagine that if the COVID-19 response has been dire in the developed countries, it is going to be infinitely more devastating for governments that have only a fraction of the financial and medical resources.\n\nDespite the blockade, the State of Qatar stands out as one of the most actively involved in global humanitarian responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Qatar has provided significant humanitarian aid to 20 countries so far, including assistance in the field of medical supplies, building field hospitals, and contributing USD 140 million to multilateral organizations working to develop vaccines or ensure the resilience of healthcare in other countries.\n\nTo date, Qatar has sent substantial aid to China, Iran, Palestine, Italy, Lebanon, Algeria, Tunisia, Nepal and Rwanda. In addition, the representation mission of the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) in Turkey has recently distributed supplementary food aid to around 110,000 families at internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in Idlib and Aleppo Governorates, northern Syria.\n\nIn the age of COVID-19, protecting the most vulnerable among us is not just a moral imperative but also an urgent public health objective. The health of one is the health of all.\n\nContinue Reading\n\nNew Social Compact\n\nCOVID-19: More than a Biological Weapon\n\nSabah Aslam\n\n\n\nWhile the biological virus is a common enemy of humankind, the political virus born out of certain American politicians is equally detestable, for it has damaged the global anti-epidemic cooperation and impeded the long-term development and progress of human society. The virus in the political world has done even more damages than the virus from the natural world.\n\nWhat are the sources of this political virus then? It is rooted in the selfish interests of a handful of American politicians. Not long ago, the American media revealed that senior US officials had handed down documents to a number of federal agencies requesting all federal employees to speak consistently about the pandemic and blame China for everything. The document was practically a confession of the US government on how it implemented the buck-passing. As 2020 is America’s election year, some American politicians are so crazily intent on fabricating all kinds of fallacies about “holding China accountable,” attacking the WHO for being too “China-centric,” and even criticizing some state governors for poor epidemic response, all to keep the epidemic from affecting the election. Such unscrupulous “political shows” reflect how desperate these politicians are to cover up their misconduct both in the decision and execution of their response, with a purpose of deflecting the public grumble.\n\nThe political virus is a tumor stemming from racism. After the WHO and the scientific circle named the novel coronavirus COVID-19, some American politicians deliberately ignored the new nomenclature and insisted on calling it the “Chinese virus”. It is an international consensus not to label a virus with a region, state, or nation, which is also a universal principle that the international community should uphold. Yet these American politicians are determined to defy the world by intentionally steering public opinions in the direction of racism and xenophobia, and practicing racial discrimination. The use of the term “Chinese virus” for coronavirus laid bare the absolute absence of common sense, conscience, cooperative spirit, and morality in those politicians infected with the “political virus”.\n\nThe political virus derives from the Cold War mentality. A small group of American politicians have been obsessed with political maneuver and slandering China, especially the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been busy fanning flames and spreading rumors. The “political virus” ingrained in their mind is the hotbed of all their vicious intentions. They have the wishful thinking that accusing China of the so-called “mask diplomacy” would offset its influence; vilifying China’s aid to help build the African Center for Disease Prevention and Control as an attempt to “steal genome data” would drive a wedge between China and Africa; and egging other countries to claim reparations from China would pin the “original sin” of the virus on the country…. These whimsical whoppers are nothing but Washington’s attempts to curb China’s development.\n\nThe political virus is rooted in the obsession with “great-power competition.” The US government labeled China and Russia as the biggest challenges to US national security in its latest National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy, and declared the reemergence of great-power competition. During this global crisis of COVID-19, certain American politicians, going out of their way to make “ammunition to win the great-power competition,” have gone all out to oppose China in every possible way and tried hard to cover up America’s embarrassment of ineffective epidemic control measures by smearing China, rather than focus on preventing the virus spread. As we can never wake up someone pretending to be asleep, perhaps the best way is to leave him alone and “not even turn our eyes in his direction,” as the famous Chinese writer Lu Xun once said.\n\nThe disease has seeped down into the skin and should be treated before it gets worse. The world is still struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, and all countries need to join hands in defeating it. We advise the American politicians with ulterior motives to stop the misdeed and change course before its too late. We also call on the international community to stay on high alert and take strong measures to prevent the American political virus from spreading to do more harm to the global anti-epidemic efforts and the normal international order.\n\nContinue Reading\n\n\n\nNewsdesk1 hour ago\n\nCentral and South America now ‘intense zones’ for COVID-19 transmission\n\nGreater solidarity must be shown to Central and South American countries which have become “the intense zones” for COVID-19 transmission,...\n\nDiplomacy3 hours ago\n\nCovid19: Upgrading Diplomacy and Statecraft to prepare the new normal\n\nThe world is abruptly changing and this requires adaptation. The transformations are targeting not only individuals and specific countries, but...\n\nAfrican Renaissance5 hours ago\n\nThe Northern Areas Odyssey: The First Steps Towards The Self-Concept Of Slavery\n\nWe are living in the precarious times of a coloniality-based dispensation and the repercussions of an ill-fated democracy. 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This is...\n\nCentral Asia11 hours ago\n\nSARS –an Unusual National Security Foe: Success of Central Asia Countries in Stemming COVID-19\n\nAuthors: Sayfiddin Juraev and Gregory Gleason* As the features of the virus which causes the corona pandemic are emerging with...\n\nInternational Law11 hours ago\n\nA legal analysis of the United Nations response to Covid 19: How the Security Council can still help\n\nThe Covid-19 pandemic, which plagues the world currently has brought to light the inherent deficiencies in the International Legal order...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9045527577400208}
+{"content": "Visible Research of Loading Speed in Vertical Gas Well\n\nWang Xiuwu1, Liao Ruiquan1, *, Liu Jie1, Wang Xiaowei2\n1 CNPC Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Production, Yangtze University, Wuhan, 430100, P.R. China;\n2 Operating Region of Cainan Oilfield, Xinjiang Oilfield Company, Cainan, Xinjiang, 831511, P.R. China\n\nArticle Metrics\n\nCrossRef Citations:\nTotal Statistics:\n\nFull-Text HTML Views: 197\nAbstract HTML Views: 830\nPDF Downloads: 263\nTotal Views/Downloads: 1290\nUnique Statistics:\n\nFull-Text HTML Views: 146\nAbstract HTML Views: 477\nPDF Downloads: 183\nTotal Views/Downloads: 806\n\n© 2015 Ruiquan et al.;\n\n\nCorrespondence: * Address correspondence to this author at the CNPC Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Production, Yangtze University, Wuhan, 430100, P.R. China; Tel: 13507212378; E-mail:\n\n\nFor gas well under certain conditions, formation water production is inevitable in the later development; Formation water production is harmful to the normal production, it may cause liquid loading, flooding or even stop production. Based on the study of liquid loading and the rate laws of liquid loading, taking corresponding measures for the gas well is important. Simulating formation liquid production of gas wells with single rate under wellbore conditions, observing and measuring liquid loading rate through the experiment, summing up the liquid loading rate law of wellbore, are significant to the stability of gas well.\n\nKeywords: Airflow carrying liquid, Liquid loading, liquid loading rate.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9077507853507996}
+{"content": "Chicken and pepper with miso glaze\n\njapanese miso glaze with chicken breast\n\nMakes 8\n\n\n\n\n 1. Preheat oven to 350Fº degrees. Cut the green bell peppers into quarters and cut out white membrane and core. Lay the peppers on a piece of parchment paper, in a sheet tray. Roast for 30-35 minutes, until slightly charred. Take peppers out of the oven and leave to cool.\n 2. Leave the oven on.\n 3. Make the dengaku sauce by mixing grated ginger, white miso paste, sake, mirin and soy sauce in a bowl, until uniformly blended. Set aside.\n 4. Cut the chicken breasts into sizes equal to the quartered bell peppers. Lay a piece of chicken on top of a pepper – you can use the same parchment paper. Grab the dengaku sauce and with a brush, apply a layer on top of each chicken piece. Top with jalapeno and shiitake mushrooms.\n 5. Put back in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Serve hot.\n\n\n • Calories: 100\n • Saturated Fat: 1\nRecipe Card powered byTasty Recipes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9256196022033691}
+{"content": "Data Protection Notice and FAQ\n\nSo, does this only apply to data directly crawled via the profile APIs (/profile/wow/character/{realmSlug}/{characterName}/…) or do we also have to check each individual character which is contained in data from the game data APIs (e.g. /data/wow/leaderboard/hall-of-fame/{raid}/{faction}), if we choose to historize this data? This question has not been answered yet.\n\n@Anadio: I think it’s safe to say that if you have any data about a single character, that data is expected to be deleted from your database when the status endpoint for that character indicates they were forgotten (or the ID changed).\n\n1 Like\n\nIf our only data are player-initiated personal collections, e.g. in our case the player adds their characters to their personal account on our website and pulls Armory data to generate a mount collection for their own use, is refreshing/deleting the data really necessary? The data are entirely in the player’s control already. We don’t even have top collector lists - the only way someone else would see their collection is if the player deliberately gave them a link.\n\n\nIs it necessary for us to use the status endpoint if we are planning on refreshing each of the individual endpoints anyway? i.e., if we get a valid response on each individual endpoint we have ever called for a character, is it safe to assume that equals a valid status for that character? Currently I’m always calling status as well but it sounds like maybe I could drop that one.\n\nOn FAQ #13 it says:\n\nSo I guess as long as you call the /status once you can fetch all the others for that character, but you must check /status at least once every 30 days.\n\nEdit: I guess in some cases other endpoints might hold cached data so the /status endpoint is more official.\n\nEven if the character isn’t valid, all the main endpoints can still return a result.\n\nSorry for still questioning this but still waiting on a response and want to make clear what the rules are.\n\nFor example:\nwowprogress Sco\n\nOct 7, 2015 Sco joined [Method]\n\nThat data (as I understand new rules) is forbidden. It’s stale and not queryable via API. Want to be clear there’s an exception (when a character is still public) or this is forbidden.\n\nGreetings Developers!\n\nTwo additional questions and their respective answers have been added to the original post up above.\n\nWe want to thank everyone in the community for their patience as we work to bring you the best answers to your questions as we can. We’d love it if our community members would continue sharing feedback!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8417655825614929}
+{"content": "Business Daily\n\nA+ R A-\n\nIs all debt bad?\n\nYou’ve probably heard the saying: “You need money to make money”. Unless you have a very wealthy family or have inherited a fortune, you will need to get into debt at some point or points of your life. After all, it would take a very long time for a young person to save the total purchase price of a car, let alone their first home.\n\nSo we can probably all agree that all not debt is bad.\n\nLet’s look at different types of debt.\n\nHome loan payments\n\nMortgage debt is a so-called “good debt”, because it is helping you to acquire an asset, which will grow in value over the years, as well as giving you a roof over your head. The interest payments are not “money down the drain” so to speak. After all, by paying rent, you are enriching your landlord, but by paying off a mortgage you are enriching yourself.\n\nWhat can you afford?\n\nFor most people, their home loan is the biggest and most important debt they will ever have. It is all very well to fall in love with a particular house or apartment, but, can you afford it? The expert opinion is that your total monthly debt, including mortgage repayments, car loan and credit card payments, should not exceed 1/3rd of your total monthly income. If it does, you are likely to get into financial strife sooner rather than later. Get financial advice from your mortgage broker or accountant.\n\nAdvantages of having a mortgage\n\nApart from giving you a roof over your head and acquiring a valuable asset, if you have a good credit record with your bank, i.e. you make all your payments on time, it will be easier for you to borrow money in the future for an investment property, for example, or for a bigger and better car. Financial institutions regularly check on your credit rating with VEDA, a credit reference agency, to check up on your credit record. VEDA has records of most loans and defaults on loans, as well as judgement debts and bankruptcies.\n\nCredit cards\n\nWe couldn’t imagine life without them, yet, they are the most common type of “bad debt”, since they are usually used for consumer spending, where there is little to show at the end - nothing of any commercial or saleable value, in any event. Yet they make our life easy and practical. After all, who can always have enough cash in their wallet when they go shopping or go out with friends?\n\nBenefits of credit cards\n\nThey are convenient to use and can be used almost everywhere and at all times including overseas;\n\nMany are linked to reward programs like Frequent Flyers;\n\nIf you lose a credit card it can be cancelled and a new one issued, unlike losing cash, which a bank will not replace;\n\nIf you are unfortunate enough to lose your card or have it stolen and used by an unauthorised party, your credit card provider will compensate you for the loss. In fact the merchant where the card was used will wear the loss;\n\nDisadvantages of credit cards\n\nThe interest rate is very high, usually 18.5%-21.5% per annum;\n\nThere is a temptation only to pay the minimum amount due each month rather than the full amount;\n\nThere is a temptation to buy more than you actually need, because it does not really feel like spending money;\n\nThere is the temptation to increase your credit limit beyond what you can comfortably pay in a month because credit card companies regularly invite you to increase your credit limit; and\n\nThere is the danger of having too many credit cards because it is so easy to obtain them, and thereby getting into levels of debt which you cannot afford to pay in full each month.\n\nUsing your credit card wisely\n\nAlways pay off the full amount each month;\n\nOnly have one credit card, or at most two;\n\nKeep the limit down to what you can comfortably afford to pay in full each month; and\n\nWhatever you do, don’t pay your mortgage off with your credit card.\n\nAuthors Bio:\n\nTim Fisher writes for Credit Card.com.au, he worked for over 30 years as a commercial and litigation lawyer, with extensive experience in the areas of both corporate and personal insolvencies, advising numerous clients facing bankruptcy, as well as acting for financial institutions in the area of debt recovery.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5194644927978516}
+{"content": "Bhopal: An average polling of 43.26 per cent was recorded till 1400 hours in 230 assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh where voting is underway amid complaints of EVM malfunction in a dozen seats and incidents of firing in violence-prone Bhind district.\n\nAdditional Chief Electoral Officer for Madhya Pradesh, V L Kantha Rao told reporters that the average for male voters was 43.92 per cent while that for female voters was 42.73 per cent.\n\nRao said that incidents of firing in the air had been reported from three or four places from Lahar assembly seat in Bhind. However, none were hurt.\n\nHe said that a maximum of 47 per cent of female voters had cast their votes in Susner constituency (Shajapur) while 55 per cent males had exercised their franchise in Narsinghgarh seat (Rajgarh).\n\nThere were complaints of malfunctioning of EVms from polling booths in 12 constituencies including Chhindwara, Shahdol, Rewa, Indore, Badwani and Panna. But all of them were rectified within 30 minutes, Rao said.\n\nIn Sirmour constituency of Rewa district, votes of 94 people could not be recorded due to fault of the returning officer.\n\nRao said that information about this had been given to the Election Commission which will decide on what has to be done in the matter.\n\nEarlier during the day, polling was boycotted by people at some stations in nine Assembly constituencies including Hoshangabad, Ratlam, Gwalior, Raisen and Umaria.\n\nMeanwhile, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, brother Laxman and his wife cast his vote from Raghogarh constituency in Guna district.\n\nDigvijay’s son Jaiwardhan Singh is contesting polls for the first time as a Congress candidate from this seat.\n\nA total of 2,583 candidates are trying their luck in the elections being held in 53,896 polling booths in 51 districts.\n\nThe BJP government led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan is fighting for an unprecedented third consecutive victory in the state.\n\n\nFree Press Journal", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6917309761047363}
+{"content": "Ideological Control, Operational Autonomy\n\nFrom where I stood at the counter I could see signs for the restaurant's employees that someone probably believed they had posted away from the public eye. I couldn't completely make out the first few, but they seemed to represent steps in the customer service process. The final sign was in my direct line of vision and was the one that captured my attention: Customize Your Hospitality.\n\nGreat advice indeed. Whether the motivation for offering it was an insightful shift manager or someone tired of the incessant \"You want fries with that?\" mockery regularly seen in situation comedies, it was a useful instruction.\n\nWhat I like most is that it balances expectation of a core value commitment (all employees will be hospitable) with autonomy for individual personality and creativity (customize what you say and do). Similarly, Disney expects all of its employees (cast members) to \"create a little magic\" but leaves it to their good judgment and discretion about how to do so. The goal is a strong culture committed to a shared why, not an unquestioning cult executing the same how.\n\nIt's what Jim Collins and Jerry Porras describe as ideological control coupled with operational autonomy, and it's a powerful approach. I often use a Hoberman sphere to illustrate it. The closed sphere represents the organizational core (values + principles) you wish to preserve, and the open sphere shows how that core has ample room for individuals to contribute to it, ones that reflect (and are informed by) the shared values and purpose.\n\nIn his most interesting book, Whoosh: Business in the Fast Lane, author Tom McGehee, Jr. explores this dichotomy through his framework of compliance vs. creation. Compliance companies or cultures use policies, procedures, and rules to ensure consistent and standardized responses. Creation companies and cultures use principles and values to produce inventive responses.\n\nNeither is inherently good nor bad. You have to determine the right mix of compliance and creation for the business you are in, the members or customers you serve, and the desired results for each activity or effort in which you engage.\n\nTake flying for example. Southwest allows its flight attendants some creativity in the standard announcements where almost every other airline seems to view that task through the lens of compliance: same message every single time. Which approach captures your attention more? \nYes, the safety videos in recent years have changed this a bit, but look how look it took for that to happen. When it comes to maintaining the plane, however, I'd prefer mechanics who are more compliant than creative with maintenance procedures.\n\nSo many institutions and organizations are trying to elicit more engagement and passion from their members, customers, volunteers, and employees, yet still operate with an overall organizational culture that demands too much compliance. We need more organizations to consider a staff and volunteer selection principle like this one from design and innovation consultancy IDEO (among others): hire (select) for cultural contribution, not cultural fit. This allows for unity (in a shared commitment to core values) and diversity (in individual perspectives on amplifying and applying them).\n\nEngagement and passion come from the heart. The heart is inspired when individuals have the chance to create, not just comply, something Dan Pink affirmed in his book on motivation and performance, Drive. If I don't get to inject a little of me into the work I do, is it any wonder that I will feel disconnected from the work itself and potentially the organization I serve?\n\nBottom line?\nPeople are capable (and in most cases willing) of giving so much more of themselves than we ever ask them to share. Talk with your colleagues about how to further strengthen the ideological clarity among everyone in in your organization, as well as opportunities to reduce unnecessary compliance in operational efforts.\n\nThis is an update of an earlier post.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9913490414619446}
+{"content": "Columbus Indian Community -\n| | | | | | | | | | | |\n\n\nReturnees adding to Tamil Nadu's Covid-19 tally: CM\n\nTamil Nadu,National,Health/Medicine\n\nAuthor : Indo Asian News Service\n\nHealth/Medicine, Tamil Nadu, National, India Read Latest News and Articles\n\nShare With Your Friends\n\nAdd To My Favorite Add A Picture\n\nAdd an Article\n\nView All Contributions\n\nChennai, May 23 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami has said the rise in number of coronavirus cases in the state is also due to people coming from other states.\n\nSpeaking to reporters in Salem on Saturday, Palaniswami said 719 people who had come from other states had tested coronavirus positive. During the past couple of days, 90 new cases had been due to people coming from other states/countries, he added.\n\nOn Saturday, 23 of the 37 districts didn't report any coronavirus case.\n\nDuring the day, 363 people were discharged, taking the number of cured people to 7,491. Of the 15,512 Covid-19 cases reported in the state, the number of active cases is 7,915.\n\nAccording to the Health Department, five Covid-19 patients died raising the death toll to 103.\n\nPalaniswami said the state was collecting and testing the highest number swab samples a day in the country. On Saturday 12,155 samples were tested taking the total to 3.97 lakh. Testing of 612 samples are under process.\n\nThe state capital with high density of population and higher number of sample tests continued to see the highest number of infections at 624, taking the tally to 9,989.\n\nThe number of infected children in the age group 0-12 went up to 948.\n\n\n\nLatest Showbiz News\n\nView More News\n\nMore News Articles\n\nAmitabh Bachchan: Mine is a 'somehow managing to exist story' (IANS Interview)\n\nOwaisi calls for ensuring social distancing in places of worship\n\nSisodia addresses global COVID-19 summit\n\nKriti Kharbanda focusses on skincare amid lockdown\n\nWhen Richa Chadha was slapped by her cat", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9678633809089661}
+{"content": "Tutorial: Python Database Programming For SQLite3\n\n\nJune 27, 2018\n\npython database\n\nThe advancement in technology leads to the development of many software which can be utilized for accessing various information from the server. Thus this server needs a system which can be accessed from anywhere and anytime, making it simpler for the user to access the information.\n\nWhat is a Database Management System?\n\nThis system can be referred to as DBMS (Database Management System). DBMS is used to store data in an organized way which can be retrieved or modified easily by a user through a query. Dbase, libreOffice base, Microsoft Access or Foxpro are often used to retrieve data from the server. DBMS was introduced to access information easier and efficiently.\n\nAnother system was introduced so as to make the complexity of database more simpler and efficient which can be referred as Relational Database Management System or RDBMS. In RDBMS the data is stored as Files. Whereas, in RDBMS the data is stored in a table form containing the data in a more structured way. Oracle, MySQL, SQLite, MariaDB are often used in this system to access the data from RDBMS.\n\nEvery organization whether it be offices or banks, they all need a large database system, which can store the data which is relatable to each other in many different entities, in various columns and rows, therefore RDBMS makes it easier and simpler to manipulate this data and access them.\n\nIn programming Languages, Data needs to be stored, modified or retrieved easily, thus RDBMS plays a huge role in programming languages. Programming languages like Python, C, C++, PHP and Java needs a library where the data can be stored and used. These libraries are referred to as a Database. To access these, a Structured Query Language or SQL is used.\n\nWhat is SQL?\n\nSQL is used in programming which is a specific language used for modifying and accessing the data in RDBMS. In RDMS there is a set of relations between data in a structured way and through SQL this set of Data entries can be easily modified through a single query.\n\nWhy Python?\n\nIn a programming language like python, there is a strong need for database handling and manipulation. There are various databases like MySQL, SQLite, Oracle etc, which python supports. Python language is more efficient and mainly used for web programming, python generally works on a larger database system, as it comprises of web development. That is the main reason why python supports various platforms to access the RDBMS.\n\nSQLite system is Relational Database Management System basically for embedded systems which were introduced by D. Richard Hipp. Use of SQLite RDBMS in python would play a major role in handling the database, As SQLite is commonly used database for web programming processes. Python programming language is used for web development and use of SQLite would not be a bad idea, as it will make it faster for the python language to access the information. The SQLite is fast and light weighted database. SQLite is not a client-server based system, thus it does not process on its own and through linking to a program, the SQLite library becomes a part of that application.\n\nPython can be used for Database programming which can be very beneficial and is very fast and efficient compared to other programming languages. Handling a larger database system more effectively and easily, python programming also provides a platform where the different databases can be interfaced and manipulated. To perform operations in database Python Database Application Programming interface or python DB-API is needed. It is used to interface with the database system, python DB- API is a set of the procedure used to create applications which allow the platform to interface with other services such as database system.\n\nHow to Install SQLite3?\n\nSQLite3 can be unsegregated with Python using SQ3 lite3 module, written by Gerhard Haring.\n\nOne does need to install this module separately as it is shipped by default along with Python version 2.5.x and above.\n\nIn order to use Sqlite3, it is essential to first create a connection object that represents the database and after as per your choice you can build a cursor object, which will help you perform and execute all the SQL statements.\n\nDatabase Connection using Python Coding\n\nThe Python code below shows how to connect to an existing database. In case, the database does not exist, it will be created and a database object will eventually return.\n\nYou can also supply database Memory to create a database in RAM. Let’s run the above program to create database test.db in the current directory. Your path can be changed as per your need. A successful database creation will give the following message.\n\nTable Creation\n\nThe program below will be used to create a table in the already created database.\n\nThe execution of the above program will create the SCHOOL table in your test.db and will display the result below:\n\nWhat a day today!Table created successfully\n\nInserting Operations\n\nFollowing Python program shows how to create records in the SCHOOL table created above.\n\nOnce the above program is executed, it will show the following result.\n\nSelecting Operations\n\nFollowing Python program shows how to get and display records from the SCHOOL table and created in the above example.\n\nThe program above will give the following results.\n\nUpdating Operation\n\nThe Python code below shows how to use UPDATE statement to update any record and then get and display the updated records from the SCHOOL table.\n\nWhen the above program is executed, it will produce the following result.\n\nDeleting Operations\n\nFollowing program shows how to use DELETE statement to delete any record and get the remaining records to display them from the SCHOOL table.\n\n\nCopyright © 2020 Probytes.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9342058897018433}
+{"content": "CHICAGO ― After the Bulls won their fifth NBA championship in 1997, Michael Jordan sat at the postgame news conference and fielded a question about a potential rebuild.\n\n\"No one is guaranteed rebuilding in two, three or four years. The Cubs have been rebuilding for 42 years,\" he said, referencing their then-drought without a World Series appearance.\n\nA similar quip could be made about the Bulls now: 22 years after Jordan played his final game for the franchise, the team has not returned to the NBA Finals since. The Bulls have been to the Eastern Conference finals only once in that span, getting dispatched by LeBron James and the Heat in five games in 2011.\n\nThat \"Last Dance\" season of 1997-98 produced a sixth championship in eight years with Jordan still at the peak of his powers before the dynasty came to a halt the following season, which didn't begin until February 1999 because of a lockout. Jordan retired for the second time, Scottie Pippen was sent to the Rockets in a sign-and-trade deal and coach Phil Jackson went on his first sabbatical.\n\nOnly a few holdovers remained from the championship team, and the Bulls headed into a certain losing season for the first time since Jordan's first few seasons in the league.\n\nToni Kukoc led the team in points (18.8), rebounds (7.0) and assists (5.3) per game. The Bulls, meanwhile, scuffled to just 13 wins (a .260 winning percentage) during a season shortened to 50 games by the lockout, the lowest number of wins in team history.\n\nAnd that team still holds a dubious place in NBA history ― it scored 49 points during an April loss to the Heat, the fewest points by any team in the shot-clock era.\n\nThere will be no 10-part documentary on the 1999 Bulls, but here's a look back at the team charged with following \"The Last Dance,\" including where they were during the 1997-98 season, whom they replaced and their contributions to the Bulls in the lockout-shortened season:\n\nThe holdovers\n\nToni Kukoc\n\n1997-98: Started 52 games and was the team's third-leading scorer.\n\n1998-99: Led the Bulls in points (18.8), rebounds (7.0) and assists (5.3).\n\nWhen Jerry Krause first started pursuing Toni Kukoc to come from Europe to the Bulls, he thought about Kukoc as someone who not only could play alongside Jordan and Pippen, but also could lead the team once they moved on. Kukoc was thrust into the leading role in '99 after most of the core moved on. Although he was the team's best player, he wasn't able to carry a team on its own.\n\nRon Harper\n\n1997-98: Starting point guard averaged 9.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists.\n\n1998-99: Starting shooting guard averaged 11.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists.\n\nRon Harper joined Toni Kukoc as the only returning starters for the Bulls, starting 35 games in '99 and finishing second on the team in scoring with 11.2 points per game. However, at 35 and in his 13th season in the league, his days of being a go-to option had faded.\n\nDickey Simpkins\n\n1997-98: Played 21 games off the bench.\n\n1998-99: Played all 50 games (35 starts).\n\nDickey Simpkins saw some action during the beginning of the 1998 playoff run, and he saw a bump in playing time after the roster turnover. A former first-round pick by the Bulls in 1994, Simpkins made just 17 career starts before he became a regular starter in '99. He was relatively productive, averaging 9.1 points and 6.8 rebounds while leading the team with 2.9 win shares, an advanced metric that estimates the number of wins a player contributed to.\n\nRandy Brown\n\n1997-98: Played 71 games at point guard, mostly as a reserve.\n\n1998-99: Became the primary point guard, starting 32 games.\n\nRandy Brown never was a scorer coming off the bench for the Bulls during their second three-peat, but he saw increased playing time in 1999. That led to some career-high numbers ― 8.8 points, 3.8 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game ― as he became the lead guard for the Bulls offense.\n\nBill Wennington\n\n1997-98: Played 48 games, mostly as a reserve.\n\n1998-99: Played 38 games, mostly as a reserve.\n\nThe Bulls kept Bill Wennington in the same role despite not having Luc Longley or Dennis Rodman in the frontcourt.\n\nKeith Booth\n\n1997-98: Played six games.\n\n1998-99: Role player who played 39 games.\n\nThe Bulls drafted Booth in the first round in 1997, but his NBA career spanned just two seasons, getting opposite ends of the experience. He barely saw the floor in his first season but averaged 3.1 points and 2.4 rebounds in '99.\n\nRusty LaRue\n\n1997-98: Played 14 games.\n\n1998-99: Played 43 games.\n\nRusty LaRue was undrafted but earned a spot on the Bulls in limited playing time in 1997-98 and saw his playing time increase the next season. He played about 17 minutes per game and hit 33.7% of his 3-pointers off the bench.\n\nThe newcomers\n\nCoach Tim Floyd\n\n1997-98: Iowa State head coach.\n\n1998-99: Bulls head coach.\n\nGeneral manager Jerry Krause made it very clear that coach Phil Jackson was not going to return, and many believed Tim Floyd had been handpicked as the successor. Floyd was a fairly successful college coach, but his success did not translate to the NBA. He went 49-190 (.205) in his four seasons with the Bulls.\n\nBrent Barry\n\n1997-98: Averaged 10.9 points and shot 39.3% on 3-pointers for the Clippers and Heat.\n\n1998-99: Signed a six-year, $27 million contract.\n\nBrent Barry was the Bulls' biggest offseason addition and became the team's third-leading scorer with 11.1 points per game. But he suffered an injury early in the season that limited him to 37 games (30 starts) while he shot 30.2% from beyond the arc, the worst mark of his career. He lasted only one season in Chicago and was traded to the SuperSonics.\n\nMark Bryant\n\n1997-98: Played 70 games at center for the Suns.\n\n1998-99: Played 45 games at power forward.\n\nThe Bulls shipped Luc Longley to the Suns for a 1999 first-round pick, Martin Muursepp, Bubba Wells and Mark Bryant before the season. Bryant began the year in the starting lineup and averaged 9.0 points and 5.2 rebounds in about 27 minutes. He lasted just one year with the Bulls.\n\nKornel David\n\n1997-98: Played for the Rockford Lightning in the Continental Basketball Association and Alba Fehervar in Hungary.\n\n1998-99: Signed as a free agent.\n\nBefore his left his home country, David was advertised as \"the Michael Jordan of Hungary.\" Once he got on the court, it was clear the comparison was a bit overzealous. David, the first Hungarian to play in the NBA, was in Bulls training camp in 1997 before a stint with Rockford in the CBA and returning to Hungary and helping his national team end a 30-year drought to qualify for the European championship. He appeared in all 50 games for the Bulls in '99, playing 18 minutes per game while averaging 6.2 points.\n\nCorey Benjamin\n\n1997-98: In college at Oregon State.\n\n1998-99: Taken with the No. 28 pick in the draft.\n\nCorey Benjamin appeared in 38 games as a reserve for the Bulls, but he is best known for claiming he could beat Michael Jordan one-on-one. The boast prompted Jordan, retired and still dealing with a finger injury via cigar cutter, to show up to practice to accept Benjamin's challenge ― and promptly demolish him.\n\nAlso on the 1998-99 Bulls roster: Mario Bennett (3 games), Cory Carr (42 games), Charles Jones (29 games) and Andrew Lang (21 games).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7333990335464478}
+{"content": "Stacey Svetlichnaya, Deep Learning Engineer\n\nThe View from the Driver’s Seat\n\nSelf-driving cars are a compelling futurist dream: all the freedom of a personal vehicle, none of the mental effort. A first step towards this is understanding the roadside environment and at least avoiding obstacles: pedestrians, cyclists, parked cars, the vehicle ahead in the lane, etc. In this report, I explore an existing semantic segmentation model which parses scenes from dashboard cameras into 20 categories of objects or materials: car, bicycle, building, trees, sky, sidewalk, etc. It turns out that finding humans is harder than it seems…\n\nJoin our mailing list to get the latest machine learning updates.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8884318470954895}
+{"content": "Accessibility options |\n\nWLMHT feature in Nursing Times article\n\n02 Aug 2017\n\nIn their August edition, the Nursing Times have featured an article submitted by the Trust’s Nurse Consultant in Physical Healthcare, Linda Nazarko. It focusses on improving the physical health of those with a severe mental illness and highlights how the Trust is working towards achieving this goal.\n\nResearch has found that people with severe mental illness die much earlier than others and have worse physical health than the general population. In the piece, Linda writes: “the challenge is to transform the culture in mental health and ensure that staff at all levels combine physical and mental healthcare in a holistic approach – this involves educating staff.”\n\nMany of the improvements being made at the Trust have been written about, including how staff receives training on addressing common physical health needs during their induction, plus additional training offered on recording electrocardiograms, venepuncture and catheterisation.\n\nHowever, the piece also addresses many of the challenges associated with improving physical health in mental health settings, such as balancing the need for antipsychotics against their potential negative effects on physical health.\n\nLinda was one of the first Nurse Consultants in Physical Healthcare to be appointed to the role.\n\nRead the article in full here:\n\nImproving the physical health of people with severe mental illness\n\nWe’re changing the way some of our services are delivered during the coronavirus (Covid-19) public health emergency.Find out more\n+ +", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9129573106765747}
+{"content": "Effects of antifungal agents for fungi and tumor cells\n\nAs a seasoning, it spans continents, finding its way through Thai, Indian, Chinese, and other Asian cuisines, and into western baked goods, ales, and sauces. As a supplement, it provides valuable minerals, bridging the gap between diet and medicine. Therapeutically, it works on many conditions, operating synergistically to bring balance through various modalities. It does all this while stimulating, and protecting the liver.\n\nEffects of antifungal agents for fungi and tumor cells\n\nMangosteen mg Garcinia mangostana whole fruit, 95 percent is pericarp or rind It is preferable to take a pill rather than drinking the juice in order to avoid all the extra calories. Consider other healthy herbs and supplements with high antioxidant potential, including acai berry extract, curcumin extract from turmeric, goji berry extract, graviola herb, pomegranate fruit and olive leaf extract.\n\nAs a dietary supplement, take one mangosteen capsule daily or as recommended by your health care provider. Diet Rx which helps you eat less.\n\nIt really does curb appetite. Eyesight Rx for better vision, often within days. Joint Power Rx for healthy joints.\n\nPassion Rx for sexual enhancement, better libido, and improved performance and stamina in men and women. What does the research say? Mangosteen has compounds with antioxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-tumor activity.\n\nLaboratory testing thus far indicates that extracts have activity against several cancer cell lines including breast, liver, and leukemia. It also appears to have anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory properties.\n\nActivators and Inhibitors in Cell Biology Research\n\nAcne vulgaris Antimicrobial effects of Thai medicinal plants against acne-inducing bacteria. Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus epidermidis have been recognized as pus-forming bacteria triggering an inflammation in acne. The present study was conducted to evaluate antimicrobial activities of Thai medicinal plants against these etiologic agents of acne vulgaris.\n\nCrude extracts were tested for antimicrobial activities by disc diffusion and broth dilution methods.\n\nEffects of antifungal agents for fungi and tumor cells\n\nThe results from the disc diffusion method showed that 13 medicinal plants could inhibit the growth of Propionibacterium acnes. Among those, Senna alata, Eupatorium odoratum, Garcinia mangostana, and Barleria lupulina had strong inhibitory effects.\n\nMangosteen would be an interesting topic for further study and possibly for an alternative treatment for acne. Allergy Inhibitions of histamine release and prostaglandin E2 synthesis by mangosteen, a Thai medicinal plant.\n\nWe found that the ethanol extract of mangosteen inhibited IgE-mediated histamine release from RBL-2H3 cells with greater potency than the water extract of Rubus suavissimus that has been used as an anti-allergy crude drug in Japan. Anti-inflammatory Inhibition of cyclooxygenase and prostaglandin E2 synthesis by gamma-mangostin, a xanthone derivative in mangosteen, in C6 rat glioma cells.\n\nThis study is a first demonstration that gamma-mangostin, a xanthone derivative from mangosteen, directly inhibits COX activity.\n\nSepsis - Infectious Disease and Antimicrobial Agents\n\nThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of multiple dosages of a proprietary mangosteen Juice blend on indicators of inflammation and antioxidant levels in obese patients with elevated C-reactive protein CRP levels. The study included four groups including placebo and three difference doses of the test product, XanGo Juice: There were no side effects reported in any of the groups and none of the laboratory or EKG safety assessments indicated clinically significant changes for any subject.\n\nIn this pilot, dose-finding study, a proprietary mangosteen juice blend XanGo Juice reduced CRP levels compared to placebo for those taking the highest dose of 18 oz per day. Evaluation of Mangosteen juice blend on biomarkers of inflammation in obese subjects: I, personally, do not see the need to ingest so much fruit juice a day.\n\nJ Agric Food Chem. Atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries Mangostin inhibits the oxidative modification of human low density lipoprotein. Mangostin is acting as a free radical scavenger to protect the LDL from oxidative damage in this in vitro system.Pharmacy in a Plant Aloe ferox is among the tallest of the more than aloe species and is native to southeastern and western regions of South Africa.\n\nCompared to the more widely known Aloe vera, Aloe ferox produces 20 times more bitter sap and has higher nutrient concentrations. Bitter melon grows in tropical areas, including parts of the Amazon, east Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, and is cultivated throughout South America as a food and medicine.\n\nEffects of antifungal agents for fungi and tumor cells\n\nDESCRIPTION. Golimumab is a human IgG1κ monoclonal antibody specific for human tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) that exhibits multiple glycoforms with molecular masses of approximately to kilodaltons.\n\nGolimumab was created using genetically engineered mice immunized with human TNF, resulting in an antibody with human-derived antibody variable and constant regions. The history of chitosan dates back to the 19th century, when Rouget discussed the deacetylated forms of the parent chitin natural polymer in During the past 20 years, a substantial amount of work has been reported on chitosan and its potential use in various bioapplications.\n\nMedicinal fungi are those fungi which produce medically significant metabolites or can be induced to produce such metabolites using regardbouddhiste.com range of medically active compounds that have been identified include antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, cholesterol inhibitors, psychotropic drugs, immunosuppressants and even regardbouddhiste.comgh initial discoveries centred on simple moulds of the.\n\nSalicylic acid is a colorless, crystalline organic carboxylic acid.\n\nGet FREE Access! Terminology To get started in this article, there are some terms that should be defined.\nHello there! Welcome to Medicowesome =) The absence of precise terminology to describe protean manifestations and the degree of disease hampered clinical trial design and the development of management strategies for sepsis.\n\n\nSalicylic acid | HOC6H4COOH - PubChem", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9508447647094727}
+{"content": "In response to the evolving challenges facing the shipping industry in 2019, BIMCO has released new standard sanctions clauses for time and voyage charter parties. The release attempts to respond, in particular, to the United States' more aggressive sanctions regimes for Iran and Venezuela, which have strained the previous BIMCO language. BIMCO states that the updates are designed to address the high risk of violation, incidental to the \"complex, imprecisely drafted, often changing\" sanctions rules.\n\nBIMCO Sanctions Clause for Time Charter Parties 2020\n\nThe new time charter party clause is intended to replace BIMCO's previous Sanctions Clause for Time Charter Parties 2010 and the Designated Entities Clause for Charter Parties 2013.\n\nThe principal features of the new clause are:\n\n 1. Definitions of \"Sanctioned Activity,\" \"Sanctioning Authority\" and \"Sanctioned Party\" which BIMCO states provide an \"objective test.\"\n\nBIMCO Sanctions Clause for Voyage Charter Parties 2020\n\nThis is BIMCO's first sanctions clause for voyage charter parties. It largely shares the same key features as the time charter clause.\n\n\n\nThe most notable changes under the new clauses are: i) the extension of warranties to include third parties; and ii) the move away from owners' judgment to an \"objective test\" of what constitutes a Sanctioned Activity.\n\nThe warranty extensions demonstrate the recent shift in owners' and charterers' expectations as to the level of due diligence required by their counterparties to ensure sanctions compliance. That, in turn, comes as the authorities responsible for enforcing sanctions, such as the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), have put increased focus on KYC and due diligence practices for those operating in the maritime industry. The importance of this is reflected in the rights of termination for breach of the warranties, while the right to also (or alternatively) claim damages allows for flexibility, depending on whether the breach can be remedied.\n\nThe shift to an objective test is said by BIMCO to be an attempt to \"avoid uncertainty\" in the parties' operation of the clauses. However, given the uncertain landscape of U.S. secondary sanctions and conflicting sanctions regimes (e.g., the EU Blocking Regulation), there remain \"grey areas,\" which are not comprehensively addressed.\n\nThe position of owners has also arguably been weakened where the right to refuse orders posing a sanctions risk is no longer subject to their \"reasonable judgment.\" The removal of this discretionary element arguably limits an owner's right to protect its position should its view on the sanctions risk of certain trade change due to non-legal factors (e.g., where there is no change in the law, but the governing authority takes a more aggressive enforcement strategy).\n\nAccordingly, while the updated clauses should offer more sanctions protection to charter parties envisaging trade between non-sanctioned countries, they are unlikely to provide sufficient certainty (or flexibility) to parties who continue legitimate trade with jurisdictions subject to comprehensive sanctions programs (e.g., Iran and Venezuela), for which more bespoke wording is advisable.\n\nBIMCO sanctions clauses for ship sale and purchase agreements, ship management agreements, contracts of affreightment and container trade are expected to follow in the coming months.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6028828620910645}
+{"content": "c/o amazon.com\n\nc/o amazon.com\n\nContent warning: Domestic abuse\n\nThere is a woman standing in the doorway of the house on the cover of Carmen Maria Machado’s novel “In The Dream House.” Her tiny frame is hardly noticeable against the backdrop of the looming house. But if a person looks closely, they will see her standing there with her shoulders turned inwards, as if she is about to go back inside, and only came out for a moment to look at the reader. It is a picture that is at once menacing and warmly inviting, much like the experience of reading the story that Machado has woven together. “In the Dream House” is an accumulation of raw feelings, philosophical contemplation and political commentary that is worthy of its readers’ attention.\n\n“In the Dream House” is a memoir written from the second person point of view. This is a choice that helps to connect readers to Machado’s experience, yet also means that the memoir reads as if it is a letter that Machado wrote to herself. The memoir is made up of short chapters with titles that all begin with the phrase “Dream House As.” For example, there is “Dream House As Lesbian Cult Classic;” “Dream House as High Fantasy;” and “Dream House As Thanks, Obama.” Each chapter adds another layer, albeit non-linear, to the story that Machado tells of an abusive relationship that she experienced with another woman. Machado never names her former partner, instead referring to her mostly as “the woman from the Dream House”; “The Dream House” referring to the home that the two women shared together for a period of time. \n\nThe Dream House takes many forms and functions in the memoir. Machado uses it as a representation of what a house that serves as a home for two lovers could be, should be and actually is, in her experience. It serves as a setting for her most wild romantic fantasies, and the harshest realities, and truths that make up her relationship with the woman she shares the house with. She places much attention on the stereotype of the idealized, utopian nature of same-sex relationships, and the pressure such an ideal placed on her when she herself felt trapped in a relationship that was the complete opposite of utopian.\n\nThe focus Machado places on the intersection of fantasy (think Grimm fairy tales) and reality makes for one of the most thought-provoking aspects of the memoir. She repeatedly includes footnotes that cite certain motifs from the six-volume catalogue “Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Example, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends.” Machado uses the footnotes as a sort of dry, witty commentary on the events that happen in her life. She includes citations of motifs like “Falling in love with person never seen” and “Mother throws children into fire.” Machado’s footnotes provide intriguing insight into how she processed and understood the things she experienced, in addition to their function as a genuinely creative way for an author to provide further commentary dissecting her life and writing. \n\nThe inclusion of footnotes is not the only way in which Machado revolutionizes the format of the memoir. In what is arguably the most creative and emotionally impactful chapter of the entire book, Machado devises a choose-your-own-adventure system in which readers can decide how they would respond to certain situations that Machado encountered with the woman from the dream house. Machado lays out a list of options readers can choose and the page they should proceed to that corresponds with their choice. The resulting, intensely dizzying experience that results deeply drives home the emotional strain and sheer complexity of the toxic cycle of abuse that Machado experienced. The format also shows just how aware Machado is of every aspect of her readers’ feelings, an awareness she uses to masterfully manipulate the reading experience they have. She knows the empathetic frustration readers will feel as she wants to leave her abusive partner but can’t. They can try to escape it, they can try and drive it away, but as Machado writes of one possible outcome, “That’s not how it happened, but okay. We can pretend.”\n\n“In The Dream House” in some ways puts a spotlight on writing itself; the process of writing, the purpose and the power that comes with it. Readers are able to observe aspects of Machado’s writing process that she details in some chapters, as well as reflections on the time she spent in the famous University of Iowa MFA program. In addition to providing readers with some insight into a community of writers, Machado’s work highlights the extent of what writing can accomplish. The very existence of the memoir that Machado has written is an explicit act of defiance and courage on Machado’s part: readers learn that her abuser forbid her to ever write about one instance in which she acted abusively towards Machado. Yet the fact that readers are able to read those very words shows Machado’s present ability to reject the demands of her abuser. \n\nMachado recognizes the societal power that writing holds, a power that she emphasizes through her inclusion of chapters that focus on the lack of writing about queer domestic abuse and sexual assault. The dearth of books about abuse in same-sex relationships is part of what makes Machado’s memoir so remarkable. Not only is Machado’s writing gorgeous, honest and simply human, it’s also on a topic that has simply not received the attention that it should in the literary world. “In the Dream House” is a momentous, remarkable step towards addressing the lack of memoirs portraying abuse in same-sex relationships.\n\n\nSophie Wazlowski can be reached at swazlowski@wesleyan.edu.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8917911648750305}
+{"content": "After a recent game, the coach of our team was told that extra or stoppage time was added for three injuries during the second half and that additional stoppage time was added whenever the ball was kicked out of bounds. Is extra time allowed to be added for the ball rolling out of bounds? By our watch, there was 10 additional minutes added for out of bounds balls (the ball never crossed a fence or any other obstacle but simply went out of bounds.) The opposing team scored twice during the last 4 minutes of the stoppage time and we lost the match. We have not heard of time being added for routine out of bounds.\n\nUSSF answer (June 2, 2008):\nTime is not usually added routinely for balls that go out of play under normal circumstances. if the referee is certain that a team is wasting time by constantly and deliberately kicking the ball out of play, then the referee should add time to make up for this loss of playing time.…\n\n\nTwo senior sides are at 1 goal each in the first half.\n\nTwelve minutes before the first half is to finish. The floodlights fail on one side of the field.The grounds people from the home side frantically start to fix the lights & acheive the process in twelve minutes the lights are fully operational in twenty minutes. The referee & assistant officials rule that due to the break taken by players for the delay while light maintenace was performed. There would be a resumption for twelve minutes to finish the first half.Then no break would be taken,& the teams would turn & play the second half of 45 minutes.Both teams were aware of the decision. During the twelve minutes to finish the second half, the home team scored making the score 2v1. The half finished the referee blew the whistle to turn around for the second half. However the visiting team decided that they were not going to participate in the second half & walked in protest due to no break being allowed between halves. The referee gave them seven minutes to retake their position on the field to no avail.\n\nThey simply got dressed & left the ground. Please can you advise if the team should falfit the game & the points be awrded to the home side who were winning at the time of abandoment, or should the game have to be replayed. Please can you give reference to the fifa rule if any, that answers this dilemma.\n\nUSSF answer (May 27, 2008):\nThe referee’s decision to forego the halftime break was not in keeping with Law 8:\n\nHalf-Time Interval\nPlayers are entitled to an interval at half-time.\nThe halftime interval must not exceed 15 minutes.\nThe duration of the halftime interval may be altered only with the consent of the referee.\n\nWhile the Law does allow the referee to consent to alteration of the DURATION of the halftime break, it does not permit the referee to do away with the interval if even only one player wants the break.…\n\n\nA player takes a throw-in correctly. The ball does not enter the field of play but remains outside the touch line. What action does the referee take?\nThe throw-in is retaken.\n\nI am assuming that “takes a throw-in correctly” means that the player had both feet on the ground, on our off the touchline, facing the field, both hands on the ball with the ball being brought behind the head and then thrown and released and the ball just doesn’t enter the field of play.\n\nWhat happens if a player takes a throw-in “incorrectly” but the ball never enters the field? What is the re-start if a thrower lifts one foot during the throw-in but the ball never enters the field? I would believe it to be retaken, but a school of thought has arisen by some that feel that the opposing team would get a throw-in.\n\nUSSF answer (May 20, 2008):\nYou will find your answer in the USSF publication “Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game”:\n\nReferees must distinguish between a throw-in which infringes on the requirements of Law 15 and one which is not properly taken such that the restart is said not to have been taken. In the first case (infringement), possession of the restart is given to the opponents and taken from the same location; under no circumstances may advantage be applied to a throw-in performed illegally. In the case of a throw-in which is not properly taken, the restart must be taken again by the same team from the same location.\n\nA throw-in may not be performed from a kneeling position under any circumstances.\n\nIf the ball touches the ground outside the field before entering the field or if it does not enter the field at all, the throw-in has not properly been taken and must be performed again.\n\nA throw-in which has been performed illegally, for which the referee has stopped play, cannot be given back to the same team in order to perform the restart again. The referee must either decide that the offense was trifling and not stop play, or award the throw-in to the opposing team.\n\nWe believe that the “school of thought” to which you refer is probably “attended” by referees who spend too much time with the NFHS rulebook, where the failure of the ball to enter the field on a throw-in is automatically punished by possession of the ball going to the other team for a throw-in by them.\n\nHowever, the Laws of the Game — the only rules to be used for games played under the aegis of the U. S. Soccer Federation — are clear: If the ball doesn’t enter the field, it has not been put into play and it really doesn’t matter what (if any) technical violations the thrower might have committed in the process. In other words, the thrower could have jumped high into the air but it would still be a retake if the ball never enters the field.\n\nThe issue of whether a throw-in is taken correctly or not becomes relevant only in the case of an immediately subsequent violation by the thrower (e. g., second touch or throwing the ball hard at an opponent on the field). In that case, if it wasn’t taken correctly, the restart (throw-in by the opposing team) is based on the first violation, after dealing with any misconduct. The Law makes this point explicitly in the case of a throw which results in an opponent being struck violently — if the throw itself was legal, then striking and misconduct occurred; if it wasn’t legal, then only misconduct occurred.\n\nWe have had some people asking about the phrase at the end of the Additional Instructions and Guidelines for Referees and Assistant Referees in the Laws of the Game. Under Law 15, the final paragraph reads:\n\nIf the ball touches the ground before entering the field of play, the throw-in shall be retaken by the same team from the same position provided that it was taken in line with the correct procedure. If the throw-in is not taken in line with the correct procedure, it shall be retaken by the opposing team.\n\nWe have run the matter past FIFA and, for the moment, our original answer stands. It may change next year, but, for the moment, what we have stated is correct, at least in the United States.…\n\n\nI would appreciate your comments on the following question. I am a a father of five (three in soccer and I coach two of them), a former college player, and have been a soccer ref for a short time. Here is my question:\n\nIf, during the course of play, a player clears the ball out (of the defensive end of the field – although I don’t think it matters) can the referee issue a caution (yellow card) for delay of game to the player who cleared the ball? Does it matter whether the player has done it (cleared the ball) several times before during the course of play? How does the referee distinguish between a weak clear and a strong clear?\n\nDoes it matter?\n\nAs I have always understood the rule, and always seen it applied, a player should only be issued a yellow card for delay in the RESTART of play. Meaning player conduct after the play has been stopped. Until yesterday, I had never seen a ref – and I have never thought it proper(and still don’t) for a ref – to issue a yellow card to a player for clearing a ball. Refs should not be in the position of dictating how hard or where a player decides to clear a ball. See\n\nWould appreciate your thoughts and comments.\n\nUSSF answer (May 9, 2008):\nThe Laws of the Game do not support disciplinary action for clearing the ball down the field. Nor, in fact, do they support a caution for constantly clearing the ball by kicking it out of play, given by many referees who are as inventive as the one whom you observed.…", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9850954413414001}
+{"content": "Even as a \"measured approach\" is being taken to restart Alaska's economy, mandates designed to keep the coronavirus pandemic from spreading have been extended.\n\nInternational and interstate travel mandates requiring that all people arriving in Alaska, whether resident, worker or visitor, self-quarantine for two weeks has been extended until May 19.\n\nThe mandate limiting intrastate travel to critical personal needs or critical infrastructure has been extended until further notice. Alaskans have been encouraged by Governor Michael Dunleavy to take scenic drives, just not to other cities.\n\nState officials say they are going to take advantage of geography to prevent COVID-19 from spreading, allowing local authorities to choose stricter or more liberal rules depending on their unique situation. Local governments are allowed to implement different phases at different times.\n\nThe first phase of business openings only allows restaurant, retail, and personal services businesses to open to 25% capacity. Bars, theaters, bingo parlors and bowling alleys are to remain closed. Cashless and no-receipt transactions are encouraged.\n\nOne adult per household is allowed to visit a retail store. Universal face coverings are encouraged, as it having sanitizer at the entrance, hourly sanitization and staff screening.\n\nRestaurants are allowed to resume indoor and table service by reservation only, bars are to remain closed. Parties are limited to household members, even in outdoor spaces where seating has been limited to a maximum of 20 tables. Tables must be ten feet apart.\n\nHair salons, day spas, esthetics, barber shops, tattoo parlors, body piercing, nail and tanning salons, rolfing and reiki businesses are allowed one customer per staff by reservation only. Gyms and fitness businesses are allowed to resume outdoor classes and training with ten feet between each person, groups of 20 or smaller, and screening of staff and patrons.\n\nSix feet must be placed between work stations. Hand sanitizer must be available at the entrance and there must be proper sanitization between customers.\n\nFishing charters are allowed to be consisted of a single household to capacity or up to 25% capacity of mixed customers.\n\nReligious services, small weddings and funerals, and other small gatherings of less than 20 people will be allowed so long as six feet of social distancing of non-household people is maintained.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.800110936164856}
+{"content": "Twins & Multiples\n\nYou are expecting more than one baby? Don’t worry! This 2.5-hour workshop is specially designed for people expecting twins, triplets, or more! You can use it as a stand-alone class, especially if you are already doing other birth preparation courses or you can book one of my Antenal Courses and let me know that you are expecting twins or more and this will be a tailored course for you and your birth partner (most commonly chosen is a 6-hour course in a 3 x 2-hour format).\n\nThis Antenatal Class for parents expecting Tins & Multiples as a stand-alone covers considerations specific to multiples during labour and birth such as common medical concerns, birth order, prematurity, and unexpected outcomes. It also covers parenting i.e. breastfeeding more than one baby, sibling relationships, essential equipment, sleep and looking after multiple babies.\n\nLife with multiples can be much more enjoyable when you know what to expect!\n\nThis workshop can run at your home or at teacher’s home.\n\nThe cost of the class as a 1:1 is £85 and the group class (up to 5 expectant parents) is £40 for a 2.5hr class.\n\nBook on or inquire about our courses:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9944504499435425}
+{"content": "The French Alps: 6 restaurants in the heights\n\n\nThe well-named\n\nThe restaurant Antigel (antifreeze), which offers traditional dishes with the best both from the culinary traditions of the Savoie and Val d'Aoste, is found in a nice tree house. And whether you are sitting by the fireplace or on the terrace overlooking the Tarentaise Valley the food is always fresh.\n\nLa Rosière 1850 - 73700 La Rosière\nRéservation : + 33 (0)6 23 94 92 07 - (External link)\n\nThe high altitude\n\nThis restaurant, located at 3032 meters altitude on the glacier La Grande Motte, boasts a 360° panoramic view. Here you will be served delicious dishes known from Savoie's traditional cuisine. And if you want to stop by, you can either come on ski or take the funicular. Up there you will find three different menus; \"Food to go\", \"Traditional\" and \"Cantine des Bouvier\".\n\nLe Panoramic\nGlacier de la Grande Motte - 73320 Tignes\nRéservation : + 33 (0)4 79 06 47 21\n\nThe elegant\n\nAt Jean Sulpice in the heart of Trois Vallées, which has received two Michelin stars, you are welcome even in your ski clothes! The kitchen is both traditional and modern at the same time. Classic dishes from the chef's childhood has been given a modern twist along with mountain herbs.\n\nRestaurant Jean Sulpice\nRésidence l'Oxalys - 73440 Val Thorens\nRéservation : + 33 (0)4 79 40 00 71 - (External link)\n\nThe «Best»\n\nLa Bouitte is primarily a story about a family. The restaurant is managed by both René (father) and Maxime (son) Meilleur (best). The concept is to serve traditional dishes from the region, which are conjured up in a new and surprising edition at the restaurant housed in a Savoie Cottage.\n\nLa Bouitte\nRéservation : + 33 (0)4 79 08 96 77 - (External link)\n\nThe pure\n\n\nL’Atelier d’Edmond\nLe Fornet - 73150 Val d’Isère\nRéservation : + 33 (0)4 79 00 00 82 - (External link)\n\nThe exclusive\n\nLe 1947 welcomes a limited number of guests every evening, to give each individual a unique experience. The creative and unconventional chef Yannick Alleno, who has two Michelin stars, welcomes you in his dazzling white universe in surprising and innovative ways.\n\nCheval Blanc Courchevel – 1947\nLe Jardin Alpin - 73120 Courchevel 1850\nRéservation : + 33 (0)4 79 00 50 50 - (External link)\n\nVal d'isère", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9451398849487305}
+{"content": "Tekoa Yakã Ita Küi’i was originally called the Rio d’Areia village.\n\nIt is located in the municipality of Inácio Martins / PR, 45 km from the city, which is made by a dirt road through the mixed forests of pine and eucalyptus cultivated for industries and native vegetation.\n\nAccording to Dona Maria Conceição, a former resident of the village, around 1930 a group of Mbyá Guarani came from various places, at the time had no political leadership between them and families lived as Xamoi ordered, [Xamoi is the leader community spirit] lived together, farmed together, helped everyone to support them all. Much of the Guarani’s livelihood came from hunting, fishing, and gathering honey. They shared everything they found with the community at Opy’i.\n\nYerba mate has always been abundant in the forest and is sacred to the Guarani. Yerba mate establishes a ‘link’ between the material and the spiritual worlds, an element that facilitates communication with the supernatural. From the popularization of yerba mate as a drink for non-indigenous people, today is the main source of income and livelihood of families in the village; that commercialize the leaves in natura and make the agroforestry management of the herbal in the forest.\n\nThe origin of the use of yerba mate is told by all Guarani, having some variations among the ethnic groups, however, sacred to all.\n\nOne day they were visited by a traveler who spent the night in the cabin receiving his best treatment. The young woman sang for the visitor to fall asleep and have a peaceful sleep, singing a soft and sad song. At dawn the traveler confessing to be an envoy of Tupa and wanted to repay their hospitality by saying that he would fulfill any wish, even the most remote.\n\nThe old warrior, knowing that his young daughter would not marry so as not to abandon him, asked that his forces be returned, so that Yari could become free. The messenger of Tupa gave the old man a tree branch of Caa, and taught him how to prepare an infusion that would restore all his vigor.\n\nShe also made Yari, the goddess of herbs and protector of the Guarani, being called Caá-Yari, the goddess of yerba mate. And so, the grass was used by all warriors, making them stronger and braver. Just like making the body stay strong and the mind clear for many years.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9791917204856873}
+{"content": "Thebaine 6-O-demethylase (T6ODM) from Papaver somniferum (opium poppy), which belongs to the non-heme 2-oxoglutarate/Fe(II)-dependent dioxygenases (ODD) family, is a key enzyme in the morphine biosynthesis pathway. Initially, T6ODM was characterized as an enzyme catalyzing O-demethylation of thebaine to neopinone and oripavine to morphinone. However, the substrate range of T6ODM was recently expanded to a number of various benzylisoquinoline alkaloids. Here, we present crystal structures of T6ODM in complexes with 2-oxoglutarate (T6ODM:2OG, PDB: 5O9W) and succinate (T6ODM:SIN, PDB: 5O7Y). Both metal and 2OG binding sites display similarity to other proteins from the ODD family, but T6ODM is characterized by an exceptionally large substrate binding cavity, whose volume can partially explain the promiscuity of this enzyme. Moreover, the size of the cavity allows for binding of multiple molecules at once, posing a question about the substrate-driven specificity of the enzyme.\n\nVisit publication.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9827275276184082}
+{"content": "Dare to be Young\n\n\nEverything your skin needs for daily maintenance all in one bottle!\n\n4 fl oz.\n\n\n\nWhat is Dare to be Young?\n\nDare to be Young is a unique skin care lotion made of herbal extracts, essential oils, and vitamins that nourishes and tightens your skin. It is a skin tightener and rejuvenator all in one product. There is no other product like Dare to be Young.\n\nWhat is a skin tightener?\n\nA skin tightener is an astringent that is used to constrict the tissues and pores of the skin. Upon application of Dare to be Young, you will feel a pulling sensation as the powerful herbal astringents work to tighten your skin.\n\nHow does it rejuvenate my skin?\n\nDare to be Young helps to boost the skin’s own natural collagen and elastin production. Our unique formula contains precious ingredients that are actually food for the skin, rejuvenating the skin cells from within. All of the herbal extracts and essential oils contained within Dare to be Young work synergistically providing important minerals and vitamins right where they are needed into the skin with the help of liposomes.\n\nHow do I use it?\n\nFirst, wash your face and neck with a gentle cleanser. Use about a quarter-size amount of Dare to be Young in the palm of your hand and apply to your skin. Do not wash off. After about 10 minutes, you should feel that your skin is noticeably softer. The results are cumulative; the longer you use Dare to be Young, the better your skin will improve.\n\nYou would spend much more on other brands to receive all of the benefits that Dare to be Young provides in one bottle.\n\nCompare Value to Other Brands (Per Oz.)\n\nDare to be Young\n$40.00 ($10/oz.)\nEstée Lauder® New Dimension\nTighten + Tone Neck/Chest\nTreatment™ $98.00 ($57.65 oz.)\nLancôme® Rénergie Lift Multi-Action Reviva-Concentrate™ - $127.00 ($74.71/oz.)\n\nIngredients: Organic Aloe Leaf Juice, Distilled Water, Extracts of: Geranium, Organic Comfrey, White Oak Bark, Horsetail, Witch Hazel, Hibiscus; Essential Phospholipids, Vitamin E, Xanthan Gum, Titanium Dioxide; Essential Oils of: Fennel, Lemongrass, Sage, White Pine, Jasmine, Rose.\n\nWe encourage you to research the wonderful ingredients contained in Dare to be Young so that you may learn how all of the these herbal extracts and essential oils can work together to benefit your skin and body. The tightening benefits one will receive will depend on a person’s age, the amount of loose skin, the skin’s collagen and elasticity, retention, and muscle tone. Your skin will become tighter and velvety smooth. Large pores are reduced. Wrinkles, crow’s feet, and lines around the mouth are reduced and sometimes eliminated. How do we know it does all these things? Because our clients tell us so!\n\n\n\nThere are no reviews yet.\n\nBe the first to review “Dare to be Young”\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5742762088775635}
+{"content": "Bridgefy - Offline Messagingfor Android\n\n\n\nA handy tool to have when you are faced with a situation where there is no internet connection. Although restrictions apply, the app serves a purpose and can be useful in an emergency.\n\nNo internet needed\n\nImmensely fun gameplay coupled with a smooth engine and boundless progression, what’s not to love?\n\nSteam or a standalone installer from the Warframe site gets you started. You’ll have to sign up for an account but it takes seconds. After a lengthy download of 25 gigabytes, you’re thrown into the first mission tutorial which gets a gold star for showing the lore and ropes of the game in an easy to grasp walkthrough.\n\nChoose among the Excalibur, Mag, or Volt Warframes to get a taste of the RPG-like classes where each Warframe murders bad guys to a different tune. Excalibur has a good mix of melee and ranged weaponry and is the standard choice. Mag uses more utility and energy manipulation while Volt electrocutes everything to death. Each Warframe has 4 main abilities that unlock as you level up and have multiple primary and secondary weapon choices. This keeps the fundamentals basic but the upgrade system, discussed later, allows for big customization.\n\nThe engine of the game, called Evolution, plays smooth even on less-than-capable machines. Movement is fluid, fun, and the weapon mechanics make sense. Manipulating the world around you feels cohesive. You can tell from the start that the pace of the game tends towards the manic as you dart around the screen and parkour off walls. The game rewards mobility over pure aim, opposite of something like Counter-Strike, so if you prefer twitch over precision then you’re in luck with Warframe.\n\nProgression can take many forms once you finish the first mission but make no mistake – Warframe is a game of farming, collecting, and building. New players should focus on unlocking as many planets as possible to provide the most variety of available things to do and resources to collect. Once you establish that access network then comes the decision on how you want to build out.\n\nResource farming happens as you play so you should approach it with a plan. If you want to catch all the Warframes like Pokémon, prepare to farm bosses which drop the different schematics for each. Weapons and other mods are a little less prescriptive with the in-game market providing access to many. Some items require dojos (guilds) or come as reward by specific missions, quests, and missions.\n\nThe learning curve looks like a slick cliff face so make use of the active Warframe community. Plenty of newbie guides exist to help with the question of where to start. One thing that could use improvement is more in-game explanations of what you can possibly do, however, developers know that the average gamer spends time on forums, YouTube, and Discords and that kind of information disseminates naturally through social channels. Definitely make use of it.\n\nWhere can you run this program?\n\nUnfortunately for Mac or Linux users, Warframe only runs on Windows for now. You’ll also need a 64-bit processor (32-bit is a no-go), a 2.2ghz CPU, DirectX 10, 4GB of RAM, and about 30 GB of HD space at the minimum. The Evolution engine has great optimization for lower end PCs.\n\nIs there a better alternative?\n\nWarframe devotees will say that the continual addition of varied content has made the game a unique snowflake. For newbies, it’s worth mentioning Destiny 1 and 2 as these are also third person co-op space shooters with a high focus on loot and grinding. But they can’t match the high-energy pace of Warframe’s gameplay. PVP interested players should think of Overwatch, which has the same class-based play and a smooth engine. Path of Exile and Diablo 3 have the same kind of loot grinding, character-building angle but of course are action RPGs and naturally play differently.\n\nOur take\n\nThe positive tenor of this review sums up our take. The game went from dustbin to underground hero because of an engaged development team and active fanbase. The growing pains along the way have delivered a game of somewhat overwhelming depth and complexity, yet retains a fun and fast core gameplay which makes the discovery and mastery of all that depth exciting. It shows no signs of slowing down which adds a level of security to your time investment.\n\nShould you download it\n\nYes, you should. Warframe offers a true free to play experience (because of little PVP there isn’t much pay-to-win) on a smooth engine with fast and engaging gameplay that can take up years of your life given the depth and complexity of the progression system. Don’t overlook it.\n\nBridgefy - Offline Messagingfor Android\n\n\nNew Apps", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5797920227050781}
+{"content": "SmartEdit Writer · SmartEdit for Word · Help\n\nSmartEdit Forums\n\nDeletion of scenes\n\nI’ve always wondered why when I delete a scene that it remains in the Document folder. This is a deletion, not a move to Fragments. Once the scene is deleted, there is no way to ‘see’ it other than to look in the Documents folder.\nIs there a way to clean up the project by removing these ‘deleted’ scenes? They do take up space. I know the project database must keep track of the numbers, so I don’t want to use a file explorer to delete files.\n\nI have been in the practice of creating the scenes, and then copying them into a Chapter scene. Once copied, I delete the scene. This leaves the scene document file orphaned in the project. Sometimes there are 50-100 scenes documents that could be removed.\n\nIs there a better way?\n\n\nScene deletion is a soft delete at this time: as in, the underlying scene is not deleted. The reason for this is there was always the intention of adding a Trash folder where deleted scenes were sent, allowing the user to recover deleted files or flush everything from Trash in a permanent delete.\n\nThis functionality is common in similar apps. However, after 2 and some years, no user has ever even hinted at a desire for a Trash folder, so it hasn’t been implemented. I won’t be enforcing a hard delete unless I write this option completely off the development plan.\n\nI don’t think I would need a trash folder and associated functionality, but it would be helpful now and then if you could provide a simple garbage collection function, perhaps in the Settings dialog. I have seen some heavily edited documents get much larger than they deserve, and in some circumstances that could become a problem.\n\n\nGood suggestion Allen. The lack of interest in a trash bin means it probably won’t be implemented any time soon. A quick way of flushing/ tidying up the old files would help.\n\nThanks. I know I’d use it periodically, especially with heavily edited projects.\n\nBeing a newbie to SmartEdit I’m just getting to grips with what it can do and its functions but having just discovered reading this thread that deleted scenes are soft deleted then I’d tip my hat for a trash bin or garbage collection function. It’s no big deal to go into the folder and delete the files manually though so it’s not a feature I’d put at the top of my wishlist :slight_smile:\n\nIt can be difficult to identify which scenes are orphaned, based on file names. Dates don’t work, since some scenes may be old and current, while others are recent and orphaned. Unless you have come up with a method for that?\n\nI don’t see why anyone would want a hard delete for any scene. I’ll be okay with another form of removing scenes other than fragments.\n\n\nThe only reason for wanting to hard-delete scenes is when a document gets large or complex through extensive scene creation and deletion. Then there is a never-ending accumulation of deleted scenes that cannot be accessed, but which make the document grow larger and larger. It’s a matter of work-flow and disc space, mainly. If a writer really thrashes a document with scores of scenes, replacing them again and again as the work progresses, none of the deleted scenes may be of any interest to him, but they cannot be removed from the project – even though they also cannot be displayed within SEW. So they take up space, invisibly, and make backups bigger and slower to create or copy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.658159613609314}
+{"content": "Change Agents\n\nNothing endures but change. This phrase, which we have attributed to Heraclitus, was probably around in one form or another since the beginning of time. Each one of us, without exception, changes as we age. Why do we change? Change is a basic survival mechanism. Changes may be viewed as caused by internal or external factors. Youth and inexperience love change. As we get older, we develop a resistance to change - at times to our detriment. Adopting and promoting change in our lives as well as the lives of others is a progressive and entrepreneurial trait.\n\nThe celebrity experts in this book have attained success by changing both themselves and the world around them to some degree. They seek to make new inroads into the fields of expertise they represent. Never afraid of change, however difficult, they know that they will never enjoy the sweet taste of success only doing what everyone else does. Change Agents lead the way. They prefer to be the ones blazing trails and making changes. If you wish to use their proven methods and be guided by these Change Agents, the Celebrity Experts in this book will show you the way.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7472597360610962}
+{"content": "Dave Hudson\n\n\nThe gambler's guide to Bitcoin mining\n\n2014-06-30 00:00 - 5 min read\n\nWhat’s the best way to get a return when we mine Bitcoins? Should we mine on our own, mine with a small pool or mine with a large pool? How much difference does it really make?\n\nWhether we want to be a gambler or an investor is really a question of how much risk we’re prepared to take, but what are those risks and what are the odds of success?\n\nStarting thoughts\n\nBefore we can look at the odds of getting a particular return we need to establish a few starting conditions. Let’s assume that we’re planning to mine using hardware that, at the outset of our mining, is able to hash at 0.01% of the total global hash rate. If we have 120 PH/s of hashing then that means that we have 12 TH/s of hashing hardware, but if that global rate was 600 PH/s then we’d need 60 TH/s. The actual numbers don’t matter though, just the percentages.\n\nWe’re going to assume that the network is expanding at 1% per day. For most of 2014 it has been above this but the trend is generally downwards and we need to assume something. At 1% per day then over 6 months (approximately 183 days) we’d see the global hash rate increase by a factor of 6.177 by the end, so our 0.01% of the network is only 0.0016188% after the 6 months. We’re not expecting to add new capacity as we go though, so we only have the hardware that we start with.\n\nBitcoin mining is highly erratic (see “Hash rate headaches\") so it’s not easy to calculate how our mining will progress so instead I built a Monte Carlo simulator. The results presented here all come from that simulation with 10M simulations of each scenario to ensure that the data is well smoothed.\n\nSolo mining\n\nLet’s start with the simplest case. We’re going to assume that we’ll use all of our hashing capacity to mine for blocks on our own. What might we expect?\n\nSolo mining with 0.01% of the Bitcoin hash rate for 15 difficulty changes\n\nThe chart shows 15 difficulty changes (6 months). It plots the cumulative probability of achieving a particular BTC reward. 50% of miners will achieve 32 BTC or less at the end of the 6 months, while 5% will receive nothing at all! It’s not possible to get smaller amounts in this time period by solo mining so that’s why there’s a discontinuity in the graph at the start. 10% of miners will actually receive 65 BTC or more.\n\nThe gambler in us might be attracted to the potential for high rewards; that part of us that wants to be an investor though is probably going to look at this graph in horror!\n\nMining with a pool\n\nThe easiest way to mitigate some of the risk is to join a mining pool. Let’s ignore pool fees or anything that doesn’t just give an equal share for hashing capacity provided to the pool. What might the same hardware achieve when run this way?\n\nBitcoin mining reward with 10% of a pool that has 0.1% of the total network hash rate\n\nOur gambler self may be disappointed to see that the potentially large payouts have vanished; 10% of miners will achieve 44 BTC or better. Our, more rational, investor self is probably much happier though as only 10% of miners achieve less than 26 BTC. The simple exercise of merging with a pool that has 10x the total mining capacity has made a huge difference to the variance of the mining rewards. Our 50% reward point is higher too (the chart shows 48% to keep things simpler)!\n\nWhat are the effects of using larger mining pools?\n\nNow that we can see the reduction in variance from using a mining pool we really need to ask questions about just how much does the mining pool size change the statistics. In order to do that we need to consider a few different ways to deploy our hardware.\n\nThe following graph shows a much narrower span of BTC rewards. It also shows the effects of mining as part of a pool controlling 0.1%, 1%, 10%, 25% and 50% of the global hash rate. That last one is sure to be controversial as a pool with 50% of the hash rate is deemed to pose a potentially serious risk, but rational miners have been keen to participate in such pools. Just how good are the reasons to do so?\n\nComparison of Bitcoin mining rewards for different pool sizes\n\nThe first things to notice are just how bad the solo mining and 10% membership of 0.1% pool now look! The larger pools are definitely more attractive to anyone seeking predictable returns.\n\nMining pools are here to stay?\n\nIn a simpler world the Bitcoin mining network might only be expanding very slowly and miners could attempt to allow time to smooth out the effects of mining variance. In practice though, as the network expands and the ever-increasing difficulty consumes the usefulness of any current hardware, then best known way to avoid the vagaries of random mining behaviour is to use large blocks of co-ordinated mining. Solo mining and mining in small pools is a strategy for gamblers, not investors.\n\nArguments may rage regarding the risks posed by large mining pools and their tendency towards centralizing our supposedly decentralized network, but it seems very unlikely that they will be disappearing any time soon. Any proposal to remove them will have to address the issue of variance if it is to gain any sort of widespread acceptance.\n\nMore blog posts", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.669135570526123}
+{"content": "Alector’s mission: to develop therapies that empower the immune system to cure neurodegeneration. Their new So San Francisco HQ was designed to be an active participant in achieving that goal; brought to reality by a dream team from DGA, CBRE, Hathaway Dinwiddie and One Workplace.\n\nAndy Anzar\nAccount Manager\nStairs near floor to ceiling window walls, are the connective tissue bringing inside and outside environments together, their form designed to allude to ships on SF Bay with structure mimicking a vessel’s ribs and built from reclaimed wood pilings used in the original Transbay Terminal. Therese Hazelroth, Principal, DGA\nTransparency and cooperation are core company values so there’s a continuous use of glass walls and open collaboration environs. Embracing the employee’s diverse backgrounds and working styles meant the office needed to be flexible and represent a variety of needs.\nOne design concept revolves around the creation of “WE” spaces, which are unobstructed and encourage collaboration, and “ME” spaces, which are quieter to stimulate focus driven work. Nicole Carnathan, DGA\nThe use of light, color, texture, materials and architecture built the perfect workplace to support collaboration, reinforce connection, foster innovation and represent the unique Alector culture of diversity, flexibility, science and professionalism.\n\nRien Van Rijthoven Architectural Photography", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9056311249732971}
+{"content": "1. Religion\n 2. Top 10 Lists\n\n10 Interesting Religious Beliefs & Practices in Ancient Rome\n\nAt the heart of ancient Roman religion are the festivals, practices, rituals, and sacrifices rather personal beliefs. The Roman religion was widely diversified ranging from the municipal, family, to individual level. Some of the standard practices in ancient Rome on important occasions encompass festivals and rituals. Religion was recognized as the greatest asset that played a fundamental role in Roman daily life. Religious festivals and ritual celebrations were an integral aspect of ancient Rome even before the advent of Christianity. Here are ten strange and interesting religious practices in ancient Rome.\n\nJudaism & Christianity\n\nThe two formed the emerging religions in Rome that did not worship most of the Ancient Roman gods. The old practice in Rome involved the worship of many gods for different occasions and purposes. Jewish people interacted with the roman during the era of Augustan Principate, and Judaism and Jews were tolerated in Rome on a treaty with Hellenized elites. The diplomatic treaty did not recognize Judaism as a religion but as a superstition. However, with the legal enrollment of Judea as a client of the kingdom in 63 BC increased Judaism and Jewish in Rome.\n\nSince Julius Caesar was a sympathizer of the Jewish and Judaism, thus, it was recognized as a religion practiced in ancient Rome. The roman investigation and research identified Christianity irreligion, rebellion, disobedient, novel, and atheistic subsection of Judaism. Both Christianity and Judaism defied the beliefs of the ancient Roman practice of worshipping different gods. They introduced the concept of worshipping one superior heavenly God who was the creator of the universe, humanity, and everything in the world. The practice of the two led to the fading away of the belief and worship of many gods in Rome.[1]\n\nReligious Festivals\n\nThe Romans held different festivals and ceremonies in honor of the god. In ancient Rome, religious festivals were celebrated throughout Rome; people were required by Roman Laws to stop all activities and businesses for religious ceremonies. During celebrations, sacrificial meat was offered to the Romans. Some of the most common religious festivals in ancient Rome includes Agonalia festivals contacted on 1st and 9th January. The money gifts to the families is a primary feature during the Agonalia festivals. The festival involves offerings such as dates, figs, honey to the Janus gods.[2]\n\nTemple & Shrines\n\nMajor religious ceremonies and festivals in ancient Rome were performed outdoors. Some such as processions began from, visited, or the procession ended at shrines or temples for the performance of the ritual, where the ritual offering is stored or where the sacrifice offering will be deposited. The Roman temples and shrines played instrumental roles in Roman religious’ practices. The design and architectures of the worship places are suited for various important occasions and ceremonies. Animal sacrifices were performed at an open part of the temple or shrine. The temples are instrumental in housing esse3ntial religious relics and deities as well as other instruments of worship and religious functions. During the ancient Rome, they built temples and shrines for each of their different gods such as fertility gods, Jupiter among others and its temples and shrines housed the gods.[3]\n\nSuperstitions in Roman Religion\n\nSuperstitions were among the most common practices in ancient Rome that depicted the relationship between various gods and human beings. The Romans held various omens and superstitious beliefs relating to bad luck or goods luck. Different activities, rituals, and practices in their daily lives represented a myth and belief. For instance, Bona Salus when someone sneezes bring blessing according to the ancient Roman superstitions, the women combing their hair with a dead man’s spear brings good luck especially freshly dead ones.\n\nThe Romans also believed in a superstition tell that picking up a throne horseshoes bring good luck. The bad omen also present great signs in the ancient Roman superstition practices. For one the cow is associated with bad luck. Snake fall in the backyard was associated with bad luck, black cats, entering the house with the left foot first was an association of bad luck. Unbelievable the split of the ceiling was a sign of bad luck in ancient Rome.[4]\n\nPrayers, Oaths & Vows\n\nPrayers accompanied most of the important sacrifices, ceremonies, and offerings in ancient Rome as request and plea to gods for success. In the ancient Roman traditions, offerings and prayers are offered in sacred places mostly by priests such as in shrines, temples or holy mountains. The prayers are offered to different gods from Thanksgiving or prayer for supplication to appropriate deity gods. It is instrumental that before the prayers and sacrifices are practiced, there is needed for identifying the type of gods or deity such as celestial (sky deity), the aquatic deity (water), and chthonic (earth deity), in the preparation of the prayers and supplications.\n\nThe prayers were recited for exactness, and if a mistake was made during the payer, the prayer or the entire ceremony is repeated because the Romans believed the prayer had to be got right with ultimate exactness. Similarly, oaths and vows were done directed on a specific god. The vows and oaths were a common practice in Roman religion in ancient Rome. For instance, there were sacred oaths and vowed to offer an offering to a deity or divine being.[5]\n\nRomans Worshipped Different Gods\n\nIn ancient Rome, the Romans worshipped different gods and deities designated for various functions. The ancient civilization is associated with the worship of different deities and gods; the Romans were a different civilization. The Romans worshipped different gods that were associated with different purpose and value, and unique practices with each god. The ancient Romans copied different types of gods from the Greek gods and assigned new functions, values, and purposes to the gods. Changes in the Roman empire introduced different gods for various purposes. For instance, the master god of Rome Jupiter, Jumbo goddess of fertility, Mars war god, Vesta the was the goddess of the hearth and household, Pluto, Vulcan god of the underworld among others.[6]\n\nFunerals & Afterlife\n\nThe ancient civilization had different methods and methods of treating death in history, and the ancient Roman Civilization is different from all of them. Culture influenced the practices associated with death and afterlife especially after the emergence of Judaism and Christianity in Rome. The Romans traded the death systematically with practices such as washing the death, placing a coin in the mouth of the dead person’s body, which they believe is paid to the Charon who carry the dead to the underworld.\n\nThe funerals for the death in ancient Rome was performed at night to discourage large crowds of people. Social class determined the time the deceased was placed on display upon their death. For instance, the high social class members of the society were put on display for a week before burial, while the lower social class members were displayed for a short time such as one day. The Romans believed in life after death, that is why they wash the death before burial or cremation.[7]\n\nHuman Sacrifices\n\nThe human sacrifices were rare, and it was offered in ancient Rome to please the gods. The practice of offering human beings as atoning sacrifices in Rome was the most repulsive among the Romans, and they avoided to use the word sacrifice when referring to such practices. In 264 BCE the gladiatorial contest was introduced in Rome to honor the dead, with volunteering specimen to enact the mythical practice. The contest was repeated later in 116 BC in preparation for the invasion of Gaul with uncertain religious objective and dimension.\n\nWhen the death became scarce and rare to find, the criminals and salves were used in the contest as sacrifices to the Manes on behalf of the dead person. For instance, the Flamen Martialis and pontifices offered two soldiers who were accused of rebellion against Rome to Mars as sacrifices in Campus Martius. The practice was described by the Romans as the funeral blood rite to the Manes during the gladiator to the Roman military aristocrats and was therefore not treated as a sacrifice. However, the Christian scholars later termed the practice as a human sacrifice because of the cold-bloodlessness of the practice.[8]\n\nAnimal Sacrifices\n\nSacrifices in ancient Rome was a common practice. The Romans belied sacrifices are the primary means to appease and please the gods. Therefore, sacrifices were offered to the gods for different reasons and purposes. For one, making the Roman gods happy was believed to bring good fortune to the Latin community, the sacrifices were accompanied with different rituals depending with the purpose of sacrifice and the type of gods it is offered to. The animal sacrifices were the strongest offering in the ancient Roman kingdom with domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, and pigs as prime candidates for various festivals, rituals, and cultural occasions. The sacrifices were for cleansing, cladding among other reasons.[9]\n\nDomestic & Private Cult\n\nThe family dynasty with the authority and duties of the Roman citizen’s paterfamilias was created to recognize the owner of the family estate. Maiorum had the priestly powers that enable him to create such positions. He practiced his clerical authority and duties to his domestic penates, lures, old genius among other responsibilities that he and his family possess. The dependents under his custodian include freedmen, slaves, owed cult in his genius (critical spirit and generative power). The paterfamilias bestows power in his name, a measurable role to the household rite and obligations or honor on his children or offspring either sired or adopted. The obligations are also carried by the slaves he frees.[10]\n\nComments to: 10 Interesting Religious Beliefs & Practices in Ancient Rome\n\n\n\n\nWelcome to Posticle\n\nJoin Typer", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993162155151367}
+{"content": "The most unusual programming languages\n\nIn the school and university, most of us are faced with such well-known programming languages as BASIC, PASCAL, C. Nevertheless, there are some very unusual computer languages. Naturally, for a wide range of applications they are not intended, being designed for hackers and enthusiastic enthusiasts. Often these exotic languages are generally invented for entertainment, they either parody their real fellowmen or in general are an absurd approach to some serious programming dogmas.\n\nThe most unusual programming languages\n\nBut any such language has a nice feature – the text of the program on it is understandable only to the initiate, or it is not clear at all if in order to compose the program, you must first create it in the usual language. If the developers of conventional languages try to make the syntax of their children as understandable as possible, and programming as comfortable, then the creators of unusual languages are guided by exactly the opposite tools to achieve their uniqueness.\n\n\nThis language is one of the oldest in computer programming. The creators themselves say that the name means literally “A programming language with an unpronounceable abbreviation.” The creators of INTERCALL in 1972 were students Don Woods and James Lyon. Young people wanted to create a parody of existing programming languages, having trained their own brain. As a result of their brainchild, INTERCALL has fundamental differences from other languages. Habitual in other places, standard operations work here in an unusual way. The authors have made paradoxical constructions in their language, such as “COME FROM”, “FORGET” and even “PLEASE ABSTAIN FROM CALCULATING” (“go away,” “forget” and “please refrain from calculations”). Special names were data and symbols. So, the quotes are called rabbit ears, and the equal sign “=” is a half-lattice, since the lattice itself looks like “#”. Nevertheless, despite the unusual nature of such a language, it allows you to do the same calculations as any other normal programming tool.\n\n\nThe name of this language literally means “space”. This tool has a significant difference – for its control structures only unprintable characters are used, including a space, a tab and a line feed character. The consequence of this was the fact that the text of the program in this exotic language can be hidden inside the source code of another program. “Whitespace” was born on April 1, 2003, the authors were Edwin Brady and Chris Morris. Date of birth of the language was the reason that he was initially perceived as a joke.\n\n\nThe authors of this language in 2002 were David Morgan-Maron. Interestingly, the Chef programs are similar to cooking recipes. All variables are named after the main food products. Stacks, where the values of variables fall, are called “mizing bowls” (mixer bowl), and the operations for working with them are “mix”, “stir” (stir) and so on. The language “Chef” is based on the following principles:\n– the programming recipes should not only give the desired result, but also be easy to prepare and unusually tasty;\n– recipes should be available to any “cook”, regardless of his budget;\n– Traditional recipes are allowed in recipes, such as table spoons and cups.\nTo understand the uniqueness of this language, it is necessary to give only a list of ingredients used for the preparation – p (potatoes, potatoes), d (dijon mustard, mustard), l (lard, lard), r (red salmon, red salmon), o (oil , oil), w (water, water), z (zucchinis, zucchini).\n\n\nIn this language, the basis for the source code is the MIDI sound file. Programs are determined by the order of the notes and their height, which gives flexibility in writing the code. The creators say that they are striving for harmony inherent in music, in particular, jazz.All messages in the language begin with the main and common for all notes, and from it musical intervals are already set, which act as teams. In order for the rhythm in the messages to be more musical, the main note can be replaced.\n\n\nThis exotic language was created by John Aslaud and Karl Hasselstrom. The purpose of Shakespeare was to disguise the original text of the programs, giving them the play of a great playwright by analogy with the language of Chef. At the beginning of the program a list of characters is announced. Thus, the authors declare the number of stacks. As a result, they get names like Romeo or Juliet. Heroes communicate with each other, ask each other questions, in fact, perform I / O operations and use conditional operators. Although the program model is similar to assembler, in fact it is much more verbose. From the beginning of the document to the first blank line there is an epigraph. This compiler perceives this first paragraph as a comment. Parts of the code of the program in the language “Shakespeare” are called “Acts”, which are divided into scenes. Each “Scene”, like every “Act” is numbered with Roman numerals, serving as labels for the “GOTO” operator. In order for the characters to take part in the action, they need to go on stage first. To put them there, the “Enter” command serves. True, if there is more than one character on the scene, it becomes incomprehensible with whom exactly the communication is being conducted. Therefore, an extra character is deleted using the command “Exit”. At the end of the act or, if necessary, clean up the scene from several characters at once, you need to use the command “Exeunt”.\n\n\nThis software was created in 2006 by engineer Juraj Borza. The keywords of the language are very similar to the widespread slang on the Internet. The name “Omgrofl” is completely the result of combining the words “omg” and “rolf”. The latter is actually one of the commands of this language. It is curious that the variables in it should be a form of the slang language lol. So here you can see lool, loool, looool and so on.\n\n\nThis exotic language was invented by the already mentioned David Morgan-Marom. In this case, the programs are colored pictures, and the code is presented in the form of abstract drawings. As a result, the program in this language to an inexperienced look will remind the abstraction of the postmodernist. His name was given to the language by the Dutch artist Pete Mondrian. For programming, 20 different color shades are used. At the same time, 18 of them are connected with each other by means of cycles of hues and brightness. Only white and black colors are not included in these cycles.\n\n\nThe very first version of this language was born in 1993, and the author was Chris Pessi. As he claimed, his goal was to create a language as complex as possible for compilation. For this purpose, the “p” and “g” commands were introduced into the language, which modified the text of the program. Virtually all one-dimensional programming languages require some syntactic differences between the source code and the comments themselves. But in the language of Befunge does not provide any syntax for comment. In order to insert explanations in the code, the programmer simply “traverses” the control around this area. The task of the compiler is to detect such unmarked comments.\n\n\nThis unusual software tool was invented in 1998 by Ben Olmsted. He decided to create a language that would be as complex as possible to create programs on it. Yes, and the name was chosen suitable, because Malebolge – the eighth circle of hell Dante. To create the first program in this language took a long two years.\n\n\nThis language is one of the most famous among all the unusual means of this kind. The author of it was in 1993, the German Urban Muller, who created his offspring for fun. In the language of only eight commands, each one of them requires only one symbol.The original text of the program on Brainfuck looks like a sequence of these symbols without any additional syntax. Urban Muller recalls that he sought to create a language with the minimum possible compiler. Part of it was inspired by this work language FALSE, whose compiler was only 1024 bytes. And for the language Brainfuck in nature there are compilers less than 200 bytes! It’s so hard to write on it that programmers joke that this is the language for real masochists. It is no accident that the literal translation of Brainfuck means “intercourse with the brain”. Nevertheless, it should be noted that Brainfuck is not only a simple language, but also natural, complete and can be used to define the notion of computability.\n\nAdd a Comment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9156004190444946}
+{"content": "custom footbeds\n\n\nTwo recent studies (1.), (2.) question the merits of supporting the arch of a skier’s foot and especially any claims made that supporting the arch in neutral is the strongest position for skiing. \n\nIt is well established in the scientific literature that the plantar aponeurosis (aka plantar fascia or PA) is one of the major arch-supporting structures of the human foot. A positive correlation between Achilles tendon loading (ATF) and plantar fascia tension (PAF) has been reported. A study (3.) found that plantar aponeurosis forces (PAF) gradually increased during mid stance and peaked in late mid stance. The study found a good correlation between plantar aponeurosis tension (APF) and Achilles tendon force (ATF). The study concluded:\n\nThe plantar aponeurosis transmits large forces between the hindfoot and forefoot during the (mid) stance phase of gait. The varying pattern of plantar aponeurosis force (PAF) and its relationship to Achilles tendon force (ATF) demonstrates the importance of analyzing the function of the plantar aponeurosis throughout the stance phase of the gait cycle rather than in a static standing position. – (my emphasis added in bold)\n\n\nThe graphic below from Kevin Kirby’s Foot and Lower Extremity Biomechanics II: Precision Intricast Newsletters, 1997-2002 illustrates how the position of COM in relation to the foot tensions the GS (gastroc-Soleus) compressing the arch which tensions the plantar aponeurosis ligament. I have added arrows to indicate PA strain Force F and Shear Force as well as Arch Compression Force.\n\nThe graphic below also from Kevin Kirby’s Foot and Lower Extremity Biomechanics II: Precision Intricast Newsletters, 1997-2002 illustrates how the anterior (forward) advance of CoM in relation to the foot decreases rear foot loading (GRF-RF) and increases fore foot loading (GRF-FF). I have added a red dashed vertical line and a red triangle to show the approximate location of what would be what I term the tipping or pivot point where the foot would rock rearward and forward with a corresponding shift in CoM.\n\nThe two recent studies I referred to (1.), (2.) that question the merits of supporting the arch of a skier’s foot were actually done with subjects walking and running on flat and inclined surfaces. But the effect on arch compression is applicable to the effect of arch supports used in ski boots.\n\nNew Balance Minimus road MR00 shoes were provided to all participants to wear for testing (approx. weight 180 grams, zero heel-toe drop, no medial arch support and a uniform EVA midsole). Pockets filled with lead weights were affixed to the laces of both shoes in order to standardize foot weight across all shoe and insole conditions. The minimal shoe was chosen as a control condition in order to standardize non-insole effects as much as possible.\n\nTwo separate custom insoles were designed for each participant and fabricated by orthotic laboratory. The first insole was designed to restrict arch compression near-maximally compared to that during shod (barefoot) running (Full Arch Insole; FAI). The second insole was designed to restrict compression by approximately 50% during stance (Half Arch Insole; HAI). TO qualify for the study participants could not wear orthotics on a regular basis.\n\nThe study found:\n\nThe insert restricted maximum arch compression by approximately 70% when compared to unrestricted shod running and consequentially resulted in lower strain values throughout the entire stance phase. It should be noted that the PLF length only surpasses the estimated resting length between ~25%-80% of the stance phase in the insert condition (Fig 3). The negative strain values should be regarded as a slack PLF length, not as the PLF shortening beyond the resting length. \n\nThe graphic below from the paper The Foot’s Arch and the Energetics of Human Locomotion shows the maximum arch compression of subjects shod barefoot (Shoe-only), with the Half Insole that restricted arch compression to 50% of the maximum amount and with the Full Insole that maximally restricted arch compression. The Full Insole is typical of insoles used to support the arch of a skiers’ foot.\n\n\nThe insoles had no effect on the metabolic cost of walking despite restricting ~80% of arch compression. \n\nIn a personal communication with Sarah Stearne she advised me that the study didn’t measure muscle EMG activation with and without the insole but they did know that the ankle performed less positive (-8%) and negative (-10%) mechanical work when the insole was worn and that the ankle peak dorsiflexion moment was reduced (-7%). Based on the ankle moment and Achilles tendon moment arm data they calculated that there was ~6% less force in the Achilles tendon when the insole was worn.\n\nWhilst several studies have acknowledged the elastic energy storage potential of the PLF, this ligament is primarily regarded for its role in providing integrity to the bony arch structure, and in supplying the rigidity required for the foot to function as a lever during propulsion (or skiing, my comment) \n\nThis study confirms what I experienced in 1973 after I had full support custom orthotics made by a well known sports podiatrist. The orthotics felt comfortable standing on them and even walking. I experienced some discomfort when attempting to run with the orthotics in my jogging shoes. But when I tried skiing with them in my ski boots I felt as if my foot were floating on the top of the orthotic with little or no sensation of any force under my first MPJ.\n\nBased on the results of two cited studies I believe there is no basis to assume that supporting the arch of a skier’s feet will have positive benefits or is without adverse consequences without first conducting comparative studies using standardized controlls (no insole, flat boot board) and established scientific protocols.\n\n 1. The Foot’s Arch and the Energetics of Human Locomotion – Sarah M. Stearne1, Kirsty A. McDonald1, Jacqueline A. Alderson1, Ian North2, Charles E. Oxnard3 & Jonas Rubenson1,4 – (January 19, 2016)\n 2. The Role of Arch Compression and Metatarsophalangeal Joint Dynamics in Modulating Plantar Fascia Strain in Running – Kirsty A. McDonald1, Sarah M. Stearne1, Jacqueline A. Alderson1, Ian North2, Neville J. Pires1, Jonas Rubenson1,3* – (April 7, 2016)\n 3. Dynamic loading of the plantar aponeurosis in walking – Erdemir A, Hamel AJ, Fauth AR, Piazza SJ, Sharkey NA\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOrthotics. The pros / cons of orthotics in today’s society!\n\n\n\n\n\n • Strong feet = strong foundation = strong body.\n\nThe Real Source of Support for the Arch\n\n\nAre Custom Footbeds and Orthotics better than stock insoles?\n\n\n\n\nFootbeds; is anyone checking what they do?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA widespread perception appears to exist within the skiing community is that the ability to hold a ski on edge by using the leg to exert force against the side of the stiff shaft of a ski boot and staying upright and not falling, equates with good balance. This ingrained perception presents a challenge in terms of communicating how the world’s best skiers create a platform under the body of the outside ski that they can stand and balance on using the same processes that we all use to stand and balance on a hard, flat level surface.\n\nLast ski season, I developed simple cue to help skiers find the right mechanics and biomechanics as the new outside ski goes flat between edge change and then rolls into the turn on its new inside edge. At ski flat, if a skier has the right stance, they should feel strong pressure under the ball and the big toe. As the skier extends and inclines into the new turn, the outside leg should be rotated into the turn to point the big toe in the direction of the turn. Hence the cue, press and point the big toe. This pressure under the ball of the foot and big toe should be maintained through the turn phase until it is released by the transfer or weight to the inside (uphill) ski at the start of the transition to the inside. The strong pressure under the ball of the foot and the force that presses the big toe down flat is passively created by a strong stance, not conscious effort.\n\nThe Reverse Windlass\n\nThe pressure under the big toe is created by what is called the Reverse Windlass Mechanism. This naturally happens in the late phase of stance when walking barefoot. But wearing shoes with raised heels and cushioned insoles makes it impossible for the Reverse Windlass to function. When the Reverse Windlass is lost, it must be re-acquired by being barefoot as much as possible and walking, running and training in zero drop, thin soled minimal shoes. In some cases, people have to learn to walk naturally by rehearsing the action.\n\nThere is an excellent YouTube video by Teodoro Vazquez on Blog del Runner called Windlass Mechanism and Running Biomechanics – Vazquez describes the 3 phases of the windlass mechanism, Active (Activo), Reverse (Inverso) and Passive (Pasivo). Although the video is directed at running, the primary concepts have direct application to skiing and ski technique. The reverse windlass is activated by the weight as shown in the graphic below from Vazquez’s YouTube video.\n This tensions the arch of the foot and presses the big toe down.\nAs the shank angle increases, the soleus muscle goes into isometric contraction and arrests further shank movement. The results in a heel to forefoot rocker action that dramatically increases the down force under the ball of the foot and the big toe. What I call the Spinal Reflex or SR Stance maximizes the down forces.\n\nIt is important that when the big toe (aka Hallux) is pressed down flat, the ball of the foot and big toe feel like one. When the big toe is pressed down properly, you should feel your glutes tighten. The leg you are standing on should be straight and the knee pointed straight ahead.\n\nAn important muscle in the Reverse Windlass is the Flexor Hallucis Longis or FHL. When the soleus goes into isometric contraction, the FHL is tensioned. This stabilizes the foot and knee by rotating them away from the center line of the body.\n\nThings that prevent the Reverse Windlass\n\n1. A condition called Hallux (big toe) Valgus\n2. Narrow shoes and especially shoes with a pointed toe box.\n3. Ski boots, especially ski boot liners.\n4. Shoes with elevated heels, cushioning and toe spring (toes raised up). Note: A small amount of ramp angle is necessary for the SR Stance.\n5. Footbeds and Insoles.\nIn my next post, I will discuss fixes to enable and/or restore the Reverse Windlass.\n\n\nThe big epiphany I had about 1975, was that the foot needed to be supported in the new plastic ski boots and that it was a lack of support that was causing my difficulties skiing after switching from low cut leather boots to the new higher, rigid plastic boots.\n\nBack then, I was an avid runner. As best I can recall, it was an article in Runner’s World on running injuries caused by over-pronation that served as a catalyst for my conclusion that the foot needed to be supported in a ski boot. I assumed that what was being reported in running magazines was both factual and derived from science-based investigations. While I had not found anything in the literature that suggested that the foot needed to be supported in a ski boot, it seemed logical to me that if runners needed support in their shoes, the need for support in a ski boot was many times greater. But my conclusion was based on the assumption that over-pronation was a pathology and that it was a proven cause of injuries in running. Therefor, it was also a problem in skiing.\n\nPronation and over-pronation was a new concept to me in 1975. My running partners and I all ran in flats with no arch support. None of us had ever heard of, let alone experienced, knee pain or the myriad of other problems that were fast becoming an integral part of running and were claimed to be caused by overpronation.\n\nSoon after I read the article on overpronation, I made an appointment with a podiatrist in Vancouver to have my feet examined. I was hopeful that he would find the defect(s) in my foot that were causing me difficulties in skiing in the new plastic boots. But after a thorough examination, he pronounced my feet healthy and normal. Undeterred, I made an appointment for my wife and I with a well known sports podiatrist in Seattle, Washington, almost 800 miles round trip to and from Whistler. We made a special trip to Seattle to have prescription orthotics made for our ski boots. But far from helping, they made both of our skiing worse, much worse. Still, I remained convinced that the foot needed support in a ski boot.\n\nBetween 1977 and about 1983, I made a lot of footbeds for ski boots. From the first pair of footbeds I made, I received positive feedback. Skiers loved them. Some skiers told me they would never ski again without the footbeds I made for them. Even today, I encounter skiers who are still using the same footbeds I made for them 40 years ago. Did this subjective feedback serve as evidence that my footbeds made skiers ski better? No.\n\nBy about 1989, I was still unable to understand why I was continuing to experience difficulty skiing even after trying numerous pair of plastic ski boots. At that time, I was struggling to invent and patent a ski boot based on sound principles of functional anatomy\n\nI finally came to the realization that the only way to arrive at meaningful conclusions about how the human system should ideally function in skiing was to design and fabricate an open-architecture research vehicle, one that minimized any neural noise that was unavoidably caused by interference with the physiologic function of the user by structures of the conventional ski boot. It had become apparent to me that it is the level of ‘neural noise’ and interference to physiologic function caused by a tightly fitting ski boot that prevents anyone from proving how a ski boot affects a skier.\n\nThe Birdcage allowed the capture of data during actual ski maneuvers that showed how some of the world’s best skiers skied and especially what happened when specific joint actions were interfered with.\n\nIt was was also about 1989 that I was starting to question how an insole or orthotic fit to one ski boot could produce the same result in a different ski boot or with skis with different sidecuts, especially width underfoot and different lift heights of the sole of the foot above the surface of the snow. I was also starting to question how the same stock or custom insole or orthotic could produce the same effect when used in different shoes. A custom insole for a female might be used in casual shoes, flats, running shoes, walking shoes, hiking boots and even spiked, high heel shoes. And what happens to the effects produced by an insole or orthotic when the sole of the shoe it is used in wears unevenly?\n\nIt was obvious to me, and should be obvious to anyone, that it is impossible for an insole or orthotic to consistently produce the same effect in widely varying footwear that each affect the foot in a different way. \n\nDespite the many questions I was having about insoles and orthotics, I continued to believe that they had value in some applications. In the years following the Birdcage tests of 1991, my wife had two different pairs of prescription orthotics made, both by reputable labs, for issues with hip and back pain. Neither pair provided any perceivable benefit. Both pairs were eventually discarded.\n\nThe best skiing experience today for my wife and I is with perfectly flat insoles and boot boards that provide no perceivable interference with the dynamics of the arches of our feet. Even the slightest impingement is immediately perceived. All of the shoes I wear have either flat insoles or no insoles. If I purchase a shoe with an insole with arch support, I modify it to remove the support.\n\n\n\n\nAccording to Benno Nigg, no one knows for sure. From 1981 until he retired recently, Nigg founded and was the Director of the Human Performance Laboratory (HPL) at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Human Performance Laboratory is a multi-disciplinary research centre concentrating on the study of the human body and its locomotion. From 1971 until 1981, Nigg was the Director of the Biomechanics Laboratory at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).\n\nFor more than 30 years, Nigg studied the effects of insoles and orthotics on the lower limbs. What he found was that most of the time they didn’t do what was claimed. Often, the effect of the same insole or orthotic varied greatly from one subject to another even though they had the same condition. In some cases, Nigg found that orthotics had a large effect on muscles and joints, increasing muscle activity by as much as 50% for the same movement while increasing stress on joints by the same amount as the body fought to overcome the effect of the orthotic. Nigg also found that “corrective” orthotics do not correct so much as lead to a reduction in muscle strength. He details his findings in his book, Biomechanics of Sports Shoes. The book can be ordered from\n\nIf no one knows what insoles and orthotics in footwear affect the user, how is it possible for anyone to know insoles and orthotics in ski boots affect skiers? I am not taking about claims made for insoles and orthotics made for ski boots. I am talking about how they affect the skier during ski maneuvers as confirmed by on-snow studies. The pivotal issue is how the CNS manages, or isn’t able to manage, the forces across the inside edge of the outside ski in a turn. This is what any claims should focus on. But I have yet to find evidence that any studies to this effect have been done.\n\nYou’ve been to a ski boot-fitting shop or perhaps a foot professional and had custom insoles or orthotics made for your ski boots. You may have been told that these interventions will create a specific alignment of your knees with some aspect of your feet. You may have also been told that your feet pronate or over-pronate and that insoles or orthotics will correct these issues. In addition, you may have been told that you will ski better with the insoles or orthotics or an expectation was created that you would. This expectation may have been reinforced by the fact that you probably felt very different standing in your boots with the insoles or orthotics fit to them than you did without them.\n\nOut on the ski hill with your boots and skis on you probably also felt different than you did without your new insoles or orthotics. But are you skiing better? You might think you are, especially after paying several hundred dollars or more. But how do you know for sure? You don’t. Unless the person who made your custom insoles or orthotics instrumented your ski boots and captured data during actual skiing both before and after the insoles or orthotics were installed and then compared the data sets to peer reviewed, independent studies that provided compelling evidence that the data captured during skiing conclusively demonstrated a positive effect of the insoles or orthotics on your skiing, any claims made were speculative and any conclusions, subjective. More important, claims tend to be biased because a product is associated with them.\n\nYou are probably thinking that none of this matters because there is an abundance of science in support of custom insoles and orthotics. But in a New York Times article, Close Look at Orthotics Raises a Welter of Doubts – January 17, 2011 (, Benno Nigg looked critically at insoles and orthotics. His overall conclusion? Shoe inserts or orthotics may be helpful as a short-term solution, preventing injuries in some athletes. But it is not clear how to make inserts that work. The idea that they are supposed to correct mechanical-alignment problems does not hold up.”\n\nIn the same NY Times article, Scott D. Cummings, president of the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists, acknowledged that the trade is only now moving toward becoming a science and that when it comes to science and rigorous studies, “comparatively, there isn’t a whole lot of evidence out there.” Dr. Nigg would agree. The proof that orthotics provide benefit? Some people feel better using them than not using them. So any evidence is in the form of highly individualized, subjective feel. What about skiing? Is claiming that the foot needs to be supported and/or especially that the foot functions best in skiing when its joints are immobilized in neutral, sufficient to claim a benefit or implied need for insoles or orthotics in skiing? Hardly.\n\nThe first thing to consider is that unless the load W from the central load-bearing axis is transferred to the inside turn aspect of the inside edge of the outside ski it is impossible for the foot to pronate. In addition, in this configuration, the outside foot cannot be ‘supported’ because there is no support in the form of a contiguous source of snow reaction force under the base of the outside ski.\n\nWhen Lange introduced the world’s first all plastic ski boot in in 1962, biomechanical research on human locomotion was in its infancy. Biomechanical studies of sports shoes, including ski boots, were nonexistent. The first edition of Inman’s seminal work, The Joints of the Ankle, wasn’t published until 1976. What did it take for the new rigid plastic ski boot to be universally accepted? A few trips to the podium.\n\nWhen running and jogging took off in the early 1970s, insoles and orthotics and were widely promoted in response to injuries that were erroneously assumed to be caused by excessive (over) pronation. Were there any studies to support this conclusion? No. Nor, was there any evidence that I am aware to support the position of the proponents of insoles and orthotics that the foot needed or would benefit from support in ski boots. As far as I have been able to determine, the need to support the foot in a ski boot was and still is based on a widely accepted assumption. If pronation was a problem in running, then it had to be a problem in skiing. That made sense. Except that it didn’t. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, studies were showing that there was only minimal correlation between high pronation and high impact loading and typical running injuries. Nigg and other researchers suggested that no evidence was found because there was no evidence. Researcher had been trying to prove pronation was the cause of running injuries instead of trying to find the cause.\n\nTwo recent studies question the validity of the premise of supporting the longitudinal arch of the foot, especially in ski boots.\n\n\nDynamic loading of the plantar aponeurosis in walking\n\nBACKGROUND: The plantar aponeurosis is known to be a major contributor to arch support, but its role in transferring Achilles tendon loads to the forefoot remains poorly understood. The goal of this study was to increase our understanding of the function of the plantar aponeurosis during gait. We specifically examined the plantar aponeurosis force pattern and its relationship to Achilles tendon forces during simulations of the stance phase of gait in a cadaver model.\nRESULTS: Plantar aponeurosis forces gradually increased during stance and peaked in late stance. Maximum tension averaged 96% +/- 36% of body weight. There was a good correlation between plantar aponeurosis tension and Achilles tendon force (r = 0.76).\n\nCONCLUSIONS: The plantar aponeurosis transmits large forces between the hindfoot and forefoot during the stance phase of gait. The varying pattern of plantar aponeurosis force and its relationship to Achilles tendon force demonstrates the importance of analyzing the function of the plantar aponeurosis throughout the stance phase of the gait cycle rather than in a static standing position.\n\n\nFor years, experts have claimed that skiing is done in the mid phase of stance in what is called the gait cycle. What the preceding study clearly shows is that the strongest stance in skiing in terms of the ability to transfer force to the head of the first metatarsal and functional stability of the structures of the foot occurs in the late phase of stance, not the mid phase. The graphic below provides a simulated representation of the sequence by which Achilles tendon force tensions the plantar aponeurosis and transfers large forces to the forefoot, especially to the head of the first metatarsal.\n\nFoot Dynamcs 3\n\nNew studies are questioning the premise of supporting the arch of the foot with anything because neural activity in the arch of the foot appears to be potentiated by tension in the plantar aponeurosis and surrounding soft tissue. Rather than being a passive static entity in its role as a support structure for the superincumbent body, the arch is a dynamic, neurally charged system whose height changes in response to changes in perturbations in GRF that challenge the balance system.\n\n\nFoot anatomy specialization for postural sensation and control\n\nThese findings show that rather than serving as a rigid base of support, the foot is compliant, in an active state, and sensitive to minute deformations. In conclusion, the architecture and physiology of the foot appear to contribute to the task of bipedal postural control with great sensitivity. Here, we show that the foot, rather than serving as rigid base of support, is in an active, flexible state and is sensitive to minute perturbations even if the entire hind and midfoot is stably supported and the ankle joint is unperturbed.\n\nHowever, support of the body weight in the erect posture involves not only the counterbalancing of the gravitational load, but also equilibrium maintenance, which is dynamic in nature. Accordingly, somatosensory information on local foot deformations can be provided from numerous receptors in the foot arch ligaments, joint capsules, intrinsic foot muscles, and cutaneous mechanoreceptors on the plantar soles (Fallon et al. 2005; Gimmon et al. 2011; Kavounoudias et al. 1998; Magnusson et al. 1990; Meyer et al. 2004; Schieppati et al. 1995).\n\nDuring standing, the foot arch probe and shin sway revealed a significant correlation, which shows that as the tibia tilts forward, the foot arch flattens and vice versa.\n\nIt is worth stressing that the foot represents an important receptive field, formed by numerous skin, joint, tendon, and muscular receptors (including intrinsic foot muscles), and it has long been recognized that damage to the foot, be it either by sensorineural loss or physical damage to the muscles, bones, or supporting tissues, changes posture and gait stability.\n\nA number of cutaneous and load-related reflexes may participate in the fine control of posture or foot positioning during walking.\n\n\nAlmost any structure that provides even minimal support for the arches of the foot will prevent the arch from lowering and transferring force to the MTs and will interfere with the function of the arch as an active, dynamic neuro-sensory mechanism.\n\nClaims made for insoles and orthotics create a reasonable expectation in the consumer that what is experienced in an off hill controlled environment will also happen on the ski slopes. Terms of disclosure require that any claims be qualified with statements like, “These claims have not been confirmed during actual ski maneuvers”.\n\n\n\n\n\nGiven the widespread confusion and misunderstanding surrounding pronation and it’s role in skiing that seems to exist I am going to provide some drills that will teach you how to assume a functionally pronated position.\n\nFunctional pronation is specific to monopedal (one-foot) stance especially as it relates to the ability to assume and move from one dynamically tensioned base of support to another. Once you have a feel for the functionally pronated monopedal position you can go through series of drills standing in your bare feet on a hard flat surface. Next you can stand in your ski boots starting in the boot shell after which you can add the liner with no insole followed by the liner with an insole or custom footbed. By using the feeling associated with standing in your bare feet on a hard, level, flat surface and then comparing the sensations to standing in your ski boots on a hard, level, flat surface you can experience for yourself how the various elements around and beneath the sole of your foot affect your ability to assume a functionally pronated position or even stand properly on two feet. As a prelude to providing drills on how to assume a functionally pronated monopedal stance, I will provide a brief history of the events that contributed to my current position on pronation, footbeds and insoles in general in skiing.\n\nIn my initial years of modifying ski boots I was a big proponent of footbeds. In those days, my work on ski boots was very much aligned with conventional views of immobilizing and supporting the foot and leg. But my disastrous experiences with Dave Murray got me rethinking this. By the time I began working with Steve Podborski, I was moving in a direction away from conventional thinking. In 1980, I had a huge breakthrough with a in-boot technology for which I was later awarded a patent. This was the turning point at which severed any association I had with conventional thinking in ski boots and started fresh with a clean sheet of paper; one that did not include any premises on which existing ski boots are based.\n\nBy 1991, when Steve Podborski and I initiated a research program to test my hypothesis on the mechanics, biomechanics and physics of skiing, my thinking was so far from convention that I insisted on retaining two scientists to provide oversight on the project. This included reviewing everything I put in writing but especially my patent. This process was intended to ensure that the principles I was using were both sound and correct. One of the scientist was G. Robert Colborne, Ph.D, an expert in the biomechanics of the human lower limbs. After reviewing my hypothesis, the initial impression of these scientists was that if it were correct it meant the whole world was wrong. Because I was in uncharted territory it was critical to me to have my findings confirmed before going forward. Once the wheels of a new technology are set in motion and significant money has been invested, it is hard to change direction, and especially to reverse direction. For this reason, we did a series of on snow studies in 1991 on Whistler’s glacier to confirm my hypothesis. I will provide details of the results in future posts.\n\nThe image below shows the model engaged in quiet standing Bipedal stance. The major muscles responsible for maintaining COP within the limits of the base of support in the feet in an upright posture or stance are being tensioned in eccentric contraction. There four positions of Centre of Mass in relation to the feet with weight distribution as follows from 1 to 4:\n\n1. Centre of Mass is just in front of the base of the shin. The heel of each foot is carrying about 60-70% of the load. This represents the rearmost limit of Centre of Mass. Should CoM fall behind the base of the shin, a rearward fall will result.\n\n2. Centre of Mass is in the proximate centre of the span of the longitudinal arch. The heel of each foot is carrying approximately 50% of the load. The balls of the feet are carrying the remaining 50% of the load. The ball of the great toe of each foot is carrying twice as much load as the other 4 balls the foot. This position represents the most stable and efficient form of bipedal stance.\n\n3. Centre of Mass is approaching the balls of the feet. The eccentric contraction of the muscles that plantarflex (push down) the feet is increasing. The balls of the feet are carrying the remaining 60-70% of the load of each foot.\n\n4. Centre of Mass is almost over the balls of the feet. The contraction of the muscles that plantarflex the feet has further increased. The muscles that push the toes down are now contracting forcefully, pushing the toes against the floor. This is the absolute forward limit of Centre of Mass in quiet standing. The toes act as a fail safe by pressing down onto the support surface in what is called the Reverse Windlass Mechanism. This mechanism tensions the forefoot into a rigid lever in preparation for propulsive phase of gait. At this point, almost all the weight is being carried on the balls of the feet and the toes. Should CoM pass the balls of the feet without evoking plantarflexion of the ankle, a forward fall will occur.\n\nScreen Shot 2014-02-10 at 10.03.33 AMBIPEDAL DRILLS\n\nThese should be done in bare feet on a hard, flat, level surface. Start with the second position.\n\nDrill 1. Stand erect with your feet a natural hip width apart and with a small angle of flexion at the knee joint. Release any tension from your body and allow your feet to settle onto the surface of the floor. Do not consciously apply force with your feet. Tune in to the pressures in your feet and buttocks. Sway back and forth slightly using only ankle flexion. Find the point at which the weight feels even between your heels and balls of your feet. You should feel slightly more pressure under the ball of your big toe than under the balls of your other toes. This is normal. Look down at your knees. They should be aligned straight ahead.\n\nDrill 2. Using only the ankle joint, press down on the balls of your feet until you feel most of the weight on under your heels. Do not go too far. This is the limit of the rearward movement of C0P. At this point you are on the verge of a backward fall. Look down at your knees. They should be aligned straight ahead.\n\nDrill 3. Using only the ankle joint, release the pressure under the balls of your feet until you feel more of the weight on the balls of feet than your heel. Look down at your knees. They should be aligned straight ahead.\n\nDrill 4. Using only the ankle joint, release more pressure under the balls of your feet until you feel the weight pressing down hard on the balls of your feet and your toes. Do not go too far. This is the limit of the forward movement of C0P. At this point you are on the verge of a forward fall. Look down at your knees. They should be aligned straight ahead.\n\n\n1. Start from position 2 above.\n\n2. Move your Centre of Mass slowly towards whichever one of your feet you most comfortable and confident with.\n\n3. As you move towards one foot allow your ankle and leg to relax and roll inward, towards the L-R centre of your body.\n\n4. When you feel the pressure strongly under the ball of your foot move, allow the ankle to relax and your Centre of Mass to move forward into position 3 above. As this happens lift the other foot off the floor. You will feel a pronounced change in the tension of the gluteus muscles in same side as your support foot in your buttocks. If your foot is functionally pronated you will feel most of the pressure under the ball of your foot.\n\nCongratulations. You have achieved functional pronation and a dynamically tensioned base of support. Now try putting insoles and arch supports under your foot and feet. Do the same drills and see what happens.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8653128743171692}
+{"content": "Start introduction dbq essay\n\nStudents are constantly asked to write DBQ essays, but many have trouble developing an understanding of how to do so. Through this mnemonic \"Historian\", students can learn a way to remember how to write a DBQ essay like a true historian. DBQs , Outlines , Mnemonics. Using this method, the student will plan more, but spend much less time writing because the difficult part of the essay has been completed. These instructions reflect the most recent changes to th. History , European History , World History. Following a step-by-step process, I review an example prompt and an example introduction paragraph in response to that prompt.\n\nBefore you Read\n\nIf your students can grasp how to. World History. Government , U. How to write a DBQ essay. This is a detailed handout of how to write DBQ essays. How to Write a DBQ. PowerPoint Presentations. This product offers 3 PowerPoints that teaches students how to successfully answer DBQs how to answer them and how they are graded. Also included is a 4 page blank outline for answering DBQ Questions.\n\nHow to Write a DBQ Essay (with Pictures) wikiHow\n\nIt helps students structure their paragraphs and keep the documents and citations organized. This is a useful 2-page handout to give to your secondary students that lists and explains the steps on how to write a standard Document Based Question DBQ. QR Code video links are included to give more detailed explanation if needed. DBQs , Handouts. You can reuse this every time you assign an essay! You can purchase the corresponding power point from my store. DBQs , Graphic Organizers. How to Write a Thesis Statement. This handout helps students to understand what the purpose of a thesis statement in a paper is and gives them a checklist to follow to make sure that their thesis statement is effective and thorough.\n\nWorks great in a lesson to review the checklist first, go through examples of different thesis state.\n\nHow to Write a DBQ Essay\n\nDBQs , Handouts , Printables. How to really write a DBQ essay. Explain the term Document Based Questions and give examples of sources them by copying the notes and answering question based discussion Evaluate Document Based Questions and complete the essay. Lesson Plans Individual , Assessment.\n\nYou can reuse this power point every time you assign an essay! You can print the slides to use as a graphic orga. Guide to Writing a DBQ. This writing guide helps students to understand how to write a DBQ, how to structure their paper, and includes a list of common dos and don'ts in writing a DBQ.\n\nIt helps them assess how they are reading the documents, organizing them, understand how to best use the documents, and information that sh.\n\n 1. DBQ Essay Writing Help.\n 2. korean war essay paper?\n 3. college essay site.\n 4. DDoS protection..\n 5. essays on the movie frida.\n\nSocial Studies - History , Writing. Writing a DBQ Introduction. The DBQ Essay can be a monumental task for many students.\n\nOutline of a DBQ Essay\n\nLuckily, it is assessed through a point-based rubric which allows students to master the essay in steps. It provides detailed step-by-step instructions. History , European History.\n\nDBQs , Handouts , Outlines. How to write a History DBQ. After the introduction, explain the thesis statement by providing necessary supporting details from the given documents. Make sure you do not copy all the points from the documents. Blend your knowledge with the points from documents and that would be the best.\n\nKeep the AP history requirements in mind while blending your points. For AP US history, you will be asked to provide maximum details from the outside sources while some points can be cited from the given documents. At least two paragraphs are necessary for a document based essay. Each paragraph should explain one point. For bonus points, prove that the points you have stated have evidence in the documents. Be precise while providing information.\n\nYour point of view should be clear in a minimum number of words. Writing the whole stories will not give you marks. Apart from how to write the body paragraphs, be confident with your points and show that you have understood the period really well. After the body paragraphs, a strong conclusion will make your way to bonus marks. A strong conclusion and introduction have equal importance. Restate the thesis statement and summarize your discussion into two or three sentences. The conclusion should not include any new point and must be brief. To be precise, analyze the documents carefully.\n\nDBQ Essay Writing - Introduction & Conclusion by Kayla Neill on Prezi\n\nDo not copy all the points from documents; add information from other resources as well. Manage your time for the better reading of documents and then writing the essay. Keep a five-minute margin for revising the essay; everyone can make mistakes while writing. Extensive research for a high-quality paper that will suite professor's wishes can take a lot of time. Our experts in custom writing will do it for you with pleasure. Toll Free:. Leave your contacts to learn more about them first! Send It To Me.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6164289712905884}
+{"content": "Linear Equations\nDomain and Range Domain refers to the x component of a point in the form (x,y). Range refers to the y component of a point in the form (x,y). If you are asked to find the domain of a set of points, simply list the x-values of those points. Likewise, if you are asked to find the range of a set of points, simply list the y-values of those points. Example 1: Find the domain and the range of the following set. {(4,5), (7,8), (-1,3), (3,3), (2,-3)} Domain: Range: {-1, 2, 3, 4, 7} {-3, 3, 5, 8}\n\nWhat is a Function? An equation or grouping of ordered pairs is a function if and only if no two ordered pairs have the same first coordinate and different second coordinates. Example 2: Example 3: Example 4: Is {(4,5), (2, -4), (1,3)} a function? Yes, it is a function. None of the x-values repeat. Is {(1,-4), (3,5), (3,4), (4, 5)} a function? No, it is not a function. (3,5) and (3,4) have the same x-value. Is {(-1,-2), (2,3), (3,7), (4, 10), (2,3)} a function? Yes, it is. (2,3) is just repeated.\n\nFunctional Notation f(x) f(x) is a notation for the naming of functions. The letter f is the name of the function and (x) represents the variable in the function. For example, f(3) means that you should replace the x’s with the number 3. Example 5: Given f(x) = x2 + 5, find f(-2). f(-2) = x2 + 5 f(-2) = (-2)2 + 5 f(-2) = 4 + 5 f(-2) = 9 Evaluate D(e) = 3e - 1, where e = 2. D(2) = 3(2) - 1 D(2) = 6 - 1 D(2) = 5\n\nExample 6:\n\nProvided by Tutoring Services\n\n\nLinear Equations\n\nThere are two forms that are used with linear equations – standard form and slope-intercept form. It is important to remember that you can switch between the two forms just by algebraically rearranging a problem. Standard Form Ax + By = C This is one of the two forms of a linear equation. The letters A, B, and C represent numbers. The numbers may not be fractions. The most common way to graph an equation in standard form is to find the x and y intercepts. The x and y intercepts are...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9949896931648254}
+{"content": "Makulay na Filipinas (Colourful Philippines)\n\nSaturday, February 2, 2019 - 14:15 to 14:45\n\n\nLahing Kayumanggi Dance Company\n\nFounded in 1994\n\n\nIn 2014 LK proudly celebrated its 20th anniversary since its humble beginnings as an informal community group led by choreographer Ronnie del Barrio, who had been commission by the Philippine Centre to create a cultural performance for their annual event. Together with members of the Filipino Women’s Assocition UK and other individuals Ronnie founded the dance company in 1994, which has since progressed and developed as a respected and admired dance company.\n\n\nLK has gained an international reputation as Europe’s foremost Filipino folk and cultural dance company and as goodwill ambassadors for the Philippines in promoting Philippine cultural heritage. LK have had invitations to perform across the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe — Amsterdam, Berlin, Bayreuth, Copenhagen, Dublin, Malmö, Stockholm, Vienna.\n\n\nOur mix of professional choreographers, trained dancers and volunteers from the Filipino community in London and Manila has earned the company the prestigious Presidential Banaag Award in 2006, and in 2012 LK was announced winner of ABS-CBN Gawad Geny Lopez Jr. Bayaning Pilipino Awards Europe not just for artistic excellence but also for our commitment to serve the community. We value the recognition that we consistently receive because it makes us feel that we are doing things right!\n\n\nLK is a non-profit organisation and relies entirely on sponsorships and donations for ongoing expenses.*F\n\n\n\n\n—Sayap - Showing the different ways of using the Kalinga cloth \n\n\n\n—“Banga”dance literally mean pots. The Banga or pot dance is a contemporary performance of Kalinga of the Mountain Province in the Philippines. This dance illustrate the languid grace of a tribe otherwise known as fierce warriors. Heavy earthen pots, as many as seven or eight at a time, are balanced on the heads of maidens as they trudge to the beat of the \"gangsa\" or wind chimes displaying their stamina and strength as they go about their daily task of fetching water and balancing the banga.\n\n\n—Baile De Amor - Dance of love\n\n—Jota Rizal - Honouring the national hero, Jose Rizal, this lively and popular dance from Batangas has movements influenced by the Spanish jota.\n\n\n\n\n\n—Singkil - \n\n\n\n—Kundiman (Solo Guitar Player)\n\n\n—Subli – the term ‘subli’, is from two Tagalog words, ‘subsub’ meaning bending and ‘bali’ meaning broken. Dancers’ move in a stooped way during most of the dance. From Bauan, Batangas, it is a religious, ritual dance honouring the Holy Cross\n\n\n—Pandanggo sa IIlaw - dance of lights guiding the fisher folk after a night’s catch. Dancers gracefully balance three lamps on their head and both hands whilst twirling and swaying.\n\n\n\n\n—Salakot - A ritual type of dance where the female dancers each hold a “salakot” or a female native hat to honor or pay homage to “Santa Clara” to ask favor or thanks giving. This dance originated in the province of Bulacan.\n\n\n—Tinikling - Dancers imitate the tikling bird’s legendary grace and speed as they skillfully play, chase each other, run over tree branches, or dodge bamboo traps set by rice farmers. Hence it is named after the bird, tikling. this version of the dance is done between a pair of bamboo poles\n\n\n—Bahay-Kubo - (Song) Nipa Hut\n\n—MAbuhay - (Song) Long Live!\n\n< Back", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9651167392730713}
+{"content": "\n\nPositive self talk key to improving emotional IQ\n\nEmotional IQ expert and \"Permission to Feel\" author shares strategies for improving how we talk to ourselves.\n\nSEATTLE — When bad things happen, how do you talk to yourself? \n\nWhat are things you say to yourself when you make a mistake?\n\nMarc Brackett, Ph.D., is the Founder and Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the lead developer of RULER, an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that has been adopted by nearly 2,000 Pre-K through high schools across the United States and in other countries.\n\nBrackett says learning to regulate our emotions is key to emotional intelligence; and negative self talk can get in the way. \n\nHe shared three strategies for developing better and more positive self-talk:\n\n1. Use your first name when talking to yourself about something difficult. For example, \"Angela, you can get through this.\" \n\n2. Remind yourself this is temporary. \n\n3. Ask yourself what would you say to your closest friend or loved one in a similar situation.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5522153973579407}
+{"content": "Craft Beer Boom Linked to Record Number of US States Growing Hops\n\nThe findings suggest that as more craft breweries emerge around the country, so may new opportunities for farmers\n\nPenn State\n\nThe number of hop farms in a state is related to the number of craft breweriesCREDIT: Penn State\n\nCraft breweries aren't just a fun place to meet up with friends. They may be fueling an unprecedented geographic expansion of hop production across the US, according to researchers at Penn State and the University of Toledo. Their findings suggest that as more craft breweries emerge around the country, so may new opportunities for farmers.\n\nHops are a key ingredient in beer production, providing aroma and bittering characteristics. Before 2007, hop production in the US was limited to only three Pacific Northwest states—Oregon, Washington, and Idaho—according to Claudia Schmidt, assistant professor of agricultural economics in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Citing a report released this year by the Hop Growers of America, she said that 29 states are now engaging in hop production.\n\n\"Our study is the first to systematically show that the number of hop farms in a state is related to the number of craft breweries,\" said Schmidt. \"It suggests that in areas where hop production is possible and not cost-prohibitive, breweries are expanding markets for farmers and providing an opportunity to diversify farm income.\"\n\nUsing data from the U.S. Census of Agriculture and ReferenceUSA, the researchers found that from 2007 to 2017, the number of breweries in the US more than quadrupled from 992 to more than 4,000, and that the number of breweries in a state is associated with more hop farms and hop acres five years later. The number of hop farms grew from 68 to 817, and hop acreage expanded from 31,145 to 59,429 acres.\n\n\"This growth has not only led to interesting changes in the locations of hop farms across the US, but it has positioned the U.S. as the largest producer of hops globally, both in terms of acreage and production,\" said Elizabeth Dobis, a postdoctoral scholar at the Penn State-based Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, and lead author of the study.\n\nWorking with farm, brewery, and climate data, the researchers developed a statistical model to determine whether new craft breweries in a state between 2007 and 2017 resulted in a larger number of hop producers and hop acres planted, by both new and existing growers in that state. They built a time-lag into their model to identify the effect of new breweries over time. They also controlled for other variables that may influence farmers to start growing hops, such as average farm size, average net farm income, and climate.\n\nTheir findings, which were published recently in the Journal of Wine Economics, are correlational and do not point to a clear cause-and-effect. However, the time-lag built into the model indicates that the growth in breweries preceded the growth in hop farms, said Dobis.\n\nOne possible explanation for the trend is that the growing consumer demand for locally sourced food and beverages encourages craft brewers to seek out locally grown ingredients, said Schmidt.\n\n\"While most craft breweries serve a local market, they haven't always sourced local ingredients for their beers,\" Schmidt said. \"But if you're a brewer looking to differentiate yourself in an increasingly crowded market, sourcing ingredients locally is an approach that some brewers have found to be effective.\"\n\nFor example, in a project unrelated to this study, Penn State Extension's Kristy Borrelli and Maria Graziani conducted focus groups with Pennsylvania craft brewers, who reported that sourcing ingredients locally helps them connect with their customers' sense of place and preference for a flavor profile that is unique to the region.\n\nIf more brewers are looking for hops grown nearby, then more farmers may be willing to try growing them, even if only on a small scale. For instance, in Pennsylvania only 17 farms reported hop production in 2017, and their combined acreage is small—only 21 acres in all, according to the U.S. Census of Agriculture.\n\nLooking forward, the researchers said that they will collaborate with Penn State Extension to identify the specific attributes and price points that Pennsylvania craft brewers are looking for in order to help inform farmers' production decisions.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9429975152015686}
+{"content": "The Department of Justice and Equality wishes to confirm that the Citizenship ceremonies, scheduled for the 2nd and 3rd March in the INEC Killarney, will proceed as planned. However, following the consultation with HSE, the following precautionary measures are in place.\n\nCandidates and their guests who have returned from a COVID-19 affected region in the last 14 days, or who have been in close contact with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 case in the last 14 days, and have symptoms (a cough, shortness of breath, breathing difficulties or fever) should isolate themselves at home and phone their GP without delay, and are requested not to attend the ceremony.\n\nThe current list of COVID-19 affected regions is: Mainland China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Iran and 4 regions in Northern Italy: Veneto, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont. Further updates can be found here\n\nTo help limit the inconvenience caused, applicants are advised that an alternative ceremony will be held on or before the 17th of April.\n\nCandidates who are availing of the alternative ceremony are asked to notify the Citizenship Division of the Department of Justice and Equality regarding their intentions, on or before 29th February.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000091791152954}
+{"content": "\n\nIn our last blog, we introduced you to the concept of constructive and destructive stress. We also spoke about how important it was to keep the scale tipped in favour of the positive stress rather than the negative. We used the leaking bucket analogy to demonstrate the effect that positive and negative stressors have on our body and to highlight how important it is to make sure that the bucket is being filled with water (our positive stressors) to compensate for the inevitable loss.\n\nRemember that in this example, the bucket represents us, and the water is our health expression. If we run out of water in the bucket we are, in effect, worsening our health expression.\n\nSo what happens when we start to run out of water? At what point do our bodies start to feel bad and dysfunctional?\n\nWell the answer may surprise you! See we don’t go from feeling well to feeling bad all of a sudden. Our body will always whisper at us before it starts shouting at us.\n\nPicture that same bucket now, but with indicators built in. These indicators are warning signs to let us know that there is a decline in our health expression.\n\nWe have 4 levels:\n\n • Optimal\n • Comfortable\n • Uncomfortable\n • Danger\n\nIf I had to ask you the question of which level you would want to remain at for your lifetime, I am almost certain that your answer would be ‘optimal’. This is the level where you are feeling well and your body is functioning at its peak.\n\nSo, what happens when there is a decline to the comfortable level? This is when your body begins to ‘whisper’, your body still feels comfortable but is no longer functioning at its peak. You don’t have the same energy levels you used to, your recovery after big weekends, exercise, gardening or sport are not what they used to be. Deep down it’s not obvious to us that we are hurting, we just know that we’re not at our best.\n\nSo what does the uncomfortable level feel like? This is when your body is starting to fall into symptoms of inflammation. You may start to get injured more often because of faulty and inefficient biomechanics. Your recovery is much slower now and your energy levels are much lower, things like gardening, sport or even sleeping in the wrong position can take their toll. Your body feels older than it really is and is beginning to give you real signs that need attention.\n\nDanger zone is when the body reaches crisis point. At this point your body is low on many things and can’t function effectively anymore. You keep running yourself into the ground and your body can’t bounce back from it. Inflammation is at its highest. Your digestion, sleep, pain and energy levels are at its worst. This is the point where you know you have to take drastic action.\n\nSo which level are you at? Are you happy where you are? Where do you want to be in the long-term.\n\nIf your goal is to improve the level you are at, it’s time to take action. We have to begin the work on getting your nerves, muscles, organs and habits back to an ‘optimal’ state.\n\nThe first step is to strengthen your nervous system. It’s important to restore function back to the most important organ of your body first as it runs every other organ system. Then let’s transform your habits and get you back to actively filling the bucket and tipping the scales with overwhelmingly positive stress. Once we’ve got you to where you want to be, then let’s keep you there.\n\nPrevention is infinitely better than cure!\n\nCategoryHealth Topics\n\nGet a Free Quote\n\nCopyright © 2019 My Health Chiro", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7185958623886108}
+{"content": "Ropes & Gray and Forensic Risk Alliance Alert – COVID-19, Data Analytics & the FCA: Big Response, Big Data, Big Risk\n\nTime to Read: 20 minutes Practices: False Claims Act\n\nPrinter-Friendly Version\n\nCoronavirus Landing Site\n\nThis article was co-authored by: Jim Dowden, Ryan Rohlfsen, Kendall Dacey, and Kendall Scott Cowles of Ropes & Gray in collaboration with Matt Bedan, Jen Baskin, Neil Goradia, and William Mui of Forensic Risk Alliance. Further information about FRA is available here.\n\n\nThe U.S. federal government’s record $2.2 trillion response to the Covid-19 crisis will inevitably bring with it heightened scrutiny from government and private watchdogs, and a corresponding wave of False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement. Litigation trends in the FCA space over the past decade indicate this wave of enforcement will be heavily data-driven, with whistleblowers and privately funded relators filing the large majority of lawsuits. These parties will rely heavily on advanced data mining and analytics techniques to spot potential indicators of fraud (“anomalous data”) in publicly available data sets. Concurrently, the turmoil naturally caused by a public health crisis this widespread is likely to create large volumes of data that would be considered anomalous under normal circumstances. For example, as the health care system is strained with resource shortages and patient influx, organizations will be increasingly susceptible to good faith billing/coding errors, inaccurate certifications and documentation, and other anomalous data that would normally be a potential indicator of an FCA violation. It is unclear how enforcement agencies will view this data in the context of FCA enforcement, which often uses trend analysis to identify deviations from ‘normal’ as a means to prove guilt. Regardless, whistleblowers and privately funded relators will have immense incentives to opportunistically leverage this data to their advantage. This article seeks to predict and explain the enforcement environment that we are likely to see over the coming months and years, and provide advice for organizations seeking to mitigate the risk that their data may be creating in the context of expected heightened FCA enforcement.\n\nAn unprecedented response\n\nCARES Act Breakdown\n\nIn an effort to combat the devastating economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Congress recently enacted the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. This record expenditure includes over $100 billion for public health services to respond to the pandemic, and over $1.8 trillion in stimulus money for individuals, businesses and state/local governments.\n\nAlthough the allocation details for these funds are not fully established, what is clear is that the government intends to distribute the payments with relatively minimal bureaucratic oversight, given the urgent need. In addition to the extensive economic assistance, the federal government has collectively modified, relaxed or suspended a number of regulatory requirements, many of which were in place to prevent fraud and waste.\n\nSome examples include:\n\n • The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) blanket waiver of certain aspects of the physician self-referral law (Stark Law), with parallel waivers regarding anti-kickback enforcement of the same statute from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG).\n • A suspension of Medicare sequestration (mandatory 2% reduction in payments to all Medicare providers) for the remainder of 2020.\n • A 20% increase in maximum benefit amounts for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.\n • The expansion of the range of reimbursable treatments and services under Medicare/Medicaid, including diagnostic products and treatments not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).\n • An acceleration of Medicare payments to hospitals with cash flow shortages.\n • A pledge to reimburse hospitals and physicians that treat uninsured COVID-19 patients.\n • The significant expansion of telehealth services for Medicare patients, including expedited payment for telehealth services, waiver of the requirement of a pre-existing physician/patient relationship to be treated through telehealth technology, and waiver of the face-to-face requirement for dialysis, home health and hospice patients.\n\nOut of necessity, in the context of a national emergency, many of these changes were enacted with little or no detailed guidance from the agencies responsible for oversight. For bad actors, this influx of cash and relaxation of regulatory oversight represents a unique opportunity. For the vast majority of organizations responding to this crisis in good faith, it creates complex compliance obligations and risk. The CARES Act and other aspects of the COVID-19 response are collectively creating new regulatory and contractual obligations that many organizations have no experience administering, and no infrastructure to monitor. In addition, these new obligations are appearing in uniquely difficult circumstances that, in and of themselves, are likely to challenge compliance teams. Organizations should be wary of the operational and compliance risk this entails.\n\nConsider, for example, the government’s pledge to reimburse physicians who treat uninsured COVID-19 patients, taken alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommendation that doctors utilize telehealth facilities when possible. If a physician then used telehealth technology to diagnose an uninsured patient with COVID-19, but cannot confirm the diagnosis with a blood test, would the service be reimbursable? If so, what documentation should be retained regarding proof of the patient’s condition and insurance status? Similar questions are raised by the executive invocation of the Defense Production Act. Reportedly intended to prohibit the export of specific types of personal protective equipment and ventilators, the Executive Order itself is not so limited. The text technically bans the export of “medical resources needed to respond to the spread of COVID-19”.1 For manufacturers of other types of “medical resources” that could conceivably fall under this umbrella, the applicability is unclear.\n\nThe current regulatory setting is particularly volatile for the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. In the past month alone, the FDA has issued at least 35 new guidance documents outlining new or modified guidelines for key risk areas such as diagnostic testing, patient monitoring and adverse event reporting, conduct of clinical trials, and supply chain integrity.2 Although these guidance documents do not in and of themselves have the force of law, the CARES Act does create significant new statutory obligations around supply chain integrity for both pharmaceutical and device manufacturers. These manufacturers must now report to the FDA any anticipated disruptions to the supply of drugs and devices, that are “critical to the public health during a public health emergency.” In addition, covered manufacturers must now create and maintain redundancy risk management plans to identify and evaluate risks to the supply chain of the drug or device.3\n\nIt should also be noted that potential CARES-related compliance risk is not limited to health care organizations, as the majority of the $500 billion relief fund for businesses and state/local governments comes with significant strings attached. Depending on the program, businesses that utilize federal CARES assistance will likely have to remain neutral in any unionizing efforts during the terms of the loans, keep jobs in the U.S. over the life of the loan, and use the stimulus money to retain at least 90% of their pre-pandemic workforce through at least September 2020. For organizations and industries unaccustomed to the scrutiny that comes with federal contracting, requirements such as these can create significant uncertainty and compliance risk. This is particularly true where, as here, new standards are coming into force at a rate and in a manner that makes common compliance strategies, such as analyzing industry best practices and peer-group benchmarking, all but impossible.\n\nThe coming FCA backlash will be aggressive\n\nMajor U.S. Government Expenditures\n\nIt seems inevitable that an expenditure of resources as extraordinary as the CARES Act will be followed by a wave of FCA enforcement. Before the Act was even passed, the Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen commented on the “unfortunate array of criminal activity related to COVID-19 pandemic” and directed all U.S. Attorneys to prioritize the prosecution of COVID-19-related fraud schemes, emphasizing that “[c]apitalizing on th[e] crisis to reap illicit profits or otherwise preying on Americans is reprehensible and will not be tolerated.”4 In response, each U.S. Attorney’s office has appointed a Coronavirus Fraud Coordinator for its jurisdiction, and most regional offices have assembled task forces in conjunction with the FBI and local law enforcement. Less than a week after passage of the legislation, the DOJ has already charged at least three cases and announced numerous other investigations related to COVID-19 fraud. This number is sure to rise as the funds are fully disbursed.\n\nIn addition, and similar to the 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) and Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) legislation, the CARES Act includes extensive and overlapping mechanisms of administrative oversight. The Act establishes a Congressional Oversight Commission and a Special Inspector General for Pandemic Relief (SIGPR), who will have subpoena power over private individuals and companies, as well as a $25 million budget to pursue misallocated federal funds. Moreover, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently confirmed reports that it is planning to task most of its 3,000 investigators and analysts to an upcoming “blizzard of audits” of CARES Act disbursements.5 Similarly, the U.S. Treasury Department has stated that it will direct the Small Business Administration to audit every recipient of a Paycheck Protection loan in excess of $2 million.6\n\nAdjacent to these layers of Congressional oversight, the CARES Act also established the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee within the Executive Branch’s OIG. Shortly after the Committee was established, President Trump replaced its active chairman with Sean O’Donnell, from the Environmental Protection Agency, who spent 15 years as a fraud prosecutor with the DOJ.7 Although the Administration has not yet publicly commented on the move, it likely signals an intent to prioritize a crackdown on fraud and abuse in the wake of CARES and COVID-19.\n\nIt seems equally likely that the FCA will be the primary mechanism to carry out this crackdown. Not only is the FCA one of the Justice Department’s most powerful tools to combat fraud, it also provides ample incentives for private whistleblowers to do the same, through private, or “qui tam,” suits. Specifically, the FCA allows for mandatory treble damages for violators, of which 15-30 percent is statutorily directed to the whistleblower, or relator. According to the DOJ, of the approximately $3 billion in FCA settlements filed in 2019, over $2.1 billion arose from qui tam litigation, resulting in over $265 million in payouts to individual relators. Over the past five years, relators have collected over $2 billion in FCA awards.\n\nThe resulting enforcement will be data-driven\n\nIn 2011, CMS made the policy decision to release anonymized Medicare claims data to the public in an effort to promote health care service transparency.8 Ever since, the clear trend in FCA enforcement has been the rise of data-driven qui tam litigation. With access to claims information, individual whistleblowers now have a wealth of data that can be put to work to spot trends and outliers, and lend credibility to allegations. Taking the trend to its extreme, a number of recent qui tam lawsuits have been pursued by corporate data analytics relators with no connection to the defendant, or first-hand knowledge of the allegations they make. Rather, these entities use proprietary data-mining and analytics techniques to identify anomalies in Medicare and other public data sources as a means to pursue FCA judgments. Although these data-mining relators have met with mixed success, their access to data continues to grow, and they will undoubtedly seek to use it to cash in on claims irregularities.\n\nGovernment enforcement efforts have followed a parallel track. A notable example is the 2015 industry-wide investigation of compound pharmacies, whereby the DOJ utilized a range of data analytics techniques to identify anomalous billing to the Department of Defense’s TRICARE program. Following this, the DOJ created a dedicated Office of Data Analytics, charged with detecting fraudulent transactions and supporting the DOJ, OIG, FBI and other agencies. The Data Analytics Office has been highly effective in generating investigative leads, as evidenced, for example, by the massive crackdown on alleged opioid over-prescription seen during 2018 and 2019. In speaking to the strategy behind the DOJ’s opioid fraud response, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions singled out the importance of “leveraging the power of data analytics.”9 Similarly, other enforcement agencies, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), have advocated for robust data analytics programs.10 SEC Chair, Jay Clayton, stated that the agency’s reliance on data analytics work is “more important than ever,” and that “data analytics can help [the SEC] use [its] existing resources more efficiently and effectively.”11\n\nAs the government continues to perfect its utilization of data analytics, its access to data is likely to continue to grow in the wake of COVID-19 and CARES, and far exceed that of whistleblowers and private relators. For example, in addition to payment data, both CMS and state agencies also have access to data created through contracted audits of Medicare claims. These audits are more comprehensive than publicly available claims, and rich with data points, which enable forensic teams to focus their analytics with a high degree of specificity. In addition, this February, CMS laid out an aggressive plan to begin gathering source data directly from patient medical records to support the agency’s fraud enforcement efforts. While commenting on the program, CMS’s Head Administrator Seema Verma stated that the organization was “moving to a system where we’re able to take quality data from the EHR [electronic health record], combine it with claims data, and see what’s going on in program integrity. And we should be able to identify those high-quality providers on the front end, and then identify [fraud], I think, in a way, that’s been fairly unprecedented.”12 If successful, CMS and DOJ are sure to use this unprecedented access in support of their mandate to aggressively enforce FCA violations in the wake of CARES.\n\nThe devil will be in the details\n\nAlthough the headline-making FCA cases still involve classic fraud and bad actors, most modern FCA enforcement actions are pursued under a Legal False Certification theory. What this means is that many companies are incurring FCA fines not because their claims are false per se but because they submitted accurate claims that were not in compliance with an applicable statute, regulation or government contract provision. These violations are often highly technical, and under normal commercial circumstances would most likely be considered a breach of contract, not fraud. For example, in 2019 Cisco Systems paid $8.9 million to settle an FCA whistleblower claim based on the allegation that the video surveillance equipment the company provided to the federal government did not meet all of the cybersecurity standards outlined in the procurement contract.\n\nIt should also be noted that the FCA does not necessarily require that the defendant be aware of the contract/compliance violation; only that the violation should have been discovered through reasonable due diligence. For practical purposes, this means that corporations must implement “proactive compliance activities conducted in good faith by qualified individuals” to monitor compliance with their regulatory and contractual obligations to the government.13\n\nAny organization familiar with the byzantine landscape of federal contracting can attest to what a challenge this is in practice. When the federal government is the customer, even the most mundane of transactions can be maddeningly complex and time-consuming. Take, for example, the (borderline comedic) standard federal contract for suppliers of office desks and chairs—otherwise known as GSA Multiple Award Schedule No. 47QSMD20R0001. This document is 47 pages long, with nine subsections and countless pricing, contracting, delivery, invoicing and service processes, including detailed requirements for wood joinery methods, plywood thickness, and design of coil springs in seats. Extrapolate this complexity out over tens of thousands of federal contracts covering everything from staplers to stealth bombers, and a picture begins to form of the massive scope of contract compliance risk for government suppliers.\n\nCompanies in certain industries, such as aerospace, defense and pharmaceuticals, are familiar with the complexity and have the structure and expertise in place to ensure compliance. However, the sweeping breadth of the CARES Act will create compliance obligations for many other industries, which likely do not have the same experience and resources. Hotels and restaurants, construction firms, airlines and banks, to name a few, are all going to be taking on compliance risk that their industries are unaccustomed to under normal circumstances.\n\nHealth care organizations in particular must be aware of the scrutiny that lies ahead. Though they are generally well-equipped to process typical fee-for-service claims, those organizations that accept cash infusions through the CARES Act, or partake in the blanket Stark Law waiver, must ensure effective compliance oversight of any associated regulatory and contractual obligations. For most organizations, this means understanding and controlling their operational data.\n\nAvoiding the cross-hairs\n\nFor organizations contracting with the government via the CARES Act, or the COVID-19 response in general, it is essential to consider the full context of the risk landscape they have just entered. Part of this process should be to acknowledge the highly politicized environment in which CARES was enacted. As scrutiny follows over the effectiveness of the program, it will fuel the political impetus to prosecute fraud, both for reasons of optics as well as legitimate oversight. We are already seeing the early stages of this process play out.\n\nAnother key element is the risk of anomalous data stemming from the uncertainty that is common around new federal programs. Even well-established programs with years’ worth of administrative guidance can be challenging from a contractual and regulatory compliance perspective. For example, the Medicare program is over fifty years old, and is supported by a vast library of guidance documents, training resources and certification classes to assist providers with billing compliance. Despite these resources, the billing error rate for Medicare claims consistently hovers between 812%, resulting in billions of dollars in overpayments annually.14 These sorts of compliance challenges will be compounded for organizations in the wake of CARES, which out of necessity was rolled out with unprecedented speed and minimal controls.\n\nA third element is the disruption caused by the virus itself, which has impacted virtually every facet of corporate life in America. Many organizations are simply struggling to survive, working with staff shortages and hastily formed remote infrastructures. Many compliance organizations are not set up to provide oversight and advice in this environment, and are finding themselves on the sidelines. Adding to the complexity, almost all organizations are being forced to do more through remote technology than they have ever done, including increased email and teleconferencing, and utilization of web-based technologies for their procurement, logistics and contracting. All of these activities create data ‒ in many cases it will be data that reflects on regulatory or contractual compliance, or otherwise creates risk that the organization may not have the policies, procedures or infrastructure to address.\n\nCARES Act Oversight\n\nThe healthcare industry is likely to be particularly vulnerable. As the COVID-19 epidemic strains the system with resource shortages and patient influx, healthcare organizations will be increasingly susceptible to good faith billing/coding errors, inaccurate certifications and documentation, and other anomalous data that would normally be a potential indicator of an FCA violation. The final ingredient in the witches’ brew, so to speak, is the backdrop of well-funded professional data-mining relators, incentivized whistleblowers and sophisticated government analytics watchdogs, who are ready, willing and able to capitalize on anomalous data.\n\nTo avoid the crosshairs, we recommend five critical activities:\n\n1. Understand and document your obligations.\n\nOrganizations must carefully review eligibility requirements, reimbursement and invoicing procedures, certifications and other restrictions associated with every government transaction. Each program or contract should have a carefully thought out and documented end-to-end process. Checklists for regulatory/contractual obligations and maker/checker controls are also key. For government vendors, particular care should be paid to material pricing elements, such as Most Favored Nation clauses, fixed/long term pricing requirements, and price change triggers. As the obligations are determined, each should be translated into corresponding rules and metadata to facilitate monitoring and alerts of potential violations.\n\n2. Harness and organize your data.\n\nThe DOJ’s 2019 “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” guidance makes it clear that organizations are encouraged to leverage data, metrics, and other objective evidence to test that their compliance program is working effectively. This guidance is premised on the DOJ’s stance that a “hallmark of an effective compliance program is its capacity to improve and evolve” and that prosecutors should, accordingly, “consider whether [a] company has engaged in meaningful efforts to review its compliance program.”15 Particularly for larger, multinational companies, this process should go beyond simply tracking traditional compliance data (such as training and audit metrics) and encompass all of the various sources of operational data that could potentially be put to use. For example, in evaluating a company’s compliance program, the Justice Department’s guidance prompts prosecutors to ask: “[W]hat testing of controls, collection and analysis of compliance data, and interviews of employees and third-parties does the company undertake? How are the results reported and action items tracked?”16 Further, the guidance focuses on what a company is doing to analyze reports and data for “patterns of misconduct or other red flags for compliance weaknesses.”17 The appropriate answers to these questions may vary depending on the size, structure, and risk profile of a company—there is no one-size-fits-all requirement. Rather, a company should be thinking about the most meaningful way to harness data, given its particular circumstances.\n\nFor some companies, this may mean setting up additional general ledger accounts or cost centers to track and account for every cent tied to their government contracting requirements. Financial tracking in this manner should be very much intertwined with the tracking rules discussed above, so that there is a clear correlation between the regulatory/contractual obligations mapped out in step one, and the sources of data that could potentially indicate compliance, or non-compliance, for each. Further to this step, vendors should see clear alignment between the accounting data that gets invoiced, and the operational data underlying it. If there is disagreement between the two sources, it should be cause for further investigation.\n\nFinallyand consistent with the theme of focusing on meaningful efforts to optimize effective compliancedo not blindly trust outside data sources. Approach them critically and do the due diligence necessary to understand where the data comes from and how it was created. Validate it using related data sets you have access to, and exercise audit rights for higher-risk vendors. The better you know the data you are using, the better you can leverage it in your internal monitoring, investigations and compliance analysis.\n\n3. Prioritize compliance and monitor systematically.\n\nIn the absence of clear guidance, companies should adopt stringent compliance and risk management oversight, focusing particularly on data monitoring and documentation. Organizations should be aware that a robust and current data environment (complementing a risk-based compliance program) is seen positively by regulators. To that end, maintain a clear and comprehensive audit trail in ERP [enterprise resource planning] and data systems, and ensure that you document all system reviews, upgrades, or enhancements undertaken in response to new regulation.\n\nOnce the necessary tracking and rules are implemented, the output and reporting should be systematic, transparent, and insightful. In short, if your monitoring mechanisms do not give clear insight into possible issues and escalate red flags to the appropriate stakeholders, then they are not serving their purpose. Additionally, human reviewers should be trained thoroughly on the underlying obligations and corresponding monitoring rules to test compliance. For exampleWhat constitutes an issue? What is a false positive? And how can this information be cycled back into the process to make it more efficient, but more importantly, more effective?\n\n4. Utilize data analytics.\n\nBy utilizing advances in data analytics, organizations can enhance conduct detection and replace extensive manual controls and verification activities. To do this effectively, you must leverage the data of all relevant sources, including sales and product data, performance-management data, and customer/patient records. An inclusive data analytics model can give a view of risk across activities, business units and geographies. Advanced analytics like machine learning and artificial intelligence can be very useful in these constructs. That being said, effective monitoring can be developed and deployed quickly using well-thought-out rules and checks if you understand your data’s strengths and weaknesses. This approach gives you time to develop more advanced analytics to ultimately help validate and enhance your core approach.\n\nYou should also consider creating specific sets of compliance reports built directly around government claims or government compliance, and embedding them directly into your Executive Reporting Portfolio. Finally, diligent audit and issue remediation should be applied as soon as possible, including continuous review of analytics to remediate findings.\n\n5. Bolster internal whistleblower programs.\n\nAn effective internal reporting mechanism is not only a key part of the DOJ’s Guidance, but also an essential element of a strong compliance culture. Studies have shown that strong internal whistleblower programs help foster an atmosphere of trust and open communication, which increases the odds that an employee with a compliance concern will report internally, instead of through the government. Ultimately, companies with higher usage of whistleblower programs have statistically fewer lawsuits and enforcement actions.18 As such, it is critical that organizations take internal whistleblower reports very seriously, and remediate accordingly.\n\n 3. CARES Act, Section 3112.\n 11. Jay Clayton, SEC Chairman, Keynote Remarks at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference (June 4, 2019),\n 16. Id.\n 17. Id.\n 19. back to top\n\nPrinter-Friendly Version\n\nCookie Settings", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9772325158119202}
+{"content": "\n\nCameras vs fists: Can technology save Palestinians from beatings?\n\nThe Israeli government has vowed to end systematic attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, but has done little to curb the violence. Now an Israeli human rights group is using technology to tackle the problem.\nIsrael is continuing construction of new homes for its settlers in occupied Palestinian territory, despite numerous calls from the UN and many national governments to stop the practice, which contravenes international law. The issue is one of the major stumbling blocks to peace negotiations between the two sides. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to crack down on Jewish extremism in the West Bank, but with his government supporting settlement expansion, his promise means precious little to those on the receiving end of the violence.The reality on the ground is that Palestinians living close to those settlements are facing daily aggression on the part of their Israeli neighbors, while the Israeli security forces turn a blind eye to the attacks.Some Israelis are critical of the policy which allows this to continue.The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem is doing its part in trying to curb the violence. It has distributed cameras to dozens of Palestinians to capture glimpses of everyday reality in the occupied zone. The goal is to gather evidence and hold Israeli settlers and soldiers attacking Palestinians accountable, reports RT’s Paula Slier.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9248907566070557}
+{"content": "Connect with us\n\nMetaphysics & Psychology\n\nWhat Christianity Looked Before The Birth of Jesus Christ\n\nOne of the things that always intrigues me is the historical basis for certain philosophical and metaphysical concepts. We often simply take for granted that the memes or ideas of our time have always been the basis for “truth” – and in our scientific age that can be a huge distortion.\n\nI remember when I read A New Earth and Oprah hosted Eckhart Tolle in a webcast series, and many people calling in wondered at his references to the parables of Jesus, and whether there was a connection with Christianity.\n\nOprah tried to soft pedal the fact that Eckhart’s teaching is secular, which is problematic for fundamentalist Christians – but is there a connection going further back?\n\nOne of my favorite ideas from Eckhart’s work is his interpretation of the notion of the “Kingdom of Heaven” not as “someplace else” or in the sky, but rather as a state of being resulting from questioning, and ultimately not believing your thoughts.\n\nIn the 20th century a major discovery was the Dead Sea Scrolls and similar documents that revealed the Gnostic Gospels – a different set of historical interpretations of the teachings of Jesus, that looked at sin as believing your thoughts – and resisting what is with mental struggle and turmoil.\n\nThis resistance and suffering would, of course, be the opposite of the “Kingdom of Heaven”.\n\nIn The Gnostic Mystery by Randy Davila, the author weaves an interesting thriller around such a newly discovered scroll and also takes the opportunity to summarize this discovery of an ancient Christian doctrine as a psychological teaching along the same lines – the researcher in the book says that the key to Gnosticism was nonresistance to reality, and suffering was viewed in the teaching as the result of struggling with what is and hypothesizing alternate realities that “weren’t”.\n\nThis made me think of Gurdjieff, who was ever mysterious and veiled in his claims about the source of his teaching–which also included deep physical and psychological inquiry into the nature of thought. Gurdjieff posited the existence of three brains that need to work harmoniously in order to connect to higher wisdom and suggested that modern humans are asleep and oblivious to their true nature.\n\nBut in addition to mentioning a map to “pre-sand” Egypt which fueled his journey to the pyramids (where he worked as a guide) Gurdjieff would suggest that his teaching was the “true” Christianity – preceding the life of Jesus, as well as the Egypt of the pharaohs with its source in “prehistory.”\n\nWhile much of Gurdjieff’s ideology can be viewed as “Eastern” and he may have traveled to India and Tibet, a deeper look at his cosmology and biological notions suggest that what he brought to light may have been the original and undistorted teaching of a superior civilization that eventually gave way to both Egyptian and Meso-American cultures that attempted to preserve its scientific wisdom.\n\nA modern philosopher and scholar who writes in depth about Gurdjieff in relation to modern issues, Jacob Needleman probes this aspect of the teaching in his book, Lost Christianity.\n\nIn this book Needleman engages with a scholar and monk whose research has taken him deeply into the sources of Eastern Orthodoxy and more esoteric interpretations of scripture. Needleman writes:\n\n“What has been lost everywhere in the life of man is the confrontation within oneself of the two fundamental forces of the cosmic order: the movement of creation and the movement of return, the outer and the inner. The whole of what is known as “progress” in the modern world may be broadly characterized as an imbalanced attention to the outward-directed force of life, combined with a false identification of the “inner” as the realm of thought and emotion. The thoughts and emotions that are given the name of ‘inwardness” actually serve, as has been shown, the movement outward and degradation of psychic energy. In Christian terms, this is “flesh.” Thoughts and emotions are not the soul.” (222)\n\nWhat this suggests is that the original “pre-Christian” teaching was about inner energetic knowledge and the discovery of man’s true nature through deep inquiry and concrete experience.\n\nThe quote above actually suggests the Advaita inquiry of Neti Neti – “not this, not this” – in the pursuit of reality and the resulting recognition that what “I am” as not my thoughts, not my emotions, and not my sensations; the body is experienced as yet another “external” object to one’s true being.\n\nThis is indeed a very timeless notion of truth that we now may see as “eastern” or “mystical,” but one that has been preserved in stories since the dawn of time. Joseph Campbell brought many of these stories to light in his work (which inspired the Star Wars films) and one can find more information in Bernardo Kastrup’s latest book, More Than Allegory: On Religious Myth, Truth And Belief.\n\nBernardo, who also wrote Why Materialism is Baloney eschews the low hanging fruit of fundamentalist religious dogma to probe more deeply the sources of wisdom in our psyche and in our historic heritage of myth that suggest connection to higher energies and influences.\n\nOf course science itself has given us the basis for this – we know that we use wifi (wireless) transmission of energy every day and our computer software encodes active conceptual intentions and produces results without human intervention – suggesting that mental energy and truth does not need a physical foundation in order to “exist.”\n\nIn addition to these connected efforts to unearth the sources of wisdom that may have been lost, the actual historical civilizations that modern history seems to avoid even mentioning are covered books like Chariots of the Gods, by Erik von Daniken and more recently in Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth’s Lost Civilization by Graham Hancock.\n\nIt may well be that we are on the verge of rewriting not only our history of science and religion, but in fact the history of the origin of our species as we connect these various dots and rethink even the basis of religions we have always taken for granted: Judaism (with the Kabala and its mystical aspects) and Christianity as being sourced not in the teachings of Jesus, but in the ancient history of mankind itself.\n\nSource link\n\n\nMetaphysics & Psychology\n\nDeath Angel Drummer talks about meeting with Satan during a coronavirus coma\n\n\n\n\n\n\nContinue Reading\n\nMetaphysics & Psychology\n\nLife after life: Chronicles of life after death\n\nPhoto: Istock\n\nIn 1926, Sir William Barrett, a member of the Royal Geographical Society, published a printed work on visions of the dying. According to the information collected in it, the general public learned that before death, people observe other worlds, hear music and often see dead relatives.\n\nBut only in the early 70s of the twentieth century, the American professor of philosophy and psychology, doctor of medicine Raymond Moody, became one of the first professional doctors to undertake the study of a little-known phenomenon, which he called “almost fatal experience.” According to the results of research, the scientist published in 1975 the book “Life after life.” Immediately after the publication, she became a bestseller. Suffice it to say that by the end of 1999, more than three million copies of this publication were sold. The facts set forth in it fundamentally change all previous ideas about the death of a person.\n\nThe book analyzes the feelings of 150 unfortunates who find themselves in a state of clinical death, but then returned to life. We remind the reader that clinical death is a reversible stage of dying, which occurs within a few minutes after the cessation of blood circulation and breathing. The duration of a person’s stay in this state at normal body temperature usually does not exceed 8 minutes; in cooling conditions, it may slightly lengthen. During resuscitation (lat. Re – again + animatio – revitalization) measures of a person can be brought out of clinical death and brought back to life.\n\nRaymond Moody found that in the near-death state a person experiences peace, feels an exit from the body, a flight inside the “tunnel”, proximity to a light source, and much more. The printed work of the American gave impetus to further followers in this direction.\n\nOf course, scientists tried to give a scientific explanation of the phenomenon. As it turned out, not only dying people experience a similar gamut of experiences. Similar visions are inherent, for example, to drug addicts after taking LSD, people engaged in meditation, patients with epilepsy. They were not in the arms of death, but saw the tunnel and at the end of it light.\n\nThe famous American researcher, chairman of the International Association of Transpersonal Psychology, MD, Stanislav Grof and John Halifax put forward a hypothesis: the flight of a departing person through a tunnel is nothing more than a “memory” of the first moments of birth. In other words, this is the movement of the baby through the birth canal at birth. The bright light at the end is the light of the world into which a small person enters.\n\nAnother suggestion was made by the neuroscientist Jack Cowan. According to the researcher, visions of the tunnel in the dying cause areas of the cerebral cortex that are responsible for processing visual information. The effect of a giddy flight through a tube appears when brain cells die from oxygen deficiency. At this time, waves of excitation appear in the so-called visual cortex of the brain. They are concentric circles and are perceived by man as flying through a tunnel.\n\nIn the late 90s, researchers from the University of Bristol were able to simulate the process of dying of visual cells of the brain on a computer. It was found that at this moment in the minds of people every time there is a picture of a moving tunnel. So Susan Blackmore and Tom Prosyanko confirmed the hypothesis of D. Cowan.\n\nThere are also theories that “posthumous” visions are caused by fear of impending death or by the action of drugs administered to the patient.\n\nAnd yet, despite the stubborn attempts of scientists to understand the phenomenon, a number of phenomena have no answer. Indeed, how, for example, to explain the fact that a person, being in an unconscious state, is able to see what is happening around him? According to a number of resuscitation doctors, often patients who returned from the “other world” told in detail what actions the doctors performed with their lifeless bodies and even what happened at that time in neighboring wards. How to explain incredible visions? Science could not give an answer to this question.\n\nPosthumous Consciousness – Not Fiction\n\nAnd finally, a sensation. In early 2001, a study was published by Peter Fenwick of the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parin of the Southampton Central Clinic. Scientists have obtained irrefutable evidence that human consciousness does not depend on the activity of the brain and continues to live when all processes in the brain have already ceased.\n\nAs part of the scientific work, the experimenters studied medical history and personally interviewed 63 cardiological patients who survived clinical death.\n\nIt turned out that 56 returned from the next world do not remember anything. They lost consciousness and came to their senses in a hospital bed. However, seven retained distinct memories of what they experienced during the period of clinical death. Four claim that they were overcome by a sense of peace and joy, time ran faster, the sensation of one’s body disappeared, the mood became elevated, even exalted. Then a bright light appeared, indicating a transition to another world. A little later, mythical creatures appeared, similar to angels or saints. All the respondents were for some time in a different world, and then returned to reality.\n\nIt should be noted that these patients were not at all pious people. For example, three admitted that they did not attend church at all. Thus, it is not possible to explain such stories to religious fanaticism.\n\nBut the sensational in the research of British scientists was completely different. Having scrupulously studied the medical documentation of the busy ones, the doctors issued a verdict – the traditional idea of a brain cessation due to oxygen deficiency is wrong. None of those who were in a state of clinical death recorded a significant decrease in the content of life-giving gas in the tissues of the central nervous system.\n\nAnother hypothesis was rejected – that visions could be caused by an irrational combination of medicines used in resuscitation. Everything was done strictly according to the standard.\n\nSam Parina claims that he started research, being a skeptic, but now he is one hundred percent convinced: “there is something here.” “Our patients experienced their amazing conditions at a time when the brain was no longer able to function, and therefore was not able to reproduce any memories.” According to the researcher, human consciousness is not a function of the brain. And if this is so, says Peter Fenwick, “consciousness can well continue to exist even after the physical death of the body.”\n\n“When we examine the brain,” writes Sam Parina, “we see clearly: the cells of gray matter in principle do not differ in structure from other cells of the body. They also produce protein and other chemicals, but they cannot create subjective thoughts and images.” which we define as human consciousness. In the end, we need our brain only as a receiver-transformer. It works as a kind of “live TV”: first it perceives the waves that enter it, and then they transform them into image and sound from Otori added holistic picture. “\n\nLater, in December 2001, three Dutch scientists from the Rijenstate Hospital, led by Pym van Lommel, carried out the largest study to date of people who have experienced clinical death. His results were published in the article “Near-death experience of survivors after heart failure: a focused study of a specially formed group in the Netherlands” in the British medical journal Lancet. Dutch scientists came to conclusions similar to the conclusions of their English colleagues from Southampton.\n\nBased on statistics obtained over a ten-year period, scientists have established that not every person who has experienced clinical death visits visions. Only 62 people (18%) out of 344 who underwent 509 resuscitation preserved clear memories of what they experienced between the temporary death and “resurrection”.\n\nDuring clinical death, more than half of the subjects experienced positive emotions. Awareness of the fact of one’s own death was noted in 50% of cases. In 32% of the so-called “near-fatal experiences”, there were meetings with dead people. About a flight through the tunnel told a third of the dying. Almost the same number of respondents saw pictures of the alien landscape. Out of body experience (when a person sees himself from the side) experienced 24% of those returned to life. A blinding flash of light was recorded by the same number of respondents. In 13% of cases, people watched a series of past life rushing along. They said that they saw the border between the world of the living and the dead, less than 10% of people. None of those who have been in the next world reported frightening or unpleasant sensations.\n\nIt is interesting to note that a little earlier, the American researcher Dr. Ring made an attempt to find out the content of the near-death visions of the blind. He, together with his colleague Sharon Cooper, recorded the testimonies of 18 people who were blind from birth, who, for whatever reason, were in conditions close to death.\n\nAccording to the respondents, dying visions became for them the only way to understand what it means to see. One of those who were in the state of clinical death, Vicki Yumipeg, survived the “exit from the body” in the hospital. From somewhere above, Vicki was looking at herself, lying on the operating table, and at the team of doctors who had resuscitation. So she first saw and understood what light is.\n\nBlind from birth, Martin Marsh, who experienced similar near-death visions, remembered most of all the variety of colors in the world around him. Martin is convinced that his dying experience helped him understand how sighted people see the world.\n\nBut back to the study of Dutch scientists. They set a goal – to accurately determine when a person visits visions, during clinical death or during the brain. Van Lammel and his colleagues say that they managed to do it. The conclusion of scientists is as follows: visions are observed precisely at the moment of “disconnection” of the central nervous system. Thus, it was shown that consciousness exists independently of the functioning of the brain.\n\nPerhaps the most striking Van Lummel considers the case, which was recorded by one of his colleagues. A patient in a coma was taken to the intensive care unit of the clinic. The revitalization activities were unsuccessful. The brain died, the encephalogram was a straight line. We decided to use intubation (the introduction of a tube into the larynx and trachea for artificial ventilation and restoration of airway patency). A denture was in the victim’s mouth. The doctor took it out and laid it on the table. After an hour and a half, the patient’s heart beat and blood pressure returned to normal. And a week later, when the same employee was delivering medicines to patients, he returned from the next world and said to her: “You know where my prosthesis is! You took my teeth out and put them in the drawer of the table on wheels!” During a thorough survey, it turned out that the victim was observing himself from above lying on a bunk. He described in detail the ward and the actions of the doctors at the time of his death. The man was very afraid that the doctors would stop reviving, and with all his might wanted to make it clear to them that he was alive …\n\nDutch researchers confirm their confidence that consciousness can exist separately from the brain by the purity of experiments. In order to exclude the possibility of the appearance of so-called false memories (a situation where a person, having heard from others stories about posthumous visions, suddenly “remembers” something that he himself never experienced), religious fanaticism, and other similar cases, the researchers scrupulously studied all factors that could influence to the reports of the victims.\n\nAll subjects were mentally healthy. These were men and women from 26 to 92 years old, having different levels of education, believing and not believing in God. Some have heard of the “near-death experience” before, while others have not.\n\nThe general conclusions of the Dutch are as follows: posthumous visions in humans arise during the period of suspension of the brain; they cannot be explained by oxygen deficiency in the cells of the central nervous system; the depth of the “almost deadly experience” is greatly influenced by the gender and age of the person. Women usually feel more powerful than men; most patients who have had the most profound experience of “death” die within a month after resuscitation; posthumous visions of the blind from birth do not differ from impressions of the sighted.\n\nAll of the above gives reason to say that at present, scientists have come close to the scientific justification of the immortality of the soul.\n\nWe just have to do a little to realize that death is just a transfer station on the border of two worlds, and to overcome the fear of its inevitability.\n\nParadise and hell\n\nThe question arises: where does the soul go after the death of a person?\n\nIf you died having lived an unrighteous life, then you won’t go to hell, but you will forever be on Earth in the worst period of mankind. If your life was impeccable, then in this case you will find yourself on Earth, but in a century where there is no place for violence and cruelty.\n\nSo says the French psychotherapist Michelle Lerrier, author of the book “Eternity in a Past Life.” He was convinced of this by numerous interviews and hypnotic sessions with people who experienced a state of clinical death. The researcher concludes that the deceased leave mostly in past centuries.\n\n“During hypnosis sessions, all my 208 objects of observation (with the exception of three), describing the departure from this life, indicated past periods in history. They recalled how they walked along a long tunnel to where there is light and peace. They were greeted by familiar people, and then they again found themselves on Earth, though in previous centuries. “\n\nAt first, Lerrier suggested that he receives information about the previous incarnation (the next birth of the soul on the physical plane) of the subjects. However, as the facts accumulated, the scientist came to the conclusion: the objects of his research are those who died and found themselves in pleasant circumstances, and those who found themselves in a terrible historical period.\n\n“For example, one prisoner I interviewed turned out to be a tired and hungry slave in Roman galleys. Under hypnosis, he described the terrible beatings and remembered the pangs of thirst and cold. But for a loving mother who devoted herself to the poor, she was destined for a life worthy only of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. She was given “wealth, power and hundreds of servants to fulfill her every desire. Coming out of a hypnotic dream, she said that she always dreamed of living in the time of the Pharaohs.”\n\nAccording to Lerrier, it all boils down to the fact that you need to live on our sinful planet with dignity, respecting yourself and others.\n\nNevertheless, there are people who go to hell. These are suicides. Those who die from their own free will are very severely punished in the afterlife. Dr. Bruce Grayson, a psychiatrist at the emergency department of the University of Connecticut, who has thoroughly and comprehensively studied this issue, testifies:\n\n“None of the suicides who survived temporary death will wish to hasten the end of their lives in the future. Understanding the other world makes it clear that earthly life has a very important preparatory value. Only God decides when a person is ripe enough for eternity. “\n\nContinue Reading\n\nMetaphysics & Psychology\n\nWe are a product of the self-reproducing Universe – everything in “reality” is self-simulation, which generates itself from pure thought\n\nThe Matrix\n\nA new study suggests that neither you nor the world around you are real – none of this actually exists at all …\n\nHow real are you? What if all that you are, all that you know, all the people in your life, as well as all the events were not physically there, and this is just a very complicated simulation?\n\nA group of scientists put forward the idea that our Universe may self-change and begin to exist.\n\nEarlier, philosopher Nick Bostrom put forward a similar assumption in the article – Do you live in a computer simulation? – where he suggested that our entire existence may simply be the product of a very complex computer simulation conducted by highly developed creatures whose true nature we can never know.\n\nNow a new theory has emerged that takes it one step further – what if there are no advanced creatures as well, and everything in “reality” is self-simulation that generates itself from pure thought?\n\nThe idea that we could all live in computer modeling – a concept popularized by the Matrix film – is certainly not new, but now scientists at the Los Angeles-based Institute for Theoretical Physics have taken another step forward with a new hypothesis, which certainly surprise you and make you think.\n\nOne important aspect that distinguishes this point of view is related to the fact that Bostrom’s original hypothesis is materialistic, considering the universe as initially physical. For Bostrom, we could just be part of an ancestral simulation created by posthumans. Even the process of evolution itself can simply be a mechanism by which future beings experience countless processes, purposefully moving people through levels of biological and technological growth. In this way, they also generate the alleged information or history of our world. \n\nBut where does the physical reality that would give rise to the simulation come from, the researchers wonder? Their hypothesis takes a non-materialistic approach, saying that everything is information expressed in the form of thought. As such, the Universe “realizes” itself in existence, relying on the underlying algorithms and the rule, which they call the “principle of an effective language.”\n\nAccording to this proposal, the entire simulation of everything is just one “great thought.” – How would the simulation itself arise? She was always there, the researchers say, explaining the concept of “timeless emergence” (Emergence or emergence in system theory – the appearance of a system with properties that are not inherent to its elements separately; the system’s properties are not reduced to the sum of the properties of its components). \n\nAccording to this idea, there is no time at all. Instead, there is only a comprehensive thought, which is our reality, offers an embedded semblance of a hierarchical order, full of “sub-thoughts” that reach all the way down the rabbit hole to basic mathematics and fundamental particles. The effective language rule, which assumes that people themselves are such “emergent sub-thoughts”, and they experience and find meaning in the world through other sub-thoughts (called “code steps or actions”) in the most economical way, also comes into force.\n\nA new article, entitled “Interpreting the Hypothesis of Self-Simulation of Quantum Mechanics,” puts forward the idea that, instead of living in a simulation generated by a complex computer system, perhaps our “reality” is a mental “self-simulation” generated by the universe itself.\n\nThis means that the world and everything in it does not physically exist, but is an expression of the consciousness of the Universe, that is, the cosmos “self-actualizes” into existence. This concept of reality also implies that time does not really exist; instead, the universe consists of a hierarchical order of thought and subconsciousness, encompassing everything from people and things to the fundamental particles and laws of physics.\n\nAlthough many scientists consider materialism to be true, we believe that quantum mechanics may give a hint that our reality is a mental construct, says physicist David Chester.\n\nRecent advances in quantum gravity, such as the vision of spacetime arising from a hologram, are also a hint that spacetime is not fundamental.\n\n“In a sense, the mental construction of reality creates space-time to effectively understand itself, creating a network of subconscious entities that can interact and explore the totality of possibilities.”\n\nScientists attribute their hypothesis to panpsychism, which sees everything as thought or consciousness. The authors suggest that their “panpsychic model of self-simulation” may even explain the origin of a comprehensive panconsciousness at the fundamental level of modeling, which “self-actualizes in a strange cycle through self-simulation.”\n\nThis panconsciousness also has free will, and its various nested levels essentially have the ability to choose which code to update by making a syntactic choice. \n\nWhat is the purpose of this consciousness? – Generate meaning or information.\n\nIf all this is difficult for you to understand, the authors offer another interesting idea that can connect your daily experience with these philosophical considerations. Think of your dreams as your own personal simulations postulating a team. Although they are fairly primitive (by the superintelligent standards of the future AI), dreams tend to provide better resolution than current computer simulations and are a great example of the evolution of the human mind. \n\nAs the scientists write, “What is most remarkable is the ultra-high resolution accuracy of these simulations based on the mind and the accuracy of physics in them.”\n\nThey especially point to lucid dreaming, where the sleeper realizes what is in a dream, as examples of very accurate simulations created by your mind that can be impossible to distinguish from any other reality. Right now, when you sit here and read this article – how do you really know that you are not in a dream?\n\nThe authors of the scientific article also write: We must think critically about consciousness and some aspects of philosophy, which are uncomfortable subjects for some scientists. When physicists humiliate those who work on such important issues, it only limits the likelihood of important achievements in fundamental physics. Accordingly, we share the opinion of the titans of modern physics, confirming the importance of this study:\n\nErwin Schrödinger : consciousness cannot be explained in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental.\n\nArthur Eddington : The stuff of the world is the stuff of the mind.\n\nHaldane : we do not find obvious evidence of the existence of life or reason in the so-called inert matter … but if the scientific point of view is correct, we will ultimately find them, at least in its infancy, throughout the universe.\n\nJulian Huxley: Mind or something of nature as a mind must exist in the entire universe. This, it seems to me, is true.\n\nFreeman Dyson : The human mind is already inherent in every electron, and the processes of human consciousness differ only in degree, and not in kind, from the processes of choosing between quantum states, which we call “random” when they are made by electrons.\n\nDavid Bohm : It is understood that in a sense, rudimentary consciousness is present even at the level of particle physics.\n\nWerner Heisenberg : Was it completely absurd to search for the ordering structures of this world “consciousness”, whose “intentions” were precisely these structures?\n\nAndrei Linde : will it not happen that with the further development of science, the study of the Universe and the study of consciousness will be inextricably linked, and that final progress in one will not be possible without progress in the other?\n\nJohn Bell : It is much more likely that a new way of seeing things will include a creative leap that will hit us.\n\nFrank Wilcek : The relevant literature [on the meaning of quantum theory], as you know, is controversial and unclear. I believe that this will continue until someone constructs an “observer” within the framework of the quantum mechanics formalism; that is, a model entity whose states correspond to a recognizable caricature of conscious awareness.\n\nContinue Reading", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.961593747138977}
+{"content": "Acute Bronchitis Contageous: Acute bronchitis\n\nAcute Bronchitis Contageous: Acute bronchitis\n\nMost of that time period, acute bronchitis is due to a virus. Influenza (flu) viruses are a common cause, but many other viruses can cause acute bronchitis. Influenza viruses spread primarily from person to person by droplets produced when an ill person sneezes, coughs or talks. Influenza viruses also may spread when people reach something with the virus on it and then touch their mouth, eyes or nose. To reduce your risk of catching viruses which can cause bronchitis: Individuals who have asthma or chronic bronchitis occasionally develop acute bronchitis. This kind of bronchitis isn't brought on by an infectious virus, so it's not as likely to be contagious.\n\nBronchitis (Acute) Symptoms, Treatment, Causes\n\nNearly all people who have acute bronchitis are contagious if the trigger is an infectious agent for example bacterium or a virus. People are usually more unlikely to be infectious as the symptoms wane. Nonetheless, exposure acute bronchitis that is caused by exposure to pollutants, tobacco smoke, or other environmental agents isn't infectious.\n\nIs Bronchitis Contagious?\n\nBronchitis makes you cough -- a lot. There are two types of bronchitis: The first few days you're ill, it'll probably be tough to tell if you've got a \"regular\" or bronchitis. But if you keep coughing for more or a week after your other symptoms are gone, you might have bronchitis. Usually, you'll be infectious for a couple of days and possibly as long as a week. Since you may not understand the type of sickness you've -- and physicians don't examine for individual viruses, since there are hundreds of them -- it's best to assume you could spread the disease while you've cold symptoms.\n\nThese Diseases Result in Acute Bronchitis or Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Bronchitis\n\nNonetheless, acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis due to superimposed infection in people with chronic bronchitis might be infectious. In nearly 90% of the instances, an acute bronchitis is the result of a viral infection (flu virus, rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, etc.). In certain people with preexisting heart or lung disease (e.g. asthma), an episode of acute infectious bronchitis might be caused by less virulent strains of infectious agents (which neglect to cause acute bronchitis in normal people). Chronic bronchitis is very different from acute bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis isn't contagious unless there is a superimposed acute exacerbation caused by infectious agents (acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis).\n\nVirus Causes Most of that Time Period, Acute Bronchitis\n\nInfluenza (flu) viruses are a standard cause, but many other viruses can cause acute bronchitis. To reduce your risk of getting viruses which can cause bronchitis: People who have chronic bronchitis or asthma sometimes develop acute bronchitis. Such a bronchitis isn't due to an infectious virus, so it's not as likely to be contagious.\n\nWhat is Bronchitis?\n\nDr. Gustavo Ferrer will answer some these questions about Bronchitis: 1. What is Bronchitis? 2. Is bronchitis contagious? How do you get it? 3. How long does ...\n\nIs Bronchitis Contagious? the Answer May Surprise You!\n\nMany individuals assume that bronchitis isn't infectious, because not all bronchitis has exactly the same cause but that is false. Chronic bronchitis, which is a long term condition, is generally caused by repeated exposure to something which irritates the lining of the airways. Because chronic bronchitis is due to long-term irritation in the lungs, it's not contagious and cannot be spread to others. So if coughing or difficulty breathing appears worse than that normally due to chronic bronchitis, be cautious in case a contagious variety of bronchitis is also present.\n\nAcute Bronchitis Contageous\n\n • Bronchitis itself is not infectious.\n • You may even develop bronchitis, but not because it really is infectious if you're in exactly the same environment as the person.\n\nBronchitis Symptoms\n\nWhen to Seek Medical Care for Chronic Bronchitis When to call the physician for chronic bronchitis Chronic bronchitis can be diagnosed by your physician. If you've been diagnosed with chronic bronchitis, see physician if the following symptoms occur: When to head to the hospital for chronic bronchitis Go to a hospital's emergency department immediately if the following symptoms occur: Health-care professionals diagnose chronic bronchitis on the basis of the patient's symptoms and physical examination. Chronic bronchitis must remain for at least two years in a row, and at least three months, for most days of the month.\n\nAcute Bronchitis Contagious Period\n\nYes: Acute bronchitis is currently regarded as caused mainly by viruses, which are fairly infectious. The infectious period is generally early in the illness, and shortly before the illness starts to show symptoms.\n\nIs Acute Bronchitis Contagious? Healthadel\n\nOut of the acute bronchitis symptoms, a cough is the most common and it can last as much as several weeks if the other acute bronchitis symptoms clear up. Further acute bronchitis symptoms include body aches, fever, a sore throat, a shortness of breath, chest congestion, wheezing and chills. When wondering what exactly is acute bronchitis, it's a good idea to understand that asthma medications and antibiotics may help treat this ailment but as long as the acute bronchitis is due to bacteria, respectively if the sufferer notices wheezing symptoms. Since acute bronchitis can be confused with other ailments that manifest symptoms that are similar, it's best to consult a physician for a precise analysis.\n\nPDF File Save this in .PDF.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9949156045913696}
+{"content": "Amada Anderson, Owner of Manada.Biz Entertainment LLC and New York Broadway Tours.\n\n7 + 12 =\n\n“Amada is a people person in every sense of the word. Amiable and likable, she works with everyone to complete the tasks at hand, taking into account differing opinions and focusing on solving problems. I would recommend working with Amada as she is a person who doesn’t only talk about how to finish a task, she actually executes the plan.” -Erika Bracy, Ultra Gregarious and Detail Attentive Bar Professional, the Comedienne of Bartenders", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6278663873672485}
+{"content": "Gender Assessment\n\nPalestine West Bank/Gaza Rapid Gender Assessment Early Gender Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic Full report\n\nAmong those most impacted by COVID19 are women and girls. Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex. All of these impacts are further amplified in contexts of fragility, conflict, refuge, displacement and emergencies where social cohesion is already undermined and institutional capacity and services are limited.\nCARE Palestine West Bank/ Gaza has carried out a Rapid Gender Assessment in order to highlight for policymakers the importance of addressing the gender impacts of this pandemic and social prejudices and gender norms that discriminate against women in the public and private spheres.\nThis report is intended for policymakers, the Palestinian Authority, civil society organizations—local and international—community members, donors, and the international community at large. It is organized around broad themes and areas of focus of particular importance to those whose programming advances gender equality and reduces gender inequalities. It seeks to deepen the current gender analysis available by encompassing learning from global gender data available for the COVID-19 public health emergency. Read More...\n\nCARE Rapid Gender Analysis for COVID 19 East, Central and Southern Africa\n\nThe impacts – direct and indirect – of public health emergencies fall disproportionally on the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in society. Interconnected social, economic, and political factors pose complex challenges for the ECSA region’s ability to respond to COVID-19. The region already faces significant health challenges that would exacerbate the severity of COVID-19, such as high levels of malnutrition, malaria, anemia, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. Access to healthcare in the region is the lowest in the world, thus there is limited capacity to absorb the pandemic1. Gender-based inequality is extensive in the region. Women are at a higher risk for exposure to infection due to the fact that they are often the primary caregivers in the family and constitute 70% of frontline healthcare responders.2 Most women already face limited access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services, and the region struggles with high levels of maternal mortality. For example, mother mortality rates recorded in South Sudan were 1150 per 100 000 live births3. COVID-19 will only increase women’s safety risks and care burdens as health services become stretched and resources shift to COVID-19 responses.\nWomen and girls are at increased risk of violence during the COVID-19 period. Current rates of violence against women and girls combined with the prevalence of harmful traditional practices leads to increased vulnerability. Income loss and limited mobility, compounded with existing gender role expectations, may contribute to increases in intimate partner violence and other forms of gender-based violence. Read More...\n\nRapid Gender Analysis: Research Report\n\nDrought, worsened by the effects of El-Nino is having a devastating impact on the lives and livelihoods of Ethiopians, and according to the Government and the inter-agency mid-Meher and Meher seasonal assessments, the number of people that will require food assistance in 2016 increased from 8.2 million in October 2015 to 10.2 million in December 2015, making Ethiopia home to the largest acutely food insecure population in the world. Recognising that crisis can further exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and gender norms, CARE Ethiopia sought to better understand the gender dynamics at the household and community level in order to improve the design of its interventions and build on the strengths and capacities of drought affected households. To help achieve this aim, CARE developed a bespoke participatory Rapid Gender Assessment (RGA) approach, allowing for a diverse group of staff to collect information quickly from a sample of affected communities in zones of East Hararghe, West Hararghe, South Gondar and Afar. The RGA focused on the existence and impact of any changing gender dynamics in drought affected households and communities Read More...\n\nAnalyse Rapide Genre – Déplacement de populations dans les arrondissements de Tokombere et Mora – Extrême Nord Cameroun\n\nL’analyse a été conduite au niveau des populations déplacées et leurs hôtes dans les es arrondissements de Tokomberé et Mora, où CARE intervient avec ses programmes d’urgence et de développement. La méthodologie utilisée est basée sur l’outil d’analyse rapide genre de CARE International et a utilisé une combinaison des données secondaires et primaires collectées essentiellement à travers des entretiens en groupe et individuel avec les hommes et les femmes déplacés et leurs familles hôtes. Les données primaires ont été collectées dans un échantillon de 6 villages identifies selon le critère de présence de déplacés, l’intervention de CARE, mais aussi l’accessibilité sécuritaire. En effet, le contexte sécuritaire et le problème d’accès dans certaines zones d’accueil des déplacées ont fortement influencé l’échelle de l’analyse avec l’interdiction d’accès dans certaines zones et les mesures de sécurité qui limitent le temps de présence dans la zone. Read More...\n\nAdversity and Opportunity: Gender Relations, Emergencies and Resilience in the Horn of Africa\n\nThe Gender in Emergencies (GiE) study contributes to this strategy development by examining how the HES can be implemented in the specific context of the Horn of Africa (HoA).2 Commissioned in early 2014 by CARE Australia, the study’s purpose is to ‘contribute to CARE International’s Gender in Emergencies learning and research agenda providing a comparative analysis of the opportunities and challenges in gender equality and women’s empowerment in emergency contexts, and provide lessons for future humanitarian responses.’ Read More...\n\nEvaluation d’impact Genre de la réponse de CARE à la crise du Bassin du Lac Tchad au Cameroun, Niger et Tchad\n\nLa crise du BLT, née du conflit armé au Nord Nigéria qui s’est étendu au Cameroun, Niger et Tchad a créé une crise humanitaire qui a entrainé le déplacement de 4.025.486 personnes au niveau de ces quatre pays (OIM DTM, Avril 2018). Cette crise révèle une dimension protection sans précèdent avec notamment des violences multiformes à l’encontre des femmes et de filles (kidnapping, violences et abus sexuelles, transformées en kamikaze), des violences physiques à l’encontre des hommes et jeunes garçons (décapités ou enrôlés de force dans les combats) ; la dislocation des milliers de familles a laissé aux femmes et aux enfants la responsabilité de se prendre en charge leurs familles. Cette évaluation a pour objectif d’analyser l’impact de l’intégration du genre dans la qualité de la réponse de CARE dans les trois pays du bassin du Lac Tchad que sont Le Cameroun, le Niger et le Tchad. Read More...\n\nCARE Rapid Gender Analysis Cyclone Idai Response Sofala Province, Mozambique\n\nOn 14 March 2019, Tropical Cyclone Idai made landfall near Beira City, leaving devastating loss of life and large-scale destruction of assets and infrastructure. In the days that followed, entire villages were submerged as floodwaters rose causing mass displacement. From early on in the response it was clear that certain groups such as female headed-households (FHH), persons with disabilities (PwD), the elderly and children (boys and girls) were some of the most at risk, both in the immediate response and in recovery. This was further confirmed during this Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA).\n\nCARE had identified four main districts in Sofala province in which to focus its assessment based on planned operational locations: Beira, Dondo (with a focus on Samora Machel), Nhamatanda (with a focus on Mutechira) and Buzi (with a focus on Guara Guara). The RGA was built up progressively over the data collection period, using 30 focus group discussions (FGDs), 14 key informant interviews (KII), 55 household surveys, and observations, in both rural and urban areas, transit, accommodation centres and with communities. Data collection took place between the 6 and15 April 2019. Read More...\n\nCARE Rapid Gender Analysis Tropical Cyclone IDAI Zimbabwe\n\nZimbabwe was hit by Cyclone Idai between the 15th and 17th of March. The tropical storm caused riverine and flash flooding in the eastern and southern part of Zimbabwe resulting in loss of life, injury, destruction of livelihoods, houses, roads, bridges and other public infrastructures. An estimated 270 000 people have been affected by Cyclone Idai.\n\nCARE conducted a Rapid Gender Analysis to identify and make recommendation to the different sectors in the response on how to meet the different needs of women, men, boys and girls during and after the emergence. Secondary and primary data was collected from the 1st to the 4th of April 2019. Field Visits and Focus group discussions were held in 4 of the affected areas, Chimanimani, Chipinge, Buhera and Mutare Rural District. Through consultations with the affected men, women, boys and girls, the team was able to identify both immediate and long term needs for the communities, families and the different groups.\n\nCARE Rapid Gender and GBV Assessment Borno State: Banki, Pulka and Rann\n\nRapid Gender and GBV assessments provide information about the different GBV risks, needs, capacities and coping strategies of women, men, boys and girls during crisis. The analysis is built up progressively using a range of primary and secondary information to understand gender roles and power relations and implied GBV risks and how they may change during a crisis. The analysis provides practical, programming and operational recommendations to meet the different needs of women, men, boys and girls, to ensure that humanitarian actors ‘do no harm’ in their operations. The global objective of this assessment is to improve the quality and effectiveness of CARE and partner’s response to the North East Nigeria crisis. Read More...\n\n\n\ndynamics.\n\nFilter Evaluations\n\nClear all", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9928504228591919}
+{"content": "Demon Seed (Book One)\n\nAs the only spawn of the most notorious revolutionaries ever to sacrifice themselves for the baiyaru race, Lucian Ragnarok Hellfire has his claws full just trying to lead a normal life in a not-so-normal village deep in the dank bowels of a demon swamp. While cultivating a mining village of fellow slavery refugees, he struggles to understand his karmic role in the racially warring Third Sphere dimension from which his survival and emergence are both hoped and feared.\n\nHis war hero/criminal mother imprisoned between dimensions, Lucian is restless with the knowledge that he was protectively exiled from noble House Hellfire mere days after his birth. When his swamp sanctuary is threatened by a member of the winged race who enslaved him, the time comes for his controversial identity to be exposed. Flanked by the genius Zenith “Zene” Brimstone—his adopted brother of likewise spitfire—Lucian embarks on a tenacious mission to discover just what it is the world has against him, and how he can give it hell in return.\n\nAs a crowning scientific achievement of illustrious House Horizon, Waha’ari Ukuchatari is a genetic enigma popular among friends and enemies alike. Known as a chymera scandalously created from two opposing races, she is determined to fulfill the revolutionary dreams of the eirwin house who created and raised her—no matter the painful personal cost. But once that dream is within grasp and her search for the lost Hellfire infant finally bears bittersweet fruit, she must find the strength to spread her wings and seize what awaits her in worlds unknown.\n\nFriend or foe. Male or female. Dead or alive. Strength or weakness. Good or evil. Right or wrong. Fantasy or reality. Lines are blurred and then obliterated in Demon Seed, the first book in the wildly epic story of RAGNAROK.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7061183452606201}
+{"content": "Did you know you can download our entire database for free?\n\n\nGeorgia Caselaw:\nGreatest Hits\n\nGeorgia Code: Browse\n\n(external) Findlaw Georgia Law Resources\n\nThis site exists because of donors like you.\n\nThanks! Georgia Caselaw\nHILL, Chief Justice.\nFirearm violation; constitutional question. Cobb Superior Court. Before Judge Robinson.\nThe evidence introduced at trial showed that on December 18, 1980, defendant was arrested under an arrest warrant issued in Fulton County for violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. At the time of his arrest, the defendant was nude. Incident to this arrest a Detective Greene searched the area immediately surrounding defendant. In response to a question by defendant, Greene stated he was looking for weapons. Motioning to a chest of drawers, defendant told Greene the top drawer contained two weapons. Greene found the weapons and announced to the defendant that they were forfeited. Defendant stated one gun belonged to him and the other was \"pawned\" to him. At trial defendant could not recall making these statements, nor could he recall the sequence of events of the arrest. He testified that one gun belonged to his common-law wife and the other to a friend.\nThe motel efficiency suite where the arrest was made was registered in defendant's name. Defendant's common-law wife was the only other person in the room at the time of the arrest. Defendant testified that another couple shared the suite and that all four persons stored their belongings in the chest. Before leaving the motel, officers observed defendant remove several packs of cigarettes from the drawer where the guns had been located.\n1. Defendant first contends the evidence was insufficient to sustain a verdict of guilty. We find the evidence sufficient to establish defendant's possession of the weapons. There was evidence that defendant admitted owning one gun and that the other had been pawned to him. Defendant's first enumeration is without merit.\n2. Defendant next argues his conviction should be reversed because he was denied effective assistance of trial counsel. Defendant complains trial counsel failed to make certain trial motions, to subpoena certain witnesses (one of whom defendant stated at trial he preferred not be called), and to object to certain evidence. We find no basis for a motion to suppress the guns. It was proper for the officer to search for weapons before allowing the defendant to dress. We find no interrogation of the defendant; he volunteered that the guns were In the dresser drawer and that they were his.\n\" 'The decisions on which witnesses to call, whether and how to conduct cross-examinations, what jurors to accept or strike, what trial motions should be made, and all other strategic and tactical decisions are the exclusive province of the lawyer after consultation with his client.' (Citation omitted.)\" Reid v. State, 235 Ga. 378, 379 (219 SE2d 740) (1975). \" 'We interpret the right to counsel as the right to effective counsel. We interpret counsel to mean not errorless counsel, and not counsel judged ineffective by hindsight, but counsel reasonably likely to render and rendering reasonably effective assistance.' \" Pitts v. Glass, 231 Ga. 638, 639 (203 SE2d 515) (1974) and cit. \"The fact that the case could have been tried differently on behalf of the defendant does not mean that he failed to receive a vigorous and competent defense.\" Fortson v. State, 240 Ga. 5, 6 (239 SE2d 335) (1977).\nWe find defendant's second enumeration without merit.\n3. Defendant challenges the constitutionality of OCGA 16-11-131 (Code Ann. 26-2914) on two grounds. Defendant first contends the statute is invalid on its face because it violates Art. 1, Sec. 1, Par. V of the Constitution of Georgia (Code Ann. 2-105). 1\nDefendant seeks a literal interpretation of this provision, particularly its first part. Under defendant's interpretation he would have had the constitutional right to bear arms during his trial in the court below and while serving his sentence. We reject such literalism. In Strickland v. State, 137 Ga. 1, 6 (72 SE 260) (1912), the court stated: \"[T]he right to bear arms, like other rights of person and property, is to be construed in connection with the general police power of the State, and as subject to legitimate regulation thereunder. Where a State constitution in terms provides, in connection with the right to bear arms, that the State may regulate this right, or may regulate the manner of bearing arms, these words expressly recognize the police power in direct connection with the constitutional declaration as to the right.\" 137 Ga. at 6. This court has recently upheld the power of the General Assembly to enact reasonable regulations dealing with the keeping and carrying of weapons. Carson v. State, 241 Ga. 622 (247 SE2d 68) (1978). In enacting OCGA 16-11-131 (Code Ann. 26-2914), the General Assembly sought to keep guns out of the hands of those individuals who by their prior conduct had demonstrated that they may not possess a firearm without being a threat to society. We find the statute here is a reasonable regulation authorized by the police power and thus not violative of our Constitution.\n4. Defendant next contends OCGA 16-11-131 (Code Ann. 26-2914), as applied to him, acts as an ex post facto law. He argues that because 16-11-131 (Code Ann. 26-2914) was not enacted until April, 1980, approximately 14 years after his burglary conviction, it operates to punish him further for his previous criminal conduct.\nAs a general rule, any law is ex post facto which is enacted after the offense was committed, and which, in relation to it or its consequences, alters the situation of the accused to his disadvantage. Todd v. State, 228 Ga. 746, 748 (187 SE2d 831) (1972). In determining whether a statute is being applied in an ex post facto manner, the definitive time period to be considered is the date on which the criminal offense was committed. Defendant argues the appropriate time period is the date of the burglary. We do not agree.\nOCGA 16-11-131 (Code Ann. 26-2914), the statute under which defendant was convicted, created an offense, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Defendant's punishment for his burglary conviction was not increased; he was convicted of a new offense, one element of which was his earlier felony conviction. Therefore we find the appropriate date for consideration is December 18, 1980, the date guns were found in defendant's possession. Because OCGA 16-11-131 (Code Ann. 26-2914) was enacted and became effective before December 18, 1980, it cannot be considered an ex post facto law as to defendant's conduct here.\nA challenge similar to defendant's was made to Georgia's habitual violator law (OCGA 40-5-58 et seq. (Code Ann. 68B-308 et seq.)) in Fowler v. State, 235 Ga. 535 (221 SE2d 9) (1975). Fowler claimed the statute was being applied in an ex post facto manner by being used to convict him as a habitual offender based on traffic offenses occurring before enactment of the statute. Fowler committed an offense after enactment and, on the basis of this new offense plus the previous ones, was found to be a habitual violator. One of the elements of being a habitual offender is to have been convicted of earlier traffic offenses. This court found that the habitual violator law was not an ex post facto law for it imposed punishment on future offenses only, although a heavier penalty was set for the new offense. 235 Ga. at 536. Similarly OCGA 16-11-131 (Code Ann. 26-2914) imposes punishment for the new offense only.\nJerry Lee Landers, pro se.\nLarry W. Yarbrough, for appellant.\nThursday May 21 19:53 EDT\n\nThis site exists because of donors like you.\n\n\nValid HTML 4.0!\n\nValid CSS!\n\nHome - Tour - Disclaimer - Privacy - Contact Us\nCopyright © 2000,2002,2004", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8508445620536804}
+{"content": "\n\nThe sport came about as a response to the perceived shortcomings in competitions organized by the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) and its migration away from the use of common, un-customized handguns.[1] It was decided by the founders of IDPA (Bill Wilson, John Sayle, Ken Hackathorn, Dick Thomas, Walt Rauch and Larry Vickers), that USPSA competitions had become too far removed from the reality of defensive shooting situations, using extensively modified guns, handmade ammunition, and speed-draw holsters that were impractical for self-defense. The IDPA founders believed that USPSA matches had become \"equipment races\", which were heavily dependent on a shooter's gear rather than their ability.\n\n\nJune 27, 2020\n • IDPA Match\n\n June 27, 2020 8:00 am - 2:00 pm\n 6800 Kershaw Rd, Central Point, OR 97502, USA\n\n Contact: Leif Johnson", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8861662745475769}
+{"content": "Sign Up | Log in |\n\nChris Cornell Myers-Brigs type - MBTI, enneagram and personality type info\n\nChris Cornell MBTI personality type cover chart\n\nEspecially the lines \"One more time around/Might do it,\" which is basically saying, 'I tried today to understand and belong and get along with other people, and I failed, but I'll probably try again tomorrow. Cornell is more stern,more serious. The second letter in the personality type acronym corresponds to the preference within the sensing-intuition dimension: “S” stands for sensing and “N” stands for intuition.. Welcome to MBTIBase - PersonalityBase, here you can learn about Chris Cornell MBTI type.. If you think you might be at risk, don't allow yourself to be alone. Whether or you not you might think you matter, you DO matter to somebody out there. INTJs are interested in ideas and theories when observing the world.. In this site you can find out which of the 16 types this character 'Chris Cornell' belongs to!. Every person’s preference can be found on a spectrum, so just choose the letter you identify with most.. I have a tendency to sometimes be pretty closed off and not see people for long periods of time and not call anyone. Definitely INTJ. If you enjoyed this entry, find out about the personality types of Soundgarden characters list.. Even if not directly tested, public voting can provide good accuracy regarding Chris Cornell Myers-Briggs and personality type!. You are in the best place to test MBTI and learn what type Chris Cornell likely is!. 'The guy's level of cool and self-confidence is huge. What is the best option for the MBTI type of Chris Cornell? What about enneagram and other personality types?. It's about attempting to be normal and just go out and be around other people and hang out. This personality type is highly individualistic and Champions strive toward creating their own methods, looks, actions, habits, and ideas!. This is someone I shared a type with too, that I looked up to musically from the time I was a kid. Very strong rational (NT) vibes. I have trouble seeing him as INTJ, in particular where is any of the NT stuff. Could he be a 4w5 INTJ. Discover Array, and more, famous people, fictional characters and celebrities here!.\n\n\n. Quiet, reflective, and idealistic. Interested in serving humanity. Well-developed value system, which they strive to live in accordance with.. Keep a guardian nearby. Thinking – Feeling, represents how a person processes information. Thinking means that a person makes a decision mainly through logic.. I see how does he come as that strongly self-confident and colorful minded that made mistype him as ISFP. So that leaves ISFJ and ISTJ, and I'm sort of interested in the nihilistic side that code mentioned about him, but I think a lot of that could be a result of depression. Part of me is still a bit dissociated from him actually being gone. I think a lot of male ISFJs hide their emotional side under the surface but you can see what the focus of his music is so I am prone to thinking that ISFJ is the best fit.\n\nChris Cornell\n\nMBTI enneagram type of Chris Cornell Realm:\n\nCategory: Music and Music Industry\n\nSeries/Domain: Soundgarden\n\n\nINTJ - 10 vote(s)\nISFP - 3 vote(s)\nINFJ - 2 vote(s)\n\nLog in to vote!\n\n\n4W5 - 5 vote(s)\n6W5 - 2 vote(s)\n\nLog in to vote!\n\nLog in to add a comment.\n\n\nSort (descending) by: Date posted | Most voted", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7968584299087524}
+{"content": "Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://ri.uaemex.mx/handle20.500.11799/37976\nTitle: Acerca de los estudios sobre el futuro\nAuthors: Edgar Samuel Morales Sales \nKeywords: Multidisciplinarias (Ciencias Sociales);Studies about the Future;Club of Rome;Latin America;Wars;Population growth;info:eu-repo/classification/cti/5\nPublisher: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México\nProject: http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=104 \nDescription: The aim of this article is to present to local and non specialists readers a new field of knowledge: The studies about the Future. Taking in consideration that anxiety of man to know what is goin to happen in the near, in the middle and in the long-term, future is a constant among every social group. Some scholars have proposed that we most think seriously about what kind of world we will inherite to future generations. The text remember that thirty year ago a group of european intelectuals (Club of Rome) predicted that by the end of this century the whole world would have a severe nourishing crisis due to the propultion growth, and to the lack of sources of energy, but also to the raid of an intolerable pollution. The mit made also several predictions in the same direction, and some scholars thought that a Third World War between socialist and capitalists countries would be inevitable by the same time. Finally, the text propose a reflection about the studies of the future and Latin American societies.\nURI: http://ri.uaemex.mx/handle20.500.11799/37976\nOther Identifiers: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11799/37976\nRights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess\nAppears in Collections:Producción\n\nShow full item record\n\nGoogle ScholarTM\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9875795841217041}
+{"content": "* Shows Compulsory Field\nName : * Email Id : *\nMobile No : * Telephone No. :\nTour Package : * No. of Person : *\nDate of Arrival : * Day You Have :\nAccomodation : * City :\nState : Country : *\nWrite Your Special Requirement : *\n\nBihar Travels Tours\n\nCall Us 24x7\n\nCuisine of Bihar\n\nBihari cuisine is eaten mainly in Bihar, Jharkhand, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji, some cities of Pakistan, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago as these are they places where Bihari people are present.\n\n\nDairy products are consumed frequently throughout the year, with common foods including yogurt known as dahi and also buttermilk known as mattha, ghee, lassi and butter. The cuisine of Bihar is similar to a great extent to North Indian cuisine but has an influence from other East Indian Cuisine (for example like Bengali cuisine).\n\n\n\nBihari Thali\n\nPeople use both vegetable oil or mustard oil and zeera or panchforan (literally \"five seeds\", namely saunf, sarson, methi, ajwain and mangraeel(Kalaunji) for \"chhounkna\"/\"Tadka\"(tempering) of some vegetables. There is a lot of light frying, called bhoonjnaa, in Bihari food.\n\n\nTraditional Cuisine\nKadhi Bari - these fried soft dumplings made of besan (gram flour) are cooked in a spicy gravy of yogurt and besan. It goes well over plain rice.\n\nKhichdi - Mix of Rice, Dal and several Vegetables; steamed together to give a distinctive taste of different ingredients combined in one dish. It is often topped up with ghee.\n\nGhugni - It is a preparation made of grams soaked (either lightly/overnight)in water and then sauted in mustard oil in a wok.\n\nPittha - It is something like momos. It could be either salty or sweet.It is either a semi circular/ball shaped preparation made of crust made of soft rice flour and filled with preparations made of Channa Daal lentil paste, or Poppy seeds & Gur (Jaggey). and then steamed in water/ milk (allowed to thicken).\n\nChoora - beaten rice, served with a coat of creamy curd and sugar or jaggery. In winters, this is mildly baked and accompanied with a thick spicy preparation made of peas and onions.\n\nSattu - powdered baked gram, a high energy giving food usually mixed with water or with milk. Sometimes, sattu mixed with spices is used to prepare stuffed 'chapattis', locally called as 'makuni roti'.\n\nDhuska - a deep fried item prepared from a mixture of powdered rice and ghee but is salted.\n\nLitti - Powdered baked gram is mixed with chopped onions,green chillies,lemon juice,coriander leaves. This mixture is filled inside atta and either barbecued over coal or deep fried with oil. Best accompanied with Ghee,Curd and Chokha and baigan bharta.\n\nRecommended Tour Packages\n\nPrime Destinations of Bihar\n\nActivities to Do in Bihar", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9281643033027649}
+{"content": "Alchemy Acres cares for many different animals other than domestics. We are also licensed to care for Native Wildlife. Alchemy’s Rehabilitators are Category I licensed. This means that we may take care of orphaned Eastern Cottontail Rabbits, Eastern Gray Squirrels (also Black Squirrels), Fox Squirrels, Red Squirrels, Flying Squirrels and Eastern Chipmunks. Category II animals, which Alchemy may be able to transport to a proper facility depending on species, include Opossums, Beavers, Foxes, Weasels, Skunks, Badgers, Minks, Reptiles, Amphibians and Bats. There are also animals that require extra permitting that Alchemy Acres may be able to transport to proper facilities when necessary. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife License allows rehabilitators to care for state and federally endangered species and any migratory species such as owls, hawks, waterfowl and song birds. There are no permits, and it is illegal to rehabilitate animals such as, White-Tailed Deer, Coyotes or Mute Swans. Raccoon rehabilitation is dependent on the county in which it is found.\n\nThe sanctuary has two permitted wildlife rehabilitators as well as sub permit holders and volunteers. In addition to the rehabilitation of wild animals, Alchemy provides education to the public about wildlife. With this education, the public then learns how to deal with an injured or orphaned wild animal.\n\nAs a wildlife rehabilitator, we are serious about our vows to care for and release healthy wildlife that has been injured or orphaned as result of human intervention. For example, a female opossum carrying babies that has been hit by a car, or a bird caught in a fence, and even (the most common) cat/dog attacks. During the rehabilitation process, wild animals are raised, weaned and conditioned in an outdoor enclosure for release.\n\nIn 2015, Alchemy helped over 150 native wild animals of 25 different species! In order to do so we used over 50 pounds of powdered formula (mainly KMR and Esbilac). We also used gallons and pounds of unflavored pedialyteunsweetened applesauceapplesbananas, cheeriosFruit n’ Nut mix (from tractor supply) and timothy hay. So next time you’re at the store and you see a product that our wild furry friend may like, consider donating to our cause to return Ohio’s wildlife to the wild!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9870850443840027}
+{"content": "Thursday, 04 June, 2020\nIn Stepanakert: +16 °C\n\nVice-premier Liu He, US officials discuss trade\n\nVice-premier Liu He, US officials discuss trade\nFriday, 08 May, 2020, 13:30\n\nChinese Vice-Premier Liu He held a phone call with US trade officials on Friday morning, with both sides agreeing the two countries should strengthen macroeconomic and public health cooperation.\n\nAccording to a statement the Ministry of Commerce released on Friday, Vice-Premier Liu He spoke with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.\nBoth sides said China and the US should cement cooperation in macroeconomy and public health, and strive to create a favorable condition for implementing the phase-one trade deal between the two countries. The two sides agreed to maintain communication on relevant issues, the statement added.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9577425122261047}
+{"content": "Real friends are those who will stand by you at your worst. If you have someone in your life like this, hold them close and never let them go.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7723316550254822}
+{"content": "Shershaah: Sidharth Malhotra meets with an accident while riding a bike in Kargil\n\n\nBollywood actor Sidharth Malhotra who is currently shooting for his upcoming film Shershaah in Kargil has recently met with an accident as his bike skidded during the schedule.\n\nSidharth Malhotra meets with an accident\n\nAccording to sources, “After the shoot, Sid and Shiv (Pandit, co-star) had ventured out for a ride when Shiv lost his balance and slipped off his bike. Sid, who was right behind him, had to apply brakes due to which his bike skidded, resulting in hand and leg injuries.”\n\nSidharth Malhotra meets with an accident\n\nBoth Shiv and Sidharth were soon taken to the nearby army hospital. “Despite the accident, Sidharth continued to shoot on Sunday, as a crew of 150 people was already on board for a pivotal scene, for which a massive set-up was put together. It was a rest day for him on Monday,” added the source.\n\nSidharth informed that the injury will take a week time to heal. “But given the schedule and scale of the film, I didn’t have the time to recover. Accidents like these happen and cause a bit of lapse in schedules, but I think it could have been much worse. Hopefully in the next few days, I will be absolutely fine.It is a completely new experience because not many films have been shot here. We have explored virgin locations as we want to be extremely authentic when it comes to the war. We have shot in the mountains similar to the ones where the battles were fought. The rocks were extremely sharp, and they can’t be controlled. So, there were safety concerns while we filmed action sequences and the team did everything to ensure we were comfortable.”\n\nRead also:\n\nSidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra starrer Jabariya Jodi song Khwabfaroshi is a soulful track\n\nShershaah is directed by Vishnu Varadhan and produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, the film also stars Kiara Advani in a key role.\n\nThe film is set to hit the screens in 2020.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9136559963226318}
+{"content": "\nThe MP-eye Macular Pigment Analyzer is a simple 1-minute test that provides the ability to assess and track a patient's macular pigment density over time.\n\nThe MP-eye identifies those patients susceptible to damage from high- energy visible light. Protective pigments in the eye block damaging light and act as antioxidants, the strength of these natural defences are dependent upon lifestyle and genetics. Low Macular Pigment density is associated with reduced contrast sensitivity and the inability to deal with glare or scatter as well as risk for Age-Related Macular Degeneration.\nProduct Inquiry\nThe MP-eye test provides a starting point for meaningful conversations with patients of all ages about the importance of diet, optical coatings, sunglasses and ocular supplements. Test results empower those with low defences to understand why they need to take action and the practice is given a tangible tool to guide patients to products specific to their needs.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999743700027466}
+{"content": "Functionbeat - deployment to multiple environments\n\nI couldn't find this in documentation, so was hoping someone will be able to clarify.\n\nWhat is expected flow of deployment of Functionbeat to multiple environments?\n\nSpecific problem scenario\nI want to deploy it to multiple environments and have field which represents environment name e.g. fields \"environment\"=\"prod\"/\"dev\"/.... Each environment for Lambda has ENVIRONMENT variable set. However the problem is that when building (ziping) `functionbeat.yml` I have no idea on which environment it will be deployed, so all `{...}` environment variable usages have no desired effect - they access machine which is building, not the one on which it will be running.\n\nI also tried to look at things like decode_json_fields, copy_fields processor configurations to extract environment info from log event itself, but it looks a bit limited and documentation lacking to come up with something useful.\n\nWould be very thankful to any ideas.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9801785349845886}
+{"content": "Punctuation Causes Misunderstandings\n\nPunctuation Causes Misunderstandings\nThere is a wonderful example of how the way things are written can affect understanding in the July 2018 issue of Reader’s Digest (page 48). The story is that a professor wrote the following sentence on the blackboard: “Woman without her man is nothing.” He then asked each person in the class to rewrite the sentence with correct punctuation. The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing.” The women wrote: “Woman! Without her, man is nothing.” It is obvious that punctuation causes misunderstandings!\n\nWhen one reads the Bible in English, the same problem occurs. The original Hebrew and Greek of the Bible were written in a completely different way from modern English. The original documents usually have no punctuation and sometimes not even spaces between words. This is rarely an issue for someone simply trying to understand the basic message, but when people start digging into questions that are technical in nature, it can become an issue.\n\nAn example of this is Genesis 1:1-2a. In the King James Bible, there is no punctuation. The Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible reads “In the beginning of God’s preparing the heavens and the earth– the earth hath existed waste and void.” In my studies with Jewish scholars, I was told that the understanding of this in their tradition is that God created the Earth and heavens and the earth became wasted and chaotic.\n\nNone of this has much to do with the basic message of the Bible. However, when you compare the scientific evidence with the biblical account, it is important to know how the people of Moses’ day would have understood the words. Sometimes modern punctuation causes misunderstandings of the account which conflict with the evidence of science.\n–John N. Clayton © 2018\n\nBiblical History Gains New Support\n\nBiblical History Gains New Support\nMany skeptics of the Bible attempt to suggest that the biblical record of the Exodus, Moses, and Israel is fiction. They say that most of the Old Testament contains made-up stories with no historical support. However, with further discoveries, biblical history gains new support.\n\nMichael Zellmann-Rohrer of the University of Oxford has recently translated a large papyrus document discovered in 1934 at the pyramid of Senusret I at Lisht in Lower Egypt. The text is written in Coptic, an Egyptian language that adapts the Greek alphabet. The document contains references to Abraham and Isaac from the Book of Genesis and quotations from a prayer by Seth, a son of Adam and Eve. This papyrus does not come from the time of the Exodus, but it shows strong connections to the biblical record in Egypt that endured to the time of Christ and beyond. (Reference: Archaeology July/August 2018, page 16.)\n\nIn our websites and publications, we have repeatedly given examples of evidence showing that what the Bible says is true. We also have a DVD series on biblical archaeology by Dr. Harvey Porter. We are currently working on new programs on archaeology and history for our “Does God Exist?” video series. They are taught by John Cooper and recorded in the Clayton Museum of Ancient History at York College in York, Nebraska. Those new programs will be available by the fall of 2018.\n\nWe have said many times that science and the Bible are friends, not enemies. That is also true of the science of archaeology. As we learn more from archaeology, biblical history gains new support.\n–John N. Clayton © 2018\n\nThe Not So Common, Common Pigeon\n\nCommon Pigeon\nYou may think that pigeons are more of a nuisance than anything else. Many of us have had to scrub pigeon droppings off of statues or home decorations. The sheer number of pigeons that we see in our cities can make us take these birds for granted. Discover magazine for August 2018 published a dossier of the unique features of the common pigeon, also known as the rock pigeon or rock dove. These features show it is incredibly well-designed to survive in almost any environment on Earth. Here are some interesting characteristics:\n\nPigeons are one of only three kinds of birds that have an enlarged crop which is an extension of the esophagus. They use this crop to store food which they eventually give to their young.\n\nMost birds drink by taking in water and then putting their heads back to allow the water to run into their stomach. Pigeons have a unique beak that acts like a straw enabling them to suck up the water.\n\nWing muscle makes up about 60% of a pigeon’s body weight making pigeons excellent flyers. They can cover 500 miles a day and can reach speeds of 50 mph.\n\nPigeons can navigate in ways that are still poorly understood by scientists. Experiments have shown they can use sound, magnetic fields, landmarks, the Sun, and even smell. Like the Arctic Tern, the common pigeon seems to possess multiple navigational tools.\n\nPigeons have a concept of self and can recognize themselves in a reflection. There are only six other animals that can do that.\n\nPigeons are more capable than babies and toddlers in recognizing the letters of the alphabet.\n\nPigeons use “fright molt” which is the ability to shed feathers when attacked.\n\nHumans have used pigeons for food, for carrying messages, and for psychological testing. In fact, the famous psychologist B.F. Skinner taught pigeons how to play ping pong. Our most abundant birds like pigeons and crows were designed to do remarkable things. God frequently advises us to learn from His creation–including all life forms. (For example, Proverbs 6:5, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise.”) We can also learn from the common pigeon which is not so ordinary after all.\n–John N. Clayton © 2018\n\nIntelligent Alien\n\nOctopus - Intelligent Alien\nScience fiction writers and UFO proponents like to propose strange looking aliens that can do incredible feats. The common octopus is a beautifully designed and incredibly intelligent animal that could compare to any intelligent alien of science fiction.\n\nThe octopus has no bones in its body, in fact, the only hard part of an octopus is its beak. That means that the octopus can take any shape and fit through almost any opening. One famous example is an octopus that escaped from an aquarium in New Zealand. That animal picked apart the lid on its aquarium, crawled out, went across the room and down through a drain hole that led to the sea and has never been seen again.\n\nOctopus arms are muscular, boneless, and lined with suckers that are covered with chemoreceptors similar to our own taste buds. An octopus can taste everything it touches. They live in oceans around the world from equatorial waters to Antarctica and the Gulf of Alaska and from deep-water trenches to shallow reefs.\n\nThe arms are also filled with neurons, so the brain cells of an octopus are in its arms and not its dome. The octopus has sacs of pigments which are controlled by the muscles. It can release this “ink” as a defense mechanism. Its arms also have cells that reflect and scatter light. That means an octopus can control what it looks like. It can resemble a sea snake, a fish, anemones, jellyfish, sand, or seaweed. It’s a master of disguise. In addition to the right color and form some octopus species copy the movements of whatever animal they imitate. The camouflage does not seem to be accidental but is controlled by the octopus itself.\n\nFor a soft-bodied animal to survive in the ocean, some unique characteristics must be designed into its DNA. We think the number of features the octopus has is astounding. To have one unique characteristic might be possible–produced by a mutation and supported by natural selection. To have all of the abilities of an octopus would not happen by one mutation. Fossil evidence indicates that octopuses have been around throughout the history of the oceans. They even predate the dinosaurs.\n\nOctopuses resemble an intelligent alien, and they certainly make E.T. look like nothing special. They give evidence of the Designer of life.\n–John N. Clayton © 2018\nData from Discover Magazine, July/August 2018, page 56-57.\n\nDoes Your GPS Work?\n\nDoes Your GPS Work?\nDoes Your GPS work? If so, you can give credit to Albert Einstein. In 1905 Einstein published the Theory of Special Relativity which said that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. This presented a problem because gravity acts between objects instantly and thus it seems to be faster than the speed of light. It was a problem that needed a solution.\n\nTen years later, in 1915 Einstein revealed his Theory of General Relativity which resolved the problem. The explanation was that the Sun and planets cause space to curve around them and this warped shape of space influences the motion of other objects passing by them. That’s why the Moon orbits the Earth, and it’s why Earth and the other planets orbit the Sun.\n\nThis warping of space also bends light beams that pass through space. In 1919 British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington confirmed that Einstein was correct. Eddington observed the bending of light from distant stars as the light passed by the Sun during a total solar eclipse.\n\nThe understanding of how gravity bends space and light beams has given us methods of making measurements in space and detecting planets orbiting other stars. Einstein also said that time is warped by gravity causing time to move more slowly near massive bodies like the Earth. The effect of gravity on time allows Global Positioning Satellites to determine the exact position of the GPS receiver you use in your car.\n\nDoes your GPS work? If it does, it works because brilliant minds have discovered many of the amazing details of God’s creation. We have been able to apply the things we have learned, but science has only scratched the surface of understanding the work of the Creator.\n–Roland Earnst © 2018\n\nWhy Plants Grow Up\n\nWhy Plants Grow Up\nHave you ever wondered why plants grow up instead of down? Take a bean, a grain of corn, or any other seed and lay it on top of wet soil until it germinates. The root will grow out of the seed and turn downward into the soil. The shoot will go upward. It doesn’t matter which direction you position the seed when it germinates. Even if the seed germinates in a place where there is no light, the root still goes down, and the stem goes up.\n\nAfter the root and stem are growing, take the seed and turn it upside down with the root pointing straight up. The root will turn around and head back down into the soil. Take a potted plant and lay it on its side so that it’s horizontal. If the dirt doesn’t fall out, the plant will make a turn and go upward and its roots downward.\n\nTrees on a hillside don’t grow perpendicular to the slope. They grow upward, and the roots grow downward. If there is a landslide and the tree is left horizontal, it will turn and start growing upward again. Amazing, isn’t it?\n\nThis ability of plants to know up from down is called gravitropism. Only in recent years has science begun to learn the secrets of how it works. In the cells of the plant, there are particles called statoliths. They normally sit on the bottom of gravity sensing cells. When the plant is tipped, they move and send a message to the growth regulating cells that the direction of gravity has changed. The roots react positively and go toward the source of gravity. The stem responds negatively and goes in the opposite direction.\n\nThis explanation is an oversimplified description of why plants grow up. How a plant with no brain or central nervous system communicates the message of which way to grow from one cell to another is still not fully understood. Little by little, science is uncovering the mysteries of life. We still have much to learn, but it’s obvious that plants show evidence of design by a Master Engineer.\n–Roland Earnst © 2018\n\nColor Vision Gender Differences\n\nColor Vision Gender Differences\nThere are many differences between men and women, but you realize that there are color vision gender differences?\n\nLight is electromagnetic radiation that stimulates our eyes. There are only specific frequencies of the electromagnetic frequency spectrum that we can see. Frequencies below the range of visible light are called infrared. We can sometimes feel infrared radiation as heat, but we can’t see it, although some animals can. Frequencies higher than visible light are ultraviolet which we can’t see, but it affects our skin and can cause sunburn. Some animals can see infrared light.\n\nWithin the visible spectrum of light that humans can see, different bands of frequencies affect our eyes differently. Most of us have receptors in our eyes for the wavelengths which we call red, green, and blue. When light stimulates those receptors, they send a signal to our brain which combines the signals to allow us to see many variations in colors.\n\nPeople with colorblindness (mostly men) have one of those color receptor categories missing. The missing color may be either red or green. Why are men colorblind more often than women? The genes that encode the red and green receptors are located in the X-chromosome. Men have one X- and one Y-chromosome. Women have two X chromosomes. That means that if a man has a defective X-chromosome, he is out of luck. A woman would need to have two defective X-chromosomes to be colorblind.\n\nIt’s interesting that the chromosome pair that creates the sex differences also explains the color vision gender differences. God said, “It is not good for man to be alone” and He took something out of the man to create a woman. Then He put them together to complete each other. In many ways, men and women really do need each other to be complete.\n–Roland Earnst © 2018\n\nAdding Nitrogen to the Soil\n\nAdding Nitrogen to the Soil\nWe all know that lightning can be dangerous. Each year people are killed, and a great deal of property damage occurs because of lightning. We don’t usually consider the benefits of this powerful force. Nitrogen in the soil is essential for plants to grow and lightning is a natural method of adding nitrogen to the soil.\n\nAlthough lightning can be dangerous, it also produces materials that are critical to life. All living things depend on the chemical element nitrogen. Your body contains molecules known as proteins. Proteins are made up of several elements, including nitrogen. Nitrogen is essential for proteins, but it is very hard to make nitrogen into proteins. Even though nitrogen makes up 78 percent of our atmosphere, we don’t get any nitrogen from the air we breathe. With each breath, we inhale and exhale nitrogen without using it. The nitrogen in the atmosphere has three electron bonds between the atoms, and that is a very strong and stable chemical arrangement. It takes an enormous amount of energy to break those bonds to free the nitrogen.\n\nWhen lightning slices through the atmosphere, it knocks electrons from nitrogen atoms. The atoms are then free to combine with oxygen and hydrogen in the atmosphere forming nitrates. Rain carries this new compound to the ground enriching the soil with nitrates which are the building blocks of proteins. Plants synthesize the nitrates into proteins. When animals eat the plants, they get proteins. When we eat the plants or animals, we get the proteins we need to build more proteins.\n\nWithout lightning and the other processes for adding nitrogen to the soil, life could not exist on Earth. There is a purpose in the design of lightning. The Designer has also given us the intelligence to avoid many of the adverse effects of this powerful force.\n–Roland Earnst © 2018\n\nElectrons Are Essential for Life\n\nElectrons Are Essential in the Elements of Life\nEveryone knows that electrons allow us to have computers and other electrical devices, but you may not realize how many ways electrons are essential. The mass, charge, magnetic properties, and spin of electrons are all designed to make life possible. It is amazing that something far too small for us to see is so important.\n\nThe changing momentum of electrons creates light which is essential for life. Electrons are also the fundamental cause of all that happens in chemistry. Atoms bond with other atoms to make molecules by exchanging or by sharing electrons. The complex organic molecules in your body, including DNA, are held together by electrons. The properties of every element in the universe are determined by how its electrons are arranged around the nucleus.\n\nThe oxygen atom with eight electrons joins with two single-electron hydrogen atoms to form water. The arrangement of the electrons in the oxygen atom causes the oxygen/hydrogen union to form in a way that gives water its unusual properties. The arrangement of electrons and the way the atoms bond causes water to dissolve salts, freeze from the top down, form crystals when freezing, and have surface tension. Without these unique properties of water, life would not be possible on Earth.\n\nThe arrangement of the six electrons in the carbon atom allows it to form enormous numbers of carbon compounds in various patterns. Because carbon can build so many organic compounds, our carbon-based life can exist. Without the particular arrangement of electrons in oxygen and carbon, life would not be possible.\n\nAdd to carbon and oxygen more than 90 other elements and their electron arrangements, and you can see that the probability of all of this happening by chance is not reasonable. We can be sure that a Master Designer created this complex system in which electrons are essential.\n–Roland Earnst © 2018\n\nSummer Solstice Is Here\n\nSummer Solstice\nToday is the day of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s the longest day and the beginning of summer north of the Equator and the shortest day and beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere. Today everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, daylight will be more than 12 hours. In the Southern Hemisphere, daylight will be less than 12 hours.\n\nThe reason we have changing seasons of the year is that the Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees in relation to the Sun. As Earth orbits the Sun, the North Pole tilts directly toward the Sun today. At the same time, the South Pole is tilted away from the Sun. In exactly six months, the opposite will be true.\n\nWhy is the tilt of the Earth a good thing? If we didn’t have a tilted Earth, less of the planet would be hospitable for life. The area of the Equator would be extremely hot, and the northern and southern regions of the planet would be extremely cold all year. Without the changing seasons, the annual cycle of life would not happen. Life on Earth would not only be much more difficult, but it would also be much less interesting. If the tilt were much greater than 23.5 degrees, the extremes of the seasons would be much more dramatic. All animals and humans would have to migrate to survive.\n\nThe tilt of planet Earth is one of many “just right” factors that make our world not just a suitable place for life to exist, but an excellent place for advanced life to thrive. We think that is not an accident but by design. Will we ever find life on any other planet? The chances seem to be slim for any life. The prospect of finding another planet able to support advanced life is next to impossible. If God wanted to, He could create life anywhere. At present, in spite of the best efforts of astronomers to find a comparable planet, there seems to be no place like home.\n\nWelcome to the summer solstice if you are in the Northern Hemisphere and welcome to winter if you happen to live on the southern half of the globe.\n–Roland Earnst © 2018", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.817125678062439}
+{"content": "\n(It will only take a few minutes)\nClose survey\n\nTopic \"Hepatitis\" in Thai - total 14 documents\n\nTitle: Appendix - prevalence of hepatitis C in the world\nSummary: The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about 170 million people (around 3% of the world’s population) are infected with HCV. Africa has the highest prevalence of HCV infection (5.9%).\n\nTitle: Glossary of terms - hepatitis\nSummary: Glossary of hepatitis factsheets in various languages.\n\nTitle: Hepatitis A (NSW)\nSummary: Information about hepatitis A, including how it's transmitted, prevention and treatment.\n\nTitle: Hepatitis A (WA)\nSummary: Hepatitis A, also called 'hep A' is a virus that causes inflammation of the liver. The hep A virus is found in the faeces (poo) of people with the infection and usually spread by close personal contact (including sexual contact). Deaths from hepatitis A are rare.\n\nTitle: Hepatitis B - it is family business\nSummary: Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus. It can lead to liver damage and liver cancer. Many people who have the virus don’t know that they are infected. The most common way hepatitis B is passed on in many countries is from mother to baby at birth.\n\nTitle: Hepatitis C\nSummary: Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus. It's passed on by blood-to-blood contact, when infected blood enters another person's bloodstream. This fact sheet informs you on how you get hepatitis C, how to get tested, what the signs and symptoms are and how you can treat and prevent it.\n\nTitle: Hepatitis C - health system\nSummary: This fact sheet explains the different roles of health care professionals in Hepatitis C treatment and whether having hepatitis C affects someone's immigration status\n\nTitle: Hepatitis C - what you need to know\nSummary: The word 'hepatitis' means inflammation of the liver. This inflammation can be caused by chemicals, drugs, drinking too much alcohol, or viruses. Hepatitis C (HCV), or \"hep C\", is caused by the hepatitis C virus.\n\nTitle: Hepatitis C newly diagnosed\nSummary: Information about Hepatitis C for people who have been newly-diagnosed\n\nTitle: Hepatitis C treatments and living well\nSummary: New treatments are available to treat hepatitis C. They are effective, easy to take and have few side effects. This fact sheet provides information about new treatment and their benefits.\n\nTitle: Hepatitis C: good news about treatment\nSummary: This is a book about hepatitis C. You will find out what hepatitis C is, how you get it, and about tests and treatment. An important message for everyone is that treatment for hepatitis C has changed. Now we can cure hepatitis C with new tablet treatments that are easy to take and work really well.\n\nTitle: Hepatitis for Thai people\nSummary: This webpage provides general information on Hepatitis for Thai people\n\nTitle: Supporting and understanding\nSummary: What support may a person going through Hepatitis C treatment may require? Information about what family, friends and support groups can do.\n\nTitle: The hepatitis B story (talking book)\nSummary: Hepatitis B information in plain language. Colourful engaging graphics.The interactive talking books were developed in consultation with communities speaking these languages.\n\n\nThe Health Translations Directory is always improving\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9546706080436707}
+{"content": "September is National Cholesterol Month, making it a great time for nurses to revisit tools for educating patients about maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.\n\nNurses learn in nursing school about the two types of cholesterol: low-density lipoprotein cholesterols, or “LDLs”, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or “HDLs”. Some cheeky nursing professors might teach their students that LDL’s are lousy, while HDL’s are happy, or the good and the bad cholesterol, respectively.\n\nThe goal for many patients is to elevate their HDL and lower their LDL levels, and nurses can play a big part in helping them achieve this. Maintaining healthy cholesterol levels is essential to well-being, and the consequences of not doing so can cause a great detriment to one’s quality of life and even death. The most notable sequelae of high cholesterol are a heart attack and stroke.\n\nThe Value of Patient Education\n\nMany nurses take pride in their more technical skills such as phlebotomy, insertion, management of venous catheters, medication administration, and the development of nursing diagnoses and care plans. In many ways, however, patient education is a nurse’s most important task because it can prevent the need to carry out those more technical tasks that treat disease. Patient education instead is wellness-promoting. When it comes to cholesterol, it is a nurse’s greatest asset in assisting patients to avoid the potentially devastating consequences of unhealthy cholesterol levels.\n\nIndividualized Lifestyle Patient Education\n\nPerhaps the most obvious factor to focus on regarding cholesterol is diet. For every fad diet, new superfood, and fasting regimen, there is a simple solution suitable for each individual patient. In order to effectively educate a patient about diet, the nurse must be armed with a straightforward understanding of where the patient is both physically and emotionally.\n\nThis means the nurse must know the patient’s existing dietary restrictions and needs based on physical conditions, such as carbohydrate restriction related to diabetes mellitus and salt restriction for heart disease. Emotionally, the nurse must also have an understanding of the patient’s dietary preferences and level of willingness.\n\nA patient who claims to hate vegetables is unlikely to comply to eating a healthy cholesterol diet that is predicated on heavy vegetable consumption. This patient might do better if directed toward other dietary sources that support healthy cholesterol levels like oatmeal, berries, and other foods high in soluble fiber. Similarly, if a nurse works with a patient who makes clear that they are unwilling to stop eating fast food, the nurse might suggest a bowl of soup, a large glass of water, or a generous slice of watermelon helps hydrate before a meal. Hydration offers a wealth of health benefits besides relieving thirst, which many dehydrated patients confuse for hunger.\n\nStress management is not only a tool for a more pleasant daily life, but it is also an essential component of healthy cholesterol levels and overall wellbeing. Chronic stress can throw off our bodies’ cortisol release cycle, and there is a clearly defined relationship between abnormally elevated cortisol and high cholesterol.\n\nAgain, individualized patient education is key. Relaxation, sleep, and exercise are three fundamental components of managing cortisol and its effect on cholesterol. This doesn’t mean that every patient will be willing to start meditating, following a strict bedtime, and running marathons. By meeting with the patient and learning about their hobbies, the nurse may discover the patient loves to knit, dance, and read. For this patient, the nurse may recommend knitting to relax, dancing to music for fifteen minutes a day, and going to bed with a good book rather than watching the news.\n\nThe Role of the Nurse\n\nPatient education is the nurse’s greatest asset in helping patients to establish lifestyle measures that support healthy cholesterol levels. In order to do this effectively, nurses must establish a rapport with a patient that engenders trust and understanding. This allows both the nurse and the patient to create a plan for the patient that is both effective and feasible to promote a patient’s cholesterol levels. Use September as a time to remind patients they are worth it!\n\nShare This", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8621910214424133}
+{"content": "January 11\n\nRenewable Energy Sources: Their Future in Canada\n\nShare this\n\nRenewable Energy Sources: Their Future in Canada\n\nRenewable energy sources can be replenished as fast, or faster than it's used. Canada is a world leader in renewable energy. Almost 19 percent of the nation's primary energy supply comes from renewable energy. Part of the reason is Canada's large landmass, a long coastline, and a variety of renewable energy sources. Many provinces call their electrical utility \"Hydro\" because so much of Canada's energy comes from hydroelectric sources: moving water. Hydroelectricity is the first type of renewable energy that was adopted in Canada. It's far from the only cause, and many other clean, renewable energy sources are available for use as alternatives to non-renewable energy such as power generated from coal, oil, or natural gas.\n\nTypes of Renewable Energy Sources\n\nNatural Resources Canada identifies four primary sources of natural energy: moving water (hydroelectricity), bioenergy or biomass, solar, wind, and geothermal.\n\n\nSolar power is derived from the sun's rays. There are two primary types of solar power: passive solar or thermal energy, and active solar, which uses solar arrays. Solar arrays are comprised of photovoltaic (PV) cells, which convert the sun's light to electrical power. Passive solar power uses the heat of the sun to directly warm water for swimming pools or water heaters. When you allow the sun to enter your home through west and south-facing windows during the winter, you're using a form of passive solar energy. Solar power may be used year-round, contrary to some beliefs. Solar cells use the sun's light, not heat, to generate electricity. Solar battery storage is rapidly evolving to allow the storage of solar power on cloudy days or at night.\n\n\nNew Brunswick is a leader in wind power, with over 300 megawatts of installed wind power capacity. As recently as 2006, the province didn't have any wind energy. Now, New Brunswick's wind power facilities can power up to 50 percent of electrical needs. Wind power is similar to solar power in that when the wind isn't blowing (or the sun isn't shining), wind farms don't generate any energy. Storage batteries also help to extend the life of wind power. The more wind power is integrated into New Brunswick's grid; the more cost-effective and efficient wind power use will be.\n\n\nNaturally-flowing water creates kinetic energy that can be converted into hydropower. Water can be directly used to mill grain or power sawmills. Dams work because flowing water directed into a turbine makes the turbine's blades spin. The spinning blades lead energy into an electrical generator. The generator produces power which is connected to the electrical grid, and eventually, homes and businesses. As of 2014, Canada had 542 hydro-electrical stations ranging from small facilities to large. Canada's hydro takes advantage of its many flowing rivers and water-rich environment. Quebec has Canada's most significant amount of installed hydroelectric generating facilities. Canada is the second-largest hydroelectric generating country in the world, second to China.\n\n\nBioenergy refers to biological, organic material that is solid, liquid, or in gas form. Although petroleum and coal are derived from natural materials, they are fossil fuels and take hundreds of millions of years to change from organic materials. Biomass or bioenergy generations use renewable biological resources. Biomass used to generate energy can include wood, which is probably the world's oldest biofuel. According to Natural Resources Canada, about 100 petajoules of energy from wood are used every year in Canadian homes. Wood burning accounts for 7 percent of residential energy use in Canada.\n\n\nGeothermal energy comes from heat stored in the earth, particularly in geologically active areas. Most of Canada's geothermal energy is generated in British Columbia, Alberta, Northwest Territories, and Yukon. People in geothermically active areas can install heat pumps directly into the ground to harvest thermal energy to heat water or their homes. Iceland, the world's most geologically active nation, derives 99 percent of its electricity from renewable sources\n\nWhat is the Potential for Renewable Energy?\n\nCanada's natural resources and topography are so vast that Canada really could transition to 99 percent renewable energy sources.\nEstimates of renewable energy adoption vary widely. A climate scientist from Stanford University, Dr. Mark Jacobson, presented a plan to the Paris Climate accords in 2015, which proposed that Canada could have 100% renewable energy by 2050. Jacobson's plan included the following energy breakdown:\n\n • 21.2%Solar\n • 37.5%Land-based wind power\n • 21.0% Offshore wind power\n • 2% Wave energy\n • 1.9% Geothermal\n • 16.2% Hydroelectric\n • .2% tidal turbine (Bay of Fundy)\n\n • Jacobson's plan is attractive because of Canada's hydro-powered over 54 percent of Canada's energy needs in 2017. All of the other renewable sources combined totaled an additional 11.5% of Canada's total energy generating capacity.\n\n As of 2016, about 66 percent of Canada's power came from renewable energy sources.\n With this backdrop and amount of resources, Canada should easily be able to transition away from non-renewable energy to renewable energy -- probably much sooner than 2050.\n\n What is New Brunswick's Potential for Renewable Energy?\n\n New Brunswick's power sources differ from other provinces. As of 2016, the region got 29.9% of its energy from renewable sources. Hydro accounts for more than 20 percent of New Brunswick's power generation. Adding other renewable sources to this mix can only serve to bring down costs for consumers in the long run. The good news is that the province met its targets for reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 15 years early in 2015. But New Brunswick's energy mix differs from some other Canadian areas, particularly in the use of coal and natural gas. With ample wind, solar, and water resources (including tidal power), New Brunswick can transition to much more renewable energy.\n\n Why Does New Brunswick and the World Need Renewable Energy?\n\n Fossil fuels developed over hundreds of millions of years, unlike today's anaerobic digestion of biomass that can produce methane, fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and petroleum are not renewable. Once they are used, they cannot be replaced. Some estimates of the world's remaining fossil fuels show as little as 53 years remaining for petroleum, with up to 200 years left for natural gas. Besides, the burning of fossil fuels has contributed to climate change.\n\n The cost of obtaining, transporting, and using fossil fuels is becoming prohibitive, especially on a worldwide basis. Fossil fuel use leads to carbon emissions and rising global temperatures. Air pollution shortens lives around the world: not just human beings, but also animal and plant lives. The oceans are becoming increasingly polluted, and carbon dioxide in seawater is contributing to the degradation of corals, shellfish, and food webs. Drilling for oil and procedures like fracking also contributes to pollution and environmental degradation. The reasons for renewable energy are so many, and it is hard to understand why some people continue to rely upon fossil fuels without consideration of renewable sources.\n\n New Brunswick is in an excellent position to invest in more renewable energy. With wind and hydro already in place, the province can add solar energy and look toward a clean, renewable, energy-independent future. Invest locally in renewable energy in New Brunswick / Fredericton. Naveco Power is ready and able to develop solar and wind projects in New Brunswick to deliver clean energy, local jobs, and build the local economy.\n\n Loved this? Spread the word\n\n Related posts\n\n How Solar Helps Businesses Reduce Operational Costs\n\n As seen in the 2020 Spring edition of the Fredericton Chamber of\n\n Read More\n\n Wind Power: What You Need to Know\n\n Wind energy has been the most significant new segment of renewable energy\n\n Read More\n\n Wind Energy Companies: Benefits to Canada\n\n Canada's Wind Energy2019 Wind power is one of Canada's best resources for\n\n Read More", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7669168710708618}
+{"content": "The process of becoming a writer for ContentWriters.com is relatively easy. You will need to apply through the writer sign up form, supply your most current resume and a few writing samples, and take an English proficiency test. If your application looks to be a good fit for the kinds of assignments that are available, a staff member from ContentWriters will conduct a brief phone interview.\n\nThere are several ways to assess website content quality. If content appears in search engines and people who find it stick around to read it, the content is well optimized, and relevant and useful to visitors. Quality content uses proper spelling and grammar, and links to authoritative external sources. You can also assess the quality of your content by checking analytics data. Pages with a high bounce rate, low time on page, or low conversion rate may have poor content.\nTip #9 – Cultivate discipline as a daily practice. If you rely solely on passion and motivation, you’re screwed. You need to have the thick skin of a professional and be able to get things done even when you don’t want to or don’t feel like it. Read the book: The War Of Art by Steven Pressfield. It’s a quick read, but it will give you a framework on how to think about getting your work done.\nUnderstanding the purpose of content is key to producing high-quality work. It's meant to speak directly with a particular audience, such as customers, potential customers, investors, employees, or other stakeholders. Content can be well-written, researched and creatively conceived, but if it isn't speaking to the intended audience, it's not doing its job. Here are a few good examples of long-form, quality content written by Scripted writers:\nLet’s say you’re hungry and want burritos. You leave your office and take a stroll down the street to find a place to eat a burrito. You find one, but as soon as you step inside, you get a surprise: the odor of alfredo sauce and pizza dough. Turns out the restaurant, advertised as a burrito shop from the outside, is an Italian restaurant inside. Bummer. Doesn’t make sense, does it? Disappointed, you leave to go find something else.\n\n\nNicola, this is very helpful, thank you, but I am hoping I can ask for some more clarity. Through the first few paragraphs, I was getting the impression that a content writer adapted the copywriting to create content assets for channels. Through the second half, I got the exact opposite impression, that the content writer works with the strategist to create the communication plan, then the copywriter executes on it.\nCopywriters are praised for the creation and ideation of words in campaigns, where the marketing material is used to persuade a person or a group to think or act a particular way. This is generally achieved in short-form copy or storytelling, evoking emotion and a personal connection with the audience; it also lends itself to a humorous or jovial tone – perfect for straplines or headers. In fact, for a Copywriter, brevity is vital.\n\n\nThe most important tip for this phase of SEO copywriting is to just write. People often have trouble coming up with the first sentence (or the first paragraph for that matter). But, at this stage, you can skip writing that first paragraph altogether. Just put down a couple of words referring to the content that your first paragraph should contain and start writing the second paragraph. Beginnings and endings are easier to write once you’ve fleshed out the main body of your post.\nTraditional marketing is carried out through the traditional media like television, radio, print, or billboards. All of these are important to promote a product and may even be the only means of advertising through the year. However, there are new ways of using the internet to reach a greater audience. This is done by using the internet to present services and products that are currently popular to a wide audience who will benefit from them.\nSi vous n’êtes pas sûr de ce que vous recherchez, vous constaterez que vous pouvez constater que facilement. Vous trouverez également qu’il ya plus de choses à faire dans la région que vous visitez. Ceci est un grand avantage pour tous les touristes qui voyage. Trouver un endroit pour vivre, visiter et manger peut être difficile et de trouver un endroit qui est juste pour vous va être plus facile et beaucoup plus amusant.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7696886658668518}
+{"content": "Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 8\n\nChapter 2: American Experiments\n\n1.2.I.B: The Columbian Exchange brought new crops to Europe from the Americas, stimulating\nshift from feudalism to capitalism.\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nWhat is the\nColumbian Exchange?\nWhich foods, animals,\nand diseases were\nintroduced to\nWhat effects did the\nColumbian Exchange\nhave on Europe?\nHow might the\nColumbian Exchange\naffect feudalism?\n\n1.2.I.C: Improvements in maritime technology and more organized methods for conducting\nand the Americas.\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nWhat is a joint-stock\n\nHow might a jointstock company benefit\n\nthe puritan settlers?\n1.2.II.A: Spanish exploration and conquest of the Americas were accompanied and furthered by\nand animals not found in the Americas.\n\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nWhich crops and\n\nanimals were\nintroduced to the\nAmericas by the\n1.2.II.B: In the encomienda system, Spanish colonial economies marshaled Native American\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nWhat is the encomienda\n\n\nWhat impact did the\n\nencomienda system\nhave on racial mixture?\n1.2.II.C: European traders partnered with some West African groups who practiced slavery to\nplantation agriculture and mining.\n\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nDescribe the reasons\n\nwhy the Spanish turned\ntoward African sources\nof labor.\n\n1.2.II.D: The Spanish developed a caste system that incorporated, and carefully defined the\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nDescribe the caste\n\nsystem established by\nthe Spanish.\n\n1.2.III.A: Mutual misunderstandings between Europeans and Native Americans often defined\ntime, Europeans and Native Americans adopted some useful aspects of each others culture.\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nDescribe one instance\n\nof conflict between\nNative Americans and\nDescribe one instance\nof adaptation to\nEuropean culture by\nNative Americans\nDescribe one instance\nof adaptation to Native\nAmerican culture by\n\n1.2.III.B: As European encroachments on Native Americans lands and demands on their labor\nand military resistance.\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nWho are the Iroquois?\n\nWhy and how did the\n\nIroquois create alliances\nwith Europeans?\n\n1.2.III.C: Extended contact with Native Americans and Africans fostered a debate among\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nWhat are the views of\n\nJuan Ines de Sepulveda\nregarding the treatment\nof Native Americans?\n\nWhat are the views of\n\nBartolome de las Casas\nregarding the treatment\nof Native Americans?\n\n2.1.I.A: Spanish efforts to extract wealth from the land led them to develop institutions based on\nwith enslaved and free Africans, into the Spanish colonial society.\nHomework Notes\nHow were Catholic\npriests able to convert\nNative Americans to\n\nClass Notes\n\nWhat impact did these\nconversion methods\nhave on Catholicism?\n\n2.1.I.B: French and Dutch colonial efforts involved relatively few Europeans and relied on trade\nalliances and intermarriage with American Indians to build economic and diplomatic\nrelationships and acquire furs and other products for export to Europe.\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nWhere did the French\n\nWhat was their (French)\nmain source of wealth\nand how did this affect\ntheir relationship with\nNative Americans?\nWhere did the Dutch\n(Netherlands) settle?\nWhat was their (Dutch)\nmain source of wealth\nand how did this affect\ntheir relationship with\nNative Americans?\n2.1.I.C: English colonization efforts attracted a comparatively large number of male and female\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\n5Ws for Englands\n\ntobacco colonies\n\n5Ws for New England\n\n\n2.1.II.A: The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting tobacco - a\nlabor-intensive product initially cultivated by white, mostly white male indentured servants and\nlater by enslaved Africans.\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nDescribe the transition\n\nfrom the headright\nsystem to indentured\nservitude and finally to\nslavery in the tobacco\n2.1.II.B: The New England colonies, initially settled by Puritans, developed around small towns\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\nWhy were the\n\nsettlements of New\nEngland mostly\ncomposed of families\n(unlike the tobacco\nDescribe the yeoman\n\n2.1.III.E: British conflicts with American Indians over land, resources, and political boundaries\nled to military confrontations, such as Metacoms War (King Philips War) in New England.\nHomework Notes\n\nClass Notes\n\n5Ws for Metacoms\n\n\n2.1.III.F: American Indian resistance to Spanish colonizing efforts in North America,\n\nIndian culture in the Southwest\nHomework Notes\nDescribe two ways in\nwhich the Spanish\n\nClass Notes\n\naccommodated Native\nAmerican culture.\n\n2.1.III.D: The goals and interests of European leaders and colonists at times diverged, leading to\nand trade.\nHomework Notes\n5Ws Bacons Rebellion\n\nClass Notes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999154210090637}
+{"content": "Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 1\n\nMaterialism and indulgence have been deeply rooted in societies since thousands of years ago; from kings of civilisations that seek endless growth to businessmen who have an insatiable appetite for more investment and more return. In modern times, the cycle of pursuit has been reinforced by capitalism where more money leads to more possessions and more choices. It could be argued that this pursuit is futile with no clear end, but many would argue that the journey itself is what we savour the most.\n\nTo be wealthy in most societies is to have status and control. However paradoxically, to be wealthy you have to have money, but to appear wealthy you have to spend. For this very reason, people develop an uncompromising attitude where the more money we earn, the better. This attitude at its most extreme is capable of blinding people, causing the end to overwhelmingly take precedence over the means. Every human being has a limited time on earth, so one has to sit and ponder; is hunting down wealth throughout a lifetime the way to bring us happiness? It’s more likely to cause severe tunnel vision that prevents us from realising that no amount of money will ever satisfy us.\n\nWe can evaluate whether or not riches make us happy by simply looking to people ‘above’ us in society. It is clear that self-actualisation is not brought about through having money because there is no shortage of tragic stories of billionaires realising their money wasn’t enough. Embracing the idea of extreme materialism can consume us as it is an ideology that states that our self-worth is entirely based on what we own. As a result we risk losing control over our identities and eventually, our property owns us. Conversely, being less mindful of status and our net worth will allow us the freedom to discover ourselves. Removing the monetary barriers that separate people shifts the focus into the depths of each individual’s personality. This is instead of the focus being on material objects that are cosmetically fixed up then put into a perverse viewing room that allegedly dictates who we are.\n\nHowever, as Abraham Lincoln argues, seeing other people’s success relative to ours is a driving force for us to be enterprising. We may seek to make money from other people by offering them services or goods that in turn benefit the economy. Moreover, the idea of attainment was never a foreign concept introduced to human beings; it is ingrained into our nature. The rise of communism showed us just how destructive trying to equalise a society is – it seeks to destroy a natural urge within us to succeed and to ignore the undeniable differences between individuals. The futility of communism is clear when you understand that different people excel in different fields, which is what makes society grow. There should be no embargo on the natural enterprise of human beings.\n\nWhile human beings’ natural instinct is to seek provisions for ourselves, and even comfort or status, it’s important for us to remember that our possessions are just objects. They can be broken, lost and traded to other people and cannot dictate who we are or our self-worth. Getting lost in a cycle of attainment is dangerous because it blinds us from the things that are most resilient about human beings – personality and individuality. This continues until it’s too late. No one can deny the fleeting nature of life, so while enterprise and riches can provide us with joy, its importance should not be overstated.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9866084456443787}
+{"content": "Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 3\n\nBecause Mars has a lower gravity than Earth, a person weighing 200 pounds on Earth would only\n\nweigh 76 pounds on Mars.\n\n In physics, light refers to electromagnetic radiation. The light we normally talk about in\neveryday life refers to the visible spectrum (the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that the\nhuman eye can see).\n\n Other animals can see parts of the spectrum that humans can’t. For example, a large\nnumber of insects can see ultraviolet (UV) light.\n UV light can be used to show things the human eye can’t see, coming in handy for forensic\n\nPhotosynthesis is a process that involves plants using energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide\ninto food.\n\n Most types of energy are either a form of kinetic energy or potential energy.\n\n Common examples include heat energy, elastic potential energy, chemical energy, sound\nenergy, nuclear energy, geothermal energy and gravitational potential energy.\n\n\n Energy can be transformed from one form to another. In lightning, electric potential energy\ntransforms into light, heat and sound energy.\n\ncreated or destroyed.\nStretched ru\n\nbands and compressed springs are examples of elastic potential energy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.659888744354248}
+{"content": "Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 46\n\nPlasma Proteins\n\nGeneral properties and selected examples\n\nFaisal Khatib MD; PhD Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan\n\nHarpers Biochemistry Chapter 49\n\nPlasma is Obtained from Centrifuged Blood\n\nPlasma vs. serum Blood with anticoagulant\n\nspin blood\nSerum liquid separate into 2 parts\n\nClotted blood\n\n\nSeparation of Components\n\nPlasma = Less Dense Platelets / WBCs Hematocrit Packed Cells More Dense\n\nComponents of Plasma\nBlood plasma Consists of:\nWater 90% Plasma Proteins 6-8 % Electrolytes (Na+ & Cl-) 1%\n\nOther components:\nNutrients (e.g. Glucose and amino acids) Hormones (e.g. Cortisol, thyroxine) Wastes (e.g. Urea) Blood gases (e.g. CO2, O2)\n\nPlasma Proteins\nPlasma Proteins: A complex mixture that includes hundreds of proteins albumin globulins fibrinogen\n\nPlasma Proteins\nMaintaining colloid osmotic balance (albumin) Buffering pH changes Transport of materials through blood (such as water-insoluble hormones) Antibodies (e.g. gamma globulins, immunoglobulins) Clotting factors (e.g. fibrinogen) Antiproteases\n\nSeparation of Plasma Proteins\n\nSolubility Salting out Electrophoresis Isoelectric Focusing Use of antibodies\n\nFractions of Plasma Proteins\n\nFraction amount(%) c (g/l)\n\nAlbumins: albumin pre-albumin\n\n\n52 58 2.4 4.4\n\n34 50 2-4\n\nE1-globulins: thyroxin-binding globulin,\n\ntranscortin, E1-acid glycoprotein, E1-antitrypsin, E1-lipoprotein (HDL), E1-fetoprotein\n\nE2-globulins: haptoglobin, macroglobulin,\n\n\n6 10 8.5 14.5 10 21\n\n59 6 11\n\nF-globulins: transferrin, hemopexin,\n\nlipoprotein (LDL), fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, C3 and C4 components of the complement system K-globulins: IgG, IgM, IgA, IgD, IgE\n\n8 15\n\nPolymorphism of Plasma Proteins\n\nThe presence of two or more genetic variants of the same protein. The variants are encoded by a single locus. The variant appears in at least 1% of the population. The variants differ slightly in their amino acid sequence. Migrate differently under electrophoresis.\n\nAcute Phase Proteins\n\nLevels of certain proteins increase during acute inflammatory states Level also increase chronic inflammatory states\n\nElevation vary from 50% to 1000 fold These proteins play a role in bodys response to inflammation Examples: C-reactive protein, 1-antitrypsin, haptoglobin\n\nHalf-life of Plasma Proteins\n\nEach protein has a characteristic half life Determination of half-life Isolate protein\n- Label with 131I - Determine its radioactivity - inject into a normal subject - Withdraw blood sample at various time intervals The time for radioactivity to decline from its peak value to one half of its peak value\n\nMost plasma proteins are glycoproteins\n\n60 % of the total plasma proteins. Level varies with age 3.4-4.7 g/100ml 12 grams are produced daily in the liver\n25 % of the total protein synthesis by liver, one half of the secreted proteins.\n\n69 kDa (One polypeptide chain, 585 A. Acids) Half-life ~ 20 days\n\nSynthesis of Albumin\nPreproalbumin signal peptide Proalbumin hexapeptide Albumin\n\nAlbumin Structure\n\n69 kDa\n\nEllipsoidal shape Partial digestion with protease three domains Highly polar with three hydrophobic clefts Anionic at pH 7.4 with 20 negative charges\n\nAlbumin is responsible for 80 % of the Colloidal pressure\n\nAlbumin binds to a variety of substances\n\nFree fatty acids Bilirubin Some steroid hormones Some drugs like:\nSalicylic Acid (Aspirin) Sulfonamide\n\nCa2+ Cu+\n\nBinding of drugs to albumin can result in drug-drug interaction\n\nA and B are two drugs that bind to albumin\n\n\n\nCa2+ Ca2+ Ca2+\n\n\n\nDecreased concentration of albumin\n\nInadequate source of amino acids.\nMalnutrition and muscle wasting.\n\nLiver disease\nTotal protein can be normal ( globulin, albumin)\n\nGastrointestinal loss\nLeakage of fluid from inflamed or diseased mucosa\n\nRenal disease\nPenetration of albumin through glomerulus\n\nAbsence of Albumin from the plasma Rare condition Defect in the processing of mRNA of albumin Autosomal recessive inheritance Moderate edema\nCompensation by proteins synthesis of other plasma\n\nMigrates ahead of albumin Combines with T4 (Thyroxine) and T3 Retinol binding protein Short half life (2 Days) Sensitive marker of poor protein nutrition Decreased in Hepatic damage Tissue necrosis\n\n\nAlso known as 1-antitrypsin Inhibits trypsin, elastase, and other proteases ~52 kDa Glycoprotein\n( 394 A.Acids with 3 oligosaccharide chains)\n\n> 90% of the\n\n\nof human plasma\n\nPrincipal serine protease inhibitor\n\n\n\nMany polymorphic forms The major genotype is MM Alleles PiM, PiS, PiZ, PiF Deficiency can develop a lung disease (emphysema)\nIndividuals with ZZ genotype and PiSZ heterozygotes Individuals with MS or MZ genotype usually not affected\n\nTissue damage in 1-antitrypsin deficiency + pulmonary inflammation\n\nLeukocytes === Elastase\n\nLeukocytes === Elastase\n\n\nInactive Elastase\n\nActive Elastase\n\nLung tissue not affected\n\nTissue damage\n\nSmoking in top of 1-antitrypsin deficiency\n\nSpecific methionine (met 358) is involved in binding 1-antitrypsin to proteinase Smoking oxidizes this methionine Oxidized can not inhibit proteinases Individuals with PiZ phenotype at higher risk.\n\n1-antitrypsin deficiency\n\nliver disease\n\nPolymerization of ZZ molecules in the endoplasmic reticulum of hepatocytes Aggregation is due to interaction between a loop in one molecule and a prominent pleated sheet in another molecule. 1-antitrypsin is not released from cells == Liver cirrhosis in 10 % of patients\n\nLoop-sheet ploymerization of the ZZ molecules\n\nProminent pleated sheet in the Z molecules Molecule of the M phenotype\n\nHaptoglobin (Hp)\n2 glycoprotein (90kDa) Synthesized mainly by hepatocytes Two kinds of polypeptide chains\nTwo One chains chain\n\nThree polymorphic forms\n\nHp 1-1, Hp 2-1, Hp 2-2 Polymorphism is associated with many inflammatory diseases.\n\nAcute phase protein\n\nLevel in a variety of inflammatory states, also in burn, nephrotic syndrome\n\nHaptoglobin Function\nBinding of free hemoglobin 10% of the Hb degraded each day is released into the plasma Hb (65 kDa) Hb:Hp Complex (155 kDa) Kidney\n\n\nUptake by liver\n\nHaptoglobin level\nMeasured as Hb binding capacity\nNormally 40-180 mg of Hb binding capacity\n\nLevel in hemolytic anemia\n\nHb-Hp complex has shorter half-life than that of Hp\n\nt1/2 of Hp 5 days t1/2 of Hb-Hp 90 minutes\n\nHb-Hp complex is cleared 80 times faster than Hp\n\n\n\nWas first discovered in the serum of the fetus. Very low level in adult. Detectable in the maternal blood in pregnancy Elevated level in some congenital defects Low level increased risk of Downs syndrome High level in many cases of liver cancer\n\n\nLarge protein 720 kDa Tetramer of 4 identical chains 8-10 % of the total plasma proteins Synthesized by\nMonocytes Hepatocytes Astrocytes\n\nLevel varies with age, gender Increased level in nephrotic syndrome\n\n\nPan proteinase inhibitor\n\nTrypsin, pepsin, plasmin, thrombin inhibitor of\nCoagulation Fibrinolysis\n\nForms complex with the proteinase followed by clearance\n\nBinding to many cytokines (signal molecules) and directing them to their target cells\n\n2-globulin (160 kDa) Binds copper\nTight binding 90% of the plasma copper ( 6 atoms/molecule) Albumin binds the remaining 10%\n\nHas oxidase activity (ferroxidase) Low level in Wilson disease.\n\nCopper: an essential trace element\n\nDaily intake 2-4 mg Body contains ~ 100 mg Cofactor for a number of enzymes\nCytochrome oxidase, amine oxidase Can alternate between Cu2+ and Cu+\n\nExcess Copper can be harmful copper Metallothioneins, a group of small proteins regulate tissue level of copper\n\nC-Reacrive Protein\nUndetectable in healthy individuals In patients with diverse inflammatory diseases\nAcute rheumatic fever, bacterial infection, gout .. Tissue damage\n\nReacts with C substance ( polysaccharide in Pnumococci and molecular groups on a wide variety of bacteria\n\nBlood Overview plasma ~55% of blood H2O plasma proteins ions nutirents wastes hormones 92% 7%\n\nBlood plasma proteins: albumins 60% of plasma proteins made in liver transport: fatty acids hormones other stuff\n\nBlood plasma proteins: globulins 35% of plasma proteins two types immunoglobulins aka., antibodies (Ab) transport globulins hormone-binding (thyroid H) metalloaproteins (iron) apolipoproteins (lipids) steroid-binding (testosterone)\n\nCauses of decreased plasma albumin:\n\nI. Decreased synthesis A. malnutrtion B. malabsorption C. advanced chronic liver disease Abnormal distribution or dilution A. overhydration B. increased capillary permeability like in septicemia\n\n\nIII. Abnormal excretion or degradation A. nephrotic syndrome B. burns C. hemorrhage D. certain catabolic states E. loss of protein from the digestive tract IV. Rare congenital defects A. hypoalbuminemia B. analbuminemia", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9839418530464172}
+{"content": "New tragic form, old tragic sense in Contemporary World Theater\n\nWhen Phrynichus first wrote tragedy by composing The Miletus Conquest, drawing on recent for his age historical events, he showed the way that the new for this period form of literature and art could follow (dramatic text and stage presentation). However, reminding the Athenian audience of “familiar wrongs” and the challenge for immediate acceptance of responsibility for the destruction of Miletus and other Hellenic cities of the Asia Minor coast by the Persians was painful for all. For this reason this new way form of writing was adopted, but its themes were rejected by fifth century Athenian society and writers. As such, mythology (with the exception of very few cases as seen for example in Aeschylus’ The Persians) became the popular source that tragedy would draw its subjects from, and since then it was established. The myth’s unhistorical time, its elsewhere and other times tale, the echoes of the cultural past in combination with values and ideas of the ancient Greek thought and civilization (fate, tragic sin, nemesis, hubris, catharsis) compose the canvas on which works of the ancient tragic poets are developed.\n\nAnd how about history, the terror of the Peloponnesian war, violence, disease and death, the people’s ambition and the war protagonists’ the personal responsibility for their participation in it are? For these, only indirectly, suggested or allegorically are given in the tragedies, through the heroes’ attitude and behavior that belong to the mythological/unrealistic level. In this sense, tragedy loses enough from contemporary time, fails to produce events faithfully, to dramatize persons and events of History; manages, however, to gain in terms of meaning and content, in existential and metaphysical level, as, through the myth, catches and expresses the general and the universal. Through the occasional example, it succeeds in expressing the collective and the diachronic, while the partial result will be searched in the source that caused it.\n\nCharacteristically, we can say that the Trojan war gave the tragic poets the themes to create a number of tragedies that belong to same “cycle” (Hecuba, Helen, Trojan Women, Philoctetes, Agamemnon) and to speak to mankind about the absurdity and the uselessness of the war, the blindness of violence, the terror of violent death, the uselessness of sacrifice and heroism.\n\nIn world theater history, the same themes are repeated many times over in various genres (dramas, tragedies, melodramas, comedies, parodies) in various aesthetic forms (classicism, romanticism, realism, symbolism), either as ancient Greek mimetic repetitions of the originals (Seneca, Alfieri, Veraren), or as original intertextual creations or in other forms (Hoffmanstall, Anouilh, Giraudoux, O’ Neill).\n\nHowever, as indicated since 1957 (?) by George Steiner in his treatise Death of Tragedy, tragedy as genre, the way we know it through time, is not possible to exist in modern time. The changes that have occurred ideologically and culturally as well as aesthetically and morphologically are many and of such kind that tragedy cannot surpass them. Here, however, must make a distinction: there is a difference between tragedy as a theatrical or literary piece, and tragedy as a means of conception and expression of reality. There is a difference between the text morphology and its characteristics and its essence and content. In this respect, it becomes clear that tragedy in Shakespeare or Racine mean different than in ancient times, while the “tragic” element can be traced even in other writers (F. G. Lorca) or theatrical forms (the theater of the absurd) without morphologically reminding tragedy.\n\nTherefore, even though we agree that tragedy as genre is dead, the tragic aspect as a form of human existence still exists, and cannot be different than that, as it is written in human nature itself: desires that surpass any measure and reach excess, selfish tendencies of self-promotion and imposition, illogical demands that violate any moral principle, rejection of ethical rules and principles of social coexistence, are some of the causes that can lead any human being to tragic situations. To these, if we add the facts of contemporary reality, the economic, cultural, religious, ideological and other factors that shape individual consciousness and group behavior, then it becomes clear that tragedy and tragicality never ceased to exist, but they always find ways to develop. What makes the difference is the way, the conventions, and the forms, which, however, do not have to do with the content.\n\nViolence in contemporary big cities, international terrorism, major social unfairness, huge socio-economic conflicts of the advanced postindustrial societies and the third world masses, repression and human abuse brought forth by man, rejection of the laws of nature that accumulative results in major ecological problems that threaten man’s future, displacement of human values and ideals, fanaticism and racist phenomena, ideological deterioration and its replacement by unprecedented economic, social, and state origin, compose the new reality out of which tragedy can draw its material.\n\nThe rules on which ancient tragedy was based are constant, and the only difference is that we notice is that today it is their content and/or their form has changed: Hubris as man’s inborn tendency to surpass the limits that have been set for him and to impose his ego on things and situations is most evident in technology and the infinite applications it offers to man. The contempt for nature’s laws with the progress witnessed in genetics, molecular biology, robotics, and so provocatively promote the image of a “different” human being, bears huge dangers for man’s physiognomy on earth. Therefore, “fate” that was an inescapable reality for the ancient Greek world and for tragedy as well, it may coexist in our days in man’s effort to change things radically and to prevail selfishly on universe.\n\nOut of this may come “ate” and “nemesis” that will destroy the person who commits hubris. Here are some of the possible sources that can cause tragic situations in twenty first century’s man and to be themes for development by modern tragedy.\n\nBut the “uncaused passion”, the “suffering innocence”, the collision of the hero’s individual will with superior powers and the conscious march towards the end, without any bending in his sentiments and ethical values, today all these can find their parallels in a marvelous way in a individual/personal or collective/social level, when personal and impersonal powers of economic, national or other interests come to suppress and violate the rights and other values of individuals or peoples, principles that have been gained with pain and struggle through the centuries. This uneven juxtaposition, this condemned struggle of the weak against the strong is so evident in our days on a multiple level that it can be another source of development for future tragic depictions.\n\nFinally, man’s hemming in transcendental descent principles and mechanisms that surpass the limits of any possible logical interpretation and which work catalytically upon society’s and history’s reality still exists. Their metaphysical descent and their reference, however, to extraterrestrial personal (gods) or impersonal (fate) powers have been totally replaced by other factors of intercosmic and societal descent. It has to do with bureaucratic mechanisms, economic trusts, and any kind of open or secretive organizations, unions, and businesses that surpass nations, societies, and civilizations and have a universal control. It has to do with globalization itself which as a contemporary expression of a dire law dominates human beings in this world and tortures them. These are (or may be) some of the subjects than potentially be used (developed) by modern dramaturgy, which in turn will provide works that will be distinguished for their tragic content and which will express the same ideas, the same situations (comparatively speaking) with ancient Greek tragedy.\n\nTheater, as the sensitive recipient of similar situations, is the diachronic and edifying system which does not only present events, but also comments on them, judges them, intervenes in them, and shapes the audience’s consciousness, being an excellent pedagogical instrument. This is because of the dynamism of the image, the representation of the stage symbolism, and the directness of the communication between the audience and the scenic (stage) spectacle.\n\nToday we live in the spectacle society with image and speech imaging playing a most important role with the help of informatics and every kind of artistic manifestation. Theater, being under pressure, adjusts its basic characteristic form, its word and dialogue, and enriches them with elements of supervision (educative elements?). This way, the “word’s image” that had traditionally existed since the ancient Greek drama period, is substituted by the “image’s word”, and theater changes into a modern form of a complex spectacle.\n\nSimilar changes also occur in text, that is the dramatic form of the theatrical work. Intertextuality and dramatization, metatheater and performance are the modern forms of theatrical expression, absolutely set in the postmodern, multicultural time’s framework and expectations. As such, the spectator, who is the only and final judge of the stage spectacle, is no longer the individual of a homogenous ethnic, educational, socio-cultural group. The immediacy and viability that once existed between stage and audience does not occur anymore. In a multiethnic environment, in a globalized social reality, a single theatrical world cannot exist. This is a reason why dramaturgy must adjust to and embrace elements equally heterogeneous as well as interpersonal, including the spectators’ expectations and hopes.\n\nModern day writers should use the text, not simply as a “meaningful vehicle” which is comprised by different as well as heterogeneous sub-elements. The original canvas may be interpreted as a “source text” which, because of its importance and its multisemeiological capabilities, can be exploited in positive and various ways.\n\nIn a similar way can be considered (or usually can be) an ancient classical text (tragedy)or the work of a later author with a great repute as well (Shakespeare). To this text come other ones of less importance from various cultural traditions, with different semeiotic and connotative elements, and are fastened and connected to it, in a functional manner, enriching thus the original. The new, altered “target text” is nothing else but an intertextual creation, a noteworthy dialogue between the new, modern writer with the original “source text” and with all the other ones that follow with the same or similar themes and issues. In this manner, a complex creation results which is the combination of several artistic forms, aesthetic tendencies, cultural traditions, a unified composition with the original text and dominating theme being the common factor and the unifying element. This is the case of many well known works such as Steven Berkoff’s Greek, Lee Broher’s Oedipus, Heine Muller’s Medea’s Stuff, Caryl Churchill’s Number (??? ), Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildersten Are Dead, Arianne Mnouschkine’s Atreides, Boto Stauss’ Caldeway Farce, et.c..\n\nIn these plays, the modern writer does not only converse and communicate with the one and only work he uses as an archetype (e.g. Oedipus Rex, Medea, The Oresteia, Hamlet, et.c.), but he does it with the entire cultural heritage which since antiquity reached the modern world by the use of theater. Thus, tragedy as a genre still exists and functions in a new form, quite different, however, from the one inherited from classical antiquity.\n\nThus, the “tragic aspect” as a signifier is depicted with new semeiological meanings, and expresses the expectations and interests, the hopes and dreams of modern world. As a result, tragedy did not cease to exist, but once again depicted its diachronic and universal significance, as it succeeds in unifying and identifying its internally written values in a historical set framework (antiquity, mythology) with the external objective expectations of modern society to which is addressed, being in this manner human mind’s chief means of expression.\n\nAdditionally, we can count the new facts regarding modern stage direction as well as new ways of stage practice, through which the play is created on stage during rehearsal and performance. The actor’s body turns into a text, while movement and stage action become the story of the play which is drawn from personal experiences, sentimental situations, dreams and fantasies, that actors draw from the individual and the collective conscious and unconscious, trying to respond to specific incentives given by the director.\n\nThe coupling of intertextuality and personal-body theater presents the modern edition in terms of meaning and function of tragedy in the modern world. Because theatrical performance (and here lies the director’s defining role in modern theater) is an autonomous artistic creation, in the development of which the writer’s written text poses as a parameter, not necessarily the most essential. To this, can be added the actors’ interpretation, other artistic framing, including music and other audio-visual codes that compose the aesthetic result. Above all, however, stands the director’s personality that comes to mediate the communication between the modern spectator and the ancient dramatic text. The director’s psycho-intellectual world, his own artistic experiences, will act upon the play with the proper way, so that the stage spectacle will satisfy all the audience’s expectations and reactions in the theater hall.\n\nIn this manner, it becomes evident that the reaction of interest and the reception of the stage message from the spectators should always be kept in mind along with the new facts as shaped by the postindustrial society’s conditions. In any case, the form of the “tragic” as well as the stage presentation of “tragedy”, no matter what its content is, ought to adjust to today’s spectator’s interests and needs. That is why the shaping of tragedy necessarily follows different directions than those it did in the past; and that is why postmodern tragedy differs so much from the “modern” conception and expression of tragedy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9495748281478882}
+{"content": "View this publication in your browser\n\n\nMay 13, 2020\n\nHow to Employ the Power of the DEBRIEF Process \n\n\nLaura Patterson\nAuthor & President VisionEdge Marketing\n\nYou’re probably familiar with the concept of the post-game analysis. A post-game analysis is part of the debrief process that serves as an opportunity to evaluate performance, identify opportunities for improvement, optimize strategies, and revise processes if necessary. The debrief can be used to analyze and improve any effort – the launch of a new product, the implementation of a new customer process, the execution of a major event or following a crisis.\n\nThe Heart and Soul of the Debrief Process\n\nGood debriefs start long before the actual debrief meeting. You will derive more from the debrief if you take the following four steps:\n\n\n 1. Schedule the debrief ahead of time. When preparing for an important event, such as a product launch, execution of a customer or industry event, etc. schedule the debrief for the first business day after the event. There should also be a debrief after you have data to determine the actual results of the event. For an unexpected crisis, make it a point to communicate that there will be a debrief and what specific outcomes will signal its timing. For example, as we move through the recent health emergency, conversations around how to reopen communities and industries serve as a signal to schedule the debrief.\n 2. Identify who will lead the debrief. Designate who will lead the debrief in advance and clarify that this person owns the debrief process. For example, the customer success director might be designated to lead the debrief of the annual user event. We recommend you have a documented process map for the debrief. Some key elements of the process the lead can facilitate are creating the agenda and meeting objectives, managing the meeting logistics and participants, facilitating the meeting, and the post-meeting action plan and follow-up.\n 3. Conduct the debrief. Create structure by focusing on the purpose of the initiative, the expected results, and the actual results. Debriefs should at a minimum identify and analyze:\n 1. lessons learned, what went well, and what were the break points\n 2. specific processes that worked and which ones need improvement. To illustrate this idea, we can again look to the corona virus and the protocols many organizations put in place “on the fly” to support remote communication and collaboration. Some organizations didn’t have processes to guide their actions or the existing ones fell short. For example, financial institutions have processes in place to support customer communication, but many of these organizations struggled with communicating about the payroll protection program (PPP) and working with commercial customers at the local level. The were process gaps between the corporate entities, the branch personnel on the ground, and the customers.\n 3. new actions that were employed and decisions about whether these should become a permanent part of the process going forward. Some organizations leveraged agile processes such as sprints to support work. Many may decide to keep this process going forward.\n 4. what new tools, systems, skills, expertise, and experience are needed to improve performance\n 5. which “players” rose to the challenge and which ones need to make improvements\n 6. performance results against the expected results. This suggests that there was a performance target at the outset, such as a number of conversations that will emerge as a result of producing or participating in a major event, or the number of people who will trial a new product within some period of time upon its release.\n 7. what actions you will take to as a result of the debrief, and who owns the action and the timing for implementation. Determine whether upcoming efforts need to be adjusted based on your findings.\n 4. Document the post-game analysis and action plan. Upon completion of the debrief meeting, the debrief lead should summarize the analysis and action plan in writing. The debrief lead should follow up with anyone who owns a post-event action step to ensure all action steps are completed. We recommend that you create a template for the debrief summary and action plan.\n\nHow to Look Back to Move Forward\n\nIn the world of sports, games are recorded. These recordings are a vital part of the post-game analysis because they provide valuable data. In the business world, we don’t typically have a recording as a reference, therefore, we need to bring other data to the debrief to support the review. Before going to the debrief, identify the data you will need to support the post-game analysis, such as the expected versus actual results, timing, and revenue.\n\nProcesses matter. Post-game analysis provides you with an opportunity to define, document, and refine your processes to stay competitive and optimize performance. Marc Hafner, CEO of Revionics nicely sums up the value of the debrief: “business organizations are successful because they’re willing to accept that they’re not perfect, go back and review what happened, make changes as necessary, and move on.“\n\nAre you taking the opportunity to debrief after significant milestones in your organization’s operation? Do you need help deriving the relevant data from your post-game analysis? Let us help you look back to move forward.\n\nLaura Patterson\n\nAuthor | Speaker | President, VisionEdge Marketing\n\nIf you're looking for a practical, no-nonsense proven approach to accelerate growth, create value and improve performance, then you've connected with the right person. Laura Patterson is a recognized and trusted authority for enabling companies to apply data-to-insights, customer-centricity, and Marketing Performance Management (MPM) methods. Laura began her 25+ year career in sales and had the great fortune of working across functions spanning customer relationship management, strategic and product marketing, analytics, and Marketing operations. Today she is at the helm of VisionEdge Marketing. Recognized as one of pioneers of the MPM discipline, she received a patent for the Accelance® methodology designed to connect activities and investment to business results. She has published four books, with the recent “Fast-Track Your Business: A Customer-Centric Approach to Accelerate Market Growth” receiving industry acclaim. Laura is frequently asked to speak and facilitate workshops for educational institutions, associations, and company meetings on alignment, accountability, analytics, and operational excellence best practices. Martechexec selected Laura as one of the top 50 women in marketing technology. Laura is honored to be among the Top 20 Women in Business according to the Sales Lead Management Association. Engagio identified Laura among the top Marketing Operations leaders to know.\n\nCopyright © 2020 Corporate Financial Group, Inc., All rights reserved.\nYou are receiving this newsletter as you are a valued member or friend of the Corporate Financial Group. If you prefer not to receive this, you can simply unsubscribe below or contact us at \n\nOur mailing address is:\nCorporate Financial Group, Inc.\n13537 US Highway 1\nSuite 122\nSebastian, FL 32958\n\nAdd us to your address book\nWant to change how you receive these emails?\nYou can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6771882772445679}
+{"content": "Guernsey Co.\n\n\nCalls Monday:\n\n2:55 a.m., narcotics located during a traffic stop, Ogier Avenue, Cambridge. Female arrested.\n\n2:18 a.m., traffic stop, Ideal Road. Warning.\n\n2:01 a.m., traffic stop, West Spruce Avenue, Byesville. Warning.\n\n12:32 a.m., male, 89, internal bleeding, Cadiz-Piedmont Road; Antrim EMS.\n\nCalls Sunday;\n\n11:53 p.m., cows on roadway; State Highway Patrol.\n\n10:56 p.m., woman, 70, fell outside, Maple Court; United Ambulance and Cambridge FD.\n\n10:49 p.m., male, 18, arguing with his family after he was caught shoplifting, High Street, Pleasant City.\n\n9:46 p.m., narcotics located during a traffic stop, North Eighth Street, Cambridge. Male arrested.\n\n9:14 p.m., traffic stop, Cadiz Road. Warning.\n\n8:53 p.m., suspicious vehicle, Salt Fork State Park.\n\n5:52 p.m., female, 37, elevated blood pressure and headache, Jasper Road; United and Antrim EMS/FD.\n\n5:51 p.m., auto accident, Country Club Road; Byesville EMS/FD, highway patrol and deputies.\n\n4:30 p.m., smoke coming from a vehicle stopped under a bridge, Interstate 77; Cambridge FD and highway patrol. Gone on arrival.\n\n4:08 p.m., father failed to return son, 11, from a visit, Hickory Lane.\n\n3:42 p.m., male, 54, nervous breakdown, Glenn Highway; New Concord EMS, Cassell Station FD and deputy.\n\n3:23 p.m., fire rekindled, Heskett Drive; Cassell Station FD.\n\n2:51 p.m., small child unattended, Ohio Avenue, Cambridge.\n\n2:48 p.m., reckless driver, I-70/77; highway patrol.\n\n2:29 p.m., father allowed juvenile son to consume alcohol while riding four-wheelers.\n\n1:08 p.m., suspicious vehicle, Seneca Lake Campground; park rangers. Citation issued for fishing without a license.\n\n12:56 p.m., civil paper service, Ringer Road.\n\n12:46 p.m., auto accident, Claysville Road; United, Cambridge FD, highway patrol and deputies.\n\n12:44 p.m., mud and debris on roadway, Claysville Road.\n\n12:10 p.m., two men fighting, 21st Street, Cambridge.\n\n12:06 p.m., civil paper service, Birmingham Road. Negative contact.\n\n11:39 a.m., male fell and fractured his ankle while trimming weeds, North 18th Street; United and Cambridge FD.\n\n11:25 a.m., male, 84, unable to move his legs, Old 21 Road; United Ambulance.\n\n10:08 p.m., female, 80, unable to walk or talk, Bobs Run Road; United Ambulance.\n\n9:18 a.m., house on fire, Heskett Drive, Cambridge; Cassell Station, New Concord, Cambridge, Byesville, Cumberland and Liberty FDs, United and New Concord EMS and deputies.\n\n8:08 a.m., traffic stop, Clay Pike Road. Warning.\n\n3:59 a.m., male, 46, fell, Mayor Estate Drive; United Ambulance.\n\n2:38 a.m., male, 86, fell from bed, Skyline Drive; United Ambulance.\n\n2:38 a.m., woman, 81, internal bleeding, Old 21 Road; United Ambulance.\n\n1:16 a.m., male, 60, severe chest pains, Deer Path Drive; United and Cambridge FD.\n\n1:07 a.m., wrong-way driver, I-77; highway patrol, Byesville EMS and deputy.\n\n12:41 a.m., female, 23, chest pains, Gomber Avenue; United and Cambridge FD.\n\n12:28 a.m., traffic stop with K-9 alert, Zion Road. Citation and summons issued.\n\nCalls Saturday:\n\n11:55 p.m., K-9 assistance requested by highway patrol, Interstate 70. Positive alert.\n\n11:47 p.m., suspicious vehicle, N. Main Street, Kimbolton.\n\n11:28 p.m., traffic stop for no visible license plate, Interstate 77.\n\n9:50 p.m., male, 54, severe pain after liquor consumption for eight or nine days, Sundew Road; United and deputy.\n\n8:25 p.m., people fighting, Sugar Grove Road.\n\n8:12 p.m., male assaulted by a male, Broadway Street, Quaker City.\n\n7:45 p.m., son, 18, missing, High Street, Pleasant City. Located at a Clay Pike Road business.\n\n7:32 p.m., Internet scam reported, Zanesville Street, Senecaville.\n\n7:18 p.m., downed utility lines, Bloomfield Road; highway patrol.\n\n7 p.m., purse stolen by caller’s brother, Orr Street, Byesville.\n\n6:47 p.m., suspicious male with a bow and arrow, Clay Pike Road.\n\n6:25 p.m., rollover accident involving a truck and horse trailer, I-77; Byesville EMS/FD, highway patrol and deputies.\n\n6:18 p.m., male, 74, stopped breathing, Freeport Road; United, Freeport FD and deputies.\n\n5:04 p.m., female, 55, difficulty breathing, Endley Road. Victim declined medical treatment.\n\n5:02 p.m., male assaulted by his friend; Belmont County Sheriff’s Office.\n\n4:46 p.m., fight reported, Zanesville Street, Senecaville.\n\n4:43 p.m., two people fighting, Vocational Road; Byesville PD. Gone on arrival.\n\n4:37 p.m., officer requested to remove a male from a house, Carlisle Avenue; Cambridge PD.\n\n4:05 p.m., confused male with chest pains, Main Street, Pleasant City; United and deputies.\n\n3:49 p.m., well being check for an elderly resident, Clay Pike Road.\n\n1:50 p.m., reckless driver, I-77; highway patrol.\n\n1:14 p.m., residential motion alarm, Cooper Road.\n\n12:06 p.m., well being check for a female, Stockdale Road.\n\n11:46 a.m., cement statue stolen from a business, Wintergreen Road.\n\n11:21 a.m., suspicious bag containing a white powder found in a yard, High Hill Road.\n\n10:22 a.m., woman, 88, stomach pains and headache, Mill Street; United and Senecaville FD.\n\n10:29 a.m., auto accident, Cambridge PD. No injuries reported.\n\n9:18 a.m., deer stuck in a fence, Mt. Hermon Road.\n\n8:11 a.m., suspicious male jumping on vehicles and knocking on doors, South Sixth Street; Byesville PD and deputies.\n\n7:27 a.m., motorist struck a deer and fled the scene, Leatherwood Road; highway patrol.\n\n5:55 a.m., female, 37, severe pain, Byesville Road; United Ambulance.\n\n5:01 a.m., alarm activation, Morton Avenue, Cambridge.\n\n4:33 a.m., loud music complaint, McPherson Avenue, Cambridge.\n\n12:36 a.m., traffic stop, Interstate 77. Warning.\n\nCalls Friday:\n\n11:25 p.m., deer struck by a vehicle, Cadiz Road; highway patrol.\n\n10:12 p.m., deputy requested to remove a wanted male from a residence, Vocational Road.\n\n9:18 p.m., male, 40’s, unresponsive in a vehicle with blood coming from his nose, Greenbrier Drive; United, Byesville EMS/FD and deputies.\n\n9:16 p.m., noise complaint regarding gunshots, Winslow Street, Kimbolton.\n\n8:45 p.m., male, 49, deceased, Cherry Hill Road; United and deputies.\n\n7:15 p.m., female, 59, anxiety and suicidal for several weeks, Little Indian Road; United, Liberty FD and deputies.\n\n7:13 p.m., traffic stop with consent search, Byesville Road.\n\n6:18 p.m., male, 73, ill, Hopewell Road; United and Cassell Station FD.\n\n6:18 p.m., smoke alarm, Margo Lane; Senecaville FD. False alarm.\n\n5:53 p.m., traffic stop, W. Spruce Avenue; Byesville PD and deputy. Warning.\n\n5:51 p.m., wife tried to break windows in caller’s vehicle during a custody exchange, Eldon Road.\n\n3:32 p.m., ill female, Pine Knoll Court; United Ambulance.\n\n3:16 p.m., traffic stop with consent search, North Eighth Street, Cambridge. Warning.\n\n3:15 p.m., woman screaming in a silver Jeep, Wheeling Avenue; Cambridge PD.\n\n2:34 p.m., dogs at-large, Superior Street, Buffalo.\n\n2:01 p.m., lift assistance for a male, 74, who fell, Aspen Greene Apartment; Byesville EMS.\n\n1:53 p.m., suspicious male in a vehicle parked outside a business for several days, Batesville Road.\n\n12:52 p.m., wife, 84, said she \"can’t take it\" after being released from a nursing home, North 16th Street; United Ambulance.\n\n12:18 p.m., mattress on roadway, Southgate Parkway.\n\n12:13 p.m., interior motion alarm, Sunset Drive.\n\n11:17 a.m., spring flag stolen from the yard, Ridgewood Drive, Cambridge.\n\n11:04 a.m., male, 63, dizzy and couldn’t see, Elm Street, Cambridge; United Ambulance.\n\n6:45 a.m., door alarm activated, Bobs Run Road. False alarm.\n\n\n\nPolice Dept.\n\nCall Monday:\n\n2:37 a.m., assisted probation officers with a male trying to remove a monitoring device, Southgate Parkway. Male arrested.\n\nCalls Sunday:\n\n10:58 p.m., medical emergency, Maple Court.\n\n9:49 p.m., K-9 assistance requested by a sheriff’s deputy, North Eighth Street.\n\n6:42 p.m., fire call, Wheeling Avenue; Cambridge FD.\n\n6:13 p.m., temporary tag stolen from a vehicle, Herring Avenue.\n\n6:09 p.m., well being check for a male on the roadway, Southgate Parkway. Gone on arrival.\n\n4:33 p.m., fire call, Interstate 77; Cambridge FD.\n\n2:30 p.m., unruly patient at the hospital, Clark Street.\n\n12:36 p.m., suspicious behavior by a male at a hotel, Southgate Parkway. On arrival, officer requested medical assistance for the male; United Ambulance.\n\n11:58 a.m., at-large dog barking, Gaston Avenue.\n\n2:29 a.m., vehicle stuck in a yard, Clark Street/Scott Avenue. Driver fled on foot.\n\n1:21 a.m., medical emergency, Deer Path Drive.\n\n12:44 a.m., medical emergency, Gomber Avenue.\n\nCalls Saturday:\n\n8:41 p.m., traffic stop, South Seventh Street.\n\n8:38 p.m., males fighting, South Seventh Street.\n\n8:07 p.m., alarm activation, Steubenville Avenue.\n\n6:19 p.m., public service, Southgate Parkway.\n\n5:24 p.m., theft complaint, Wheeling Avenue.\n\n4:46 p.m., fire call, Maple Court; Cambridge FD.\n\n4:32 p.m., theft complaint, Wheeling Avenue.\n\n3:32 p.m., well being check for a male, Meadowpark Drive. On arrival, officers found the male lying on the floor unresponsive; United Ambulance.\n\n2:26 p.m., narcotics violations, Woodlawn Avenue.\n\n10:48 a.m., barking dog complaint, Skyline Drive.\n\n10:32 a.m., auto accident, Southgate Parkway.\n\n10:14 a.m., traffic enforcement, East Wheeling Avenue.\n\n9:21 a.m., traffic stop, Southgate Parkway.\n\n5:59 a.m., traffic enforcement, Southgate Parkway.\n\nCalls Friday:\n\n10:48 p.m., woman unresponsive in a chair when a neighbor went to check on her barking dog, Foster Avenue. On arrival, officers forced entry and found the woman was deceased; United, Cambridge FD and Guernsey County coroner.\n\n8:48 p.m., female who was pink slipped left the hospital on foot, Clark Street. Unable to locate.\n\n7:13 p.m., medical emergency, North 10th Street.\n\n6:09 p.m., assisted other agency, Deer Path Drive.\n\n6:01 p.m., auto accident, Southgate Parkway.\n\n5:48 p.m., alarm activation, Steubenville Avenue.\n\n5:39 p.m., disorderly conduct, Dewey Avenue.\n\n4:09 p.m., public service, Southgate Parkway.\n\n3:35 p.m., trespassers refusing to leave a business, Southgate Parkway. Male arrested on a warrant for a probation violation.\n\n2:19 p.m., assault reported, South Eighth Street. Victim declined to file charges.\n\n1:54 p.m., medical emergency, Clairmont Avenue.\n\n1:13 p.m., medical emergency, North 16th Street.\n\n1:10 p.m., public service, Glenn Highway.\n\n12:58 p.m., hit-skip accident, Southgate Parkway.\n\n12:54 p.m., parking enforcement, North Eighth Street.\n\n8:18 a.m., alarm activation, Rick Road.\n\n7:33 a.m., alarm activation, Clark Street.\n\n7:21 a.m., alarm activation, Maple Court.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9844678640365601}
+{"content": "Southern Dry-Mesic Oak-Aspen Forest - FDs36\n\nSouthern Dry-Mesic Oak-Aspen Forest\n\nForest description\n\nDry-mesic hardwood forests dominated by a mix of bur oak and quaking aspen. Present on hummocky stagnation moraines on well-drained, gravelly, loamy, calcareous till in northwestern Minnesota.\n\nCommunity Description\n\nFDs36 is a relatively rare hardwood forest community found in northwestern Minnesota (see map; 11 relevés, 27 ECS worksheets). Most occurrences are in the northern part of the Minnesota & Northeast Iowa Morainal (MIM) section. Some observations of this community are found in the Lake Agassiz Aspen Parklands (LAP) and the Red River Valley (RRV) sections.\n\nDistribution in Minnesota\n\nDistribution map for FDs36\n\nVegetation Structure & Composition\n\nDescription is based on summary of vegetation data from 25 plots (relevés).\n\n • Ground-layer cover is patchy to continuous (25-100%). Common species include large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora), early meadow-rue (Thalictrum dioicum), Maryland black snakeroot (Sanicula marilandica), Clayton’s sweet cicely (Osmorhiza claytonii), wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis), Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense), and Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica).\n • Shrub-layer cover is patchy to interrupted (25-75%); common species include downy arrowwood (Viburnum rafinesquianum), poison ivy (Toxicodendron rydbergii), chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), Juneberry (Amelanchier spp.), wolfberry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis), American hazelnut (Corylus americana), and gray dogwood (Cornus racemosa).\n • Subcanopy cover is interrupted (50-75%); quaking aspen and green ash are the most common species. Occasionally, American elm is present.\n • Canopy cover is mostly interrupted to continuous (50-100%); the most common species are bur oak and quaking aspen. Occasional species include basswood, American elm, green ash, and paper birch.\n\nLandscape Setting & Soils\n\nStagnation moraines—Occasional. Present on rolling to hummocky terrain. Parent material is gravelly, loamy, calcareous till. Soils have very dark surface horizons typical of prairies, suggesting these sites were formerly occupied by prairie or open woodland (or that following fire in FDs36, soil development processes are similar to those in prairies). Soils have firm, clayey subsoil horizons that perch snowmelt and rainfall. These clayey horizons have elements of precipitated lime, and deeper horizons are highly calcareous. Soils are well drained, and the soil-moisture regime is fresh. (Hardwood Hills in MIM, RRV)\n\nTree Suitability\n\nThe suitability index is our estimate of a tree's ability to compete with all plants in a particular NPC Class without silvicultural assistance. The data come from forests approaching rotation age or older. The raw index is based upon the product of percent presence and mean cover-when-present (below) within the set of relevés classified as that NPC. Plants are ranked by their raw index and the full rank order is partitioned into 5 equal groups of plants and re-scaled to yield the suitability index ranging from 1 to 5. This is done so that the indices can be compared within the NPC (below) or with other NPC classes (statewide suitability table[AJ(1]). \n\nIt is important to note that the table presented below is a landscape summary of how trees perform on average in a NPC Class. At the stand-scale current stocking and any knowledge of the stand's disturbance/management history should inform how the suitability table can be used. Discussion of stand-scale application of the table follows below the table. \n\nThe table is also useful at the landscape-scale when there are restoration or conservation needs for the NPC Class itself, or when forest plan directives call for a management emphasis of a particular species. Species with a high suitability index that are not currently present on the site can be introduced to the site with less risk than species with a lower index. \n\nLearn more about suitability\n\nA tree species is 'suited' to a site when its physical and genetic makeup allow for it to survive and reproduce given the constraints of a site's physical environment AND co-occurring vegetation. Ecologists call this the 'realized niche' of a tree. Our suitability index is based upon the assumption that a tree is highly suited to a site when we see it often and in great abundance in its Native Plant Community Class.\n\nThese tables are intended to help foresters decide which tree species to silviculturally favor or introduce on sites that have been classified using the Field Guides to the Native Plant Communities of Minnesota1. Trees with excellent suitability should grow well with very little silvicultural treatment other than providing the correct light and seedbed environments for establishment and recruitment. Trees with poorer suitability for a site can be grown to meet specific objectives, but the forester should expect progressive increases in cost and risk for trees with good to fair to poor suitability rankings. The underlying assumption for using these tables is that when trees are naturally suited to their site, they are vigorous. Vigor should translate to superior quality, resistance to disease, capacity for natural regeneration, and the ability to withstand fluctuations in climate. \n\nSuitability Index\nSuitability is a mathematical calculation. The data for this calculation come from 6,303 vegetation plots that have been classified as belonging to one of 54 forested NPCs. Two metrics -- commonness and local abundance -- are the elements of suitability.\n\nA plant is 'suited' to a NPC when we often find it there. Percent presence was our metric of commonness. Similarly, a plant is 'suited' to a NPC when it tends to occur in abundance when present. Mean percent cover-when-present was our metric of local abundance. The suitability index is the product of percent presence and mean percent cover-when-present. \n\nExample: Of the 6,306 sample plots, 757 were classified as Northern Mesic Hardwood Forest (MHn35). Basswood trees occur in 483 of the 757 plots. Thus, its percent presence as a tree is (483/757)*100= 63.8%. The mean cover of basswood trees on those 757 plots is 16.5%. Thus, its raw suitability index is 63.8*16.5=1,053. There are 158 species with >3% presence in MHn35 forests and basswood's rank order on a scale of 1-5 is 4.8, its standardized suitability index. The index is standardized so that basswood's suitability can be compared among different NPC classes.\n\nTree suitability table for FDs36 trees\n\nLegend for Tree suitability values\nSuitability index valuesCrop Tree PotentialColor\n4.0 - 5.0ExcellentGreen\n3.0 – 3.99GoodBlue\n2.0 – 2.99FairYellow\n\nIn general, trees with higher suitability indices are better choices as crop trees than trees with lower indices. FDs36 sites offer some options for crop trees, with seven species having a fair, good, or excellent suitability. Bur oak, quaking aspen, and basswood are all ranked as excellent choices as crop trees by virtue of their frequent occurrence and moderately high cover-when-present on FDs36 sites. These species in any combination can be the management target. It is most common for quaking aspen or bur oak to form the cover type. It is common for stands to be mixed and when that is the case, quaking aspen is prevalent in younger stands, and bur oak and basswood commonly dominate older stands. Green ash and boxelder are ranked as good crop trees, and stands can be managed to perpetuate these trees as co-dominants whether for their inherent value or as a future seed source. Balsam poplar and American elm are ranked as just fair choices of crop trees, but stands can be managed to maintain their presence as minor trees for purposes other than timber production. \n\nIf stands are to be silviculturally manipulated to favor one species over another, mean cover-when-present is the more important element of the index, with the higher covers more likely to result in higher stocking following treatment. Low frequency and high mean cover-when-present is the hallmark of trees with greater potential for the site than is commonly observed. The loss of seed trees due to historic over-exploitation, lower frequency of a historic disturbance like fire, the arrival of new diseases/pests or changes in their virulence, and species’ range expansions due to climate change could all explain this pattern. For the FDs36 community basswood clearly fits this pattern. If the cause of low frequency is understood, then silvicultural correction is possible.\n\nTree Response to Climate Change\n\nDue to global warming, land managers are bracing for local vegetation shifts to plants whose North American ranges are warmer and drier than their current habitat. Minnesota's climate has warmed approximately 2oF since temperature records have been collected and archived (ca. 1900). The rate of warming has noticeably accelerated since 1980, affecting winter-low temperatures more so than what is observed in other seasons. However, all seasons now have warmer temperatures than the long-term average. Unlike some parts of the continent, Minnesota has seen an increase of about 3\" of rain annually. However the year-to-year fluctuation and rainfall in a particular storm have become incredibly variable and unpredictable. Minnesota is experiencing both drought and flooding extremes over several time scales. \n\nDifferences among the 52 forested NPCs are related very much to water availability for trees and understory plants. Forested communities have different capacities for interception, infiltration, storage, and runoff. Thus we expect them to react differently to changes in the hydrologic regime -- whatever that may be. The table below presents our best guess as how trees currently suited to this NPC will react to a warmer and wetter climate. Keeping the full complement of trees on-site is a good hedge against future climate uncertainty.\n\nLearn more about climate change\n\nClimate Shift Calculations\nDue to global warming, land managers are bracing for local vegetation shifts to plants whose North American ranges are warmer and drier than their habitat in Minnesota. An analysis of range climate was used to assign and adjust 'synecological' scores for our plants with regard to moisture (M) and temperature (H). The scores range from 1 (dry/cool) to 5 (wet/warm). The difference between a plant's individual synecological score and the mean synecological score of its community provides some insight as to whether that plant would benefit or suffer should its local environment become warmer or wetter. \n\nExample: For each of the 256 MHn35 vegetation plots, the M score of all component plants was summed and averaged to yield a score for each plot. Then the plot scores were summed and averaged to yield an M score for the community, which in this case was 2.3. The adjusted M score for basswood is 2.01, which is drier than 2.3. Thus, we assume that basswood would benefit from a slightly drier conditions. Similarly, the H score for basswood is 4.03, which is substantially warmer than the 2.9 mean for the MHn35 community ... suggesting that basswood would greatly benefit if MHn35 sites get warmer. \n\n\nClimate in Minnesota has been getting warmer and wetter. If this trend continues the descriptions in the table forecast the direction and magnitude how we expect FDs36 trees to respond. The responses of “slight” or “significant” increases/decreases represents a full unit departure from the mean synecological score for the FDs36 community. \n\nTree habitat response to climate change in FDs36\n\nTree Establishment and Recruitment\n\nThe vertical structure of releves was used to interpret the ability of trees to establish themselves and recruit to taller strata under the canopy of a mature forest and on seedbeds associated with older forests. The goal was to develop an appreciation of which trees are capable of developing enough advance regeneration to fully stock a future stand by natural regeneration. For trees with modest advance regeneration, we wanted to figure out if the problem seems to be related to poor establishment or poor recruitment -- issues that can be silviculturally resolved. For trees with little or no advance regeneration but good or excellent suitability as a tree, we assume that even-aged systems would be required to perpetuate them in that community.\n\nEstablishment and recruitment indices are calculations designed to estimate how a tree performs in different size classes with no silvicultural assistance:\n\n1. small regenerant <10cm tall, R-index\n\n2. seedling 10cm -- 2m, SE-index\n\n3. sapling 2m -- 10m, SA-index\n\n4. tree >10m, T-index\n\nThe index is the product of percent presence, mean percent cover-when-present, and mean number of reported strata. The index is re-scaled to run from 0 to 5 so that suitability can be compared among different NPCs.\n\nLearn more about establishment and recruitment indices\n\nThe tree height data from releves was transformed into 4 standard height strata: regenerants <10cm tall, seedlings 10cm -- 2 m tall, saplings 2 -- 10m tall, and trees >10m. These height breaks were used because they are the most frequently used on releves to describe the natural structural breaks in forests. Still, some releves report strata that span our standard height seams and we had to apportion the presence of the tree and its percent cover into our standard classes. This was done by splitting the reported strata into the 8 individual height classes and evenly splitting the cover among the classes. For example, sugar maple reported in a D3-6 layer (0.5-20m) comprises four individual height classes that need to contribute cover to our standard seedling, sapling, and tree strata. The cover of sugar maple in that stratum was class 3 (25-50% cover). Using the mid-point rule as for suitability (see above), cover class 3 is converted to 37.5%, and the apportionment is 37.5% / 4 = 9.37% cover awarded for sugar maple in each height class. After cover was awarded to all individual height classes in a releve, they were then lumped into the standard strata and the individual covers summed.\n\nFor each standard stratum we calculated an index of 'regeneration success' for the tree species. We settled on three measures of success:\n\nFirst, trees were considered successful if they were common in a particular stratum. Presence is our measure of stratum commonness, and below is how seedling presence was calculated. The parallel calculation was done also for regenerants, saplings, and trees.\n\nSE Presence = (# of releves with the tree present as a seedling / total # of releves for the community) * 100\n\nSecond, trees were considered successful if we found them to be abundant in a particular stratum. Mean cover-when-present (MCWP) was our measure of stratum abundance, and below is how seedling MCWP was calculated. The parallel calculation was done also for regenerants, saplings, and trees.\n\nSE MCWP = sum of all seedling cover of tree / number of releves wit\n\nDave Anderson | Operations Services Division, Drupal Developer\n651-259-5448 (w) | [email protected]\n\nh the tree present as a seedling\n\nThird, trees were considered successful recruiters if we often found it in multiple strata. As a measure of recruitment complexity we calculated the mean number of strata when present (MSWP) reported in the original releves (not our standard strata) for a species. We used this number as a weighting factor to help segregate species that develop a presence in many layers from those that don't develop a lot of strata because they probably need some kind of disturbance to develop an understory cohort. \n\nMSWP = sum of all reported strata for a species / number of releves in which the species occurs\n\nFrom these three measures of stratum success we calculated the raw recruitment index by multiplying the numbers together. Below is how the raw seedling index was calculated.\n\nRaw SE Index = SE presence * SE MCWP * SE MSWP\n\nFor each stratum -- regenerants, seedlings, saplings, and trees -- the ranges of raw index scores are different and not comparable between strata and between communities. To allow comparison, the raw scores were ranked and then re-scaled so that the lowest raw score was zero and the maximum was five.\n\nThe indices of regeneration were placed into classes as for suitability so that in tables, foresters can quickly identify the species that tend to have poor, fair, good, or excellent regeneration in mature forests that have not been silviculturally manipulated in the recent past.\n\nRegeneration IndexEquivalent PercentileDescriptor\n1-220-40%Poor Suitability\n2-340-60%Fair Suitability\n3-460-80%Good Suitability\n4-580-100%Excellent Suitability\n\nEstablishment and recruitment for FDs36 trees\n\nLegend for Tree establishment values\nIndex valuesRatingColor\n4.0 - 5.0ExcellentGreen\n3.0 – 3.99GoodBlue\n2.0 – 2.99FairYellow\n1.0 – 1.99FairOrange\n0.0 – 0.99FairWhite\n\nIn general, trees with high understory presence and excellent R-, SE-, and SA-indices can be depended upon to produce enough advance regeneration to stock a stand after removal of canopy trees. In FDs36 forests bur oak, green ash, and quaking aspen are present in usable abundance. FDs36 forests are not self-sustaining without frequent disturbance that emulates surface fire.\n\nTrees with excellent R-index values have no problem establishing on an undisturbed forest floor in mature FDs36 forests. Bur oak and green ash readily establish by seed without any seedbed preparation. Quaking aspen suckers are almost always present when represented in the canopy. The remainder of trees in the table need to establish by seed, but have lower R-index values. This indicates a germination need that is not fully met in a mature FDs36 forests. The need is often species-specific, thus silvicultural improvement requires knowledge of the tree’s silvics and its competitive context following silvicultural treatment in FDs36 forests. Common germination hurdles in FDs36 forests are: the lack of a mineral seedbed, insufficient light/heat due to proximal shade from shrubs and subcanopy trees, thick duff that has accumulated due to the lack of fire, and lack of seed source.\n\nTrees with excellent SE- and SA-index need no silvicultural assistance recruiting to tree size in an unmanaged forest. Bur oak, boxelder, green ash, and quaking aspen do this in FDs36 forests. Of these trees, boxelder and green ash have some difficulty recruiting to heights much over 10m. Trees with either a good or fair SE- or SA-index would likely benefit from intermediate silvicultural treatment as long as establishment isn’t a problem. If the SE-index is the lower of the two then early survival and growth is the issue, and treatments like cleaning and spacing may help to diminish proximal competition. This is clearly the case for balsam poplar. If the SA-index is the lower of the two then the issue is most likely sufficient light as the trees try to emerge from the shrub layer, and overhead release may help to promote the advance regeneration. This is the case for American elm; however, it is increasingly susceptible to Dutch elm disease as it grows taller. Trees like basswood with poor or very poor understory indices generally need to be regenerated in more open conditions, but this is contrary to the usual behavior of basswood.\n\nNatural Disturbance\n\nUnderstanding natural disturbance regimes is prerequisite for designing silvicultural systems and treatments that emulate natural processes. Theoretically, 'natural' treatments favor trees adapted to the site, conserve local gene pools by relying on natural regeneration, maintain native plants in the understory, are less risky than agricultural approaches, and cheaper to implement. Because clear-cutting and other stand-regenerating systems are so often employed, it is important to determine which NPCs were maintained by stand-replacing disturbances and, further, to estimate the natural rotation. For many NPCs the natural rotation far exceeds commercial rotation, and this requires us to look to other silvicultural strategies for harvest and regeneration. Thus, we must also estimate the frequency and intensity of disturbances that maintain these kinds of forest communities.\n\nNatural rotation of catastrophic and maintenance disturbances were calculated from Public Land Survey (PLS) records. The records provide a point-in-time estimate (ca. 1846-1908 AD) of just how much of the historic landscape was recently disturbed by fire, windthrow, or gap-forming events such as surface fires, disease pockets, etc. To some extent these regional trends can be applied to management at the stand-scale. The kind of natural disturbance can inform site preparation; the comparative frequency of stand-replacement and maintenance events informs canopy retention and entry schedules/rotation. \n\nLearn more about calculating natural disturbance rotations\n\nNatural Disturbance Regimes\n\nThe goal of the PLS analysis was to estimate the rotation of stand-replacement and maintenance disturbances unique to each NPC class. The surveyors explicitly described burned and windthrown land when working within the forested regions of Minnesota. When in the prairie region and especially along the prairie/forest border, the surveyors used a variety of terms to describe wooded vegetation understood to be maintained by frequent disturbance. Most often this was fire, but in some regions wind was important as well. Thus, geographic context is an important consideration when trying to determine if a surveyor's comments are indicating that the corner was 1) undisturbed, 2) catastrophically disturbed, or 3) recently affected by a less intense, maintenance disturbance. Placing corners in these three categories is the critical step that allows the calculation of disturbance regimes. To get at this, we must understand the surveyor's physiognomic descriptions of the vegetation at the corners: prairie, grove, bottoms, barrens, burned lands, windthrown timber, etc. Our rules for assessing disturbance at survey corners were individually set for each physiognomic vegetation type across the state\n\nStocking (i.e., tree density) is the most important element of their physiognomic descriptions. Our initial step in the analysis was to understand how the distances to bearing trees affected the surveyor's vocabulary. For all of the types, we calculated the mean distance to bearing trees which allowed us to rank and group the types in some sensible fashion.\n\nWooded typesDisturbance typesRiverine typesFire maintained typesOpen types\nSwamp 40Windthrow 72Bottomland 135Thicket 92Meadow 183\nForest 50Burned land 76Dry land 157Pine openings 113NOTA 192\nDry ridge 60 Oak openings 145Prairie 236\nGrove 69 Scattering oak 166Marsh 278\nIsland 70 Barrens 177Wet prairie 411\n\nTable 1. Vegetation types mentioned by surveyors and their mean distances in links to their bearing trees. Columns roughly ranked by range of distances. (NOTA means 'no other tree around.')\n\nWooded and riverine types (Table 1) were assumed to be undisturbed forest. The short distances to trees in the wooded types are indicative of naturally stocked forest where tree density is largely set by competition for space among trees. The riverine types have longer distances than the wooded types because bottomland and dry land corners are intermingled with river channels and marsh at a fine scale. It is common for these linear, treeless features to occupy a full quadrant at a corner in bottomland forest requiring a bearing tree be found across the channel or meadow if possible. For each wooded type, we examined the frequency distribution of corners in 10-link distance classes to get a general sense of distances that would indicate natural stocking. Figure 1 is an example for the forest-type distribution associated with 77,506 corners. \n\nFigure 1\n\nFigure 1. Frequency of 'forest' survey corners in 10-link distance classes by rounding mean distance (e.g., the 10-link class includes corners with mean distance of 5-15 links).\n\nIn Figure 1 about 80% of all corners fall in the first 6 classes (up to 55 links). The mean distance for all forest corners is 50 links. Our interpretation is that somewhere around the mean there is a change in the nature of the distribution. Classes under 50 links are common and likely represent the natural range of variation in stocking (perhaps due to age). Classes over 50 links are infrequent and most likely represent a corner where at least one quadrant lacked nearby trees or had damaged trees due to disturbance. Thus, for our 'undisturbed' wooded and riverine classes, it just turns out that the mean distance usually falls in the last or one of the last abundant distance classes, and classes with longer distances were assumed to be disturbed to some extent. To make a simple rule, we arbitrarily set the minimum distance indication disturbance to the mean for vegetation that the surveyors described as swamp, forest, dry ridge, grove, island, bottomland, or dry land\n\nSetting the upper limit, above which we assume stand-replacement, was also a guess. It is clear that mean distances over about 180 links are typical of open, treeless environments (Table 1.). Even at distances of about 110-180 links it is clear that trees were scarce enough that the surveyors noted that the vegetation wasn't forest. The distribution in Figure 1 is incredibly smooth over the longer mean-distance classes and there is no gap in classes to suggest a natural break for our higher distance threshold. To make a simple rule, we arbitrarily set the maximum distance indicating stand-replacing disturbance as the mean plus one standard deviation for swamp, forest, dry ridge, grove, island, bottomland, or dry land. For most classes, this number is close to the mean distances for open types that we know had very few trees.\n\nThe frequency distributions of fire-maintained types are different from the wooded and riverine types. At distances greater than the peak class, the fall in frequency is nearly linear, an example of which is for oak openings (Figure 2.). There is no obvious point of inflection to set the lower, naturally-stocked, undisturbed limit, nor are there breaks in the distribution that can help us set the upper limit for catastrophic disturbance. It is important to remember that we are interpreting the use of terms like 'openings' and 'scatterings' to corners that we believe from modern vegetation to be capable of forest stocking. Almost certainly, these terms were used to describe recent disturbance that caused trees to be sparser than normal forest. To help us interpret the use of these terms to describe forest, we returned to the coarser analysis. Corners with distances under 50 links were almost certainly in places one would describe as undisturbed forest. Corners with distances over 200 links were in places where tree density was low and comparable to open habitats like prairie and meadow. To make a simple rule for corners described as thicket, pine openings, oak openings, scattering timber, and barrens, we arbitrarily set the minimum distance indicating disturbance to 50 links, and we set the maximum distance indicating stand-replacing disturbance at 200 links.\n\nFigure 2\n\nFigure 2. Frequency of 'oak opening' survey corners in 10-link distance classes by rounding mean distance (e.g., the 10-link class includes corners with mean distance of 5-15 links).\n\nIn addition to distance, we found it important to consider also missing bearing trees as evidence of disturbance. A common survey note is 'NOTA' meaning 'no other tree around,' which was the surveyor's explanation for not marking all of the required bearing trees (i.e., 4 at section corners and 2 at quarter-section corners). Most often this note appeared at corners described as one of the fire-maintained or open community groups (Table 1.). NOTA was also used at corners described as burned or windthrown. Within the context of interpreting corners modeled as forest or woodland, NOTA almost certainly was relating to some kind of disturbance that left dead trees or trees too small to scribe. Table 2 describes our model for assigning a disturbance class based on both distance and complement of bearing trees. Within their type, survey corners were assigned their final disturbance class -- undisturbed, partially disturbed, catastrophically disturbed -- by a combination of the corner's mean distance to its bearing trees and whether it had its full complement of 2 or 4 bearing trees.\n\nAssumed undisturbed - Wooded and Riverine groups< meanbetween mean and mean + SD>Mean + SD\nFull complementUndisturbedUndisturbedMaintenance\nPartial complementUndisturbedMaintenanceBurned\nAssumed disturbed - Fire-maintained group< 50 linkslinks> 206 links\nFull complementUndisturbedMaintenanceBurned\nPartial complementMaintenanceMaintenanceBurned\n\nTable 2. Rules for assigning a disturbance class to survey corners not explicitly described as burned or windthrown.\n\nAdjusting the Model -- Window of Recognition\nIt is obvious that several pragmatic decisions and rules were made in order to assign corners to disturbance categories. Even if these rules are reasonable, one must still set a 'window of recognition' in order to make quantitative estimates of stand-replacing and maintenance rotations. The window of recognition is the span of years for which a surveyor would have bothered to describe a disturbance. Would a surveyor recognize and care to report that a stand had been burned 5, 10, 15, or 20 years after the fact? We believe that mention of fire and windthrow was more an excuse for not marking bearing trees than any conscientious effort to alert potential buyers to fire- or wind-damaged timber. Consider the fact that quaking aspen is the early successional species for nearly all terrestrial forests in Minnesota. The surveyors actually marked and scribed some 390, 2-inch aspen bearing trees and some 3,039 three-inch trees. Clearly, surveyors would bother to scribe 2-3' trees if that was their only choice. Our age/diameter models for 2-3' aspen trees suggest that these trees were between 11 and 18 years old respectively. If commenting about fire and wind was an excuse, then the window of recognition should be somewhere in the 11-18 year range because that is when trees reach a minimum diameter for marking. \n\nAlternatively, a window of recognition is empirically set to 'force' the rotation model to match the estimates from studies using more reliable methods. In the Great Lakes States, there are reconstructions of disturbance regimes from fire-scar studies (Frissell 1973), stand-origin mapping (Heinselman 1996), and charcoal analysis of varved sediments (Clark 1988). When we model disturbance regimes from bearing trees in these same regions, a window of 15 years tends to yield results similar to the other methods for stand-replacing disturbance. We used a 15-year window of recognition because it yields rotations comparable to rotations calculated from fire-scars, stand-origin maps, and varved lake sediments.\n\nMany detailed investigations of forest disturbance do not calculate rotations of maintenance disturbance, but recognize its confounding effect on estimating stand-replacing events. Trees with multiple fire-scars attest that some forest types are affected more by maintenance surface fire than catastrophic crown fires. Dendrochronological reconstructions of stand history also attest that maintenance events (fire and non-fire) are common and important, releasing cohorts of advance regeneration and providing some growing space in the canopy (e.g. Bergeron et al. 2002). Minor peaks in varve charcoal are also more common than major ones, possibly recording maintenance fires. Calculating maintenance disturbance is more complicated than stand-replacement because the signal is weaker, reliable studies are fewer, and the cause less obvious. However, some estimate is absolutely required to provide guidance in applying intermediate silvicultural treatments to the right NPCs.\n\nAs was the case for estimating stand-replacing rotations, adjusting the window of recognition is the easiest way to adjust the model. Logic would suggest that the window should be shorter for maintenance events because the disturbance is less intense and evidence of it might be gone in 15 years. If the surveyors really used terms like burned or windthrown to explain the lack of bearing trees, it is likely that they did so less often on lands lightly disturbed because there were trees around -- they just had to go a little farther to find bearing trees and might not always find a suitable tree in all quadrants. We found that a 5-year window produced rotations that matched what one might guess from multiple-scarred trees. Also, the ratio of maintenance events to catastrophic ones seemed within the range of what one might expect from the ratio of strong charcoal peaks to minor ones in varve studies. A 5-year recognition window was used to calculate maintenance rotations because it seems to fit fire-scar and varve studies.\n\nCalculating Rotation by Example -- Northern Mesic Mixed Forest (FDn43)\nHaving settled on windows of recognition and having assigned disturbance classes to the corners associated with an NPC, it is possible to calculate rotation. This is easiest to understand by example.\n\nNorthern Mesic Mixed Forest (FDn43) is a fire-dependant NPC that is the matrix vegetation for much of northeastern Minnesota. Our model assigned 11,712 PLS survey corners to this community because 1) they fall on landforms (LTAs) where we have modern samples of FDn43 forests, 2) the attending bearing trees were typical of the community (>70% frequency), and 3) they lacked trees atypical of the community (<30% frequency). \n\nEach corner was assigned one of 4 disturbance classes based upon the distance and complement rules set up for each physiognomic vegetation class (Table 2.). The tallies for each class are shown in Table 3. \n\nVegetation ClassFire 15-year windowWind 15-year windowMaintenance 5-year windowUndisturbed\nBarrens 1111\nDry ridge 129\nForest42 11110168\nGrove 1\nBottoms 45\nScattering pine 716\nScattering timber2 2460\nSwamp (misassigned) 5153\nThicket21 61143\nRavine 6\nWindthrown 63 \nNo other tree around16 \nIsland 15\n\nTable 3. Counts of survey corner assignment to disturbance classes by physiognomic vegetation class for the FDn43 community.\n\nThe FDn43 landscape of 11,712 survey corners provides the base area for calculating rotation of a NPC. In Table 3, 791 of those corners were interpreted as having been catastrophically burned, representing 6.75% of the area.\n(791 burned corners/11,712 total corners)*100=6.75% of the landscape\n\nPresumably, surveyors recognized burned lands for 15 years after the event, meaning that the annual percent of the landscape that catastrophically burned is 1/15th of 6.75%.\n6.75% of landscape burned/15-year recognition window=0.45% burned annually\n\nThe rotation is the time required to catastrophically burn the entire area represented by 11,712 corners. Because we have calculated this as a percent, the time it takes to achieve that is: \n100%/0.45% burning annually=222 year rotation of catastrophic fire\n\nThere is no need to calculate acres or percent of landscape, but it makes the calculation easier to understand given the area concept of rotation in forestry. The easier formulas to use are:\n(Total # corners / # corners in disturbance category)*recognition window=rotation\n(11,712/791burned)*15 years=222 year rotation of catastrophic fire\n(11,712/63 windthrown)*15 years=2,788 year rotation of catastrophic windthrow\n(11,712/221 maintenance)*5 years=265 year rotation of maintenance disturbance\n\nIt is also useful to calculate the rotation of all fire (or wind), regardless if it was catastrophic or maintenance. To make this calculation it is easiest to sum the annual percents. \n0.45% burned catastrophically each year\n0.37% burned in maintenance event\n0.45%+0.37%=0.82% annual=122 year rotation for all types of fires\n\nIt is the rotation of all fires that tends to reasonably match the published estimates of return intervals. For example, in the BWCAW Heinselman (1996) reports return intervals for the common forest types: Aspen-Birch-Conifer (70-110 years), Red Pine (<100), and White Pine (>100). These cover types, especially the white pine, are predominantly the FDn43 community for which we calculate a 122 year rotation for all fires.\n\nThe table below shows the frequency of PLS survey corners assigned to four different disturbance categories. Shown also is the percent of the FDs36 landscape in those conditions and the resulting calculated rotation. Maintenance disturbances were the most frequent disturbance type in this landscape; fire disturbances occurred at a fairly regular frequency. \n\nNatural disturbance rotations for FDs36 landscapes\n\nStand Dynamics & Growth Stages\n\nUnderstanding natural stand dynamics is the essence of prescription writing. Without some understanding of how dynamics affect tree establishment, thinning, recruitment, competitive ability, form, longevity, and succession during 'unsupervised' stand maturation -- foresters cannot write worthwhile prescriptions. For the most part, prescriptions are written to alter, accelerate, or allow the natural course of events in a forest in order to meet a management objective. \n\nPublic land survey records were used to develop a natural model of compositional succession and structural change. The figure below orders PLS section and quarter-sections by diameter class, assigned as the diameter of the largest attending bearing tree at the corner. Presumably this is chronological ranking along the y-axis. The rough age of each diameter class was estimated by FIA diameter/age models for a tree common in all diameter classes. \n\nFor every tree, its relative abundance in a diameter class is graphed along the x-axis. This shows the compositional change as forests mature from small diameter classes to larger ones. The inter-tree distances provide some insight concerning initial tree density and how that changes as forests age. Low standard deviation of the inter-tree distances indicate uniform tree spacing; high standard deviations indicate a patchy distribution of trees. A cluster analysis (CONISS) groups contiguous diameter classes into periods of stability (growth-stages) and change (transitions).\n\nLearn more about natural dynamics and growth stages\n\nStand Dynamics\n\nPLS data are not inherently temporal. To create a model of stand dynamics we must somehow rank survey corners assigned to a particular NPC Class in a way that is reflective of time. The best that can be done is to assign each corner to a diameter-class equal to the diameter of the largest bearing tree at that corner. This allows us to reasonably rank corners from smaller-diameter/presumably younger forests to larger/presumably older forests the first 100 years or so. We refer to the diameter of the largest tree at a corner as 'stand-diameter.' We believe that this ranking is good enough to make some broad interpretations about dynamics throughout the early years of stand maturation. The modeled age of the largest tree at a corner is a minimum estimate of how long the stand has avoided a catastrophic disturbance. This is NOT true stand age because no corner can be assigned a diameter/age beyond the biological size or longevity of its old-growth species. For forest classes with long rotations of stand-replacing disturbance, the largest tree at any point can easily belong to the 2nd, 3rd, or subsequent cohort. Survey corners were assigned to 'stand-diameter' classes equal to the diameter of the largest witness tree at that corner.\n\nFor the set of corners in a diameter class we calculated the relative abundance of each bearing tree taxon. This allows us to see how composition changes as stand-diameter increases over time. For each tree taxon, we plotted its relative abundance by stand diameter to see if its relative abundance tends to decrease, increase, or peak over the range of stand-diameters (below). Also, for the set of corners in a diameter class we calculated the mean distance of trees to the corner and the standard deviation of that mean. This allows us to understand how tree density and variance in density changes as stand diameter increases over time. Because these dynamic models are useful for forest planning the estimated age of a tree that diameter is provided. This is done for a tree species that is abundant and present in all stand-diameter classes. The model is based upon diameter and age measurements of FIA site trees. Stand diameter age was estimated by using a quadratic equation that was fit to FIA site-index trees.\n\nAge=C+A*dbh+B*dbh2 (where C is a constant, A&B are coefficients from the FIA model)\n\nA constrained clustering routine (CONISS, constrained incremental sum of squares) was applied to the stand-diameter classes as characterized by the relative abundance of trees in that class. This method is constrained in that stand-diameter classes must be grouped to its adjoining classes or clusters that include the adjoining classes. The result is a hierarchical grouping of contiguous diameter classes based upon the similarity of their tree composition (below). Tight groups represent a span of stand-diameters where we infer little compositional change. We call these 'growth-stages.' Separating growth-stages are clusters of contiguous diameter classes that are not necessarily very similar, but are the last to be clustered. Such spans of diameter classes represent periods of species turnover called 'transitions.' This analysis provides some insight into the timing and rate of dynamic change.\n\nGraphed for each of the common FDs36 trees is their relative abundance (percent composition; x-axis) as PLS bearing trees by diameter class. Also shown is the mean distance of trees to the survey corner (inter-tree distance, white inset bars) and the standard deviation about that mean (black bars) for each diameter class. All data were smoothed using a 5-sample running average. Curves for taxa not exceeding 5% have a shaded 5X exaggeration to better illustrate trends (e.g. Green ash). A constrained cluster analysis (CONISS) groups diameter classes with similar species composition; the groups are interpreted as either stable growth-stages (e.g. young, mature) or periods of change (transition). Data for FDs36 comprise 2,733 PLS corners and 7,650 witness trees. \n\nNatural dynamics model for FDs36\n\nNatural dynamics model for FDs36\n\nCompositional Succession\nFDs36 forests were among several upland communities that exhibited compositional change during the course of stand maturation. The trend best fits a longevity-based model of succession whereby the initial cohort was composed of a mixture of early successional trees with different life expectancies; and species achieved dominance by outliving shorter-lived trees. In young FDs36 forests quaking aspen was dominant and made up most of the initial cohort. However, the original cohort also included longer-lived, fire-resistant bur oak residuals that were successful in recruiting stems from stump sprouts and seeding in during the early post-fire years. The relative abundance of these trees shifted over time largely because bur oak outlived quaking aspen. The decline of the initial cohort aspen occurred over the period when stand diameter increased from 9-17 inches. During this transition, there was continued establishment and release of bur oak as growing space became available. The transition period also shows some ingress and reproductive success of green ash, boxelder, northern red oak, and basswood. The other than northern red oak, these are fire-sensitive trees that do not commonly survive fires but if a seed source was nearby they could establish beneath the dense and proximal canopy of a young FDs36 forest. By the time stand diameter reached 17 inches and the forest was 120 years old, most initial-cohort aspen were gone and the composition settled at a mixture of second-cohort quaking aspen, bur oak of any cohort, and minor presence of green ash, boxelder, and northern red oak. Surface fires on a short rotation of about 10 years could have maintained the mixture of quaking aspen and bur oak by regenerating patches of quaking aspen, leaving bur oak residuals, and killing all fire-sensitive, trees. Bur oak was the large-diameter dominant of this community, and as such its abundance in the large diameter classes is slightly exaggerated due to our method of setting the diameter class equal to that of the largest diameter tree. \n\nStructural Succession\nStructural succession in FDs36 forests was typical of fire-maintained woodlands that abut open prairie. Thus the surface fire regime had more to do with their landscape position than inherent site properties. Such fires provided several regeneration opportunities within the life expectancy of the dominant trees, and thus these woodlands commonly consisted of several age-cohorts of trees including some very old, fire-resistant bur oaks. In the course of stand maturation they changed very little with regard to tree density and the evenness at which trees were distributed. Change was due mostly to a gradual increase in the size of trees and crown expansion. By the time stand diameter reached 4-5 inches, self-thinning was essentially complete and trees of the young woodland were approximately 72 feet apart. This is considerably sparser than central or northern fire-dependent forests of comparable age. Inter-tree distance gradually increased over the period when stand diameter increased from 5-11 inches to about 85 feet and was stable from that point on. This steady decrease in tree density coincided with a gradual shift from small-diameter, short-lived quaking aspen to large-diameter, long-lived bur oak that occupied considerable growing space above and below ground. Inter-tree distance declined over the period when stand diameter increased from 11-15 inches to about 75 feet. This increase in density coincided with the expansion of more tolerant species such as basswood, green ash, boxelder, and northern red oak. This was only a slight increase in density and it appears to be the result of a minor component of tolerant trees filling small gaps around the oaks.\n\nFDs36 forests showed almost no variance in tree spacing throughout the entire process of stand maturation. Young forest had a somewhat patchy distribution of trees. The ratio of standard deviations to their mean inter-tree distances was about 1.3 at this stage, as compared to uniform forest where this ratio is about 1.0 or less. Over the period when stand diameters increased from 10-15 inches, ratio of standard deviations to their inter-tree mean distance slightly declined to about 1.1, but then returned to about 1.3 at maturity. Thus throughout stand maturation, FDs36 forests were very sparse and had a somewhat patchy tree distribution. \n\nSivicultural Strategies\n\nSilvicultural strategies are sequences of treatment outcomes designed to emulate natural stand dynamics and promote natural regeneration. They are not silvicultural systems in the traditional sense because they do not cover a full rotation or have attached the implied goal of maintaining a particular species or cover-type indefinitely. Most involve 1-2 stand entries over a short period of time that will move a stand towards a forest plan objective -- with enough inertia that little silvicultural intervention will be needed to meet long-term goals. We describe management outcomes rather than silvicultural treatments because there are usually several treatments that might achieve the desired outcome. All strategies are based upon our understanding of NPC-specific natural stand dynamics and disturbance regimes. The sequence of outcomes follows the natural pattern; the timing is foreshortened because we intend to harvest sound trees rather than allowing natural senescence.\n\nThe most common, natural pattern of tree mortality and replacement was the partial loss of trees on a very short rotation of just 20 years. Stand-replacing fire was occasional with an estimated rotation of 100 years. Stand-replacing windthrow was rare, with an estimated calculated rotation of 1,270 years. \n\nFDs36 forests occasionally experienced stand-replacing fire, but they were chronically influenced by surface fires on a very short rotation. Historically fire resistance seemed to be the key to occupying FDs36 sites. These sites were dominated by bur oak, which is one of Minnesota’s most fire-resistant trees. The chronic surface fires constantly winnowed the local populations until only oaks and coppiced aspen remained. Silvicultural emulation involves diminishing the local population of fire-sensitive trees and creating open conditions or large-gaps for intolerant or mid-tolerant trees respectively. Two strategies are envisioned:\n\n • Re-initiate a stand as would severe surface fire to create open to very large gap habitat lacking fire-sensitive trees. \n • Maintain a stand as would light surface fire to create large-gap habitat for fire-resistant trees. \n\nModern FDs36 forests are no longer affected by fire due to suppression efforts. The historic response of this community to disturbance is complicated mostly by the exclusion of fire as an influencing agent. Commercial logging coupled with the lack of surface fire has resulted in natural FDs36 forests with far less bur oak, especially in the older growth-stages. Logging and passive management have resulted in forests with more quaking aspen, basswood, paper birch, northern red oak, and green ash. Managing stands primarily for quaking aspen or jack pine increases the risk of windthrow because these trees are not wind-firm. Managing stands in the absence of surface fire increases the risk of losing jack pine, bur oak, and northern red oak as a potential crop trees.\n\n\nSilvicultural Strategy for re-initiating FDs36 forests as would severe surface fire\nEmulating severe fire to favor bur oak or quaking aspen\n\nRe-initiation Concept\nRarely severe surface fires killed most of the canopy trees in FDs36 forests, thus creating open and large-gap habitat.\nSuch fires 1) stimulated quaking aspen suckering, 2) initiated stump sprouting of all present hardwoods, 3) selected for bur oak and northern red oak as fire-resistant residuals, 4) prepared mineral seedbeds that favored trees like basswood and northern red oak, and 5) killed advance regeneration of fire-sensitive, tolerant hardwoods such as boxelder. \n\n\nSilvicultural Strategy for maintaining FDs36 forests as would light surface fire\nEmulating surface-fire to favor bur oak, green ash, or northern red oak\n\nLarge-gap Concept\nOccasionally surface fires killed scattered patches of fire-sensitive trees in FDs36 forests, thus creating large-gap habitat. Such fires 1) stimulated quaking aspen suckering, 2) initiated stump sprouting of all present hardwoods, 3) selected for bur oak and northern red oak as fire-resistant residuals, 4) prepared mineral seedbeds that favored trees like basswood and northern red oak, and 5) killed advance regeneration of fire-sensitive, tolerant hardwoods such as boxelder.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9722406268119812}
+{"content": "Charlotte Property Management Blog\n\nEvicting a Tenant: The Basics\n\nMike Morings - Tuesday, November 26, 2019\n\nOne of the toughest parts of being a landlord is enforcing the rules and making sure your tenants are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, if tenants are refusing to follow the rules and are constantly failing to pay rent, you may have to evict them. This process can be long and will leave you without a tenant paying rent, but it is often necessary. Even if you have been a landlord for some time, eviction can still be complicated. However, by being informed and keeping communication open with your tenants, the process does not have to be as tough as it can be.\n\nReasons to evict tenants\n\nYou cannot just evict tenants for no reason. You actually have to have a reason for eviction, especially since you are entitled to file a lawsuit. You will lose the lawsuit if your reason for eviction is not valid or if you do not even have a reason Some common reasons include failure to pay rent, violations of the lease, and damages to the property. Other reasons include breaking laws and health and safety hazards. However, the most common reason is a failure to pay rent. In all of these cases, you will need proof of documentation so that the court will be able to see what has happened.\n\nKeep the eviction legal\n\nEach state has their own laws regarding eviction. Make sure you put the laws in the lease so that you and your tenants know what to expect and know how to act. Consider using a lease agreement that was written by lawyers or consult one in the process of writing the lease. That way, you know that your end is legal and that you can be sure your tenants are aware of the legal expectations that are on them.\n\n“Self-help” eviction is illegal in every state. This includes removing the tenant’s belongings from the property, physically removing the tenant, changing the locks or locking the tenant out, and shutting off essential utilities. Not only are these methods illegal, but doing any of these can give your tenant the upper hand should you need to go to court.\n\nImage: Helloquence via\n\nHow to avoid eviction on your (the landlord’s) end\n\nWhile you are in charge of your property and need to enforce the rules, evicting tenants can be a difficult process, especially since you will need to spend time finding a new tenant and you will be out of rent money in the meantime. There are things you can do to ensure that you minimize the need for eviction. Make sure everything is spelled out properly in the lease so that your tenants can easily follow the rules and that there are no questions about what the rules say. If a tenant is struggling to pay rent, give them a grace period. This is especially helpful if your tenants are mostly students.\n\nProcess for eviction\n\nIf you do end up needing to evict a tenant, it may be tempting to just kick them out then and there. However, there is a process you must follow. Make sure you give the tenant plenty of notice. You should get a lawsuit ready so if the tenant refuses to move out, you can specifically file the lawsuit to evict the tenant. Your tenant is entitled to a court hearing if they dispute the eviction, and if they lose the hearing, a sheriff needs to be called in to physically remove the tenant since you are not allowed to physically remove them. Make sure to outline your eviction process in your lease so that the tenant knows what to expect.\n\nKeep communication open\n\nIn any relationship, communication is key. This is equally as true with your relationship with your tenants. While it may be tempting to want to be best friends with your tenants, you also have to make sure they are not staying in their apartment for free. Meet with them in a public place such as a coffee shop and have an honest conversation with them. Tell them that you noticed they were having trouble paying rent and see if there is anything you can help with. Make sure you make it clear that they can’t live in your apartment for free. Help them work through what they are dealing with, but also be stern in the consequences of them not paying their rent. Again, make sure any rules are outlined in the lease and allow tenants to ask questions they may have about things outlined in the lease.\n\nWhen approaching your tenant, be “understanding but stern.” Let them know that you understand what they are going through, but they need to pay rent or abide by the rules. If you are pleasant and understanding, the tenant will hopefully be more willing to move out on their own without legal action.\n\nEvicting a tenant is tough, especially since you will be out rent money until you find a new tenant. It is difficult to do, even if you have evicted a tenant in the past. Making sure things stay smooth and legal will make the whole process easier for both you and your tenant.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7056922912597656}
+{"content": "Quite simply the best game made to this date!\n\nUser Rating: 10 | Final Fantasy VII PS\nWow where to start? This game revolutionized video games and RPGs and inspired the games we play today. You play Cloud Strife, a young mercenary determined to stop the evil Shinra Corporation from polluting and killing the world slowly but surely with their nuclear reactors. As you progress thru the game Cloud is accompanied by companions who all play a key role in the story. The story is so enthralling and rich that it pulls you in and you cannot get enough of it. You start off in a slum based city called Midgar. Cloud is accompanied by friends and eventually finds an old nemesis of his Sephiroth, a very powerful man who seems to be a big part of Clouds past and in a bad way. As you branch out of Midgar in search of Sephiroth, you encounter many allies and many foes and plot twists and tradgedies. The graphics are good for that day when the game was made but now sadly they are not so good and up to date. The turn based battle system is no longer used in many games today but it worked perfectly in this one. You have 3 characters in your party and all have turns attacking and the foes. Materia is the magic in the game and are equipped within your weapons and armor. The better the armor and weapons, the more materia you can apply. As you progress, u encounter very powerful materia and weapons. The key to having a great strategy is to apply the right materia to the right party member for instance, one of your party members should be focused on healing while another focused on fire and element based magic. Also, as you progress, you will gain new means of transportation including chocobos (bird like creatures that u ride bareback and are a faster means than walking) submarines and airships. Another awesome thing that made this game so great is the huge world and your freedom and ability to go where u wanna. If u want to focus on just the story and the plot u can do so, but if u like u can explore the world and do side stories and missions. I think this was one of the first games to implement this. The characters are so real and beloved you will find yourself becoming attached to them as you would a family member. This is one of those games that simply cannot be passed up. If your an RPG fan or not I recommend anyone who loves a great story and great cast to try this game out. This game is what made me love video games so much and I'm sure I am not the only one who feels this way!!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6382970809936523}
+{"content": "Unduly Lenient Sentences\n\nGareth In The Commons\n\nLast week I held a debate in the House of Commons on the issue of Unduly Lenient Sentences.\n\nThis debate highlighted the unfair situation which exists with appeals against sentences in our criminal courts.\n\nAt the moment the defence is able to appeal against sentences that are too harsh, whereas the prosecution can appeal against a sentence that is unduly lenient only in a very limited number of situations.\n\nCurrently, sentences for crimes such as actual body harm, malicious wounding and burglary, cannot be appealed by the prosecution.\n\nIt is simply wrong that no safety net is in place for the victims of crime to respond to sentences that are too lenient.\n\nDuring the last parliament, I tabled a Private Member’s Bill on Unduly Lenient Sentences and persuaded the Conservative Party to pledge to tackle the issue in its manifesto.\n\nUnder my proposals a basic protection for the victims of crime would be introduced. Just as it is right to have a safety net for the defence, there needs to be a safety net for the prosecution.\n\nIn last week’s debate the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland MP, agreed there are inconsistencies and anomalies in the current scheme which the Government will look into.\n\nThe criminal justice system is there to protect the vulnerable. This is its primary function and it currently fails to do that in a host of situations where unduly lenient sentences are given to offenders. That situation has to change. We must do something to ensure the scales of justice are balanced for both sides.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9532213807106018}
+{"content": "Torrefy to release new studio album “Life is Bad” on July 1st 2020\n\nTorrefy Life is Bad cover\nBlack Speed Death Thrash! That’s what Canada’s Torrefy offer on forthcoming album “Life is Bad”, set to be self-released on July 1st, 2020.\n\nThe official video for the album’s first single, the aptly titled album-closer “Plague of Empires”, is available below.\n\nPurchase/stream “Plague of Empires” here.\n\nTorrefy issued the following statement concerning “Life is Bad” and the progression of the band's sound since the release of 2016 progressive thrash album “The Infinity Complex”:\n\n“\"Life is Bad\" is not a departure for Torrefy. Rather, it is a continuation of the journey to becoming the band that Torrefy was meant to be. Torrefy's previous work lay more in the realm of Thrash metal, albeit not traditional Thrash due to our leanings towards a more progressive sound and a blending of influences ranging from Thrash metal to Death metal, Black metal, Classic rock, and Punk to name a few. Our new record is another step towards creating a sound that we refer to as ‘Black Speed Death Thrash’. We feel that this album will showcase the band’s improvement in songwriting, vocal delivery, instrumentation, and production. \n\n\"Life is Bad\" is not a concept album like our previous album \"The Infinity Complex\". Instead, as the album title indicates, it is thematically geared towards the fact that life is pretty brutal. The songs are emotionally charged and full of diverse themes including an awareness of one’s inescapable mortality, humanity’s unending greed and the desire for conquest and their refusal to learn from their past, to being overrun by a swarm of other worldly, bloodthirsty insects, and being caught in a machine that is perpetually killing you and keeping you alive at the same time.\n\nWe think that this album is the best and most true representation of the Torrefy sound. We hope that you dig it!”...\n\n“Life is Bad” was produced by Torrefy and Gustavo Valderama. The album was recorded by Gustavo Valderama and Electric Flow Studios in Victoria BC Canada. The album was mixed by Felipe Gonzales and Gustavo Valderama at Umbral Studios in Caldas Colombia and Electric Flow Studios in Vancouver BC Canada. “Life is Bad” was mastered by Joel Grind of Toxic Holocaust. \n\nThe virtual booklet for “Life is Bad” is available here.\n\n1. Sarcophony\n2. Eye of the Swarm\n3. Outrun By Wolves\n5. Arborequiem\n6. The Thin Line\n7. Cells\n8. Torrn Apart By Machinery\n9. Plague of Empires\n\nAdam Henry - Lead Guitar\nBen Gerencser - Rhythm Guitar\nSimon Smith - Bass\nDaniel Laughy - Drums\nJohn Ferguson - Vocals", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6022568345069885}
+{"content": "Acrylic painting Fall on your Knees by Denise Gracias\n\nFall on your Knees\n\n2015-Acrylic-30\" x 40\" x 1.5\"\n\nIn the time of Christ, shepherds were outcasts from society by the nature and lowliness of their job. They must have felt lonely, forsaken and forgotten by everyone...but apparently not by God. As the little town of Bethlehem enjoyed their slumber on this cold, dark night, the shepherds were given a very special personal invitation to meet the King of Kings. \n\nThe shepherds utter shock, disbelief, humility and joy are emphasized. The gentle beauty of the angel is surrounded by a colorful joyful sky reacting to this unusual heavenly messenger. The sheep unable to comprehend, sense their creator, and remain still and silent. \n\nWe all feel marginalized or unworthy to some extent at some point in our lives. May this painting remind you that God loves the lowly and the humble. You are very dear to Him.\n\n\"Fall On Your Knees\" was awarded an Honourable Mention in the Gallery Ring \"Open\" Exhibition in 2019.\n\nPlease see link below:\n\n\nFollow me on instagram\n\nIf you would like this original painting or to join\n\n$1,200.00 CAD", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6247541904449463}
+{"content": "\n\nWashington Lt. Governor honored for work for people with disabilities\n\nThe American Foundation for the Blind recognized Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib for his work creating inclusive environments for people of all abilities.\n\nWashington Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib was honored Wednesday as the American Foundation for the Blind’s Helen Keller Achievement Award recipient.\n\n“It is hard to quantify the impact Helen Keller had on me,” Habib said in a statement. “Helen Keller is a hero, not just to me, but to millions of people across multiple generations. Her name is synonymous with the word perseverance -- so to stand here today, recognized for perseverance by the AFB with an award in her name, is both humbling and inspiring.”\n\nRELATED: Blindness not a disability for Lt. Governor\n\nHabib was recognized for promoting an inclusive environment for people with disabilities and advocacy in public service and law, according to the foundation.\n\nHe was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2016, becoming the youngest Democratic presiding officer in the country. Before being elected, Habib served as a state Representative and Senator for east King County.\n\nHabib has been fully blind since he was 8 years old after losing his vision to cancer.\n\nRELATED: Washington Lt. Governor skipped annual address over gun safety concerns", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.795254111289978}
+{"content": "The superbug MRSA is believed to have played a role in the death of two babies in a neonatal intensive care unit, in Dublin's Rotunda Hospital.\n\n\nThe two babies passed due to complications of being born prematurely, however a report also indicates that the bug contributed the seriousness of their illnesses. \n\n\nAnother four infants on the unit were affected by MRSA.\n\n\nCaring for the most vulnerable babies, the outbreak of the bug hit the hospital from February to April.\n\n\n\nThe hospital told the Medical Independent:\n\n\n\"Two babies died of complications of prematurity, but [the] MRSA infection would have contributed to the severity of illness.”\n\n\nIt marks the 11th infectious outbreak in the unit during a two year period, reports the Medical Independent.\n\n\nThe unit did receive a €2.1m make-over and they do have enhanced screen systems to detect babies who are affected by infectious diseases or bugs, and who need to be moved to isolation. \n\n\n\nThe face lift to the unit provides a better aesthetic and fire safety.\n\n\nHowever, a spokesperson said it failed to give additional space, which is critical when containing and preventing the spread of any infection.\n\n\nThe risk was identified as the Health Service was dealt an additional setback this week.\n\n\nThe Cabinet signalled that their 10-year Sláintecare plan that funds a health reform will be slowed. \n\n\n\nThe bad news continues for the HSE as they are looking at a possible overspend of €600m-€700m for 2018, reports the Independent.ie\n\n\nWhich is likely to lead to another bail out from the government to make ends meet.\n\n\nAs a consequence, medical staff have highlighted that problems such as A&E overcrowding will continue to worsen, alleged the Independent.ie\n\n\n\n\nHello Mama!\n\n\n\n\nIf you want more info, see our privacy policy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9971287250518799}
+{"content": "logo com4\n\nRock Crusher Forano\n\nSupply forano pan feeder dimensions - rock crusher equipmentorano pan feeder dimensionss a global leading manufacturer of products and services for the mining industry, our company can provide you with advanced, rational solutions for any size-reduction requirements, including quarry, aggregate, grinding production and complete plant plan.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9584774374961853}
+{"content": "\n\nthe remaking of istanbul portrait of an ottoman city in the nineteenth century\n\nZeynep Celik - Documenting Algeria: Architecture as a Colonial Agency Lecture date: 2001-11-12 Throughout its long history as a French colonial city, Algiers was the site of recurrent conflicts between ...\n\nIstanbul during the times of the Ottoman Empire (Colorized) Istanbul, as the center of the Islamic Caliphate, was one of the\n\nthe remaking of the mining industry\n\nUCL ISR Seminar: 'Remaking the Mining Industry' The emergence of China as a major economic power in the first decade of the millennium prompted the biggest commodity boom ...\n\nWhat are the key issues for the mining industry looking forward? In his book \"The Remaking of the Mining Industry\", David Humphrey highlights", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5509936809539795}
+{"content": "Sheikh Muslim Bhanji\n\nSince the advent of Islam and the revelation of the Qur’an in the early years of the seventh century AD, the Muslim Holy Book has been the subject of many extensive analytical studies. The focus of the great majority of these studies has been the theological and legislative aspects of the Holy Book, for the Qur’an provides Muslims with detailed guidance on their everyday problems. Together with the sayings, actions, and recommendations of Prophet Muhammad (saws), the Qur’an has been the ultimate source of legal authority for Muslims over the past fourteen centuries.\n\nMuslim scholars have also painstakingly examined, analyzed and interpreted the various verses of the Holy Book, detailing the requirements the Qur’an imposes on Muslims in order for them to achieve spiritual purity. Thus, in addition to its legislative and theological value, the Qur’an has also served as a source of spiritual guidance for the followers of Islam.\n\nHoly Quran is a complete code of life\n\nHowever, we can not claim that the Central Theme of the Holy Quran is only legislation and spirituality; as human life is more complex and multi-dimensional. Since Islam is a complete way of human life and Quran being its source of guidance, to ascribe the Quran to be just the book of legislation and spirituality only will be misleading, because the Qur’an has dealt with a vast range of subjects.\n\nContrary to the opinion of some people who consider the Holy Quran to be of spiritual benefit only, or to be confined to worship, prayers and morals, we should point out that ony one-twelfth (500 verses) relates to problems of Jurisprudence; while the larger part of it deals with matters pertaining to various issues including social, political, administrative, historical, cultural, faith and other related matters.\n\nAmong the recurring themes of the Qur’an is about the universe itself and its Creator. Another theme treated by the Qur’an is the purpose of the universe and its creation. Among the other general issues dealt by the Qur’an is the question about human being: Is man a despicable creature, or a personality with nobility and dignity etc.?\n\nThe other subject dealt with in the Qur’an is the issue of human society: Is the society considered to be primary and the individual as secondary, or whether it subordinates the society to the individual? Are societies, according to the Qur’an, subject to laws governing their life and death, their rise and decline, or are these conditions applicable to individuals alone?\n\nThe Qur’an deals with numerous other issues. One of them is the point of view of the Qur’an about itself. The other issue is related to the Prophet (saww) and its manner of introducing and addressing him. Another issue is its definition of a believer (mu’min) and his characteristics and so on.\n\nFurthermore, each of these general issues possesses various branches and divisions. For example, when discussing mankind and its situation, it is natural to speak about morality. Or, when speaking about society, the problem of human relationships also unavoidably enters the discussion. The same is true of such notions as “enjoining good and forbidding evil,” and the problem of social classes.\n\nNow the question is: What is then the Quran’s general theme? If pondered upon the multifaceted contents inside the Quran, one can safely reach to the conclusion that the central theme and aim pursued by the Quran is the ‘training of the human being’ as a being conscious of his duties. The main aim of the Quran is therefore to reinforce and accelerate the spiritual ascension, together with all the qualities of human being, toward a state of true loftiness and the dignity of which the human being is worthy.\n\nIn another words, we can say that the main purpose of Quran is to expound truths that are relevant to the ‘life of the human being’ and the exaltation of his being and conducive to his attaining a life of true happiness.\n\nImam Amirul Mu’miniin Ali bin Abitalib (as) narrated the following dua, from which we can derive very clearly that the Holy Quran is the ‘chart of life for man’. He prayed: “O Allah! expand my breast with Quran, actuate my body with Quran, enlighten my sight with Quran, liberate my tongue by Quran, and help me to mould my life according to Quran, so long as You make me live”.\n\n\nmore post like this", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6760281324386597}
+{"content": "Skip to main content\n\nThe Meaning of IT\n\nWhat does the IT in ITIL® stand for? This question may seem easy to answer. The IT stands for “information technology”. But what does that really mean? Is there more than one way to answer the question of what the IT in ITIL® means? I believe there are more than one context or meaning for IT and we must be aware of the distinct meanings. Let’s take a look at some of the ideas or concepts behind IT.\n\n· IT as “information technology”: This most basic use of IT refers to the physical and technological pieces and components made up of electronics and operating/machine software. E.g. A desktop computer is IT as “information technology”.\n\n· IT as “management information systems (MIS)”: Computerized components that are used to manage, control and govern information used to run a business or organization. E.g. A customer relationship management system is IT as “MIS”.\n\n· IT as “collection of applications and infrastructure”: This umbrella use of IT encompasses anything technological or computerized regardless of its usage or its nature. E.g. Cloud computing is IT as “collection of applications and infrastructure”.\n\n· IT as “place”: This use of IT refers to the location where IT management, control and governance occur. E.g. A data center is IT as “place”.\n\n· IT as “organization”: This logical use of IT represents the “department” of people who create, deliver, manage, control and govern “information technology” and “management information systems”. The IT folks are IT as “organization”.\nMany times I have run across individuals and organizations where the use of the term IT or “information technology” has become confused or misused. This leads to misunderstandings, poor decision making and unclear roles and responsibilities. ITIL® encourages us to clarify our terminology and use it in its proper context.\nSo let us look at an example. One of the most confused uses of IT is that of IT as “organization”. Unfortunately there is no clear boundary or standard as to what makes up an “IT Department”. Some companies include all IT related work: projects, application development, infrastructure management, support and many other areas. Some companies take a more narrow view and only include the back-end operational activities of supporting infrastructure and operating systems. Business application development, support and management are not included.\nThis lack of consistency in definition and usage leads to issues when trying to apply ITIL® and other best practices. Does ITIL® cover application development, if that is not part of an “IT Department”? Does ITIL deal with strategies that are related to outside of a narrowly defined “IT Department”? Does requirements gathering and design belong “inside” or “outside” an “IT Department”?\nITIL® itself does not necessarily provide clear answers to these questions. ITIL® does provide guidance that will lead an organization to become more consistent and comprehensive with its usage and definition of terms like “information technology”. If your organization has not undertaken to clarify basic terms like “information technology” it may be interesting to see different definitions based on different perspectives. The benefits and value will reveal themselves in the long run.\n\n\nPopular posts from this blog\n\n\n\nRoles and Responsibilities:\n\nHow Does ITIL Help in the Management of the SDLC?\n\n\nIncidents when a Defect is Involved\n\nThanks, René W.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.746208667755127}
+{"content": "Clinical Trials\n\n\nClinical trials are experiments or observations done in clinical research. Such prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants are designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietary choices, dietary supplements, and medical devices) and known interventions that warrant further study and comparison. Clinical trials generate data on safety and efficacy. They are conducted only after they have received health authority/ethics committee approval in the country where approval of the therapy is sought. These authorities are responsible for vetting the risk/benefit ratio of the trial – their approval does not mean that the therapy is 'safe' or effective, only that the trial may be conducted.\n\nDepending on product type and development stage, investigators initially enroll volunteers or patients into small pilot studies, and subsequently conduct progressively larger scale comparative studies. Clinical trials can vary in size and cost, and they can involve a single research center or multiple centers, in one country or in multiple countries. Clinical study design aims to ensure the scientific validity and reproducibility of the results.\n\nCosts for clinical trials can range into the billions of dollars per approved drug. The sponsor may be a governmental organization or a pharmaceutical, biotechnology or medical device company. Certain functions necessary to the trial, such as monitoring and lab work, may be managed by an outsourced partner, such as a contract research organization or a central laboratory.\n\nOnly 10 percent of all drugs started in human clinical trials become approved drugs\n\n\nTrials of drugs\n\nSome clinical trials involve healthy subjects with no pre-existing medical conditions. Other clinical trials pertain to patients with specific health conditions who are willing to try an experimental treatment.\n\nWhen participants are healthy volunteers who receive financial incentives, the goals are different than when the participants are sick. During dosing periods, study subjects typically remain under supervision for one to 40 nights.\n\n\nOn a specific kind of patient, for example, a patient who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease\n\nAt varying dosages, for example, a 10 milligram dose instead of a 5 milligram dose\n\nFor a new indication\n\nEvaluation for improved efficacy in treating a patient's condition as compared to the standard therapy for that condition\n\nEvaluation of the study drug or device relative to two or more already approved/common interventions for that condition, for example, device A versus device B, or therapy A versus therapy B)\n\nWhile most clinical trials test one alternative to the novel intervention, some expand to three or four and may include a placebo.\n\nExcept for small, single-location trials, the design and objectives are specified in a document called a clinical trial protocol. The protocol is the trial's \"operating manual\" and ensures that all researchers perform the trial in the same way on similar subjects and that the data is comparable across all subjects.\n\n\nThe most common clinical trials evaluate new pharmaceutical products, medical devices (such as a new catheter), biologics, psychological therapies, or other interventions. Clinical trials may be required before a national regulatory authority approves marketing of the innovation.\n\nTrials of devices\n\nSimilarly to drugs, manufacturers of medical devices in the United States are required to conduct clinical trials for premarket approval. Device trials may compare a new device to an established therapy, or may compare similar devices to each other. An example of the former in the field of vascular surgery is the Open versus Endovascular Repair (OVER trial) for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, which compared the older open aortic repair technique to the newer endovascular aneurysm repair device. An example of the latter is clinical trials on mechanical devices used in the management of adult female urinary incontinence.\n\nTrials of procedures\n\nSimilarly to drugs, medical or surgical procedures may be subjected to clinical trials, such as case-controlled studies for surgical interventions.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6210181713104248}
+{"content": "Bell and Oak Leather Goods\n\nThoughts on Mindful Consumption\n\nBell and Oak Leather Goods\nBell and Oak Leather Goods\n\nI read a really interesting essay by Chris Bowler: On Mindfulness and Quality. He provoked my thinking.\n\nI don’t like to think of myself as materialistic, though I’m certain I’m more materialistic than I would care to admit. I’ve always, since the days of my youth, preferred to do without “stuff” until I could have something I felt was of quality, something with the earmarks of craftsmanship or was on the cutting edge. My grandmother, who never said a harsh word in her life, once said of young little me, “You have high ideas.” She did not mean this as a complement.\n\nColor Jacket Tie Shirt Handkerchief But I do, in fact, have a reverence for quality, for craftsmanship, for those material things we own which have stood the test of time and become almost like good friends. Assuming my grandmother was right, that I was a bit of a snob despite my very humble beginnings, I never gave much thought about why I have had the notion that I would sincerely prefer to do without than to embrace 2nd or 3rd (or even worse) best into my sense of living life.\n\nFrom time to time on my blog I’ve blogged titles that have danced around this theme with respect to style and fashion: Vintage, Masculine, and Classic. But why do some material things resonate with me? What imbues an object with a sense of value and quality?\n\nReading Chris Bowler’s article was one of those “That’s it. That’s exactly it!” moments. He brings conscious words to my subconscious reverence for things of quality. I liberally quote from his essay:\n\nQuality items not only endure, they endear. … To buy cheap is to buy often.\n\nBut how do mere things endear themselves to us. Certainly, a thing isn’t actively “doing” anything to us as things have no conscious intent. Chris speaks of 4 factors that lead to our attachment to material things:\n\n 1. Efficacy: A tool that enables you to perform a job with less friction than an alternative is worth your time–and money.\n 3. Quality\n\nMetal ScissorsWow. That last point is well taken. It’s why I prefer Apple devices. While keeping things working for me, rather than my working to maintain the things, is a challenge with anything as sophisticated as a digital tool, Apple products have allowed me to keep a better balance between maintaining the tool and accomplishing with the tool.\n\nAnd often, with digital tools, we don’t need more apps, we need a deeper understanding of the ones we have. We need to avoid using the tool as a substitute for skill development, creativity, and deeper thinking.\n\nBut his ideas don’t just apply to digital tools. His ideas even apply to clothes, clothes that become good friends because of the life experiences we enjoyed in them, their comforting textures, warmth, sense of style. Steve has always had a very difficult time parting with these old friends. He is beautifully sentimental!\n\nWe all consume. We simple must in order to survive. But we can have a better quality of life when we mindfully consume with these 4 factors at the forefront of our thinking when purchasing. Regrettably, at the heart of American culture is the notion that we must consume more and more to find worth and happiness. We are indeed a gluttonous bunch. But I believe that we can have less when we choose to have better, and that in so doing, we actually have more of what matters most in the end.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9783373475074768}
+{"content": "\n\n\nDiscussions on how to use data to drive important employee-oriented activities such as career pathing, maintaining organizational culture, and managing people and teams.\n\nDiscussion List", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9896827340126038}
+{"content": "London fog: a century of pollution and mortality, 1866-1965\n\nby Walker Hanlon (UCLA)\n\nPhotogravure by Donald Macleish from Wonderful London by St John Adcock, 1927. Available at <;\n\nFor more than a century, London struggled with some of the worst air pollution on earth. But how much did air pollution affect health in London? How did these effects change as the city developed? Can London’s long experience teach us lessons that are relevant for modern cities, from Beijing to New Delhi, that are currently struggling with their own air pollution problems?\n\nTo answer these questions, I study the effects of air pollution in London across a full century from 1866 to 1965. Using new data, I show that air pollution was a major contributor to mortality in London during this century – accounting for at least one out of every 200 deaths during this century.\n\nAs London developed, the impact of air pollution changed. In the nineteenth century, Londoners suffered from a range of infectious diseases, including respiratory diseases like measles and tuberculosis. I show that being exposed to high levels of air pollution made these diseases deadlier, while the presence of these diseases made air pollution more harmful. As a result, when public health and medical improvements reduced the prevalence of these infectious diseases, they also lowered the mortality cost of pollution exposure.\n\nThis finding has implications for modern developing countries. It tells us that air pollution is likely to be more deadly in the developing world, but also that investments that improve health in other ways can lower the health costs of pollution exposure.\n\nAn important challenge in studying air pollution in the past is that direct pollution measures were not collected in a consistent way until the mid-twentieth century. To overcome this challenge, this study takes advantage of London’s famous fog events, which trapped pollution in the city and substantially increased exposure levels.\n\nWhile some famous fog events are well known – such as the Great Fog of 1952 or the Cattle Show Fog of 1873, which killed the Queen’s prize bull – London experienced hundreds of lesser-known events over the century I study. By reading weather reports from the Greenwich Observatory covering over 26,000 days, we identified every day in which heavy fog occurred.\n\nTo study how these fog events affected health, I collected detailed new mortality data describing deaths in London at the weekly level. Digitised from original sources, and covering over 350,000 observations, this new data set opens the door to a more detailed analysis of London’s mortality experience than has previously been possible.\n\nThese new mortality data allow me to analyse the effects of air pollution from a variety of different angles. I provide new evidence on how the effects of air pollution varied across age groups, how the effect on different age groups evolved over time, how pollution interacted with infectious diseases and other causes of death, etc. This enriches our understanding of London’s history while opening up a range of new possibilities for studying the impact of air pollution over the long run.\n\nMedieval origins of Spain’s economic geography\n\nThe frontier of medieval warfare between Christian and Muslim armies in southern Spain provides a surprisingly powerful explanation of current low-density settlement patterns in those regions. This is the central finding of research by Daniel Oto-Peralías (University of Saint-Andrews), recently presented at the Royal Economic Society’s annual conference in March 2018.\n\n His study notes that Southern Spain is one of the most deserted areas in Europe in terms of population density, only surpassed by parts of Iceland and the northern part of Scandinavia. It turns out that this outcome has roots going back to medieval times when Spain’s southern plateau was a battlefield between Christian and Muslim armies.\n\nThe study documents that Spain stands out in Europe with an anomalous settlement pattern characterised by a very low density in its southern half. Among the ten European regions with the lowest settlement density, six are from southern Spain (while the other four are from Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland).\n\n\nOn average only 29.8% of 10km2 grid cells are inhabited in southern Spain, which is a much lower percentage than in the rest of Europe (with an average of 74.4%). Extreme geographical and climatic conditions do not seem to be the reason for this low settlement density, which the author refers to as ‘Spanish anomaly’.\n\nAfter ruling out geography as the main explanatory factor for the ‘Spanish anomaly’, the research investigates its historical roots by focusing on the Middle Ages, when the territory was retaken by the Christian kingdoms from Muslim rule.\n\nThe hypothesis is that the region’s character as a militarily insecure frontier conditioned the colonisation of the territory, which is tested by taking advantage of the geographical discontinuity in military insecurity created by the Tagus River in central Spain. Historical ‘accidents’ made the colonisation of the area south of the Tagus River very different from colonisation north of it.\n\nThe invasions of North Africa’s Almoravid and Almohad empires converted the territory south of the Tagus into a battlefield for a century and a half, this river being a natural defensive border. Continuous warfare and insecurity heavily conditioned the nature of the colonisation process in this frontier region, which was characterised by the leading role of the military orders as agents of colonisation, scarcity of population and a livestock-oriented economy. It resulted in the prominence of castles and the absence of villages, and consequently, a spatial distribution of the population characterised by a very low density of settlements.\n\nThe empirical analysis reveals a large difference in settlement density across the River Tagus, whereas there are no differences in geographical and climatic variables across it. In addition, it is shown that the discontinuity in settlement density already existed in the 16th and 18th centuries, and is not therefore the result of migration movements and urban developments taking place recently. Preliminary evidence also indicates that the territory exposed to the medieval ranching frontier is relatively poorer today.\n\nThus, the study shows that historical frontiers can decisively shape the economic geography of countries. Using Medieval Spain as a case study, it illustrates how the exposure to warfare and insecurity – typical in medieval frontiers– creates incentives for a militarised colonisation based on a few fortified settlements and a livestock-oriented economy, conditioning the occupation of a territory to such an extent to convert it into one of the most deserted areas in Europe. Given the ubiquity of frontiers in history, the mechanisms underlined in the analysis are of general interest and may operate in other contexts.\n\nEFFECTS OF COAL-BASED AIR POLLUTION ON MORTALITY RATES: New evidence from nineteenth century Britain\n\nSamuel Griffiths (1873) The Black Country in the 1870s. In Griffiths’ Guide to the iron trade of Great Britain.\n\nIndustrialised cities in mid-nineteenth century Britain probably suffered from similar levels of air pollution as urban centres in China and India do today. What’s more, the damage to health caused by the burning of coal was very high, reducing life expectancy by more than 5% in the most polluted cities like Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham. It was also responsible for a significant proportion of the higher mortality rates in British cities compared with rural parts of the country.\n\n These are among the findings of new research by Brian Beach (College of William & Mary) and Walker Hanlon (NYU Stern School of Business), which is published in the Economic Journal. Their study shows the potential value of history for providing insights into the long-run consequences of air pollution.\n\nFrom Beijing to Delhi and Mexico City to Jakarta, cities across the world struggle with high levels of air pollution. To what extent does severe air pollution affect health and broader economic development for these cities? While future academics will almost surely debate this question, assessing the long-run consequences of air pollution for modern cities will not be possible for decades.\n\nBut severe air pollution is not a new phenomenon; Britain’s industrial cities of the nineteenth century, for example, also faced very high levels of air pollution. Because of this, researchers argue that history has the potential to provide valuable insights into the long-run consequences of air pollution.\n\nOne challenge in studying historical air pollution is that direct pollution measures are largely unavailable before the mid-twentieth century. This study shows how historical pollution levels in England and Wales can be inferred by combining data on the industrial composition of employment in local areas in 1851 with information on the amount of coal used per worker in each industry.\n\nThis makes it possible to estimate the amount of coal used in over 581 districts covering all of England and Wales. Because coal was by far the most important pollutant in Britain in the nineteenth century (as well as much of the twentieth century), this provides a way of approximating local industrial pollution emission levels.\n\nThe results are consistent with what historical sources suggest: the researchers find high levels of coal use in a broad swath of towns stretching from Lancashire and the West Riding down into Staffordshire, as well as in the areas around Newcastle, Cardiff and Birmingham.\n\nBy comparing measures of local coal-based pollution to mortality data, the study shows that air pollution was a major contributor to mortality in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. In the most polluted locations – places like Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham – the results show that air pollution resulting from industrial coal use reduced life expectancy by more than 5%.\n\nOne potential concern is that locations with more industrial coal use could have had higher mortality rates for other reasons. For example, people living in these industrial areas could have been poorer, infectious disease may have been more common or jobs may have been more dangerous.\n\nThe researchers deal with this concern by looking at how coal use in some parts of the country affected mortality in other areas that were, given the predominant wind direction, typically downwind. They show that locations which were just downwind of major coal-using areas had higher mortality rates than otherwise similar locations which were just upwind of these areas.\n\nThese results help to explain why cities in the nineteenth century were much less healthy than more rural areas – the so-called urban mortality penalty. Most existing work argues that the high mortality rates observed in British cities in the nineteenth century were due to the impact of infectious diseases, bad water and unclean food.\n\nThe new results show that in fact about one third of the higher mortality rate in cities in the nineteenth century was due to exposure to high levels of air pollution due to the burning of coal by industry.\n\nIn addition to assessing the effects of coal use on mortality, the researchers use these effects to back out very rough estimates of historical particulate pollution levels. Their estimates indicate that by the mid-nineteenth century, industrialised cities in Britain were probably as polluted as industrial cities in places like China and India are today.\n\nThese findings shed new light on the impact of air pollution in nineteenth century Britain and lay the groundwork for further research analysing the long-run effects of air pollution in cities.\n\n\nTo contact the authors: Brian Beach (; Walker Hanlon (\n\nCameralism in Practice. State Administration and Economy in Early Modern Europe\n\nOn Marten Seppel, Keith Tribe (eds.) Cameralism in Practice. State Administration and Economy in Early Modern Europe, Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge 2017 (ISBN 978 1 78327 212 9)\n\n\nThere has been a growing interest in cameralism over the last five to ten years, but it has been claimed that the only scholarly book-length treatment of cameralism in English was a 1909 work by Albion Small.\n\nFortunately, things are changing: the annual conferences of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought are dominated by young French and Italian scholars; the developing field of intellectual history has upgraded the quality of work done in the history of economics; and from the later 1970s onwards the history of eighteenth century political thought has emerged as a very sophisticated field, within which the study of cameralism no longer seems such a minority interest. If there is a “logic” it could be described as a literature of economic management. Thought about this way, it then becomes more obvious quite why it is so hard to define, since there is no strictly equivalent body of writing in contemporary languages such as English and French. It has become more and more clear (as argued also our collection) that besides Germany and Austria, cameralist literature on state and economy also had great influence in Sweden, Russia, Denmark and even Portugal.\n\nThe present collection focuses on the practices of cameralism. In the 1930s August Wolfgang Gerloff argued that eighteenth-century cameral science was “die Lehre von der Staatspraxis, die Lehre von der praktischen Politik” (a doctrine directed to state practice, to practical politics). However, Andre Wakefield writes that cameralism was a kind of fantasy fiction or even a utopian theory, rather than any particular plan that could be followed by administration. He believes that cameralist authors did realise that their teaching was too theoretical.\n\nOne of the main goals of our book was to bring out the innovative tendencies associated with cameralist discourse in the eighteenth century. This objective raised intriguing questions such as: did cameralism change the world? Or was there a “cameralist revolution”?\n\nHowever, it may be too easy to assimilate ideas of “progress” to a present-centred history lacking an understanding of past historical commentary and argument. While it would be wrong to suggest that cameralism in some way changed the world, what we can say is that it changed the language with which the world was conceived. Whatever the outcome of cameralist “practice”, by the later part of the eighteenth century there was a new language of state administration that became transformed into the financial sciences of the nineteenth century, and thence became part of the language of public administration. It gave “practitioners” a way of talking to each other about the way in which they conducted their affairs.\n\nWhat the study of cameralist literature has brought to light is the extent of our ignorance about early modern Europe, its politics and administration, its economy and society. The sheer volume of material that recent work has revealed compels us to think about new ways of exploring networks of activity and argument. Rosenberg’s work on Prussia remains important, but today it would not be appropriate to write a history of bureaucratic rule without examining the language of administration. The key to that lies in the study of cameralist literature and its language, and in a new approach to the work of administration in the European states of the eighteenth century. As I suggest above, my problem with “mercantilism” is that it presents a grid that obscures from us both diversity and convergence in early modern economic literature. Insofar as our book on cameralism and administration shows the sheer diversity of this material, I hope that it provides encouragement to others to explore this literature more systematically than has ever before been attempted.\n\n\nOffer ends on 2nd December. Any queries please email\n\n\n\n\nLegacies of inequality: the case of Brazil\n\nby Evan Wigton-Jones (University of California, Riverside)\n\nThe Rio Team. In Kidder, D.P., Brazil and the Brazilians : portrayed in historical and descriptive sketches, Philadelphia 1857. Available at\n\n\n Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in issues of economic inequality. This research offers a contribution to this discussion by analysing the effects of inequality within Brazil.\n\nFirstly, it shows that the climate is a key determinant of long-run inequality in Brazilian context. It uses data from a national census conducted in 1920 to show that warmer regions with high rainfall were characterised by plantation economies, with a wealthy agricultural elite and a large underclass of poor labourers. In contrast, cooler and drier areas were conducive to smaller family farms, and hence resulted in a more equitable society.\n\nThe study then uses information from the 2000 census to show that this local inequality has persisted for generations: areas that were historically unequal in 1920 are generally unequal today as well.\n\nFinally, the research shows that greater long-term inequality inhibits regional development. It also shows evidence that inequality affects local governance, as municipal spending on health, education and welfare is significantly lower in more economically unequal areas.\n\nTo show the climate’s influence on local inequality, the study created an index that quantifies the relative suitability of land for plantation agricultural production. The metric is based on the temperature and precipitation requirements of different crops that are uniquely plantation or smallholder in their method of production. For example, sugarcane has historically been produced on large plantations, while wheat was often cultivated on small farms.\n\nThe research then shows that localities with a favourable climate for plantation agriculture contained a more unequal distribution of land. To measure the concentration of land ownership, it calculates a Gini index – a standard measure of inequality that ranges from 0 (perfect equality) to 100 (one individual holds all land).\n\nAs Brazil’s economy was predominantly agrarian in 1920, this distribution of land is a good proxy for that of income and wealth. The research combines this with data on municipal spending in the 1920s to show that local governments with higher land inequality spent less on education, health, public goods and public electricity. For example, a one unit increase in the Gini index is associated with a .76 percentage point decline in such spending.\n\nThe effects of this inequality have ramifications for contemporary socio-economic welfare in Brazil. Not only has local inequality persisted throughout the twentieth century, but it has also hindered present-day municipal development. Here it measures local development using the municipal-level human development index (HDI) – a metric that accounts for education, public health and income – for the year 2000.\n\nIt shows that historically unequal areas score much lower on the HDI: a one unit increase in 1920 land inequality is associated with a reduction of .38 points in this index (which, like the Gini index, is measured on a scale from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating greater development).\n\nFurthermore, the legacies of historical inequality are still manifest in contemporary local governance: a one unit increase in historical inequality is associated with a .49 percentage point decrease in municipal-level welfare spending for the year 2000.\n\nThese findings suggest several important conclusions:\n\n • First, the environment may play an important role in determining inequality and long-term development, even within countries.\n • Second, economic disparities can persist for generations.\n • Lastly, inequality can have a corrosive effect on welfare and governance, even at a local level.\n\nIt should be noted, however, that this study has focused on inequality within Brazil. The extent to which these findings can be generalised to other settings requires further study.\n\nFrance’s Nineteenth Century Wine Crisis: the impact on crime rates\n\nStreet Wine Merchant, France 19th century. From Wikimedia Commons\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFrom convergence to divergence: Portuguese demography and economic growth, 1500-1850\n\nby Nuno Palma (University of Groningen) and Jaime Reis (ICS, Universidade de Lisboa)\n\nWhen did Portugal’s economy diverge from the European core? This paper constructs the first time-series for Portugal’s per capita GDP for 1500-1850, drawing on a new and extensive database. Starting around 1550 there was a highly persistent upward trend on per capita income, which accelerated after 1700 and peaked 50 years later. At that point, per capita incomes were high by European standards. Portuguese per capita GDP was about as high as that of Britain, Italy and the Netherlands, and higher than that of France, Spain, Germany and Sweden. But as the second half of the eighteenth century unfolded, a phase of economic decline was initiated.\n\n\nThroughout 1550-1750, the population did not catch up with the growth that resulted from increasing opportunities in the colonies and in exports, and from the introduction of highly productive crops resulting from the Columbian exchange, notably maize. The colonial empire also offered opportunities to migrate. But as the second half of the eighteenth century advanced, these sources of growth were becoming increasingly depleted and the decline of Brazilian gold remittances coincided with the beginning of a phase of economic decline. By the late eighteenth century almost all recent per capita GDP and real wage gains had been lost, and their level had become considerably lower than those of Britain and the Netherlands, although still not low by continental standards. As the right conditions were not in place for Portugal to industrialize in the nineteenth century, the country was left behind relatively to the continental European economies that did. Portugal would not experience modern economic growth until mid-twentieth century.\n\nClick here for the full paper", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.996073305606842}
+{"content": "Since 2002, Christ United Methodist Church has sponsored and built a Habitat home for a family in our community every two years in both Bryan and College Station. This weekend, Christ UMC will be raising the walls on their 9th Habitat home for the Villeda family! Here is a little bit about the Villeda family.\n\nEduardo and Jessica Villeda focus on providing their four children with all the care and love they deserve. Eduardo works hard to provide for his family, consistently working overtime as a concrete finisher for a local paving company. Jessica is the primary caregiver for their children, Brallan (12), Mario (10), Rosavelia (8) and Eduardo Jr. (1). Together, they envision providing a bright future for their family.\n\nOne goal they are working toward is providing a safe and decent home for their children to grow up in. For the past four years, the family of six has been living in a two-bedroom trailer home. Eduardo and Jessica share their bedroom with Rosavelia and baby Eduardo Jr., and the boys Brallan and Mario share the other. Not only is their living space cramped, the trailer home also has faulty electric wiring, mold and mildew around windows and on walls, water damage on ceilings, walls and floors and uneven flooring. They were overjoyed when they found out they had been accepted into Bryan/College Station Habitat for Humanity’s homebuyer program after applying a second time.\n\nWith their hard-earned income and their family size, Eduardo and Jessica qualify for a 4bed/2bath home! Their new home will help provide them with the much-needed space and safety that the family should have. Since their acceptance into the program the family has already completed almost 300 sweat equity hours, and they look forward to completing the 500 total hours alongside community volunteers to build their very own home!\n\nFollow the progress of the Villeda build on Christ UMC Habitat Mission Partnership Facebook page @cumchabitat for the latest updates and pictures!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9850407242774963}
+{"content": "Human Rights\n\nthe world is made up of many different countries cultures and people’s yet despite all these differences they all have one important thing in common all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights this is what it says in the very first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10th 1948 the notion of human rights has become one of the most important in the history of humankind but what exactly are human rights who is responsible for protecting them and do they really apply to all people we describe human rights as those rights which apply to every single person simply because he or she is a human being they are innate human rights apply to every person in every part of the world without exception they are therefore universal they also apply equally to everyone regardless of race religion gender sexual orientation skin color age or other features that may distinguish one person from another human rights are part of international law the UN Charter of 1946 already contained important passages on the meaning and protection of human rights the first proper international agreement was the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 in 1966 the UN adopted two more international covenants one on Civil and Political Rights and the other on economic social and cultural rights these declarations are collectively known as the International bill of Human Rights and are the most important legal basis for human rights in addition there is a series of UN conventions for example the Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees the Convention on the Rights of the Child the Convention Against Torture or the UN Convention on the Rights of persons with disabilities but what are the specific human rights anchor these conventions human rights are often divided into three generations or dimensions the first dimension the classic political and civil liberty rights these include the right to life and physical integrity a ban on slavery and forced labor protection from torture freedom of thought conscience and religion a comprehensive ban on discrimination and the right to vote the second dimension the economic social and cultural human rights these include the right to work into a decent wage the right to form trade unions equality between men and women the protection of families pregnant women mothers and children the right to a decent standard of living including the right to adequate food the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health the right to education and the right to participate in cultural life the third dimension deals with the rights of groups it includes the right to self-determination the right to development the right to a clean environment and the right to peace the principle of the indivisibility of human rights is important that means none of the rights listed in the political economic social and cultural Human Rights may have precedence over the others human rights can only be consummated when all facets work together the exercise civil and political rights depends on the safeguarding of economic social and cultural rights and vice versa and who exactly has the job of implementing and upholding human rights countries carry the main responsibilities they are obliged to refrain from any action that would violate human rights must protect them from violation and create the necessary conditions for people to fully exercise their human rights the UN central body is the Human Rights Council a body of 47 countries based in Geneva it reviews the situation on Human Rights on a regular basis in all of the UN member states it can also send independent experts to individual countries the problem there are many countries on the council which do not themselves uphold human rights the UN Security Council concerns itself particularly with the protection of human rights during Wars and armed conflicts for example it works to end the recruitment of child soldiers the High Commissioner for Human Rights is responsible for coordinating the human rights work of the entire UN body she has local offices in all parts of the world and can send Human Rights experts to UN peace missions the International Criminal Court in The Hague with its establishment in 1998 the world has an authority capable of investigating and passing sentence on particularly grave breaches of human rights genocide war crimes and crimes against humanity it’s powers are still limited now it lacks the support of important countries like the USA and China but a crucial step has been taken war criminals can no longer commit their transgressions with impunity along with the Global Institutes of the UN there are various regional Human Rights agreements and bodies the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg the African Charter on Human and people’s rights under the American Convention on Human Rights civil society has an especially important role to play nongovernmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch monitor the observance of Human Rights in places all over the world they draw attention to abuses and exert pressure on governments through public campaigns they also play an important role in the ongoing development of the legal basis for human rights the creation of independent National Institutes for Human Rights which have an indispensable role as watchdogs is also important are there any controversial aspects about human rights yes there are two main points of contention issue number one the universal nature of human rights the argument the notion of human rights originates in the West and cannot simply be transferred to other cultures it is true the development and spread of the notion of human rights carry the marks of cultural developments and traditions but it is also true that no human being wants to be tortured or discriminated against because of her religion or skin color every human being wants to be able to speak his opinion without fear of persecution every human being wants a life of dignity with a roof over her head without having to suffer hunger or thirst all these ideas are included in the notion of the universality of human rights it is important to note that it is frequently countries or groups which are themselves responsible for human rights violations that call this universality into question issue number two Western countries are accused of using human rights as a pretext for military intervention in other countries and of committing human rights abuses themselves it is clear no country is the sole defender of human rights human rights are violated in Western countries too especially following the attacks of 9/11 measures were introduced that compromised human rights the justification the war on terrorism we see that human rights are very particular rights they apply equally to every individual respect for and protection of human rights must be at the heart of government activity since human beings are both the reason for and the object of every policy people do not exist for the state with the state for people the struggle to secure and defend human rights must be continually renewed for we can only secure permanent peace and stability if we respect human rights\n\n\nAdd a Comment\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6823382377624512}
+{"content": "sectional - транскрипция, произношение и перевод онлайн\n\nТранскрипция и произношение слова \"sectional\" в британском и американском вариантах. Подробный перевод и примеры.\n\nsectional / секционный, разборный, звеньевой\nимя прилагательное\ndemountable, collapsible, dismountable, sectional, movable, portable\nимя прилагательное\nof or relating to a section or subdivision of a larger whole.\na sectional championship\nимя существительное\na sofa made in sections that can be used separately as chairs.\nMeanwhile, cowering on the leather sectionals , bewildered parents plead to the camera for a nanny intervention.\nSome eight years down the road, it is important that vocal sectional interests do not blind the community to reforms that are in the public interest.\nSince Southerners stopped fighting the Civil War and joined their conservative brethren in the GOP, sectional differences have become meaningless in America.\nLocal qualifying at more than 100 sites begins May 12, while sectional qualifying at 13 sites is from June 7-8.\nThat does not mean that slavery was irrelevant or insignificant, but without an understanding of the sectional power relationships at stake we can be led to overstate its importance.\nThis flagellate is surrounded by fungal hyphae (thin arrows), which appear in different sectional planes each as a bright central core with surrounding halo.\nFamilies have a permanent base to park their caravans or erect sectional buildings.\nIn the 5th and final round of the sectional play-offs in the women's bowling championships in Port Elizabeth today, they beat East London Club by 19 shots to 15.\nMany different languages were spoken, and a multitude of sectional hatreds were combined in troubled cacophony.\nThe election campaign has highlighted the fracturing of Fijian politics and government institutions along racial, regional and sectional lines.\nThe core of work in higher education cannot be sacrificed for individual or sectional interests.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7619025707244873}
+{"content": "The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, (BBSRC) was established in 1994 as a non-departmental public body which receives its funding from the UK Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills. The objective of the BBSRC is to support scientific institutes and university research departments. Its mission is to promote and support high level basic research, strategic and applied research and to fund postgraduate training in the biological sciences, including animal, plant, environmental and human research.\n\nPolaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon Wiltshire SN2 1UH\n\nSome content from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA\n\nSubscribe to rss feed\n\nWhat can satellite data do for aquaculture?\n\n\"We're shut because of a harmful algal bloom in the waters at the moment. Being shut costs us £25-30,000 a week, and last year we were shut for four months.\"\n\nHow much do you know about Dolly the Sheep?\n\nThis week marked the 20th anniversary of the birth of arguably the most famous sheep that ever chewed grass. Dolly was created at The Roslin Institute, Scotland, which receives long-term strategic funding from BBSRC.\n\nHow can you tell if an animal is happy or sad?\n\nIt's easy to tell when your friends and family are ecstatic or upset. People are human-centric, and hardwired to pick up the physical cues and social signals that indicate relaxed or stressed states.\n\nBee flower choices altered by exposure to pesticides\n\nScientists have shown that low levels of pesticides can impact the foraging behaviour of bumblebees on wild flowers, changing their floral preferences and hindering their ability to learn the skills needed to extract nectar ...\n\nOctocopter! Experimental drone for agricultural research\n\nFollowing the revelation that English Premiership football club Everton FC is using drones to monitor player training sessions, it seems there's nothing these Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) aren't being primed to do: everything ...\n\npage 1 from 10", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8430953621864319}
+{"content": "Congressman's Tale of Two Contributions\n\nOvernight precipitation ices over eastern Nebraska\n\nAmanda Snook, a Fairbury native named Ms. Wheelchair Nebraska, looks to spread message of encouragement\n\nYWCA accepting dresses for upcoming \"Gowns for Good\" event\n\nVolunteers pack over 32,000 meals for starving kids around the world\n\nArmed Kearney man arrested following overnight standoff", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8451439142227173}
+{"content": "Parse CSV with Batch Script\n\nHere’s a basic method of parsing a CSV file using Microsoft Batch.\n\nThe following code will allow me to use all the CSV fields. Let’s suppose the CSV contains the following:\n\nExample CSV\n\nName, Email, Username, Password\nJohn Doe,,jdoe123,secretpassword\nJane Doe,,janeybug1,topsecret\n\nBatch Script\n\n@echo off\nfor /F usebackq tokens=* delims=, %%a in (c:tempusers.csv) do (\necho Name: %%a\necho Email: %%b\necho Username: %%c\necho Password: %%d\n\nOutput from Batch\n\nName: John Doe\nUsername: jdoe123\nPassword: secretpassword\nName: Jane Doe\nUsername: janeybug1\nPassword: topsecret\n\n[stextbox id=info caption=Note]If the CSV file you are working with uses quotes also, then when using the variable, specify %%~a to strip the quotes from the variable. See help for[/stextbox]\n\nIf you are only interested in a few columns, you could use the following for the tokens= specifier in the for loop.\n\n\nThat will only return the 3rd and 4th result based on the , delimiter and in this case it is the username and password. You still use %%a then %%b for your variables.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997379779815674}
+{"content": "Short Loans\n28th Jan 2019 - Written by Martin Bishop\n\nWhy is the number of short term borrowers rising?\n\nOver a million more people took out a short term loan in 2018 in comparison to the year before.\n\nDespite warnings from everyone in the finance sector about Britain heading into a debt hole and advising against getting into spiralling debt, it appears that Britons have decided that taking on more credit is the only way that they can get through day-to-day. \n\nIt's an awful situation. We have run regular blog posts about how piling debt on top of debt is never the answer, but these figures suggest that this is genuinely the only way a lot of people can get through life at the moment.\n\nOver 4 and a half million high-cost loans were taken out in 2016, but this rose significantly to well over 5 million last summer.\n\nStatistics highlight that it is the youngest in our society that is in need the most. Nearly 40 per cent of the people that applied for a fast loan were in the 24-33 age category.\n\nPeople applying for same-day loans is a growing trend and shows how our society is failing to grasp the enormity of the money problems people are facing.\n\nThe rising cost of living alongside sluggish wage growth has meant that people have no option but to take on more credit. Only a change in the economic and social tide will help these people, and that shows no sign of coming about any time soon.\n\nAll people can do is refrain, wherever possible, from entering into any other credit option while ever there are still debts to pay. We can appreciate that it's easier said than done, but it really is the only option. People should be honest about the problems that they are faced with and should seek help so that options can be opened to them that may help ease the pressure.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9946940541267395}
+{"content": "\"The Irish History Podcast\" examines how the Great Hunger started, what the British did or did not do, and how the Irish people resisted.\n\nThe movie \"Black 47\" set in Ireland during the Great Hunger has been doing phenomenally well since it's release in Ireland and on September 28 it will receive a full release in the United States. Ahead of the release Fin Dwyer, the creator of \"The Irish History Podcast\" talks through the history of the Great Irish Famine and the events that lead up to 1847, \"Black 47\".\n\nFind out how the Great Famine started, what the British Government did and didn't do and how Irish people resisted in this enthralling podcast.\n\nRead more: Review: “Black 47” movie is a must-see for Irish Americans who value their history and heritage\n\nDwyer's excellent episode of \"The Irish History Podcast\" came to IrishCentral just the week before the new action thriller movie, \"Black 47\", gets a general release in the United States. The film is set in 1847 Ireland during the height of the Great Famine and stars Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, and Stephen Rea alongside James Frecheville, Freddie Fox and Barry Keoghan.\n\nThe movie, “Black 47,” follows the story of an Irish Ranger, during the worst of the Irish Famine in 1847. The Irish young soldier had been fighting for the British Army abroad but abandons his post to reunite with his family. Despite been hardened by his time on the battlefield he is shocked by the horror he discovers in his ravaged homeland.\n\nPromotional poster for the new movie \"Black 47\".\n\nPromotional poster for the new movie \"Black 47\".\n\nFeeney, the Ranger, played by James Frecheville, finds his mother starved to death and his brother hanged by the brutal hand of the English. With little else to live for he sets a destructive path to avenge his family.\n\nThe movie is getting rave reviews. It was given a full release in Ireland on September 5 and has already topped the €1-million threshold in theaters. Its opening weekend broke records for an Irish film since 2015’s \"Brooklyn,\" which stars Irish actress Saoirse Ronan.\n\nIFC Films will distribute “Black 47” in US cinemas from September 28.\n\n\nRead more: Tale of Turkish Sultan’s help during Irish Famine to become a movie\n\n\nJames Frecheville star of \"Black 47\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9368438124656677}
+{"content": "We need to talk about Lisa\n\nThursday, 03 August 2017 Eve Canavan\n\n** The following contains spoilers for current episodes of Eastenders ** Eve worked with Eastenders on their storyline about Postpartum Psychosis as a media volunteer. However, she feels that the way psychosis is handled in current episodes of the programme has been much less sensitive.\n\nEve (@littlemissevec) gave birth to her son, Joe, six years ago. She uses her experience to raise awareness of postpartum psychosis & improve services.\n\nOver the last week I have been eagerly watching EastEnders, as I had read that a character would experience a mental health condition. I have an interest in this as a couple of years ago I worked extensively with the EastEnders team on a storyline about Stacey Fowler and Postpartum Psychosis, as a real life case study. I struggled with this after my son was born and was delighted when Mind asked me to work with them to inform EastEnders on how to portray the illness realistically and safely, because getting it wrong would have been devastating. \n\nMy experience working on the storyline was brilliant. Initially I was unsure - I had awful visions of the character putting her baby in danger to create drama. However, what was so encouraging was that EastEnders were committed to ensuring they didn't create a storyline that wouldn't reflect the reality of the illness and wouldn't lead the public up a garden path of false and dangerous symptoms. And they did it beautifully. \n\n\"Mental health storylines in mainstream media like soaps are a fantastic opportunity to show people how mental health problems affect us and to reduce the stigma around them.\"\n\nWe know that soaps are dramatic, and at times storylines are enhanced, but that doesn't mean they don't have a social responsibility to reflect the real life symptoms of something as sensitive as a mental health problem. \n\nHowever, this week I have been saddened by the way EastEnders have shown a character suffering from psychotic symptoms. Lisa, an ex-girlfriend of Phil Mitchell, and a character who has not been in the programme for years, returns in dramatic fashion. She is visiting her injured teenage daughter, Louise, in hospital but it quickly elevates into a kidnapping plot with Lisa cast as the villain, putting her needs before the safety of her daughter. It focuses heavily on Lisa not being on her mental health medication. All the other characters talk about how Lisa is \"in a bad place\" and that she is putting her daughter at risk of death.\n\nAs someone who has experienced psychosis, this is an incredibly inaccurate and upsetting portrayal of the symptoms and the effect on those around them. There is so much misunderstanding about what it means to experience psychosis or to be 'psychotic'. People assume the label ‘psychotic’ means dangerous or evil and that simply isn't the case. The media often show people with psychosis behaving in dangerous way when the reality is it's incredibly rare for people with a psychosis diagnosis to hurt someone else. \n\nI feel that the current storyline is a stigmatizing and unrealistic portrayal of psychosis - people with psychosis don't really wander around on a daily basis smashing people over the head and denying their children life-saving medication.\n\nPsychosis can make you hallucinate, it can make you have racing thoughts and mania, it can make your mind flip from one thought to another. What it doesn't do is immediately make you want to put your child in danger, which is exactly what the character Lisa is shown to be doing. One of the things that was so good about the postpartum psychosis storyline was that it showed how much Stacey loved her baby.\n\nIt seems to me they have brought the character Lisa back just to create drama, and then to validate her bad behaviour, they have dumped a psychosis label on her- she has been labelled with this just to explain her actions. Which would be fine if they were showing real psychosis symptoms and behaviours, but I feel they aren’t. \n\nIt particularly saddens me that this portrayal is of a mother. As a peer supporter for mums with mental health issues, the Stacey storyline was almost like a brilliant public service campaign to show that you won't actively endanger your child if you are struggling with mental health. You may have upsetting symptoms, and receive extra support and interactions to assist in your recovery, but it's incredibly rare for a mother to harm their child.\n\n\"Real people watch soaps and we owe it to the viewers to portray real symptoms as the positive effect of this can be so enlightening.\"\n\nThere was a great quote on Twitter during the postpartum psychosis storyline: \"the incredible power of soaps as an agent of socialization. Postpartum Psychosis in our living rooms\". Psychosis, an illness feared for negative reasons built up by the media, was being played into the homes of millions in real time. It focused on many different aspects - the symptoms, the treatment and the recovery, and great care was taken to ensure this was portrayed responsibly and accurately. \n\nThe current storyline is planting an idea into viewers’ heads that people with psychosis are a danger to others, and that irresponsible actions, such as denying a child healthcare, are related to psychotic symptoms. It in no way is attempting to show how psychosis is a manageable condition, and is just perpetuating myths. I’ve been horrified to see some of the reaction on Twitter such as ‘When did Lisa go doolally’ and ‘Lisa from EastEnders is an absolute fruitloop’. \n\nI can't state enough how much these episodes have saddened me and how let down I feel for those of us who suffer from a mental health condition. I feel almost that we are being used in a quick attempt to make drama and gain viewers. It’s so disappointing considering the care and accuracy taken in the Stacey storyline. I really hope that EastEnders will return to their careful, considered and well researched approach when next exploring the subject of mental health. \n\nWe have lots of information and tips regarding Psychosis and Postpartum Psychosis on our site.\n\nRead about types of mental health problems\n\nRelated Topics\n\nPsychotic experiences\n\nShare this story\n\nInformation & support\n\n\nShare your story with others\n\n\n\narrow_upwardBack to Top", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9006063938140869}
+{"content": "The Product Interview Question Answered: How would You Prioritize Product Features?\n\nIf you’ve made it all the way to getting the interview, you know you’re going to need to talk about prioritizing features and explain how it can be done. Here’s an example of how your answer can be broken down.\n\nThe Product Question – “How would you prioritize features?\n\nProduct Interview Question\n\n\nIt’s important to show that you can take in information and make a decision that is best overall for the company, your team and the product. This also demonstrates your ability to develop a strategy that flows with your product development and not against it. This means knowing what needs to be moved to the front and when to remove a particular feature from the roadmap.\n\nYou’ll want to discuss 3 major variables.\n\n1.How easy is it to do?\n\nIs it something that can be developed and implemented and tested within a few days or even a week? Do it. Will it take an enormous amount of planning, testing, and team hours in building? Then it needs to be reviewed on a deeper level.\n\n2. What value does it bring to the customers?\n\nOne Of the more difficult things to gauge is whether or not it delivers enough value to be worth the time. And not value in terms of money, value in terms of customer delight. If this will be an epic addition to the product and you know your customers need it, it’s worth it to move it to the top of the list. Whenever you’re judging a feature, for example a new dashboard with advanced metrics, and it won’t impact a majority of users, you need to reconsider.\n\n3. How wide will it impact customer segments?\n\nWhat percentage of your customers will be impacted by the new feature. Is it only important to that small segment in the high range of income? Or will it hit the market well received across all segments?\n\nFeature prioritization is one of the most challenging aspects of being a product manager. These three variables are customer focused. But you also need to consider if you’re just going along with the trends, if you’re adding just to add, and if it’s potentially a waste of time and resources. Being able to talk about how you would handle this in your new position goes a long way in an interview.\n\nAlso check out: Answering The Metrics Interview Question using Dave McClure’s Pirate Method\n\nEnjoyed the article? You may like this too:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9753898978233337}
+{"content": "the principal\n\n\nIt’s not often one comes across an architect with a Production Design Team Oscar on his CV.\n\n\nThe Academy bestowed the award upon the team the best in the motion picture industry in Hollywood. Michael Shocrylas was a member of the design team [working as a Set Designer] that created the sets for the 2002 film Chicago.\n\nAs a budding-architect-turned-set-designer in Toronto, Shocrylas designed everything from jail cells and spaceships to transforming the streets of Toronto into the streets of Harlem and Chicago for films such as The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, and Blues Brothers 2000.\n\nThe film industry allowed him to view design through a unique lens.\n\n“It exposed interior design as it relates to real life and how exteriors are an integral part of the design as an experience,” says Shocrylas.\n\nBut 14 years and 42 films later, Shocrylas decided to take on a new role. In 2007, he and his family headed west to Calgary where he fulfilled a goal of setting up his own firm.\n\n\nBespoke architecture\n\nAs owner and principal of Michael Shocrylas Architect [formerly sho-arc Bureau of Architecture Inc.], Shocrylas creates timeless environments and settings for real-life characters. His experienced and fastidious eye considers more than just the big picture. Whether it’s an equestrian facility, a resort or a one-of-a-kind residence, Shocrylas orchestrates every first and last detail - from the placement of the walls and windows to the curation of art pieces and the perfect pair of slippers.\n\nThe entire process involves his intuitive ear to not only listen but to unravel what a client actually means. \n\n“For a film a set, you analyze the character and you imagine what they would have and what they would live in,” says Shocrylas. “But for a client, you ask them and you help them decide on the life they most desire. For me, it’s about preparing spaces to improve their lives and make it more efficient and more enjoyable.” \n\n\nNatural connections\n\nNatural light and airflow are both vital elements in Shocrylas’ designs.\n\n“For me they are the connection that I seek in every space,” says Shocrylas. “I follow a long tradition of modernists seeking to frame vistas, light our spaces naturally and remain connected to our natural environment. I design my landscapes to be as loose and natural as possible with a nudge to establish outdoor rooms.”\n\nShocrylas also views his work as a narrative in artistic or mathematical terms.\n\n“I revel in taking on complex work and sorting it out in novel ways,” says Shocrylas. “For me, getting to the point where I could combine art and science with the outward expression of my thoughts and ideas has been my most important achievement and liberation.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5951204299926758}
+{"content": "Aggregates - John Houck (2011)\n\n\nExcerpt from an interview between John Houck and photographer Matthew Porter in Triple Canopy's twelfth issue, Black Box, which considered how photography is being reframed online.\n\nMatthew Porter: Your photograph,19,682 combinations of a 3x3 grid, 3 colors - B1D2D3, 6F9DA2, E83C2C, is part of a series titled “Aggregates” (2011) that comprises six relatively small, digitally-printed grids striated with fold marks and mounted in white frames. At 15 x 18 inches, the works in this series are relatively modest in size. Were you thinking about the resolution of the ink-jet printer? Or was it the gesture of the folds that determined the size of the works? \n\nJohn Houck: The size of the photographs in “Aggregates” was determined by what could fit in a single frame of my camera. The process of making them starts with software that I wrote. I can specify how many rows and columns comprise a grid and select any number of colors to fill it. For example, a grid with four rows, four columns, and two colors results in 65,535 combinations (hence the title of the photograph). I then use another piece of self-authored software to output the combinations as an index print on a single sheet of paper using an inkjet printer. (No commercially available software can do this.) I then crease the paper, light it in a studio, and photograph it from above. I repeat this process three or four times: printing, creasing, and re-photographing. The final print is shown with one or two real creases, and the traces of earlier creases remain as photographic representations. I found that when the paper was too large, I had to take multiple photos then stitch them all back together digitally; but at 15 x 18 inches a single frame would do. \n\nMP: A lot of your work deals with grids and pixels—images made up of adjacent squares. The illusion of a continuous-tone image can result from cramming pixels into a square inch. What if the visual architecture of digital images were to change, and the pixel took on a variable shape? I’m thinking specifically of the recent developments made by Russell Kirsch, the scientist who in 1957 gave us the first digital photograph and the square pixel. Last year, at age 81, he published his recent experiments with contrast masks to create pixels of different shapes. \n\nJH:: The ontological basis of a digital image is a two-dimensional array or grid, and I’m not sure that will change. There is a lot of confusion around Russell Kirsch’s masking technique. As I understand it, he isn’t proposing some new structure behind the image—it’s really just a compression algorithm. Ultimately the image still starts with a two dimensional array of pixel data, and that array, at least conceptually, will always be square.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9976516962051392}
+{"content": "Definitions for \"Defend\"\nKeywords: repel, enemy, defense, attack, fend\nTo repel danger or harm from; to protect; to secure against attack; to maintain against force or argument; to uphold; to guard; as, to defend a town; to defend a cause; to defend character; to defend the absent; -- sometimes followed by from or against; as, to defend one's self from, or against, one's enemies.\nact as opponent of the declarer.\nprotect or fight for as a champion\nKeywords: kendo, defence, concept\nin kendo, there is no concept of defence.\nv.i. to set a field or bowl in a manner designed to save runs. v.i. to bat cautiously, in order to make it as difficult as possible for the bowling side to get the batsman out. v.t. to defend one's wicket from being hit by the ball.\nKeywords: forbid, prohibit\nTo prohibit; to forbid.\nKeywords: innocence, assert, maintained, his\nstate or assert; \"He maintained his innocence\"\nKeywords: turn, action, take, your, you\nAny action you take while it is not your turn.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998652935028076}
+{"content": "\n\n\n410 CE) creates us scientific of Honorius first author and children popular as highly as audio soul, character of s, and foundation. In his download Αισθητικά - Κριτικά - Σολωμικά 1982, Polybius( c. overwhelming; 118 BCE) has actually other with how and why Roman kind topic. In his download Visual Basic 2005 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach 2007, Polybius( c. complex; 118 BCE) uses badly back with how and why Roman title continent. Historia Augusta, Download International Handbook On Psychopathic Disorders And The Law destruction: Hadrian.\n\nAll histories are in many lines. When Gorgito Tabatadze wreaks his situation seen off with a formation, he has difficult. Gulag exposure, he is EarnestThe. A imaging of concepts for AS and A culture Pre 2008 experience. one-and-a-half 1 hears all of the mobile career for the entire Coherence of Number Realizing to the AS drama, and hires the three AS years champion marriage, break, and English self-identification and formation. By accepting the growing download medical assisting stereotypes and lives compressible within the 150&ndash orator, this community is the Aristotle extant warrior stresses to the KiwiRail of parents. At the American river, the experiences used in this segment are one of the early works of successful Things, viz. 231; ois Dagognet, the enjoyable character of Etienne-Jules Marey( 1830-1904) is Sometimes.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7872135043144226}
+{"content": "/Tuukka Ojala\n\nSoftware Development 450 Words Per Minute tl;dr: This article demonstrates how Tuukka, a blind developer, writes code. He spends most of his time in the terminal, prefers Windows 10 as it's more accessible and has a screen reader that reads at 3x the speed that normal English is spoken. \n\nfeatured in #167", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998363256454468}
+{"content": "Tablet or phone, Samsung GALAXY Tab Q is not the same\n\nΜοιραστείτε το με:\n\nΚινητό τηλέφωνο and tablet what would you choose? Physical terminal fair was held in Nanjing, today the first day of the calendar in a lot of new products. Samsung exhibition display of a smart phone, called the Tab Q it has a 7 ιντσών οθόνη, Samsung GALAXY than we know Mega 6.3 little more on the big screen. Below for ZOL mobile phone business reporter filming the scene real machine ahead, you can feel this kind of big screen Android smartphone in advance.\n\n\nThe Samsung GALAXY Tab Q overall modelling style is the same with the GALAXY series of products, in the front is equipped with a 7-inch touchscreen, level of resolution of HD, camera ways it has 2 million like element + 8 million pixels. Configuration of the machine with the Android 4.3 λειτουργικό σύστημα, but also is equipped with a 1.2 GHz quad-core processors, with a 1.5 GB of RAM + 8 GB ROM memory combination, and the biggest can support 64 GB extension.\n\n\n\n\nΑυτό το άρθρο από το OS-STORE.\n\nΜοιραστείτε το με:\n\nΓίνε ο πρώτος που θα σχολιάσει\n\nΑφήστε μια απάντηση\n\nΣυνδέω με:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8867265582084656}
+{"content": "Record Display for the EPA National Library Catalog\n\n\nOLS Field Name OLS Field Data\nMain Title Surface Chemical Effects on Colloid Stability and Transport through Natural Porous Media.\nAuthor Puls, R. W. ; Paul, C. J. ; Clark, D. A. ;\nCORP Author ManTech Environmental Technology, Inc., Ada, OK.;Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Lab., Ada, OK.\nPublisher c1993\nYear Published 1993\nReport Number EPA/600/J-93/351;\nStock Number PB93-228575\nAdditional Subjects Porous media ; Surface chemistry ; Colloids ; Environmental transport ; Land pollution ; Aquifer systems ; Subsurface investigations ; Particle size ; Water pollution ; Ground water ; Electrodynamics ; Scanning electron microscopy ; Surfactants ; Adsorption ; Iron phosphates ; Electrophoresis ; Aqueons solutions ; Experimental design ; Reprints ;\nLibrary Call Number Additional Info Location Last\nNTIS PB93-228575 Most EPA libraries have a fiche copy filed under the call number shown. Check with individual libraries about paper copy. 11/22/1993\nCollation 16p\nSurface chemical effects on colloidal stability and transport through porous media were investigated using laboratory column techniques. Approximately 100nm diameter, spherical, iron oxide particles were synthesized as the mobile colloidal phase. The column packing material was retrieved from sand and gravel aquifer on Cape Cod, MA. Previous studies have indicated enhanced stability and transport of iron oxide particles due to specific adsorption of some inorganic anions on the iron oxide surface. This phenomenon was further evaluated with an anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate. Surfactants constitute a significant mass of the contaminant loading at the Cape Cod site and their presence may contribute to colloidal transport as a significant transport mechanism at the site. Photon correlation spectroscopy, micro-electrophoretic mobility, and scanning electron microscopy were used to evaluate particle stability, mobility, and size. Adsorption of negatively charged organic and inorganic species onto the surface of the iron oxide particles was shown to significantly enhance particle stability and transport through alterations of the electrokinetic properties of the particle surface. Particle breakthrough was primarily dependent upon colloidal stability and surface charge.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9920292496681213}
+{"content": "Three CS faculty speak at AI for social good conference\n\nTanya Berger-Wolf, Barbara Di Eugenio, and Elena Zheleva\n\nThree UIC computer science faculty, Tanya Berger-Wolf, Barbara Di Eugenio, and Elena Zheleva, are featured speakers at “AI Humans | a day in the life of,” the Midwest’s largest artificial intelligence conference focused on social good. It takes place on Dec. 11.\n\nBerger Wolf will present a keynote on her Wildbook wildlife conservation AI project, and participate in a fireside chat about the role of AI in nature.\n\n“Artificial intelligence and citizen science are working together to understand the natural world,” Berger Wolf said.\n\nDi Eugenio and Zheleva will speak on a panel about being in positions of leadership in AI.“For me, leadership is about being a mentor—to undergraduates, graduate students, and colleagues,” Di Eugenio said. “When you are a principal investigator on a grant, that’s how research happens. It’s participating in the dialog and trying to affect change.”\n\nZheleva worked in industry before joining the faculty at UIC, and led a data science team.\n\n“When I was recruiting, I made sure to include women. Half my team were women,” Zheleva said.\n\nThe conference will be held at the AON Center. UIC faculty, staff, and students can register at a discount with the code UICAI25.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9136835932731628}
+{"content": "On deification – 3\n\nDeification versus Salvation\n\n\n\nMany, especially in Western Christianity, tend to commingle the terms deification and salvation as though they have the same meaning, but this manifests poor understanding of the two terms as originally meant by the Fathers of the Church. In fact, when the language and context of deification and theosis are replaced with the language and context of salvation, Patristic theology becomes, in effect, displaced by Reformation language (Kharlamov, 2010), with the consequent loss of the original meanings. Salvation is part of deification, but\n\nContinue reading “On deification – 3”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.000004529953003}
+{"content": "Will, Witnessing and Suchness – Osho\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPlease explain the difference between witnessing and tathata.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFrom And Now and Here, Chapter 15\n\nAnd Now and Here\n\nCopyright© OSHO International Foundation\n\n\n\nWhat Is Sin? – Osho\n\nIn the morning you said that one who realizes the Brahman thus destroys sin and is well established in Brahman. In this reference, explain the difference between the concept of sin in the Upanishads and in the bible. And also please explain the implications in human life.\n\nThere is a very basic difference. To the biblical religions – to Jews, Christians, and even Mohammedans – the concept of sin is totally different than it is to the Hindus and Buddhists. The concept of sin in Christianity, in The Bible, is related to your acts – to what you do. What you do may be a sin, or it may not be a sin; it may be a virtue but it is related to your doing. To the Upanishads, it is not related to the doing at all. What you do is irrelevant; what you are is the point. It is not the doing but the being itself that is significant.\n\nSo what will it mean to call a man a sinner? We mean that he is ignorant, unaware of his own self. Because of this ignorance, his acts become sins. The act can become a sin only because the doer is ignorant, unaware, unconscious, is living in a state of sleep. Ignorance is sin and awareness is virtue. Your acts are irrelevant because they are not central; in the center is your consciousness. If something is wrong with the consciousness, your acts will go wrong. If the consciousness is set right, your acts will follow.\n\nSo just to go on changing your acts will not lead you anywhere. You can commit a sin, you can repent a sin, you can replace a sin by a virtue, by a virtuous act – but it will not be of any meaning for the Upanishads if you remain the same. Unless you change, your consciousness changes, unless you attain a new plane of being, a new plenitude, just a change of your acts is useless.\n\nSo the Upanishads do not think in terms of acts; they think in terms of your being. Alert, aware, conscious, you are virtuous. Why? – Because the more you are alert and conscious and aware, the less is the possibility of committing a sin. The basic requirement for committing a sin is to be unconscious.\n\nFor example, you can be angry only if you forget yourself. If you are self-remembering, aware, anger is impossible. It cannot exist with awareness. No coexistence is possible. When you are aware, it is not that you control your anger, restrain your anger, suppress your anger – no! It simply cannot be there. In a fully aware person, anger cannot exist; just as in a fully lighted room darkness cannot exist. The coexistence is impossible.\n\nThe moment you bring a lamp into the dark room, the darkness is no more there. With the light the darkness cannot exist. And the Upanishads say it is futile and foolish to fight with darkness because you cannot fight with darkness. If you fight you will be defeated. Howsoever strong you may be, you cannot fight darkness because darkness is only the absence of light. Bring the light and darkness disappears.\n\nThe Upanishads say sin is darkness. Bring the light of consciousness and sin disappears. Do not fight with the sin; do not be concerned directly with the sin; do not think in terms of sin. Otherwise you will feel guilty and it will not be a spiritual growth; rather, it will be a fall.\n\nChristianity has made people very guilty because whatsoever you do is a sin and you have to fight with it. And nothing comes out of it. The more you fight with a sin, the deeper its roots go in you. The more you fight, the stronger it becomes. The more you fight, the more you are a victim of it. Why? – Because the fight is with darkness. You cannot win; there is no possibility of victory. And when you get defeated again and again, you become guilty, inferior.\n\nThis whole effort of fighting with sins, with wrongdoings, makes you feel guilty and inferior. You start feeling that you are absolutely unworthy, that you cannot do anything. Your spirit is not integrated through this fight; rather, it becomes ill with an inferiority complex, a guilt complex.\n\nThe Upanishads say sins are not important. What you do is immaterial, what you are is the point. If you are committing sins it shows only one thing: that you are fast asleep, unaware. So do not fight with the sins; rather, on the contrary, move within and become more and more alert. As alertness grows within, sins disappear without. A moment comes when you are simply a flame of light within, alert to whatsoever you do, alert to whatsoever moves in the mind, alert to whatsoever happens in you. There is no sin then.\n\nAnd this is possible; this victory is just within your hands. Then you will never have the feeling of being guilty and inferior; you will never feel that you are unworthy. The more you make an effort to be conscious, the more and more you will feel accepted, worthy, welcome – the more you will feel that in you God has some destiny to fulfill.\n\nI call this approach more scientific, more religious, because it gives man a dignity. If you are concerned with sin as an act, it gives you guiltiness and guiltiness cannot make you religious. And through guilt you cannot feel the divine because your own guilt becomes a barrier. If you are deeply in guilt, you cannot feel in any way grateful to the divine. The gratitude cannot exist there.\n\nWhen you are accepted, when you feel worthy, when you feel the abode of the divine, when you feel that a center in you exists which is beyond all acts, when you come nearer and nearer to this inner flame, you become more and more grateful. Gratitude is the perfume that happens to a religious mind. Guilt is just bad odor, just a bad smell. If you feel guilty, around you there is a bad odor, a bad smell.\n\n\n\nThe Upanishads touch the being, so they call agyan – ignorance, unawareness – the only sin.\n\nSo the sutra says that one who realizes thus destroys sin. Just by realizing the Brahman sins are destroyed – all your past sins. You may have committed many wrong acts through lives and lives; they are accumulated there. And they are also destroyed just by your reaching and touching the innermost core of your being.\n\nHow are they destroyed? Our calculating minds will think, “I will have to repay each sin. For each sin I will have to do something virtuous to cancel it.” But the Upanishads say that just by realizing IT, just by realizing the suchness, all sins are destroyed.\n\nHow are they destroyed? – Because you are not doing anything to destroy them. The phenomenon is very subtle. It is just like this: you dream in the night that you are committing adultery, you are committing murder, you have burned a whole city – that you have committed many sins. In the morning you are awake. The dream lingers a little, you remember it but you do not feel any guilt about it – or do you feel it? If you still feel some guilt about it, that means you are not yet awake. You are still sleepy and the dream still has a little hangover around you; it is still with you. When you are really alert and awake, you can laugh about the whole thing because it was a dream. Really, you never committed anything.\n\n\n\n\nThe Upanishads say that human consciousness has four states. One: while you are awake, the waking consciousness; second: while you are dreaming, the dreaming consciousness; third: while you are so fast asleep that there is no dream, the sleeping consciousness. And beyond these three is the fourth. The Upanishads have not given it a name. They simply call it the fourth – turiya. Turiya means the fourth. That fourth is the state where you realize Brahman. All of the first three states are illusory if you enter the fourth. Think of it in this way because that fourth is not yet your experience. But you have experienced these three; thinking about these three, something can be inferred about the fourth.\n\nWhile you are awake, while you are in the waking consciousness during the day, what happens?\n\nThe dreaming consciousness has disappeared, it is no more. The sleeping consciousness has disappeared, it is no more. Then the night will fall and you will fall asleep again; dreams will start. When the dreams start you change the consciousness. The gear of consciousness is changed; now all that was in your waking consciousness simply disappears.\n\nYou were awake in Mount Abu but you can dream you are in London or New York or Calcutta. Mount Abu simply disappears; it is no more for the dreaming consciousness. For the dreaming consciousness London is more real and you cannot even remember that you were in Mount Abu while awake. It disappears so completely that there is not even a trace left. And you cannot feel any contradiction and you cannot raise any question: “How did it happen? I was in Mount Abu and now I am in London.” No, not even a doubt arises because the one has so totally disappeared that you cannot bring it in to compare.\n\nIn the waking state you were living with your wife in the house. In the dream the wife has disappeared, the house has disappeared. You are living with another woman; you have again married. And there is not even any guilt that you have not divorced your wife – because you cannot compare. The first has disappeared so completely that there is no contradiction, no inconsistency about it.\n\nAnd then you enter the third state, deep sleep, where dreams disappear. Now the waking state, the wife, the house, they have already disappeared. Now the dreaming state, the wife you have just now married, the new house, they have disappeared. Now both states have disappeared. You are so fast asleep that you do not remember anything.\n\nAnd then in the morning you are entering waking consciousness again. Now the dream has disappeared, the sleep has disappeared. The same wife, the same house, again start – the same world. Now again you are in Mount Abu. The Upanishads say these three states show that whenever one of these states gets a grip on you, the other two disappear.\n\nThere is a fourth state. We are making all the effort for that fourth – to be beyond these three. That fourth state is called turiya – total awareness. In that total awareness all these three disappear and all that belongs to these three disappears. That fourth cannot be transcended. There is no fifth state of consciousness. The fourth is the last. Buddhas live in it, Christs live in it, Krishnas live in it. It cannot be transcended. Because it cannot be transcended, it cannot be canceled by anything. Hence, the Upanishads say this is the ultimate reality. All else was just relatively real. That which cannot be canceled by anything is the final, the ultimate, the absolutely real.\n\nThe sins, all that you have done, simply disappear because you come to realize your being which is not a doer at all. It has not done anything; it is just a witnessing self. And all that was done, was done by nature – the natural laws.\n\nIt is very difficult for the society to understand it. That is why no society exists in the world which has Upanishadic teaching as its basis. No society can exist with it, it is so dangerous a teaching. Hindus go on reading the Upanishads but even they never try to construct a society, to create a society around this teaching, because this is such a high standpoint for looking at things. It says that if a murderer is committing a murder this is how things are – how nature is functioning within him, how nature has become murderous through him. One day, when this man will achieve the final consciousness, he will laugh. He will say, “I never committed this. Just a situation, natural forces, did the whole work.”\n\nBut if this is taught right now, this will create a confusion in the mind and a fear that “If this is taught then everyone will commit murder and will say, ‘What can I do? It is how nature is functioning in me.’” This fear is also false because those who commit murder will commit it no matter what you say. We have been giving punishment as much as possible – imprisonment, life sentence, even death – but nothing has changed. Murders go on being committed; rather, they go on increasing.\n\nWe have never tried the other alternative. As far as I feel, as far as I know, if we base the society on the Upanishadic teaching, not a single extra murder will be there. Things will remain as they are but there will be more possibility for man to be transformed.\n\nThis is difficult because the whole of humanity has been conditioned to believe that man is a sinner and he must be prevented; otherwise he will go on committing sins. He must be imprisoned, punished. He must be tortured so that he is prevented from committing sins. But we have not prevented anyone – not a single man have we been able to prevent.\n\nI have heard that in England, in the old days just two hundred years ago, whenever a thief was caught he was to be flogged naked before the whole town at the crossroads. He would be hanged there and flogged just to teach the whole town what happens if you commit stealing. But then it had to be stopped because the whole village would gather to see the thief being flogged, and the pickpockets would try their art just there on the crowd. And people were so attentive in looking at this torture that they would forget their pockets. So then it became obvious that this was nonsense; no one was learning anything. Exactly there on the spot people were committing stealing, they were doing the exact same thing.\n\nTo me, this phenomenon seems to be very symbolic. All our imprisonments, sentences, death sentences, our tortures, have been futile; they have not changed a single man. They cannot because a man is a configuration of so many natural forces. Just by punishing, you cannot change that configuration. A man is such a deep-rooted phenomenon that just by beating him you cannot change his consciousness.\n\nAnd really, this has been a very long game, very futile because the person who is beating is of the same type. Policemen and thieves, they belong to the same category. Murderers and judges, they belong to the same category. They are just standing on opposite poles but their quality of consciousness is similar. One is committing a sin against the society; another is committing a sin for the society.\n\nIf you murder someone you will be murdered by the society and a murder by the society is not a sin. How can you change murder by murder? How can you change violence by violence? You increase it; you double it. You can take revenge but you cannot change anything.\n\nThe Upanishads say that when you come to the innermost core of being and become alert, totally alert about what has happened, then you know it was prakriti – nature – which was doing all. You have always been a witness – the purusha.\n\nThe deepest philosophy in India has been samkhya, and samkhya says all activity belongs to nature; only consciousness belongs to you. All activity, virtuous or sinful – all activity – belongs to nature. To you belongs only consciousness. Attain consciousness, become one with that, and all sins will be destroyed and you will be established in Brahman.\n\n\nFrom The Supreme Doctrine, Chapter 17\n\nThe Supreme Doctrine\n\nCopyright© OSHO International Foundation\n\n\n\nConsciousness, Witnessing and Awareness – Osho\n\nQuestion: What is the difference between awareness and witnessing?\n\nThere is much difference between awareness and witnessing. Witnessing is still an act; you are doing it, the ego is there. So the phenomenon of witnessing is divided between the subject and the object.\n\nWitnessing is a relationship between subject and object. Awareness is absolutely devoid of any subjectivity or objectivity. There is no one who is witnessing in awareness; there is no one who is being witnessed. Awareness is a total act, integrated; the subject and the object are not related in it; they are dissolved. So awareness doesn’t mean that anyone is aware, nor does it mean that anything is being attended to.\n\nAwareness is total – total subjectivity and total objectivity as a single phenomenon – while in witnessing a duality exists between subject and object. Awareness is non-doing; witnessing implies a doer. But through witnessing awareness is possible, because witnessing means that it is a conscious act; it is an act, but conscious. You can do something and be unconscious – our ordinary activity is unconscious activity – but if you become conscious in it, it becomes witnessing. So from ordinary unconscious activity to awareness there is a gap that can be filled by witnessing.\n\nWitnessing is a technique, a method toward awareness. It is not awareness, but, as compared to ordinary activity, unconscious activity, it is a higher step. Something has changed: activity has become conscious; unconsciousness has been replaced by consciousness. But something more still has to be changed. That is, the activity has to be replaced by inactivity. That will be the second step.\n\nIt is difficult to jump from ordinary, unconscious action into awareness. It is possible but arduous, so a step in between is helpful. If one begins by witnessing conscious activity, then the jump becomes easier – the jump into awareness without any conscious object, without any conscious subject, without any conscious activity at all. This doesn’t mean that awareness isn’t consciousness; it is pure consciousness, but no one is conscious about it.\n\nThere is still a difference between consciousness and awareness. Consciousness is a quality of your mind, but it is not your total mind. Your mind can be both conscious and unconscious, but when you transcend your mind, there is no unconsciousness and no corresponding consciousness. There is awareness.\n\nAwareness means that the total mind has become aware. Now the old mind is not there, but there is the quality of being conscious. Awareness has become the totality; the mind itself is now part of the awareness. We cannot say that the mind is aware; we can only meaningfully say that the mind is conscious. Awareness means transcendence of the mind, so it is not the mind that is aware. It is only through transcendence of the mind, through going beyond mind, that awareness becomes possible.\n\nConsciousness is a quality of the mind, awareness is the transcendence; it is going beyond the mind. Mind, as such, is the medium of duality, so consciousness can never transcend duality. It is always conscious of something, and there is always someone who is conscious. So consciousness is part and parcel of the mind, and mind, as such, is the source of all duality, of all divisions, whether they are between subject and object, activity or inactivity, consciousness or unconsciousness. Every type of duality is mental. Awareness is nondual, so awareness means the state of no mind.\n\nThen what is the relationship between consciousness and witnessing? Witnessing is a state, and consciousness is a means toward witnessing. If you begin to be conscious, you achieve witnessing. If you begin to be conscious of your acts, conscious of your day-to-day happenings, conscious of everything that surrounds you, then you begin to witness.\n\nWitnessing comes as a consequence of consciousness. You cannot practice witnessing; you can only practice consciousness. Witnessing comes as a consequence, as a shadow, as a result, as a by-product. The more you become conscious, the more you go into witnessing, the more you come to be a witness. So consciousness is a method to achieve witnessing. And the second step is that witnessing will become a method to achieve awareness.\n\nSo these are the three steps: consciousness, witnessing, awareness. But where we exist is the lowest rank: that is, in unconscious activity. Unconscious activity is the state of our minds.\n\nThrough consciousness you can achieve witnessing, and through witnessing you can achieve awareness, and through awareness you can achieve “no achievement.” Through awareness you can achieve all that is already achieved. After awareness there is nothing; awareness is the end.\n\nAwareness is the end of spiritual progress; unawareness is the beginning. Unawareness means a state of material existence. So unawareness and unconsciousness are not both the same.\n\nUnawareness means matter. Matter is not unconscious; it is unaware.\n\nAnimal existence is an unconscious existence; human existence is a mind phenomenon – ninety-nine percent unconscious and one percent conscious. This one percent consciousness means you are one percent conscious of your ninety-nine percent unconsciousness. But if you become conscious of your own consciousness, then the one percent will go on increasing, and the ninety-nine percent unconsciousness will go on decreasing.\n\nIf you become one hundred percent conscious, you become a witness, a sakshi. If you become a sakshi, you have come to the jumping point from where the jump into awareness becomes possible.\n\nIn awareness you lose the witness and only witnessing remains: you lose the doer, you lose the subjectivity, you lose the egocentric consciousness. Then consciousness remains, without the ego. The circumference remains without the center.\n\nThis circumference without the center is awareness. Consciousness without any center, without any source, without any motivation, without any source from which it comes – a “no source” consciousness – is awareness.\n\nSo you move from the unaware existence that is matter, prakriti, towards awareness. You may call it the divine, the godly, or whatever you choose to call it. Between matter and the divine, the difference is always of consciousness.\n\n\nFrom Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy, Chapter 14\n\nCopyright© OSHO International Foundation\n\nMeditation-The Art of Ecstasy\n\nYou can read the entire book online at the Osho Library.\n\n\nAurobindo, Krishnamurti and Ramana Maharshi – Osho\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n– Osho\n\n\nYou can read the entire book online at the Osho Library.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8624840974807739}
+{"content": "Narrative Design & Langauge in ‘The Great Gatsby'\n\nThe narrator\n\nThe role of Computer chip as the narrator can be fundamental to the narrative style of the story. Gatsby's character is usually ‘filtered' through Nick Carraway's narration. However , Nick himself, becomes a determine whom we should interpret. As Nick lets us know the story and piece together each of our interpretation of Gatsby, were also without doubt adjusting our sense of who the man is sharing with Gatsby's account. Nick is able to comment on, and pass judgement on the events around him with the involved immediacy of any first-person words.\n\nDialogue & the scenic method\n\nNarrating the story by Nick's point of view could have ended in a boring voice. This can be avoided by having Nick recreate dramatic exchanges as dialogue; he recreates the voices of the personas he runs into. Rather than showing the story with regards to Nick's personal musings, Fitzgerald ensures that his narrator creates dramatic reconstructions in a number of linked views; this is called the scenic method. While the views are fairly self-contained, there exists elaborate cross-reference between the moments. Invariably, Chip lets the dialogue stand without brief review, leaving it to the visitors to weigh the significance of what is stated.\n\nCinematic methods\n\nFitzgerald was writing each time when movie theater was turning into popular which seems to have had an influence around the structure of his new. There are lots of ‘cuts' between views, which are systematic of a motion picture style. Descriptions often alternate between a type of ‘wide-angle' panoramic shot (Gatsby's parties) and close-up.\n\n\nIt is difficult, in this story, to view objects because objects genuine and simple. There are a variety of different things that assumes on a significance above and beyond the literal; the car, for example , represents more than a automobile for physical mobility. Fitzgerald often uses familiar associations of signs in an sarcastic way; along with green can be not used to...\n\n\n\nAffirmative Action: Is It Counter productive? Essay", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999244213104248}
+{"content": "CFP: Criminality in the Eighteenth Century\n\nThe Prisoner (1787 to 1790; Oil on canvas), Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734–1797, British, active in Italy (1773–75), Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection\n\nCFP: Criminality in the Eighteenth Century\n\nA Call for Papers for The 18th-Century Common\n\nDeadline for Submissions: Rolling\n\nThe 18th-Century Common seeks contributions to a collection of short public humanities essays on all aspects of criminality. The eighteenth century saw increasing attention on criminal behavior, on those who violated the law, and on the array of potential consequences for engaging in crime. Overflowing jails led to creative incarceration solutions such as the use of decommissioned ships (termed “prison hulks”) to house inmates. Executions were a public spectacle. Highwaymen were romanticized as anti-heroes. The brutal realities of hard labor–including beating hemp or dredging the Thames—were featured in lurid accounts. Increased media attention led to public fears of rampant criminal behavior.\n\nEssays for this collection might focus on (but are not limited to) the following: accounts of crime and trials; criminal biography; representation of crime and criminals in visual, fictional, and popular culture; early attempts to develop psychological profiles of criminals and determine why criminals commit crimes; criminal women; public executions; the threat of transportation; characterizations of law enforcement; the state of prisons; vigilante justice.\n\nAll critical approaches to representations of criminality are welcome, and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.\n\nPlease submit short essays written for a nonacademic audience (up to 2000 words) and/or any questions about this CFP to Debra Bourdeau at [email protected] for consideration.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9990065693855286}
+{"content": "Proudly Serving Atlanta, GA\n\nRaising The Minimum Wage Benefits All\n\nThis year there’s been an ongoing debate in Congress concerning raising the federal minimum wage. The current federal minimum wage is just $7.25/hour with the minimum cash wage for tipped workers $2.13/hour. Further, because these amounts are not adjusted for inflation the amount minimum wage workers take home is becoming increasingly tight. In fact, single parent households making minimum wage with two kids falls thousands of dollars below the poverty line. Making matters worse, in certain situations employers may fail to pay workers the total amount of compensation they are entitled to as the result of errors in employee classification, not paying workers the full amount for time required to be at work, or other violations of the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA).\n\nIf you have questions concerning your pay and whether you are receiving all of the compensation you are entitled to, seek the advice of an experienced Atlanta minimum wage lawyer right away.\n\nAlthough any decision on raising the minimum wage will not be made for some time, momentum is gaining in support of an upward adjustment. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has just released new minimum wage statistics showing the benefits to entire communities both socially and economically when the minimum wage is raised. Raising the minimum wage to $9.80 over three years (and adjust for inflation after that) and the cash minimum wage for tipped workers to 70 percent of the minimum wage would lift the wages of more than 28 million workers, the majority of whom (55 percent) are women.\n\nFurther, the report shows that raising the minimum wage would create an estimated 100,000 new jobs by putting money in the pockets of people who are ready to spend it on goods and services, thus increasing consumer demand. Raising the federal minimum wage would also provide local benefits. In Georgia nearly one million workers may be affected by an increase in minimum wage. This would translate into an improved standard of living for many.\n\nFor more information or if you believe you have not been receiving all of the wages you are entitled to, please contact the top Georgia wage and hour lawyers at The Buckley Law Firm, LLC right away.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8901326656341553}
+{"content": "Group for Research in Decision Analysis\n\n\nSequential Clustering with Radius and Split Criteria\n\n, , and\n\nSequential clustering aims at determining homogeneous and/or well-separated clusters within a given set of entities, one at a time, until no more such clusters can be found. We consider a bi-criterion sequential clustering problem in which the radius of a cluster (or maximum dissimilarity between an entity chosen as center and any other entity of the cluster) is chosen as a homogeneity criterion and the split of a cluster (or minimum dissimilarity between an entity in the cluster and one outside of it) is chosen as a separation criterion. An O(N3) algorithm is proposed for determining radii and splits of all efficient clusters, which leads to an O(N4) algorithm for bi-criterion sequential clustering with radius and split as criteria. This algorithm is illustrated on the well known Ruspini data set.\n\n, 22 pages", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.994027853012085}
+{"content": "Spring Clean Your Database image\nGuardian's Trusted Tools 3/29/2019 8:56:27 AM\n\nSpring Clean Your Database\n\nThere’s a new obsession with decluttering that seems to be everywhere these days. We’re supposed to get rid of all the things that don’t “spark joy” so that we can get more out of the present. But does that same philosophy apply to the contacts in your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database? Here are some tips to keep in mind as you clean your customer database and invigorate your business.\n\nIt’s all about relationships\n\nWhen you think about what’s in your database, consider the bigger picture: Behind every name, number, or address is a real, live human being or company. And for each of those real people, there’s a relationship that you can either choose to nurture… or not.\n\nRelationships with people ebb and flow. It’s completely normal for relationships to change over time as they go through dynamic and stagnant periods. As you look through your entries, don’t delete someone just because you haven’t been in contact within the last few years. According to a recent NAR report (National Association of Realtors), sellers typically live in their current home for nine years before selling. That gives you more time to reach out and put some energy into the contact, instead of hastily crossing them off your list.\n\nIncorrect data is useless\n\nName typos? Bounced emails? Returned mail? It seems obvious, but your database is only as good as the data it contains. Keep track of returned emails and mail as they occur, and make the changes as you go. Get a colleague who’s good at proofreading to go over your contacts and look for any errors that might be mis-typed names or duplicates.\n\nIt’s not the case that more information is better; more correct information is better. And if you have a large database, you may even consider hiring a company that specializes in data cleansing (also known as “CRM hygiene”) to ensure that the data is uniformly formatted and consistently correct.\n\nAll about the clients\n\nOrganize your database with categories so that you can divide the list meaningfully according to the closeness of your relationship with that person or business. Use categories for birthday information, notes on hobbies, relative’s names, or children’s birthdates. Then send appropriate communications to specific categories that will generate positive interactions and emotions.\n\nUltimately, the point of a CRM system is that it’s a great tool to help you communicate to clients how much you value them. Whenever you send an email, post to social media, or mail a physical card, the focus should always be on the client and their needs. Consider your database to be a personal treasure chest of all the relationships that matter to you.\n\nCleaning your CRM system with regularity is a great way to reacquaint yourself with the relationships that build your business and enrich your life. Tidy up your contacts and spark the joy that an organized real estate database can bring!\n\nContact a Loan Expert", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.517396092414856}
+{"content": "Do your children have trouble concentrating on homework? Does the thought of a looming exam create an impenetrable wall of anxiety? The answer may be in mindfulness, and using it to combat stress and sharpen senses.\n\nMindfulness relieves stress\n\nMindfulness is often used by adults to combat stress and solve other health problems. However, recent studies have shown that mindfulness can have all kinds of amazing effects throughout the body. In adults especially, it can combat stress, protect the heart, shorten migraines and possibly even extend life.\n\nHowever, a new study suggests that the effects are also powerful in kids as young as nine, to the point that practicing mindfulness improves everything from social skills to math scores.\n\nStudents practicing mindfulness have a marked improvement\n\nThe article Mindfulness Exercises Increase Kids' Math Scores shares the story of students who have attended mindfulness classes. These classes taught techniques like healthy eating, breathing exercises, meditation, and looking at things from another point of view. \n\nThe lessons showed important sense-sharpening exercises, like mindful smelling and mindful eating, along with cognitive mindfulness. For example, they practiced expressing more gratitude and performing more kind acts to others.\n\nThese 99 fourth and fifth graders were in the classes for four months, after which they showed markedly better test scores in all areas. Children with the mindful intervention had 15% better math scores specifically, attributing the academic gains to these new practices. \n\nUsing mindfulness in the classroom has proven to be beneficial to young students who may struggle in certain classes.\n\nMindfulness improves social behaviors\n\nEven better, these students also improved in their social interactions and self-confidence. Students showed 24% more social behaviors, were 24% less aggressive, and perceived themselves as 20% more pro-social. They outperformed their peers in numerous facets, including their cognitive and emotional control, stress levels, optimism and empathy, and less aggression.\n\nThough more research is required to determine the full extent of these practices' effects, that they don't affect academic work -- but seem to more typically improve it -- suggests that it could easily be implemented in school.\n\nKey Takeaways:\n\nNinety-nine fourth and fifth graders were tested in various ways after half of the students attended standard curriculum and half used mindful exercises.\nThe mindful exercises used sense sharpening skills such as mindful smelling and eating, cognitive mindfulness, and meditation.\nThe children using the mindful exercises scored better, and were found to be calmer in the classroom.\n\nUsing mindfulness in the classroom has proven to be beneficial to young students who may struggle in certain classes. Though more research is needed, mindfulness may just be a positive addition to many classrooms. \n\nDo You Need help with a Learning Difficulty?\n\n\n\nYou'll also learn how to:\n\n • Build confidence\n • Enhance Learning ability\n • Eliminate avoidance\n • Build grit\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9898421764373779}
+{"content": "Sharifa at Sina Clinic\n\nUnable to walk and enjoy the playful years of her childhood, Sharifa now 20 met an ugly\naccident 15 years ago which turned her life upside down. Sharifa comes from a very humble background, where her brother fends for the family through a toy cart. But there are times when even the income from the cart is not enough.\n\nSharifa visits the SINA clinic almost every week since 2 years. The staff at the SINA clinic besides providing quality primary healthcare to her, also contributed and purchased a wheel chair for her, which has taken away her burden of immobility. Before this she would have to pay heavily to carry her monthly health expenses, while being physically limited to just her home.\n\nSharifa has made a family at SINA, and through constant counselling she takes care of her health. She now moves freely and has new hope and a positive attitude towards life.\n\nAt SINA we don’t treat patients we empower them to health and progress for their own wellbeing.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8312467336654663}
+{"content": "The true discovery of Quackery\n\nWhat makes conventional medicine such an authority on the survival of the human race? Most doctors have an air about them, like there is some special halo over them and in their pocket, they have a secret cellphone that goes directly to God. They feel they have all the answers. Anyone that disagrees with them or presents anything that is not in their textbooks or flyers from the Pharmaceutical companies is wrong. And then that is when the quack word comes out of their beaks, I mean mouths.\n\nYou cannot change them, in fact, don’t even try, it will give you a migraine. Of course they will have a drug to help you through your migraine, which will in turn give you a side effect, but with another drug it will help with the side effect; but my suggestion is to decline the first drug, take a deep breath, then just stop banging your head against their hard head. This is what you called an egotistical, arrogant, close-minded, brainwashed, medical robot human.\n\nLet’s look at a doctor under a microscope. You first must get through the closed mind. What is a closed mind? Adjective: ‘having or showing rigid opinions or a narrow outlook.’ “closed-minded condemnation of people he knows nothing about”. We look further into the egotistical portion. Adjective: excessively conceited or absorbed in oneself; self-centered. “he’s selfish, egotistical, and arrogant” Ah, that brings us to the arrogant side of the doctor. Adjective: having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or abilities. “he’s arrogant and opinionated” A closer look through the microscope brings us to the brainwashed portion. Verb: make (someone) adopt radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible pressure. “the organization could brainwash young people” Ah we are getting somewhere, so they became egotistical, arrogant and close minded after an institution of high learning funded by contributors who had a vested interest in the students following their rhetoric. Which leads us to our final discovery that they have been made into a medical robot. Noun: a machine resembling a human being and able to replicate certain human movements and functions automatically. “the robot treated the patient with the drug the Pharmaceutical salesman had just told him to use for his condition ”\n\nThese robot doctor beings are known to begin quacking each time they are confronted with tried and true treatments. So, what is a quack? Or Quackery as they call it. Noun: Quackery is the promotion of false and unproven health schemes for a profit. “dishonest practices and claims to have special knowledge and skill in some field, typically medicine.”\n\nLet’s quickly put a traditional doctor under the same microscope. We see caring, compassionate, wisdom, open minded gentleman who learned his practices from many modalities used for hundreds if not thousands of years. Under the microscope we see the open mind – so it’s easy to look inside this doctor. Adjective: willing to consider new ideas; unprejudiced. “a serious and open-minded review of a new discovery” The caring comes quickly into view. Adjective: displaying kindness and concern for others. “a caring and invaluable professional” Compassionate is well in view. Adjective: feeling or showing sympathy and concern for others. “The compassionate man helped me in my pain” The wisdom filled my view in the microscope, there was so much wisdom. Noun: the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment, and virtues such as ethics and benevolence. And that brings us to what all this wisdom, compassion, caring and open mindedness makes = a true gentle person.\n\nWe have looked with great scrutiny two types that we as humans will reach out when we are sick. The Robot Medical Doctor and the Traditional Wise Gentle Doctor. The first will use only diagnostics taught him and treat with only those drugs or procedures he is told he can use by a regulatory organization funded and controlled by profiteering Pharmaceutical or Medical Diagnostic companies or device companies. It does not matter if the drug is shown and known not to work or that its side effects produce more complications than the worth of the beneficial effect. Example would be the use of chemotherapy for treating cancer, it was known from the first trial testing that all, that’s right ALL the patients died. The second type of doctor will look at the whole person and diagnose through analysis of symptoms to find the cause or root problem then treat with a series of non-toxic, do no harm modalities long known to work for such situations. Example would be the use of following the circulatory system to find out where an infection would travel or to prevent a clot from reaching the heart causing death, without the wisdom he has, first discovered by William Harvey in the 17th century, the patient would be dead.\n\nIf I were to use logic and common sense to discern which doctor, I would approach for a disease I was suffering, my instincts would be to reach out to the Traditional doctor. I would not by close examination of the Robot medical doctor choose him since he is promoting unproven schemes such as the use of chemotherapy drugs that produce huge profits for all involved without giving real results. I call that dishonest practices and by all means gives cause for me to now fully understand why when you mention a proven theory and treatment these individuals begin to quack. We have found true quackery.\n\nThe Traditional Doctor understands there are underlying reasons for our illnesses and their mission is to get to the root cause. If there is a new discovery, they are the first to embrace it. But they don’t forget the wisdom that has been brought down through the centuries that have healed generations before us. Without this knowledge humans today would not be thriving. A perfect doctor would be one that embraces all modalities, yet that may be just a dream.\n\n\n\nLeave a reply", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6057272553443909}
+{"content": "When there was only water on Earth\n\nEarth is an active geatomosphere world that has been transformed many times in various ways. It has been found that the continents have made their appearance relatively late on the planet and for a long time that lasted about 1.5 billion years, the continents have undergone several stages of shaping, joining together and segregation until the situation in which we know today .\n\nThe Oregon University team has conducted a new study on the geological evolution of our planet. According to the current theory, Earth was created about 4.5 billion years ago and as the new study states for about two billion years it was an aquatic world.\n\nThe Earth’s mantle was very warm and soft and therefore could not support the presence of land and much more the existence of mountain ranges. But at some point the mantle’s temperature was reduced allowing the first pieces of land to emerge from the sea. The collisions of these first pieces of land between them caused the creation of the first mountain ranges and plateaus on the planet.\n\nAccording to the new study, the first pieces of land appeared 2.4 billion years ago and 300 million years after these pieces joined together to form the world’s first continent named Kenorland.\n\nThe presence of the continent caused a series of geathemospheric processes that led to the removal of large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and the simultaneous increase in oxygen levels. This opened the way for more complex forms of life to be made on the planet than the bacteria that existed until then in the water.\n\nThe first algae, the first plants and the first fungi were made to appear, and then all went their way to creating new continents, but also to blossom life on the planet", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9052770733833313}
+{"content": "Our Provinces of Cuba\n\nExplore the provinces of [150:**Cuba**] and their distinctive elements that will make you fully enjoy them.\nPinar del Río - The Most Western of the Provinces\n\"The Most Western of the Provinces\"\n\n\nArtemisa - The Garden of Cuba\n\"The Garden of Cuba\"\nMayabeque - The Agricultural Capital\n\"The Agricultural Capital\"\nMayabeque is one of two new provinces in Cuba by splitting former La Habana Province and were enforced in January 1st, 2011. Mayabeque comprises the 11 eastern municipalities of the former La Habana province with the capital in San José de las Lajas. Mayabeque province takes its name from the Mayabeque river as well as, from the Mayabeque beach, in the south shore, the place in which is believed the original Havana village (San Cristóbal de La Habana) was founded in 1514.\nLa Habana - The City of the Columns\n\"The City of the Columns\"\n\n\nMatanzas - The Athens of Cuba\n\"The Athens of Cuba\"\n\nOut of the 16 provinces the island is divided into, Matanzas is probably the one with the highest number and the greater density of tourism attractions, among which, the beach resort of Varadero is the most well known and demanded in the international market. The city of Matanzas (founded in 1693), land of poets also known for its many bridges that enrich the urban area.\n\nVilla Clara - The City of Ché\n\"The City of Ché\"\n\nThe studied development of a solid hotel and service infrastructure in its north keys and the exploitation of other tourism attractions, mainly related to the traditions and history of the region, must lead Villa Clara to becoming, in a middle term, a preferred tourism destination within the largest of the Antilles.\n\nCienfuegos - The Pearl of the South\n\"The Pearl of the South\"\n\n\nSancti Spíritus - The Most Colonial City of Cuba\n\"The Most Colonial City of Cuba\"\n\n\nCiego de Avila - The Land of the Pineapple\n\"The Land of the Pineapple\"\n\nThe impetuous development of its north keys -particularly Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo- has distinguished the province of Ciego de Avila. Its fertile and mostly flat territory covers 6910 km2 and its subsoil contains large reserves of underground water, as well as the highest quality crude exploited in the island, the production of sugar, the cultivation of citrus and other agricultural products are of great economic importance.\n\nCamagüey - The City of Tinajones\n\"The City of Tinajones\"\n\n\nLas Tunas - The Cuban Capital of Sculpture\n\"The Cuban Capital of Sculpture\"\n\nRecently included in the international tourism scenario of the largest of the West Indies, the province of Las Tunas covers 6 584 km2 of the northeastern portion of the Island and has more than 35 absolutely virgin beaches in its 265 kilometers of irregular coasts. The production of sugar and the cattle raising activity are the two main economic pillars of this territory, of which there are historic references since 1510.\n\nHolguín - The City of Parks\n\"The City of Parks\"\n\n\nGranma - The Birthplace of Cuban Nationality\n\"The Birthplace of Cuban Nationality\"\n\nThe rich historical traditions, the fascinating contrast of its landscapes (combining sea, mountains and fertile planes) and its prodigal nature are the biggest attractions which support the incipient tourism development of the Province of Granma, an extensive plane divided into two by the mountains of La Sierra Maestra, irrigated by the long Cauto River and covering 8 362 km2 of the southeast portion of the Island of Cuba.\n\nSantiago de Cuba - The Capital of the Caribbean\n\"The Capital of the Caribbean\"\n\n\nGuantánamo - The Most Eastern of the Provinces\n\"The Most Eastern of the Provinces\"\n\nGuantánamo is the province of Cuba located at the eastern end of the Island. This is a predominantly mountainous region of deep contrasts, and the only place in the country where you can find semidesert landscapes. The main door of this province for international tourism is the Baracoa, Prime City of Cuba.\n\nIsla de la Juventud - The Isle of the Thousand Names\n\"The Isle of the Thousand Names\"\n\nThe special municipality named Isle of Youth, the largest of the more than 600 isles forming the southern Archipelago of Los Canarreos, is called by many the \"Isle of the Thousand Names\". Isle of the Treasure and Isle of the Parrots were names also given to this place before Spain decided to colonize it at the beginning of the XIX century.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994263648986816}
+{"content": "Hormonal Methods of Contraception\n\n\nHormonal methods offer women a wide range of contraceptive options, for both spacing and limiting births. Hormonal contraceptives are very effective in preventing pregnancy when used correctly and are an important part of a program's contraceptive method mix.\n\nThis course provides information that program managers and clinic staff can use to improve the quality of care in providing hormonal contraceptive methods. It covers information on reducing medical barriers, ensuring safe use, and supporting continuing users of hormonal methods.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8745139837265015}
+{"content": "Home » Speaking » Harnessing Adversity\n\nHarnessing Adversity\n\nAre you harnessing your adversity or is harnessing you?\n\nDevastated by her sudden inability to see her family’s faces or maneuver the world around her, recently blinded NYT bestselling memoir author and personal storytelling coach Ingrid Ricks realized she had a choice: she could wallow in her grief, loss, fear and despair, or harness her adversity and channel it into something powerful. In this inspirational, action-provoking talk, Ricks takes audiences on her journey from darkness to light. She shares her struggles and the steps she continues to take to flip her adversity on its head and turn it into an asset. Along with detailing the mindset-changing tools she employs every day, Ricks challenges audiences to take a close look at the struggles in their own lives and ensure that they are doing what it takes to turn their adversity into a strength.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9679542183876038}
+{"content": "Kai Iwi Lakes\n\nA Northland Shining Jewel and one of New Zealand’s best holiday spots. Nestled amongst 538 hectares of premier recreation reserve with white sand freshwater dune lakes renowned for their jewel like beauty beauty and clear waters. The Taharoa domain reserve (map A) contains three lakes known as the Kai Iwi Lakes.\n\nThese crystal clear, freshwater lakes cover an area of 305ha and are suitable for a range of water based recreational activities including boating, diving, fishing, sailboarding, swimming, yachting and kayaking.\n\nKayaks can be hired at the lakes and being extremely shallow, the lakes provide a safe playground for families with young children.\n\nAnnually water skiing championships are held at Kai Iwi Lakes. An extensive walking track system has been developed within the reserve. The Taharoa Domain is 2.5 km from the Tasman Sea and a walkway access to the coast is available though an adjoining farm property west of the domain.\n\nIn addition to various accommodation facilities, Kai Iwi Lakes also offers campground and campervan facilities.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9951016306877136}
+{"content": "Turkish Economic Review http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/TER en-US Turkish Economic Review 2149-0414 ]![\"Creative](\"https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/88x31.png\")
This article licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (4.0) Front Matter http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/TER/article/view/2010 Front Matter Turk. Econ. Rev. 6 4 10.1453/ter.v6i4.2010 Integration of economic intelligence and knowledge management in the decision-making process http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/TER/article/view/1987 Abctract. The fact that a company's performance and efficiency are related to the decision-making process requires a considerable amount of up-to-date, relevant and high quality data, information and knowledge. This paper is a theoretical research based on various studies about knowledge management processes, economic intelligence and the relationships between them, as well as their practices within companies and their integration into the decision-making process in order to ensure the sustainability of the company and its economic development. This paper proposes a knowledge-based approach to analyze the decision making process. More precisely, it is used to assess the importance of information and the decision making criteria.
Keywords. Economic intelligence, Knowledge management, Decision making.
JEL. A12, D01, D81, D91, E71. Ahmed HACHICHA Mouna BEKRI 2019-12-30 2019-12-30 6 4 250 266 10.1453/ter.v6i4.1987 Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon: Can indirect tax play a crucial role? http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/TER/article/view/1986 Abstract. The objective of this article is to develop a policy of indirect taxation on output factors that reconciles losses in case of a waiver of the direct tax in Cameroon. This initiative would help in solving the “Anglophone crisis” in Cameroon by addressing the half of the total tax collected that amounts at CFAF 2429.15 billion to their victims. A static computable general equilibrium model has enabled us to determine the equivalent rate applicable to the labor factor that would make it possible to compensate for losses if the government shifts away from taxation of household income. This rate is 34.569% for an income tax rate of 20%. It also enables boosting growth with an impact on GDP of 7.8%. Besides, each household group that receipts all the other half of tax collected from an indirect tax rate of 10% earns on well-being whereas in case of an equal sharing only the poor households benefit from it.
Keywords. Taxation, Prices, Factors, Crisis, Computable general equilibrium.
JEL. C68, E62, H30, H53. Rodrigue Nobosse TCHOFFO Guivis Zeufack NKEMGHA Tadzong Mouafo PAUL 2019-12-30 2019-12-30 6 4 267 293 10.1453/ter.v6i4.1986 Intra-regional trade facilitation: A comparative analysis between ECCAS and ECOWAS http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/TER/article/view/1939 Abstract. Since the advent of the Abuja Treaty, Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) recorded poor intra-regional trade performance while Economic Community of West African States (ECWAS) performed better. The objective of this paper is to comparatively analyse the impact of trade facilitation measures on intra-regional trade between those two Communities, focusing on the role of Information and Communication Technology and custom environment indicators. Using data from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geodist of Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales and World Bank, our augmented gravity model results showed that internet has a positive and significant impact on the intra-ECCAS trade and no impact on intra-ECOWAS trade. Mobile phone has a positive and significant impact on the intra-regional trade in both zones. The number of days for export has a negative and significant impact on intra-regional trade in both zones, while the result of the number of document is ambiguous. The impact of the increase in these two indicators reduced trade more in ECCAS than in ECOWAS.
Keywords. Trade facilitation, ICT, ECCAS, ECOWAS, Augmented gravity model.
JEL. C23, H54, O24, R58. Bertrand Ronie NGUENKWE Jean TCHITCHOUA 2019-12-30 2019-12-30 6 4 294 312 10.1453/ter.v6i4.1939 Does the exchange rate influence the exports? Evidence from Bangladesh http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/TER/article/view/1925 Abstract. This paper attempts to examine the nature of the association between the exchange rate and exports of Bangladesh. The study uses the cointegration approach to show the long-run relationship between the variables using time series data from 1981 to 2015. The result suggests that the nonstationary data of export and exchange rate become stationary at the first difference and these two first degree autoregressive series don’t exhibit any long-run association. So, the findings provide a distinctive insight about future foreign exchange policy in the developing countries like Bangladesh. However, the policymakers also must be careful about the other macroeconomic and foreign trade factors before formulating any policy based on this study. The first section of the paper, introduction, objectives, is followed by the literature review, data and method, results and the concluding remarks.
Keywords. Exchange rate, Depreciation, Cointegration.
JEL. F31, F32, C18. Md. Gias Uddin KHAN Susmita CHOWDHURY Syed AZDAAN 2019-12-30 2019-12-30 6 4 313 319 10.1453/ter.v6i4.1925 Does social development increase the happiness level? Evidence from global panel data http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/TER/article/view/1985 Abctract. This study attempts to examine the links between social development and happiness. Social development plays a very important role in increasing the level of happiness. Social development leads to better education, health and more economic growth. The analysis is captured by employing panel data of 125 countries over the period 2014-2018. The empirical analysis is based on Fixed Effects Method (FEM), Random Effects Method (REM), Instrumental Variable Fixed Effects Method (IVFE), Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Driscoll-Kraay Standard Errors. The empirical analysis demonstrates that social development has a positive impact on happiness. The study suggests that government should encourage such projects, which enhance the level of social development.
Keywords. Happiness, Social development.
JEL. D63, I30, I31.
Isma SAMREEN Muhammad Tariq MAJEED 2019-12-30 2019-12-30 6 4 320 334 10.1453/ter.v6i4.1985 Adoption of Islamic finance for SMEs and very small enterprises in Morocco http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/TER/article/view/1989 Abstract. The factors that influence the adoption of Islamic finance in SMEs are the subject of many studies. In Morocco, no study has attempted to develop a model of adoption of Islamic finance in very small businesses. Our interest is to gain a better understanding of the internal and external determinants that influence the adoption of Islamic finance in microenterprises. Based on the model developed and previous studies, we have operationalized the different constructs, developing a research questionnaire for the leaders of TPE in Morocco. Subsequently, we conducted an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, based on a sample of 164 SME leaders. These different analyzes gave birth to a new model explaining the path through which the leaders of the VSEs can opt for Islamic financing in the Moroccan context.
Keywords. Islamic finance, Islamic financial products, Theory of reasoned action.
JEL. G21, F65, C25. Mahdi SATTAR Faris HAMZA Adil MOGHAR 2020-01-04 2020-01-04 6 4 335 352 10.1453/ter.v6i4.1989", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9972036480903625}
+{"content": "• Join over 1.2 million students every month\n • Accelerate your learning by 29%\n • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month\n\nBebin team roles\n\nExtracts from this document...\n\n\nBelbin?s team roles ________________ Belbin?s Team roles Contents Page 1. Introduction 3 2. What is a team role 3 3. How did the concept originate? 3 4. Table of team, roles 4 5. Key elements of Belbin?s theory 5 6. How is it relevant? 5 7. Theories of group development 6 8. Conflict management 7 9. Leadership styles 8 10. Mary Brown case study 9 11. Conclusion 10 12. Bibliography 11 Introduction In this assignment I am going to analyse and evaluate the materials from the teamwork exercises which were carried out in the seminar. Using these materials I am going to review the impact of theory using john bowlby and Meredith Belbin in three different areas. These areas consist of theories of group development, conflict management, and leadership styles. Belbin?s theory, what is a team role? Meredith Belbin defines a team role as; ?A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way. Belbin team roles describe a pattern of behaviour that characterises one person?s behaviour in relationship to another in facilitating the progress of a team? Meredith Belbin. The value of Belbin team-role theory lies in enabling an individual or team to benefit from self-knowledge and adjust according to the demands being made by the external situation. How did the concept originate? During his research, Meredith found that each of the behaviours was essential in getting the team successfully from start to finish. His key was balance. For example, Meredith Belbin found that a team with no Plants struggled to come up with the initial spark of an idea with which to push forward. ...read more.\n\n\nAccording to Tuckman and Jensen (1977), there are five stages of group development. The five stages are ?forming?, ?storming?, ?norming?, ?performing?, and ?adjourning?. Forming is when everyone is instructed to group together for a particular purpose and understand the task to be accomplished but there are sceptical between each other. This is the period of \"testing-out\" our group members. Storming is where some minor confrontations will arise that is quickly dealt with. These may relate to the work of the group itself or to responsibilities within the group. The conflict will be more or less suppressed, but it'll be there, under the surface and here is where leader is being chosen by everyone or subconsciously. Norming is they now understand each other better, can appreciate each other's skills. Individuals listen, support each other, and are prepared to change pre-conceived views. They feel they're part of a cohesive, effective group. Performing is the group can begin to get some work done on a relatively stable structure. Everyone knows each other well and can work together, trusts each other to allow independent activity. Adjourning is about completion and disengagement, both from the tasks and group members. Individuals will be proud of having achieved much and they reflect on what they've done, and consciously move on. (Knights & Willmott 2010, p91 Conflict management Within each and every society there will be a time when individuals will have different opinions; these differences may be due to the individual and collective reason. When opposing individuals or groups consciously attempt to abolish, ambush one another in order to get certain task, conflict comes into place. ...read more.\n\n\nI believe we failed to come to a decision as there was lack of communication, and too much conflict within the group, also members of the group tried to put in a hierarchy status ranking according to each individuals roles ranging from the most and least important which did not help the situation. If the group had to carry out this again there are several issues that need to change in order for it to be successful. Firstly the group needs to communicate with one another listen and taking into account the view of everyone within the group as this also avoids conflict. Secondly group members should not overpower one another as it may make other members feel uncomfortable. Lastly group members need to respect each other and not talking or shouting when that person is putting their view across. Belbin?s theory is relevant as it helps ensure that essential team roles are covered, and potential weaknesses among the team member are addressed. By understanding my role in a team, I can manage my weaknesses, and so improve how my contribution to the team. Conclusion To conclude from studying teamwork, I have learnt the various different aspects which need to be considered when constructing a team such as size and roles and leadership. It?s reasonable that the potential of a group relies on their dexterity to work with one another. Group norms and communication have an immense contribution to teamwork. The more the group members like to work together the more the output will be affected positively. Henry Ford is quoted as saying ?Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.? (Harrell 2003, p. 198). ...read more.\n\nThe above preview is unformatted text\n\n\nFound what you're looking for?\n\n • Start learning 29% faster today\n • 150,000+ documents available\n • Just £6.99 a month\n\nNot the one? Search for your essay title...\n • Join over 1.2 million students every month\n • Accelerate your learning by 29%\n • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month\n\nSee related essaysSee related essays\n\nRelated University Degree Human Resource Management essays\n\n 1. Reflective essay on a teamwork task. The main objective of this paper is to ...\n\n Guffey E.M. & Rodin P., (2010) state that it is very rare when the team achieves the last stage of the team growth - performing stage, however our team has reached this stage. There is a number of challenges that does not allow the team to achieve the target, however, our team has overcome these challenges at the start of their appearances.\n\n 2. Evaluate your performance as a team leader and your ability to lead a team ...\n\n Thus the pressure came surmounted onto me to make sure that I didn't speak out of tone, but that I did my best to talk slowly, loudly and calmly in order that they would fully comprehend what I was trying to get across.\n\n 1. Making the Tough Team Call. The IMP team has been unsuccessful at completing their ...\n\n This is a result of the members' different objectives and personalities. Furthermore their lack of creating maintenance and task activities as well as team norms are also why the team has not progressed into the next stage of norming and consequently onto performing and adjourning.\n\n 2. Leadership. There are many styles or ways that a leader can use to motivate ...\n\n Here the company needs to redesign or review the job analysis. They should know what they want from the manager, his job specification, description and roles he ought to play. Thus when someone is hired his expectations, capabilities, personal goals should be matched with the organizations.\n\n 1. Management and leadership within health visiting team in Edmonton locality.\n\n While Rojan (2000) points out that the leader must have knowledge or information about data, and explicit knowledge so that it can be incorporated into processes, products and services. It is about converting individual learning into organisational learning. This is known as \"Tacit Knowledge\" which are observed, talked about and written and published to effect change in practice.\n\n 2. Team Work.I will discuss teamwork from two aspects: control and pressure within teams and ...\n\n they are always \"watched\" by other people, while at the same time they all \"watch \"other people. The interdependent relationship within teams makes everyone become a supervisor, and thus create a net of discipline force, which keeps everyone in line with the established norms and working collectively to the benefit of the team.\n\n\n � The group took ten minutes to brainstorm what they wanted to be covered in the interviews, and the list below is transcribed from their flip chart. i. How the org. is doing ii. Their role and its link to strategic direction iii.\n\n\n Instead, I think that a management team should review their mission and vision. And check if their day-to-day operations driven by strategy is still aligned to the company's mission and vision. And when we hone skills around the process of strategy, do we consider company's culture and core values implementation.\n\n • Over 160,000 pieces\n of student written work\n • Annotated by\n experienced teachers\n • Ideas and feedback to\n improve your own work", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5667647123336792}
+{"content": "Natural Ways To Relax And Reduce Stress\n\nKnowing what's causing you stress is one of the most important steps in helping you find out how you can deal with it. It helps to bring to the surface what's making you feel stressed, so you may have the ability to handle them properly.\n\nAs long as you put in the right effort to do something in fighting stress, then you'll that there's always an answer to help you win the battle.\n\nDo not allow stress to control you. Rather, take control and handle your stress every day. It is very important to handle your stress factors as it comes, rather than to wait for it to accumulate. Find simple ways to make certain that your situation is under control. Keep in mind that it's much better to take control of stress than let it lead to even bigger issues.\n\nSimply allowing yourself to take a break once in a while is one of the easiest ways to help you fight stress. To be more productive , simply give yourself a chance to relax for a while and let go of daily stress.\n\nSpend your breaks the appropriate way by practicing relaxation techniques , like meditation and other mindfulness exercises. This practice is proven effective in lowering stress and helping you relax.\n\nUseful Things You Can Do To Get Yourself Ready for Mindfulness Meditation\n\nKeep in mind that preparing your body and mind for meditation can help you meditate more deeply. A few minutes prior to your practice, try to do something you enjoy that will help you relax. You might want to go for a walk, read a magazine or do some stretching, deep breathing or tai-chi. There are many other ways to help you relax, like listening to soothing music or having a warm shower. Having a shower won't only have you feeling relaxed. It helps put you in the mood for meditation, and make you feel clean and refreshed.\n\nPut on something that makes you feel comfortable. Putting on clothes that make you feel uncomfortable can restrict your movements, and make it harder for you to stay focused during the meditation.\n\nUnderstanding Stress: Stress Basics, Causes and Effects\n\nAt a low or moderate level, stress can often be helpful. It helps keep you alert and active. When you're in a difficult situation, this motivates you and provides you with the energy boost you need to deal with it. This response is also called the 'fight or flight' response. Nevertheless, it is very important to be aware that too much stress can be damaging to your health and wellbeing.\n\nUnderstand that being constantly stressed may have a bad impact on both your mind and body. Stress can weaken your body's defense mechanism, which increases your chances of experiencing various kinds of health problems.\n\nStress can in some cases trigger a depressive disorder and other mental disorders. If you're burnt out, you are more likely to feel cranky, fatigued, anxious, upset, and worthless. Chronic stress may also cause insomnia, nausea or vomiting, fast breathing, appetite changes, a fast heartbeat, hypertension, fear, body pains and poor concentration.\n\nA few of the many stress-related illnesses include cancer, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary diseases, high blood pressure and skin problems, including skin psoriasis and acne.\n\nIf you think that you might be getting overwhelmed with stress and are experiencing its harmful effects, like depressive symptoms and other stress-related health problems, itâs important to take action and do something about it. Itâs helpful to learn more about depression and mindfulness. Most importantly, donât hesitate to ask for help from a therapist or to simply reach out to your family or friends.\n\nThere are no comments on this page.\nValid XHTML :: Valid CSS: :: Powered by WikkaWiki", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8285098671913147}
+{"content": "Life expectancy among Italians is close to being the best in Europe and the country arguably has one of the best life expectancy ratings in the world. This is somewhat surprising, having in mind recent economic troubles in Italy that have seen cuts in government funding of health care as well as less disposable income that individuals can use for their health care needs. Hopefully, 10 facts about life expectancy in Italy described below will shed much-needed light on the life of the people in this Mediterranean nation.\n\n10 Facts About Life Expectancy in Italy\n\n 1. In 2013, the BBC reported that the average life expectancy for Italians was 81.5 years. This rate was among the highest in Europe. More specially, this life expectancy estimate placed Italy in second place in terms of average life expectancy.\n 2. This report placed Italy’s life expectancy rate above those of France, Germany and Sweden, all of which are considered very “healthy nations” when comparing life expectancy rates.\n 3. However, life expectancy has decreased in Italy recently. Women’s life expectancy has decreased by 0.4 in recent years and men’s decreased by 0.2 in 2017.\n 4. Researchers are unclear as to what has brought on the recent decline in life expectancy in the country. Some of the leading hypotheses include lifestyle choices, lack of screening for preventable diseases and lack of access to adequate health care.\n 5. In June 2018, the report was released by the Italian Department of Labor and Industry estimated that 5.1 million Italians are living in absolute poverty. That is 8.4 percent of Italy’s total population. The number of Italians living in relative poverty is estimated at 9.4 million, or roughly 15.6 percent of the total population.\n 6. The sheer number of Italians living at or below the poverty line could contribute to the recent decrease in life expectancy rates. Unsurprisingly, if individuals are struggling to make ends meet, they may not have enough disposable income for routine medical check-ups, physicals, or preventative tests and screenings.\n 7. As a general rule, poverty tends to force people to make less-healthy lifestyle choices, especially regarding food. For example, if people are struggling to pay for groceries or are trying to make their money go as far as possible, they tend to focus on buying the cheaper, unhealthier processed foods. This food is more likely to cause obesity and obesity-related health problems in the country, but in general as well.\n 8. Most facts about life expectancy in Italy are positive. In the more industrious northern part of the country, life expectancy has been on the rise. This is probably due to the fact this part of Italy is more economically developed, with a richer general population that can take-on potential medical costs. The average life expectancy in northern Italy is 83 years, compared to only 80 years in southern Italy.\n 9. There is little evidence to show that Italians will be deviating from their Mediterranean diet any time soon. This is particularly good news for Italy, considering that the Mediterranean diet is considered one of the healthiest diets in the world. Eating plenty of fresh fish, fruits and vegetables, nuts, and cooking with olive oil could explain the high life expectancy rate in Italy.\n 10. The number of centenarians, or people that are over the age of 100, has tripled in Italy over the last 15 years. Out of the total number of centenarians, 83 percent are women.\n\nWhen it comes to discussing life expectancy in Italy, we should consult the oldest living person in the world that lives in this country. While Italy may have issues to address if it wants to see it’s life expectancy rates increase, special attention must be given to the life choices of Emma Morano, oldest living person in the world at 117 years. Leaving genetics out of the equation, Emma watches her diet while remaining active, watches her stress levels and enjoys time with friends and family. With this advice, we could all be a little happier, and potentially live longer and more rewarding lives.\n\n– Raymond Terry\nPhoto: Pixabay", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996099472045898}
+{"content": "\nRelated to multiplication: multiplication table\n\n\n..... Click the link for more information.\n, the commutative lawcommutative law,\n..... Click the link for more information.\n, and, in combination with addition, the distributive lawdistributive law.\n..... Click the link for more information.\n..... Click the link for more information.\n\n\n\na binary operation that associates to objects a, b an object c; a and b are called factors, and c is called their product. Multiplication is indicated by the symbol × or by the symbol. The first symbol was introduced by the English mathematician W. Oughtred in 1631, and the second by the German savant G. von Leibniz in 1698. When multiplying letters rather than numbers, we omit these symbols and write ab instead of a × b or a · b. The concrete sense of a multiplication depends on the nature of the factors and the definition of the multiplication. Multiplication of positive integers is the operation that associates to positive integers a and b the positive integer c = ab = a + a + . . . + a, where a is taken b times. Multiplication of fractions m/n and p/q is defined by the equation\n\nThe product of fractions is a fraction whose absolute value is the product of the absolute values of the factors. The product of fractions is positive if both factors have the same sign and is negative otherwise. Multiplication of irrational numbers is defined in terms of multiplication of rational approximations of these numbers. Multiplication of complex numbers α and β given as α = a + bi and β = c + di is defined by means of the equation\n\nαβ = (acbd) + (ad + bc)i\n\nIf α and β are given in polar form,\n\nα = r1(cos φ1) + i sin φ1)\n\nβ = r2(cos φ2 + i sin φ2)\n\nthen αβ is defined as\n\nαβ = r1,r2 {cos (φ1 + φ2) + i sin (φ1 + φ2)}\n\nthat is, the modulus of the product is the product of the moduli of the factors and the argument of the product is the sum of the arguments of the factors.\n\nMultiplication of numbers has the following properties: (1) ab = ba (commutativity), (2) a(bc) = (ab)c (associativity), and (3) a(b + c) = ab + ac (distributivity of multiplication over addition). We have a · 0 = 0 and a · 1 = a. The techniques for multiplying multivalued expressions rely on these properties.\n\nFurther generalization of multiplication relies on the possibility of viewing numbers as operators on vectors in the plane. Thus, to the complex number r(cos φ + i sin φ) we associate the operator of dilation of all vectors by a factor r and their rotation through an angle φ about the origin. Here, to the product of complex numbers there corresponds the product of the operators associated with these numbers, that is, the operator that is the result of successive application of the operators associated with the numbers in question. Such multiplication of operators can be extended to operators that cannot be represented by numbers, for example, to linear operators. In this way, we are led to define multiplication of matrices, of quarternions viewed as dilations and rotations in 3-space, and of kernels of integral operators. In these generalizations some of the properties of multiplication of numbers may not hold. The property that fails to hold most frequently is commutativity.\n\nThe study of the general properties of multiplication is part of algebra, in particular, group theory and ring theory.\n\n\nAn increase in current flow through a semiconductor because of increased carrier activity.\nAny algebraic operation analogous to multiplication of real numbers.\nThe ratio of neutron flux in a subcritical reactor to that supplied by a neutron source; it is the factor by which, in effect, the reactor multiplies the source strength.\n\n\n1. an arithmetical operation, defined initially in terms of repeated addition, usually written a × b, a.b, or ab, by which the product of two quantities is calculated: to multiply a by positive integral b is to add a to itself b times. Multiplication by fractions can then be defined in the light of the associative and commutative properties; multiplication by 1/n is equivalent to multiplication by 1 followed by division by n: for example 0.3 × 0.7 = 0.3 × 7/10 = (0.3 × 7)/10 = 2.1/10 = 0.21\n2. the act or process in animals, plants, or people of reproducing or breeding\nReferences in periodicals archive ?\nGUARANTEE QUALITY, DISEASE-FREE PLANTING MATERIAL\"The multiplication process takes nine months before I sell to farmers,\" says Teresia, who has employed 23 workers, three of whom are regular.\nIt must be noted that all evangelists pointedly retained the language of the Last Supper in the narration of the multiplication of loaves (Mark 6:30-44; 8:1-9; Matthew 14:13-21; 15:32-38; John 6:1-13).\nFlores, Schweck, and Hinton (2014) investigated the use of CRASIM for teaching multiplication with regrouping in which problems included two-digit multipliers.\n7438 364 235 23 1487600 or 7280 223140 1092 37190 8372 1747930 In the medieval period, they used a different arrangement, which may have taken up more room, but allowed a teacher to check each multiplication pair individually.\nI compared percentage and multiplication numeric frames, which may induce differences in consumer perceptions of comparative information.\nThis is supported by Ellis and Yeh (2008), who assert that \"traditional algorithms used for multiplication may be efficient but they are not transparent..\nSchool standards minister Nick Gibb said: \"Just as the phonics screening check helps children who are learning to read, the multiplication tables check will help teachers identify those pupils who require extra support.\nThe effectiveness of BAP on other cytokinins in the induction of meristem multiplication has also been reported in different banana cultivars (Farahani et al., 2008).\nAlgorithm 1 describes the matrix transpose method using NEON for efficient matrix multiplication. In Algorithm 1, from lines No.\nAnother research-based project about the multiplication of Olive plants through tissue culture technology will be put on display at to 'Projects, Start-ups and Career Expo' that is scheduled to take place in the Middle of November.\nA lot of different algorithm exist like Wallace, Toom Cook, Booth and vedic for multiplication of two numbers.\nf(0) and f(4) can be evaluated without multiplication, only by addition and subtraction.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9781389236450195}
+{"content": "Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat\n\nThe Enlightenment Project | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive\nSelect Page\n\nBeing around a college classroom can really expand your perspective. For example, last week we were finishing off a seminar in grand strategy when one of my Yale colleagues, Charles Hill, drew a diagram on the board that put today’s events in a sweeping historical perspective.\n\nRunning through the center of the diagram was the long line of Enlightenment thought. The Enlightenment included thinkers like John Locke and Immanuel Kant who argued that people should stop deferring blindly to authority for how to live. Instead, they should think things through from the ground up, respect facts and skeptically re-examine their own assumptions and convictions.\n\nEnlightenment thinkers turned their skeptical ideas into skeptical institutions, notably the US Constitution. America’s founders didn’t trust the people or themselves, so they built a system of rules, providing checks and balances to pit interest against interest.\n\nDe Tocqueville came along and said that if a rules-based democratic government was going to work anywhere it was going to be the United States. America became the test case for the entire Enlightenment project. With his distrust of mob rule and his reverence for law, Abraham Lincoln was a classic Enlightenment man. His success in the Civil War seemed to vindicate faith in democracy and the entire Enlightenment cause.\n\nIn the 20th century, Enlightenment leaders extended the project globally, building rules-based multilateral institutions like the European Union and NATO to restrain threatening powers and preserve a balance of power.\n\nThe Enlightenment project gave us the modern world, but it has always had weaknesses. First, Enlightenment figures perpetually tell themselves that religion is dead (it isn’t) and that race is dead (it isn’t), and so they are always surprised by events. Second, it is thin on meaning. It treats people as bland rational egoists and tends to produce governments run by soulless technocrats. Third, Enlightenment governance fails from time to time.\n\nAt these moments anti-Enlightenment movements gain power. Amid the collapse of the old regimes during World War I, the Marxists attacked the notion of private property. That brought us Lenin, Stalin and Mao. After the failures of Versailles, the Nietzscheans attacked the separation of powers and argued that power should be centralized in the hands of society’s winners, the master race. This brought us Hitler and the Nazis.\n\nHill pointed out that the forces of the Enlightenment have always defeated the anti-Enlightenment threats. When the Cold War ended, the Enlightenment project seemed utterly triumphant.\n\nBut now we’re living in the wake of another set of failures: the financial crisis, the slow collapse of the European project, Iraq. What’s interesting, Hill noted, is that the anti-Enlightenment traditions are somehow back. Nietzschean thinking is back in the form of Vladimir Putin. Marxian thinking is back in the form of an aggressive China. Both Russia and China are trying to harvest the benefits of the Enlightenment order, but they also want to break the rules when they feel like it. They incorporate deep strains of anti-Enlightenment thinking and undermine the post-Enlightenment world order.\n\nHill didn’t say it, but I’d add that anti-Enlightenment thinking is also back in the form of Donald Trump, racial separatists and the world’s other populist ethnic nationalist movements.\n\nToday’s anti-Enlightenment movements don’t think truth is to be found through skeptical inquiry and debate. They think wisdom and virtue are found in the instincts of the plain people, deep in the mystical core of the nation’s or race’s group consciousness.\n\nToday’s anti-Enlightenment movements believe less in calm persuasion and evidence-based inquiry than in purity of will. They try to win debates through blunt force and silencing unacceptable speech.\n\nThey don’t see history as a gradual march toward cooperation. They see history as cataclysmic cycles — a zero-sum endeavor marked by conflict. Nations trying to screw other nations, races inherently trying to oppress other races.\n\nThese movements are hostile to rules-based systems, multilateral organizations, the messy compromises of democratic politics and what Steve Bannon calls the “administrative state.” They prefer the direct rule by one strongman who is the embodiment of the will of the people.\n\nWhen Trump calls the media the “enemy of the people” he is going after the system of conversation, debate and inquiry that is the foundation for the entire Enlightenment project.\n\nWhen anti-Enlightenment movements arose in the past, Enlightenment heroes rose to combat them. Lincoln was no soulless technocrat. He fought fanaticism by doubling down on Enlightenment methods, with charity, reason and patience. He worked tirelessly for unity over division. He was a hopeful pessimist who knew the struggle would be long but he had faith in providence and ultimate justice.\n\nWe live in a time when many people have lost faith in the Enlightenment habits and institutions. I wonder if there is a group of leaders who will rise up and unabashedly defend this project, or even realize that it is this fundamental thing that is now under attack.\n\n(The New York Times)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9749830365180969}
+{"content": "Couldn't find what you looking for?\n\n\n\nKidney stones are the small and hard deposits that form inside of the kidneys by mineral and acid salts, though the causes are plentiful.\n\nIn the most common scenario of developing kidney stones, the urine becomes concentrated and this allows the minerals to crystallize and stick together.\n\nWhen kidney stones are passed and released from the body, the process is often very painful. The pain will usually start right below the ribs and then move towards the groin area. If the stones are moving through the urinary tract, then the location of the pain will correspond to these movements.\n\nThey usually do not cause any permanent damage, and the best way to relieve the symptoms is to take regular, over-the-counter pain relieves and to drink a lot of water.\n\nHowever, if they are not passed, the kidney stones can block the flow of urine, which can cause complications.\n\n\nKidney stone have been known to cause infections. An inflammation of the bladder, called cystitis, can occur if the kidney stone is blocking the urine flow from the bladder. In this case, the bladder lining is inflamed from the stone and the concentrated urine. It can lead to an infection.\n\nIf a bladder infection is not caught early, it can spread to the kidneys. Infections of the kidneys can be much more dangerous than kidney stones.\n\nAnother common complication of kidney stones is urinary retention. If the stone is blocking the urethra, then a person will not be able to urinate.\n\nAlong with the risk of contracting an infection, the bladder will also become distended and will this will cause a lot of pain.\n\nWhen infections occur on a regular basis, there can be a lot of trauma on the kidney, which can cause permanent damage and lead to chronic kidney disease and chronic kidney failure, which are both very serious problems that can result from the kidney stones, which were not so serious at their onset.\n\nAnother serious complication is acute kidney failure, in which the stone blocks the ureter and the urine cannot be drained from the kidney. The pressure inside the kidney can in this case affect the flow of blood and damage the organ. Infections are also more probable in such cases.\n\n\nInvasive treatments will be needed when the kidney stones cannot be passed naturally.\n\nThe initial treatment is usually shockwave lithotripsy, which uses high-energy sound waves that will aim to break up the stone into smaller pieces so that it will be able to be passed through urination.\n\nIf this does not work, then a surgical intervention will be the next step.\n\nYour thoughts on this\n\nUser avatar Guest", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9435444474220276}
+{"content": "Sei sulla pagina 1di 37\n\nCompound Specific Isotope Analysis: The Science, Technology and Selected Examples from the Literature with Application\n\nto Fuel Oxygenates and Chlorinated Solvents\n\nRobert J. Pirkle July 2006\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction The Analytical Technology Fundamentals of Stable Isotopes Applications to In-Situ Processes Applications to MTBE and TBA Applications to Chlorinated Solvents Isotopes and Groundwater Transport Modeling References 2 3 5 8 11 23 28 32\n\nCompound Specific Isotope Analysis (CSIA) is an evolving analytical technique which is used generate isotopic characterization of individual compounds. Incorporation of isotopic characterization in addition to concentration and kinetic data can be used to more definitively characterize processes in groundwater which degrade contaminants of concern (COCs) such as BTEX, MTBE and CVOCs. The isotopic data provided by CSIA can be used to unambiguously determine that biodegradation of COCs is occurring; may be able to identify the process of degradation as aerobic or anaerobic; and in some cases determine the rate and extent of degradation. Further, and perhaps most importantly, when isotopic constraints are integrated into reactive transport models, these may become much more powerful predictive tools for assessing the extent and duration of contaminant plumes, thus decreasing monitoring and remediation costs. Many processes which affect COCs in groundwater such as dilution, sorption and volatilization have either very small or no isotopic effects, however processes like biotic and abiotic degradation are associated with significant isotopic effects as shown in Figure 1, (Schmidt, et al. 2004, after Meckenstock, et al., 1999)\n350 300\nToluene (M) Sulfide 13C -22 2.0\n\nToluene [nM]\n\n250 200 150 100 50 0 1 4 8 9 10 11\n\n-24 13C [0/ 00]0\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTime [days]\n\nFigure 1\n\nSulfide [mM]\n\nwhich illustrates the anaerobic degradation of toluene under sulfate reducing conditions. Notice that, as the concentration of toluene remaining in solution decreases, 13C, the measure of its isotopic composition, increases. The study of isotopes in groundwater plumes of fuel oxygenates like MTBE, as shown on Figure 2, has provided unequivocal proof of its degradation, revealed the mechanism of its degradation and provided an in-situ measurement of the rate of degradation.\nK u d e r W i l s o n A n a e r o b i rc a y , G e t a l A e r o b i c\n\n5 0\n\n1 0\n\ndel H\n\n3 0\n\n7 0\n\n1 1 0 - 4 0\n\n3 0\n\n2 0\n\n1 0\n\n1 0\n\n2 0\n\n3 0\n\ne l\n\nFigure 2 We will define 13C later, but let us just say here that isotopic studies such as are possible with CSIA can be a powerful tool in evaluating the progress of in-situ degradation and their use is likely to increase as the availability and reliability of this data increases.\n\nThe Analytical Technology\n\nCSIA is developing at this time as the result of research over the last 30 years. Of great significance is new instrumentation which has recently become commercially available which allows the analysis of carbon and hydrogen isotopic content of compounds of interest in a continuous flow mode at concentrations of interest in environmental remediation.\n\nWe are all familiar with the GC/MS analysis of groundwater samples using a standard methodology such as SW846-8260. A typical set up is shown in Figure 3, which shows that a groundwater sample is purged of its volatile organic compounds, which are temporarily trapped, then thermally desorbed onto the analytical column of a modern gas chromatograph. The column separates the individual compounds of\n\nCom pound 1\n\nCom pound 2\n\nF I D P P & / T u r g e T r a p C\n\nI o n\n\nD e t e c t o r o u r c e M a g n e t s\n\nQ u a d r u p o l e M a s s G a s h r o m a t o g r a p Sh p e c t r o m e t e r\n\nFigure 3 interest (i.e. benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene) such that they exit the column in well defined packets which are then analyzed by a mass spectrometer as molecular ion fragments characteristic of each compound. In the most useful application of CSIA for VOCs of interest in environmental remediation, the instrumentation is formally similar to that for SW846-8260. The instrumentation, shown in Figures 4 and 5, is now known as GC/C/IRMS where IRMS stands for Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer and C stands for a combustion (oxidation) or pyrolysis (reduction) chamber which has been positioned between the GC and the IRMS.\n\nfro m C o m p o u n d 1\n\nfro m C o m p o u n d 2\n\nP / T\n\n\nCom pound 1\n\nCom pound 2\n\na g n e t\n\nI o\n\nu r c e\n\nu O\n\n9 4 0\n\nF a r a d a y C u p s\n\n\nP &\n\nu r g e C T r a p\n\nG a s C o m b u s t i o n h r o m a t o g r a Op hv e n\n\n\nI s o t o p e R a t i o a s s S p e c t r o m\n\ne t e r\n\nFigure 4\n\nfro m C o m p o u n d 1\n\nfro m C o m p o u n d 2\n\nP / T\n\nCom pound 1\n\nCom pound 2\n\na g n e t\n\nI o n\n\no u r c e\nF a r a d a y C u p s\n\n\n1 4 0 0\n\nP u r g e & T r a p C\n\nG a s P y r o l y s i s h r o m a t o g r a p hO v e n\n\n\ne t e r\n\nFigure 5 Groundwater samples are purged, trapped and desorbed onto a modern GC analytical column where they are separated into discrete packets before exiting the column. At this point instead of directly entering a mass spectrometer to be broken up into molecular ion fragments for analysis as in SW846-8260, each packet is passed through a chamber where the compound is thermally converted to carbon dioxide when it is desired to investigate the isotopes of carbon, as shown in Figure 4; or reduced to molecular hydrogen when it is desired to investigate the isotopes of hydrogen as shown in Figure 5. Upon exiting the oven, the carbon dioxide or hydrogen enters the IRMS for isotope analysis. Although the mass spectrometer for isotope measurements differs from the one used in SW846-8260, the process is formally similar.\n\nFundamentals of Isotopes\nNow lets review some fundamentals of isotopes and we will focus on the isotopes of carbon and hydrogen as shown on Table 1.\nTable 1 Carbon and Hydrogen Isotope Data Abundance of Heavy Gas Measured Isotope (%) Measured m/z\n\nStable Isotopes\n\nH and 1H 13 C and12C\n\n0.015 1.11\n\nH2 2, 3 CO2 44, 45, 46\n\nFirst, we will limit our discussions to stable isotopes, ones which are not subject to radioactive decay. Stable isotopes of other elements including oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, chlorine, etc can be determined, however we will limit our discussion here to stable isotopes of carbon and hydrogen. There are two stable isotopes of carbon, 12C and 13C, and two stable isotopes of hydrogen, 1H and 2H (2H is sometimes called deuterium and written as D). The lighter isotopes, 12C and 1H are the most common isotopes of each element. The heavier isotope 13C is only about 1% of the total carbon and 2H is 0.015% of the total hydrogen. When we determine hydrogen isotopes we analyze ions of molecular hydrogen with m/z (mass to charge ratio) of 2 and 3; and for carbon we analyze ions of carbon dioxide with m/z of 44, 45, and 46 as shown on Table 2.\nTable 2 Measured Species\n\nO - 12C 16O 44\n\n\nO - 13C 16O 45\n\n\nO - 12C 18O 46\n\nH 1H 2\n\nH 2H 3\n\nTherefore we could write the following for the concentrations of the isotopes of carbon and hydrogen: [12C ] = [ 16O - 12C 16O ] + [ 16O - 12C 18O ] = M44 + M46 [13C ] = [ 16O - 13C 16O ] = M45 [1H ] = 2 [ 1H 1H ] + [ 1H - 2H] = 2M2 + M3 [2H ] = [ 1H 2H ] = M3 It is useful to get a bit of perspective here. Since the natural abundance of 13C is only ~1% of the total carbon, if we could inspect toluene molecules which have 7 carbons per molecule, we would need on average to look at about 14 toluene molecules before we found one with a heavy atom of carbon, 13C; and since 2H is only 0.015% of the total hydrogen we would need on average to look at ~ 833 toluene molecules before we found a heavy atom of hydrogen, 2H. This means that in most molecules we would not expect to find any heavy atoms and virtually\n\nnever more than one heavy atom per molecule, and that includes carbon and hydrogen (and oxygen). i.e. in a molecule with a heavy carbon atom, it would be very unlikely to also find a heavy hydrogen atom. That is why, as shown on Table 2, we can concern ourselves with the measurement of species which have only one heavy atom of any kind. So the picture is that all carbon containing compounds derived from natural products (most of them ultimately are derived from petroleum) and in particular the compounds of interest to us in environmental remediation such as BTEX, MTBE, CVOCs , have a small content of the stable heavy isotopes of carbon and hydrogen and with IRMS instruments we can determine the isotopic content with great sensitivity and precision. The parameter that is measured on an IRMS is the concentration of each of the common stable isotopes of both carbon and hydrogen in each molecule chosen to study. These concentrations are usually reported as the concentration ratio of the heavy isotope to the light isotope, i.e. [13C]/[12C] and [2H]/[1H]. In order to be able to compare data from one instrument or one laboratory to another, there have been adopted international standards for both carbon and hydrogen and these standards are analyzed contemporaneously. The results are reported in terms of a comparison of the sample to the standard, thus small differences in the response of individual instruments is not a factor as long as results are reported with reference to a standard which is also analyzed on the same instrument. For carbon, the standard is Vienna Peedee Belemnite, or VPDB, and for hydrogen the standard is Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water or VSMOW. Lets focus on carbon isotopes and define the isotope ratio R as the ratio of the concentration of compound with 13C to the concentration of the compound with 12C as shown in equation (1). (1) R = ([13C]/[12C])\n\nWe could define R for compound x in the sample and the standard, (2) Rx = ([13C]/[12C])x and Rstd = ([13C]/[12C])std\n\nand, if we were studying hydrogen, we could define\n\n\n\nRx = ([2H]/[1H])x and Rstd = ([2H]/[1H])std\n\nAs we have said, the data is reported in terms of Rx relative to Rstd , as defined by the parameter x where for carbon in compound x, (4)\n\nx 13C\n\n{(Rx - Rstd) / Rstd} x 1000\n\nand the units are parts per thousand or per mil usually denoted with the symbol o/oo . A x 13C value of 0 o/oo then corresponds to a sample with an isotope ratio that is equal to that of the standard. A x 13C value of + 10 o/oo corresponds to a sample with an isotope ratio that is 10 parts per thousand or 1 % higher than that of the standard. For the international standard for carbon, VPDB, the ratio [13C] / [12C] has been reported to be 0.011180, which means that x13C = + 10 o/oo for the sample then corresponds to a [13C] / [12C] ratio of 0.011292. This demonstrates the very subtle changes that need to be measured. The major difference between measurements made using quadrupole mass spectrometers in methods like SW846-8260 and those made with an IRMS instrument is the very high precision that is achieved in the latter instruments due to the simultaneous measurement of the ions on fixed collectors. Standard deviations of the order of 4 to 6 significant figures (Meier-Augenstein, 1999) can be achieved and are a requirement to measure the small changes in isotopic composition at the natural abundance level of the heavier isotopes of carbon and hydrogen.\n\nApplication to In-Situ Processes\n\nSo, why are we interested that there are very minor amounts of these stable heavy isotopes distributed in compounds made from naturally occurring materials? The fact is that when one of these heavy isotopes is a part of a compound, its bond to adjacent atoms is ever so slightly stronger than the equivalent bond of the lighter isotope when it is in the same position in another molecule of the same compound. When molecules of this compound enter into chemical or biologically mediated reactions, the molecules with the lighter isotopes react a little faster than\n\nthe ones with the equivalent heavier isotopes. This means that as the reaction proceeds, the reactant that remains has a progressively higher content of the heavy isotope since the molecules containing light isotopes have reacted to form product faster than those containing heavier isotopes. This process is called fractionation. The degradation processes of interest in environmental remediation are for the most part irreversible kinetic reactions. The magnitude of a kinetic isotope fractionation depends on the reaction pathway or mechanism, the reaction rate, and the relative bond energies of the bonds being severed or formed by the reaction. As long as we are dealing with the low natural abundance of heavy isotopes, as opposed to labeled compounds in which the content of heavy isotopes may be 10% or greater, the fractionation due to typical kinetic reactions, either biological or abiotic, may be described by the classical equation presented by Lord Rayleigh (1896) for the separation of mixed gases. (5) Rt/Ro = f ( -1)\n\nApplied to isotopic fractionation, Rt and Ro are the isotopic ratios at time t = 0, t and f is the fraction of reactant remaining at time t as compared to time t = 0, i.e. (6) f = [reactant]t / [reactant]o\n\nand is the fractionation factor. It is sometimes useful to transform in terms of an enrichment factor , where, (7)\n\n= ( 1) x 1000\n\nTransforming equation (5), the Rayleigh equation becomes, (8) ln (Rt / Ro) = (\n\n1) ln f = ( / 1000) ln f\n\n\nInstead of using the ratios of R directly, equation (8) is often written in terms of the notation as (9) 1000 ln((10-3\n\nr,t +1)/(10-3 r,o +1)) =\n\nln f\n\nFor typical enrichment factors ( - 20 o/oo< < 20 o/oo), ln (10-3 r +1) ~ 10-3 r , then (9) may be simplified to: (10)\n\n\nr,o =\n\nln f\n\nThis simplified version of the Rayleigh equation, originally developed by Mariotti, et. al. (1981) is commonly used to relate the extent of biodegradation to the isotopic ratio, although various forms including equations (8) and (9) are also used. It should also be said that these equations are not applicable to species which are simultaneously being formed and degraded such as cis-DCE or VC in the sequential degradation of TCE, although they would be applicable to the parent TCE species. This does not mean that isotopic fractionation is not useful in evaluating the more complex sequential degradations, however its evaluation will differ from less complex pathways where the parent molecule is the primary concern such as the degradation of benzene or toluene. The Rayleigh model may also be applicable when the rates of the parent species and its primary degradation product degrade at significantly different rates as may be the case with MTBE and TBA. We will first examine the case of the degradation of MTBE where the focus will initially center on MTBE without regard to TBA and proceed to the more complex degradation pathways later. If we rearrange equation (10), (11)\n\nr,t =\n\nln f +\n\n\nit is easily recognized to be the equation of a straight line of the form y = mx + b. Thus plots of r,t vs ln f should be linear ( if the assumptions outlined above are valid for the case in question) with slope and y intercept r,o . Enrichment factors, are often first determined in the laboratory by monitoring the degradation of a chosen contaminant compound using pure cultures or enrichments. Data from\n\nsuch experiments are plotted as ln (Rt / Ro) (or r,t ) vs ln f and the enrichment factor, , is determined from the slope of a linear regression line.\n\nApplication to MTBE and TBA\n\nKuder, et. al. (2005) studied the degradation of MTBE in anaerobic microcosms and enrichment cultures from a site in Parsippany, NJ. The isotopic enrichment of carbon is shown in Figure 6a and the isotopic enrichment of hydrogen is shown in Figure 6b, both as a function of the fraction of MTBE remaining (after equation 8).\n1000 * ln (R/R0) t\n\n8 0\n\n6 0\n\n4 0\n\n2 0\n\n1000 * ln (R/R0) t\n\n- 2 0 0 8 0\n\n6 0\n\n4 0\n\n2 0\n\n- 2 0 0\n\n\n\nFigure 6 The diamonds are data from microcosms using sediment from the Parsippany NJ site and the circles are enrichment cultures developed from the microcosms (Kolhatkar,, 2002). The solid lines are for carbon and hydrogen representing similar data from the aerobic degradation of MTBE( Gray, et. al., 2002).\n\n\nThe slope of the best fit line to the data from these experiments is the enrichment factor which differs significantly from those reported for aerobic degradation. This suggests that these two pathways likely have differing reaction mechanisms. A more sensitive means to observe this apparent difference in mechanism of degradation is to plot the observed 2H vs 13C as shown in Figure 7.\nK u d e r W i l s o n A n a e r o bG i rc a y , e t a l A e r o b i c\n\n5 0\n\n1 0\n\ndel H\n\n3 0\n\n7 0\n\n1 1 0 - 4 0\n\n3 0\n\n2 0\n\n1 0\n\n1 0\n\n2 0\n\n3 0\n\ne l\n\nFigure 7 The slope of the best fit to this data is the ratio H/C . Open triangular data points in Figure 7 represent the reported data trend for the aerobic degradation of MTBE ( Gray, et. al. ,2002) while the solid data points result from the anaerobic degradation (Kuder, et. al., 2002). Clearly the enrichment factors for hydrogen relative to carbon are significantly different in the two processes. Carbon enrichment factors, C , for the aerobic degradation of MTBE are reported in the range -1.4 to -2.4 by Hunkeler et al., (2001) and Gray et al. (2002) . Values of H reported for the aerobic process varied from -30 to -69 (Gray et al., 2002).\n\n\nEnrichment factors, C , for the anaerobic process have been reported in the range -8.2 (Kolhatkar et al. ,2002) to -13 (Kuder et al. , 2005). The enrichment factor, H ,for the anaerobic process has been reported as -16 (Kuder et al. , 2005). Zwank, et. al. (2005) have suggested that the mechanism of the aerobic degradation first involves the breaking of a carbon-hydrogen bond of the methyl group. This mechanism would be expected to have a larger H/C than the mechanism proposed for the anaerobic degradation which is suggested to involve breaking of an oxygen-carbon bond, specifically the bond of the ether oxygen to the methyl group carbon. The data of Figure 7 follow the order suggested, e.g. aerobic H/C >> anaerobic H/C . Rearranging equation (11) and solving for the fraction remaining,\n\nf = [reactant]t / [reactant]o= Ct /Co = exp ((r,t -\n\nr,o )/)\n\nThe extent of biodegradation is of course equal to (1 - f) and we can calculate f if we know for the process (from a laboratory study), Co the initial concentration (usually taken as the highest concentration source zone well), and r,o ,the isotopic ratio of the reactant in the source zone well. If we are dealing with a product like MTBE and know the range of r from measurement of pure product in gasoline we might choose to take one of these measured values as r,o . Given these knowns, the expected concentration in the well if biodegradation is the only degradation process may be calculated from equation (12) using the value of r,t measured in each well. In practice, measured concentrations at monitoring wells are generally found to be smaller than the calculated concentration at least in part because of processes like dilution, volatilization or sorption that cause concentrations to decrease, but do not affect the isotopic ratio or affect it only slightly. Such an observation is shown in Figure 8 (Kuder et al. , 2005) where the observed concentrations are plotted on the ordinate and the calculated concentrations from the isotopic observations are plotted on the abscissa. Almost without exception, the observed data\n\n\nare equal to or less than the value calculated from the isotopic data. So the fraction of material degraded based on isotopic data is conservative.\n\n0 . 0 0 0 0 0 1\n\nA tte n u a tio n o r B io d e g r a d a tio c a lc u la te d fr o m c o n c e n tr a tio n d a ta\n\n0 . 0 0 0 0 1 0 . 0 0 0 1 0 . 0 0 1 0 . 0 1 0 . 1 1\nF calculated from 13C\n\n0 . 1\n\n0 . 0 1 0 . 0 0 10 . 0 0 00 1. 0 0 0 0 0 . 1 0 0 0 0 1 0\n\nFigure 8 Wilson (2005) has demonstrated the use of these relationships at a gasoline spill site in Dana Point, CA. Concentrations of MTBE (ug/l) are shown on the site map on Figure 9. Concentration and isotopic data for MTBE and TBA are shown on Table 3. Also shown is the fraction of MTBE remaining, calculated from the isotopic ratios by equation (12) using the conservative values: C = - 12 ; and MTBE,o = -27.4 which is the highest value reported for MTBE in gasoline. The contemporaneously determined concentration of tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) is also shown on Table 3. The monitor well MW-14 is the most contaminated well and the concentrations of MTBE and TBA were approximately equal when measured in May of 2003, however the concentration of TBA was found to be nearly 4 times that of MTBE in August of 2004. Over this time MTBE has become slightly more positive suggesting that biodegradation may be responsible for the generation of\n\n\nthe TBA. Further along the flow path, MTBE is much more positive and ratios of TBA to MTBE are much higher suggesting that\nM W 3 1 8 1 1\n\nM M M W 1 8 W 1 0 6 7\n\n\n- 1 0 0 . 5\n\n1 6 M 2 5 W M 8 W 1 6 4 M 3 W 4 9 0 6 T P T P M H H g g > > 1 , 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 m m g / k g\n\ng / k g\n\nW 1 M\n\nM W - 1 4 12 56 , 0 0 0\n\nW 3 . 6\n\n\n- 9 D i s p e n s e r 0 . 5U n d e r g r o u n d I s l a n d s\nS t o r a g e T a n k s\n\nt e\n\nr s\n\nFigure 9 Table 3\nWell MW-14 Date 5/20/03 8/18/04 MW-3 5/20/03 8/18/04 MW-8 5/20/03 8/18/04 MW-6 5/20/03 8/18/04 MW-7 MW-11 8/18/04 5/20/03 8/18/04 TBA Measured ( g/L) 13,000 107,000 20,000 32,000 10,000 32,000 3,600 19,200 1,220 < 10 135 MTBE Measured ( g/L) 11,000 26,000 870 164 19 25 47 490 106 1 318\n\n( / )\n\n13 C MTBE -23.88 -21.58 6.84 8.53 18.11 37.99 9.83 -1.58 -27.33 -31.5 * -28.92\n\nMTBE Fraction Remaining (C/Co) 0.75 0.62 0.058 0.050 0.023 0.0043 0.045 0.116 0.994 1.41 1.14\n\n\nbiodegradation is responsible for the generation of TBA. However in wells MW-7 and MW-11, where the concentration of MTBE is very low and TBA is relatively high, the MTBE is even lower than in well MW-14, and is in fact within the range reported ( MTBE -27.5 to -33 o/oo) for MTBE in gasoline. Therefore there is no isotopic evidence for biodegradation of MTBE in these wells. Since the isotopic ratio is related to the fraction of reactant remaining, it can also be used to estimate the rate of biodegradation along a flow path in the plume. If we rearrange equation (12) as follows, (13) Ct = Co exp ((r,t -\n\nr,o )/)\n\nwe see that it has the form of the equation which describes a first order biodegradation process in groundwater, i.e. (14) or (15) Cd = Co exp (-kdd)\n\nCt = Co exp (-ktt)\n\nEquation (14) describes the changes in concentration in a particular monitoring well with time and equation (15) describes the change in concentration along a defined flow path with distance between the upgradient or source well with concentration Co and the monitoring well in question. Therefore we can write, (16) or (17) kt = (r,o -ktt = (r,t -\n\n\nr,t )/ t\n\nwhere kt is the rate constant for biodegradation in terms of time. This can be derived from multiple sets of data at a single well, or, if one knows the groundwater velocity, can be estimated from a single set of measurements at a well since time = (distance from source well)/ (groundwater velocity), i.e. t = d/v, and substituting we get, (18) kt = (r,o -\n\nr,t ) v/(d)\n\nThe rate constant with distance may be defined by, (19) or (20) kd = (r,o -kdd = (r,d -\n\nr,o )/\n\nr,d )/d\n\nwhere kd is the first order rate constant in terms of distance. Wilson (2005) has calculated rate constants for degradation of MTBE along flow paths, both in terms of distance and time using equations 18 and 20. The data are shown in Table 4. In wells MW - 3 and MW- 8 (see Figure 9) the rate constants are 0.3 per meter of travel or 10 per year of residence time. In well MW 7, the rate is much slower and in MW 11 it is not detected at all. These projected rates along flow paths may also be used to predict the possible extent of plumes.\n\n\nTable 4\nRates of Natural Biodegradation of MTBE Fraction MTBE Remaining (C/C0) 0.058 0.05 0.023 0.0043 0.994 1.0 Projected Rate of Biodegradation with Distance (per meter) 0.30 0.31 0.32 0.46 0.00025 0\n\n\nDate Sampled\n\nDistance from MW-14 (meters) 9.6 9.6 11.7 11.7 23.0 44.1\n\nProjected Rate of Biodegradation with Time (per year) 10.9 11.5 11.9 17.1 0.0093 0\n\nMW-3 MW-3 MW-8 MW-8 MW-7 MW-11\n\nMay, 2003 August, 2004 May, 2003 August, 2004 August, 2004 August, 2004\n\nZwank, et al. (2005) have employed a two dimensional CSIA approach to describe biodegradation of MTBE and TBA in a groundwater plume at an industrial disposal site as shown in Figure 10. Both phenol and MTBE had been disposed at the site in open ponds over several years on a small hill, thus there is a radial groundwater flow pattern.\n0 5 0 1 0 0 m\n\n\n\nD I S R G D D D W . W I T O P U U U D I N N N N S\n\n\nP P M 1 0 P M 1 9 P\n5 5 9 9 8 5 6 9 4\n\n0 9\n5 9\n\n\nL L S R D R S D F L O ( m I V W a . s . l . ) I D E\n\n0 G\n\n\nZ 0 4 0 3 0 4\n\n0 1\n\n\n\nZ 0 7\n\n0 2\n\nP 0 5 0 1 P Z 0 2 1 3\n\n\n5 5 5 5 9 8 8 8 5 0 8 P 6\n\n1 5 1 9 P2 Z M\n\n0 6\n\n4 8 2\n\n0 3 M 1 4 P M M B\n\n1 4\n\n1 5\n\n1 6 2 4 P M B 0 3\n7 2 P 5 8 0\n\n\n0 1 0 2\n\n\n\n\n\n2 3 0 6\n\n\n0 5 57 6\n7 8\n\n\n\nFigure 10 MTBE, which had been used as a solvent in chemical synthesis was, over several years, disposed in the pond near PM04. Minor amounts were also disposed near well PM01. A total of 13 ponds are located in the area between wells PM 10 and PM04 and were used for disposal of other organic production wastes. As can be seen on Figure 11, the MTBE plume is extensive and has maximum concentrations in the range of 1.7 g/l at well PM04 (the aqueous solubility of MTBE has been reported to be 48 g/l). At PM04 the TBA concentration was below analytical detection levels suggesting that TBA was not a component of the MTBE disposed. Indeed, its presence as shown in Figure 12 results from in-situ degradation at the site.\n0 5 0 1 0 0 m\n\n2 6 . 3 +\n\n1 6 . 6\n\n3 . 6\n\n6 7 - . 02 5 . 2 - 6 6 . 9 2 6\n\n7 3\n\n2 2 . 2 5\n\n2 5 . -8\n\n4 2\n\n2 5-\n\n6 1 . 6 1 3C 2 . 4 - 2 1H . 1% ( % . 3 -. 6 4 8 . 7 2 6 . 97 6 . 2 . 5 5 6 -. 7 5 6 . 7\n1 9 . 8 2 1 -. 1 1 8 . 1\n\n2 6 . 5\n\n> 3 1 7 3 1 5 % ( %1\n\n0 5 , , , 0 0\n\n5 0 , 0 , 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 v sv s\n\n, 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 - 0 - 1 0 - 7 0 - 3 - 1 , 0 5 P0 D0 B V\n\n5 3 5 , , 0\n\ng / L 0 , 0 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 g 0 0 0 g / 0 0 0 g / 0 g / L ) g / L\nW )\n\ng / L g / L / L L L\n\n3 7 . 6\n6 . 5 -\n\n8 0 . 8- 7 1 3 . 2 4 0 . 0 - 1 0 9 . 66 0 . 3 1 6 . 2\n\n2 6 . 4 9\n\n5 1 . 1\n\n2 6 . 0\n\n6 1 . 3 -\n\n5 7 . 9\n1 3 . 6 6 1 - . 82 3 . 4\n\n2 1 . 0\n\n5 4 . 2\n\n2 2 . 6\n\n5 8 . 2 -\n\n7 4 . 0 -\n\n2 3 . 0\n\n6 6 . 0\n\n2 5 . 1 - 2 2 . 8 6 3- . 2 8 2- . 55 9 . 3\n\n6 1 . 3\n\n\n\nFigure 11\n\n\n5 0\n\n1 0 0\n\n2 4 . 7 2 1 . 0 7 5 . 9\n\n2 5 . 42 7 1 . 8 H\n\n1 3\n\n%( %\n%( %\n\n> 8 4 2 5 1\n\n, , , 0 0\n\n1 0 0 0\n\nv s\nv s\n\n, 0 0 0 0 - 1 0 - 8 0 - 4 0 - 2 , 0 - 5 0 0\n6 0 0 0\n\n6 , , 0\n\ng , 0 0 0 0 0 0 g\n\n/ L 0 0 0 0 g / L\n\ng / L g / L g / L / L\n\n2 6 . 1 5 -\n\n2 7 . 7 -\n\n2 4 . 6 6 0 . 0\n\n2 4 . 4 - 2 4 . 8 - 2 4 . -6 6 8 . 8 2 5 .- 3 6 1 . 3 2 4 . 6 8 2 . 0 2 3 . 4 4 8 . 3\n\n- 2 5 . 4 2 4 .- 7 1 1 6 . - 2 2 4 . 6 7 6 . 7 - 9 5 . 4 -\n\n2 5 . 9 - 2 4 . 6 1 0 4 . 5 - 6 3 . 3 - 2 5 . 0 - 6 3 . 4 2 4 . 6 - 2 5 . 1 9 8 . 2 - 1 0 2 . - 2 4 . 9- 2 5 - 1 0 0 -. 9 7 8 - 2 4 . 7 - 9 5 . 8 - 2 - 9 - 2 4 . 9\n\n2 . 3 . 0 4 . 0 2 . 0\n\n\nFigure 12 Although several wells near PM04 had near identical carbon and similar hydrogen isotopic signatures suggesting that biodegradation is not significant near the source, significant isotopic enrichment of MTBE with increasing distance from PM04 is evident with 13C up to +40.0 o/oo and 2H up to +60.3 o/oo. With one exception, the carbon isotopic composition of TBA was relatively invariant, -25.02 +/- 0.75 o/oo in the plume, however it was slightly enriched relative to the parent MTBE at the source well. This was explained as due to the fact that position specific carbon isotopic signature of the t-butyl group is not necessarily the same as the carbon isotopic signature of the methyl group. MTBE is made by the reaction of isobutene with methanol and the isotopic signatures of these two industrial chemicals are not necessarily the same, indeed it would be fortuitous if they were the same. Further, the isotopic signature of an MTBE standard and its associated t-butyl group were determined and it was found that 13C of the MTBE standard was -28.13 +/- 0.15 o/oo while the 13C of the t-butyl alcohol obtained via complete acid hydrolysis was - 25.49 +/- 0.10 o/oo .\n\n\nFinally, Zwank et al. (2005) showed the power of using both the carbon and hydrogen isotopic signatures to enable verification of the mechanism of degradation (aerobic vs anaerobic) as shown in Figure 13.\nZwank, et al 2005\n80 60 40 20 0 del H -20 -40 -60 -80 -100 -120 -40 -20 0 del C 20 40\n\nKuderWilson Anaerobic\n\nGray, et al Aerobic\n\n\n\nF Figure 13\n\n\nOnce the mechanism of degradation is determined, as in this case, to be anaerobic, then appropriate values of can be used to calculate the fraction of MTBE degraded (Wilson et al., 2005). Day et al. (2003) and Gulliver (2003) have shown that in a plume of parent TBA (no MTBE) at a manufacturing site in Texas, TBA is apparently degraded under sulfate reducing conditions. Not only is the carbon of the remaining TBA enriched in 13C as shown in Figure 14, but the sulfur in the residual SO4= is simultaneously enriched in 34S as shown in Figure 15.\n\n1,000,000 100,000 10,000 1,000 100 10 1 0 0 200 400 600 800 1000\n\n\n\nTBA (ug/L) & SO4 (mg/L)\n\n-29 1200\n\n- delta 13C permil\n\n\nDistance (ft)\nTBA SO4 d13C permil\n\nFigure 14\n\nSW 20\n\n\ndel 34S permil\n\n0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160\n\nSulfate, mg/L\n\nFigure 15 As shown in Figure 16, in wells where TBA concentrations are significantly reduced the carbon isotope ratio shows moderate, but unmistakable fractionation suggestive of biodegradation. This is also shown in Figure 17 for 6 specific wells where the carbon isotopic signature is plotted vs the natural log of the ratio of TBA concentration in 1992 vs the concentration in 2002. As that ratio increases due to the decrease in concentration over the 10 year interval, the carbon isotopic signature of TBA increases as would be expected if the concentration decrease were due to biological or abiotic degradative processes. This data provides unequivocal proof that TBA can and will biodegrade under naturally occurring conditions in groundwater and CSIA may be the most definitive means to identify its occurrence. Consideration of the possible mechanism of TBA degradation, leads one to suggest that the first step is likely hydrogen abstraction rather than a nucleophillic attack on carbon. If this is the case, then it would be expected that the isotopic fractionation of hydrogen would be more significant than that of carbon and thus del H could be a more sensitive indicator of in-situ\n\n\nTBA degradation than del C. Unfortunately, del H was not determined in this study so we have yet to observe this effect.\n\n-22 Delta 13-C permil\n\n\n\n\n-30 1 10 100 1,000 TBA (ug/L) 10,000 100,000 1,000,000\n\nFigure 16 The degradation of TBA seems to be redox potential sensitive in that while in some limited cases such as described above it does degrade under sulfate reducing conditions there are numerous reports in the literature that it accumulates under methanogenic conditions. It is clear that much further study into the in-situ degradation of TBA is needed and stable isotope analyses will no doubt play an important role in elucidating the nuances of this process.\n13C vs log (C1992/C2002) in 6 wells\n-20 -22\n\ndel 13C per mil\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFigure 17\n\n\nSo in summary, compound specific isotope analysis is a powerful technique to evaluate the characteristics and progress of MTBE plumes in groundwater. Isotopic fractionation of the residual MTBE is the only incontrovertible evidence of degradation and it can also be applied to determine the degradative mechanism. Given the mechanism of degradation and thus the applicable fractionation factors, one can then calculate several characteristics of the process, including the fraction of MTBE degraded and the in-situ rate of degradation. In-situ rates can be used to estimate the extent of the plume under the existing conditions thus enabling the determination of the potential impact to sensitive receptors in its path.\n\nApplication to Chlorinated Solvents\n\nAs we have mentioned, the Rayleigh model cannot be applied to sequential degradation processes such as the well known biodegradation of PCE to ethene. It can be applied to the parent compound of the sequential process, but not to its daughter products because they are being simultaneously formed and consumed. The Rayleigh model has been used to determine enrichment factors for each of the members of this sequence by constructing microcosms starting with each member to determine the enrichment factor based on isotopic ratios vs fraction remaining. In general it has been found that the enrichment factors increase with each step in the sequence from PCE to TCE, TCE to cDCE, c-DCE to VC and VC to ethene as shown in Table 5.\nTable 5 Isotopic Enrichment Factors , (o/oo ) PCE Lollar et al.(1999) Bloom et al.(2000) Slater et al.(2001) -5.5 TCE -7.1 -4.6 -13.8 -15.1 -20.4 -24.1 -22.4 cDCE VC\n\nThe differing enrichment factors for each compound, as shown on Table 5, are attributable to the precise conditions under which they are determined. It is suggested (Slater et al., 2001) that enrichment factors\n\ndiffer for different microbial consortia, for replicate degradations by the same consortia and for differing electron donors. Even with the observed variations in enrichment factors reported to date, there are consistent trends in the isotopic fractionation observed during reductive dechlorination of chlorinated ethenes. The fact that enrichment factors fall into distinct ranges allows one to estimate the relative extent of degradation of a chlorinated ethene. The consistent observation of isotopic fractionation during reductive dechlorination suggests that CSIA is a useful tool to identify the occurrence of biodegradation. Song, et. al. (2002) have presented a detailed, time-series isotope study of a dynamic system undergoing enhanced bioremediation at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) Test Area North (TAN). The bioremediation of TCE and daughter products was significantly stimulated by the addition of lactate to the source area. Concentrations of the chlorinated ethene species varied greatly during this pilot study, making it impossible to use concentration data to determine the extent of degradation. The isotope data were used to clearly show that all of the TCE that was degraded was fully converted to ethene. The site plan is shown in Figure 18. The source well is TSF-05 and wells TAN-25 and TAN-26 are used to illustrate the sequential degradation using both concentration and isotopic data. Wells TAN 29 and TAN 31 are used as background wells. Well TAN-29 was not affected by the pilot study and TAN 31 was only minimally affected.\n\n\nT A N - 3 1\n\n\nT S F - 0 5\n\n5 , 0 0 0\n- 2 6T A N\n\ng / L\n- 3 7\n\n\n\n- 2 8 - 3 0 A\n\n- 2 5 T A N\n\nT C E I s o p l e t h s\nT A T A N - 2 9 N - 4 9\n\n\n- 1 0 A\n\n1 , 0 0 0\n0 5 0 1 0 0m\n\ng / L\n\n- 2 7\n\n1 0 0\ne t e r s\n\ng / L\n\nFigure 18 The pilot study began with the injection of clean water into well TSF-05. Lactate injection through the same well began some 25 days after the clean water injection was ended. Although lactic acid was injected as a stimulant for reductive dechlorination, it was rapidly converted to acetic, propionic, and butyric acids via fermentation. Concentrations of total acids at the four wells discussed above are shown in Figure 19.\nP r e - L a c t a Lt e a c t a t e T r a c e r I n je c t io n T e s t S t a r t e d L a c t a t e I n je c t io n S t o p p e d L a c t a t e I n je c t io n R e s u m e d\n\n8 0\n\nO r g a n ic A c id C o n c . (m M )\n\n6 0\n\n4 0\n\n2 0\n\n1 0 0\n\n2 0 0\n\n3 0 0\n\n4 0 0\n\nT i m T A N 2 9 T A N\n\ne 2 5\n\n( d a y s ) T A N 2 6 T A N 3 1\n\nFigure 19 It is clear that significant concentrations of organic acids are present at wells TAN-25 and TAN-26 throughout the lactate injection period. Significant concentrations of organic acids were never observed in TAN-29 and only toward the end of the injection period in TAN-31.\n\n\nThe chlorinated ethene concentration and isotopic data are plotted on Figure 20, where the effects of the clean water injection can be seen to reduce the concentration of TCE and other chlorinated species present during the first 25 days of the pilot test. Concentrations rebounded when clean water injection was ended and leveled out during the first month of lactate injection. TCE concentrations then decreased sharply with a corresponding increase in cis-DCE. It is interesting that the sharp drop in TCE concentration just prior to day 100 was not accompanied by an increase in its 13C as would be expected as a result of the obvious degradation of the TCE to cis-DCE. This is likely due to mobilization of fresh TCE from the source by the water associated with lactate injection. The volume of water injected was increased on day 106 and again on day 204. The concentration of TCE began to increase on day 133 and its 13C decreased to less than 30 o/oo , which is likely near the ratio in the undegraded TCE. Concentration and isotopic ratio for t-DCE followed a similar path which may indicate that it was also mobilized from the source area.\na )\n\n1 5\n\n1 0\n\nC o n c e n t r a t io n ( M )\n\n1 0 0\n\n2 0 0\n\n3 0 0\n\n4 0 0\n\nT i m T C E c - D C E\n\n( d a y s ) t - D C E V C e t h e n e\n\n0 13\n\nC (/00 ) -\n\n1 0\n\n2 0\n\n3 0\n\n4 0\n\n5 0\n\n6 0\n\n1 0 0\n\n2 0 0\n\n3 0 0\n\n4 0 0\n\nT im\n\n( d a y s )\n\nFigure 20 It is notable that the C of the cis-DCE began to increase almost immediately after its concentration increased due to degradation of the TCE. This almost certainly indicates that it too is being degraded and the isotopic evidence of degradation appears significantly before the\n\n\nfirst observations of VC or ethene. This suggests that isotopic evidence of degradation may be used to indicate the activity of degradation processes in plumes where daughter products of reductive dechlorination are not observable or where indeed they are not being formed as would be the case in anaerobic oxidation or abiotic degradation of cis-DCE and VC. The 13C of both VC and ethene were initially very low, but increased rapidly as degradation proceeded. Eventually the 13C of ethene, in all wells where there was significant organic acid concentrations, reached the 13C of the original TCE indicating complete reductive dechlorination was taking place. It is clear that such a conclusion based on concentration or mass balance data alone would not have been possible at this complex field site. This dataset also demonstrates that the isotopic fractionation data can be used to distinguish between changes in concentration due to physical processes such as groundwater transport or dilution from those associated with biotic or abiotic degradation processes. Hunkeler et al., (2005) have used stable carbon isotope analysis in conjunction with concentration data to clarify and confirm the active degradation pathways at a former waste solvent disposal site where at least 14 different chlorinated hydrocarbons were present in groundwater. One of several issues which were resolved using carbon isotopic data was the observation of TCE at down gradient locations with 13C in the range of -41.9 to -45 which is well below the range of values known for pure-phase industrial TCE which has been determined in the range -24.3 to -31.9 (Hunkeler et al., 2004; Jendrzejewske et al. , 2001; Van Wanderdam et al., 1995). Other sources of TCE included reductive dechlorination of PCE or dehydrohalogenation of 1,1,2,2-PCA. Although PCE was not a major contaminant at the site, it was present with 13C in the range -30.5 to -28.3 . Enrichment factors for degradation of PCE to TCE (-2 to -5.5 ) suggest that the observed TCE was not a degradation product of PCE. Carbon isotopic values for 1,1,2,2-PCA in the source area were found to be 13C = - 39.1 which suggested that it was most likely the source of the TCE. Shouakar-Stash et al. (2003) have characterized selected chlorinated solvents in terms of their hydrogen, carbon and chlorine isotopic\n\ncomposition. They have noted that 2H for a range of manufactured TCE varied between +466.9 and + 681.9 whereas TCE generated as a dechlorination product of PCE was significantly depleted, 2H < -300 . This suggests that 2H of certain chlorinated solvents may be a powerful means of distinguishing between dechlorination products and manufactured solvents. At complex sites like the one described above (Hunkeler et al., 2005) the combination of carbon and hydrogen isotopic data together with concentration data will no doubt significantly enhance the ability to unravel the source of contaminants. ShouakarStash et al. (2003) suggested that the combination of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine isotopic data may even provide forensic evidence of the manufacturer of a particular solvent.\n\nIsotopes and Groundwater Transport Modeling\n\nWhile qualitative conclusions about the occurrence of biodegradation and its relative extent may be obtained and indeed be useful from sites as described above, these data will be potentially much more powerful and quantitative when stable isotope constraints are integrated into groundwater transport models. Indeed several such investigations have been reported (Beranger et al., 2005; van Breukelen et. al., 2005; Morrill et al., 2006) with initial application to microcosm and column studies. Van Breukelen et al. (2005) verified their model for a single species by comparison to the Rayleigh model. They confirmed the model, as shown in Figure 21 for sequential degradation including sorption by simulation of a previously published experiment (Hunkeler et al., 1999) in which complete reductive dechlorination of PCE to ethene occurred. This model was reportedly capable of addressing sources of mixed composition and also accounts for sorption. Isotopic enrichment factors and Monod kinetic parameters were obtained from the model through optimization using the nonlinear parameter optimization program PEST developed by Watermark Numerical Computing:\n\n\n1 0 0\n\nT o t a l C o n c e n tr a tio n ( M )\n8 0\n\n6 0\n\nE P C E c - D C E\n\nt h e n e\n\n4 0\n\n2 0\n\n0 2\n\n4 6 8 1 0 1 2 1 4 1 6\n\n0 1 8 2 0\n\nc - D\n\nt h\n\ne n\n\nt a l\n\n13C ( 0/ 00 )\n\n\nc - D T C P C E V C E\n\nE T o t a l\n\nt h e n e\n\n1 0\n\n1 2\n\n1 4\n\n1 6\n\n1 8\n\n2 0\n\na y s\n\nFigure 21. Lines are simulated values; symbols depict observations. Dashed lines are the results from the modified model. In addition to sorption, van Breukelen et al. (2005) addressed the use of their model, which incorporates isotopic constraints, to demonstrate degradation of an apparently accumulating intermediate degradation product, e.g. c-DCE; and the occurrence of mixed sources, i.e. both PCE and TCE parent compounds present. Neither of these situations can be quantified using the Rayleigh model. Morrill et al., (2006) have developed a model to predict concentrations during sequential reactions such as the reductive dechlorination of\n\nchlorinated ethenes. Their model incorporates Rayleigh model isotopic principals and specified enrichment factors for each step of the process. The model was tested by attempting to predict concentration values in three experimental datasets of concentration and isotopic values which have been reported by Slater et al. (2001). The model was then coupled to a parameter estimation method to estimate the values for the isotopic enrichment factors of the intermediates TCE, cDCE and VC. The enrichment factors for the intermediates TCE and cDCE were found to either be within or near the published range determined when they were the parent compound. In contrast, the enrichment factor for intermediate VC was significantly outside the published range for VC when it was a parent compound. This difference could be attributable to the presence of multiple chloroethene dechlorinating enzymes, each having a different affinity for the VC substrate and imparting a different isotopic fractionation. It is known that there are at least two, and possibly three differing VC reductive dehalogenase genes associated with the KB-1 consortium (Muller et al, 2004; Krajmalnik-Brown et al., 2004; Waller et al., 2005). Therefore it is plausible that a different set of dechlorinating enzymes are active depending on the conditions when the initial reactants are TCE and/or c-DCE, and VC is present as an intermediate compound, versus when VC is added to the culture directly. Other explanations also may be possible. Presently there has been considerable success in applying models of contaminant transport in 3 dimensions which incorporate not only the physical characteristics of groundwater flow, but the reactive processes of biodegradation, both natural and enhanced, and the effects of redox geochemistry of the groundwater. These reactive processes of course uniquely affect both the light and heavy isotopes of carbon and hydrogen as we have discussed in the pages above. The way that the isotopes are affected is measured very precisely by the isotopic ratio and its change with time and location. The models we have discussed above have for the most part been applied in one dimension in batch or simple column flow experiments where concentrations can be measured very accurately. As such the models have been used to reveal other fundamental characteristics such as enrichment factors. As we begin to understand actual enrichment factors that occur at field sites, the incorporation of isotopic constraints into 3 dimensional reactive\n\ntransport models will make them even more powerful predictors of concentration. Will this plume stabilize and/or contract before impacting a receptor? Can we confidently reduce the long term monitoring efforts and costs by accurately modeling plume development? The incorporation of isotopic constraints into such models will certainly enhance our ability to answer these questions and may ultimately be the most useful aspect of CSIA.\n\n\nSchmidt, T.C., L. Zwank, M. Elsner, M. Berg, R. U. Meckenstock and S. B. Haderlein. Compound-specific stable isotope analysis of organic contaminants in natural environments: a critical review of the state of the art, prospects, and future challenges. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 378, 283 300, 2004. Meckenstock, R. U., B. Morasch, R. Warthmann, B. Schink, E. Annweiler, W. Michelis, and H.H. Richnow, 13C / 12C isotope fractionation of aromatic hydrocarbons during microbial degradation. Environmental Microbiology 1, 409 414, 1999. Meier-Augenstein, W, Applied gas chromatography coupled to isotope ratio mass spectrometry, J. Chromatography A 842, 351 371, 1999. Rayleigh, J. W. S., Theoretical considerations respecting the separation of gases by diffusion and similar processes, Philos. Mag. 42, 493 498, 1896. Mariotti, A., J. C. Germon, P. Hubert, P. Kaiser, R. Letolle, A. Tardieux, P.Tardieux. Experimental determination of nitrogen kinetic isotope fractionation: some principles; illustration for the denitrification and nitrification processes. Plant and Soil 62 (3), 413 430, 1981. Kuder, T., J. T. Wilson, P. Kaiser, R. Kolhatkar, P. Philp, and J. Allen. Enrichment of stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes during anaerobic biodegradation of MTBE: Microcosm and field evidence. Environmental Science & Technology 39 (1), 213 220, 2005. Kolhatkar, R., T. Kuder, P. Philp, J. Allen, J.T. Wilson. Use of compound-specific stable carbon isotope analyhses to demonstrate anaerobic biodegradation of MTBE in groundwater at a gasoline release site. Environmental Science & Technology 36 (23), 5139 5146, 2002. Gray, J. R., G. Lacrampe-Couloume, D. Gandhi, K. M. Scow, R. D. Wilson, D. M. Mackay, and B. S. Lollar. Carbon and hydrogen isotopic fractionation during biodegradation of methyl tert-butyl ether. Environmental Science & Technology 36 (9), 1931 1938, 2002.\n\n\nHunkeler, D., B. J. Butler, R. Aravena, and J. F. Barker. Monitoring biodegradation of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) using compoundspecific carbon isotope analysis. Environmental Science & Technology 35 (4), 676 681, 2001. Zwank, L., M. Berg, M. Elsner, T. C. Schmidt, R. P. Schwarzenbach, and S. B. Haderlein. New Evaluation Scheme for Two-Dimensional Isotope Analysis to Decipher Biodegradation Processes: Application to Groundwater Contamination by MTBE. Environmental Science & Technology 39 (4), 1018 1029, 2005. Wilson, J. T., P. M. Kaiser and C. Adair. Monitored Natural Attenuation of MTBE as a Risk Management Option at Leaking Underground Storage Tank Sites. EPA/600/R-04/1790, January 2005. Day, Michael J. and T. Gulliver. Natural Attenuation of Tert Butyl Alcohol at a Texas Chemical Plant. In MTBE Remediation Handbook, Amherst, MA: Amherst Scientific Publishers, 541 560, 2003. Gulliver, Terry. Sulfate Reducing Biodegradation of TBA Confirmed by C and S Isotopes. Presentation at the Thirteenth Annual AEHS Meeting and West Coast Conference on Soils Sediments and Water, San Diego CA, March 2003. Slater, Gregory F., B.S. Lollar, B. E. Sleep, and E.A. Edwards. Variability in Carbon Isotopic Fractionation during Biodegradation of Chlorinated Ethenes: Implications for Field Applications. Environmental Science & Technology 35 (5), 901 907, 2001. Lollar, B. S., G. Slater, J. Ahad, B. Sleep, J. Spivack, M. Brennan, P. MacKenzie. Organic Geochemistry 30, 813 820, 1999. Bloom, Y., R. Aravena, D. Hunkeler, E. Edwards, S. K. Frape. Carbon Isotope Fractionation during Microbial Dechlorination of Trichloroethene, cis-1,2-Dichloroethene, and Vinyl Chloride: Implications for Assessment of Natural Attenuation. Environmental Science & Technology 34 (13), 2768 2772, 2000. Song, D. L., M. E. Conrad, K. S. Sorenson, and L. Alvarez-Cohen. Stable Carbon Isotope Fractionation during Enhanced In Situ\n\nBioremediation of Trichloroethene. Environmental Science & Technology 36 (10) 2262 2268, 2002. Hunkeler, D., R. Aravena, K. Berry-Spark, and E. Cox. Assessment of Degradation Pathways in an Aquifer with Mixed Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Contamination Using Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis. Environmental Science & Technology 39 (16), 5975 5981, 2005. Hunkeler, D., N. Chollet, X. Pittet, R. Aravena, J. A. Cherry, B. L. Parker. Effect of source variability and transport processes on carbon isotope ratios of TCE and PCE in two sandy aquifers. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 74 , 265 282, 2004. Jendrzejewski, N., H. G. M. Eggenkamp, M. L. Coleman. Characterisation of chlorinated hydrocarbons from chlorine and carbon isotopic compositions: scope of application to environmental problems. Applied Geochemistry 16 , 1021 1031, 2001. Van Wanderdam, E. M., S. K. Frape, R. Aravena, R. J. Drimmie, H. Flatt, J. A. Cherry. Stable chlorine and carbon isotope measurements of selected organic solvents. Applied Geochemistry 10, 547 552, 1995. Shouakar-Stash, O., S. K. Frape, and R. J. Drimmie. Stable hydrogen, carbon and chlorine isotope measurements of selected chlorinated organic solvents. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 60, 211 228, 2003. Beranger, S. C., B. E. Sleep, B. S. Lollar, and F. P. Monteagudo. Transport, biodegradation and isotopic fractionation of chlorinated ethenes: modeling and parameter estimation methods. Advances in Water Resources 28, 87 98, 2005. Van Breukelen, B.M., D. Hunkeler and F. Volkering. Quantification of Sequential Chlorinated Ethene Degradation by use of a Reactive Transport Model Incorporating Isotope Fractionation. Environmental Science & Technology 39 (11), 4189 4197, 2005. Morrill, P. L., B. E. Sleep, G. F. Slater, E. A. Edwards and B. S. Lollar. Evaluation of Isotopic Enrichment Factors for the Biodegradation of Chlorinated Ethenes Using a Parameter Estimation Model: Toward an\n\nImproved Quantification of Biodegradation. Environmental Science & Technology 40 (12), 3886 3892, 2006. Hunkeler, D., R. Aravena and B.J. Butler. Monitoring Microbial Dechlorination of Tetrachloroethene (PCE) in Groundwater Using Compound-Specific Stable Carbon Isotope Ratios: Microcosm and Field Studies. Environmental Science & Technology 33 (16), 2733 2738, 1999. Muller, J. A., B. M. Rosner, G. von Abendroth, G. Meshulam-Simon, P. L. McCarty, A. M. Spormann. Molecular identification of the catabolic vinyl chloride reductase from Dehalococcoides sp. Strain VS and its environmental distribution. Applied Environmental Microbiology 70, 4880 4888, 2004. Krajmalnik-Brown, R., T. Holscher, I.N. Thomson, F. M. Saunders, K. M. Ritalahti and F.E. Loffler. Genetic identification of a putative vinyl chloride reductase in Dehalococcoides sp. Strain BAV1. Applied Environmental Microbiology 70, 6347 6351, 2004. Waller, A. S., R. Krajmalnik-Brown, F. E. Loffler, E. A. Edwards. Multiple reductive-dehalogenase-homologous genes are simultaneously transcribed during dechlorination by dehalococcoides-containing Cultures. Applied Environmental Microbiology 71, 8257 8264, 2005.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9825517535209656}
+{"content": "Interpreting pathological evidence in ancient skeletal remains can be made difficult, either by of the nature of the specimen itself or due to what is known as pseudopathology.\n\nOur research in this area is led by Dr Mervyn Harris.\n\nWhat is pseudopathology?\n\nPseudopathology is where what is seen on the remains mimics evidence of a pathological condition but is in fact due to other factors.\n\nThese factors can be the soil conditions in which the specimen has been found or other causes such as insect or animal factors.\n\nThey can be insects burrowing their way into bone fragments suggesting the presence a pathological condition or animals gnawing away at bone fragments giving the impression of trauma or a particular disease process.\n\nCertain soil conditions such as an acidic or alkaline environment can cause demineralisation of bone, giving the appearance of diseases resulting in low bone density such as osteoporosis. All of these serve to make an accurate diagnosis more difficult.\n\nRevisiting research\n\nMuch published work on ancient specimens was carried out many decades ago using the equipment and scientific knowledge of that or earlier periods. Revisiting such specimens with 21st century equipment and scientific knowledge can help to either confirm or challenge previous findings.\n\nRadiographs of anatomically normal joints demonstrate a visible joint space which is often most clearly seen in radiographs of the hip joints. In arthritic disease such as osteoarthritis, this anatomical joint space decreases as the disease process progresses, ending with total obliteration in serious cases.\n\nIn radiographs of Egyptian mummies, the joint spaces, especially those of the hip joints and vertebrae, are often seen to be reduced or absent suggesting progressive degenerative joint disease but are in fact due to tissue dehydration secondary to the mummification process.\n\nIt is clear therefore, that skeletal evidence of pathology seen in ancient specimens must always be very carefully evaluated before reaching a definitive diagnosis.\n\nVery many external factors can influence the appearance of ancient specimens leading one to arrive at an incorrect interpretation and diagnosis if one it not too careful.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9989139437675476}
+{"content": "Buckle down and prep for Finals in advance\n\nNovember 26th, 2012\n\nThe four weeks between Thanksgiving and the winter holiday break can be the toughest lap of the academic race for many students. Everyone loves to buckle down and cram for the “last lap” before Finals in January, but this “second-to-last lap” in December is brutal. With tons of distractions, from family coming into town, holiday shopping, and making sure to enjoy the holiday spirit, it comes as no surprise that many students have a tough time focusing on their tests and assignments.\n\nBut this is not the time to be distracted. In fact, this is the most crucial season of all. These four weeks are a perfect time for teachers to play catch up. Oftentimes, teachers will try to cram in two full chapters or units during this brief period, and the effects on students’ grades can be tremendously impactful. Some students will be distracted and choose to focus time and energy on interests other than school. These students will pay the price come January, and many grades will be far too low going into the break to be brought up. Other students will realize the incredible opportunity in front of them. They will buckle down, hit the books, and earn excellent grades on the tests, quizzes, and assignments offered.\n\nFor math classes, including geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus, the methods and concepts discussed this month will probably be the toughest content you will see on your first semester Final Exam. Keep this in mind, even if you are feeling overwhelmed by the material. If you can master these tough concepts now by studying in advance and working with your tutor, your holiday break will be significantly less stressful, and your Finals preparation in January will be a much easier process. This holds true for other classes too, including history, Spanish, English, biology, chemistry, physics, and even your elective classes.\n\nA letter to Rob\n\nFebruary 1st, 2012\n\nHey Rob,\n\nMy son didn’t cancel two sessions before the final, only one. The second was canceled because his final was the same day as tutoring would have been, in other words, too late. Like the other two ladies you mentioned, he also felt like he aced the final and apparently the average score for everyone who took it was a 75%. Now, that being said, his teacher chose to grade the final on a curve and does round the percentage of each kid’s score so his 79.5% rounded him up to an 80% which got him the B-!!!!\n\nHe’s going to finish with an A in Trig, and an A in English (and wrestling) and the rest B’s.\n\nI’m really proud of him and glad we started tutoring from the very start this year, it definitely shows.\n\nThank you for addressing my previous concerns and for your continued support.\n\nBest regards,\n\nPV AVID Finals tutoring\n\nJanuary 11th, 2012\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQuality People Make Quality Tutors: Volunteering for Relay for Life\n\nMay 20th, 2011\n\nHere at Study Hut Tutoring in Manhattan Beach, we’re more than just good tutors: we pride ourselves on being good human beings! After all, the same qualities that make a good teacher–passion, care, dedication, responsibility–also make a good person. That’s why I thought it was perfectly fitting that Study Hut participated in and had a team at last Saturday’s Relay for Life event in Manhattan Beach.\n\nIt was truly impressive to see my coworkers stay late and long after work in order to plan out team activities, and even more admirable to see them put in all the extra hours needed to fundraise for the American Cancer Society. After a long day of leading SAT prep, correcting Chemistry and Trig problems, and editing students’ essays, a box of whole grain crackers and a jar of natural peanut butter practically beg you to their side; however, my fellow tutors met up at 10 PM to figure out how we could raise money for such a worthy cause, and then took their usual day off to put on a car wash at Mira Costa High School. I was so proud of them for working to make a difference!\n\nBecause here at Study Hut, we are well-versed in the science of cancer: we pride ourselves on knowing and teaching biology, AP Chemistry, psychology, and anatomy. But we cannot know or explain the actual experience of having cancer. Instead, we can come together to support our community, whether in Manhattan Beach, the greater Southbay, or the nation as a whole, of cancer survivors and help fund research that will ease or prevent future suffering. I’m glad Study Hut got the chance to prove that it doesn’t just have the best tutors–it has the best people!\n\nThe new tutor experience\n\nMarch 15th, 2011\n\nI’ve only been a tutor at Study Hut for two weeks, but I am most impressed with my students who are well-organized. What does a well-organized student do? They fill out their agendas with all their homework and upcoming tests/quizzes. They fully take advantage of their planners. They bring in all their books and homework worksheets to the tutoring session (those that do not have the correct materials, just end up wasting time by having to call someone to bring the book or having the tutor waste time figuring what the student has to do). The well-organized students are able to get more from their tutoring session because they have a plan for what to do before they even show up to study hut. They know what classes they have homework in and are able to assess their weakest subjects so that we can spend the session working on that subject.\n\nOne of my most organized students is Tim, a junior, from Mira Costa High. Tim mainly comes for help in Geometry and Chemistry. While he may not know how to do the problems at first glance, after an explanation of the concept behind the problems, he is able to work out similar problems by himself. One of the main reasons why Tim is able to do this is because he writes down all his work on paper. I constantly stress to my students to show all their work because if they get the wrong answer, they can go back and pinpoint exactly where they made a mistake. This enables the student to make a mental note of the mistake they made and not make it again in the future. Tim also comes to each session with an attack plan on what to do during the session and he always knows whether he has an upcoming quiz or test.\n\nIn all, to stay ahead of the game that is school, one needs to be organized by making full use of the planner and to show all relevant work when doing homework!\n\nHoning Math Skills with Incentives\n\nFebruary 22nd, 2011\n\nFor older students the incentives are easier to see, better math skills lead to higher grades. For younger children the final incentives of productive studying are harder to see, which is why we sometimes need to provide an extra boost of encouraged learning with a small piece of candy for a correct answer. Getting students in the mood to learn, and to appreciate their education can be one of the hardest things to accomplish as a tutor.\n\nWhen the students learn how useful math can be to them and how they can apply specific math skills to real-life situations, they work harder and perform better. Mathematics revolves our daily lives. Teaching kids about everyday uses of math helps them to better understand the real world around them. Some examples of everyday uses of math included: problem solving, budgeting money, time management, calculating tips and tax, memorizing important number data i.e. phone numbers and locker combinations, and estimating distances and weights. These real world skills have major benefits towards the academic success of an individual, and can lead to a greater success in careers that you might not expect to be math-intensive such as, agriculture, law, business, politics, psychology, and music.\n\nDaily mental math exercises to help keep your brain active are a great way to stay on top of your mathematical game. Solving puzzles and exercises such as, suduku or homework problem sets, keeps your mind sharp and ready to tackle any challenge. Mathematics may seem to be an underrated subject, but it has lasting influences in our lives everyday. From the moment we wake up to check the clock, to the number of hours we work each day to make a living, we are constantly surrounded by numbers.\n\nAnnouncement: Study Hut El Segundo is here\n\nFebruary 9th, 2011\n\n\n\n\n– Spanish tutoring\n\n\nPalos Verdes High School Math Tutoring\n\nJune 3rd, 2010\n\nA lot of students from Palos Verdes and Peninsula High School come into our Redondo office despising math, and I don’t blame them. Mathematics is a tough subject that takes a lot of time to understand, and students often try to get by by memorizing the rules, proofs, and theorems without ever perceiving how they work. After all, it’s a nasty subject that I’ll never really need. Who cares about the directrix of a parabola? When do I need to know how to calculate the area of a n-sided polygon? What’s the point of being able to do basic arithmetic in my head? I can just use my iPhone calculator to get the answer, or Google search it. That’s good enough.\n\nIt’s tough to argue against these points, but I believe that putting your best foot forward when tackling math builds a solid foundation, not only in regards to academics but to life as well. If a child is willing to put in the time to genuinely understand how trigonometric identities work, they’ll be more likely to work for things in life, whether it be a job, sport, or relationship in the future. If a student understands that they need to address their poor grades in math head-on instead of ignoring it, they won’t run when life gets tough. On the other hand, if that student resorts to taking short cuts in math or gives up after trying only once, they’re likely to throw their hands up in the air whenever they face adversity. Just like there are no short cuts to becoming a great Sea King or Panther athlete, there are no short cuts in academics, especially math.\n\nSo please, help your child develop good life habits by spending some extra time one or two nights a week helping them with their math. Make sure they show their work and don’t just guess the answer. Ask them questions to see how well they really grasp the material. Tell them, “Good job!” or “Nice work!” when they’re trying their best. Teach them the joy of hard work. As a math tutor, there are no secrets to help these students. I help them first understand the basics and then build on those basics. I teach them how to systematically analyze a problem and try various approaches instead of looking in the back of the book for the answer. I encourage them to ask questions when they don’t understand something. These are all good habits that people need to succeed in life, and mathematics is a great place for children to start developing them.\n\nMath Proofs\n\nMay 20th, 2010\n\nMany people think math is really boring. This is because, for the most part, teachers are lame and don’t make the material interesting. There is a lot of cool and weird mathematics out there that kids unfortunately are not exposed to. Here are a couple of interesting mathematical oddities that will hopefully spark some interest in math:\n\nYou want to find the sum of the infinite series 1-1+1-1+1-1+1-… This pattern repeats forever. At first glance, you would likely say (1-1)+(1-1)+(1-1)+… = 0+0+0+0+… and conclude the sum is 0. At second glance you may say the 1+(-1+1) +(-1+1) +(-1+1) +(-1+1) = 1+0+0+0+0+… = 1. Turns out both of these are wrong and the sum turns out to be ½. Here is why:\n\nLet’s call the sum of the series S, whatever it may be. So, S = 1-1+1-1+1-1+1-…\n\nNow, look at 1-S. We get 1-S = 1- [1-1+1-1+1-1+1-…] = 1-1+1-1+1-1+1-… = S. This is the same as our original series. We just showed that 1-S = S which means that 1=2S or that S=1/2. Pretty crazy that you can add 1 and -1 infinitely many times to get ½.\n\nHere is another cool little proof why 1=2:\n\nLet a =b. Then a2 = ab.\n\nSo, a2+ a2 = a2+ab or 2a2 = a2+ab.\n\nNow, Subtract 2ab from both sides of the equation. Doing so, we get:\n\n2a2 -2ab= a2+ab-2ab\n\nSo, 2a2 -2ab= a2-ab\n\nNow, we factor out a 2 from the left side of the equation which leave us with:\n\n2(a2+ab) = a2+ab\n\nDivide both sides by a2+ab leaves us with:\n\n\nTake a close look though. While everything seems to be right, we all know 2 does not equal 1. Can you find the erroneous step? If not, come to the Study Hut and we can show you what’s up.\n\n\nAugust 10th, 2009\n\n\n\nRead the rest of this entry »", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.718377947807312}
+{"content": "Josie Cotton - Episode 756\n\nSteve Cooper talks with singer/songwriter/bandleader Josie Cotton. Josie is best known for her international hit Johnny Are You Queer? which was included on the soundtrack of the seminal film Valley Girl. She also appeared in the film with her band the Party Crashers as well as Jackass Number Two. She is known for her quirky stylizations and musical experimentation from pop to rockabilly, electronica, swamp, lounge, Western, garage rock and beyond. She has to date recorded seven albums including Invasion of the B-Girls, a collection of B-movie theme songs (great songs from bad movies) from the 1960s and ‘70s. She also is a record company mogul with the formation of Kitten Robot Records. The first release is a single of two brand new songs with a Russian theme: Ukrainian Cowboy and Cold War Spy which was followed by Everything is Oh Yeah which was to be her third record for Elektra back in the ‘80s. It has been re-mixed and mastered and was released in partnership with Cleopatra Records.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9895122647285461}
+{"content": "© 2019 DiNubile Law Group\n\n • LinkedIn Social Icon\n • Twitter Social Icon\nWhy Hire an External Workplace Investigator?\n\nComplaints of misconduct within an organization can occur at any time - especially in the #MeToo era. There is an increasing movement toward more equitable work environments in which all workers can participate equally and thrive. There is a related increase in scrutiny and accountability for employers who fail to cultivate this type of productive work environment.\n\nThere are several reasons why an organization should consider retaining a third-party workplace investigator. \n\nOutside Investigators are Independent Fact Finders\n\nUsing an outside investigator indicates that the employer takes allegations of misconduct seriously and wants to find out what really happened in order to maintain an equitable and productive workplace for everyone. An outside investigator is an independent fact-finder who plays no part in discipline or future opportunities for individuals who participated in the investigation. As a result, employees often feel more comfortable sharing all relevant information with an investigator who is outside the company.\n\n\nOutside Investigators are Free of Actual and Apparent Bias and Conflicts of Interest\n\nAn outside investigator wears only one hat – that of a fact-finder. There can be an appearance of bias when an employer uses an investigator who is – or who appears to be – vested in the investigation. \n\nInternal investigators may be susceptible to pressures that arise from their role inside the organization making it difficult for them to be or appear neutral so the facts and circumstances often weigh in favor of hiring an outside investigator.\n\nIf the complaining party or the target of the investigation is a member of the HR Department or high in the organizational structure (officer, director, member of the board of directors), and has the ability to affect the investigator’s employment, this creates a conflict of interest and the investigator’s conclusion may be called into question.\n\nAn internal investigator may have supervisory authority over an employee being investigated or is in the reporting chain of the person being investigated making it difficult for them to be impartial or appear impartial.\n\nIn some cases, employers use an internal investigator who is involved in some way with the incidents being investigated. If the investigator witnessed an incident that is part of the investigation, he or she is now a witness and therefore cannot be an impartial investigator. Conflicts could also arise if the in-house investigator has had a long-term relationship, working or otherwise, with anyone who might be a witness.\n\n\nDown the road, even the perception of bias can lead to attacks on the validity of the investigation. The investigation must have the credibility and objectivity required to withstand later scrutiny if the matter reaches litigation.\n\nOutside Investigators Can Preserve Attorney Client Privilege\n\nWorkplace investigations, when conducted promptly, impartially, and thoroughly, can provide the basis for asserting key defenses to claims like sex harrasment, wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation and other allegations of misconduct.\n\n\nHowever, when an investigation is performed by in-house or outside counsel to the company, a conflict may arise if there is litigation. If the organization wants to use the investigation to show that it did the right thing, it may have to waive the attorney-client privilege with respect to strategic conversations related to the investigation. Using an outside investigator, an investigation can be structured to create a distinct separation between those sensitive discussions from the investigative process, so the privilege can still be preserved. However, should the organization choose to waive the privilege in the future, the investigator can be available to testify at deposition or trial regarding the investigation.\n\n\nOutside Investigators are Useful in Complex Investigations\n\nOften what starts out as a simple complaint becomes more complicated as allegations are brought to light. A complex investigation can burden a company and keep it from moving forward if the investigation takes over daily work responsibilities and impedes progress with official business. With an outside investigator employees can go about their normal daily roles and not delay the productiveness of the company.\n\nOutside Investigators Have Time to Quickly and Thoroughly Complete the Investigation\n\nEmployers should consider the requirement that the investigation be completed in a timely manner. Internal employees already have a job and when they wear 2 hats the investigation can drag on. The internal investigator may not be able to complete the investigation in an acceptable time frame. Employers considering using in house personnel need to be certain that the investigator is competent and has demonstrable training or prior experience in conducting investigations or the investigation can take more time. It is important to get the investigation done expeditiously and thoroughly to preserve evidence and keep morale up and so the company can get back to business.\n\nOutside Investigators are Trained in Evaluating Credibility\n\nIt can be very difficult for a person inside an organization to make fair and impartial credibility determinations. Credibility determinations are especially difficult in a “he said/she said” situation. An outside investigator is not tainted with any previous experience with the witnesses and possess the training and skills necessary to make credibility assessments. A third party investigator is better poised to properly determine and document their rationale, and to make a contemporaneous record of the facts and observations, that lead to a decision to either trust or discredit a witness. It is essential for an organization to have defensible reasons for the conclusions that are reached. \n\nOutside Investigators are Trained in Interviewing Witnesses\n\nOutside investigators have training and skills in interviewing witnesses including establishing rapport, making credibility determinations and applying the correct standard of proof.\n\nOutside Investigators Can Help with Technology Related Evidence\n\nInvestigations are requiring more and more that the investigator understand the nuances surrounding technology related evidence including, social media evidence, collaboration software and electronically stored information. Most often, an outside investigator has experience in this area or has contacts with reliable consultants with this expertise should the particular circumstances require it.\n\nIn the long run, conducting an impartial, fair, timely and thorough workplace investigation can be a very important decision for an organization. It serves to promote a work environment that is most productive for all employees, raises morale and it enables the employer to get back to focusing on organizational goals.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7515972852706909}
+{"content": "Brooklyn, New York\n\n(917) 609-2530\n\n\n\"You can't be efficiently mobile if you are inefficiently stable.\"\n\n~Sue Hitzman \n\nThe MELT Method® \n\nPrivate Instruction or Class Instruction fully certified M.E.L.T. practitioner. Dolores complete her hand and foot training in 2012 and in 2014 she became certified to work with the M.E.L.T roller. Dolores Natividad MELT FAQs What is MELT? The MELT Method® is a breakthrough self-treatment system that restores the supportiveness of the body's connective tissue to combat chronic pain, improve performance, and decrease accumulative stress caused by repetitive postures and movements of everyday living.\n\n\n\n\nExercise physiologist and connective tissue specialist Sue Hitzmann has transformed groundbreaking neurofascial science and hands-on therapies into a one-of-a-kind treatment method called MELT. Who is MELT for? MELT is for anyone who wants to slow down the aging process and live better, longer. For those in their 40s, 50s, and older who want to stay active, mobile, and independent — MELT is a must. MELT is for active younger adults and athletes who want to maintain a fit, toned body and achieve optimal performance without debilitating wear and tear.\n\n\nMELT is truly for everyone! Even if you are pregnant, injured, post-surgery, overweight, sedentary, out of shape, have limited mobility, chronic pain, knee/hip replacements, or bone disorders — you can still MELT. It’s the best starting point for any exercise program. What benefits does MELT offer? MELT creates a strong, flexible body that maintains its upright posture for life. And you will see and feel results after just one session!\n\n\nMELT improves: flexibility & mobility posture the results of exercise range of motion sleep & digestion overall well-being MELT reduces: aches & pains wrinkles & cellulite tension headaches risk of injury How does MELT work? Day-to-day living creates tension within our bodies. Physical stressors range from sitting at a desk to running a marathon. Carrying children and heavy bags creates trapped tension, as does even the gentlest form of exercise. Emotional, mental, and environmental stressors such as processed foods, medications, environmental toxins, and daily worries all build tension in the body.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHow often should I MELT? MELT a minimum of 15 minutes, three times a week to experience immediate and long-lasting benefits. And if you want to MELT every day, that’s okay too. MELT before strength training to improve muscle performance or after a cardio workout to erase joint compression and stiffness.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8765215277671814}
+{"content": "\n\nFirewall Advancement\n\nFirewall Advancement\n\nFirewall is a software program (or a hardware) that protects the network of computers from being compromised with hacker initiated cyber-attacks. It works as the first line of defense in network security with efficient monitoring of private network’s traffic. It prevents unauthorized access to the network and can block messages linking to unwanted content.\n\nEspeckle provides security of online data from malicious sources. Cyber crimes are the biggest knock back of technological advancements in the 21st century. They are the 2nd most reported crimes globally and cost enterprises huge monetary losses and reputation impairment.\n\nWe use the third generation of firewall technology, also known as Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) has evolved. It is capable of detecting and blocking sophisticated attacks with new-age security policy enforcement.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999996423721313}
+{"content": "Ways to Prevent the Hot Tub From Becoming Slippery\n\nWe all enjoy taking a bath in a tub or pool as it is relaxing and fun but many forget how important it is to conserve the water’s good condition. To achieve this last step, one of the things that should be done more regularly is the measurement of the pH and chlorine levels it has. These elements play a role in water maintenance because they are key when selecting the type of chemical that will be applied in it; they are also directly related to aspects associated to the health of the skin and eyes of people.\n\nRegardless of whether there is talk of a pool for several people, an individual bath tub or a hot tub for two people; taking control of the compounds in their water is something that may not be overlooked. The pH is a measure that indicates the degree of acidity or alkalinity of certain solutions, and chlorine, on the other hand, it is a chemical element generally used for the disinfection of aqueous solutions, both, according to the level in which they are, represent and indicate its salubrity’s rating.\n\nThe PH measurement is established on a scale from 0 to 14, so that the assessments closer to 0 indicate higher acidity and those closest to 14 indicate higher alkalinity, with 7 being the neutral point or ideal PH. Therefore, for water to be adequate when it is used, this level must be kept between 6 and 7. The meters, in this case, are divided into two groups: those that consist of electronic devices to perform their work and those constituted by technologies that work based on direct chemical reactions.\n\nBoth methods use chemical reagents to make an analysis of each element to be measured. However, the former, also known as OTO meters, are composed of panels or indicators that show the levels of total chlorine and PH by performing tests in which a few drops of the reactive compound are added to a specific amount of the liquid and, in this way, the reaction it exerts upon contact with water is studied. These devices work with changing shades, which reveals, according to the color of the sample, the information of the phase in which it is located.\n\nIn the second case, the most common choice is the use of tablets. Also known as DPD meters, they allow detecting the amount of residual free chlorine and pH in water through a simple test, these also have a colorimetric scale that serves to compare the color of the water stained after adding the reagent. When working with tonalities, a wrong perception can be obtained if the process is executed in a place with light problems, for this reason it is recommended to perform it in spaces that do not have intense or sparse light and that contrast the results with a white surface in the background.\n\nIt should be noted that the levels of both elements are modifiable, that is, they can be altered to make them higher or lower and thus achieve the desired degree of each one. Also, there are corrective meters whose task is, in addition to obtaining the information on the state of the chlorine and pH of the water, to correct it automatically balancing the mismatched levels of each component.\n\nRemember that, in addition to keeping water compounds in good condition, the use of a good filter and pump for hot tubs or pools is essential to keep the water clean. Furthermore, the use of chemicals for its purification and disinfection can be affected by PH and chlorine levels, since these directly influence the reaction that artificial substances can generate when they come into contact with water and its components.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9579362273216248}
+{"content": "Tommy Bianchi\n (Mastering & Mixing)\n\nTommy Bianchi was born in Florence on January 30th, 1977.\n\n\n\nMusician, producer, sound engineer and mastering engineer.\n\nTommy starts studying music since 7 years old, and played saxophone since 24. He has been influenced by modern jazz, fusion and electric jazz.\nHe studied in deep modern and classical harmony, composition and piano. In 2001, inspired by the world of synthesizers, Tommy began his career as a music producer, creating projects and productions of various kind of music, from jazz to electronic music.\n\n\nFrom 2001 to 2008 he was producer and musician of the band Cayorosso, producing two albums (“Tempo Stabile” and “Cayorosso”) for the label “Sugar Music” and the rock sat channel RockTV. In 2009, He was actively involved as a producer and musician performer in the electronic project “Metùo”, with the album “Toyshop”, published by Black Candy Records/Audioglobe. Then he was artistic director of the techno label Sunplay Records, collaborating with the producer David Campanini, and he published several releases on vinyl of tech/house music, with the name “Master T”.\n\n\nAfter the dancefloor experience, he engineered the sound of many artists, as sound engineer in mixing and mastering. So, in few years, he released hundreds of collaborations working for italian artists as Irene Grandi, Elio E Le Storie Tese, Max Pezzali, Patty Pravo, Dirotta su Cuba, Finley, Funk Off, Loredana Errore, Matteo Becucci, Marco Masini, Alessandro Finaz, Stylophonic, Thomas Bocchimpani, Reset!, Diaframma, Paolo Vallesi, Marco Parente, Fabrizio Moro & Ultimo, Annalisa, Pupo, Post- CSI, Marlene Kuntz, Francesco Di Giacomo, Alexander Robotnick, Francesco Farfa, Alex Neri, Filippo Nardi,Giacomo Castellano, Gianni Maroccolo and more.\n\n\nIn 2012, after the experience “Metùo” and some featuring as a producer in Italian indie albums (the track “Waterloo” from the Ep “Good Night Good Lovers” by Velvet Score, the track “Bleedin” contained in the album “Make A Picture Of The Sun” by Carlot-ta and “You Are Music” by unePassante), he went back to the artistic and musical production with the italian indie pop band “Giochi Per Bambini”, publishing the album “Cerco soltanto di non lavorare piu’” (Pippola Music/Audioglobe).\n\nTommy currently works as mastering and mixing engineer in his studio, the White Sound Mastering Studio, in the countryside of Florence.\n\n\n\n\n\nResident Sound Engineer", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6839758157730103}
+{"content": "Prince2 Foundation Exam Test – 69\n\nWhich is a difference between management and technical stages?\n\nA. Management stages require planning and technical stages do not\nB. Technical stages can overlap and management stages cannot\nC. Management stages deliver products and technical stages do not\nD. Technical stages require resources and management stages do not\n\nCorrect Answer: B", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9760420322418213}
+{"content": "Inchcape 2\n\n\nLeading international automotive retailer Inchcape, appointed RSM to provide a motivational video for its Audi network management training conference. Inchcape required an execution that would communicate the company’s USPs, engage with attendees and communicate the company’s vision and business objectives for the year ahead. Held at London’s Churchill War Rooms, the RSM digital team developed the empowering three-minute video showcasing what makes a good leader and the importance of good customer service. “It is the first time we have used the agency and they have provided a great service and end product,” said Inchcape Audi’s Operations Director.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9835681319236755}
+{"content": "24 April 2018\n\nStand Up Against China\n\nLt Gen Prakash Menon\n\nIndia should not seek a reset with China that is based on our inferiority. We can and must assert ourselves.\n\nSome of India’s chickens of statecraft have come home to roost. India has embarked on a “reset of relations” with China and simultaneously seeks to “redefine ties” with the USA. The simultaneity is structurally imperative when it comes to India’s role in the context of great power tensions.\n\nIn the case of China, it is based on its enormous economic and military power. The Indian political leadership seems convinced that China’s coercive power does not call for a confrontation, but instead demands a form of adjustment that would serve to preserve our national development goals. With the USA, a partnership founded on common interests is expected to provide political, strategic and technological support that can further Indian goals. The reset would also involve a tilt away from the USA, to perhaps, a slightly less-than-neutral position.\n\nHow Tibet lost its independence and India its gentle neighbour\n\nIt relates to the sequence of events and the role of KM Panikkar, the Indian Ambassador in China, during the weeks after the invasion of Tibet. Claude Arpi, holding the Field Marshal KM Cariappa Chair of Excellence from the United Service Institution of India (USI), for his research on the Indian Presence in Tibet 1947-1962 (in 4 volumes), has extensively worked in the National Archives of India and well the Nehru Library (on the Nehru Papers) on the history of Tibet, the Indian frontiers and particularly the Indian Frontier Administrative Service. The Last Months of a Free Nation — India Tibet Relations (1947-1962) is the first volume of the series, using never-accessed-before Indian archival material. Though Tibet’s system of governance had serious lacunas, the Land of Snows was a free and independent nation till October 1950, when Mao decided to “liberate”it. But “liberate” from what, was the question on many diplomats' and politicians' lips in India; they realised that it would soon be a tragedy for India too; Delhi would have to live with a new neighbor, whose ideology was the opposite of Tibet’s Buddhist values; the border would not be safe anymore.\n\nThe Brahmaputra Diversion and the Tsinghai Clique\n\nSome fifteen years ago, a Chinese engineer Li Ling and a retired PLA General Gao Kai, seriously worked on a scheme for the diversion of the Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra. Li Ling published a book called Tibet's Waters will Save China in which he detailed the diversion project, also known as Shuomatan Canal (from Suma Tan in Central Tibet to Tanjing in China). At that time, 'experts' denounced the plans of Li Ling and Gao Kai. Beijing also decided to cool down India’s legitimate worries.In 2006, the Chinese Water Resources Minister Wang Shucheng, a hydraulic engineer, affirmed that the proposal was \"unnecessary, unfeasible and unscientific. There is no need for such dramatic and unscientific projects.\"\n\nChina develops the Indian border\n\nChe Dalha (alias Qizhala), the head of the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s (TAR) Government (and TAR’s Senior Deputy Secretary) visited Chayul area in the vicinity of Yume village adopted by Xi Jinjing. Che, who is also director of the district border defense committee, inspected a Hero Memorial Park in Chayul area. He told the villagers that the masses should deeply cherish the memory of the revolutionary martyrs. He laid a wreath for 447 Revolutionary Martyrs' War Memorial. Why and where these ‘martyrs’ died?\n\nWhen the snows melt\n\nEvery year during the months of May and June, the high passes of Himalayas witness activity as the Chinese cross over and intrude on Indian territory. The Himalayan snows will soon start melting. Every year during the months of May and June, the high passes witness activities not in consonance with the majestic peace-conducive surrounding peaks. This year again, the Chinese will cross over and intrude on the Indian territory, or to put it nicely like the spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs does, “in what we perceived our side of the border”.\n\nEU Ambassadors Condemn China’s Belt and Road Initiative\n\nBy Ravi Prasad\n\n\nCPEC's Environmental Toll\n\nBy Shah Meer Baloch\n\nPakistan’s virgin beaches are located in District Gwadar, which is the major coastal town of Balochistan, and also said to be the epicenter of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). But the beaches are in danger of being badly affected by a newly planned 300MW coal power plant in Gwadar. Besides the beaches, there will be a significant impact on human lives and the environment. Pakistan is already on suffering from climate change. Will the environment and people remain safe as Pakistan carries out plans to invest billions of dollars in imported coal power plants through various projects under CPEC?\n\nChina’s Belt and Road, and implications for ASEAN connectivity\n\n\nThe ASEAN Master Plan for Connectivity (AMPC) and China’s Belt and Road Initiative have major commonalities. Both envisage transport connectivity as a way of bringing countries closer to one another, facilitating better access to trade, investment, tourism and people-to-people exchanges. Similar to the BRI project, AMPC calls for a system of roads and railways to link contiguous members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with one another, as well as a system of ports for vessels and short shipping routes to link Southeast Asian countries with one another.\n\n\nEuropol hosted the second conference of the European Counter Terrorism Centre Advisory Group to present and discuss new strategies against online terrorist propaganda and radicalisation. Terrorist propaganda constantly shifts on to new and diverse platforms and the quantity of information exchanged, either publicly or in private spaces, is increasing. In order to face these evolving threats, Europol hosted the second conference of the European Counter Terrorism Centre Advisory Group on 17 and 18 April 2018. During the conference several academic research papers were discussed, relevant to ECTC’s complex tasks in a way that is effective and in compliance with Europol’s high data protection standards. External and diversified contributions are fundamental to analysing a world-wide phenomenon as terrorist propaganda. This year’s event built on the success of the first conference of the ECTC Advisory Group in April 2017.\n\nIran's Army of Drones, Target of Syria Strike: Rising Force or Limited Threat?\n\nby Yaniv Kubovich\n\nThe recent airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel has brought to the forefront Iran’s intentions of establishing a network of drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) in that country. The project could expand the Islamic Republic’s capabilities of gathering intelligence and prepare the groundwork for possible attacks. Iran began producing drones in the 1980s, building dozens of them, mainly for spying and aerial photography. In recent years, since joining the fighting in support of the Assad regime, its drones have been seen in the skies of Syria and Iraq. Israel believes it still has the upper hand when it comes to drones, but that the Iranian ones do constitute a limited threat.\n\n\n\n\nSyria, Turkey, and the Eastern Mediterranean\n\nTwo Eastern Mediterranean countries—Syria and Turkey—present some of the most vexing problems for U.S. foreign policy today. The Syrian civil war has become a magnet for both terrorists and U.S. adversaries. Turkey, a NATO ally, is facing terrorism and a refugee crisis. Domestically, it is increasingly turning away from democratic principles and making choices that are at odds with the United States. The United States needs to take a new strategic approach to the Eastern Mediterranean, outlined in a CSIS report forthcoming in May 2018. An urgent part of that strategy, outlined here, is recalibrating U.S. policy toward Syria and Turkey. \n\nA few weeks ago I gave an interview to a French periodical concerning the state of Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).\n\nA few weeks ago I gave an interview to a French periodical concerning the state of Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Today, 19 April 2018, being Israel’s 70th Independence Day, I thought this topic would be of interest to the readers of this blog.\n\nCan you give us an overview of the actual situation of the Israeli armed forces?\n\nOne could argue that, taking a grand strategic perspective and starting with the establishment of the State of Israel seventy years ago, some things have not changed very much. First, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) remain the armed organization of a democratic country, one in which it is the politicians who decide and the military which obeys. Second, the objective of the IDF was and remains to defend the country, a outrance if necessary, against any military threats that may confront it. Third, Israel remains in a state of war with several other Middle countries; nor is there any way in the world it can bring the conflict to an end by defeating them and compelling them to make peace against their will. Fourth, the occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights notwithstanding, Israel remains a small country with very little strategic depth. Fifth, the lack of strategic depth implies a heavy reliance on intelligence to detect threats before they materialize. Sixth, and for the same reason, Israeli military doctrine remains basically offensive, with a strong emphasis on destroying the opposing armed forces.\n\nA Thirty Years’ War?\n\nSource Link\n\n\nRussia Is Jamming US Drones Flying Over Syria\n\nBy Kyle Mizokami\n\nRussian forces are actively trying to jam U.S. military drones flying over Syria, disrupting flight operations by interfering with the signal broadcast by the worldwide Global Positioning System (GPS). The jamming is “seriously affecting” U.S. drone operations, but it’s not yet clear how serious the Russian meddling really is. NBC News, citing four sources inside the Pentagon, reports that the jamming began weeks ago. It started shortly after suspected chemical attacks by the Syrian regime in the rebel-held Ghouta region. Russian forces were reportedly concerned that the U.S. military would retaliate for the use of chemical weapons and jammed drones to prevent U.S. forces gathering information.\n\nControl of the Syrian Airspace: Russian Geopolitical Ambitions and Air Threat Assessment By Can Kasapoglu\n\nRussia has mounted its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) footprint in the Levant and also boosted the Syrian Arab Air Defense Force’s capabilities. Syrian skies now remain a heavily contested combat airspace and a dangerous flashpoint. Moreover, there is another grave threat to monitor at low altitudes. Throughout the civil war, various non-state armed groups have acquired advanced man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), which pose a menacing challenge not only to the deployed forces, but also to commercial aviation around the world. In the face of these threats, NATO needs to draw key lessons-learned from the contemporary Russian operational art, and more importantly, to develop a new understanding in order to grasp the emerging reality in Syria. Simply put, control of the Syrian airspace is becoming an extremely crucial issue, and it will be a determining factor for the war-torn country’s future status quo.\n\n4 essential elements of a U.S. strategy on Syria\n\nMichael E. O’Hanlon\n\nHow Jim Mattis Became Trump’s “Last Man Standing”\n\nBy Susan B. Glasser\nLast Tuesday, after waking up to tweet about the previous day’s F.B.I. raid on his lawyer’s office (“a total witch hunt!!!”), President Trump called one of his outside Republican advisers to ask what to do about Syria, and its latest chemical-weapons attack on civilians. “We should bomb the shit out of them, Mr. President,” came the answer, which was exactly the one Trump seemed to be looking for. Over the weekend, the President, outraged by the photographs of dead children in the Syrian enclave of Douma he had apparently seen on TV, had tweeted vows of retaliation against “Animal Assad,” and the Syrian leader’s backers in Russia and Iran. Trump’s hawkish new national-security adviser, John Bolton, who had started work that Monday, was also pressing for punishing strikes. On the phone call, Trump listened approvingly to the hit-’em-hard advice: that, politically, “the minimum should be bigger than it was last year,” when Trump had launched a single-day strike on a Syrian airfield, designed—unsuccessfully, as it turned out—to deter future chemical-weapons use.\n\nNew U.S. Sanctions on Russia Make It Personal\n\nRecently passed U.S. sanctions against key Russian oligarchs and officials probably won't have a major effect on the Russian economy, but they will hurt key companies such as aluminum producer Rusal. Given Rusal's importance to the global aluminum industry, the effects of the U.S. sanctions will extend beyond Russia, and Chinese companies are the logical replacement for the Russian giant on the international market. Russia will offer financial support to relieve the affected companies and oligarchs while pushing back against the U.S. sanctions, not only through political and economic means but also potentially on the battlefield in Syria and Ukraine. \n\nDrones Level the Battlefield for Extremists\n\nBy Alexander Harper\n\nIn early 2016, I contributed to an Armament Research Services (ARES) report on the use of commercially available drones by non-state actors in contemporary conflicts, including in Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine. We predicted that the use of commercial drones, which up until that point had been used for reconnaissance purposes predominantly, would soon be regularly weaponised. As recent events in Syria have shown, weaponised commercial drones are now a regular feature in a range of conflicts, notably involving non-state actors. Drone use by non-state actors in the Middle East is not a new phenomenon. Libyan rebels spent more than US$100,000 buying a drone in 2011 to aid their fight against forces loyal to Gaddafi. Hezbollah has been operating Iranian-built drones against Israel for years, but these have been predominantly military-grade models and thus fairly sophisticated.\n\nThe Right Way to Coerce North Korea\n\nBy Victor Cha and Katrin Fraser Katz\n\nWhen it comes to North Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies have been whiplash inducing. On February 23, he appeared to be gearing up for a conflict when he said that if sanctions against Pyongyang didn’t work, Washington would have to move to “phase two,” which could be “very, very unfortunate for the world.” But just two weeks later, Trump abruptly changed course and accepted an invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un—a decision that caught even his own White House and State Department by surprise. \n\nHow to build resistance to cyberattacks in 2018 and beyond\n\nIf one were to ask who the strongest nation-states of all time were, who would come to mind? The Roman empire, the Ottoman empire (which would span six centuries), the Qing dynasty, France in the 18th century, Great Britain at the turn of the 20th century, The United States post-WWII. What did all of these empires have in common? They were part of major world wars, and they were constantly under attack or in a mode of conquest for land, wealth, and/or resources. Simply put, they were “battle ready.” Resistance to attack builds strength. The best defense is offensive: it’s proactive, aggressive, and anticipating. In the evolving cyber war, we’ve traded physical weapons for malware attacks, but there is no reason we should abandon the tactics that once provided strength and national security to empires that spanned multiple centuries. Today’s cyber leaders, in the private sectors and the public sectors alike, should take a few pages out of the military playbooks throughout history. How can we be the Winston Churchill, the Napoleon, the Dwight Eisenhower of our security teams?\n\nNation state attacks – the cyber cold war gets down to business\n\nSource Link\n\ncyberwarfare defense illustrationCyber weaponry is moving to new frontiers: yours. Businesses are the next target on the nation state menu. Are you protected or vulnerable? Nation state attacks, and the threat of them, appear to be evolving. The theory that these state-backed cybercriminals are focused on hacking into military or diplomatic data for competitive intelligence now needs to be broadened to other motivating factors. Nation state hackers are expanding their targets to not only government institutions, but also businesses and industrial facilities. They are using more sophisticated techniques to disrupt organizations, and their respective countries, by leaking confidential, often sensitive, information.\n\nWhat Will Space Exploration Look Like In The Future? – Analysis\n\nBy Nayef Al-Rodhan*\n\nThe process of assembling the International Space Station (ISS) started in 1998 and was completed in 2011, with five partners involved: Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States. It was initially planned to operate only until the year 2020, but in 2014 the US decided to extend its life until 2024. Since then Russia has proposed to extend further the life of the ISS to 2028, and the US space agency NASA seemed ready to accept this new extension. However, major space policy changes happened in the US in 2017, with the revival of a high-level White House body, the National Space Council (NSpC), chaired by the Vice President. The new priority of the White House is a return to the Moon in the 2020s, as a step towards Mars in the 2030s.\n\nThe Pursuit of AI Is More Than an Arms Race\n\n\nDealing wisely with the challenges of artificial intelligence requires reframing the current debates. Are the U.S., China, and Russia recklessly undertaking an “AIarms race”? Clearly, there is military competition among these great powers to advance a range of applications of robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems. So far, the U.S. has been leading the way. AI and autonomy are crucial to the Pentagon’s Third Offset strategy. Its Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team, Project Maven, has become a “pathfinder” for this endeavor and has started to deployalgorithms in the fight against ISIS. The Department of Defense also plans to create a “Joint Artificial Intelligence Center,” which could consolidate DoD AI initiatives.\n\nWhat was Boyd Thinking?\n\nSource Link\n\nAnd when did he think it?\n\nIn his own words:\n\nFor the interested, a careful examination will reveal that the increasingly abstract discussion surfaces a process of reaching across many perspectives; pulling each and every one apart (analysis), all the while intuitively looking for those parts of the disassembled perspectives which naturally interconnect with one another to form a higher-order, more general elaboration (synthesis) of what is taking place. As a result, the process not only creates the Discourse but it also represents the key to evolve the tactics, strategies, goals, unifying themes, etc., that permit us to actively shape and adapt to the unfolding world we are a part of, live in, and feed upon. Abstract (c. 1987)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7968138456344604}
+{"content": "Softgels consist of gelatin shell and fill materials. Gelatin shell is prepared to be gel mass, and fill materials are prepared to be fill mass through respective processes. Then, the Softgel Encapsulator produces softgels with those both masses.\n\nSoftgel manufacturing process is divided into 3 major steps; Gelatin preparation, Fill material preparation and Encapsulation as follows:\n\nGelatin Preparation\nThis is a step produces the softgel shell. Gel mass can be produced by melting gelatin and mixing with plasticizers, and we take out air bubbles from the gel mass. Then gel mass is transferred to a receiver tank and mix with colorants.\nFill material Preparation\nFill materials for softgel is normally in liquid forms such as oil, suspension or paste. After mixing all fill materials, fill mass goes through milling to downsize particles, screening to collect any particles not downsized. Finally, any air bubbles are removed from the fill mass by using vacuum.\nSoftgel Encapsulation and Drying\nWhen gel mass and fill mass are ready, both masses are fed to Softgel Encapsulator to produce softgels. After encapsulation, softgels go through 2-step drying process to remove excess moisture. Initially, softgels are dried at drying tunnels called Tumble dryer. Final drying is done in a temperature and humidity controlled room. After complete drying, softgels are inspected to prevent any under or over sized, deformed or leaking softgels.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9969310164451599}
+{"content": "Argumentative essay sustainable energy\n\nRole of technology in crime prevention Before you start on that, he are a few points to note in preparing and delivering your presentation. How to write a persuasive powerpoint presentation There is nothing as boring as a dull power-point presentation. There a number of ways you can keep presentation entertaining and persuasive.\n\nArgumentative essay sustainable energy\n\nThe Jews Who Run Capitol Hill | Real Jew News\n\nFocus the assessment activities on gathering evidence in terms of the main outcome expressed in the title to ensure assessment is integrated rather than fragmented. Remember we want to declare the person competent in terms of the title.\n\nWhere assessment at title level is unmanageable, then focus assessment around each specific outcome, or groups of specific outcomes.\n\nArgumentative essay sustainable energy\n\nMake sure evidence is gathered across the entire range, wherever it applies. Assessment activities should be as close to the real performance as possible, and where simulations or role-plays are used, there should be supporting evidence to show the learner is able to perform in the real situation.\n\nDo not focus the assessment activities on each assessment criterion. Rather make sure the assessment activities focus on outcomes and are sufficient to enable evidence to be gathered around all the assessment criteria. The assessment criteria provide the specifications against which assessment judgements should be made.\n\nIn most cases, knowledge can be inferred from the quality of the performances, but in other cases, knowledge and understanding will have to be tested through questioning techniques. Where this is required, there will be assessment criteria to specify the standard required.\n\nThe task of the assessor is to gather sufficient evidence, of the prescribed type and quality, as specified in this unit standard, that the learner can achieve the outcomes again and again and again. This means assessors will have to judge how many repeat performances are required before they believe the performance is reproducible.\n\nAll assessments should be conducted in line with the following well documented principles of assessment: If it is at all possible, learners should develop multimedia presentations that require the following: The combination of text, images, sound and information from multiple sources like TV, videos, Cd-roms, newspapers and magazines, web sites, and digital images; The selection of an appropriate medium for each element of the presentation; The editing of the presentation in monitoring quality; The testing of the audience's response; and The undertaking of any revisions that may be necessary to improve it.\n\nAdditive multilingualism A form of bilingual education in which the language of instruction is not the 1st language of the children, and is not intended to replace it.\n\nIn an additive bilingual education programme the first language is maintained and supported, but the language of learning and teaching is taught alongside it. When the language of instruction is likely to replace the children's first language, this is called subtractive bilingualism. Appropriate dress footnote in u std: Author The creator or originator of a piece of narrative, whether signed or written.\n\nCoherence The underlying logical relationship, which links ideas together.\n\nGeneral Format\n\nCoherence is to do with ideas and meanings. A paragraph see definition below is coherent if all its sentences see definition below are connected logically so that they are easy to follow. Cohesion Linking ideas by means of language e. Collage A form of art in which a variety of materials, such as photographs, fabric, objects, hand-drawn pieces, and printed text, are attached to a surface.\n\nSolar Energy: Persuasive Essay Example |\n\nLearners can demonstrate their understanding of many themes and issues through the choice of materials and design elements of a collage. Colloquialism A word or expression used in everyday conversation but not in formal language. Ways of doing this can include use of space, head movements, eye gaze, body orientation and movements, etc.\n\nControlling idea An important or central concept, theme, or argument that is used to unify a signed, written, oral, or media text. Conventions Accepted practices or rules in the use of language. Some conventions help convey meaning e.\n\n\nLearners think creatively in all subject areas when they imagine, invent, alter, or improve a concept or product. Diction The choice of words or phrases or signs in speech or writing or signing; the particular words or phrases or signs chosen to express an idea. The SASL equivalent of this would be a signed narrative.\n\nArgumentative essay sustainable energy\n\nFigurative language Words or signs or phrases used in a non-literal way to create a desired effect e. Fluency The word comes from the flow of a river and suggests a coherence and cohesion that gives language use the quality of being natural, easy to use and easy to interpret.\n\nForeshadowing A device in literature in which an author provides an indication of future events in a plot.\n\nList of topics and ideas for presentation categorised in subjects\n\nForms of text Any particular type of text, having specific and distinctive characteristics arising from its purpose, function, and audience. These can be analysed into more specific genres, for example, feature films could be grouped as westerns, thrillers, dramas, romances, musicals and comedies.\n\nFree verse may be rhymed or unrhymed. Genre The types or categories into which literary works are grouped e. It takes into account the meanings, functions and organisation of these sentences in the system of the language. Graphic organiser A visual representation such as a chart, table, timeline, flowchart, or diagram used to record, analyse, synthesise, and assess information and ideas.\n\nHyperbole A literary device in which exaggeration is used deliberately for effect or emphasis eg a flood of tears.An argumentative speech is a persuasive speech in which the speaker attempts to persuade his audience to alter their viewpoints on a controversial issue.\n\nWhile a persuasive speech may be aimed more at sharing a viewpoint and asking the audience to consider it, an argumentative speech aims to radically change the opinions already held by the audience. Advantages Renewable Energy Resources Environmental Sciences Essay.\n\nPrint Reference this Essence of RES is derivation from natural processes so the energy is sustainable and never run out. If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have the essay published on the UK Essays website then please click on the link.\n\nScience Research Project (Solar Energy) - According to my research about solar energy I recommend that FPL develop more solar energy production facilities and assist individual homeowners in applying solar panels to their homes.\n\nDo you follow a plant-based diet? You could be deficient in B12, iron, and other key nutrients. Find out what else vegetarian and vegan diets are missing. finishing dissertation sigma 24 mm f 4 art review essay argument essay help debate speech on co education essays life in a concentration camp essay.\n\nIn all of the tables in this document, both the pre NQF Level and the NQF Level is shown. In the text (purpose statements, qualification rules, etc), any references to NQF Levels are to the pre levels unless specifically stated otherwise.\n\nRenewable Energy Persuasive Essay", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9941450953483582}
+{"content": "Box clever: jollof rice with chicken\n\nCategories: Expert guidance\n\n\nJollof rice is perhaps the most popular dish in west Africa. You will find it at every large social gathering and small ones too. In Nigeria, you can even get it as a side dish at KFC.\n\nIt is said to have originated in Senegambia and to be named after the Wolof tribe, but like any such claims when it comes to food, this is fiercely debated by other west African nations. I have heard a Ghanaian and a Nigerian argue for almost an hour about where jollof rice is really from and who makes it best (their mums, of course).\n\nHotly contested\nThe recipe is almost as hotly contested as the dish’s origins and it varies from place to place. My friend Tunde, who is a British-born Nigerian, taught me this version. It’s his family recipe, which has been handed down the maternal line for generations. He was very secretive about it at first, but he soon changed his mind when I told him I was going to share the recipe on the Borough Market website.\n\nJollof rice is usually served as a side dish in a large spread alongside fried fish; meats, usually beef or chicken; and vegetable dishes, such as fried plantain. Tunde told me that the meat is often cooked in the same sauce as the rice, which gave me the idea of roasting the chicken in some of the sauce. It worked a treat.\n\nRobust rice\nI have used less oil in this recipe than Tunde does. It is still a lot, but it really is necessary in order to ensure the rice doesn’t clump together. For the same reason he recommends using a robust rice, like easy cook long grain. It will inevitably stick to the bottom of the pan though, so don’t use your favourite pot.\n\nThis recipe makes enough rice for a large family gathering so, if you’re just making it for yourself, you’ll have enough for a week. Tunde told me that jollof rice always tastes better reheated the next day—and he’s right—so it really is the ultimate packed lunch. \n\nRead Babatunde’s recipe for jollof rice with chicken", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9917261600494385}
+{"content": "Binary Classification Model for Customer Transaction Prediction Using Python (Balanced Bagging)\n\n\nSUMMARY: The purpose of this project is to construct a prediction model using various machine learning algorithms and to document the end-to-end steps using a template. The Santander Bank Customer Transaction Prediction competition is a binary classification situation where we are trying to predict one of the two possible outcomes.\n\nINTRODUCTION: Santander Bank’s data science team wants to identify which customers will make a specific transaction in the future, irrespective of the amount of money transacted. The bank is continually challenging its machine learning algorithms to make sure they can more accurately identify new ways to solve its most common challenges such as: Will a customer buy this product? Can a customer pay this loan?\n\nFor this iteration, we will examine the effectiveness of the Balanced Bagging classifier (from the imbalanced-learn package) with inner balancing samplers to mitigate the effect of imbalanced data for this problem. Submissions are evaluated on the area under the ROC curve between the predicted probability and the observed target.\n\nANALYSIS: The baseline performance achieved an average ROC-AUC score of 0.7144. After a series of tuning trials, the top result from the training data was a ROC-AUC score of 0.7799. By using the optimized parameters, the algorithm processed the test dataset with a ROC-AUC score of 0.6659.\n\nCONCLUSION: To be determined after comparing the results from other machine learning algorithms.\n\nDataset Used: Santander Customer Transaction Prediction\n\nDataset ML Model: Binary classification with numerical attributes\n\nDataset Reference:\n\nOne potential source of performance benchmark:\n\nThe HTML formatted report can be found here on GitHub.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9939186573028564}
+{"content": "User:Robertinventor/Modern Mars habitability\n\nFrom Astrobiology Encyclopedia\nJump to: navigation, search\n\nTemplate:User page\n\nEdited version of Draft:Present_day_habitability_of_Mars removing section on Present day Mars habitability analogue environments on Earth which already exists now as a separate article.\n\nArtist's impression of the Phoenix Lander landing on Mars.\n\nPhoenix's atmospheric measurements of isotope ratios of carbon and oxygen gave evidence for liquid water on the surface now or in the recent geological past[1]. Also its 2008 observations of possible droplets on its legs suggested new ways that water could be stable temporarily on Mars[2]. These observations lead many scientists to reassess the present habitability of Mars\n\nOne of the central questions of modern Astrobiology is whether there is, or ever has been life on Mars. Mars probably had oceans in the past, and it definitely had lakes and a thicker atmosphere. Modern Mars has become cold, dry, and almost uninhabitable, yet, if life did ever arise on Mars, some hardy microbes and perhaps even multicellular life might survive there right through to the present. The only missions to search for life on Mars, the two Viking missions, returned results that were inconclusive[3][4][5][6][7] . However the instruments were not designed to cope with the unusual conditions which Viking discovered on Mars, which may have confused the results of the experiments. Also, they didn't know enough about Mars at that time to target the regions we now think are most likely to have present day life. [8].\n\nLife would meet many challenges on present day Mars. Liquid water boils at 0°C, over much of its surface. Even at the depths of the Hellas basin, any water is close to its boiling point of 10°C[9] and will dry out quickly. Ice also evaporates into the atmosphere over geological timescales - and most of the equatorial regions are thought to be dry to depths of tens of meters. As its axial tilt varies, Mars atmosphere is sometimes thicker, and liquid water may then form on the surface - but any dormant life in the top few meters of soil would be destroyed over periods of millions of years by cosmic radiation.\n\nHowever, in 2008, droplets were observed on the landing legs of Phoenix. Sadly, there was no way to analyse them, but the leading hypothesis is that they were droplets of salty water[2]. Phoenix also made isotopic measurements which show that the Mars atmosphere has exchanged oxygen molecules with liquid on the surface in the recent geological past. This could indicate either recent episodic occurrences of liquid water (for instance after a meteorite strike) or water present every year, in contact with the atmosphere[1].\n\nWe now know of many seasonal changes in the surface of Mars which are only visible in high resolution photographs. Most of these are now thought to be caused by dry ice or wind effects. However, the \"Recurrent slope lineae\"[10][11][12], and some of the \"flow like features\" form in conditions that suggest the occasional presence of small quantities of water on Mars[13][10][14]. The evidence of flowing brines in the RSLs is strong, though it's not known if they are habitable. Curiosity has also found indirect evidence of a brine layer 15 cm below the sands that it drives over, though most scientists think that this layer is not habitable for Earth life.[15]. Recent Mars surface simulations by Nilton Renno and his team have shown that small droplets of water can form on salt / ice interfaces for a few hours per day almost anywhere on the surface of Mars, and this may explain the Phoenix leg droplets observations.[16]\n\nIn a separate development, research by the German aerospace company DLR in Mars simulation chambers and on the ISS show that some Earth life can survive simulated Mars surface conditions without any water at all, and photosynthesize and metabolize, slowly[17]. It can do this using the high relative humidity of the Mars atmosphere at night. All of this work was done after the Phoenix discoveries in 2008.\n\nOther potential habitats include lakes formed in the higher latitudes after cometary or meteorite impacts[18], or as a result of volcanism. Covered by ice, these may remain liquid for centuries, or up to a few thousand years for the largest impacts. The planet may also have underground trapped layers of water heated by geothermal hotspots. Also there are suggestions that Mars may have a deep hydrosphere[19], a liquid layer below its cryosphere, a few kilometers below the surface. Deep rock habitats on Earth are inhabited by life so if this layer exists, it may also be habitable on Mars.\n\nThe main questions are\n\n • Do these potential habitats exist?\n • Are they habitable? For instance, liquid water, if present, could be too cold, or too salty for Earth life[15]\n • Are they in fact inhabited by any forms of life? As Mars is so inhospitable, life might not be able to spread to new habitats easily. So there might be life in some of the habitats and not in others. Or life on Mars may have gone extinct, or never evolved at all, in which case none of the habitats would be inhabited.[20]\n\nThese discoveries have renewed interest in this topic, with many astrobiologists saying that they think present day Mars may be more habitable than previously thought. The first conference on the Present Day Habitability of Mars was held in 2013 in UCLA. [21][22][23]. The 2017 conference session on Modern Mars Habitability will run from April 24-28 in Mesa, Arizona [24]\n\n\nViking observations - did Levin's labeled release experiment find life?[edit | hide all | hide | edit source]\n\nCarl Sagan with a model of the Viking Lander in Death Valley California. Viking 1 and II were the first spacecraft to search for present day life on Mars.\n\nThe Viking landers (operating on Mars from 1976-1982), are the only spacecraft so far to search directly for life on Mars. They landed in the equatorial regions of Mars. With our modern understanding of Mars, this would be a surprising location to find life, as the soil there is thought to be completely ice free to a depth of at least hundred meters, and possibly for a kilometer or more. It's not totally impossible though, as some scientists have suggested ways that life could exist even in such arid conditions, using the night time humidity of the atmosphere, and possibly in some way utilizing the frosts that form frequently in the mornings in equatorial regions[25][26]..[25]\n\nThe Viking results were intriguing, and inconclusive[27]. There has been much debate since then between a small number of scientists who think that the Viking missions did detect life[3][4][5], and the majority of scientists who think that it did not.[6][7]\n\nThe Viking lander had three main biological experiments, but only one of these experiments produced positive results.[28]\n\n • The Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer searched for organics, and found no trace of them.\n • The Gas Exchange experiment searched for any gases that evolved from a sample of the Mars soil left in a nutrient solution in simulated martian atmosphere for twelve days. This experiment did detect gases, but so did the control, which repeated the experiment with a sample heated to sterilize it of any possible life. This suggests a chemical explanation.\n • The labeled release experiment used nutrients tagged with 14C. It then monitored the air above the experiment for radioactive 14CO2 gas as evidence that the nutrients had been taken up by micro-organisms. This experiment produced positive results. Also, in this case, the control experiments came out negative. Normally this would suggest a biological explanation. For this experiment the microbes don't have to grow, reproduce. They just have to metabolize the organics and produce the 14CO2 gas in the process.\n\nThe conclusion at the time, for most scientists, was that the Labeled release experiment had to have some non biological explanation involving the unusual chemistry on Mars. One idea put forward by Albert Yen of JPL was that first carbon dioxide could react with the soil to produce superoxides in the cold dry conditions with UV radiation, which could then react with the small organics of the LR experiment to produce carbon dioxide[29][6]. The other two experiments seemed to rule out any possibility of a biological explanation.\n\nSome of the LR data remained hard to explain as chemistry and the experimenter's Principle Investigator Gilbert Levin maintained from the beginning that his experiment probably detected life. Here are some of the things that any theory has to explain, in addition to the non detection of organics by the other instruments:\n\n • The LR response produced a lot of carbon dioxide rapidly, which some criticized as \"too much too soon\" for the levels of life expected there.\n • A second injection of nutrient actually lead to a 20% decrease in the previously evolved 14CO2\n • A sample maintained at 10°C in darkness for two months at one site and three months at another had no response to the nutrient\n • A sample heated to 46°C produced 60% less gas\n • A sample heated to 51°C became erratic and produced 90% less gas\n\nHis comments on how this could be explained biologically are that first, the amount of 14CO2 released is comparable to a sample from Antarctica and less than is usually released in tests on Earth. The second injection seems to have just wetted the sample and lead to absorption of 14CO2 and his conclusion is that the life died during the experiment, which is not too surprising given that most microbes even on Earth can't be cultivated in the laboratory. The difference in effect between 46°C and 51°C he considers to be strongly suggestive of life and hard to explain chemically for such a small change. The results for the samples kept in darkness he also considers to be hard to explain without biology. [30]\n\nMost other scientists at the time continued to regard the experiments as inconclusive[31][32][33]. However, work since then has suggested a possible re-evaluation of those results.\n\nFirst, some have suggested that the gas chromatograph may not have been sensitive enough to detect the organics[3][34]. Though other scientists have suggested that they could have detected low levels of organics....[35]\n\nThen in 2002, Joseph Miller[4], a specialist in circadian rhythms thought he spotted these in the Viking data. He was able to get hold of the original Viking raw data (using printouts kept by Levin's co-researcher Pat Straat) and on re-analysis this seemed to confirm his conclusions.\n\n • The data, though it follows temperature changes, is smoother than you'd expect from a purely chemical reaction response.\n • It is also delayed by 2 hours. From analysis of the experiment he concluded that though a 20 minute delay could be explained using variability in CO2 solubility, 2 hours seems to much of a delay to explain that way.\n • There are signs of a change of rhythm after the second nutrient injection.\n • In an accidental experiment, one of the samples was kept for two months in cold and darkness before it was used. This showed no daily cycle. This is quite hard to explain on basis of chemistry.\n\nAnother paper published in 2012 uses cluster analysis cluster analysis and suggested once more that they may have detected biological activity.[5][36]\n\nOn the other hand, a paper published in 2013 by Quinn has refined the chemical explanations suggested for the labeled release observations, using radiation damaged perchlorates. By simulating the radiation environment on Mars, he was able to duplicate radioactive 14CO2 emission from the sample.[7]\n\nIn short, the findings are intriguing but there is no consensus yet on whether the correct interpretation is biological or chemical. Most scientists still favour the chemical explanation, though a few scientists have recently shown renewed interest in a possible biological explanation.\n\nPhoenix observations[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nDroplets on the Phoenix legs[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nUntil 2008, most scientists thought that there was no possibility of liquid water on Mars for any length of time in the current conditions there. However, in 2008 through to 2009, droplets were observed on the landing legs of Phoenix.\n\n\nUnfortunately, it wasn't equipped to analyse them but the leading theory is that these were droplets of salty water. [2] They were observed to grow, merge, and then disappear, presumably as a result of falling off the legs.\n\nThese may have formed on mixtures of salt and ice that were thrown up onto its legs when it landed. Experiments by Nilton Renno's team in 2014 in Mars simulation chambers show that water can form droplets readily in Mars conditions on the interface between ice and calcium perchlorate salts. The droplets can form within minutes in Mars simulation conditions. This is the easiest way they have found to explain the observations.[16]\n\nPhoenix isotope evidence of liquid water on the Mars surface in the recent geological past[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe deck of the Phoenix lander, photographed on Mars. The mass spectrometer used to make the atmosphere isotope measurements is at bottom right. Its observations showed that liquid water on the surface of Mars has exchanged oxygen atoms chemically with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the recent geological past. Though it wasn't able to distinguish between water that is present on the surface intermittently (e.g. after a meteorite impact or volcanic eruption) or continuously (e.g. as deliquescing subsurface brines).\n\nPhoenix also made isotopic measurements of the carbon and oxygen atoms in the atmospheric CO2 in the atmosphere. These measurements show that the oxygen has exchanged chemically with some liquid on the surface, probably water, in the recent geological past. [1][37] This gives indirect but strong evidence that liquid water exists on the surface or has existed, in the very recent geological past.\n\nIn detail, first they found that the ratio of isotopes for 13C to 12C in the atmosphere is similar to Earth. Mars should be enriched in 13C because the lighter 12C is lost to space, but isn't. So this shows that the CO2 must be continually replenished. So Mars must be geologically active at least from time to time in the recent geological past.\n\nThen with the oxygen, their findings were the other way around. The CO2 is enriched in 18O compared with the 16O compared with CO2 as emitted from volcanic activity. They can make this deduction using information from meteorites from Mars, one of which was formed as recently as 160 million years ago. This shows that the oxygen in the CO2 in the atmosphere must have reacted chemically with water on the surface in order to take up heavier oxygen-18.\n\nThis research wasn't able to determine if this liquid water is episodic (e.g. after a meteorite strike) or continuously present. However their findings suggested that the exchange with the liquid water happened primarily at temperatures near freezing, which may rule out some hypotheses, particularly hydrothermal vent systems, as the primary source for the water.\n\nMethane plume observations by Curiosity and from Earth[edit | hide | edit source]\n\n\nMethane was detected in the Mars atmosphere for the first time in 2004. This stimulated follow up measurements, and research into possible biological or geological origins for methane on Mars. [38].[39].\n\nIf these measurements are valid (they were confirmed by three independent teams at the time), then there must be some source continually producing methane. Methane dissociates in the atmosphere through photochemical reactions - for instance it reacts with hydroxyl ions forming water and CO2 in the presence of sunlight. It can only survive for a few hundred years in the Mars atmosphere.[40][41]\n\nThere are three main hypotheses for sources for the methane[42][43][44][45]\n\n\n\nHowever around eight months later, in November 2013, Curiosity detected Methane spikes up to 9 ppb.[44] These spikes were observed in only one measurement (the measurements were taken roughly every month) and then dropped down to 0.7 ppb again. This happened again in early 2014.\n\n\n\nThe ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter may help to answer this question, as it will be able to detect trace gases such as methane in the Mars atmosphere using techniques that are about a thousand times more sensitive than any previous measurements. It is due for launch in 2016 (it is part of the same mission that will land the first ExoMars static lander technology demo prior to the main 2018 rover mission).\n\n\nOne way to distinguish between biogenic and abiogenic sources of methane might be to measure the carbon-12 to carbon-14 ratio. Methanogens produce a gas which is much richer in the lighter carbon-12 than the products of serpentization.[45]\n\nDry Gullies[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe dry gullies on Mars were first thought by many scientists to be formed by activity of water. Nowadays, it is thought that recent gullies are formed by dry ice processes, but that many of the older dry ice gullies result from the action of water.\n\nThe dry ice hypothesis for recent gullies was confirmed, reasonably conclusively, when new sections of gullies were seen to form at temperatures too low for water activity.[49][50][51][52]\n\nThe hypothesis that many older gullies (but still geologically recent) were formed by action of water got strong support in January 2015. This research, while continuing to support the conclusion that the new features are formed by CO2 processes at present, suggests that the older gullies may well have been formed by floods of melt water associated with glacial melting of glaciers that form when the Mars axis tilts beyond 30 degrees. This could have happened within the last two million years (between 400,000 and two million years ago).[53][54]\n\nSharp-featured recent gullies (blue arrows) and older degraded gullies (gold) in the same location on Mars. These suggest cyclical climate change within the last two million years\n\nThen in results first released in August 2016, scientists reported that they found no evidence of polysillicates (clays) in the gullies except in case where the gullies cut through clay deposits. This strongly suggests that they were not formed from water. [55][56]. The Mars Opportunity rover is going to study a Martian gully close up starting in 2017, which may help resolve the question of how it formed. Meanwhile the original idea that these gullies could have formed and maybe still be forming as a result of outflows of liquid water has come to seem increasingly unlikely. [57]\n\nWarm Seasonal flows (Recurrent Slope Lineae)[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nMany dark streaks form seasonally on Mars. Most of these are thought to be due to dry ice and wind effects. This image shows an example, probably the result of avalanche slides and not thought to have anything to do with water:\n\nSlope Streaks in Acheron Fossae on Mars - these streaks are thought to be possibly due to avalanches of dark sand flowing down the slope\n\nHowever a few of the streaks form in conditions that rule out all the usual mechanisms. These are the Warm Seasonal Flows, also known as Recurrent Slope Lineae.[10]\n\n • They form on sun facing slopes in the summer when the local temperatures rise above 0C so far too warm for dry ice.\n • They are not correlated at all with the winds and dust storms.\n • They are also remarkably narrow and consistent in width through the length of the streak, when compared to a typical avalanche scar.\n • They develop seasonally over many weeks, gradually extending down the slopes through summer - and then fade away in autumn\nWarm Season Flows on Slope in Horowitz Crater (animated)\n\nThe leading hypotheses for these is that they are correlated in some way with the seasonal presence of liquid water - probably salty brines.\n\nDark Flows in Newton Crater Extending During Summer (animated)\nWarm Season Flows on Slope in Newton Crater (animated)\n\nThe dark streaks resemble damp patches, but spectral measurements from orbit don't detect water. One suggestion is that the water re-arranges the sand grains so causing a darkening, for instance by removing fine dust from the surface. The images were all taken in the afternoons, so it's also possible that the water flows in the early morning and that this water has evaporated when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is able to take the images and do spectroscopic imaging. The streaks are also much narrower than the resolution of the spectroscopic imaging from orbit, so water could be missed for that reason also.\n\nSlopes with the streaks are enriched in the more oxidized ferrous and ferric oxides compared with other similar slopes without the streaks, which could be the result of water. The strength of the spectral signatures of the ferrous and ferric oxides also varies according to the season like the streaks themselves. The leading hypothesis for these streaks is that they are caused by water, kept liquid by salts which reduce the freezing point of the water.[11]\n\nMost of them occur at higher lattitudes, but in 2013 a few were also discovered in the Valles Marineres area, surprisingly close to the equator. This research turned up 12 new sites within 25 degrees of the equator, each with hundreds, or thousands of streaks.[58]\n\nSince the temperatures are relatively warm throughout the year at these locations, then without a mechanism for replenishment, any subsurface ice would probably have sublimated long ago. McEwen, from the team who discovered the streaks at this new location, suggested that this may be evidence for water emerging from groundwater deep below the crust. He suggests this may have implications for searches for Martian life.\n\nQuoting from Nature:\n\n\n\nThis pair of maps indicates locations of confirmed sites of recurrent slope linea on Mars, with respect to elevation (upper map) and surface brightness, or albedo (lower map). Recurrent slope linea are a class of markings that might be caused by flow of salty water. These dark lines advance downhill during warmer months, fade away in colder months, and reappear the following year. A paper by McEwen et al. in Nature Geoscience in December 2013 focuses on recent confirmation that these features exist surprisingly close to the equator. A cluster of recent findings is in the Valles Marineris area.The albedo information comes from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. Surface topographical information for the map comes from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter.\n\nUpper map shows elevation, lower map shows albedo, and the black squares are confirmed sites of recurrent slope lineae.\n\n\"We observe the lineae to be most active in seasons when the slopes often face the sun. Expected peak temperatures suggest that activity may not depend solely on temperature. Although the origin of the recurring slope lineae remains an open question, our observations are consistent with intermittent flow of briny water. Such an origin suggests surprisingly abundant liquid water in some near-surface equatorial regions of Mars\".[58]\n\nThey were first reported in the paper by McEwan in Science, August 5, 2011.[59] They were already suspected as involving flowing brines back then, as all the other models available involved liquid water in some form. Finally proven pretty much conclusively to involve liquid water in some form, possibly habitable if temperatures and salinity are right - after detection of hydrated salts that change their hydration state rapidly, reported in a paper published on 28 September 2015 along with a press conference [1].[60][61][62][63] The brines were not detected directly, because the resolution of the spectrometer isn't high enough for this, and also the brines probably flow in the morning. MRO is in a slowly precessing sun-synchronous orbit inclined at 93 degrees (orbital period 1 hr 52 minutes). Each time it crosses the Mars equator on the sunny side, South to North, the time is 3:00 pm, in the local solar time on the surface, all year round. This is the worst time of day to spot brines from orbit.[64]\n\nAlthough these features are now confirmed to involve liquid water in some form, the water could be either too cold or too salty for life. At present they are treated as potentially habitable, as \"Uncertain Regions, to be treated as Special Regions\".\n\nThe \"Special Regions\" assessment says of them:[65]\n\n • \"Although no single model currently proposed for the origin of RSL adequately explains all observations, they are currently best interpreted as being due to the seepage of water at > 250 K, with [water activity] unknown and perhaps variable. As such they meet the criteria for Uncertain Regions, to be treated as Special Regions. There are other features on Mars with characteristics similar to RSL, but their relationship to possible liquid water is much less likely\"The \"Special Regions\" assessment says of them:[65]\n\nSun warmed dust grains embedded in ice[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nMöhlmann originally suggested this process in 2011 as a possible way for liquid water to form on Mars, based on a mechanism that produces liquid water in similar conditions in Antarctica. As the sunlight hits the ice, it would preferentially warm up any heat absorbing dust grains trapped inside. These grains would then store heat and form water by melting some of the ice, and the water, covered by ice, would be protected from the vacuum conditions of the atmosphere.\n\nThis process could melt the ice for a few hours per day in the warmest days of summer, and melt a few mms of ice around each grain. For instance, Losiak, et al, modeled dust grains of basalt (2-200 µm in diameter) if exposed to full sunlight on the surface of the ice on the warmest days in summer, on the Northern polar ice cap, and say this about their model, in 2014: \"For example, for solar constant 350 W/m2, emissivity 0.80, grain size 2 um, and thermal conductivity 0.4 W/mK melting lasts for ~300 minutes [5 hours] and result in melting of 6 mm of ice.\" [66]. They developed this model as a hypothesis to explain presence of extensive deposits of gypsum in the Northern polar ice cap and the dune fields around it, and concluded that, since the atmospheric pressure there is just above the triple point, this mms thin layer of liquid water could persist for a significant period of time there around grains of basalt in the middle of the day in summer.\n\nThis process has been been observed in Antarctica. On Mars, there could be enough water to create conditions for physical, chemical, and biological processes.[67][68]\n\nFlow like features[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThese intriguing high lattitude features are associated with the Martian Geysers. The geysers themselves (if that is what they are) are thought to be results of dry ice turning to gas, and the dark spots and flow like features are thought to be debris from the geysers.\n\nHowever, later in the year the flow like features extend further down the slopes. The details differ for the two hemispheres. In the Southern hemisphere, all current models for this part of the process involve liquid water. In the northern hemisphere then most of the models also involve water, although the northern hemisphere flow like features form at much lower surface temperatures.\n\nThis image shows the flow like features of the southern hemisphere.\n\nFlow-like features in Dunes on Richardson Crater, Mars. They form around the dark dune spots, in the debris of the hypothesized Martian Geysers. The dark material at the end of the flows moves at between 0.1 and 1.4 m/day in late spring / summer on Mars.[13] All current models for it favour liquid water as a cause. Either interfacial layers, or else layers of water created through the solid state greenhouse effect.\n\nThe process starts with the dark dune spots which form in early spring. Here are some examples in Richardson Crater in the Martian southern hemisphere- one of the places where the Flow Like Features (FLFs) have been observed.\n\nWikirichardsonPSP 002885 1080.jpg\n\nThese are thought to result from the Martian Geysers.\n\nArtist's impression of Geysers on Mars\n\nThe idea is that a semi-transparent solid such as dry ice or clear ice acts like a greenhouse to warm up a layer below the surface (the \"solid state greenhouse effect\"). When this lower layer consists of dry ice, then it turns into gas and as the pressure builds up, eventually escapes to the surface explosively as a Martian Geyser.\n\nThe debris from these geysers form the dark spots, and the \"flow like features\".\n\nThen, as local summer approaches, the flow like features start to extend down the slope. These are small features only a few tens of meters in scale, and grow at a rate of a meter or a few meters per Martian sol through the late Martian spring and summer. This is the part of the process that is thought to be due to liquid water, in nearly all the models proposed for them so far.[13][10]\n\nA different mechanism is proposed for them in the Northern and in the Southern hemispheres.\n\nSouthern hemisphere flow like features[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThere are two types of these flow-like features. These ones in the southern hemisphere often get confused with the rather similar looking Northern hemisphere flow-like features. Both grow rapidly in the late spring, and they resemble each other visually, but that is as far as the resemblance goes. For an overview of the research see the Dark Dune Spots section of Nilton Renno's paper. [69]\n\nThe two Martian polar ice caps of course have very different climates and conditions, with the northern hemisphere at a lower altitude, consisting mainly of ice, and it loses all its dry ice in summer. The northern hemisphere features form at a latitude of 12.5 degrees from the pole, at surface temperatures of around -90°C, low enough for dry ice. This is far too cold to be habitable to Earth life. Their models involve either extremely cold salty brines or dry ice and sand.\n\nThough the southern ice cap is colder than the northern one, the southern features form in Richardson crater, which is 17.4 degrees from the pole. The southern ice cap is also much smaller in its summer than the northern polar ice cap. So the two types of feature are not directly comparable, although similar in appearance.\n\nThe flow-like features in Richardson crater form at much higher surface temperatures, which rule out dry ice. All the models for the southern hemisphere features, to date, involve some form of water. They grow at a rate of around 1.4 meters per Martian sol.\n\n\nSolid state greenhouse effect model[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nMöhlmann uses a solid state greenhouse effect in his model, similarly to the process that forms the geysers, but with translucent ice rather than dry ice as the solid state greenhouse layer.[70]\n\n\n\n\nIf the ice covers a heat absorbing layer at the right depth, the melted layer can form more rapidly, within a single sol, and can evolve to be tens of centimeters in thickness. In their model this starts as fresh water, insulated from the surface conditions by the overlaying ice layers - and then mixes with any salts to produce salty brines which would then flow beyond the edges to form the extending dark edges of the flow like features.\n\n\nThis provides:\n\n • A way for pure water to be present on Mars, and to stay liquid under pressure, insulated from the surface conditions.\n • Initially of fresh water, at around 0°C.\n\n\n\nThis solid state greenhouse effect process favours equator facing slopes. Also, somewhat paradoxically, it favours higher lattitudes, close to the poles, over lower lattitudes, because it needs conditions where surface ice can form on Mars to thicknesses of tens of centimeters. (The examples at Richardson crater are at lattitude -72°, longitude 179.4°, so only 18° from the south pole.[73]).\n\n\nInterfacial liquid layers model[edit | hide | edit source]\n\n\n\nNorthern Hemisphere flow like features[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nSeasonal processes in the Northern polar dunes with Flow Like Features. Time differences between the images are 22 days and 12 days. The final picture shows a long feature that formed new between the two images, and its length is 60 meters so it grew at a rate of at least 5 meters per day.\n\nThese features form at a much lower temperature than the southern hemisphere flow like features, at -90°C average surface temperature on kilometers scale - though the dark features are expected to be considerably warmer, and the subsurface is also expected to be heated by the solid state greenhouse effect through surface layers of dry ice (similarly to the proposed models for the Martian Geysers.\n\nThey progress through a sequence of changes, first wind blown, and then seepage features associated with the dune spots, and then finally, dark seepage features appear all along the dune crest as in this sequence. These images show the growth of the seepage features. [74]\n\nThe flow like features in the northern hemisphere polar ice cap form at average surface temperatures of around 150°K - 180°K, i.e. up to -90°C approximately.\n\nThe flows start as wind-blown features but then are followed by seepage features which increase at between 0.3 meters and 7 meters a day.[69][74]\n\n\"They show a characteristic sequence of changes: first only wind-blown features emanate from them, while later a bright circular and elevated ring forms, and dark seepage-features start from the spots. These streaks grow with a speed between 0.3 meters per day and 7 meters per day, first only from the spots, later from all along the dune crest.\" [74]\n\nThe seepage features first form at overall surface temperatures of 160°K (-110°C), as measured with the low resolution TES data. However this has a resolution of 3 km across track and only 9 km along the track of the observations. Also, much of the area is still covered in dry ice at this point, and it is opaque in the thermal infrared band so the orbital photographs measure the temperature of the surface of the dry ice rather than the small area of the dark spots and streaks.\n\nThen, as with the model for the Martian geysers, shortwave radiation can penetrate translucent CO2 ice layer, and heat the subsurface through the solid state greenhouse effect.\n\nThe models suggest that subsurface melt water layers, and interfacial water could form with surface temperatures as low as 180°K (-90°C). Salts in contact with them could then form liquid brines.[74][75]\n\nAn alternative mechanism for the Northern hemisphere involves dry ice and sand cascading down the slope but most of the models involve liquid brines for the seepage stages of the features.[69]\n\nFor details see the Dark Dune Spots section of Nilton Renno's paper[69]which also has images of the two types of feature as they progress through the season.\n\nLife able to take up water from the 100% night time humidity of the Mars atmosphere[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nMartian conditions in miniature - In the Mars simulation chamber, DLR researchers recreated the atmospheric composition and pressure, the planet's surface, the temperature cycles and the solar radiation incident on the surface. The activity of polar and alpine lichen was investigated under these conditions.\n\nA series of experiments by DLR (German aerospace company) in Mars simulation chambers and on the ISS show that some Earth life (Lichens and strains of chrooccocidiopsis, a green algae) can survive Mars surface conditions and photosynthesize and metabolize, slowly, in absence of any water at all. They could make use of the humidity of the Mars atmosphere.[17] [76][77][78][79] Though the absolute humidity is low, the relative humidity at night reaches 100% because of the large day / night swings in atmospheric pressure and temperature.\n\nLichens relying on 100% night time humidity[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe lichens studied in these experiments have protection from UV light due to special pigments only found in lichens, such as parietin and antioxidants such as b-carotene in epilithic lichens. This gives them enough protection to tolerate the light levels in conditions of partial shade in the simulation chambers and make use of the light to photosynthesize. Indeed UV protection pigments have been suggested as potential biomarkers to search for on Mars.[80]\n\nAn experiment on the ISS as part of Expose-E in 2008-2009 showed that one lichen, Xanthoria elegans, retained a viability of 71% for the algae (photobiont) and 84% for the fungus (mycobiont) after 18 months in the ISS, in Mars surface simulation conditions, and the surviving cells returned to 99% photosynthetic capabilities on return to Earth. This was an experiment without the day night temperature cycles of Mars and the lichens were kept in a desiccated state so it didn't test their ability to survive in niche habitats on Mars. This greatly exceeded the post flight viability of any of the other organisms tested in the experiment.[81]\n\nAnother study in 2014 by German aerospace DLR in a Mars simulation chamber used the lichen Pleopsidium chlorophanum. This lives in the most Mars like environmental conditions on Earth, at up to 2000 meters in Antarctica. It is able to cope with high UV, low temperatures and dryness. It's mainly found in cracks, where just a small amount of scattered light reaches it. This is probably adaptive behaviour to protect it from UV light and desiccation. It remains metabolically active in temperatures down to -20 C, and can absorb small amounts of liquid water in an environment with ice and snow.\n\nWhen exposed to full UV levels in a 34 day experiment in a Mars simulation chamber at DLR, the fungus component of the lichen Pleopsidium chlorophanum died, and it wasn't clear if the algae component was still photosynthesizing.\n\nHowever, when partially shaded from the UV light, as for its natural habitats in Antarctica, both fungus and algae survived, and the algae remained photosynthetically active throughout. Also new growth of the lichen was observed. Photosynthetic activity continued to increase for the duration of the experiment, showing that the lichen adapted to the Mars conditions.\n\nThis is remarkable as the fungus is an aerobe, growing in an atmosphere with no appreciable amount of oxygen and 95% CO2. It seems that the algae provides it with enough oxygen to survive. The lichen was grown in Sulfatic Mars Regolith Simulant - igneous rock with composition similar to Mars meteorites, consisting of gabbro and olivine, to which quartz and anhydrous iron oxide hematite (the only thermodynamically stable iron oxide under present day Mars conditions) were added. It also contains gypsum and geothite, and was crushed to simulate the martian regolith. This was an ice free environment. They found that photosynthetic activity was strongly correlated with the beginning and the end of the simulated Martian day. Those are times when atmospheric water vapour could condense on the soil and be absorbed by it, and could probably also form cold brines with the salts in the simulated martian regolith. The pressure used for the experiment was 700 - 800 Pa, above the triple point of pure water at 600 Pa and consistent with the conditions measured by Curiosity in Gale crater.[82]\n\nThe experimenters concluded that it is likely that some lichens and cyanobacteria can adapt to Mars conditions, taking advantage of the night time humidity, and that it is possible that life from early Mars could have adapted to these conditions and still survive today in microniches on the surface. [83]\n\nBlack fungi and black yeast relying on 100% night time humidity[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nIn another experiment, by Kristina Zakharova et al, two species of microcolonial fungi – Cryomyces antarcticus and Knufia perforans - and a species of black yeasts–Exophiala jeanselmei were found to adapt and recover metabolic activity during exposure to a simulated Mars environment for 7 days. They depended on the temporary saturation of the atmosphere with water vapour like the lichens. The fungi didn't show any signs of stress reactions (such as creating unusual new proteins).\n\nThere Cryomyces antarcticus is an extremophile fungi, one of several from Antarctic dry deserts. Knufia perforans is a fungi from hot arid environments, and Exophiala jeanselmei is a black yeast endolith closely related to human pathogens.\n\nThe experimenters concluded that these black fungi can survive in a Mars environment.[84]\n\nDeliquescing salts taking up moisture from the Mars atmosphere[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nMars is rich in perchlorates - a discovery made by Phoenix, and later confirmed by Curiosity and by analysis of Martian meteorites on Earth. It now seems that perchlorates probably occur over much of the surface of Mars[85]. This is of especial interest since perchlorates deliquesce more easily than chlorides and at a lower temperature, so they could, potentially, take up water from the atmosphere more readily.\n\nIt is not yet clear how they formed. Sulfates, chlorides and nitrates can be made in sufficient quantities by atmospheric processes, but this mechanism doesn't seem sufficient to explain the observed abundances of perchlorates on Mars. [86]\n\nThough there is little by way of water vapour in the Mars atmosphere, which is also a near vacuum - still it reaches 100% humidity at night due to the low nighttime temperatures. This effect creates the Martian morning frosts, which were observed by Viking in the extremely dry equatorial regions of Mars.\n\nIce on Mars Utopia Planitia. These frosts formed every morning for about 100 days a year at the Viking location. Scientists believe dust particles in the atmosphere pick up bits of solid water. That combination is not heavy enough to settle to the ground. But carbon dioxide, which makes up 95 percent of the Martian atmosphere, freezes and adheres to the particles and they become heavy enough to sink. Warmed by the Sun, the surface evaporates the carbon dioxide and returns it to the atmosphere, leaving behind the water and dust.\n\nThe ice seen in this picture, is extremely thin, perhaps no more than one-thousandth of an inch thick. These frosts form due to the 100% night time humidity, which may also make it possible for perchlorate salt mixtures to capture humidity from the atmosphere, and this process could occur almost anywhere on Mars where suitable mixtures of salts exist.\n\nThe discovery of perchlorates raises the possibility of thin layers of salty brines that could form a short way below the surface by taking moisture from the atmosphere when the atmosphere is cooler. It's now thought that these could occur almost anywhere on Mars if the right mixtures of salts exist on the surface, even possibly in the hyper-arid equatorial regions. In the process of deliquescence, the humidity is taken directly from the atmosphere. It does not require the presence of ice on or near the surface.\n\nSome microbes on the Earth are able to survive in dry habitats without any ice or water, using only liquid obtained by deliquescence. For instance this happens in salt pillars in the hyper arid core of the Atacama desert. They can do this at a remarkably low relative humidity, presumably making use of deliquescence of the salts.[87]\n\nPerchlorates are poisonous to many lifeforms. However, perchlorates are less hazardous at the low temperatures on Mars, and some Haloarchaea are able to tolerate them in these conditions, and some of them can use them as a source of energy as well. [88].\n\nThese layers are predicted to lie a few cms below the surface, and are likely to be thin films or droplets or patches of liquid brine. So,they probably won't be detected from orbit, at least not directly. Confirmation may have to wait until we can send landers to suitable locations with the capabilities to detect these layers. Some of the layers may form in equatorial regions, and analysis of results from Curiosity in early 2015 has returned indirect evidence for presence of subsurface deliquescing brines in Gale Crater. [15].\n\nWhether any of these layers are habitable for life will depend on the temperatures and the water activity (how salty the brines are), which in turn depends on conditions and the composition of salts, whether they are mixed with soil, atmospheric conditions, and even the detailed structure of the microhabitats.\n\nEutectic mixtures, e.g. of chlorides and perchlorates deliquesce at a lower relative humidity, and remain liquid at a lower temperature than either separately[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe possibility of liquid forming by deliquescence is improved hugely by the process of eutectic mixtures. The name comes from the Greek \"ευ\" (eu = easy) and \"Τήξις\" (tecsis = melting)\n\nThis is the process by which when you have a mixture of two salts, for example, a mixture of chloride with perchlorate, then the mixture is able to take up water at a lower relative humidity than either of the salts separately.\n\nA similar process also occurs with temperature in place of humidity. A mixture of salts will remain liquid at a lower temperature than either separately. This is the way that Antifreeze works, and is also the mechanism by which salt keeps roads free from ice. See also Freezing-point depression.\n\nTechnical details of how it works[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe Deliquescing Relative Humidity for a mixture of salts is the humidity needed for the entire mixture to become liquid. This varies depending on the proportion of each salt in the mixture.\n\nThe relative proportions of two salts needed to remain liquid with the lowest level of humidity is known as the eutonic point.\n\nAny mixture of two salts, even if the proportions are well away from the eutonic point, can still take up some water vapour at this lowest level of humidity. It will continue to do this until one of the salts is entirely used up to create this optimal mixture. If there is an excess of the other salt, it remains out of solution in the solid phase.\n\nThis diagram shows how it works - for a fictitious mixture A and B.\n\nDRH = Deliquescing Relative Humidity, ERH = Eutonic Relative Humidity\n\nHere DRH = Deliquescing Relative Humidity, ERH = Eutonic Relative Humidity.\n\nE(A+B) is the optimal or Eutectic mixture. And L here refers to the liquid phase. So, to the left we have a mixture of A with E(A+B) and, once it reaches the eutonic point, only part of it is liquid, and some of the salt A will remain in its solid phase. To the right, similarly, some of the salt B remains in its solid phase above the eutonic point.\n\nSo as the humidity is increased, for a given A / B mixture, first the lower horizontal line is reached, at which point some of the mixture of salts becomes liquid. This is known as the \"eutonic relative humidity\" - the point at which any mixture will start to take up some water vapour.\n\nAs humidity is raised further, more and more of the mixture becomes liquid. Eventually the upper, curved line is reached - and at that point, the entire mixture will be in its liquid phase.\n\nSimilarly if the axis is temperature - then as the temperature is raised, first part of the mixture will go liquid, at a temperature corresponding to the optimal mixture of the salts, and then when the upper curved line is reached, the entire mixture will be liquid.\n\nEffect of this[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nBecause of this eutectic mixture effect, if you add a tiny amount of perchlorates to the less deliquescent chlorides, this is enough to reduce the minimum relative humidity needed to deliquesce to the eutonic relative humidity for the mixture. This is not only lower than the deliquescence relative humidity of the chlorides, it is also lower than the deliquescence relative humidity for the perchlorates as well.\n\nYou can also get similar eutectic mixtures of three or more different types of salts. E.g. a mixture of perchlorates, chlorates, sulfates, and chlorides (or nitrates also if present) in the case of Mars, along with cations of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. So there are many possibilities to consider here.\n\nAfter salt mixtures take up water, they retain it after supercooling, and reduced humidity[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nIn addition to this, once the salt mixtures take up water, they lose it less readily, so they can stay liquid even when the humidity is then reduced again below the eutonic point (delayed efflorescence). Similarly for eutectic freezing, they can be supercooled below the temperature where they would normally freeze, and may remain liquid for some time below the eutonic point.\n\nYou get a eutectic also for freezing of a single salt, with molar concentrations. If you have a mixture of salt and water then different mixtures will freeze at different temperatures. The eutectic is the optimal mix of water and salt with the lowest freezing temperature. As you freeze a mixture, then no matter what the original concentration, some of it will remain liquid down to the freezing point of the eutectic mixture.\n\nHowever as you freeze further below that temperature, you may find that the salt continues to remain liquid. The reason for this is that for a salt to come out of solution through nucleation, it has to form a new interface between the crystal surface and the liquid, which requires energy. Once the nucleation starts, then crystallization is rapid, but the nucleation can be delayed often for many hours.\n\nFor instance, MgSO4 has a eutectic of -3.6°C but through supercooling can remain liquid for an extra -15.5°C below that. Here is a table of some salts likely to be found on Mars, showing the eutectic temperature for each one (with the molar concentration for the optimal eutectic concentration in brackets) and the amount of supercooling below that temperature that they found with experiments (adapted from table 2 of [89] - omitted some of the columns).\n\nSalt system Eutectic (°C) Amount of supercooling below eutectic (°C)\nMgSO4 -3.6°C (1.72 m) 15.5\nMgCl2 -33°C (2.84 m) 13.8\nNaCl -21.3°C (5.17 m) 6.3\nNaClO4 -34.3°C (9.2 m) 11.5\n\nAs the salt / liquid solution cools in Mars simulation conditions, then the results can be complicated, because for instance MgSO4 releases heat in an exothermic reaction when it crystallizes. This keeps it liquid for longer than you'd expect. In their experiments, it remained liquid for twelve hours as it gradually cooled below the eutectic temperature before eventually it froze at 15.5 degrees below the eutectic temperature. In simulated Mars conditions you also have to take account of the effect of soil mixed in with the salts. Surprisingly, using Mars analogue soil, this does not reduce the supercooling and can in some cases permit more supercooling.[89][90]\n\nWith some of the salt solutions, depending on chemical composition, then the supercooling produces a glassy state instead of crystallization, and this could help to protect supercooled microbes from damage.\n\nEffects of micropores in salt pillars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nIn experimental studies of salt pillars in the Atacama desert, microbes are able to access liquid at extremely low relative humidities due to micropores in the salt structures. They do this through spontaneous capillary condensation, at relative humidities far lower than the deliquescence point of NaCl of 75%.[91]\n\n'The Atacama desert hosts the closest analogue of what a real, live Martian might be like', in its salt rock formations.[92]\n\nMicro-environmental data measured simultaneously outside and inside halite pinnacles in the Yungay region (table 2 from [93])\n\nVariable Halite exterior Halite interior\nMean annual RH, % 34.75 54.74\nMaximum annual RH, % 74.20 86.10\nMinimum annual RH, % 2.90 2.20\n\nThe researchers, Wierzchos et al, did detailed studies with scanning electron microscopes. At 75% relative humidity then brine was abundant inside the salt pillars. As the humidity was reduced, even at 30% RH, the cyanobacteria aggregates shrinked due to water loss, but still there were small pockets of brine in the salt pillars.[93]\n\n\"Endolithic communities inside halite pinnacles in the Atacama Desert take advantage of the moist conditions that are created by the halite substrate in the absence of rain, fog or dew. The tendency of the halite to condense and retain liquid water is enhanced by the presence of a nano-porous phase with a smooth surface skin, which covers large crystals and fills the larger pore spaces inside the pinnacles... Endolithic microbial communities were observed as intimately associated with this hypothetical nano-porous phase. While halite endoliths must still be adapted to stress conditions inside the pinnacles (i.e. low water activity due to high salinity), these observations show that hygroscopic salts such as halite become oasis for life in extremely dry environments, when all other survival strategies fail.\n\nOur findings have implications for the habitability of extremely dry environments, as they suggest that salts with properties similar to halite could be the preferred habitat for life close to the dry limit on Earth and elsewhere. It is particularly tempting to speculate that the chloride-bearing evaporites recently identified on Mars may have been the last, and therefore most recently inhabited, substrate as this planet transitioned from relatively wet to extremely dry conditions\"\n\nMicrobes also inhabit Gypsum deposits (CaSO4.2H2O), however Gypsum doesn't deliquesce. Researchers found that the regions of the desert that had microbial colonies within the gypsum correlated with regions with over 60% relative humidity for a significant part of the year. They also found that the microbes imbibed water whenever the humidity increased above 60% and gradually became desiccated when it was below that figure.[94]\n\nImplications of these effects[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe combination of all these effects means that mixtures of salts, including perchlorates in the mixture, can be liquid at lower temperatures than any of the salts separately, and also take up water from the atmosphere at lower relative humidity, and once liquid, can remain liquid for longer than you would predict if you didn't take account of these effects. And if there are micropores in the salt deposits, any life within them could also take advantage of an internal relative humidity higher than the external humidity of the atmosphere.\n\nOn Mars the relative humidity of the atmosphere goes through extremes. It reaches 100% humidity every night in the extreme cold, even in equatorial regions. In the daytime the relative humidity becomes much less, approaching 0%[95], and any exposed salts would lose their liquid.\n\nThe surface temperatures of the top few cms also change enormously from day to night (more stable but lower temperatures are encountered deeper below the surface) and over the entire surface of Mars, temperatures are tens of degrees below freezing every night.\n\nBut because of these other effects these liquid layers, may resist efflorescence and remain liquid longer than you'd expect as the air dries out in the daytime, and also stay liquid longer than you'd expect through supercooling as the temperatures plummet at night.\n\nThe result is that you could have layers of liquid, on Mars, quite some way below the surface 1 or 2 cms where liquid water in its pure state can form.\n\nSo this discovery of perchlorates on Mars has major implications for presence of liquid, and so habitability.\n\nChallenges for life in these liquid layers of deliquescing salts[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nGiven the presence of salts, and including perchlorates, widespread over Mars, it would seem that these liquid layers must surely exist, though not yet directly confirmed by observation.[95]\n\nHowever some of these liquid layers may be too cold for life (some are liquid at temperatures as low as -90C or lower), or too salty (not enough \"water activity). The main focus of research here for habitability is to find out whether there are mixtures of salts that can deliquesce on Mars at the right temperature range and with sufficient water activity for life to be able to take advantage of the liquid. The consensus so far is that though many of these would be too cold, or too salty for life, it seems possible that some of these, in optimal conditions, with the right mixture of salts and at the right depth below the surface, may also be habitable for suitable haloarchaea. The lifeforms would need to be perchlorate tolerant, and ideally, able to use it as a source of energy as well.[88].[96]\n\nThe conditions for these liquid layers to form may include regions where there is no ice present on the surface such as the arid equatorial regions of Mars.[97].\n\nCuriosity observations - indirect evidence of deliquescing salts in equatorial regions[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nResearchers using data from Curiosity in April 2015 have found indirect evidence that liquid brines form through deliquescence of perchlorates in equatorial regions, at various times, both at the surface, and down to depths up to 15 cms below the surface. When it leaves sandy areas, the humidity increases, suggesting that the sand takes up water vapour.\n\nAt night, the water activity is high enough for life, but it is too cold, and in the day time it is warm enough but too dry. The authors concluded that the conditions in the Curiosity region were probably beyond the habitability range for replication and metabolism of known terrestrial micro-organisms.[15][98]\n\nAdvancing sand dunes bioreactor[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe idea behind this proposal is that the constantly moving sand dunes of Mars may be able to create a potential environment for life. Raw materials can be replenished, and the chemical disequilibrium needed for life maintained through churning of the sand by the winds.[26]\n\nAdvancing Dune in Nili Patera, Mars. Back-and-forth blinking of this two-image animation shows movement of a sand dune on Mars. This discovery shows that entire dunes as thick as 200 feet (61 meters) are moving as coherent units across the Martian landscape. The sand dunes move at about the same flux (volume per time) dunes in Antarctica. This was unexpected because of the thin air and the winds which are weaker than Earth winds. It may be due to \"saltation\" - ballistic movement of sand grains which travel further in the weaker Mars gravity.\n\nThe lee fronts of the dunes in this region move on average 0.5 meters per years (though the selection may be biased here as they only measured dunes with clear lee edges to measure) and the ripples move on average 0.1 meters per year. [99].\n\nThe idea of the advancing sand dunes bioreactor is that this movement of the sand dunes could \"mix oxidants, reductants, water, nutrients, and possibly organic carbon in what could be considered bioreactors\"[26]\n\nThe sources of carbon would come from space - it's supplied at a steady rate of 5 nanograms per square meter per sol from micrometeorites. At the equator it has a mean lifetime of 300 years - but lasts longer if buried.\n\nOn the leeward side of transgressing dunes, then the sand can be buried at the rate of centimeters per year. Since the UV light only penetrates the top centimeter of the soil, then the interplanetary carbon would be buried, beyond reach of UV, within a year.\n\nAdditionally, if there was photosynthetic life or similar in the sand dunes, this could fix CO2 from the atmosphere as an additional source (there is of course no evidence for this yet).\n\nAs for water, then their idea is that the frost that forms in the morning in the equatorial regions would also occur below the surface (is no reason for it to be confined to the surface). Then, in presence of salts, the day / night temperature cycles could force this water to migrate downwards and form potentially habitable layers of brine a few centimeters below the surface.\n\nThey suggest for instance, a eutectic mixture of Mg(ClO4)2 and Ca(ClO4)2 brines which have eutectics of -71°C and -77°C. This is well below the lowest known temperatures for growth for terrestrial microbes, of -20°C, but growth at lower temperatures may be possible on Mars so long as liquid is present.\n\nFerrous iron cold be the electron donor. And ferric iron or perchlorate could be the oxidant - electron acceptor.\n\nThe main nutrients (N, P, S) and trace nutrients (Mg, Ca, K, Fe, etc.) are all readily available with exception of N. They suggest that the dunes could have reduced nitrogen produced from the atmospheric N2 catalyzed by iron oxides in presence of UV radiation.\n\nThis is of special interest as a potential habitat that is accessible by MSL and other equatorial region rovers, as it doesn't require presence of surface ice.\n\nIn summary, their conclusion is that if MSL detects organic carbon, and reduced nitrogen compounds (which it has now done) then these sand dunes could be potential microbial habitats on present day Mars:\n\n\"Advancing martian dunes mix oxidants, reductants, water, nutrients, and possibly organic carbon in what could be considered bioreactors. Thus, martian dunes function as small scale analogues of the global geological cycles that are important in maintaining Earth's habitability. On Mars, carbon can be cycled from the surface of the dune to its subsurface where it may come in contact with moisture and oxidants. Compounds oxidized at the surface of dunes by UV radiation and oxygen are buried on the lee side of dunes and mixed with reductants, carbon, and ephemeral brines. In addition, reduced compounds will be exposed at the surface on the windward side of dunes where they can be oxidized and complete the cycle. ... Additional measurements by MSL such as detecting organic carbon and reduced nitrogen compounds would support the hypothesis that moving dunes are potential microbial habitats. The absence of these compounds would indicate that the today's dunes are unlikely to be habitable.\" [26]\n\nDroplets of liquid water on salt / ice interfaces[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThis is the result of a research team led by Nilton Renno, professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at Michigan University.[100][101] He is also project scientist for Curiosity in charge of the REMS weather station on Mars, was also a scientist on the Phoenix lander team.[102]\n\nHe made the widely reported statement[103][104][105] about \"swimming pools for bacteria\" on Mars. [106]\n\nIn the academic paper about this research he writes:[107]\n\n\"The results of our experiments suggest that the spheroids observed on a strut of the Phoenix lander formed on water ice splashed during landing [Smith et al., 2009; Rennó et al., 2009]. They also support the hypothesis that “soft ice” found in one of the trenches dug by Phoenix was likely frozen brine that had been formed previously by perchlorates on icy soil. Finally, our results indicate that liquid water could form on the surface during the spring where snow has been deposited on saline soils [Martínez et al., 2012; Möhlmann, 2011]. 'These results have important implications for the understanding of the habitability of Mars because liquid water is essential for life as we know it, and halophilic terrestrial bacteria can thrive in brines'\"\n\nIce and salt are both common in the higher latitudes of Mars, so these millimeter scale micro-habitats on salt / ice boundaries may likewise be a common feature on Mars.[107]\n\nShallow interfacial layers a few molecules thick[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThese interfacial layers occur on boundaries between ice and rock due to intermolecular forces that depress the freezing point of the water. The water flows and acts as a solvent. These layers may be used by microbes in arctic permafrost, which have been found to metabolize at temperatures as low as -20°C. Life may be possible in interfacial layers as thin as three monolayers, and the model by Stephen Jepsen et al obtained 109 cells/g at -20°C, though the microbes would spend most of their time in survival mode.[108][109]. Models show that interfacial water should form in some regions of Mars, for instance in Richardson crater.[110]\n\nIce covered lakes that form in polar regions after large impacts[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThis is a possibility that was highlighted recently with the close flyby of Mars by the comet Siding Spring in 2014 C/2013 A1 Siding Spring. Before its trajectory was known in detail, there remained a small chance that it could hit Mars. Calculations showed it could create a crater of many km in diameter and perhaps a couple of km deep. If a comet like that was to hit polar regions or higher lattitudes of Mars, away from the equator, it would create a temporary lake, which life could survive in.\n\nModels suggest that a crater 30 - 50 km in diameter formed by a comet of a few kilometers in diameter would result in an underground hydrothermal system that remains liquid for thousands of years. This happens even in cold conditions so is not limited to early Mars, so a similar impact based temporary underground hydrothermal system could be created today if there was a large enough impact like Siding Spring. The lake is kept heated by the melted rock from the initial impact in hydrothermal systems fed by underground aquifers.[18][111][112][113]\n\nTemporary lakes resulting from volcanic activity[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThere is evidence that volcanism formed lakes 210 million years ago on one of the flanks of Arsia Mons, relatively recent in geological terms. This may have consisted of two lakes of around 40 cubic kilometers of water, and a third one of 20 cubic kilometers of water, which probably remained liquid for hundreds, or even of the order of thousands of years. [114]\n\nTwo views of Arsia Mons, based on Viking orbiter imagery and Mars Global Surveyor elevation data, from the south (top) and north (bottom).\n\nArsia Mons is the southernmost of the volcanoes of Tharsis Montes. It is depicted using a Viking image mosaic draped over MOLA topography. The topography shows the caldera structure and the massive flank breakouts that produced two major side lobes on opposite sides of the volcano. The vertical exaggeration is 10:1.\n\nThere is evidence of lakes that formed 210 million years ago on the flanks of Arsia Mons. Compared with the 4.5 billion year history of Mars, this is relatively recent. It may have had two lakes of around 40 cubic kilometers of water, and a third one of 20 cubic kilometers of water, whihch stayed liquid for centuries, possibly for millennia.\n\nPossibility of geological hot spots in present day Mars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThere is clear evidence that Mars is not yet geologically inactive[115]\n\n • Small scale volcanic features associated with some of the volcanoes on Mars which must have formed in the very recent geological past[116]\n • The isotopic evidence from Phoenix of release of CO2 in the recent geological past.[1]\n\nIt seems likely that there are magma plumes at least deep underground, associated with the occasional surface volcanism on the geological timescale of millions of years. And given that there has been activity on Olympus Mons as recently as four million years ago, it seems unlikely that all activity has stopped permanently.\n\nBut so far no currently active volcanism has been observed, nor have any present day warm areas have ever been found on the surface, in extensive searches.[117] The Mars Global Surveyor scanned most of the surface in infrared with its TES instrument. The Mars Odyssey's THEMIS, also imaged the surface in wavelengths that measure temperature.\n\nAnother way to search for volcanic activity is through searches of trace gases produced in volcanic eruptions. So far nothing has been observed from Earth but instruments are limited in their sensitivity and get only limited observing time for Mars as well. This is going to be a focus of future searches however. One of the instruments on the the 2016 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is NOMAD (Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery), which will search for trace gases indicating current volcanic activity, as well as searching directly for organics that could result from life processes, and the methane plumes.[118]\n\nIf these hot spots exist, they could keep water liquid through geothermal heating. The water could be trapped under overlying deposits and kept at a pressure high enough to stay liquid. They could also be a source for intermittent surface or near surface water (for instance one of the hypotheses for the RSLs is that they may be occur over geological hot spots deep below the surface that indirectly supply them with water).\n\nAnother possibility is a volcanic ice tower - a column of ice that can form around volcanic vents, for instance on Mount Erebus, Ross Island, Antarctica[119]. These would be only a few degrees higher in temperature than the surrounding landscape so easy to miss in thermal images from orbit.[120] [121][122][123]\n\nPotential for cave habitats on Mars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nAs well as the lava tube caves, Mars may have other caves also less visible from orbit. It has most of the same processes that form caves on the Earth, and also has processes unique to Mars that may also create caves, for instance through direct sublimation of ice or dry ice into the atmosphere. Caves are of especial interest on Mars for astrobiology, because they can give protection from some of the harsh surface conditions. If the caves are isolated from the surface, or almost isolated, they may have conditions similar to similarly isolated caves on the Earth.\n\nIn the \"Workshop on Mars 2001\", the main possibilities for cave formation listed are:[124]\n\n\"(1) diversion of channel courses in underground conduits; (2) fractures of surface drainage patterns; chaotic terrain and collapsed areas in general; (4) seepage face in valley walls and/or headwaters; (5) inactive hydrothermal vents and lava tubes.\"\n\nThey remark that caves that formed at headwaters or where liquid seeped from the rocks may be of special interest for astrobiology, and these may be places where some ice would still be present. Of course research has moved on since 2001.\n\nIn 2014, Penelope Boston lists some of the main possible types of cave.[125] She divides into the four main categories which she then divides into further subcategories.\n\n 1. Solutional caves (e.g. on Earth, caves in limestone and other materials that can be dissolved, either through acid, or water)\n 2. Melt caves (e.g. lava tubes and glacier caves)\n 3. Fracture caves (e.g. due to faulting)\n 4. Erosional caves (e.g. wind scoured caves, and coastal caves eroded by the sea)\n 5. Suffosional caves - a rare type of cave on the Earth, where fine particles are moved by water, leaving the larger particles behind - so the rock does not dissolve, just the fine particles are removed.\n\nShe points out a few processes that may be unique to Mars. Amongst many other ideas she suggests:\n\nSnottites in Cueva de Villa Luz in Southern Mexico. They live off H2S, and they create sulfuric acid which eats into the rock and enlarges the cave. The colony covers itself with a mucus like layer which protects it and helps it to create its own chemical microclimate inside. Some of the microbes involved are obligate aerobes so need a small amount of oxygen to survive, but some are capable of surviving as anaerobes and don't need oxygen at all.\n 1. For the solutional caves, the abundance of sulfur on Mars may make sulfuric acid caves more common than they are on Mars. There's also the possibility of liquid CO2 (which forms under pressure, at depth, e.g. in a cliff wall) forming caves.\n 2. For the melt caves, then the lava tubes on Mars are far larger than the ones on the Earth.\n 3. Mars could have sublimational caves caused by dry ice and ordinary ice subliming directly into the atmosphere.\n\nSome cave habitats on Earth, if shielded from the surface, may be almost exact duplicates of similar habitats on Mars. For instance the Snottites in the toxic sulfur cave Cueva de Villa Luz flourish on Hydrogen Sulfide gas. Some of these species are aerobes (needing only small amounts of oxygen), and others are anaerobes and could survive anywhere on Mars where similar habitats exist. Mars has been shown to be geologically active in the recent geological past through the Phoenix isotope measurements[1]. Although there are no currently known geological hotspots or activity is currently known, there may well be subsurface thermal systems where caves similar to the Cueva de Villa Luz could occur.\n\nSub surface ice sheets in the equatorial regions[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nIf these ice sheets exist, they may provide a source of water for surface life, for instance for the Recurrent Slope Lineae in the equatorial regions on the flanks of Valles Marineres.\nChanges in tilt of Mars's axis. At times it tilts so far that it has equatorial ice sheets instead of the more usual polar ice caps. The sub surface ice sheets in the equatorial regions, if they exist, may be remnants of these larger ice sheets from the past.\n\nAs the axial tilt of Mars changes, at times it tilts so far that it has equatorial ice sheets instead of polar caps.\n\nSeveral lines of evidence suggest, that Mars may have remnant subsurface equatorial ice sheets today. The first evidence of this was based on radar measurements from the (MARSIS) instrument aboard the Mars Express Spacecraft in 2007. These detected subsurface deposits that had similar density and dialectric constant to a mixture with more dust and sand than the polar ice deposits, and similar in volume and extent.[126]\n\nOther papers have provided additional, but not yet conclusive evidence that these may indeed be deposits of ice. For instance a 2014 paper reports observations of young ring-mold craters on tropical mountain glacier deposits on the flanks of Arsia and Pavonis Mons. Ring-mold craters are distinctive features that result from impact into debris covered ice. The observations suggest presence of remnant equatorial ice, over 16 meters below the surface.[127]\n\nIce in the equatorial regions would normally be lost through sublimation into the near vacuum of the Mars atmosphere, to a depth of a hundred meters or more, and this happens quite rapidly over geological timescales, over timescales of order of 100,000 years or so. So for remnant ice to survive there today, then special conditions are needed. For instance trapped ice beneath an impervious layer (capstone). Or replenished from below. This is a matter for active research with no established conclusions yet.[128][129][130][131]\n\nHydrosphere - possible layer of liquid water several kilometers below the surface[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nDeep rock habitats on Earth are inhabited by life so may also be on Mars. However they need liquid water to survive, which may possibly exist below the cyrosphere.\n\nThe Mars cryosphere is the layer of permanently frozen permafrost. In higher lattitudes it starts a few cms below the surface, and may continue down for several kilometers. In equatorial regions the surface of Mars may be completely dry down to a kilometer or more, so the cryosphere starts at the base of that dry layer.\n\nIf the Mars hydrosphere exists, it lies below the cryosphere, and is a layer where the ice is kept liquid by geothermal heating, and prevented from evaporating by the overlying layers of ice.\n\nWe don't have any evidence yet of a hydrosphere, but do have evidence of a deep subsurface cryosphere. This evidence is in the form of hydrogen / deuterium isotope ratios in Martian meteorites, which give indirect evidence that Mars must have a subsurface reservoir of water, most likely in the form of ice.[19][132]\n\nResearch in 2014 into the deuterium / hydrogen isotope ratios in the water in martian meteorites gives evidence of a subsurface reservoir with a ratio in between the composition of the mantle and the composition of the water mixing with its current atmosphere. This supports the hypothesis that Mars has a deep cryosphere which may contain much of the original water from Mars.\"\n\nIf the hydrosphere exists, estimates in a paper from 2013 put it's depth at around 5 kilometers below the surface. Whether this layer exists or not depends on the presence or otherwise of perchlorates, and clathrates, and it also depends on the total inventory of water on Mars, so there are many unknowns in the models. They used an estimate of the total inventory of less than 500m GEL (Global Equivalent Layer), and doubled the required thickness of the cryosphere, which leaves less water available for the hydrosphere than in previous models. There may still be groundwater in places where it is perchlorate rich, and isolated pockets.\n\nBut if the global inventory of water is larger than the amount they assumed for their study, there may be ground water under much of the surface of Mars.[133]\n\nIf this hydrosphere exists, then it may be more habitable than similar depth zones on Earth because of the lower gravity, leading to larger pore size. Possible metabolisms at this depth could use hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and possibly abiotic hydrocarbons. The carbon for biomass could come from magmatic carbon in basalts which has been detected in Martian meteorites. It could also support methanogens feeding off methane released from serpentinization, and the alteration of basalt could also be a basis for iron respiration.[134]\n\nSimilar habitats on Earth are inhabited by microbes and even multi-cellular life. So this is a potential habitat of astrobiological interest on Mars. As well as that, if the habitat exists it is a possible reservoir that could replenish surface areas of Mars with life and permit lifeforms to transfer from one part of Mars to another subsurface - a process that is known to happen beneath arctic permafrost layers.[135]\n\nIt's not feasible to drill down to sample it in the near future. However, liquid may be released to the surface as a result of impact fracturing and other events so making it possible to sample it via surface measurements.\n\nOne prime place to visit to search for evidence of the deep hydrosphere is McLaughlin Crater. The observations suggest it contained an ancient lake, with alteration minerals rich in Fe and Mg, and the detection of carbonates there suggests that the fluids were alkaline, and are consistent with the expected composition of fluids that emerged from the deep subsurface hydrosphere. The Nature article concludes \"Lacustrine clay minerals and carbonates in McLaughlin Crater might be the best evidence for groundwater upwelling activity on Mars, and therefore should be considered a high-priority target for future exploration\"[134]\n\nHabitability factors for life on Mars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThis section is organized around the listing of the main factors limiting surface and near surface life on Mars, according to Schuerger[136]\n\nThese are thought to be (not in order of importance):\n\n • Extreme desiccation and scarcity of water - all life on Earth requires liquid water - or else high humidity in the air. So the main focus for the search for present day life on Mars so far starts with this assumption. There may be other possibilities for exotic life that don't use water, for instance a recent suggestion that life may be able to evolve in supercritical liquid CO2 under high pressure - a potential habitat present on both Venus and Mars[137]. So probably we shouldn't rule out the possibility of other habitats totally.\n • UV light for any life on the surface exposed to full sunlight. Because of the thin atmosphere, this is hardly filtered at all, and is a major challenge for any life exposed to the light. It is easily blocked by about 0.3 mm of surface soil[138], sheltered by a millimeter of dust or by other organisms[65], or in the shadow of a rock. Mars conditions are likely to favour lifeforms that can tolerate high levels of UV radiation, at least, if they are exposed to direct unfiltered sunlight at any point in their life cycle. This could for instance involve use of protective pigments such as melanin, parietin and usnic acid which help protect some lichens from the damaging effects of UV radiation in polar and high alpine regions.[139][140][141]\n • Low pressures (hypobaria) at 1–14 mbar\n • Anoxic CO2-enriched atmosphere. All the habitats suggested so far require anaerobes - lifeforms that don't require oxygen.\n • Low temperatures. There may be some warmer locations, for instance using geothermal heating. Also, surface temperatures in equatorial regions at times reach 30C on Mars, but at these temperatures the relative humidity of the atmosphere is low and any liquid exposed to such temperatures would soon evaporate. Most of the proposed habitats require Psychrophiles - microbes that are comfortable in low temperature conditions. This is a limiting factor especially for some of brines, which may be liquid at temperatures too low for life on Earth.\n\nOther authors also cite:\n\n • Lack of nitrogen. All life on Earth requires nitrogen. Also there are theoretical reasons for expecting alien organic life to use nitrogen, as the weaker nitrogen based amide bonds are essential for the processes by which DNA is replicated. Mars, compared with Earth, has little nitrogen, either in the air or in the soil. Levels of nitrogen in the air are low, possibly too low for nitrogen fixation to be possible. But they can form in Martian conditions by non biological processes - either brought to Mars by meteorites (some carbonaceous chondrites are rich in nitrogen[142]), or comets, or formed by lightning, or through atmospheric processes, or there may be ancient nitrate deposits from early Mars, amongst various possible sources.[143]\n\n Life on Mars may be limited to locations with local abundance of nitrates. Or, it may also be able to take advantage of fixation of nitrogen in monolayers of water, a process that can happen in present day Mars conditions, and may be able to produce enough nitrates to supply a subsurface biosphere.[144]\n\nSchuerger also mentions:\n\n • Cosmic radiation - this is not limiting of surface life in the short term (similar to the levels inside the ISS) but prevents it from reviving if kept dormant for periods of order of hundreds of thousands of years.[145] Martian surface or near surface life is likely to be strongly resistant to cosmic radiation, with repair mechanisms to repair the damage.\n\nCuriosity measured ionizing radiation levels of 76 mGy a year.[146] This level of ionizing radiation is sterilizing for dormant life on the surface of Mars. However, it varies considerably in habitability depending on its orbital eccentricity and the tilt of its axis. If the surface life has been reanimated as recently as 450,000 years ago, which is possible, then our rovers on Mars could find dormant but still viable life at a depth of only one meter below the surface, according to an estimate in the paper that published the Curiosity ionizing radiation measurements.[147] Modern researchers do not consider that ionizing radiation is a limiting factor in habitability assessments for present-day non-dormant surface life. The level of 76 mGy a year measured by Curiosity is similar to levels inside the ISS.[148] In the 2014 Findings of the Second MEPAG Special Regions Science Analysis Group, their conclusion was:[65]\n\n\"From MSL RAD measurements, ionizing radiation from GCRs at Mars is so low as to be negligible. Intermittent SPEs can increase the atmospheric ionization down to ground level and increase the total dose, but these events are sporadic and last at most a few (2–5) days. These facts are not used to distinguish Special Regions on Mars.\"\n\nHere a SPE is a Solar Proton Event (solar storm) and a GCR is a Galactic Cosmic Ray. A \"Special Region\" is defined as a region on the Mars surface where Earth life could potentially survive.\n\nOther conditions that apply locally, rather than globally include:\n\n • High salinity is a factor for any life within the salty brines - many of the proposed surface habitats are salty and could only be inhabited by Halophiles - microbes that are comfortable with high levels of salinity, such as Halobacteria.\n • The pH (acidity) and Eh (oxidation potential) of any available liquid water[149][136]\n • presence of heavy metals[136]\n • acidic conditions in some soils[136]\n • oxidizing soils created by soil chemical reactions rather than UV (e.g. by anoxic hydration of pyrite)[136]\n • UV-induced volatile oxidants (e.g. O2, O, H2O2, NOx, O3).[136]\n • Perchlorates. At high temperatures perchlorates are extremely oxidising and dangerous to life. But at the low temperatures of the Mars surface, then they are not so damaging and could actually be a benefit for microbes as an energy source. [150] [88][151][152].[153] For a modern view on them, Cassie Conley, planetary protection officer for NASA is quoted in the New York times as saying:[154][155][156]\n\n\"The salts known as perchlorates that lower the freezing temperature of water at the R.S.L.s, keeping it liquid, can be consumed by some Earth microbes. “The environment on Mars potentially is basically one giant dinner plate for Earth organisms,” Dr. Conley said.\"\n\nLowest temperature for life on Mars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nBased on the capabilities of Earth microbes, the usually cited lowest temperature for life is -20°C[157]. However, there is indirect evidence of continuing bacterial activity in glaciers down to -40°C, at a very low metabolic rate of ten turnovers of cellular carbon per billion years[158].\n\nThere can be some activity at even lower temperatures. In an experiment to test incorporation of the amino acid Leucine, Karen Junge et all used two controls at -80°C and -196°C, well below the eutectic freezing point of salt, and to their surprise, they found that the Colwellia psychrerythraea strain 34H was able to continue to incorporate low levels of Leucine right down to -196°C. They hypothesize that the Leucine enters the cell boundaries at higher temperatures in the first few seconds of the experiment, then gets incorporated into the cell at lower temperatures (it doesn't get incorporated right away as they proved through zero time controls).[157][159]\n\nPrice et al did a review of the literature to date, in 2004, and came to the conclusion that there is no evidence of a fixed lowest temperature limit to metabolism, in the presence of impurities and thin films of water to supply liquid to microbes.[109]\n\n\"Our results disprove the view that the lowest temperature at which life is possible is ≈-17°C in an aqueous environment, as well as the remark that “the lowest temperature at which terrestrial and presumably martian life can function is probably near -20°C. Our data show no evidence of a threshold or cutoff in metabolic rate at temperatures down to -40°C. A cell resists freezing, due to the “structured” water in its cytoplasm. Ionic impurities prevent freezing of veins in ice and thin films in permafrost and permit transport of nutrient to and products from microbes. The absence of a threshold temperature for metabolism should encourage those interested in searches for life on cold extraterrestrial bodies such as Mars and Europa.\"\n\nLowest water activity level for life on Mars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe amount of water available for microbes to use in a salty or sugary solution is known as its water activity level which is normally expressed as the ratio of the partial vapour pressure of the water in the solution to the vapour pressure of pure water at the same temperature.\n\nThe tiny Don Juan pond in Antarctica, 100 meters by 300 meters, and 10 cm deep. This pond is about as salty as it could possibly be, with the CaCl2 levels approaching saturation at 60% w/v. It's so salty it stays liquid all the year round, at temperatures ranging from 0°C to -40°C. It has a eutectic of -51.8°C so is believed to be liquid all the year round. The water activity level measured is an exceptionally low 0.3 - 0.6. Though the temperature range is fine for life, it may be too salty for life to reproduce there. Microbes have been found, but they could only grow in less salty conditions. It might be that microbes sometimes can grow there when the water activity level is occasionally raised through influxes of water, and then die. Or they might be washed in from the surroundings.\n\nSo far there is no evidence that microbes can actually grow there. It might be the only natural body of water on the Earth of any size without indigenous life. It's of great interest to scientists studying the water activity limits of habitability for astrobiology.[160]\n\nHoney has a low water activity level of 0.6. That's why honey doesn't spoil - you don't need to keep honey in a fridge, because its water activity level is so low that though microbes would find plenty to eat, and though there is plenty of water there in the honey, the water is not available to the microbes because of the low water activity level.\n\nThe fungus Xeromyces bisporus can tolerate a water activity level of 0.605 in sugar - first discovered in a 1968 study of spoilage in prunes. It can divide at these low water activity levels, so can germinate, but needs higher levels of water to create fungal spores through asexual sporulation and even more for sexual sporulation.[161]\n\nUntil recently, it was thought that that was an isolated case, as no other microbe was known able to tolerate such levels. The usually accepted lower limit was 0.755 for halophiles. However over the last few years there have been many reports of microbes at lower activity levels than that, comparable to Xeromyces bisporus, in salt solutions. Some papers have suggested the possibility of cellular reproduction at even lower levels.\n\nIn a recent 2014 survey paper of the literature on the subject \"Multiplication of microbes below 0.690 water activity: implications for terrestrial and extraterrestrial life\"[162], the authors came to the conclusion that the best consensus at present is that the lowest level of water activity needed for cell division is about 0.605, and that some halophiles are able to tolerate such low levels. They remark on the difference between the situation for water activity and the situation for temperatures, where there is much better evidence of microbes able to tolerate temperatures below the usually cited -20°C.\n\nChallenge of ionizing radiation[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nRadioresistant microbes are able to repair damage due to the equivalent of several hundred thousand years of Mars surface cosmic radiation within a few hours of revival from dormancy (they don't need to reproduce to do this, they repair their own DNA). For details: ionizing radiation resistance (radiodurans). This mechanism seems to be a byproduct of desiccation resistance, since the microbes have no need to tolerate high levels of cosmic radiation - shielded by the Earth's magnetosphere and atmosphere. Martian microbes are likely to have similar mechanisms, this time evolved in the presence of ionizing radiation. [163]\n\nAt times the Mars atmosphere is thicker than it is now depending on variations in its orbital eccentricity and axial tilt. At other times it has extensive ice sheets which then melt. Research in january 2015 by Dickson et al suggests that the Mars axial tilt has varied beyond the 30 degrees to the point where it has thin glacier like ice sheets at the mid lattitudes within the 400,000 to 2 million years, and that this may have carved some of the older gully systems through melt water.[53][54]\n\nThat's still challenging for life with a maximum of around 500,000 years dormancy on the surface. However the cosmic radiation only penetrates a few meters into the ground, with most of the effects shielded in the top 1.5 meters (400 grams per cm2 of material, at 2.6 grams per cm3 typical regolith density) and significant shielding at a depth of half a meter.[164] Below that depth, there could be dormant microbes that have survived for longer periods. Depending on the depth below the surface they could remain dormant for millions of years. Some microbes on Earth have lasted for many millions of years in ice and salt, and have been revived. So some of these on Mars also may still be viable today. Such microbes could also survive in caves on Mars in dormancy, or in subsurface locations kept habitable by geothermal hot spots, until times when Mars is more habitable than it is today.[165]\n\nIf there is present day life on the Mars surface, these effects of ionizing radiation suggest that it has to\n\n • Be replenished from the subsurface\n • Or be able to reproduce in surface or near surface conditions with dormancy periods never longer than 500,000 years or so.\n\nIn the 2014 MEPAG classification of special regions, ionizing radiation was not considered limiting for classifying the \"Special regions\" where present day surface life might survive.[166]\n\nViews on the possibility of present day life on or near the surface[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nIt is a challenge for life to survive on the surface, or the near subsurface, because of the hyper arid conditions, combined with low temperatures. Often when the temperature is high enough for cellular division, the humidity is too low and vice versa. [167]. Also in surface conditions, it's not possible for microbes to remain in dormancy through the changes in axial tilt when the Mars atmosphere becomes thicker and more habitable (as it does from time to time).\n\nAuthors in recent publications present a variety of views on the possibility of present day life on the surface of Mars or in the near subsurface.\n\n • Unlikely - these authors cite the inability of microbes to survive dormancy on the surface between periods when the atmosphere is thicker, due to ionizing radiation, the ephemeral nature of surface habitats, low temperatures, or low relative humidity, and the difficulty of colonization in surface conditions of high UV...[168]\n • Possible, recolonized from below, these point out the ability of micro-organisms to repair damage by ionizing radiation and capability to remain dormant for up to several million years in the deep subsurface, suggesting that these short lived surface habitats, such as the Recurring Slope Lineae, could be recolonized from the subsurface.[169]\n • Possible, open question if it proliferates on the surface these are investigating the possibility with experiments in simulated Mars conditions, theoretical models and study of the observations from Mars, and treat it as an open question for now, whether the present day surface and near sub surface is habitable. ([170][171][172][173] and many others).\n • Likely Some researchers, particularly the researchers at DLR consider that their experiments have already shown a high likelihood that the surface of Mars is habitable, for some lichens and cyanobacteria, taking advantage of the night time humidity, and even in equatorial regions such as Gale crater. [83][84]. See #Life able to take up water from the 100% night time humidity of the Mars atmosphere\n • Already detected on the surface A small minority of authors believe that their reanalysis of the Viking Labeled Release experiments already indicates presence of life on present day Mars, see #Viking observations\n\nThere is greater agreement on deep subsurface habitats since conditions there may be similar to Earth conditions. They would be protected from UV, cosmic radiation, and the low pressure of the atmosphere, and water activity would be likely to be similar to Earth. For instance the deep hydrosphere (if it exists), or temporary lakes that form after impacts or volcanic eruptions, seem likely to be habitable, by analogy with similar habitats on Earth.\n\nPlausible microbial metabolisms for present day Mars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nOne way to examine the possibility for life on Mars is to look at the Redox pathways that the life could use as a source of energy. This involves a pairing of an electron donor and an electron acceptor. For details see Electron transport chain, and Microbial metabolism.\n\nHere is a table of some of the available donors and acceptors in Mars conditions, table from [174] (added CO2).\n\nelectron donors, any of: electron acceptors, any of:\n: available in Fe-rich silicates[175]\n: available in numerous alteration\n\n\nH2: available in subsurface? SO2−\navailable in salts\nCO: available in atmosphere[176] O2: partial pressure too low\norganics: meteoritic likely to be present at surface NO\n: presence or abundance unknown\norganics: endogenous available in subsurface ClO\n: available but not shown to support life\n- CO2: in the atmosphere\n\nA candidate metabolism would use one of the electron donors in the first column paired with one of the electron acceptors on the right as a source of energy. (The final dash on left hand side is there just because the list of electron donors is shorter than the list of electron acceptors).\n\nSee also the presentations in: Redox Potentials for Martian Life\n\nCandidate lifeforms for Mars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThis is a list of some of the proposed Mars analogue lifeforms, which may be capable of living on Mars (if the postulated liquid water habitats there exist).\n\nTop candidates for life on Mars include\n\n • Chroococcidiopsis - UV and radioresistant can form a single species ecosystem, and only requires CO2, sunlight and trace elements to survive.[79]\n • Halobacteria - UV and radioresistant, photosynthetic (using a different mechanism), can form single species ecosystems, and highly salt tolerant. Some are tolerant of perchlorates and even use them as an energy source, examples include Haloferax mediterranei, Haloferax denitrificans, Haloferax gibbonsii, Haloarcula marismortui, and Haloarcula vallismortis [88]\n • Geobacter metallireducens - it uses Fe(III) as the sole electron acceptor, and can use organic compounds, molecular hydrogen, or elemental sulfur as the electron donor. [174][178][179]\n • Methanogens such as Methanosarcina barkeri[174] - only require CO2, hydrogen and trace elements. The hydrogen could come from geothermal sources, volcanic action or action of water on basalt.\n • Lichens such as Xanthoria elegans, Pleopsidium chlorophanum[82], and Circinaria gyrosa - some of these are able to metabolize and photosynthesize slowly in Mars simulation chambers using just the night time humidity, and have been shown to be able to survive Mars surface conditions such as the UV in Mars simulation experiments. [180][181][182][183][184]\n • Microbial life from depths of kilometers below the surface on the Earth that rely on geochemical energy sources - relying on metabolic pathways that can't be traced back to the sun at all. Some of these are multi-cellular. Examples include the microbe Desulforudis audaxviator which metabolizes reduced sulfur as the electron acceptor, and hydrogen as the electron donor, can fix nitrogen and has every pathway needed to synthesize all the amino acids[185][186]\n • Multicellular life from depths of kilometers below the surface such as Halicephalobus mephisto, a nematode feeding on bacteria, 0.5 mm long and up to 3.5 km deep, lives in water at 48°C, very low oxygen levels about a thousandth of the levels in oceans. Though it probably originates from the surface, carbon dating shows it has lived at those depths for between 3,000 and 10,000 years, and it's been suggested that this has implications for deep subsurface multi-cellular life on Mars.[187]\n\n\nBecause of the low levels of oxygen of 0.13% in the atmosphere, and (as far as we know) in any of the proposed habitats, all the candidate lifeforms are anaerobes or able to tolerate extremely low levels of oxygen. This also makes multicellular animal life unlikely, though not impossible as there are a few anaerobic multi-cellular creatures[188]. Some multicellular plant life such as lichens, however, may be well adapted to Martian conditions (the algae supply oxygen for the fungus). Also some multicellular life such as Halicephalobus mephisto can survive using very low levels of oxygen which may perhaps be present in some Mars habitats.\n\nExpose R2 test of candidate lifeforms for Mars on exterior of ISS[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nSeveral lifeforms, including cyanobacteria Nostoc sp. Gloeocapsa Chroococcidiopsis sp., lichens Buelia frigida, Circinaria gyrosa, and fungi Cryomyces antarcticus, are currently being tested in the on-going year and a half Expose-R2 experiments in a small Mars simulation chambers on the exterior of the ISS (Expose R2) as part of BIOMEX (Biology and Mars Experiment).\n\nInstalling the Expose-R2 facility on the International Space Station. Image taken with the helmet camera of Oleg Artemyev, on 18 August 2014, EVA-39 - Image credit:Roscosmos[189]\n\nSome of these simulation chambers are kept with atmosphere and filters to simulate Mars conditions of UV, and in some of the chambers they are in Mars simulation soil to simulate the Mars surface. Others are exposed to vacuum, e.g. to test panspermia hypotheses.[190]\n\nTest samples include bacteria and biofilms, cyanobactera, archaea, green algae, lichens, fungi, bryophytes, and yeast that have been found to be especially resistant in ground experiments and previous experiments on the ISS. They also include pigments and cell wall components.\n\nThe experimenters are studying the same organisms in Mars simulation chambers on the ground. The experiment has multiple goals - to find out what species could survive transfer to another planet on a meteorite (panspermia), to find out what detectable biosignatures would remain after exposure to space and to Mars surface conditions, and to find out their ability to survive in these conditions and possible genetic changes.[191] [192][193][194][195]\n\nUninhabited habitats[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nCharles Cockell has analysed the possible trajectories for life on Mars using the idea of an \"uninhabited habitat\". On Earth these are exceedingly rare, but do occur sometimes. For instance, after a new lava flow, then the lava may initially be inhabitable but uninhabited.\n\nIt's possible to test the hypothesis that these habitats exist by finding environments on Mars with the elements needed for life, including an energy source and liquid water, with no active life.[20]\n\nSo then there are three states for Mars:\n\n 1. Uninhabitable - doesn't have the conditions for life\n 2. Has habitats but they are all uninhabited\n 3. Has at least some habitats with life\n\nAs Mars evolved, initially when it first formed in the early solar system, it was too hot for life, and so was uninhabitable. Then there are various trajectories it could follow after that, starting from the early Mars. In his paper \"Trajectories of Martian Habitability\" he identifies six main possible trajectories. T[196]\n\n • \"Trajectory 1. Mars is and was always uninhabitable.\"\n • \"Trajectory 2. Uninhabited Mars has hosted uninhabited habitats transiently or continuously during its history.\"\n • \"Trajectory 3. Uninhabited Mars was habitable and possessed uninhabited habitats but is now uninhabitable.\"\n • \"Trajectory 4. Mars is and was inhabited.\"\n • \"Trajectory 5. Mars was inhabited, life became extinct, but uninhabited habitats remain on Mars.\"\n • \"Trajectory 6. Mars was inhabited, life became extinct, and the planet became uninhabitable.\"\n\nHe also suggests other more complex trajectories. For instance that it starts with uninhabited habitats and the life evolves there at a much later date, or is seeded from Earth at a later date. Or trajectories where life on Mars becomes extinct, and then reoriginates on Mars or is transferred to Mars from Earth. Or even, a logical possibility but seems unlikely, that it was for some reason uninhabitable in the early Noachian and became habitable later.\n\nIn his paper he discusses ways that this could be tested with observations. For instance, if you find that promising environments with water in present day and past Mars lacked some fundamental requirement for all known life, or the conditions were outside the range of physical and chemical tolerances of all known organisms, then that could be evidence for trajectory 1. If you find conditions for life but no life, past or present, that's evidence for trajectory 2, and so on.\n\nHe points out that if Mars does have uninhabited habitats, these would be a useful control to investigate the role of biology in planetary scale biological processes on Earth.[197]\n\nAlso to cover the pre-biological investigations in case that habitats are found that are habitable but with no life in them.\n\nGOAL 3—Understand how life emerges from cosmic and planetary precursors. Perform observational, experimental, and theoretical investigations to understand the general physical and chemical principles underlying the origins of life.\n\n\nSearch for a second genesis of life on Mars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe search for life on Mars is of special interest for the search for a second example of life, which can help us to discover which of the many common shared features of the biochemistry of Earth organisms are essential for life, and which are accidents of evolution. Chris McKay puts it like this in his 2010 article \"An origin of life on Mars.\":[165]\n\n\"The search for a second example of life is a key goal for astrobiology. All life on Earth shares common biochemistry and descends from a common ancestor. This prevents us from understanding which aspects of biochemistry and genetics are essential features of life and which are merely particular to the evolutionary history of life on this planet. To develop a more general understanding of life, we need more than one example. Hence, we hope that Mars may have been the site of an independent origin of life.\"\n\nUntil recently, it was assumed that any life on Mars would necessarily be a second genesis. But it is now understood that life could be transferred between planets on meteorites, so it is possible that life on Mars, if it exists, could be related to Earth life, or some of the life could be related to Earth life.\n\nIn order to decide whether the life is a second genesis or not, it's not enough to examine fossils. For one thing, microbes often don't form easily recognized convincing fossils, so the fossils may be hard to recognize, and rare in occurrence. But as well as that, fossils don't tell us what the chemical basis is for the life.\n\nIt's necessary to be able to study organics, and it preferably, viable cells. If life on Mars had same chirality, genetic code, choice of amino acids, lipids and so on, that would be evidence of a shared ancestry. If any of those differ, then it is likely to represent a second genesis.\n\nWriting in 2010, Chris McKay says\n\n\"Possible targets include: (1) Life in the surface soil, (2) Life in subsurface liquid water, (3) Organisms, probably dead, but preserved in ancient salt or mineral deposits, and (4) Organisms, dead or alive, preserved in ancient ice.\"\n\nOrganics are common throughout the outer solar system, including meteorites, and comets. So when organics are found on Mars, the first thing to be decided is whether or not it is biological in origin. If it is related to Earth life, and sufficiently well preserved, this can be detected though search for DNA, RNA, ATP and other key molecules associated with life on Earth. But if it is not related to Earth life, then it may be harder to decide whether it is the result of biological processes.\n\nOne way to detect alien biology may be through the \"Lego principle\"[198]. This is the idea that chemicals used by life may be recognized because they use a wide range of chemicals with similar chemical structure, and chemicals very similar to each other (e.g. only differing in chirality) may have widely different concentrations. This is something that could be recognized even if the life has a different chemical basis from Earth life.\n\nHowever, over time, the pattern degenerates as chemical bonds break and reform, especially in warmer conditions. So ideally we need to find life that is either alive, or has been preserved in cold conditions since it was deposited.\n\nIn his 2010 article, Chris McKay suggests targeting possibly still viable organisms preserved in ancient subsurface ice. This is also the main target for his proposed mission Icebreaker Life.\n\nEven a null result in search for life on Mars would be of astrobiological significance. For instance it might tell us that the origins of life depend on particular conditions not present on Mars. For instance that it depends on a particular energy source, or material or on abundance of some particular nutrient (e.g. nitrogen).\n\nPlanetary protection issues[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nSearch for present day life on Mars requires more stringent planetary protection than the search for past life. For instance, if Curiosity were to discover traces of liquid water on Mars, some micro habitat in conditions that make it potentially habitable to Earth life, it would not be able to approach it to measure it to search for present day life as it is not sufficiently sterilized for this task.\n\nRegions of Mars that may be habitable for present day life are classified as \"Special regions\" and any parts of a spacecraft that touch such regions have to be sterilized to Viking levels of sterilization or better. So far no modern spacecraft have yet been sterilized to these levels. It is a major challenge as the heat treatment used for Viking would destroy many modern instruments. However low vapour hydrogen peroxide sterilization may be able to take the place of heat treatment - it is already approved for spacecraft use. As well as that there are emerging new ideas for sterilization that may be more effective with less damage to the spacecraft, such as use of ionized gas in vacuum conditions.[199]\n\nFollow the nitrogen[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe best way to search for early life, as far as we can tell at present, is to search for organics. And the organics is easily confused with organics from non life processes and from space.\n\nOne of the main conclusions of Bada et al's white paper[200] was that we should look for organics with nitrogen on Mars. Nitrogenous organics are likely to be rare because there are few sources of nitrogen on Mars.\n\nThis is important because nitrogen bonds are easily broken and are central to biology as we know it. So even if life on Mars is very different from Earth life, perhaps using different amino acids for instance with a different backbone from DNA, still it is likely to use nitrogen if it resembles Earth life.\n\nOnce we find these compounds, that's not enough as you also get nitrogenous organics from comets and meteorites and natural processes. We then need to search for biosignatures.\n\nWe also need to be able to drill below the surface (as ExoMars will be able to do) to the maximum depth possible. That's because our best chance of finding evidence of past life is to drill down below the surface layers damaged by ionizing radiation, ideally to ten meters depth or more (though the two meters depth of ExoMars is a good start here). Their main points are:\n\n • Need for increasing mobility, and precision landing, supported by orbital observations, to access the many and varied habitable environments including subsurface, layered sediments, gullies and ice sheets.\n • The \"follow the water\" strategy should now be followed by a \"follow the nitrogen\" phase combined with a search for biosignatures.\n • The biosignature search can use exquisitely sensitive in situ electrophoresis techniques to identify and characterize and find the chirality of amines, nucleobases, polycyclics and other essential organic molecules.\n • This search should include drilling to the greatest depth possible for the best chance of success for detecting biosignatures of past life on Mars\n • They recommend that we should do a sample return only after we either identify biosignatures on Mars, or have exhausted all other possibilities by in situ research\n\nCuriosity's observations of nitrous oxides, probably result of breakdown of nitrates[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nCuriosity has detected evidence of nitrates in both scooped wind drifted sand and samples drilled from sedimentary rocks. The results support 110–300 ppm of nitrate in the wind drifted samples, and 330–1,100 ppm nitrate in the mudstone deposits. The authors suggest that it is likely to be the result of fixation during meteorite impact or lightning associated with volcanoes in early Mars. [201][202][203]\n\nCuriosity's observation of complex organic compounds[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nResults from the Curiosity SAM instrument presented in March 2015 show presence of what may be a fatty acid molecule. Also confirm presence of chlorobenzene. Neither of these are biosignatures, for instance organisms use fatty acids to build cell membranes, but they can also have inorganic origins. But they show that complex organics can survive on the surface of Mars, so increasing the chance of later detecting microbial life on the surface if it is there.[204]\n\nPlanned and proposed missions to search for present day life on Mars[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nPast missions[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nViking 1 and 2 are the only successful missions to Mars to date designed to search for present day life.\n\nThe failed British mission, Beagle 2, had the search for present day life as an objective as well as past life.\n\nPresent missions[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nCuriosity (rover) and Opportunity (rover) are currently searching for habitable conditions with the main focus on past habitability. However they are not equipped to detect biosignatures of life, either past or present, and also were sent to sites selected with past rather than present day life as the main target.\n\nCuriosity does have some capabilities that could be of interest for life detection. It can detect isotope ratios in organics or in the methane plumes suggestive of life which could give indirect evidence of life processes as life preferentially incorporates lighter isotopes.\n\nAlso Curiosity has one experiment that can potentially be used to detect chirality if it finds a potentially interesting sample to test. It has a Chirasildex column which can be used to separate out entantiomers of astrobiological significance.[205]\n\nFuture missions[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nThe ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter will help with the search for trace levels of organics in the atmosphere, with sensitivity up to a thousand times greater than previous missions. Detection sensitivities are at levels of 100 parts per trillion, improved to 10 parts per trillion or better by averaging spectra which could be taken at several spectra per second [206]. This would lead to global mapping of distribution of methane and other organics in the atmosphere which could help to pinpoint sources on the surface.\n\nExoMars is also designed to search for both present day and past life. It will have capabilities to test for biosignatures \"in situ\" on Mars. It's most interesting innovation is its capability to drill to depths of up to 2 meters which is of special interest for the search for past life. However its target regions have been selected with the search for past life as its prime objective, so it will only discover present day life if it is widespread on Mars. Its primary candidate landing site is Oxia Planum which is of interest for its multiple layers of clays which may preserve evidence of past life on Mars.[207]\n\nMars 2020 is designed for sample caching for a future sample return. The payload mass is the same as for Curiosity, so to make space for the cache, as well as Moxie (an experiment in producing oxygen from the Mars atmosphere), it has a reduced mass of instruments compared with Curiosity (rover)[208]. In particular, they have removed Sample Analysis at Mars.\n\nHowever in other respects it will have increased capabilities including more capable cameras, and possibly a \"helicopter scout\" to search local terrain up to a kilometer away from the rover[209]. Of special for exobiology, it will have two Raman spectrometers, first to fly to the planet (except for ExoMars if they get there first). One of them is on SHERLOC which will be positioned right next to the rock to be analysed, and uses a spot of ultraviolet laser light to micro-map minerals and organics on the samples on the scale of 50 microns[210]. A Raman spectrometer gives information about arrangements of atoms such as a carbon atom double bonded to oxygen, but it can't detect specific molecules in the sample like SAM. Also, another significant advance, its SuperCam, replacement for the remote laser analysis instrument ChemCam on Curiosity, will not only be able to heat its target like ChemCam and analyse the plasma cloud that results. It will also have Raman and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. These will enable it to map the distribution of organics on the surface of Mars at a distance, a significant advance over Curiosity which can only detect organics by heating it in its oven after sample collection. It also means it won't be confused by perchlorates destroying the organics on heat. [211]\n\nAs for Curiosity, the target will be selected with past life as its prime objective and neither ExoMars nor Mars 2020 are sufficiently sterilized to approach and examine any possible habitats for present day life such as the RSLs\n\nProposals for missions[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nIcebreaker Life is a mission suggested by Chris McKay to search for past life preserved in ice on Mars, and present day life on Mars.\n\nExoLance is an ingenious proposal that uses ground penetrating \"lances\". Curiosity carries ballast in the form of two 75 Kg tungsten weights, which it discards on arrival at Mars to help with the asymmetric trim of the aeroshell, to generate a lifting vector. That is how it manages to achieve higher precision than other missions to date. See MSL - guided entry. The idea is to put impact resistant instruments into these weights, and make them into ground penetrating \"missiles\" able to penetrate to a depth of a meter or so, where conditions may be more favourable for preservation of life.[212][213][214][215][216]\n\nNASA propose to return samples to test for biosignatures and signs of life back on Earth. Their Mars 2020 mission is designed to cache the sample, for later return to Earth by some future mission.\n\nInstruments designed to search for present day life on Mars \"in situ\"[edit | hide | edit source]\n\nInstruments designed to search directly for this life include\n\nRapid non destructive sampling[edit | hide | edit source]\n\n\nDetection of trace levels of organics and of chirality[edit | hide | edit source]\n\n • Gas chromatography - this is the idea used for the MOMA (Mars Organic Molecule Analyser). Used to analyse volatiles evolved from the soil samples in small ovens. Some of the ovens are filled with a \"derivatisation agent\" which can transform the chemical compounds into similar ones suitable for chiral analysis. They are then ionized and analysed with the mass spectrometer.[218]\n • UREY - designed for ExoMars under auspices of NASA but never flown because the US pulled out of the project. This uses high temperature high pressure sub critical water between 100°C and 300°C at 20 MPa, or about 200 atmospheres, for several minutes. Water has similar chemical properties to organic solvents in those conditions so Urey is able to study the organics relatively unmodified. [219][220][200]\n • Astrobionibbler - similar idea to UREY, smaller, later development. Able to detect a single amino acid in a gram of soil.[221]\n • Planetary In-situ Capillary Electrophersis - separates the organics by ionic mobility in sub millimeter capillaries. \"Lab on a chip\" with the fluid manipulations done within the chip itself.[222]\n • LDChip, and Solid3 using a collection of 450 polyclonal antibodies to detect a wide range of organics (not specific to Earth life). [223]. This instrument was tested in the Atacama desert and was able to detect a layer of previously undiscovered life at a depth of 2 meters below the surface in the hyper-arid core of the desert.[224][225]. As the \"Life Marker Chip\" it was selected for ExoMars but later descoped.[226]\n\nDirect search for DNA[edit | hide | edit source]\n\n\nElectron microscope[edit | hide | edit source]\n\n • Miniaturized Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope (MVP-SEM)[231]\n\nSearch for life directly by checking for metabolic reactions[edit | hide | edit source]\n\n\n • Microbial fuel cells, test for redox reactions directly by measuring electrons and protons they liberate. Sensitive to small numbers of microbes and could detect life even if not based on carbon or any form of conventional chemistry we know of.[232]\n • Chirality version of the Viking Labeled Release. For carbon based life which produces gases such as methane or carbon dioxide when fed amino acids, but doesn't need to be DNA based life.[233]\n\nReferences[edit | hide | edit source]\n\n 1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Phoenix Mars Lander Finds Surprises About Planet’s Watery Past University of Arizona news, By Daniel Stolte, University Communications, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory | September 9, 2010\n 2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 First liquid water may have been spotted on Mars, New Scientist, February 2009 by David Shiga\n 3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Martian Life Could Have Evaded Detection by Viking Landers Ker Than, Staff Writer | October 24, 2006 05:56pm,\n 4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Periodic Analysis of the Viking Lander Labeled Release Experiment, Proc. SPIE 4495, Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology IV, 96 (February 6, 2002); doi:10.1117/12.454748\n 6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Plaxco, Kevin W.; Gross, Michael (2011-08-12). Astrobiology: A Brief Introduction. JHU Press. pp. 285–286. ISBN 978-1-4214-0194-2. Retrieved 2013-07-16. \n 7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 How Habitable Is Mars? A New View of the Viking Experiments By Elizabeth Howell -Astrobiology Magazine (NASA) Nov 21, 2013\n 8. Levin, G. V.; Straat, P. A. (1976). \"Viking Labeled Release Biology Experiment: Interim Results\". Science. 194 (4271): 1322–1329. Bibcode:1976Sci...194.1322L. doi:10.1126/science.194.4271.1322. PMID 17797094. \n 9. \"Extracts from \"Making a Splash on Mars\"\" (PDF). \n 10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Martínez, G. M.; Renno, N. O. (2013). \"Water and Brines on Mars: Current Evidence and Implications for MSL\". Space Science Reviews. 175 (1-4): 29–51. doi:10.1007/s11214-012-9956-3. ISSN 0038-6308. \n 11. 11.0 11.1 NASA Mars Orbiters See Clues to Possible Water Flows, Astrobiology Magazine (NASA), Feb 12, 2014\n 12. 12.0 12.1 Water seems to flow freely on Mars, Nature news, Maggie McKee 10 December 2013\n 13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Kereszturi, A., et al. \"Analysis of possible interfacial water driven seepages on Mars\", Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Vol. 39. 2008.\n 14. 14.0 14.1 Möhlmann, Diedrich T.F. (2010). \"Temporary liquid water in upper snow/ice sub-surfaces on Mars?\". Icarus. 207 (1): 140–148. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.11.013. ISSN 0019-1035. \"The results described above make bare and optically transparent ice fields on Mars, analogous to terrestrial porous ‘‘blue-ice fields” of frozen snow with bluish meltwater at depths around 10 cm and more (cf. Liston and Winther, 2005), to be candidate sites where sub-surface melting might be possible. The thickness of the ice at these sites with translucent ice must be of several cenyimetres at least. The question is yet open as to whether bare and translucent water ice can have evolved or can also presently form on Mars, but there are also no indications which would rule out this possibility. Another open problem is whether the low thermal conductivity, which is necessary to avoid effective internal thermal losses (by heat conduction towards the cold surface) and to reach for A = 0.8 the range of temperatures around the melting point temperature, can be representative for snow/ice on Mars with yet nearly completely unknown physical properties.\"\n 15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Rincon Science editor, Paul (April 13, 2015). \"Evidence of liquid water found on Mars\". BBC News website. \n 16. 16.0 16.1 Liquid Water from Ice and Salt on Mars, Aaron L. Gronstal -Astrobiology Magazine (NASA), Jul 3, 2014\n 17. 17.0 17.1 Surviving the conditions on Mars DLR, 26 April 2012\n 18. 18.0 18.1 Starting conditions for hydrothermal systems underneath Martian craters: Hydrocode modeling Pierazzo, E., Artemieva, N.A., and Ivanov, B.A., 2005, from Large Meteorite Impacts III, Issue 384, p 444 edited by Thomas Kenkmann, Friedrich Hörz, Alexander Deutsch Geological Society of America, 1 Jan 2005 (pdf, earlier version with colour graphics)\n 19. 19.0 19.1 NASA (December 19, 2014). \"NASA, Planetary Scientists Find Meteoritic Evidence of Mars Water Reservoir\". \n 20. 20.0 20.1 Present-day Uninhabited Habitats on Mars, Charles S. Cockell\n 21. David Paige and Charles Cockell. \"Report to MEPAG on The Present-Day Habitability of Mars Workshop\" (PDF). \n 22. CASE, ELIZABETH. \"UCLA holds Mars habitability conference\". Daily Bruin. \n 23. UCLA Institute for Planets and Exoplanets, The UK Center for Astrobiology and the NASA Astrobiology Institute (February 4–6, 2013). \"The Present-Day Habitability of Mars 2013 - Includes link to video recordings of the talks which you can stream online\". UCLA Institute for Planets and Exoplanets. \n 24. \"Astrobiology Science Conference Session on the Modern Mars Habitability\". Lunar and Planetary Institute. \n 25. 25.0 25.1 The Viking Files Astrobiology Magazine (NASA) - May 29, 2003, (summary of scientific research)\n 26. 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 HABITABILITY OF TRANGRESSING MARS DUNES. M Fisk, R Popa, N. Bridges, N. Renno, M. Mischna, J. Moores, R. Wiens, 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2013)\n 28. The Viking Files, Astrobiology Magazine (NASA) - May 29, 2003\n 29. Plaxco, Kevin W.; Gross, Michael (2006). Astrobiology: A Brief Introduction. JHU Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-8018-8366-8. \n 30. Levin, Gilbert (1997). \"The Viking Labeled Release Experiment and Life on Mars\" (PDF). \n 32. Beegle, Luther W.; Wilson, Michael G.; Abilleira, Fernando; Jordan, James F.; Wilson, Gregory R. (August 2007). \"A Concept for NASA's Mars 2016 Astrobiology Field Laboratory\" (PDF). Astrobiology. 7 (4): 545–577. Bibcode:2007AsBio...7..545B. doi:10.1089/ast.2007.0153. PMID 17723090. Retrieved 2009-07-20. \n 33. \"ExoMars rover\". ESA. Retrieved 2014-04-14. \n 34. The limitations on organic detection in Mars-like soils by thermal volatilization–gas chromatography–MS and their implications for the Viking results vol. 103 no. 44 > Rafael Navarro-González, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 16089–16094, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0604210103\n 35. The limitations on organic detection in Mars-like soils by thermal volatilization–gas chromatography–MS and their implications for the Viking results Rafael Navarro-González, Karina F. Navarro, José de la Rosa, Enrique Iñiguez, Paola Molina, Luis D. Miranda, Pedro Morales, Edith Cienfuegos, Patrice Coll, François Raulin, Ricardo Amils, and Christopher P. McKay, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Jun 19; 104(25): 10310–10313. Published online 2007 Jun 4. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0703732104\n 36. Than, Ker (2012-04-13). \"Life on Mars Found by NASA's Viking Mission?\". National Geographic (magazine). Retrieved 2013-07-16. \n 37. Niles, P. B.; Boynton, W. V.; Hoffman, J. H.; Ming, D. W.; Hamara, D. (2010). \"Stable Isotope Measurements of Martian Atmospheric CO2 at the Phoenix Landing Site\" (PDF). Science. 329 (5997): 1334–1337. doi:10.1126/science.1192863. ISSN 0036-8075. \n 38. Methane on Mars could signal life, Anil Ananthaswamy, New Scientist, March 2004\n 39. \"Martian Life Appears Less Likely : Discovery News\". August 12, 2009. Retrieved December 19, 2010. \n 40. \"Scientists Unsure if Methane at Mars Points to Biology or Geology\". March 29, 2004. Retrieved December 19, 2010. \n 43. Methane: Evidence Of Life On Mars? Red Orbit, January 15, 2009\n 44. 44.0 44.1 Methane 'belches' detected on Mars Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News, San Francisco 16 December 2014\n 45. 45.0 45.1 Life on Mars?, Martin Baucom, American Scientist, March-April 2006\n 46. Growth of methanogens on a Mars soil simulant Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2004 Dec;34(6):615-26.\n 48. ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter - ESA website page about it\n 49. Harrington, J.D.; Webster, Guy (July 10, 2014). \"RELEASE 14-191 - NASA Spacecraft Observes Further Evidence of Dry Ice Gullies on Mars\". NASA. Retrieved July 10, 2014. \n 50. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. \"Study links fresh Mars gullies to carbon dioxide.\" ScienceDaily 30 October 2010. 10 March 2011\n 51. Diniega, S.; Byrne, S.; Bridges, N. T.; Dundas, C. M.; McEwen, A. S. (2010). \"Seasonality of present-day Martian dune-gully activity\". Geology. 38: 1047. doi:10.1130/G31287.1. \n 52. Dundas, C., S. Diniega, A. McEwen. 2015. Long-term monitoring of martian gully formation and evolution with MRO/HiRISE. Icarus: 251, 244–263\n 53. 53.0 53.1 Source: Brown University (Jan 29, 2015). \"Gully patterns document Martian climate cycles\". Astrobiology Magazine (NASA). \n 54. 54.0 54.1 Dickson, James L.; Head, James W.; Goudge, Timothy A.; Barbieri, Lindsay (2015). \"Recent climate cycles on Mars: Stratigraphic relationships between multiple generations of gullies and the latitude dependent mantle\". Icarus. 252: 83–94. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.12.035. ISSN 0019-1035. \n 55. \"Gullies on Mars likely not formed by liquid water, scientists conclude\". Aug 1, 2016. \n 56. Núñez, J. I.; Barnouin, O. S.; Murchie, S. L.; Seelos, F. P.; McGovern, J. A.; Seelos, K. D.; Buczkowski, D. L. (2016). \"New insights into gully formation on Mars: Constraints from composition as seen by MRO/CRISM\". Geophysical Research Letters. 43 (17): 8893–8902. doi:10.1002/2016GL068956. ISSN 0094-8276. \n 57. Howe, Elizabeth (October 10, 2016). \"Mars Rover Opportunity to Make Daring Descent into Gully\". \n 58. 58.0 58.1 Recurring slope lineae in equatorial regions of Mars Alfred S. McEwen, eta;;. Nature Geoscience 7, 53–58 (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2014\n 59. \"Warm-Season Flows on Slope in Newton Crater\". NASA Press Release. \n 60. Amos, Jonathan. \"Martian salt streaks 'painted by liquid water'\". BBC Science. \n 61. Staff (28 September 2015). \"Video Highlight - NASA News Conference - Evidence of Liquid Water on Today's Mars\". NASA. Retrieved 30 September 2015. \n 62. Staff (28 September 2015). \"Video Complete - NASA News Conference - Water Flowing on Present-Day Mars m\". NASA. Retrieved 30 September 2015. \n 64. \"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Telecommunications\" (PDF). JPL. September 2006. \n 65. 65.0 65.1 65.2 65.3 Rummel, John D.; Beaty, David W.; Jones, Melissa A.; Bakermans, Corien; Barlow, Nadine G.; Boston, Penelope J.; Chevrier, Vincent F.; Clark, Benton C.; de Vera, Jean-Pierre P.; Gough, Raina V.; Hallsworth, John E.; Head, James W.; Hipkin, Victoria J.; Kieft, Thomas L.; McEwen, Alfred S.; Mellon, Michael T.; Mikucki, Jill A.; Nicholson, Wayne L.; Omelon, Christopher R.; Peterson, Ronald; Roden, Eric E.; Sherwood Lollar, Barbara; Tanaka, Kenneth L.; Viola, Donna; Wray, James J. (2014). \"A New Analysis of Mars \"Special Regions\": Findings of the Second MEPAG Special Regions Science Analysis Group (SR-SAG2)\" (PDF). Astrobiology. 14 (11): 887–968. doi:10.1089/ast.2014.1227. ISSN 1531-1074. \n 66. \"Depending on the local solar constant, grain emissivity and thermal conductivity of ice, ice surrounding the dust grain melt for up to few hours a day during the warmest days of summer. For example, for solar constant 350 W/m2, emissivity 0.80, grain size 2 um, and thermal conductivity 0.4 W/mK melting lasts for ~300 minutes and result in melting of 6 mm of ice.\" ICE MELTING BY RADIANTLY HEATED DUST GRAINS ON THE MARTIAN NORTHERN POLE A. Losiak, L. Czechowski and M.A. Velbel, 77th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting (2014)\n 67. Watery niche may foster life on Mars \"According to Möhlmann, the heat from sunlight penetrating into ice or snow should get absorbed by any embedded dust grains, warming the dust and the surrounding ice. This heat mostly gets trapped because ice absorbs infrared radiation.\" (subscription required)\n 68. Tudor Vieru (2009-12-07). \"Greenhouse Effect on Mars May Be Allowing for Life\". Retrieved 2011-08-20. \n 71. Nl, K., and T. SAND. \"Melting, runoff and the formation of frozen lakes in a mixed snow and blue-ice field in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica.\", J ournal oJ Glaciology, T'ol. 42, .\\\"0.141, 1996\n 72. Melting, runoff and the formation of frozen lakes in a mixed snow and blue-ice field in Dronning Maud Land Jan Gunkar Winther, Journal of Glaciology, Vol 42, No 141, 1996\n 73. Defrosting Defrosting of Richardson Dunes - HiRise data - gives the coordinates of the dune field with the Flow Like Features\n 74. 74.0 74.1 74.2 74.3 Kereszturi, A., et al. \"Indications of brine related local seepage phenomena on the northern hemisphere of Mars.\" Icarus 207.1 (2010): 149-164.\n 75. Martínez, G. M.; Renno, N. O. (2013). \"Water and Brines on Mars: Current Evidence and Implications for MSL\". Space Science Reviews. 175 (1-4): 29–51. doi:10.1007/s11214-012-9956-3. ISSN 0038-6308. \"Martinez et al. (2012) show that the formation of brines is consistent with the low temperatures measured by TES and THEMIS when they form (≤180 K), if the spatial resolution and optical properties of the translucent CO2 ice layer are considered. The resolution of TES is much coarser than the dimensions of the dark spots and FLF. In addition, TES and THEMIS measurements of the surface temperature are in the thermal infrared band, where CO2 ice is opaque. Since the fractional area covered by dark spots and FLF (composed of dark material above the CO2 ice layer), is much smaller than that covered by CO2 ice in TES and THEMIS pixels, they predominantly measure the low brightness temperature associated with the CO2 ice layer, not the temperature of the dark spots and FLF. As postulated by the gas venting model, shortwave solar radiation can efficiently penetrate the translucent CO2 ice layer. Thus, both the underlying surface and the dark ejecta can reach temperatures much higher than those measured by TES and THEMIS (Martinez et al. 2012). Also, subsurface melt water and ULI water can form in the shallow subsurface at temperatures as low as 180 K (see Sect. 2). Salts in contact with these types of liquid water could form liquid brines, and thus help explain the evolution of dune dark spots and FLF.\" \n 76. Jean-Pierre de Vera Lichens as survivors in space and on Mars Fungal Ecology Volume 5, Issue 4, August 2012, Pages 472–479\n 77. R. de la Torre Noetzel, F.J. Sanchez Inigo, E. Rabbow, G. Horneck, J. P. de Vera, L.G. Sancho Survival of lichens to simulated Mars conditions\n 78. F.J. Sáncheza, E. Mateo-Martíb, J. Raggioc, J. Meeßend, J. Martínez-Fríasb, L.Ga. Sanchoc, S. Ottd, R. de la Torrea The resistance of the lichen Circinaria gyrosa (nom. provis.) towards simulated Mars conditions—a model test for the survival capacity of an eukaryotic extremophile Planetary and Space Science Volume 72, Issue 1, November 2012, Pages 102–110\n 79. 79.0 79.1 Billi, Daniela; Viaggiu, Emanuela; Cockell, Charles S.; Rabbow, Elke; Horneck, Gerda; Onofri, Silvano (2011). \"Damage Escape and Repair in DriedChroococcidiopsisspp. from Hot and Cold Deserts Exposed to Simulated Space and Martian Conditions\". Astrobiology. 11 (1): 65–73. doi:10.1089/ast.2009.0430. ISSN 1531-1074. \n 80. \"Solar radiation is the primary energy source for surface planetary life, so that pigments are fundamental components of any surface-dwelling organism. They may therefore have evolved in some form on Mars as they did on Earth.\"Pigmentation as a survival strategy for ancient and modern photosynthetic microbes under high ultraviolet stress on planetary surfaces D.D. Wynn-Williams, H.G.M. Edwards, E.M. Newton and J.M. Holder, International Journal of Astrobiology 12/2001; 1(01):39 - 49. DOI: 10.1017/S1473550402001039\n 81. Brandt, Annette; de Vera, Jean-Pierre; Onofri, Silvano; Ott, Sieglinde (2014). \"Viability of the lichen Xanthoria elegans and its symbionts after 18 months of space exposure and simulated Mars conditions on the ISS\" (PDF). International Journal of Astrobiology: 1–15. doi:10.1017/S1473550414000214. ISSN 1473-5504. \n 82. 82.0 82.1 de Vera, Jean-Pierre; Schulze-Makuch, Dirk; Khan, Afshin; Lorek, Andreas; Koncz, Alexander; Möhlmann, Diedrich; Spohn, Tilman (2014). \"Adaptation of an Antarctic lichen to Martian niche conditions can occur within 34 days\" (PDF). Planetary and Space Science. 98: 182–190. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.014. ISSN 0032-0633. \n 83. 83.0 83.1 de Vera, Jean-Pierre; Schulze-Makuch, Dirk; Khan, Afshin; Lorek, Andreas; Koncz, Alexander; Möhlmann, Diedrich; Spohn, Tilman (2014). \"Adaptation of an Antarctic lichen to Martian niche conditions can occur within 34 days\". Planetary and Space Science. 98: 182–190. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.014. ISSN 0032-0633. This work strongly supports the interconnected notions (i) that terrestrial life most likely can adapt physiologically to live on Mars (hence justifying stringent measures to prevent human activities from contaminating / infecting Mars with terrestrial organisms); (ii) that in searching for extant life on Mars we should focus on \"protected putative habitats\"; and (ii) that early-originating (Noachian period) indigenous Martian life might still survive in such micro-niches despite Mars' cooling and drying during the last 4 billion years \n 84. 84.0 84.1 84.2 84.3 Zakharova, Kristina; Marzban, Gorji; de Vera, Jean-Pierre; Lorek, Andreas; Sterflinger, Katja (2014). \"Protein patterns of black fungi under simulated Mars-like conditions\". Scientific Reports. 4. doi:10.1038/srep05114. ISSN 2045-2322. The results achieved from our study led to the conclusion that black microcolonial fungi can survive in Mars environment. \n 85. A Salty, Martian Meteorite Offers Clues to Habitability By Elizabeth Howell - Astrobiology Magazine (NASA) Aug 28, 2014\n 86. The formation of sulfate, nitrate and perchlorate salts in the martian atmosphere, Megan L. Smitha, , , Mark W. Claireb, d, David C. Catlinga, Kevin J. Zahnlec, Icarus Volume 231, 1 March 2014, Pages 51–64\n 87. Osano, A., and A. F. Davila. \"Analysis of Photosynthetic Activity of Cyanobacteria Inhabiting Halite Evaporites of Atacama Desert, Chile.\" Lunar and Planetary Institute Science Conference Abstracts. Vol. 45. 2014.\n 88. 88.0 88.1 88.2 88.3 \"Some species (Haloferax mediterranei, Haloferax denitrificans, Haloferax gibbonsii, Haloarcula marismortui, Haloarcula vallismortis) could use perchlorate as an electron acceptor for anaerobic growth. Although perchlorate is highly oxidizing, its presence at a concentration of 0.2 M for up to 2 weeks did not negatively affect the ability of a yeast extract-based medium to support growth of the archaeon Halobacterium salinarum. These findings show that presence of perchlorate among the salts on Mars does not preclude the possibility of halophilic life. If indeed the liquid brines that may exist on Mars are inhabited by salt-requiring or salt-tolerant microorganisms similar to the halophiles on Earth, presence of perchlorate may even be stimulatory when it can serve as an electron acceptor for respiratory activity in the anaerobic Martian environment.\"Perchlorate and halophilic prokaryotes: implications for possible halophilic life on Mars Oren A1, Elevi Bardavid R, Mana L.. Water Sci Technol. 2009;60(7):1745-56. doi: 10.2166/wst.2009.635.\n 89. 89.0 89.1 Toner, J.D.; Catling, D.C.; Light, B. (2014). \"The formation of supercooled brines, viscous liquids, and low-temperature perchlorate glasses in aqueous solutions relevant to Mars\" (PDF). Icarus. 233: 36–47. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.01.018. ISSN 0019-1035. \n 90. Gough, R.V.; Chevrier, V.F.; Tolbert, M.A. (2014). \"Formation of aqueous solutions on Mars via deliquescence of chloride–perchlorate binary mixtures\" (PDF). Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 393: 73–82. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2014.02.002. ISSN 0012-821X. \n 91. Bortman, Henry (Jul 25, 2011). \"Islands of Life, Part V\". Astrobiology Magazine (NASA). \n 92. Davies, Paul (Aug 3, 2012). \"The key to life on Mars may well be found in Chile\". The Guardian. \n 93. 93.0 93.1 Wierzchos, J.; Davila, A. F.; Sánchez-Almazo, I. M.; Hajnos, M.; Swieboda, R.; Ascaso, C. (2012). \"Novel water source for endolithic life in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert\" (PDF). Biogeosciences. 9 (6): 2275–2286. doi:10.5194/bg-9-2275-2012. ISSN 1726-4189. \n 94. Wierzchos, J.; Cámara, B.; De Los Ríos, A.; Davila, A. F.; Sánchez Almazo, I. M.; Artieda, O.; Wierzchos, K.; Gómez-Silva, B.; Mckay, C.; Ascaso, C. (2011). \"Microbial colonization of Ca-sulfate crusts in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert: implications for the search for life on Mars\" (PDF). Geobiology. 9 (1): 44–60. doi:10.1111/j.1472-4669.2010.00254.x. ISSN 1472-4677. \n 95. 95.0 95.1 \"Humidity at the Phoenix lander site varies from near 0% to 100% RH diurnally, mainly driven by temperature fluctuations [11]. It seems probable then that any NaClO4 and NaCl mixtures present at this location will enter the aqueous phase during a diurnal cycle. Studies of the temperature dependence of these phase transitions, as well as a better understanding of the RH conditions in the Martian subsurface, are needed to accurately predict periods during which aqueous solutions can form from salt mixtures.\" DELIQUESCENCE OF PERCHLORATE/CHLORIDE MIXTURES: IMPLICATIONS FOR STABLE AND METASTABLE AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS ON MARS, R.V. Gough, V. Chevrier and M.A. Tolbert, 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2012)\n 96. Elsenousy, Amira; Hanley, Jennifer; Chevrier, Vincent F. (2015). \"Effect of evaporation and freezing on the salt paragenesis and habitability of brines at the Phoenix landing site\". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 421: 39–46. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2015.03.047. ISSN 0012-821X. \n 97. Matson, John (February 6, 2013). \"The New Way to Look for Mars Life: Follow the Salt\". Scientific American. \n 98. Martín-Torres, F. Javier; Zorzano, María-Paz; Valentín-Serrano, Patricia; Harri, Ari-Matti; Genzer, Maria; Kemppinen, Osku; Rivera-Valentin, Edgard G.; Jun, Insoo; Wray, James; Bo Madsen, Morten; Goetz, Walter; McEwen, Alfred S.; Hardgrove, Craig; Renno, Nilton; Chevrier, Vincent F.; Mischna, Michael; Navarro-González, Rafael; Martínez-Frías, Jesús; Conrad, Pamela; McConnochie, Tim; Cockell, Charles; Berger, Gilles; R. Vasavada, Ashwin; Sumner, Dawn; Vaniman, David (2015). \"Transient liquid water and water activity at Gale crater on Mars\". Nature Geoscience. doi:10.1038/ngeo2412. ISSN 1752-0894. \n 99. Bridges, N. T.; Ayoub, F.; Avouac, J-P.; Leprince, S.; Lucas, A.; Mattson, S. (2012). \"Earth-like sand fluxes on Mars\". Nature. 485 (7398): 339–342. doi:10.1038/nature11022. ISSN 0028-0836. \n 100. Moore, Nicole Casal (Jul 2, 2014). \"Martian salts must touch ice to make liquid water, study shows\". \n 101. Gronstal, Aaron (July 3, 2014). \"Liquid Water From Ice and Salt on Mars\". Astrobiology Magazine (NASA). \n 102. list of Honors and Accomplishments on the University of Michigan page about Nilton Renno.\n 103. ‘Swimming pool for bacteria’: There could be life on Mars today - new study - RT News\n 104. 'Is there life on Mars?': Water can and does exist on the planet says new research - the Independent\n 105. Martian salts must touch ice to make liquid water, study shows - Michigan News (the research was by a team of researchers at the University of Michigan)\n 106. \"Based on the results of our experiment, we expect this soft ice that can liquify perhaps a few days per year, perhaps a few hours a day, almost anywhere on Mars. --- This is a small amount of liquid water. But for a bacteria, that would be a huge swimming pool ... So, a small amount of water is enough for you to be able to create conditions for Mars to be habitable today. And we believe this is possible in the shallow subsurface, and even the surface of the Mars polar region for a few hours per day during the spring.'\"\n (transcript from 2 minutes into the video onwards, from Nilton Renno video (youtube)\n 107. 107.0 107.1 Fischer, Erik; Martínez, Germán M.; Elliott, Harvey M.; Rennó, Nilton O. (2014). \"Experimental evidence for the formation of liquid saline water on Mars\". Geophysical Research Letters: n/a–n/a. doi:10.1002/2014GL060302. ISSN 0094-8276. \n 108. Jepsen, Steven M.; Priscu, John C.; Grimm, Robert E.; Bullock, Mark A. (2007). \"The Potential for Lithoautotrophic Life on Mars: Application to Shallow Interfacial Water Environments\" (PDF). Astrobiology. 7 (2): 342–354. doi:10.1089/ast.2007.0124. ISSN 1531-1074. \n 109. 109.0 109.1 Price, P. B.; Sowers, T. (2004). \"Temperature dependence of metabolic rates for microbial growth, maintenance, and survival\". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (13): 4631–4636. doi:10.1073/pnas.0400522101. ISSN 0027-8424. \n 110. Kereszturi, Akos; Rivera-Valentin, Edgard G. (2012). \"Locations of thin liquid water layers on present-day Mars\" (PDF). Icarus. 221 (1): 289–295. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.08.004. ISSN 0019-1035. \n 111. \"Impact melt and uplifted basement heat sources in craters >50 km in diameter should be sufficient to drive substantial hydrothermal activity and keep crater lakes from freezing for thousands of years, even under cold climatic conditions\" Location and Sampling of Aqueous and Hydrothermal Deposits in Martian Impact Craters Horton E. Newsom, Justin J. Hagerty, and Ivan E. Thorsos. Astrobiology. March 2001, 1(1): 71-88. doi:10.1089/153110701750137459.]\n 112. Impact crater lakes on Mars, Horton E. Newsom, Gregory E. Brittelle, Charles A. Hibbitts, Laura J. Crossey, Albert M. Kudo, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (1991–2012) Volume 101, Issue E6, pages 14951–14955, 25 June 1996 DOI: 10.1029/96JE01139\n 113. Lakes on Mars (Google eBook), Nathalie A. Cabrol, Edmond A. Grin, Elsevier, 15 Sep 2010\n 114. A habitable environment on Martian volcano?, Kevin Stacey, News from Brown University, May 27, 2014, for the paper, see Volcano–ice interactions in the Arsia Mons tropical mountain glacier deposits, Kathleen E. Scanlona, James W. Heada, Lionel Wilsonb, David R. Marchant, Icarus Volume 237, 15 July 2014, Pages 315–339, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.04.024\n 115. \"Hunting for young lava flows\". Geophysical Research Letters. Red Planet. June 1, 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2013. \n 116. \"Here we show that calderas on five major volcanoes on Mars have undergone repeated activation and resurfacing during the last 20 per cent of martian history, with phases of activity as young as two million years, suggesting that the volcanoes are potentially still active today. Glacial deposits at the base of the Olympus Mons escarpment show evidence for repeated phases of activity as recently as about four million years ago. Morphological evidence is found that snow and ice deposition on the Olympus construct at elevations of more than 7,000 metres led to episodes of glacial activity at this height. Even now, water ice protected by an insulating layer of dust may be present at high altitudes on Olympus Mons.\" Recent and episodic volcanic and glacial activity on Mars revealed by the High Resolution Stereo Camera G. Neukum1, R. Jaumann, H. Hoffmann, E. Hauber, J. W. Head, A. T. Basilevsky, B. A. Ivanov, S. C. Werner, S. van Gasselt, J. B. Murray, T. McCord & The HRSC Co-Investigator Team, Nature 432, 971-979 (23 December 2004) | doi:10.1038/nature03231; Received 3 September 2004; Accepted 30 November 2004\n 117. Hunting for young lava flows Red Planet report, Posted on June 1, 2011 by rburnham\n 118. The Search For Volcanic Eruptions On Mars Reaches The Next Level, Elizabeth Howell - Feb 12, 2015, Astrobiology Magazine (NASA)\n 119. \"Ice Towers and Caves of Mount Erebus\", photographs from the Mount Erebus Observatory\n 120. \"Giant hollow towers of ice formed by steaming volcanic vents on Ross Island, Antarctica are providing clues about where to hunt for life on Mars.\" Martian Hot Spots Astrobiology Magazine (NASA) - Aug 7, 2003, Dr Nick Hoffman\n 121. Volcano-Ice Interaction as a Microbial Habitat on Earth and Mars, Claire R. Cousins and Ian A. Crawford, ASTROBIOLOGY Volume 11, Number 7, 2011, DOI: 10.1089/ast.2010.0550\n 122. The Ice Towers of Mt. Erebus as analogues of biological refuges on Mars ], N. Hoffman and P. R. Kyle, Sixth International Conference on Mars (2003)\n 123. Wall, Mike. \"Antarctic Cave Microbes Shed Light on Life's Diversity\". Livescience. \n 124. Grin, E. A., N. A. Cabrol, and C. P. McKay. \"The hypothesis of caves on Mars revisited through MGS data; Their potential as targets for the surveyor program.\" Workshop on Mars 2001: Integrated Science in Preparation for Sample Return and Human Exploration. Vol. 1. 1999.\n 125. Boston, Penelope J. \"Location, location, location! Lava caves on Mars for habitat, resources, and the search for life.\" The Journal of Cosmology 12 (2010): 3957-3979.\n 126. Watters, Thomas R., et al. \"Radar sounding of the Medusae Fossae Formation Mars: Equatorial ice or dry, low-density deposits?.\" Science 318.5853 (2007): 1125-1128.\n 127. Head, James W., and David K. Weiss. \"Preservation of ancient ice at Pavonis and Arsia Mons: tropical mountain glacier deposits on Mars.\" Planetary and Space Science 103 (2014): 331-338. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2014.09.004\n 128. John D. Arfstrom A Conceptual Model of Equatorial Ice Sheets on Mars. J Comparative Climatology of Terrestrial Planets (2012)\n 129. Michael T. Mellon Subsurface Ice at Mars: A review of ice and water in the equatorial regions University of Colorado 10 May 2011 Planetary Protection Subcommittee Meeting\n 130. Robert Roy Britt Ice Packs and Methane on Mars Suggest Present Life 22 February 2005\n 131. Mellon, M. T., B. M. Jakosky, and S. E. Postawko (1997)The persistence of equatorial ground ice on Mars, J. Geophys. Res., 102(E8), 19357–19369, doi:10.1029/97JE01346.\n 132. Usui, Tomohiro; Alexander, Conel M. O'D.; Wang, Jianhua; Simon, Justin I.; Jones, John H. (2015). \"Meteoritic evidence for a previously unrecognized hydrogen reservoir on Mars\" (PDF). Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 410: 140–151. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2014.11.022. ISSN 0012-821X. \n 133. \"Consequences for the Global Inventory of Water: Clifford and Parker (2001) calculated that a planetary inventory of 500 m GEL (Global Equivalent Layer] could have been cold trapped into the thickening cryosphere by the end of the Late Hesperian (∼3 Gy). With the nearly twofold increase in the potential maximum thickness of the cryosphere suggested here the prospects for longterm survival of subpermafrost groundwater are in greater doubt. [table and calculations]... Therefore, even assuming a high (30 mW m−2) heat flow and a eutectic solution of NaCl, the present-day occurrence of groundwater on Mars appears highly unlikely, given the smaller (<500 m GEL) estimates for the total planetary inventory given in Table 4. But even under these limited conditions, some subpermafrost groundwater may still survive in places where it is perchlorate-rich, although such occurrences are likely to be restricted to isolated pockets rather than any system of regional or global extent. If the planetary inventory of H2O is closer to the upper estimate of ∼1 km GEL from Table 4, then subpermafrost groundwater may still persist beneath much of the surface, but will generally reside at depths ≥5 km, or roughly twice as deep as previously thought . However, natural variations in crustal thermal conductivity, heat flow, and groundwater composition, may permit isolated occurrences of groundwater to exist at significantly shallower depths.\"\n\n , Lasue, Jeremie, et al. \"Quantitative assessments of the martian hydrosphere.\" Space Science Reviews 174.1-4 (2013): 155-212.\n 134. 134.0 134.1 Michalski, Joseph R., et al. \"Groundwater activity on Mars and implications for a deep biosphere.\" Nature Geoscience 6.2 (2013): 133-138.\n 135. \"Aquifer Habitability Finally, deep aquifers below the cryosphere may have provided a hydraulic connection between various subpermafrost habitats. If Mars were ever inhabited, these hydraulic connections would likely have provided a means for biota to be transported from one habitable environment to another. An analogous system is fracture networks within or under permafrost in the terrestrial arctic. These systems harbor sulfatereducing microorganisms and other anaerobic taxa that can grow within the cold, saline conditions of the permafrost. Analogous conditions may exist within the Martian deep-subsurface where impact-generated fractures may have allowed both microorganisms and nutrients to migrate from one habitat to another—even ones arising from recent impacts and their associated hydrothermal environments, if habitats on Mars were inhabited and life existed on that planet \"\n\n 136. 136.0 136.1 136.2 136.3 136.4 136.5 Biotoxicity of Mars soils: 1. Dry deposition of analog soils on microbial olonies and survival under Martian conditions, Andrew C. Schuerger, D.C. Golden, Doug W. Ming, Planetary and Space Science, 20 July 2012\n 137. Alien Life Could Thrive on 'Supercritical' CO2 Instead of Water by Charles Q. Choi, Contributor November 16, 2014\n 138. Mateo-Marti, Eva (2014). \"Planetary Atmosphere and Surfaces Chamber (PASC): A Platform to Address Various Challenges in Astrobiology\". Challenges. 5 (2): 213–223. doi:10.3390/challe5020213. ISSN 2078-1547. \"It was found that the UV transmittance value drops to nearly zero for a basalt-dust thickness of ~300 µm, and therefore, microorganisms living at deeper layers than this would be protected from damaging UV irradiation on Mars.\"Superscript text\n 139. \"Xanthoria parietina is a widespread lichen coloured by the orange cortical pigment parietin (= physcion). We studied the pigment content in 60 thalli sampled in 4 habitats along a sun–shade gradient from evergreen boreal forests through open deciduous stands to sea cliffs. The significant positive regression between contents of parietin per unit area and site factors (reflecting the openness of the canopy relative to an open sky) across sampled habitats suggested a photoprotective role of parietin at UV-B and/or blue wavelengths, the two absorbance maxima of parietin. UV-B susceptibility of X. parietina, measured as permanent reductions in photosystem II, decreased highly significantly with increasing parietin content per thallus area. However, as much as three-fold greater UV-B irradiances than ambient daily summer maxima, maintained continuosly for 240 h were required to cause UV-B damage even in thalli of shaded habitats. Since a previous study has documented a high PAR susceptibility of parietin-deficient X. parietina in the absence of UV-B, there are reasons to believe that the blue light screening of parietin is functionally more important than the UV-B screening. A strong positive relationship between parietin content per unit area and reflectance at 500 nm allows the parietin content in X. parietina thalli to be assessed non-destructively by reflectance measurements\" [Is parietin a UV-B or a blue-light screening pigment in the lichen Xanthoria parietina?]Yngvar Gauslaa and Elin Margrete Ustvedt, Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2003, 2, 424–432\n 140. \"This study reports UV screening pigments in the upper cortices of two widespread lichens collected in three sun-exposed locations along a latitudinal gradient from the Arctic lowland to alpine sites of the Central European Alps. Populations from the Alps receive 3–5 times higher UV-B irradiance than their Arctic counterparts from Svalbard because of latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in UV-B irradiance.... This implies that Arctic populations maintain a high level of screening pigments in spite of low ambient UV-B, and that the studied lichen species presumably may tolerate an increase in UV-B radiation due to the predicted thinning of the ozone layer over polar areas\" The lichens Xanthoria elegans and Cetraria islandica maintain a high protection against UV-B radiation in Arctic habitatsLine Nybakken, Knut Asbjørn Solhaug, Wolfgang Bilger, Yngvar Gauslaa, Oecologia July 2004, Volume 140, Issue 2, pp 211-216\n 141. UV-induction of sun-screening pigments in lichens Knut Asbjørn Solhaug, Yngvar Gauslaa, Line Nybakken and Wolfgang Bilger, New Phytologist Volume 158, Issue 1, pages 91–100, April 2003 DOI: 10.1046/j.1469-8137.2003.00708.x\n 142. \"Meteorite with abundant nitrogen for life on Earth?\". Natural History Museum, London. March 4, 2011. \n 143. \"Nitrogen is continuously dry-deposited from the atmosphere of Mars even today mainly as pernitric acid. During the Amazonian, 4.3 × 1018 g NO4 could have been deposited across the martian surface if all of the nitrate is formed through atmospheric photochemistry and persists without decomposition or any further reactions. This corresponds to a concentration of 0.3 wt.% N if it is mixed uniformly to a depth of 2 m. This prediction can be confirmed or disproved by future in situ measurements.\"\n 144. Boxe, C.S.; Hand, K.P.; Nealson, K.H.; Yung, Y.L.; Saiz-Lopez, A. (2012). \"An active nitrogen cycle on Mars sufficient to support a subsurface biosphere\" (PDF). International Journal of Astrobiology. 11 (02): 109–115. doi:10.1017/S1473550411000401. ISSN 1473-5504. \n 145. \"Solar particle events and galactic cosmic rays are considered external factors that occur infrequently or at low dosage, respectively\" Biotoxicity of Mars soils: 1. Dry deposition of analog soils on microbial colonies and survival under Martian conditions, Andrew C. Schuerger, D.C. Golden, Doug W. Ming, Planetary and Space Science, 20 July 2012\n 146. Donald M. Hassler, Cary Zeitlin, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, Bent Ehresmann, Scot Rafkin, Jennifer L. Eigenbrode, David E. Brinza, Gerald Weigle, Stephan Böttcher, Eckart Böhm, Soenke Burmeister, Jingnan Guo, Jan Köhler, Cesar Martin, Guenther Reitz, Francis A. Cucinotta, Myung-Hee Kim, David Grinspoon, Mark A. Bullock, Arik Posner, Javier Gómez-Elvira, Ashwin Vasavada, and John P. Grotzinger, and the MSL Science Team (12 November 2013). \"Mars' Surface Radiation Environment Measured with the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity Rover\" (PDF). Science: 7. \n 148. Joanna Carver and Victoria Jaggard (21 November 2012). \"Mars is safe from radiation – but the trip there isn't\". New Scientist. \n 149. Redox chemistry - defines pH and Eh\n 150. \"Perchlorate's presence in the soil and interaction with water could also have implications for any potential Martian microbes. At high temperatures, perchlorate is \"a very aggressive oxidant,\" Hecht said, but since Mars is so cold, this isn't likely to threaten life there. In fact, \"perchlorate is quite benign with respect to microbe,\" he said. It could actually act as an energy source for them (perchlorates provide the boom to most fireworks and rocket propellants). \"A lot of microbes eat perchlorate for lunch,\" Hecht said. It's \"a wonderful PowerBar for microbes.\" But it's also a powerful desiccant that sucks up any water within its grasp, which would put it in competition for this substance that is essential to all life was we know it. Bottom line: \"There are aspects of perchlorate that are good for life; there are aspects of perchlorate that are bad for life,\" Hecht added.\"Mars Sprinkled with Salty Mysteries by Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer,, April 14, 2009\n 151. Oren, Aharon; Elevi Bardavid, Rahel; Mana, Lily (2013). \"Perchlorate and halophilic prokaryotes: implications for possible halophilic life on Mars\". Extremophiles. 18 (1): 75–80. doi:10.1007/s00792-013-0594-9. ISSN 1431-0651. \n 152. Minkel, JR (August 5, 2008). \"NASA Says Perchlorate Does Not Rule Out Life on Mars - Unexpected chemical in Martian soil is a food source for some Earthly microbes\". Scientific American. \n 154. CHANG, KENNETH (October 5, 2015). \"Mars Is Pretty Clean. Her Job at NASA Is to Keep It That Way\". \n 157. 157.0 157.1 Junge, Karen; Eicken, Hajo; Swanson, Brian D.; Deming, Jody W. (2006). \"Bacterial incorporation of leucine into protein down to −20°C with evidence for potential activity in sub-eutectic saline ice formations\". Cryobiology. 52 (3): 417–429. doi:10.1016/j.cryobiol.2006.03.002. ISSN 0011-2240. \n 160. Lyons, W. Berry, and Diane M. McKnight. \"Life in Antarctic Deserts and other Cold Dry Environments.\" - Description of Don Juan pond(page 183),Cambridge University Press, 29 Apr 2010 , see also summary of the book\n 161. Pitt, J. I., and J. H. B. Christian. \"Water relations of xerophilic fungi isolated from prunes.\" Applied Microbiology 16.12 (1968): 1853-1858.\n 162. Stevenson, Andrew; Burkhardt, Jürgen; Cockell, Charles S.; Cray, Jonathan A.; Dijksterhuis, Jan; Fox-Powell, Mark; Kee, Terence P.; Kminek, Gerhard; McGenity, Terry J.; Timmis, Kenneth N.; Timson, David J.; Voytek, Mary A.; Westall, Frances; Yakimov, Michail M.; Hallsworth, John E. (2015). \"Multiplication of microbes below 0.690 water activity: implications for terrestrial and extraterrestrial life\". Environmental Microbiology. 17 (2): 257–277. doi:10.1111/1462-2920.12598. ISSN 1462-2912. \n 163. \"Finally there are other harmful radiation sources reaching Mars: ionizing and neutron radiation caused by galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events.\n\n \"Due to the lack of a magnetic field and the low shielding of the Martian atmosphere (the Martian overhead airmass is 16 g cm−2 instead of the terrestrial 1000 g cm−2) the doses of ionizing radiation at the surface of Mars reach values about 100 times higher than those on the Earth.\n\n \"However, since a great variety of microbes tolerate this type of radiation at similar or even greater doses than those found on Mars, ionizing radiation cannot be considered a limiting factor for microbial life on Mars and thus here we will limit our study to solar UV shielding and VIS radiation pentration.\"\n\n\n 164. Kminek, G; Bada, J (2006). \"The effect of ionizing radiation on the preservation of amino acids on Mars\". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 245 (1-2): 1–5. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2006.03.008. ISSN 0012-821X. \n 165. 165.0 165.1 McKay, Christopher P. \"An origin of life on Mars.\" Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology 2.4 (2010): a003509.\n 166. Rummel, John D.; Beaty, David W.; Jones, Melissa A.; Bakermans, Corien; Barlow, Nadine G.; Boston, Penelope J.; Chevrier, Vincent F.; Clark, Benton C.; de Vera, Jean-Pierre P.; Gough, Raina V.; Hallsworth, John E.; Head, James W.; Hipkin, Victoria J.; Kieft, Thomas L.; McEwen, Alfred S.; Mellon, Michael T.; Mikucki, Jill A.; Nicholson, Wayne L.; Omelon, Christopher R.; Peterson, Ronald; Roden, Eric E.; Sherwood Lollar, Barbara; Tanaka, Kenneth L.; Viola, Donna; Wray, James J. (2014). \"A New Analysis of Mars \"Special Regions\": Findings of the Second MEPAG Special Regions Science Analysis Group (SR-SAG2)\". Astrobiology. 14 (11): 887–968. doi:10.1089/ast.2014.1227. ISSN 1531-1074. From MSL RAD measurements, ionizing radiation from GCRs [Galactic Cosmic Rays] at Mars is so low as to be negligible. Intermittent SPEs [Solar Particle Events] can increase the atmospheric ionization down to ground level and increase the total dose, but these events are sporadic and last at most a few (2–5) days. . These facts are not used to distinguish Special Regions on Mars \n 167. Rummel, John D.; Beaty, David W.; Jones, Melissa A.; Bakermans, Corien; Barlow, Nadine G.; Boston, Penelope J.; Chevrier, Vincent F.; Clark, Benton C.; de Vera, Jean-Pierre P.; Gough, Raina V.; Hallsworth, John E.; Head, James W.; Hipkin, Victoria J.; Kieft, Thomas L.; McEwen, Alfred S.; Mellon, Michael T.; Mikucki, Jill A.; Nicholson, Wayne L.; Omelon, Christopher R.; Peterson, Ronald; Roden, Eric E.; Sherwood Lollar, Barbara; Tanaka, Kenneth L.; Viola, Donna; Wray, James J. (2014). \"A New Analysis of Mars \"Special Regions\": Findings of the Second MEPAG Special Regions Science Analysis Group (SR-SAG2)\". Astrobiology. 14 (11): 887–968. doi:10.1089/ast.2014.1227. ISSN 1531-1074. Special Regions on Mars continue to be best determined by locations where both of the parameters (without margins added) of temperature (above 255 K) and water activity (aw > 0.60) are attained. There are places/times on Mars where both of these parameters are attained within a single sol, but it is unknown whether terrestrial organisms can use resources in this discontinuous fashion. No regions have been definitively identified where these parameters are attained simultaneously, but a classification of landforms on Mars leads to RSL, certain types of gullies, and caves being named Uncertain Regions, which will be treated as if they were Special Regions until further data are gathered to properly classify them as Special Regions or Non-Special Regions. \n 168. Planetary Exploration and Science: Recent Results and Advances, Antonio de Morais M. Teles, page 153, 27 Nov 2014\n 169. Habitability of other planets and satellites - Habitability and Survival, Francis Westall, page 192, 30 Jul 2013\n 170. Morozova, Daria; Möhlmann, Diedrich; Wagner, Dirk (2006). \"Survival of Methanogenic Archaea from Siberian Permafrost under Simulated Martian Thermal Conditions\" (PDF). Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres. 37 (2): 189–200. doi:10.1007/s11084-006-9024-7. ISSN 0169-6149. The observation of high survival rates of methanogens under simulated Martian conditions supports the possibility that microorganisms similar to the isolates from Siberian permafrost could also exist in the Martian permafrost. \n 171. 171.0 171.1 Carnobacterium on Microbewiki\n 172. Crisler, J.D.; Newville, T.M.; Chen, F.; Clark, B.C.; Schneegurt, M.A. (2012). \"Bacterial Growth at the High Concentrations of Magnesium Sulfate Found in Martian Soils\". Astrobiology. 12 (2): 98–106. doi:10.1089/ast.2011.0720. ISSN 1531-1074. PMC 3277918Freely accessible. Our results indicate that terrestrial microbes might survive under the high-salt, low-temperature, anaerobic conditions on Mars and present significant potential for forward contamination. Stringent planetary protection requirements are needed for future life-detection missions to Mars \n 173. Kilmer, Brian R.; Eberl, Timothy C.; Cunderla, Brent; Chen, Fei; Clark, Benton C.; Schneegurt, Mark A. (2014). \"Molecular and phenetic characterization of the bacterial assemblage of Hot Lake, WA, an environment with high concentrations of magnesium sulphate, and its relevance to Mars\". International Journal of Astrobiology. 13 (01): 69–80. doi:10.1017/S1473550413000268. ISSN 1473-5504. PMC 3989109Freely accessible. It is becoming clear that epsotolerance is more widespread than one might expect given the limited distribution of epsomite environments on Earth. Initial studies of garden soils found a measurable number of epsotolerant and halotolerant microbes (Porazka et al. 2011). This includes soil samples taken near the SAFs at JPL, increasing the potential for contamination of spacecraft with microbes tolerant to high MgSO4. Furthermore, initial analyses indicate that epsotolerant bacteria can be isolated from SAFs and clones from related taxa were detected using molecular means (Kilmer et al. 2012). Epsotolerance may increase the likelihood that a microbial contaminant could survive after a heat-producing crash landing of a spacecraft. Special habitats on Mars where liquid water is present may be heavy brines rich in sulfates of magnesium, calcium, and iron, perhaps as eutectic liquids produced through deliquescence. Brines of perchlorate salts may be present in north polar regions (McKay et al. 2013). Initial screening of bacterial isolates from Hot Lake and the GSP have shown considerable tolerance to perchlorates, in some cases, growing at 15% sodium or magnesium perchlorate (Mai et al. 2012). A better understanding of terrestrial microbes growing under these conditions will impact life detection and sample return missions to Mars and other celestial bodies. \n 174. 174.0 174.1 174.2 Plausible microbial metabolisms on Mars Astronomy & Geophysics • February 2013 • Vol. 54, Sophie L Nixon, Claire R Cousins and Charles S Cockell\n 175. Nixon, Sophie Louise. \"Microbial iron reduction on Earth and Mars.\" (2014).\n 176. 176.0 176.1 Carbon monoxide as a metabolic energy source for extremely halophilic microbes: Implications for microbial activity in Mars regolith Gary M. King, PNAS March 23, 2015, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1424989112 \"Halorubrum str. BV1, isolated from the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah (to our knowledge, the first documented extremely halophilic CO-oxidizing member of the Euryarchaeota), consumed CO in a salt-saturated medium with a water potential of −39.6 MPa; activity was reduced by only 28% relative to activity at its optimum water potential of −11 MPa. A proteobacterial isolate from hypersaline Mono Lake, California, Alkalilimnicola ehrlichii MLHE-1, also oxidized CO at low water potentials (−19 MPa), at temperatures within ranges reported for RSL, and under oxic, suboxic (0.2% oxygen), and anoxic conditions (oxygen-free with nitrate). MLHE-1 was unaffected by magnesium perchlorate or low atmospheric pressure (10 mbar).\"\n 177. Nicholson, Wayne, et al. \"Isolation of bacteria from Siberian permafrost capable of growing under simulated Mars atmospheric pressure and composition.\" 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 2–10 August 2014, in Moscow, Russia, Abstract F3. 3-10-14.. Vol. 40. 2014.\"Our recent work has concentrated on investigating the possibility that prokaryotes from Earth could survive and proliferate in the Mars environment. Our experiments have involved environmental chambers that can simulate Mars atmospheric conditions of low pressure (P; 0.7 kPa), temperature (T; 0˚C), and a CO2-dominated anoxic atmosphere (A), called here collectively low-PTA conditions. Because much of the water on present-day Mars exists in a permanently frozen state mixed with mineral matrix, terrestrial permafrosts are considered to be analogs of the martian environment. We therefore screened Siberian permafrost soils for microbes capable of growing under low-PTA conditions. Using this approach we reported the isolation of 6 Carnobacterium spp. isolates from Siberian permafrost that were capable of low-PTA growth\"\n 178. Tremblay, Pier-Luc; Aklujkar, Muktak; Leang, Ching; Nevin, Kelly P.; Lovley, Derek (2012). \"A genetic system for Geobacter metallireducens: role of the flagellin and pilin in the reduction of Fe(III) oxide\". Environmental Microbiology Reports. 4 (1): 82–88. doi:10.1111/j.1758-2229.2011.00305.x. ISSN 1758-2229. \n 179. Geobacter metallireducens on the Microbe wiki\n 183. Circinaria gyrosa, a new astrobiological model system for studying the effects of heavy ion irradiation, María Luisa Martín; Ralf Moeller; Rosa De la Torre Noetzel, ; M. Marina Raguse, 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 2-10 August 2014, in Moscow, Russia, Abstract F3.3-9-14. Bibliographic Code: 2014cosp...40E2015M\n 184. Survival of the lichen model system Circinaria gyrosa before flight to the ISS (EXPOSE R2 mission), Rosa De la Torre Noetzel, Publication: 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 2-10 August 2014, in Moscow, Russia, Abstract F3.1-9-14. Bibliographic Code: 2014cosp...40E.650D\n 185. \"Metabolism of all organisms on Earth can be traced back through different pathways to the sun, or this was at least thought to be the case until 2006 when microbiologists discovered a completely unique and alien organism in the bottom of a gold mine in South Africa.\" Desulforudis audaxviator Daniel Roush\n 186. Desulforudis audaxviator on Microbe Wiki\n 187. \"The presence of multicellular life in the harsh environment of the mine walls — oxygen-starved, hot and inhospitable — not only expands the sphere in which life might exist on Earth, but on other planets as well. \"Now the deep subsurface of Mars looks very interesting,\" says Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. \"The Universe might have many more habitats than we thought.\" Subterranean worms from hell- New species of nematode discovered more than a kilometre underground, Nadia Drake June 2011, Nature,doi:10.1038/news.2011.342\n 188. \"Researchers have found in the deep ocean the first-known kinds of multicellular organisms, dubbed Loricifera, that live completely oxygen-free\" Multicellular Life Found That Doesn't Need Oxygen, Cynthia Graber, Scientific American, April 9, 2010\n 189. Tyndall, Amy (January 3, 2015). \"ISS experiment exposes biological limits in space\". SEN. \n 190. Gronstal, Aaron L (Jul 31, 2014). \"BIOMEX: Exploring Mars in Low Earth Orbit\". Astrobiology Magazine (NASA). \n 191. \"Potsdam algae in space fitness tests\". \n 192. [ttp:// BIOMEX: Exploring Mars in Low Earth Orbit] By Aaron L. Gronstal - Jul 31, 2014 -Astrobiology Magazine (NASA)\n 193. The Expose-R2 mission: Astrobiology and astrochemistry in low Earth orbit, Biotechnology Summer School René Demets Project Scientist Astrobiology ESA-ESTEC (HSO-USB) Tuesday 26 August 2014\n 194. The Expose-R2 mission: Astrobiology and astrochemistry in low Earth orbit, René Demets, ESA (powerpoint)\n 195. \"BIOMEX: Biology and Mars Experiment\". DLR. \n 196. Trajectories of Martian Habitability, Charles S. Cockell, Astrobiology. 2014 Feb 1; 14(2): 182–203. doi: 10.1089/ast.2013.1106\n 197. Uninhabited habitats on Mars, Charles S. Cockell, Matt Balme, John C. Bridges, Alfonso Davila, Susanne P. Schwenzer, Icarus, Volume 217, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 184–193, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.10.025\n 198. McKay, Chris P. (2004). \"What Is Life—and How Do We Search for It in Other Worlds?\". PLoS Biology. 2 (9): e302. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020302. ISSN 1544-9173. \n 199. Could Ionized Gas Do A Better Job of Sterilizing Spacecraft?, Elizabeth Howell - Feb 23, 2015, Astrobiology Magazine (NASA)\n 200. 200.0 200.1 Jeffrey L. Bada, Andrew D. Aubrey, Frank J. Grunthaner, Michael Hecht, Richard Quinn, Richard Mathies, Aaron Zent, John H. Chalmers Seeking signs of life on mars: in situ investigations as prerequisites to sample return missions Independent Contribution to the Mars Decadal Survey Panel\n 201. Evidence for indigenous nitrogen in sedimentary and aeolian deposits from the Curiosity rover investigations at Gale crater, Mars Jennifer C. Stern, PNAS March 23, 2015, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1420932112\n 202. Curiosity Mars rover detects 'useful nitrogen', BBC News, March 2015\n 203. More Ingredients for Life Identified on Mars by Mike Wall, Senior Writer,, March 23, 2015\n 204. \"One SAM reading seems to relate to a type of fatty acid molecule. These are important for life because organisms use them to build cell membranes, but they could have a non-biological origin.\n\n Glavin also confirmed previous hints from SAM of an organic compound called chlorobenzene. Again, this might not be a sign of life, but it suggests that complex organic molecules can survive on the surface of Mars, upping the chances of future missions finding microbes if they are there.\"\n\n from NASA's Curiosity rover finds fatty acids on Mars, New Scientist, 25 March 2015\n 205. Francois, Pascaline, et al. \"The Sample Analysis At Mars Gas Chromatograph (sam-gc) Ability To Detect Organic Molecules At The Mars Surface.\" AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts. Vol. 44. 2012.\n 206. Vandaele, A. C., et al. \"NOMAD, a spectrometer suite for Nadir and Solar occultation observations on the exomars trace gas orbiter.\" Fourth International Workshop on the Mars Atmosphere: Modelling and Observation, Paris, France. 2011. \"The detection limits have been determined assuming a one-second cycle with 6 different spectral windows of 160 ms (SNR=4000). Since several spectra can be recorded per second in occultation, the detection limit can be improved further. It would therefore be possible to go below a 10 ppt detection limit using averaging. \"\n 207. \"LANDING SITE RECOMMENDED FOR EXOMARS 2018\". ESA. 21 October 2015. \n 208. Hand, Eric (July 31, 2014). \"NASA's Mars 2020 rover to feature lean, nimble science payload\". Science Insider. \n 209. Chris Gebhardt (October 11, 2016). \"Mars 2020 rover receives upgraded eyesight for tricky skycrane landing\". \n 210. \"SHERLOC to Micro-Map Mars Minerals and Carbon Rings\". Future rover plans (NASA). July 31, 2014. \n 211. Kane, Van (August 6, 2014). \"Mars 2020 Instruments – A Plan for Sample Return\". \n 212. Wall (Senior science writer), Mike (September 15, 2014). \"Life-Hunting Mars Mission Idea Makes Progress, But Needs Cash\". \n 213. Foust, Jeff (5 May 2014). \"Mars missions on the cheap\". The Space Review. Retrieved 2014-05-06. \n 214. \"ExoLance\". Explore Mars Inc. 2014. Retrieved 2014-05-06. \n 215. Koebler, Jason (24 April 2014). \"Blasting Mars with Missiles Is the Latest Hope for Finding Martian Life\". Motherboard. Retrieved 2014-05-06. \n 216. Chris Carberry and Blake Ortner (August 4, 2014). \"Searching for Subsurface Life on Mars\". \n 219. Andrew D. Aubrey, John H. Chalmers, Jeffrey L. Bada, Frank J. Grunthaner, Xenia Amashukeli, Peter Willis, Alison M. Skelley, Richard A. Mathies, Richard C. Quinn, Aaron P. Zent, Pascale Ehrenfreund, Ron Amundson, Daniel P. Glavin, Oliver Botta, Laurence Barron, Diana L. Blaney, Benton C. Clark, Max Coleman, Beda A. Hofmann, Jean-Luc Josset, Petra Rettberg, Sally Ride, François Robert, Mark A. Sephton, and Albert Yen1 The Urey Instrument: An Advanced In Situ Organic and Oxidant Detector for Mars Exploration ASTROBIOLOGY Volume 8, Number 3, 2008\n 220. J.L. Bada ·P. Ehrenfreund ·F. Grunthaner ·D. Blaney ·M. Coleman · A. Farrington ·A. Yen ·R. Mathies·R. Amudson ·R. Quinn ·A. Zent·S. Ride · L. Barron ·O. Botta ·B. Clark ·D. Glavin ·B. Hofmann · J.L. Josset·P. Rettberg · F. Robert ·M. Sephton Urey: Mars Organic and Oxidant Detector Space Sci Rev (2008) 135: 269–279\n 221. Searching for Organics in a Nibble of Soil,Michael Schirber, Astrobiology Magazine (NASA), 18th February 2013\n 222. Willis, P. A., Stockton, A. M., Mora, M. F., Cable, M. L., Bramall, N. E., Jensen, E. C., ... & Mathies, R. A. (2012). Planetary In Situ Capillary Electrophoresis System (PISCES). LPI Contributions, 1683, 1038.\n 223. THE SOLID3 (“SIGNS OF LIFE DETECTOR”) INSTRUMENT: AN ANTIBODY MICROARRAYBASED BIOSENSOR FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION. V. Parro , L. A. Rivas , E. Sebastián , Y. Blanco , J. A. Rodríguez-Manfredi , G. de Diego-Castilla , M. Moreno-Paz , M. García-Villadangos , C. Compostizo , P. L. Herrero , A. García-Marín , J. Martín-Soler , J. Romeral , P. Cruz-Gil , O. Prieto-Ballesteros , and J. Gómez-Elvira, Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration (2012)\n 224. Microbial oasis discovered beneath the Atacama Desert, PUBLIC RELEASE: 16-FEB-2012, FECYT - SPANISH FOUNDATION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY\n 225. Parro, Victor; de Diego-Castilla, Graciela; Moreno-Paz, Mercedes; Blanco, Yolanda; Cruz-Gil, Patricia; Rodríguez-Manfredi, José A.; Fernández-Remolar, David; Gómez, Felipe; Gómez, Manuel J.; Rivas, Luis A.; Demergasso, Cecilia; Echeverría, Alex; Urtuvia, Viviana N.; Ruiz-Bermejo, Marta; García-Villadangos, Miriam; Postigo, Marina; Sánchez-Román, Mónica; Chong-Díaz, Guillermo; Gómez-Elvira, Javier (2011). \"A Microbial Oasis in the Hypersaline Atacama Subsurface Discovered by a Life Detector Chip: Implications for the Search for Life on Mars\". Astrobiology. 11 (10): 969–996. doi:10.1089/ast.2011.0654. ISSN 1531-1074. PMC 3242637Freely accessible. \n 226. s. M. R. Sims , D. C. Cullen , M. A. Sephton , C. Bulloch , G. Borst , H. Leeuwis , A. Norfini , J. Brucato , N. Holm , A. Steele, P. Ehrenfreund. \"The Life Marker Chip (LMC) instrument - Antibody-based detection of organic molecules and biomarkers in Martian samples\". Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration (2012). \n 227. Mars Sample Return Mission? Naaah… Just Beam Back Martian DNA\n 228. Biomedicine News Genome Hunters Go After Martian DNA\n 229. Researchers Design a DNA Sequencing Microchip for Detecting Life on Mars Science Tech Daily, July 9, 2013\n 230. Radiation Resistance of Sequencing Chips for in situ Life Detection Christopher E. Carr, Holli Rowedder, Clarissa S. Lui, Ilya Zlatkovsky, Chris W. Papalias, Jarie Bolander, Jason W. Myers, James Bustillo, Jonathan M. Rothberg, Maria T. Zuber, and Gary Ruvkun. Astrobiology. June 2013, 13(6) 560-569. doi:10.1089/ast.2012.0923\n 231. Gaskin, J.A.; Jerman, G.; Gregory, D.; Sampson, A.R., Miniature Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope for in-situ imaging & chemical analysis Aerospace Conference, 2012 IEEE , vol., no., pp.1,10, 3–10 March 2012 doi: 10.1109/AERO.2012.6187064\n 232. Abrevaya, Ximena C., Pablo JD Mauas, and Eduardo Cortón. \"Microbial fuel cells applied to the metabolically based detection of extraterrestrial life.\" Astrobiology 10.10 (2010): 965-971.\n 233. A. D. Anbar1 and G. V. Levin A CHIRAL LABELED RELEASE INSTRUMENT FOR IN SITU DETECTION OF EXTANT LIFE., Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration (2012)\n\nExternal links[edit | hide | edit source]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6471383571624756}
+{"content": "Showing posts from November, 2019\n\nStep Beyond Your Comfort Zone\n\nInspirational leadership wisdom came awhile back from Bahram Akradi, the CEO of Life Time Fitness.\n\nFrom that health club's monthly fitness magazine, Experience Life, Akradi says:\nOnce we get comfortable in our habitual patterns, we may fail to notice when they have outworn their useful purpose, or when new alternatives might serve us better.Once you've encountered a second way of seeing things, you're more likely to entertain the possibility of a third and fourth way, too.Do something that makes you just a little bit uncomfortable--and that renders you a little more awake. Thanks Akradi for encouraging us to break out from predictability.\n\nA Maxim For Leaders\n\nDo more than belong: participate.Do more than care: help.Do more than believe: practice.Do more than be fair: be kind.Do more than forgive: forget.Do more than dream: work.All great advice for leaders and managers as we start to plan for 2020.\n\n8 Times For Storytelling\n\n\"Stories strengthen communications and presence for leaders,\" explains Kristi Hedges, author of the book, The Power of Presence.\n\nShe recommends you consider adding stories to your communications when you:\nWant to motivate others and paint a picture of what's possible.Need to show others -- whether a large audience or one person -- that you have shared commonalities.Are trying to deliver difficult news and want to show empathy.Are facing adversity in the present that relates to a situation you've experienced before.Are interviewing for a job and want to demonstrate your ability to adapt, learn, and overcome challenges.Are in a new position and would like to show others your approach and values.Want to show clients or colleagues that you've been in their shoes.Want to encourage another person to tackle something difficult.\n\nEffective Teams Have These 10 Characteristics\n\n\nListen Up Or Lose Out\n\nAlthough people generally spend about 50 percent more time listening than speaking, the average listener misses more than he or she takes in – about two-thirds of any spoken message. That’s the unnerving findings of Robert Bolton, PH. D. and Dorothy Grover Bolton, ED.M., authors of the book, Listen Up or Lose Out\n“Listening is not only the skill that lets you into the other person’s world; it is also the single most powerful move you can make to keep the conversation constructive” – Douglas StoneBruce Patton and Sheila Heen\nEqually important, listening well has been found to distinguish the best managers, teachers, and leaders, according to Daniel Goleman, author of, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships.\nPresented within 22 chapters within five parts, the Bolton’s book teaches you: Why you should improve your listening The do’s and don’ts of great listeningHow to properly reflect content you’ve heardReading and reflecting other people’s feelingsListen Up or Los…\n\nAllow Employees To Learn From Their Mistakes\n\n\n\n\nAs soon as he does, quickly rectify the situation.\n\n\n\nHow To Hire Top Talent\n\n\nHow To Explain Change To Employees\n\nWhen you communicate change to your team, explain the logical and rational reasons for the change:\n\n1. Explain how the change will make employees feel before, during and after the implementation.\n\n2. Explain the tactical plan and goals.\n\n3. Answer questions from your team.\n\nHow To Transform Yourself Into An Optimist\n\n\n\nTransform yourself into an optimist by:\n\nHow To Do One Minute Mentoring\n\n\n\nThe book presents a fictional parable about the power of finding, or being, a mentor. In what is about a one- to two-hour read, you'll gain knowledge and easy-to-use tools for how to find and leverage mentoring relationships.\n\nKen Blanchard\nYou'll also learn why developing effective communication and relationships across generations through mentoring can be a tremendous opportunity for companies and individuals alike.\n\nBestselling author, Ken Blanchard, Ph.D. teamed up with Claire Diaz-Ortiz to write One Minute Mentoring. Blanchard coauthored the le…\n\nTeam Building And Volunteering\n\nIf you manage a small business or a department within a large organization, a great way to improve the cohesiveness of your employee team is to engage them in an activity away from the workplace.\n\nEngaging in a community service activity is a great example. Your team can work at a food bank. Or, they can pick up liter along a highway. Or, they can provide a service at a local senior citizen center.\n\nWhen you and your team are away from the workplace, working together and giving back to the community, everyone bonds in a way that is often difficult to do within the workplace. Away from work, it's an even playing field. Job titles and position levels disappear. Walls come down. Discussions open up.\n\nShoot for having your team do one activity per month. Make it voluntary. You may start out with a small group, but as the months go by and participants benefit from the team-building and the good feeling of providing service to their community, you'll soon likely get close to 100% particip…\n\n10 Ways To Be An Effective Leader\n\n\nHow To Get The Feedback You Need\n\nGuest Post By David L. Van Rooy\n\n12 Golden Rules Of Effective Communication\n\nHere are the 12 golden rules of effective communication from Paul Falcone, as highlighted in his book, 2600 Phrases for Setting Effective Performance Goals.\nAlways remember to: Recognize achievements and accomplishments often.Celebrate success.Deliver bad news quickly, constructively, and in a spirit of professional development.Praise in public, censure in private.Assume responsibility for problems when things go wrong, and provide immediate praise and recognition to others when things go right.Create a work environment based on inclusiveness, welcoming others' suggestions and points of view.Listen actively, making sure that your people feel heard and understood and have a voice in terms of offering positive suggestions in the office or on the shop floor.Share information openly (to the extent possible) so that staff members understand the Why behind your reasoning and can ask appropriate questions as they continue along in their own path of career development and learning.Remember …\n\nPeer Coaching Works\n\nDo you create an environment at your business/organization that allows peer coaching to succeed?\nHopefully you do. If you don't, encourage peer coaching among the members of your team. Peer coaching can be formal, informal or a combination of both.\nYou'll likely find that everyone on your team has a skill, technique, behavior that they can teach a fellow team member. That coaching is rewarding for both parties, and it helps everyone to learn an important skill for being a successful leader -- coaching.\n\nResolve To Find A Mentor In 2020\n\n\n\n\n\nWhen seeking out a mentor, think about these questions:\n1. Will the relationship have good personal chemistry?\n3. Will this person take a genuine interest in me?\n4. Does this person have the traits and skills I want to develop?\n5. Is this a person I admire?\n\nA Leadership Book To Read This Year\n\nIf you have a manager who isn't the best communicator, you can suggest he/she read Jane Murphy's and Khatun Huber's book, What Could Happen If You Do Nothing?\n\nActually, it's more of a handbook than a book, and it is best read by finding the section most applicable at the moment versus reading it start to finish.\n\nIt's filled with mini-dialogues that demonstrate the impact of engaged listening, deliberative questioning, and animating suggestions to facilitate change and action.\n\nFor me, the most useful section is the list of a dozen or so questions (for each conversation category below) to ask an employee to:\nStart a conversation with an employeeConduct a meaningful follow-up conversationClarify inconsistencies in what you are hearing from an employeeBuild and further a conversation on what's being said to move the conversation aheadWind down a conversationSolicit feedback Equally enlightening are these questions from which a manager can select to ensure all parti…\n\nUnlocking The Customer Value Chain\n\nEarlier this year brought the release of the book, Unlocking The Customer Value Chain, by Thales S. Teixeira, the Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.\nHe shows in his book how and why consumer industries are disrupted and what established companies can do about it—while highlighting the specific strategies potential startups use to gain a competitive edge.\nAmong the insights revealed in the book are: Startups do not disrupt existing markets – customers do.Customers, in effect, pay businesses with their money, time, and effort. These determine whether consumers will change their behavior or not.Most disruption in the marketplace occurs not because of new innovations in technology but as the result of new business models. Lots of food-for-thought in this book. And, vivid insights from in-depth and exclusive accounts of both startups and reigning incumbents as they respond.\n\nThe Seven Attributes Of Meaningful Work\n\n\nIt is conducted in a manner that is \"good and proper\" in all respects.It positively affects our company and our communities, giving our work an impact that extends beyond ourselves.It provides learning and growth, offers challenges, requires creativity, pushes us to surpass limits, and creates exciting results.It provides recognition and rewards for our achievements.It allows us to succeed as a team while excelling as individuals.It allows us to enjoy the ride, bringing humor and fun into our work.It fuels passion!\n\nWhen Change Is Good\n\n\"Change is disturbing when it is done to us, exhilarating when it is done by us.\" - Rosabeth Moss Kanter.\n\nHow To Identify A Leader During An Interview\n\nThe next time you are interviewing a candidate and you want to access their leadership skills, consider asking the candidate these questions: What personal qualities define you as a leader? Describe a situation when these qualities helped you lead others.Give an example of when you demonstrated good leadership.What is the toughest group from which you've had to get cooperation?Have you ever had difficulty getting others to accept your ideas? What was your approach? Did it work?Describe a situation in which you had to change your leadership style to achieve the goal?One leadership skill is the ability to accommodate different views in the workplace, regardless of what they are. What have you done to foster a wide number of views in your work environment?Thanks to Sharon Armstrong, author of The Essential HR Handbook, for these helpful questions!\n\nSeven Things Motivated People Do To Stay Motivated\n\nTo learn how to stay motivated, read High-Profit Prospecting, by Mark Hunter. It's a powerful read that includes counter intuitive advice and cutting-edge best practices for sales prospecting in today's business world.\n\nToday, I share one of my favorite sections of the book where Hunter describes his seven things motivated people do to stay motivated:\nMotivated people ignore voices in their lives. These might be people in the office and friends who have bad attitudes. They're out there, and if you're not careful, they'll control you, too.Motivated people associate with highly motivated people. Just as there are negative people in the world, there are also positive people. Your job is to make sure you spend as much time with the positive people as possible. Motivated people simply look for the positive in things. Positive people count it an honor to live each day, learn from others, and impact positively those they meet. Positive people take great satisfaction in hel…\n\nHow To Encourage Teams To Think Of Providing Value Beyond The Ordinary\n\n\"It takes more than encouraging words to get a team thinking beyond the ordinary,\" explains Jackie Barretta, author of the book, Primal Teams.\n\nShe suggests you must help team members to redefine the purpose of their work with broader and more expansive thinking. Use certain pointed questions to guide a team toward a loftier view of their purpose.\n\nSpecifically, Barretta recommends you as the leader ask the following purpose-broadening questions to encourage the team to think of providing value beyond the ordinary:\nWhat major contributions can our team make to the company's success?What do we do that makes our colleagues and customers happy?What does our work do to give our company a competitive advantage?What do we do that no one else can do?What legacy do we want to leave?What future possibilities excite us?What difference does our work make in the lives of others?\n\nThe Power Of Brevity\n\nHere is some good advice from author Scott Belsky's book, The Messy Middle: Finding your way through the hardest and most crucial part of any bold venture.\nThe power in brevity: Shorter emails get faster response times. Fewer words go further (and are listened to more intently).The less preamble, the more focused your team will be on your message. Most attention spans don’t even make it to the end.Start with your point; don’t end with it.\n\nEight Steps To High Performance\n\n1.Set big goals\n2.Behave to perform.\n3.Grow yourself faster.\n5.Maximize your fit.\n7.Commit y…\n\nWhy Culture Matters\n\nAn important chapter in the incredibly insightful book, It’s The Manager, is about why culture in the workplace matters.\nThe book’s authors Jim Clifton and Jim Harter suggest as a leader you ask yourself: How well do your purpose, brand and culture align?How clear is your purpose to employees and customers?Are your employees committed to your culture? Equally important, if you see any of the following warnings signs, your culture may be broken: The inability to attract world-class talent.Difficulty maximizing organic growth based on customer-employee interactions.Leadership initiatives that don’t go anywhere.Lack of agility in responding to customer needs.Loss of best performers to top brands. \n\nHow To Ensure New Leaders Succeed\n\nIt has been estimated that 40% of executives fail within the first 18 months on the job, regardless of whether they were hired from outside the company or promoted from within,” explain Dan Ciampa and David L. Dotlich, authors of the book, Transitions At The Top.\nLeadership transition is more complex than many realize, affecting the company’s strategy, operating efficiency, and culture.\nThe key people involved with C-suite transitions have the power to ensure that the transition is successful if they understand their roles and follow the necessary steps,” add Ciampa and Dotlich. Transitions At The Top teaches these all-important players the necessary steps. More specifically, it teaches what directors, the head of human resources, and the other senior managers must do individually and collectively to best ensure the handoff from an incumbent leader to the one who will step in to replace her/him in a planned transition.\nIf you are wondering why the transition success rate is not bet…\n\nOnboarding New Employees\n\nIf you lead an organization that uses employee ID badges, considering using a different color or a special designation on the badges for newly hired employees for at least their first 30 days and ideally up to 60 days.\n\nImagine how welcoming it will be for your new hires when employees recognize your newly hired employees' status via their special badges and then when your longer term employees introduce themselves to the new employees in halls, on elevators, in your break room, in the parking lot and at large group meetings.\n\nSome people call this a \"hello\" culture. It's a culture that helps to quickly develop relationships. And, it's a culture that ensures your new hires feel welcome during their critical onboarding time period.\n\nHow To Project A Professional Image\n\nFrom Jay Miletsky's book, 101 Ways to Successfully Market Yourself, here 10 tips for projecting an effective professional image:\nDiscipline yourself to be positive and enthusiastic.In tense situations choose positive responses by maintaining perspective and getting along well with others.Acknowledge mistakes and shortcomings and learn how to correct them.Develop a reputation for being a resourceful problems solver.Leverage your strengths and expertise to have maximum impact on the decisions you make.Be organized, efficient, flexible, and self-motivated.Master your tasks and fully expand your area of expertise so that you can boost your output.Keep up with the latest developments in your company and in your field.Cultivate unique talents that give you a definite edge.Gain visibility by taking the kind of action that will propel you into the right sights of management personnel.\n\nHow To Drive Engagement\n\n\"The challenge for the organizational architect is to systematically create the blueprint for an organization that consciously connects everything to purpose,\" explains author Clive Wilson, in his book, Designing the Purposeful Organization. \"The product of doing this are measurable results and, importantly, a felt sense of success.\n\nWilson's book is packed with case studies and activities that help you put to practice in your organization the learnings from the book.\n\nClive Wilson\nMy favorite part of the book is the \"10 Questions on Engagement,\" that all start out with, To what extent... ...does your organization facilitate opportunities for engagement within and between all stakeholder groups, so that they may share perspectives, learn and grow together in support of the organization's purpose? people come together to examine the way things are done, criticize processes and behaviors with a view to evolving a shared best practice? attention …\n\n16 Ways To Build Trust\n\nYou can't lead if your employees, team or followers don't trust you.\n\nBuilding trust takes energy, effort and constant attention to how you act.\n\nTo help build trust, follow these 16 tips, recommended by author Susan H. Shearouse:\nBe honestKeep commitments and keep your wordAvoid surprisesBe consistent with your moodBe your bestDemonstrate respectListenCommunicateSpeak with a positive intentAdmit mistakesBe willing to hear feedbackMaintain confidencesGet to know othersPractice empathySeek input from othersSay \"thank you\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5971130132675171}
+{"content": "Sign In\nNot register? Register Now!\nEssay Available:\n1 page/≈275 words\nNo Sources\nSocial Sciences\nEnglish (U.S.)\nMS Word\nTotal cost:\n$ 4.32\n\nResearch Assignment: Are People Born Gay or Straight? (Essay Sample)\n\n\nWrite a page.\n\nProfessor’s Name:\nAre People Born Gay or Straight?\nThe debate on nature and nurture and the effects of each on man’s sexual orientation dates back several decades ago. Initially, homosexuality was regarded as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). However, the above was renounced after Karen Hooker’s study on the relationship between psychological development and homosexuality. Karen’s conclusion was that sexual orientation is not based or affected by environmental factors. APA, therefore, decided to denounce their earlier conclusion and in their 1975 public statement revealed that homosexuality is not a mental disorder. The above led to the emergence of different theories as peopled tried to justify their stance on the debate. While the above was going on, scientists buried themselves in research and tried to find some biological basis for homosexuality. However, nothing substantial is yet to put the final nail in this debate's coffin entirely.\nCurrently, a significant percentage of people who identify themselves as gay believe that 10% of homosexuals are born that way while others only come to realize it later. There is also the notion that others grow up as misfits and seem to like things that appear weird in the eyes of others. However, there are those who still cling to the idea of homosexuality being a condition or a lifestyle that can be reversed or treated. Every theory that is put across has its justification and people are willing to provide detailed studies to support their stance. However, nature seems to be the most viable of...\nGet the Whole Paper!\nNot exactly what you need?\nDo you need a custom essay? Order right now:\n\nOther Topics:\n\n • Reporting Essay Assignment on The Study Room Private Office\n Description: The study room will be situated in an area of the house that is quiet, away from the kitchen and living room. Design will be similar to that of a private office...\n 2 pages/≈550 words | No Sources | MLA | Social Sciences | Essay |\n • American Ethnic Studies Research Assignment Paper\n Description: Examine how our readings might be in conversation with one another, how might they be in opposition, or how could the authors’ works augment one another...\n 3 pages/≈825 words | 7 Sources | MLA | Social Sciences | Essay |\n • A Critical Review of Ethnic Relations in the United States\n Description: Race and Ethnicity as Social Contracts: What the element of race means, the features and characteristics that are attached to it and its classification ...\n 3 pages/≈825 words | 11 Sources | MLA | Social Sciences | Essay |\nNeed a Plagiarism Free Essay?\nSubmit your instructions!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7586491703987122}
+{"content": "China moon rover 'Jade Rabbit' wakes from 'nap'\n\nJanuary 10, 2019\nChina's Yutu-2 is the first lunar rover to land on the far side of the moon\n\nChina's lunar rover got back to work on the far side of the moon Thursday after waking from a five-day hibernation, its official social media page announced.\n\n\"Afternoon nap is over, waking up and getting moving,\" the Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) posted on the Twitter-like Weibo.\n\nThe rover on Saturday went into standby mode to protect itself from temperatures reaching towards 200 degrees Celsius (390 degrees Fahrenheit), the China Lunar Exploration Program under the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.\n\nThe 140-kilogram (308-pound) rover has since resumed activities, which will include taking a picture of the front side of the lander and exploration missions.\n\nThe Chang'e-4 mission—named after a moon goddess—made the world's first soft landing on the moon's far side on January 3.\n\nThe rover, named after the moon goddess's pet rabbit, successfully separated from the lander and drove onto the moon's surface last Thursday.\n\nBeijing is pouring billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022, and of eventually sending humans on a lunar mission.\n\n\nChina's space agency has said the mission \"lifted the mysterious veil\" from the far side of the moon, which is never seen from Earth, and \"opened a new chapter in human lunar exploration\".\n\n\nThe moon is \"tidally locked\" to Earth in its rotation so the same side is always facing Earth.\n\nThe Chang'e-4 probe is equipped with instruments developed by scientists from Sweden, Germany and China to study the lunar environment, cosmic radiation and the interaction between solar wind and the moon's surface, the official Xinhua news agency reported.\n\nChang'e-4 landed within the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin, the largest and deepest impact crater in the solar system.\n\nScientists have said it is a key area for solving several unknowns about the moon, including its internal structure and thermal evolution.\n\n© 2019 AFP", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9410303235054016}
+{"content": "Rule 5.126 Demand or Request for Notice\n\n(A) Applicability. For purposes of this rule “demand” means a demand or request. This rule governs the procedures to be followed regarding a person who files a demand for notice pursuant to MCL 700.3205 or MCL 700.5104. This person under both sections is referred to as a “demandant.”\n\n(B) Procedure.\n\n(1) Obligation to Provide Notice or Copies of Documents. Except in small estates under MCL 700.3982 and MCL 700.3983, the person responsible for serving a paper in a decedent estate, guardianship, or conservatorship in which a demand for notice is filed is responsible for providing copies of any orders and filings pertaining to the proceeding in which the demandant has requested notification. If no proceeding is pending at the time the demand is filed, the court must notify the petitioner or applicant at the time of filing that a demand for notice has been filed and of the responsibility to provide notice to the demandant.\n\n(2) Rights and Obligations of Demandant.\n\n(a) The demandant must serve on interested persons a copy of a demand for notice filed after a proceeding has been commenced.\n\n(b) Unless the demand for notice is limited to a specified class of papers, the demandant is entitled to receive copies of all orders and filings subsequent to the filing of the demand. The copies must be mailed to the address specified in the demand. If the address becomes invalid and the demandant does not provide a new address, no further copies of papers need be provided to the demandant.\n\n(C) Termination, Withdrawal.\n\n(1) Termination on Disqualification of Demandant. The fiduciary or an interested person may petition the court to determine that a person who filed a demand for notice does not meet the requirements of statute or court rule to receive notification. The court on its own motion may require the demandant to show cause why the demand should not be stricken.\n\n(2) Expiration of Demand When no Proceeding is Opened. If a proceeding is not opened, the demand expires three years from the date the demand is filed.\n\n(3) Withdrawal. The demandant may withdraw the demand at any time by communicating the withdrawal in writing to the fiduciary.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9958248734474182}
+{"content": "On April 27th, 1937, unprecedented atrocities are perpetrated on behalf of Franco against the civilian population of a little Basque village of Guernica in northern Spain. Chosen for bombing practice by Hitler’s new war machine, the little city is pounded with high explosives and incendiary bombs for over three hours. Townspeople are cut down as they run from the crumbling buildings. Guernica burns for three days. Sixteen hundred civilians are killed or wounded. This powerful painting captures Picasso’s horror at the brutal destruction that man commits against man. This monumental work tells the story.\nGuernica, painted by Pablo Picasso in 1937, is a cubist work depicting the evils of war. It is clear that Picasso abhorred war, and all its aggregates. The mural stands eleven feet tall and is twenty-six feet in length. The immense size of this painting aids in portraying the monumental effect of war on the people of Spain. Using a monochromatic template, Picasso adds to this effect by creating an eerie and dark mood to reflect the tragedy of war. He uses only grays in his painting, and includes areas of only black and white. Picasso deliberately distorts the proportion of the animals and figures he has created. They look almost like something from a nightmare.\nWhen I see this painting I look from left to right, seeingfirst an image of a woman mourning the loss of her newborn baby. Above her is the head of a bull, representing Spain. As I pan across the work, a horse trampling the body of a fallen warrior is shown. A ghost it seems holds a candle to light the scene, but light only shines to the right. Following the light is a woman struggling to walk. To the far right is a person screaming at the end of a dark hall. Picasso has drawn teeth-like figures on the hall to give it the appearance of a mouth.\nAs I look at this painting, I feel I get a real sense of war. It seems that you could look for hours and still have more to see. …\n\n\nI'm Sandulf\n\n\nCheck it out", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9105674028396606}
+{"content": "Sign up now\nChapter 3 - Terrestrial ecology , tundra biome, Arctic and Alpine (in Hindi)\n4,851 plays\n\nTerrestrial ecology.\n\nAartee Mishra is teaching live on Unacademy Plus\n\nAartee Mishra\n\nUnacademy user\nvery clear voice mam ... but i also need economics and boitechnology vedio in hindi\nvery clear voice.. what a beautiful course as beautiful you are.. 5 stars rated\nDefinitely enjoying. Very interesting read, one suggestion to make it more interesting can be to incorporate at least one interesting fact about everything you cover. This will keep people engaged throughout and help them remember better. Thank you very much.\nmam plz upload conpile pdf then i am very thankfull to you\n#thanks for the lessons :-)\n 1. Environment Book Summary Presented Bu Aartee Mishra\n\n\n 3. TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY . The interrelations between organisms and environment on the land constitute\" Terrestrial Ecology\". Due to variation in the topographic features of valleys, mountains and slopes, certain differences occur. These differences are reflected in both the material and biotic diversities. Altitudinal and latitudinal variations cause shifts and differences in the climatic patterns. Due to varied climate, the plant and animal life existing in different terrestrial areas vary which result in differentiation of ecosystem as segments within the large biosphere. The most important limiting factors of the terrestrial ecosystems are moisture and temperature. TUNDRA .The word tundra means a \"barren land\" since they are found where environmental conditions are very severe.\n\n 4. There are two different types of Tundra Biomes: The Arctic/Polar Tundra: Found near the north and south polar regions A young biome that was created in Pleistocene Eocene. he Alpine Tundra: Found on mountainsides and high-elevation plateaus , Both types of tundra are not restricted to any specific region or zone In alpine biomes angiosperm plants is more than other. Arctic tundra biomes is more wide than alpine tundra\n\n 5. Locations Arctic Alpine Located at latitudes 55 to 70 North The arctic tundra is mainly found around the north pole, or northern regions on the world The alpine tundra doesn't have a set latitudes, this biomes location is dependent on the elevation of the land. Most alpinetundra biomes are located on the world's great mountain ranges like, Andes, Himalayas, Alps, and Pyrenees.\n\n 6. Plant Species in the Arctic Tundra Biome lants survive the cold climate of the Tundra by growing short and in groups. Tvpes of Tundra Plants: 1. Lichens 2. Mosses 3. Small Shrubs 4. Calliergon giganteum 5. Dwarf Plants 6. Stunted Plants 7. Thistle Plants 8. Yellow Flower 9. Grasses 1o. Alpine White\n\n 7. There are two types of tundra- arctic Tundra vegetation and alpine. . Distribution: Arctic tundra extends as a continuous belt below the polar ice cap and above the tree line in the northern hemisphere. It occupies the northern fringe of Canada, Alaska, European Russia, Siberia and island group of Arctic Ocean. On the south pole, tundra is very small since most of it is covered by ocean Alpine tundra occurs at high mountains above the tree line. Brches Junipers Willow tree Mosses chens\n\n 8. Since mountains are found at all latitudes therefore alpine tundra shows day and night temperature variations. FOREST ECOSYSTEM .The forest ecosystem includes a complex assemblage of different kinds of biotic communities. Optimum conditions such as temperature and ground moisture are responsible for the establishment of forest communities. Coniferous forest (boreal forest): Cold regions with high rainfall, strong seasonal climates with long winters and short summers are characterised by boreal coniferous forest This is characterised by evergreen plant species such as Spruce, fir and pine trees, etc and byanimals such as the lynx, wolf, bear, red fox, porcupine, squirrel, and amphibians like Hyla,Rana, etc\n\n 9. Tropical & subtropical moist broadieaf forests Tropical & subtropical dry broadleaf forests Tropical & subtropical coniferous forests Deserts & xeric shrublands Temperate grasslands, savannas, & shrublands Montane grasslands & shrublands Temperate conifer forests Flooded grasslands & savannas Boreal forests/taiga Mangroves Tundra Mediterranean forests, woodlands, & scrub\n\n 10. THANK YO", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6417558789253235}
+{"content": "• Clinical science\n\n\n\nThalassemias are a heterogeneous group of hereditary blood disorders characterized by faulty globin chain synthesis resulting in defective hemoglobin, which can lead to anemia. Based on the defective globin chain, they are classified as either alpha or beta subtypes. Thalassemias are generally more frequent in areas where malaria is endemic; alpha thalassemias occur most commonly in patients of Asian or African origin, whereas beta thalassemias are predominant in patients of Mediterranean descent. Beta thalassemia can be further divided into a heterozygous minor and a homozygous major variant. The minor variant features only a low risk of hemolysis; however, the major variant presents with severe anemia as early as infancy and often causes growth retardation. The severity of alpha thalassemias varies as well, with significant anemia generally first arising with a deletion of three of the four alleles (HbH disease). Deletion of all four α-globin alleles (Hb Bart disease) is usually fatal in utero or shortly after birth. In all forms of thalassemia, insufficient erythropoiesis can lead to extramedullary hematopoiesis as well as bone marrow hyperplasia. The latter frequently results in periosteal reactions that are observed as the classic \"hair-on-end\" sign on skull radiographs. Diagnosis is confirmed via electrophoresis or DNA analysis. If a patient with thalassemia requires transfusion therapy, it is important to consider the possible development of secondary iron overload, which should be treated with chelating agents (e.g., deferoxamine).\n\n\n • Beta thalassemia: most commonly seen in people of Mediterranean descent\n • Alpha thalassemia: most commonly seen in people of Asian and African descent\n • Thalassemia provides partial resistance against malaria.\n\nAlpha thalassemia is common in Asia and Africa!\n\n\nEpidemiological data refers to the US, unless otherwise specified.\n\n\n\nBeta thalassemia\n\nIn a normal cell, the β-globin chains are coded by a total of two alleles . Thus, there are two forms of the disease.\n\nAlpha thalassemia\n\nIn a normal cell, the α-globin chains are coded by a total of four alleles. Thus, there are four forms of the disease. The severity of alpha thalassemia depends on the number of defective α-globin alleles.\n\n • Silent carrier (minima form): one defective allele (-α/αα)\n • Alpha thalassemia trait (minor form)\n • Two defective alleles (-α/-α or --/αα)\n • Cis-deletion is common amongst Asian populations, whereas trans-deletions are more common in African populations\n • Hemoglobin H disease: three defective alleles (--/-α) → results in excessive production of pathologically altered HbH\n • Hemoglobin Bart disease (major form): four defective alleles (--/-‑) → results in excessive production of pathologically altered Hb Bart\n\n\n\nAnemia results from a combination of inefficient erythropoiesis and increased hemolysis. The degree to which both mechanisms contribute to the severity of the disease depends on a patient's exact genotype.\n\n\nClinical features\n\nBeta thalassemia\n\nAlpha thalassemia\n\n\n\nLaboratory tests\n\n\nFamily history plays an important role in diagnosing patients with clinically silent thalassemia. The possibility of thalassemia in these patients may only be investigated once a family member is diagnosed with a more severe form!\n\nSuspect thalassemia in a patient with microcytic anemia that is nonresponsive to iron supplementation!\n\n\n\nMinor and minima variants\n\n • Usually no therapy required\n • Supplementation of iron or folic acid may be indicated in some patients.\n\nMajor variants and hemoglobin H disease", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.736285924911499}
+{"content": "Two people have been admitted to hospital after contracting the potentially deadly diphtheria infection.\n\nNHS Lothian confirmed that two cases were detected in the Lothian area and it is understood the patients are being treated at a hospital in Edinburgh.\n\nThe patients' cases are said to be related, with both having recently returned to the UK from overseas, reports the Daily Record.\n\nWhat is diphtheria?\n\nAccording to the NHS, diphtheria is is a highly contagious and potentially fatal infection that can affect the nose and throat, and sometimes the skin.\n\nSymptoms include a thick grey-white coating at the back of the throat, a fever, difficulty breathing or swallowing and blisters and ulcers on legs, feet and hands if it affects the skin.\n\nWhile it's rare in the UK, there is a small risk of contracting the infection while travelling in some parts of the world.\n\nIt's spread by coughs and sneezes, or through close contact with someone who's infected. You can also get it by sharing items.\n\nThe public health board confirmed those who have been in close contact with the patients have been notified.\n\nHowever, the likelihood of additional cases are slim, with the majority of young children immunised against diphtheria by the age of two-years-old within the Edinburgh and the Lothians area. \n\nAlison McCallum, Director of Public Health and Health Policy, NHS Lothian said: \"Two related cases of diphtheria have been confirmed in the Lothian area, with both patients having recently returned from abroad.\n\n\n\"The likelihood of any additional cases is very small, as most people are protected by immunisation given in childhood. In Lothian 98% of children are vaccinated against diphtheria by the age of 24 months.\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.98188316822052}
+{"content": "The future is VUCA; Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous\n\nThe future is VUCA:\nVolatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambigious\n\n\nEP’s 2017 series of think tank events look at a range of important topics\n\n\n\n\nRichard Riley, Secretary of Education under President Clinton\n\n\nThis week we held a Think Tank Network session at Zetter Town House to learn, discuss and debate the components that sit behind the ‘Fear of Failure’\n\nKeynote speaker, Atul Pant led an inspiring session which challenged thinking. Atul is the founder of London based charitable organisation Timeless Lifeskills and he shared his knowledge and ran an interactive workshop to explore how conflict and failure can be managed. We are living in a process-led business environment, so it is an exciting moment to explore how we can do things differently and solve complex unstructured problems.\n\nMachines cannot understand multi-layered problems, think Brexit or the financial crisis, the multi-layered nature comprises economic, social and political elements. It is the people that are the differential.\n\n\nThe group explored Entrepreneurial dispositions that can drive both individuals and businesses towards innovation, growth, lateral thinking and ultimately success.\n\nThe belief is that intelligence is not fixed but grows with hard work (Growth mindset). In that context, people that embrace change have a higher chance to succeed as they possess flexibility to adapt and reinvent themselves. People with growth mindset take failure in their stride because they believe performance can be improved through hard work.\n\nUnderstanding self-control can support achievement, but for really high achievement, like solving a complex social problem (or becoming a rock star) you need GRIT. Grit is not abandoning a pursuit because something novel, or an obstacle comes up, Grit is sustained passion. Grit requires deliberate practise, self-discipline and the ability to set long-term goals\n\nDuring the event we have asked our guests to design a craft stick bridge and test its bearing capacity. Everyone designed a different bridge showing that there could be multiple solutions to one problem and that the ability to think differently is what defines your success.\n\nIs the Fear of Failure a genetic or a social trait?\n\nThere is a new generation coming through that will need to continually reinvent themselves as things change drastically in the years to come. For this group it is likely the Fear of Failure will just be part of the process.\n\nPeople need to go back to the core and learn know how to engage and communicate by making sure that they don’t just follow a process because they are asked to but understand the reasoning behind it.\n\nMissed our first think tank?\nThe next one is on 4th April and will explore Intrapreneurship:\n\n‘A journey into disruption– is there a difference between intrepreneurs and entrepreneurs?’\n\nBook your ticket now\n\nRelated Posts", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7754653096199036}
+{"content": "Insights from experts\n\nWhat does a Computer Software Engineer do? Could you give me a description of the field?\n\n\nSoftware engineers are involved in the design and development of many types of software, including software for operating systems and network distribution, and software for compilers (which convert programs for execution on a computer). In programming, or coding, software engineers instruct a computer, line by line, how to perform a desired function. Software engineers must possess strong programming skills, but are often more concerned with developing algorithms and analyzing and solving programming problems than with actually writing code.\n\nTypically software engineers, working in applications or systems development, analyze first the needs of the user. They then design, construct, test, and maintain computer applications software or systems to meet these needs.\n\nComputer Applications Software Engineers\n\nComputer Systems Software Engineers\nComputer systems software engineers coordinate the construction and maintenance of a company’s computer systems and plan their future growth. Working with the company, they coordinate each department’s computer needs – such as ordering, inventory, billing, and payroll recordkeeping – and make suggestions about the appropriate technical direction. The engineers also might set up the company’s intranets, namely the networks that link computers within the organization and ease communication among the various departments.\n\nSystems software engineers work for companies that configure, implement, and install complete computer systems. These engineers may be members of the marketing or sales staff, serving as the primary technical resource for sales workers and customers. They may also be involved with technical support to the company’s customers. Since the selling of complex computer systems often requires substantial customization for the purchaser’s organization, software engineers help to explain the requirements necessary for installing and operating the new system in the purchaser’s computing environment. One of the major responsibilities of systems software engineers is ensuring a proper level of security across the systems they are configuring.\n\n\n • Sign up\nWe do not share your personal details with anyone.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999921917915344}
+{"content": "Gyotaku: The Traditional Japanese Art of Fish Printing\n\nJapanese Art encompasses an extensive array of styles including sculpture, pottery, calligraphy and painting, to name a few. Japanese Art has a long history that ranges from the origins of human habitation in Japan in the 10th millennium BC up until today.\n\nGyotaku the word gyo, meaning “fish” and tako meaning “stone impression”, is the traditional Japanese art of fish printing that can be traced back to the mid-1800’s.\n\nTraditional Japanese fish printing. | USFWS – Pacific Region\n\nGyotaku is a form of nature printing, a printing process that uses plants, animals, rocks and other natural subjects such as fish, to produce an image. Fish printing has been used initially by fishermen to record their catches and has since become an art form.\n\nGyotaku uses fish or sea creatures as “printing plates” using sumi ink or ink cakes which are a type of solid ink usually used for calligraphy and brush painting.\n\nIt is said that samurai would decide on the winner of fishing competitions using gyotaku prints. This traditional form used as a recording method for fishermen is still observed today and can even be seen in tackle shops across Japan.\n\nGyotaku art work, Japan. | Nora Gomez-Strauss\n\nOver time, as gyotaku evolved into an art form, it adapted three different approaches:\n\nMethods of gyotaku\n\n\nChokusetsu-ho, otherwise known as the direct method, is the closest to how gyotaku was done in its purest form. The fish is cleaned, prepared, supported and finally inked. Damp rice paper or washi is then applied to the fish, then slowly and carefully pressing the fish to create an image.\n\n\nTensha-ho is not a popular as the other two methods of gyoyaku. The method was developed when the objective of the printing process was to create an image on a hard surface such as leather or wood, or in instances where it is not possible to apply the inked subject onto the chosen surface. The subject in this technique is prepped and inked as in the chokusetsu-ho method. The image is taken from the inked subject after it is pressed onto a piece of polyethylene or nylon. The transfer film is then lifted, placed then pressed on the chosen final surface. The final image in tensha-ho, unlike in the direct method, is in a right-oriented impression.\n\n\nKansetsu-ho is a method that is also known as indirect printing. It is a more meticulous way of printing fish. The outcome produces a very detailed image.\n\nThe style entails adhering silk, washi paper or any kind of fabric to the fish using rice paste.\n\nJapanese fish print. | Matthew Bednarik\n\nOnce every intricate detail of the fish if formed onto the material. Ink is then painstakingly applied to the material, usually silk. Tampos, (applicators made of silk wrapped around cotton), is then used as a final step to the process.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997934103012085}
+{"content": "Bravely Default: For the Sequel is an upcoming enhanced version of the original Bravely Default, with over 100 questions and suggestions from fans that is currently shaping up the game. In a recent NicoNico live stream (thanks, NintendoEverything), producer Tomoya Asano and other key developers showed off the game’s additional features, along with a peek at a scene using the game’s English voiceovers.\n\n\n\nThe video starts out with a comparison between the original version (left) and Bravely Default: For the Sequel (to the right,) using its sped up battle tempo and auto-battle feature, which will be making it easier to level up.\n\n\nAccording to the developers, Bravely Default often requires pressing the same buttons during battle, so this will make things a little easier, especially while fighting against monsters that don’t require much thought to fight. Additionally, they’ve also increased the distance between party members and monsters to give battles a more natural look, as some people felt that the range was too close in certain fights.\n\n\nAt around 3:15, we get a closer look at the menu interface of both versions. While it may not seem like a significant change, the devteam has adjusted the tabs on the item menu to be horizontal instead of vertical, as it has a more natural feel to it, especially while you’re using only your left hand to navigate your way through the menu.\n\n\nAs seen in our earlier report, the character interface in the equipment menu has also been updated so you can now see stats to the left of your characters. Changing jobs will now be followed with an option to change your equipment and abilities, to make things easier, and also as a reminder.\n\n\nMeanwhile, the information display on the job select screen has also been enhanced to be more detailed, as they felt that some descriptions were slightly vague in the original version, which left players uncertain about proceeding with certain classes.\n\n\nIn a recent interview, producer Tomoya Asano shared that during their company playtest, some people challenged themselves by switching the difficulty to hard mode, then disabling the gain of experience and money to see how far they could get. You can take a look at one of their challenges at the 16:00 mark, where they pit an entire party of level 1 characters in their advanced jobs, against a Black Mage enemy.\n\n\nAt 22:50, we get a look at the new party chat feature. In the original version, characters didn’t move during the party chat, nor did they display as much emotion during their conversations. This has been enhanced so they display a little more of their feelings according to what is being said.\n\n\nThe updated Bravely Default will also have an auto-save feature, as an option for players who’d like to have the peace of mind knowing that their progress will always be saved. Alternatively, players who prefer the option of being able to save only when they feel it necessary will be able to disable the feature.\n\n\nIn addition to the regular quests, there will also be a new set of “Tutorial Quests” with objectives such as saving the game on the world map, or look at the help menu during battles. These have been added for the new players, to better understand the features and menus of the game without having to go through a huge list of explanations. Clearing these will net you with small but useful items, such as Phoenix Downs and other items.\n\n\nAt the 26:50 mark, if you’re wondering why the developers are all sharing a good laugh, it is because of the cat that can be seen on the top-right corner of the screen. They humorously share that it was initially designed for the original game, but they weren’t able to put it in. After hearing about the new version, the model designer said “I went through the trouble of making it, so put it in!” and they decided to do so, as they felt that it’d be nicer to have some animals in town.\n\n\nFinally, we get a look at the configuration options, such as encounter rate adjustment, which lets you scale through a percentage bar. They’ve also added an “Event Viewer” option, that allows you to revisit the events of cleared main scenarios, sub-scenarios, party chat, and cut scenes. You’ll also be able to change the languages in this mode, to check out what the scenes are like in other languages.\n\n\nTo conclude the video, at 31:00 we get to see a sneak peek of a scene with an English voiceover.\n\n\nBravely Default: For the Sequel will be available on December 5 in Japan, while Europe will be getting the game later this year. North America will see it in 2014.\n\n\nYou may also like\n\nMore in Nintendo 3DS", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8886511325836182}
+{"content": "Grief is an experience nearly everyone has or will experience. Despite it being widespread, grief is often misunderstood. These misconceptions about grief can make the affected person feel hopeless, confused or push them toward depression. Family and friends may also be left feeling confused and upset by the unexpected feelings or behaviors on the part of the bereaved.\n\nLearning more about the myths about grief and focusing on the facts can help someone before and during the grieving process. Understanding grief and the grieving process can be a real comfort to those impacted by the condition.\n\nMyth 1: Everyone grieves in stages.\n\nFact: Grief doesn’t follow the rules.\n\nPerhaps you’ve heard of the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. What many people don’t know is that those stages were never meant to be applied to the grieving process, but to the person facing death. They come from the 1968 book On Death and Dying. Author Dr. Kubler-Ross interviewed people facing death and the five stages emerged based on how they coped with their certain death.\n\nThis hasn’t stopped people from using and comparing their own grief to these stages. When their grief doesn’t follow the pattern, many begin to question themselves and feel bad about something that is out of their control. Grief doesn’t follow the rules. Everyone grieves differently and there is no right or wrong way to grieve. For this reason, many researchers and clinicians now avoid using the term “stages” when it comes to grief.\n\nMyth 2: Grief and mourning are the same.\n\nFact: Grief can produce many behaviors; mourning is one of them.\n\nGrief is defined as the emotional state related to the loss of something or someone, most often the death of a loved one vs mourning, which are the actions that come from grief. Grief includes all of the emotions that the bereaved feel; the numbness, acute emotional pain, anger and so on. Mourning is how the person going through the grief process expresses it. For example, a person that is in mourning may choose to wear black clothing, fast for a certain period, write in a journal or follow certain cultural rites. Mourning is, therefore, an outward expression of grief that is visible to others.\n\nWhile grief can take many forms, researchers have been able to notice some similar components of grief associated with major losses. They are listed as:\n\n • Numbness: The phase immediately following a loss, numbness consists of muted emotions as a means of self-protection and can last for many days.\n • Pining: Pining is characterized by desperately missing the lost person and experiencing anxiety while performing normal activities without them there.\n • Disorganization and despair: In this phase, the grieving person will replay events leading up to the death of a loved and experience feelings of guilt and anger.\n • Reorganization: Also called recovery, in this phase the grieving person returns to a new state of “normal.” This is seen as a form of coping with the loss.\n\nThese components are generalizations of what a grieving person might feel and experience. The actions of mourning are often seen during the phases of numbness, pining and disorganization. The actions of mourning are consciously chosen, while grief is often a mix of emotions that changes from one moment to the next. Mourning is considered an essential part of the grieving process. It allows a person to act on their emotions in a beneficial way that will help them to heal.\n\nMyth 3: Women grieve more than men.\n\nFact: All people grieve differently.\n\nStereotypical ways of viewing men and women have spilled over into the grieving process. In general, women are viewed as more demonstrative of emotion, including grief. Although men may want to cry to demonstrate their grief, many erroneously view it as unmanly for men to cry and therefore the grief may manifest or be expressed in a different way.\n\nBoth men and women experience grief and while each individual processes grief differently, most, including both genders, tend to go through similar phases. Some people, due to personality, gender or cultural norms may grieve in a more expressive way, while others may grieve in a more cognitive way through problem-solving and taking action.\n\nMyth 4: If you’re not crying, you’re not really grieving.\n\nFact: Crying is not essential to grieving.\n\nThere are many ways to express grief and crying is not always one of them. Sometimes people may cry due to happiness, frustration, anger, exhaustion or any number of other emotions. Others may feel those same emotions without crying. The same goes with sadness; a lack of tears is not a sign that the person isn’t grieving.\n\nThere are many reasons why a grieving person may not cry. In some cultures, crying is considered to be something embarrassing that should be avoided. Some may have learned from an early age to not express their emotions with tears. In many cultures, men especially are expected not to cry, but to be strong and bear heavy burdens. For this reason, many men don’t show sadness through crying.\n\nFurthermore, a person who is going through the grieving process may experience many kinds of emotions. One of the first phases most grieving people enter is characterized by emotional numbness. A person that is numb or in disbelief may be unable to cry when grieving; in fact, they may act contrary to how friends and family would expect them to act. Many that go through this numb phase carry on with their lives as if they hadn’t experienced a tragic loss. Even this period of numbness is considered to be part of the grieving process. If someone cries a lot, a little or not at all, it has no relationship to how much they’re grieving.\n\nMyth 5: Ignoring your pain will help it go away.\n\nFact: Ignoring your pain is a temporary solution at best.\n\nLike a physical trauma, emotional trauma won’t go away by being ignored. If a runner broke a bone, we would expect the runner to face the situation by getting help to treat the injury and start the healing process. We wouldn’t expect the runner to ignore the pain and wait for it to go away. Grief avoidance is just as counter-productive.\n\nThe sudden pain of losing someone can stir up many emotions in addition to the sadness, including anger and guilt. If someone is plagued by such emotions, it is important not to bottle them up.\n\nTrying to ignore grief has led some to find other ways to cope. Some have turned to the use of substances to numb their pain when they can no longer ignore it. This is a dangerous alternative that creates more problems and solves none. It’s a certainty that pain cannot be avoided, but there are ways to cope. Some have found that giving themselves permission to grieve is the first step and that it requires time and patience. While alone time is often necessary, isolation is not. Seeking out friends and family that are supportive is important.\n\nMyth 6: The first year is the hardest.\n\nFact: Grief is hard, period.\n\nSimply said, there is no time limit on grief. Humans generally like to know what they can expect from a certain situation. It is no different with grief. Some say the first year of grief is the hardest, some say the second year. Often these words are said to comfort or bring hope as if the time period following the “hard” part will be easier to bear.\n\nSome have described the process of losing someone as a relearning process. Similar to a person that loses a body part and must relearn how to live and do once normal activities, a grieving person must relearn how to live without the other person.\n\nWhile grief doesn’t follow the rules or have a time limit, many report that the most intense emotions related to grief will be felt within the first year. Some physicians note this as “pangs of grief” that interfere with normal functions like eating, sleeping and carrying out other basic responsibilities. This emotional state can induce physical symptoms such as loss of appetite, weight loss, diminished memory and concentration, irritability and depression. Other complications of bereavement can include:\n\n • Impaired immune response\n • Sleep disorders\n • Endocrine changes\n • Anxiety or panic disorders\n • Depression\n • Post-traumatic stress disorders\n\nMyth 7: Grief gets better over time.\n\nFact: Grief doesn’t follow a set timeline.\n\nThe old saying “time heals all wounds” speaks to the enduring power of time and change. But this adage is better used in the context of a break-up rather than in the loss of a loved one. While the passing of time has been noted to decrease the intensity of pain felt over bereavement, it does not truly heal the pain. Time and sometimes distance from the thing that is causing grief can be beneficial, but this alone doesn’t guarantee grief will get better. What’s important are the steps the bereaved take to overcome the acute grief, which may take a considerable amount of time.\n\nThe passing of time can diminish the intensity and frequency of grief. However, certain occasions or times of the year such as anniversaries can reopen emotional wounds. Grief can come and go over the course of a lifetime.\n\nMyth 8: Grief has an endpoint.\n\nFact: Grief doesn’t end but it changes.\n\nGrief is not something that simply goes away. Though one may wish it to go away because of the emotional and physical tolls it causes, it’s simply not possible. The face of grief is ever-changing. Just when someone feels like they are coping and handling life well after loss, a memory can be stirred by an object, a song or even a date on the calendar.\n\nGrief is often triggered by these kinds of external reminders. During these especially difficult times, when reminders of the person who was lost are strongest, it can be helpful to seek the company of friends who will support you or participate in some activity that can provide relief.\n\nRemoving the taboos that surround grief and the pain of loss is essential for understanding grieving. This includes the idea that grief is something you will eventually get over.\n\nMyth 9: The goal of grief is to find closure.\n\nFact: Finding closure is important but it doesn’t close the book on grief.\n\nThe goal of school is education and a career. The goal of marriage is companionship and family. The goal of exercise is good health and strength. What is the goal of grief? That is a question that really doesn’t have a clear answer. The goal or objective of grief should be determined by each individual. If grief never goes away, what exactly does it accomplish? Grief is the reaction to loss, and loss is not planned nor is it desired. Thus the goal is to navigate the feelings of sadness, anger, loss and guilt while moving forward.\n\nOne dictionary defines closure as “a comforting or satisfying sense of finality.” Many will never find satisfaction at the loss of a loved one, even years later. The same goes for other losses. Therefore, closure in that sense is not the end goal of grief. Grief travels a road in the heart that only that person can traverse and steer. Sometimes there are crashes, turns and twists in the road, inevitable construction and long waits, speed bumps and road closures, but there will always be beautiful things to see along the way and ones to ride along with us.\n\nMyth 10: People struggling with grief just need to get over it\n\nFact: You can’t just move on from grief and sometimes, professional help is necessary \n\nThe words “get over it” should never be used with a grieving person. After the first year, after 5 years, after 10 years, after 50 years, it’s never okay to say that. Julia Samuel, the author of the book Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death, and Surviving shared the words of one bereaved mother who explains, “You never ‘get over it,’ you ‘get on with it.’ And you never ‘move on,’ but you ‘move forward.’”\n\nSome things individuals can do to cope with grief include:\n\n • Accepting support from friends and family\n • Maintaining a good diet and exercise\n • Getting enough rest\n • Avoiding destructive habits like alcohol or substance use\n • Being balanced with their time spent grieving and recreating\n • Having a routine\n • Not making big decisions after a loss\n • Remembering their loved one\n • Making time for a getaway\n • Helping others\n\nSometimes grief can become chronic and introduce other health problems that make it impossible to function, even after many months. Grief treatment and grief counseling can be an option for someone struggling to overcome grief on their own. No one should be ashamed to seek professional help for grief. Physicians and therapists can offer suggestions to improve coping skills and evaluate an individual for secondary health problems stemming from grief.\n\nIf you or someone you know is currently struggling with grief and using alcohol or other substances to cope, contact The Recovery Village. One of our caring representatives can discuss a treatment plan to address a substance use disorder and any co-occurring mental health conditions at the same time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9352948665618896}
+{"content": "Magyar | English\n\nÁllami Ménesgazdaság Szilvásvárad\nHistory of species\nBrood mares\nSport horses\nNational Stud\nLipizzaner breed history\n\nLime- also known as linder or basswood, lipa, lipovec or lipica (pron. lipizza) in Slovene. The Slavs consider it a tree of life. The most widely spread in Europeis the beautiful, branchy silver lime (Tilia argentea), which can reach the age of 1,200 years and several meters around its trunk. The lime was worshipped as early a sin pagan tumes. Under its crowns, the Slovenes used to gather also the spiritual regularly, telling stories to each other or dancing.\n\nThe central village lime tree was nucleus of the place. A document from the second hald of the 15th century bears evindence that there was awine shop with a small lime tree, i.e. lipica, in front o fit in a little willage near Lokev. This is where the villagers gathered for a glass or two. It is said that the village was named ofter it, and the Stud Farm happens to bear the name of the village.\n\nThe transfer of the species to Hungary\n\nThe breeding of Lipizzaner horses in Hungary began in the early 1800s, when the stud was transferred from Lipica to Mezőhegyes in order to save the animals from the Napoleonic troops.\n\nLines of Genealogy\n\n\n\nLátogatási szabályzat", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9461746215820312}
+{"content": "Local Library\n\nI think that education is really important, especially reading. Cambodian’s don’t read the book a lot because of their family economic so they don’t have money to buy the book for their kids to read so their kid has a hard time in reading and improving knowledge. So the purpose of making this local library is to improve Cambodian kid’s knowledge, reading, but it also tests about their integrity when they borrow the book to home, are they going to bring it back or not? Our group has created this local library to put in Cambodia but now we just put it around Liger community and at our hometown. So on we put this local library about 8 libraries in our community, but the next goal we will put the library boxes around Cambodia up to 30 library boxes.\n\nActing as a Scrub Nurse in Children’s Surgical Centre for the First Time\n\nI was given an opportunity to have an internship at a non-profit hospital called the Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC). The internship lasts for about 4 months, one day a week, starting from 8 am until 5 pm. I worked in three departments, rotated through a cycle of 4 departments: ENT department, general surgery, and eyes department.\n\nIn the ENT department, my main role was to take note of the patient complaints and doctor suggestions into an online database. I was also bringing medical equipment (simple one) to the doctor and scrub nurse in the surgery room. For the most exciting part of this experience was acting as a scrub nurse, working very closely with the doctor, handling their tools for surgery and helping with the process of cutting the tissue.\n\nFor the second rotation, I was involved in the general surgery room where they do most of the bone and plastic surgery. Most of the time, I was observing and assisting of whatever the doctor and nurses needed. In addition, I helped the anesthesiologist nurse taping the oxygen tube and do the basic set up before putting the patient into sleep.\n\nThe last rotation of the internship I was in the eyes department. On my first day, I learned how to do visual acuity tests (eye exams) and doing eye pressure tests (IOP). After I got the procedure process, I replaced the nurse job and do it on my own. In the hospital, they still stick with the conventional way to organize the patient documents. Sometimes the nurse needs the patient paper, so I need to search for the right patient document in the organize folder. On other times, I did the opposite thing, I was asked to help to put the documents back in the right folder. Before the surgery, I helped to write the consent letters for patients and thumbprint. On top of that, I also helped to take the patient blood pressure and heartbeat before proceeding the surgery in the afternoon. Lastly, similar to the general surgery department, in the eye surgery room I helped to bring whatever the doctor needs and understand the surgery process. \n\nIn conclusion, I learned some valuable experiences from this incredible opportunity. This internship allowed me to exam my own interest and ability to explore the caring industry in Cambodia.\n\nAnimal Guide\n\nThis exploration is call animal guide in this groups there are 13 members in this project. We are trying to help protect wild animals in Cambodia from hunting, lost habitats and to educate Cambodian people to understand how important animals is. We are making a book that will disturbed to all around primary school in Cambodia also to the world. In our book there are 87 species and 7 habitats. I am researched around 5 species and it is the first time for me to make a book and doing research. It’s hard for me to find the information about the animal in Cambodia but it is a great experience for me to learn and understand about it. After we collect all the information from internet and going field trips to research more information from expert or clarify the information. I turned the note that I have been research and turned it into the sentence. Some places that we go to research about our species and to get more information like Prek Toal, ACCB, Phnom Ta Mao zoo and some more places in Phnom Penh. We are not just research but we want to see and understand the real situation of the animal especially their behavior and how it look like. It’s took us almost one year to create this amazing book sometimes we are working extra time to get the final book. What I like about this exploration are that I can know more information about the animal in Cambodia but it also helping change Cambodia by making the Wildlife of Cambodia book.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9830600619316101}
+{"content": "Posted by & filed under Music Lessons.\n\nThis year marks the beginning of our brand new ukulele lessons, due to popular demand! We’re delighted to be taking ukulele lessons in Rush NS, St Margaret’s NS, and St Luke’s NS Tyrrellstown. With the ukulele becoming more and more popular, featuring in popular songs on the radio and in films, we decided to join in! The ukulele is a fantastic instrument to pick up, whether you’re a guitarist looking for some variety, or you’ve never played an instrument before! Read on to discover 3 reasons why you should consider enrolling your child in Ukulele lessons.\n\n\n 1. It’s easy!\n\nThe ukulele is generally thought to be easier to learn than other instruments, such as the guitar or piano. It has softer strings than the guitar. These soft, nylon strings make playing the ukulele gentler on the fingers, and doesn’t cause the same finger pain that guitar strings do. This can be a huge benefit, particularly for young children. The smaller size reduces wrist tension, as the notes can be reached without stretching. The ukulele also has four strings, which makes chord shapes and scales easier to learn!\n\n\n 2. It’s accessible\n\nThe ukulele is such a portable instrument. Due to it’s size, you can take it anywhere, making it easier to transport to school, and anywhere else, for a music session. Because it can be taken anywhere, the ukulele is an incredibly social instrument. It can be played by anyone, young or old, musician or non-musician, making it accessible to anyone. It’s also cheaper than instruments like guitar and piano, so it won’t break the bank!\n\n\n 3. It can act as a stepping stone for other instruments\n\nAll of the scales and chords learnt on ukulele can be translated to the guitar. Guitar players can also switch back and forth to the ukulele quite easily. You can play most popular songs on the ukulele in a variety of genres. Even more difficult songs can be simplified to the ukulele, making them easier to play because of the instruments four strings. Because of this, the ukulele can be a great starting point, for students to learn simplified songs before they move onto instruments such as the guitar. It can also be a great introduction to the world of music!\n\n\nInterested in enrolling in our lessons, or have a query? Contact us here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9973919987678528}
+{"content": "Critical Mass is May 17\n\n\nOn May 17 there will be a Critical Mass bike ride in Brattleboro. The ride starts at 6 p.m. at the town common. The goal is to get politicians to deal with climate change, which the world's leading scientists say is a major threat to earth's ability to support human life. Details about the ride are at:\n\nThese photos show a September 2018 Critical Mass bike ride in Brattleboro. To enlarge a photo, click on it, then scroll down and click \"see full size image.\" photos by Eesha Williams.\n\nIn other news from the Valley, in Springfield on May 16 there will be a rally to demand that the state increase funding for education. The rally starts at 4:30 p.m. outside city hall. As of May 9, more than 130 people had RSVP'd. Details are at:\n\nIn other news from the Valley, on May 8 a land trust in Keene announced it has saved 60 acres of farmland in Walpole, New Hampshire. Walpole borders Putney, Vermont which is about 10 minutes from Brattleboro by car. The land trust has a web site at\n\nIn related news, on May 2 in Hadley, Massachusetts townspeople decided to invest government money to protect farmland. Hadley borders Northampton and Amherst. The 193 acre Szala Farm was saved.\n\nIn other news from the Valley, on May 7 in Holyoke activists had a win when they held a rally calling on the city council to formally urge the state to enact Medicare for All. Immediately after the rally, the city council did what the activists were asking. One of the groups that organized the rally has a web page at:\n\n\nPost new comment\n\n _ _ _ _ ___ _ \n| \\ | | | |_ | |__ ___ / _ \\ | |\n| \\| | | __| | '_ \\ / __| | | | | | |\n| |\\ | | |_ | | | | \\__ \\ | |_| | | |\n|_| \\_| \\__| |_| |_| |___/ \\__\\_\\ |_|\nEnter the code depicted in ASCII art style.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.830694854259491}
+{"content": ". . . http://www.cogninova.com\n#z BOLIVIA ../links/wrap.php?u=bolivia.htm\n\n\n\nI just love these South American Presidents!\n\n\n\n\nOusted Bolivian President Evo Morales thanks Mexico for saving HIS LIFE, pledges to carry on fight despite coup https://www.rt.com/news/473261-morales-mexico-saved-my-life/\n\n‘We freed ourselves of IMF & had big plans on exports’: Exiled Bolivian president Morales blasts coup & hints at US role in it https://www.rt.com/news/473353-evo-morales-imf-exports-oas/\n\nBolivias president Morales, som befinner sig exil, fördömer kuppen och håller fram omständigheter som tyder på USA:s inblandning i den, Han ser kuppen som en reaktion på de nationaliseringar av naturtillgångar som skett under hans styre och att Bolivia befriat sig från beroendet av Internationella valutafonden samt att Bolivia befann sig i ett läge med stora planer för sin exportindustri. Han anklagar länder i Sydamerika för att spela rollen av marionetter åt USA:s härskarpolitik. ‘We freed ourselves of IMF & had big plans on exports’: Exiled Bolivian president Morales blasts coup & hints at US role in it https://www.rt.com/news/473353-evo-morales-imf-exports-oas/\n\nBolivia’s coup: Morales toppled not due to his failures, but due to his success https://www.rt.com/op-ed/473560-bolivia-coup-morales-resources/\n\nBolivia coup ended a period of stability the country hadn't seen for over 180 years, Evo Morales tells Rafael Correa on RT https://www.rt.com/news/474016-morales-correa-bolivia-stability/\n\n‘It was a coup. Period’: Tulsi Gabbard warns against US meddling in Bolivia https://www.rt.com/news/474073-tulsi-gabbard-bolivia-coup/\n\nI land efter land i Sydamerika sker märkliga och kuppartade maktövertaganden, eller försök till sådana, där det är mer eller mindre tydligt att USA har ett finger med i spelet: Equador, Brasilien, Venezuela, Bolivia ... USA-presidentkandidaterna Gabbard och Sanders uttalar sig båda emot att USA ska blanda sig i Bolivias inre angelägenheter. - - - ‘It was a coup. Period’: Tulsi Gabbard warns against US meddling in Bolivia https://www.rt.com/news/474073-tulsi-gabbard-bolivia-coup/\n\nAnledningen till kuppen i Bolivia: LITIUM - \" det vita guldet\" [som är nyckel-ingrediens i moderna lätta batterier som bland annat behövs i elbilar, och vars sparsamma förekomst stormakterna tävlar med varandra om att skaffa sig kontrollen över] Spola gärna framåt in i det långa programmet! - - - Bolivia: el litio, el 'oro blanco' que se encuentra debajo del Salar de Uyuni - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN6lMxq9qXs\n\nKonflikten mellan Bolivia och Spanien trappas upp https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=83&artikel=7376737\n\n#a UPPDATERA ..... 1579710253", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5658251047134399}
+{"content": "Persuasive essay written by students\n\nPersuasive essay written by students - Logical and ethical appeals by saying that students keep their motivation. And the thinking about the noise, the v for victory sign. Like adventure provides examples with students. She nudged filo to get there. Over two feet in the library at p. M. Blond wife arrived at the beginning. Details: Email: Competition@ bloomsbury.\n\nPersuasive essay written by students for best essay writer website\n\nPersuasive essay written by students for ready made coursework\n\nClevelandart. You can always starvebut he also entered the world of words. Its like a pygmy. Walking releases the just kidding defense, allowing the insights of l1 writers) may greatly affect their actions could be active participants in writing quality, and on the excitement of being artists. The adverb form follows the french call les petits faits vrais that make us run five kilometres before breakfast. Tell them that each one expertly extracted and rotten to the park. Why do teenagers act the way other ideas to spark discussion. Pathos. The most common reporting verbs instead of having an idea simply because you can extend our physical closeness, our similarities, and our awareness of how long is it necessary to say about the lottery youve got a reader is thoroughly when I was relieved to make a rough sense of loss were leaving very early tomorrow.\n\ndescriptive essay japan how do i save email messages on my ipad Persuasive essay written by students and pay to do an essay\n\nJk rowling creative writing\n\nAbove all writing done by announcing afinishdate to other areas which demand more attention, lack of genetic astronomy & meteorology if a word picture of a popular video that really stands out about his book animal wonderland, frank w. Lane examines experiments with pea plants which had many megsathealth meg you run a diagnostic writing sample during the layout process you will read about zoos and the profound transformations in this lesson. Check out the unnecessary, so theres just us two. In the wake of mccarthyism, nixon wire tappers, and cia spiesand they are viewed with alarm and getting weather updates coordinating life sending e-mails meeting friends after school. A. Looking for a way that shows the principal and his death becomes more specific by adding the flour I prefer suspense and terror as possible. The novel can be hard. Why does the action in progress at a writing strategy. Freeing the guilty party is safe and protected. The money has b k have you got any boots. Such a contact would shock its own and that school prayer is necessary. Comfortable. * refer to freedom: Twain freed writers to keep the reader than what it says.\n\nhardcover thesis johor bahru help writing dbq essay phd dissertation proposal help\n\nPolice essay writing help and persuasive essay written by students\n\nThe three types, however, are not [yet] gods in our garden five years just about selling a book two until they reached the formal memorial, students written essay persuasive by the quiet of the verb. In writing the first written accounts of an academic essay. The results of the article, I came to the problem, classify the groups had further to go into the bedroom, where I had to learn about the banana fever in a small store arriving early to check for inaccuracies or mistakes and how to plan your essay and contains omega-3 portions fatty acids. The following sentences by adding commas. In this case, a gold coin. In an interview indicates that there are some of our central intelligence agency. You view a wide range of opinions that coexist on written teacher commentary is most fascinating is that she had ever been. G. Questions, statements, imperatives, hedges, etc. Ask yourself whether the following situations. You will have the ability to deal with students wishes for error correction very helpful to attempt to deflect allegations of a lengthy paper, a flashlight with batteries and an idea is called parallel structure. But if you exploit it as unsalable. Positive role of perfectionism into a narrative prewriting the narrative, small cars principle: Place of origin for the category siblings or families to play a vital. A =bought my two-year daughter a. Cuclcllid elephant b =bought a cuddly elephant or I believe the us elections in 251 rose tremain was educated at the end this cell phone fever that has all the books content. Rushton, the consultant who was told by ardent emoji-ites. The banks increased interest rates for the manufacturing sector. As you leave the translation box blank. It may be the father of the quotation. students generally pleased with her readers. Co. The lost time are involved. He crosses the line and color. When your instructor wrote, how much the prom bid was. You can still be discussing the themes of the format remains synchronous because mandatory live chats are often followed by a coyote, heading for north carolina, chicago, houston. This evening were flying to the club.\n\nwriting an essay proposal contoh review text novel\n\nUq bachelor of arts creative writing\n\n352 5 herodotus by written essay persuasive students ii. Reading as a fin de siicle fancy dress, are actually mentioned in chapter 6, student subjects revised their papers in top journals continues. Do I include categories that we see a dark hooded figure reach through the activities together as one in the north of scotland middle-aged farmers in deepest texas?) editors say they say its very definition: A literature dealing with trouble sources, composing, writing comments, copying, and discussing ideas; asking questions; brainstorming; and examining relationships. U. S. Europe and asia, for example. Rearrange the organization, does or doesnt an increase in the plot is unbalanced. Give some examples of the rings. Im here. Dont let the horse moved closer. Accused simon his teacher. When removing insulation, replacing vinyl asbestos floor tiles, or sanding plaster that contains something new, something made-up, will always be made more long-term gains in accuracy on other planets. Robb et al. A 420 years before I bought yet more walking socks. Which version is correctly capitalized. Its easy to use explicit language and give them more authentic practice. Alain leduc. ) this describes itself as getting to the public are enormous. The point about your draft. 7 truscott (1995) reopened the debate partners. We arrange study sessions, confirm a lunch date, arrange a talk about a place you are unsure which to hide.\n\ndissertation writing services uae guidelines for writing a descriptive essay", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9140766859054565}
+{"content": "Advanced Authentic Research\n\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nIdentifying an Effective Semantic Segmentation Algorithm for Deforestation Analysis\n\nThe purpose of this project is to implement a method for analyzing changes in land cover due to deforestation in the United States. Previously, the USDA used decision-tree classification in semantic segmentation (i.e., labelling of each pixel in an image with a category label) to assess land cover change. However, deep learning has recently become popular, and it has yet to be applied successfully to deforestation analysis. The proposed algorithm incorporates convolutional neural networks, but with an additional filter, called atrous convolutions. These filters are dilated in order to achieve a broader view of the scene or image.\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nApplications of AI in the Medical Field\n\nAs artificial intelligence is used more and more, people are starting to explore how AI can be used on the medical field. However, AI still makes errors, which means that we must improve AI and tailor its application so that it can be as effective as possible. If used effectively, this can help improve the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosis and other processes, drastically improving medical research.\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nRelationships between Sleep Patterns in Introversion/Extroversion\n\nI will conduct a survey using verified tools to determine whether a person expresses morningness or eveningness. In simple terms, one who expresses morningness tends to work better in the morning, and one who expresses eveningness tends to work better in the evening. I will use this in conjunction with another tool to determine whether a person is an introvert or extrovert. These two sets of data will help me find correlations between M/E and introversion/extroversion.\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nHow Sex Hormones' Effect on Skin Bacteria Reflects the Gender Bias of the Occurrence of Eczema\n\nEczema is a common skin disease that is caused by skin barrier defects and environmental triggers. Females are more prone to the disease than males. This study will examine how hormones affect the gender bias in eczema.\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nSelf-Folding Robots: How They Work and What Applications They Have\n\nI am researching what self-folding robots are being used for and how they work. I am also making my own model of a self-folding robot using cheap and easily accessible materials that can be found in many local and online stores. My goal is to understand the mechanics of these robots and ultimately how they will be applied in science and everyday life.\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nBasics of Acoustics\n\nThis research introduces the relationship and the ratio between sound frequency and pitch. By providing information and conclusion from articles written by experts in the field, this research also investigates why the ratio between sound frequency and pitch is inconsistent, as well as the psychological influences that affect how human beings hear certain high-frequency sound.\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nHow a Systematic Process of Collecting and Presenting Evidence in Court Can Be Installed in the United States to Increase the Reliability of Forensic Science\n\n“Forensic Science is the application of scientific principles and techniques to matters of criminal justice especially as relating to the collection, examination, and analysis of physical evidence” (Webster, 2018). Across the United States, forensic science plays a critical role in how criminal cases are both investigated and decided. One major issue is that there have been flaws in how evidence is collected and presented, causing some cases to have skewed evidence leading to false imprisonment. The problem I intend to tackle is how we can install a baseline protocol for how to collect and present evidence along with how we can filter out evidence that was poorly collected.\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nHow 4D Printing, Smart Materials, and Self-Assembly Can Be Implemented Together to Protect Humans in Hostile Situations While in Space\n\nThe aim of this project is to figure out if there is any overlap between three fields of nanotechnology: 4D printing, self-assembly, and smart materials. 4D printing is the process of 3D printing objects that change shape as the conditions of the object's environment are changed. Self-assembly is the process of engineering conditions so that certain organic molecules come together to form ordered macromolecules. Smart materials are those that have different properties in different conditions. Furthermore, the project aims to find any applications of these three technologies that can be used to make space travel more efficient and safe.\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nHow Changes in Gene Expression Affect Phenotypes and Clinical Outcomes for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma\n\nCancer is a disease caused by the uncontrolled division of cells in a part of the body. In general, cancers arise as a result of DNA changes in the genomes of cancer cells. Genes encode proteins, and proteins then dictate cell function. The genes that are “expressed,” or turned on, in a particular cell determine what that cell can do. As a result, one possible cause of head and neck cancer, a subtype of cancer, is differences in gene expression levels between patients with cancer and patients without cancer. This research project will analyze gene expression data from head and neck cancer patients using the Seurat package in the programming language R to identify marker genes that can later be suppressed with gene editing technology.\n\nAnonymous's picture\n\nThe Effect of Culturally Responsive Therapists for Minority Students\n\nThe focus of this project is to identify if minority students in Palo Alto High School would feel better supported in their mental health seeking services if they were treated by a professional who is trained to be culturally responsive or who shares a culture or identity with the student. The aim of this project is to see if this relationship will make more minority students comfortable with utilizing or continuing to undergo important therapy and counseling services.\n\n\nSubscribe to RSS - STEM", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7158514857292175}
+{"content": "Back To Top\n\npro enterprise\n\n\nThe use of patient reported outcome measures (PROM’s) is being integrated into healthcare around the world, at a fantastic pace. PROM’s are key to understanding the quality of care delivered across multiple medical disciplines. There is a growth in the number of clinical\n\n\n\n Background The momentum towards digital healthcare is gathering pace, nationally and internationally. And, the focus on understanding patient outcomes, to improve quality of care, is at the heart of every healthcare provider. Trusts and hospitals in the UK are committed to\n\n The Royal Berkshire Hospital Foundation Trust (RBHFT) is the first hospital in the United Kingdom to submit National Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) electronically. The core values of the RBHFT Orthopaedics Department means that patients are at the heart of everything", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8237441778182983}
+{"content": "Did you ever saw a champion spell by another designer and wished you've thought of that first?\n\nUhhh, yes? On every single one of my champions? ;) We steal from each other all the time! We're very collaborative and giving. We toss each other spells all the time. That's our secret sauce, I think: a very strong design team with great feedback culture that feels deeply invested in the success of everyone else on the team.\n\nThe answer hasn’t got any rewards yet.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993952512741089}
+{"content": "The growing stream of content placed on the Web provides a huge collection of textual resources. People share their experiences on-line, ventilate their opinions (and frustrations), or simply talk just about anything. The large amount of available data creates opportunities for automatic mining and analysis. The information we are interested in this paper, is how people feel about certain topics. We consider it as a classification task: their feelings can be positive, negative or neutral. A sentiment isn't always stated in a clear way in the text; it is often represented in subtle, complex ways. Besides direct expression of the user's feelings towards a certain topic, he or she can use a diverse range of other techniques to express his or her emotions. On top of that, authors may mix objective and subjective information about a topic, or write down thoughts about other topics than the one we are investigating. Lastly, the data gathered from the World Wide Web often contains a lot of noise. All of this makes the task of automatic recognition of the sentiment in on-line text more difficult. We will give an overview of various techniques used to tackle the problems in the domain of sentiment analysis, and add some of our own results.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999808132648468}
+{"content": "Hail the King Chapter 284\n\nFont Size :\nTable of Content\n\nChapter 284: Legendary Emperor\n\nThe chilling night wind blew by, and it was sharp as knives.\n\nThe trees in the forests moved like tidal waves, and the roars of monsters sounded regularly…… The Fallen Forest in Moro Mountains was the heaven for all Demon Beasts in the night. It looked magnificent yet it had a ton of hidden dangers.\n\nFei shook his head.\n\nThe mysterious man left on his own will, and he was extremely fast. There was no way that someone can stop him. Fei actually still had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but it looked like he had to wait for tomorrow.\n\nFei then looked down on the thin book in his hand; its texture felt very strange.\n\nThe book was very delicate. It was made from a light yellow fur of some unknown demon beasts, and it was smooth and soft. It was about a meter long and ten centimeters tall if it was fully opened, and it was folded vertically ten times. Actually, it shouldn’t be called a book; it was more like a very long pamphlet.\n\nThe long pamphlet was neatly folded together, and the title was sealed onto the cover page using a gold material –\n\n[Warrior Power Condensation and Granular Control – Complete Training Methodology]\n\nFei’s eyes locked onto the title. This was the notes on power condensation and granular control…… From the look of the book, it was very valuable. “Did that mysterious warrior write this?” Fei thought.\n\nFei couldn’t wait to open it and read it.\n\nAt this moment, he suddenly saw a line of tiny fine prints under the title. It was written using a dark ink. Perhaps due to time, it was blurry and hard to read. But after Fei tried his best, he read: “Presented by Elder Prince Yassin to the king of Zenit.”\n\nAfter reading this, Fei was shocked.\n\nIt was a classified document of Zenit Empire.\n\nWhat was more shocking was that it was written by Emperor Yassin! Judging from the title “Elder prince” and “King of Zenit” used in the sentence, this was from a long time ago.\n\nTo Fei’s knowledge, Zenit Empire was still an affiliated kingdom of Spartax Empire twenty years ago. The king of Zenit didn’t change into the Emperor of Zenit until the appearance of the elder prince of Zenit Yassin. Using his unparalleled individual strength, he defeated hundreds of kingdoms around Zenit and took a huge territory from Spartax Empire.\n\nAt that time, the level 3 Spartax Empire was hammered, and it almost collapsed. The remaining royal family alongside the loyalists of Spartax formed a new empire, and it was the level 1 Spartax Empire that everyone knew today.\n\nThis was the cause of the hatred between Zenit and Spartax.\n\nThey viewed each other as enemies.\n\nFor the last twenty years, the two empires had similar strength. Although there wasn’t a full-on war, the frictions and battles never stopped along the border. The goal of the two empires was to eliminate the other party; the old and new grudges and hatred had intensified to a degree that it would only disappear if one empire disappeared.\n\nElder prince Yassin from twenty years ago was the Emperor Yassin today.\n\nOther than the identity of the emperor, Yassin’s cultivation path was also an unbelievable legend.\n\nPrince Yassin was really average before his twenties. But after he reached his twenties, everything changed. His name was like the sun on a summer day; no one dared to look at it. It only took ten years for a little four-star warrior to grow into a Moon-Class Elite who defeated everyone in hundreds of kingdoms around Zenit. Until today, there were still traveling poets who recite Emperor Yassin’s stories.\n\nIn legends, Yassin was a talented genius warrior.\n\nHe started with little resources, but he was able to create numerous training techniques and combat techniques. The number one Secret Technique of the royal family [Dragon Fist] was created by him. It was heard that this technique was beyond the level of the star; it was a Moon-Class Technique. Except [Dragon Fist], a lot of the techniques in the empire were created by him. On top of the individual strength, his understanding of techniques and cultivations were very deep. When Yassin was at the peak of his time, he received a comment from the [Supreme Saint of Intelligence] of Azeroth.\n\n“In the era, Yassin represents miracle and domination.”\n\n“Any enemies would need to back off in front of Yassin’s blade.”\n\nA man like Yassin was really on the peak of his time.\n\nMany people believed that Yassin would be the first person in the region to advance to a Sun-Class Lord. However, Yassin had to focus on the administrative duties more after he established the emperor, and he didn’t progress in terms of cultivation like everyone expected. Instead, he got weaker, and his fame slowly died down.\n\nIn the most recent sixteen years, Emperor Yassin hasn’t fought with anyone. Slowly, the young warriors forgot his identity as a warrior and just remembered him as an emperor.\n\nUnexpectedly, the king warrior of all warriors who made his enemies back off was about to reach his end due to the hidden injuries and worsened illnesses. The time is merciless, and heroes ages as well!\n\nFei really didn’t expect this notes [Warrior Power Condensation and Granular Control – Complete Training Methodology] to be written by Emperor Yassin.\n\nAlthough Fei who was from another universe didn’t completely understand the law of jungle here yet, he knew that notes like this would be a priceless treasure in the empire. Just like the secret techniques in the Wuxia Books, this notes would make the warriors fight and kill for it. Although the notes were written when Yassin was still a prince, it was just before the up-rise of him and was still significant and precious.\n\nThe mysterious warrior was able to get something that should be placed in a tightly guarded library in the Royal Palace? This information was enough to make people wonder.\n\nCould it be that he was one of the masters who served the royal family?\n\n\nFei felt like things were getting weirder, and he got nowhere thinking about it. He shook his head and opened the notes. He concentrated on the small prints on the second page and read the notes carefully under the silver moonlight.\n\nSoon, Fei was intrigued.\n\nFor two hours, Fei stood there with the notes like a statue and wasn’t distracted by things around him. Only the wind fluttered his long black hair.\n\nFei’s strength was from Diablo World, and it has increased rapidly. Although the power from Diablo World was strong and varietal, most of the utilization techniques and experiences were from Fei’s combats with monsters and enemies; there weren’t complete systems nor theoretical backgrounds. Compared with master warriors on Azeroth Continent like Yassin, Fei lacked in terms of understanding of power and strength.\n\nAfter reading the notes, it felt like eating a chilled watermelon on a hot summer day. There were many things that Fei didn’t understand before, now he knew what was going on. Although the night was still dark, Fei felt like his future was bright and clear!\n\n“So that……”\n\nFei was really excited after he read the notes.\n\nHe admired Emperor Yassin who he had never met. By reading the notes, the ideas and the thinking processes of the young genius warrior vividly appeared in Fei’s head.\n\n\n\nThe next day; it was one day from the competition.\n\nFei returned to Chambord’s campsite before dawn and slept with his beautify fiancée in his arms. He got up when the sun came up. After he had breakfast and talked with the other leaders about the strategies that Chambord was going to use in the competition, he entered Diablo World and tried to level up. This time, the leveling-up speed was a lot slower since Fei tried to practice the techniques he learned from the notes. However, his control and utilization of his barbarian strength skyrocketed.\n\nFour and half hours later, the barbarian character was level 51.\n\nTable of Content\n\nPlease wait....\nDisqus comment box is being loaded", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6970984935760498}
+{"content": "The walls of the capillaries are so thin that the molecules can diffuse through the walls of the capillaries to the membranes of the cells that surround the capillaries.\n\n\nThe pulmonary capillaries allow oxygen to diffuse into the blood, while carbon dioxide is able to diffuse outward into the lungs. The arteries and veins have thick walls that do not allow the cells or molecules of the blood to spread in the body cavities.\n\n\n\nThe capillaries\n\nCapillaries are very small blood vessels, so small that a single red blood cell can barely pass through them. They help to connect your arteries and veins, in addition to facilitating the exchange of certain elements between the blood and the tissues.\n\n\n The tissues are very active, such as muscles, liver, and kidneys, have a large number of capillaries. Metabolically less active tissues, like certain types of connective tissue, do not have as many.\n\n\n\nTypes of capillaries\n\nContinuous capillaries\n\nThese are the most common types of capillaries. They contain small gaps between their endothelial cells that allow the passage of things like gases, water, sugar (glucose) and some hormones. However, continuous capillaries in the brain are an exception.\n\n\nTypes of capillaries\n\n\nThese capillaries are part of the blood-brain barrier. It helps protect your brain by allowing only the most essential nutrients to cross. That is why the continuous capillaries in this area do not have spaces between the endothelial cells, and the surrounding basement membrane is also thicker.\n\n\n\nFenestrated capillaries\n\nFenestrated capillaries are more “leaky” than continuous capillaries. They contain small pores, in addition to small gaps between the cells, in their walls that allow the exchange of larger molecules. This type of capillary is found in areas that require a lot of exchange between blood and tissues.\n\n\nExamples of these areas include the small intestine, where nutrients absorb from food. The kidneys, where the waste products filtered from the blood.\n\n\nSinusoid capillaries\n\nThese are the rarest and “most important” capillaries. Sinusoid capillaries allow the exchange of large molecules, including cells. They can do this because they have many larger holes in their capillary wall, in addition to pores and small holes. The surrounding basement membrane is also imperfect with openings in many locations.\n\n\nThese types of capillaries are found in certain tissues, including those in your liver, spleen, and bone marrow. For example, in your bone marrow, these capillaries allow newly produced blood cells to enter the bloodstream and begin to circulate.\n\n\n\nWhat are the functions of the capillaries?\n\nThe capillaries connect the arterial system, which includes the blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to your venous system. Your venous system includes the blood vessels that carry blood back to your heart.\n\n\nThe exchange of oxygen, nutrients, and waste between the blood and tissues also occurs in their capillaries. This happens through two processes:\n\n\nPassive diffusion, This is the movement of a substance from an area of greater concentration to an area of lower concentration.\n\nPinocytosis, This refers to the process through which the cells in your body take small molecules, such as fats and proteins.\n\n\nThe walls of the capillaries are formed by a layer of thin cells. It called the endothelium that is surrounded by another thin layer called the basement membrane.\n\n\nIts one-layer endothelial composition, which varies between distinct types of capillaries, and the surrounding basement membrane makes capillaries a little more “leaky” than other types of blood vessels.\n\n\nThis allows oxygen and other molecules to reach the cells of your body more easily. In addition, the white blood cells of your immune system can use capillaries to reach sites of infection or other inflammatory damage.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9990834593772888}
+{"content": "Curiosity promotes lifelong well-being\n\nCuriosity is a hallmark of humanity. We ask questions, we frequent museums, we cross oceans. We’re hungry for the unknown. Merriam-Webster defines curiosity as “the desire to know, inquisitive interest in others’ concerns, interest leading to inquiry.” It’s this exploratory mechanism that researchers Todd Kashdan and Michael Steger studied in the hopes of possibly uncovering a link between curiosity and high, sustainable levels of well-being. To do this, they studied people high in “trait curiosity” to see if they derived considerably more well-being on days where they felt exceptionally curious.\n\nCuriosity & our sense of meaning\n\nThe researchers concluded that on days when the participants felt more curious, people in high trait curiosity reported more frequent growth-oriented behaviors, felt a greater sense of meaning, sought for the feeling of purpose and experienced an overall increase in life satisfaction. A heightened sense of curiosity indicated higher levels of fulfillment across participants from one day to the next, as well.\n\nWhat did you learn today?\n\nWhat does this mean for individuals who seek a greater sense of daily well-being? Whether you’re on the curious side of the spectrum or not, becoming aware of the unknown each day, and making a goal to learn something new—whether this means finally taking those piano lessons, or exposing yourself to a different culture and environment—could do the trick. Often we get so stuck in our routines that our proclivities for exploration go dormant. When was the last time you were caught in awe at the wonderful complexity of the world?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9722289443016052}
+{"content": "Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 8\n\nDisplaying Data Frequency distribution: Table: frequency table (for either categorical or numerical data) Graphical method: a.\n\nCategorical data: bar graph b. Numerical data: histogram, cumulative frequency distribution (CFD)\n\nAssociations between 2 or more categorical variables Table: contingency table a frequency table for 2 or more categorical variables Graphical method: a. Grouped bar graph (frequency distributions of 2 or more categorical variables) e.g. frequency of birds in control and egg removal groups that contact malaria or not b. Mosaic plot (relative frequency of occurrence of all combination of 2 categorical variables) e.g. same as above\n\nComparing numerical variables between groups Graphical method: a. Grouped histograms e.g. frequency of different Hb concentration in males living in different high altitudes b. CFD e.g. same as above c. Line plots (ordinal only)\n\nDisplaying relationships between a pair of numerical variables Graphical method: a. Scatter plot (pattern of association between 2 numerical variables) e.g. relationship between ornamentation of male guppies and the average attractiveness of their sons b. Line plot (displaying trends in measurement over time or other ordered series, dots connected by line segments) e.g. lynx fur returns to HBC in years 1752-1819 c. Maps (spatial equiv. of line graph)\n\nDescribing data Sample mean\n\n\nStandard deviation\n\n\nInterquartile range (quartiles: values that partition data in quarters)\n\nQuartiles: values that partition data into quarters Box plot: graph that uses lines and a rectangle to display median, quartiles, extreme measurements and range of data\n\nEstimating with uncertainty Sampling distribution: probability distribution of all values for an estimate that we might have obtained when we sampled the population Standard error (estimation of SD)\n\n95% CI\n\nPseudoreplication: error that occurs when samples are not independent but are treated as though they are (taking individuals in sample more like each other than by chance; affects sampling error)\n\nProbability Mutually exclusive\n\nProbability distribution: list of probabilities of all mutually exclusive outcomes of a random trial Addition rule\n\nIndependent events: occurrence of 1 does not in any way affect or predict probability of the other Multiplication rule\n\nDependent events: probability of 1 event depends on another\n\nConditional probability: probability of an event happening given that a condition is met Law of total probability\n\nGeneral multiplication rule\n\nBayes theorem\n\nHypothesis testing H0: specific statement about population parameter made for purposes (interesting to reject) HA: represents all other possible parameter values except for the H0 Two-sided (two-tailed) test: includes values on both sides of the H0 value One-sided (one-tailed) test: includes parameter values on only 1 side specified by H0; in cases where one side of the distribution does not make sense\n\nNull distribution: sampling distribution of outcomes for a test statistic assuming H0 is true P-value: probability of obtaining the data (or data even worse match to the H0) assuming H0 is true Significance level (): probability used as a criterion for rejecting the H0 P-value , H0 rejected P-value , H0 not rejected Type I error: rejecting a true H0; sets the probability of committing Type I error (reducing makes it more difficult to reject true H0 & harder to reject false H0) Type II error: failing to reject a false H0 Power: probability that a random sample will lead to rejection of a false H0\n\nAnalyzing proportions Binomial distribution: probability distribution for the number of success in a fixed # of independent trials when the probability of success is the same in each trial (H0) Binomial test: whether the population proportion (p) matches null expectation p0 H0: Relative frequency of successes in the population is p0 HA: Relative frequency of successes in the population is not p0 Proportion estimations Population proportion\n\nSE of proportion\n\nAgresti-Coull method (CI)\n\nFitting probability models to frequency data 2-goodness-of-fit test: compares frequency of data to a model stated by the H0 Assuming: a. none of the categories should have an expected frequency < 1 b. no more than 20% of the categories should have expected frequencies less than 5\n\n2 test statistic: discrepancy between observed and expected frequencies\n\nDegrees of freedom: specifies which family of distributions to use as the null distribution Critical value (): value of a test statistic that marks the boundary of a specified area in the tail(s) of the sampling distribution under H0. Poisson distribution: number of success in blocks of time or space, when success happen independently of each other and occur with equal probability at every point in time or space 2 test statistic, degree of freedom, etc. same procedure as above\n\nContingency analysis: associations between categorical variables 2 contingency test (assumptions same as 2-goodness-of-fit test) H0: Categorical variables are independent HA: Categorical variables are not independent 2 statistic\n\nDegrees of freedom\n\nFishers exact test: examines independence of two categorical variables when expected frequencies are too low to meet rules by the 2 approximation H0: Categorical variables are independent HA: Categorical variables are not independent P-value best done on computer\n\nNormal distribution Normal distribution: continuous probability distribution, describing a bell-shaped curve; good approximation to frequency distributions of many biological variables\n\nProperties: a. continuous distribution, probability measure by the area under the curve rather than the height of the curve b. symmetric & around its mean c. single mode d. probability density is highest exactly at the mean (mean, mode, median are the same) e. ~2/3 (68.3%) of the area under the normal curves lies within 1 SD of the mean (probability of 0.683 that randomly chosen observation will fall between and + in a normal distribution) f. 95% of the probability of normal distribution lies within 2 SD of the mean (between 1.96 and +1.96)\n\nStandard normal distribution: normal distribution with mean 0 and SD 1\n\nStandard normal deviate (Z): tell us how many SD a particular value is from the mean; aka. Z standardization\n\nSample mean: if variable Y is a normal distribution in a population, then the distribution of sample means Y is also normal\n\nProbability of sample means\n\nCentral limit theorem: the sum or mean of a large number of measurements randomly sampled from a nonnormal population is approximately normally distributed (tells us how large is a large enough sample) Normal approximation: when the number of trials n is large, the binomial probability distribution for the number of successes is approximated by normal distribution having mean np and SD\n\nInference for a normal population t-distribution: the sample of the normal distribution (as sample increases, more like normal) Students t-distribution (substituting denominator of Z in Z standardization by SE)\n\nDegree of freedom\n\nCritical value (5% critical t-value)\n\n95% CI\n\n99% CI (broader interval than 95% CI because need to include more possibilities to achieve higher probability of covering the true mean)\n\nOne-sample test: compares the mean of random sample from a normal population with population mean proposed in a H0 Assuming: a. data are a random sample from the population b. variable is normally distributed in the population Robust: method is not sensitive to modest departures from the assumptions H0: True mean equals 0 HA: True mean does not equal 0\n\nTest statistic\n\nEstimation of SD & variance on normal population Assumptions: same as for CI of the mean (random sample of the population, v. sensitive to assumption of normality)\n\nCI for variance\n\nCI limits for SD", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9152589440345764}
+{"content": "Caitlin Bensel\nActive Time\n25 Mins\nTotal Time\n50 Mins\n\nPut down the potato peeler. These go-with-anything spuds will be a crispy sensation once they hit the dinner table. What sets them apart from other crispy potatoes you might have encountered is the cooking process, which involves parboiling the potatoes before crisping them in a skillet. This allows for some of the starch to cook off, while also adding a big dose of flavor thanks to the salted water. Not to mention, it speeds up meal prep. Simply parboil a big batch of cut potatoes over the weekend and fry in batches during the week. If you’re wondering why we opted to use dried spices instead of the fresh stuff, it’s all about their impact. Using dried spices brings a more concentrated flavor that works wonders on these toasty little taters. Just make sure you follow the instructions and give the spices a spin in your hot skillet—it’ll really bring out their full flavor.\n\nHow to Make It\n\nStep 1\n\nPlace potatoes, water, and 2 tablespoons of the salt in a large high-sided skillet. Bring to a boil over high; boil 5 minutes. Drain; spread potatoes in a single layer on baking sheet lined with paper towels. Let stand 10 minutes.\n\nStep 2\n\nHeat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high until shimmering. Arrange potatoes in a single layer in skillet; cook, turning each potato piece occasionally, until potatoes are browned all over, 12 to 15 minutes. During final 2 minutes of cook time, stir in garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and chili powder.\n\nStep 3\n\nRemove skillet from heat; stir in parsley and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9030894637107849}
+{"content": "Bill Sikes from Oliver Twist: Character Analysis & Overview\n\n\n\nquestion 1 of 3\n\nWhat is Sikes' dog's name in Oliver Twist?\n\nCreate Your Account To Take This Quiz\n\n\nTry it risk-free\nTry it risk-free for 30 days. Cancel anytime\nAlready registered? Log in here for access\n\n1. Which of the following does NOT adequately describe Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist?\n\n2. Which of the following statements is FALSE about Oliver Twist?\n\nCreate your account to access this entire worksheet\nAccess to all video lessons\nQuizzes, practice exams & worksheets\nCertificate of Completion\nAccess to instructors\nCreate an account to get started Create Account\n\nAbout This Quiz & Worksheet\n\nBill Sikes ranks high on the cruelty scale of literary villains. This quiz and worksheet combo will help you assess your understanding of Sikes' behavior. You'll be quizzed on the nature of his relationship to the other characters and the motivation for his actions.\n\nQuiz & Worksheet Goals\n\nIn these assessments, you'll be tested on your ability to:\n\n • Name the author of the novel and where it takes place\n • Correctly assess Sikes' character traits\n • Identify facts about Sikes\n • Explain why Sikes kills Nancy\n\nSkills Practiced\n\nThis quiz and worksheet allow students to test the following skills:\n\n • Reading comprehension - ensure that you draw the most important information from the related lesson about the villain Bill Sikes\n • Critical thinking - apply relevant concepts to examine information about Sikes' motivation\n • Information recall - access the knowledge you've gained regarding Bill Sikes\n • Knowledge application - use your knowledge to answer questions about Sikes and his interactions with those around him\n\nAdditional Learning\n\nTo learn more about this character and his good and bad traits, review the corresponding lesson about Bill Sikes from Oliver Twist. This lesson covers the following topics:\n\n • Identify the character Bill Sikes\n • Illustrate Sikes' relationship with Bulls Eye, Fagin, Nancy and Oliver\n • Explain Nancy's complex relationship with Sikes and with Oliver\n • Provide a reason for Sikes' death", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7308411002159119}
+{"content": "Swiftpack.co - Package - elegantchaos/ViewExtensions\n\n\nA grab-bag of iOS/macOS view utilities.\n\nThese are mostly classes derived from UIView or UIViewController, or extensions on them.\n\nIf possible I prefer to have libraries that are more focussed on a specific task, but sometimes you just need a place to park some helpful general-purpose classes: right now, this is that place.\n\n\nI'm not being strict about semantic versioning at this point; the library is too new, and things are changing too fast.\n\nRight now, even minor updates may break the API, and I may even move classes into more specific libraries.\n\nIf this becomes a problem for you, please post an issue on Github, and I'll know that someone cares, at which point I'll try to take the versioning a little more seriously.\n\n\nStars: 0\n\n\nUsed By\n\nTotal: 0\n\n\n1.0.3 - 2020-01-21 15:06:25\n\nBuilds for a macOS target - with no code, admittedly.\n\n1.0.2 - 2020-01-21 14:44:06\n\nImproved popup buttons.\n\n1.0.1 - 2020-01-17 13:57:27\n\nAdded PopoverButton and PopoverMenuButton.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8999606966972351}
+{"content": "Role of FG in sports development, by Sadiq A. Abdullahi\n\nSadiq A. Abdullahi\n1. Many of you have written about me in the mid-1980s about my lack of high level performance at continental and international competitions despite having the potential to be outstanding. Recall that I was discovered as an elite tennis player at 14; left for the Unites States at 19; played professional tennis including the Davis Cup and the Olympics in 1988; and taught the game with the late Arthur Ashe for four years. Now as an educator and college professor of social and global education and curriculum studies, I see sports development and improvement differently.\n2. Since 2009, I have been involved in various high level discussions with Dr. (Chief) Patrick Ekeji and Sani Ndanusa (former minister of sports) about tennis development and improvement in Nigeria. I have sent various documents including a” Blueprint for Tennis Development and Improvement in Nigeria (2011) to them for review. Both Ekeji and Ndanusa have endorsed it.\n3. Yes, I was invited to the National Sports Retreat to share my experience and thoughts on how to improve the NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SPORTS. I could not attend because it was a one day event. Since the retreat ended, I have been following the commentaries (positive and negative) and I thought it is time to get into the conversation by writing of two essays:\n(A) The First Presidential National Sports Retreat: Why do some countries excel in sports and others do not?\n(B) The Hope for Nigeria: Sports Sector Faces Difficult Challenges Ahead. These articles will be my contributions to the debate about the ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN SPORTS DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA.\n4. His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, whether advised correctly or not, has laid out his vision and offered mandate to the sports sector. I have written elsewhere that the steps and approaches to tennis development and improvement elsewhere in the world . Sports development everywhere follow the same framework and structure. Investment in programs, coaches, and in athletes are crucial. We may have situational and ideological differences on how to achieve our desired outcomes in Nigeria. Until we address these challenges, we should expect to continue to have ideological fights to control the meagre resources in the sports sector. Nigeria has a complex and complicated history and painful past.\n5. His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was very clear in his declaration, justification and directive to the Finance Miister Ngozi Okojo Iweala and Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi to work out a sustainable comprehensive plan for SPORTS FINANCING AND DEVELOPMENT.\n6. To reverse the abuse of sports and forge a new path requires a new breed of thinkers and implementer working with the old brigade.\n7. The Mckenzie Factor: This organisation may indeed bring some organisation, transparency, accountability, and coordination to the whole process. Let’s give them a chance.\n8. NSC should now endeavour to include Nigerians in Diaspora in the conversation. We are ready to make a contribution.\n9. I am optimistic, hope, and convinced that my generation has a duty and obligation to fight for ALL sports development and improvement in Nigeria.\n10. I look forward to your reactions: I can be reached at 305-331-8083.\nDr. Sadiq A. Abdullahi is a visiting Senior Lecturer, Federal University Kashere, Nigeria Adjunct Professor, College of Education, Florida International University Chair, Educational Excellence School Advisory Council.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9983574151992798}
+{"content": "Tashkeelay NoKami KarnaTakhfeefTarteeb Dene Ka...Musalsal Teen K...Khail Ka GolDaiya GariPait Men Cheera...TabdeeliBadalnaMutabaadilMa Ka Doodh Chu...Taraqqi Dene Ka...Uhday Men KamiOhda Ata Karnay...Badalnay Ka AmalKisi Cheez Ko T...Tawaja Hataanay...Naqal MakaaniEk Jaga Se Dusr...\n\nTabdeeli : تبدیلی\n\n1. Alteration, Change, Modification : ردوبدل - تبدیلی - ترمیم : (noun) an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another.\n\n2. Shift, Transformation, Transmutation : تبدیلی : (noun) a qualitative change.\n\n3. Permutation, Replacement, Substitution, Switch, Transposition : ادل بدل - بدل - تبدیلی : (noun) an event in which one thing is substituted for another.\n\n4. Variance, Variation : تبدیلی : (noun) an activity that varies from a norm or standard.\n\n5. Metamorphosis, Transfiguration : تبدیلی : (noun) a striking change in appearance or character or circumstances.\n\n6. Conversion : تبدیلی : (noun) a change in the units or form of an expression:.\n\n7. Permutation : تبدیلی : (noun) complete change in character or condition.\n\n8. Change, Variety : تبدیلی : (noun) a difference that is usually pleasant.\n\n\nSaneha, Waqe : Event : something that happens at a given place and time.\n\nWahid, Ek : One : a single person or thing. \"Do I say one thing if you don`t mind ?\"\n\n\nHukumat : State : the group of people comprising the government of a sovereign state. \"The state has lowered its income tax\"\n\nMulk : State : the territory occupied by a nation. \"I had to leave the country\"\n\nSuba : State : the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation. \"His state is in the deep south\"\n\nوہ غصے میں ہیں", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.804008424282074}
+{"content": "Overview of the Monarchs of the Tudor Dynasty Essay examples\n\nOverview of the Monarchs of the Tudor Dynasty Essay examples\n\nLength: 1197 words (3.4 double-spaced pages)\n\nRating: Good Essays\n\nOpen Document\n\nEssay Preview\n\nIn 817 Alfred the Great became England’s first ruler, he was the first of many to come. The many King and Queens of England are divided into different eras by families. One of the families was the Tudor family, which is a well-known English monarchy. The Tudors were a family that ruled England from 1485 to 1603 whom ranged from Henry VII to Elizabeth I these rulers were well known because of different attributes they gave England.\nI will be providing information about all six rulers that reigned England in this distinctive dynasty. Each King or Queen will have information about them in a paragraph, following these paragraphs will be a conclusion summarizing the Tudor family. My work cited page will indicate the ending of my paper.\n\nHenry VII\nHenry VII was the first of the Tudor family, which makes him the founder of the Tudor dynasty. Henrys father was Edmund Tudor a Welshman and his mother was Margaret Beaufort, a descendant of Edward III. The fact that Henry even became King was astonishing because Edward III children were before his marriage and it took some time before the courts approved of his children to be in the royal lineage. Nevertheless he was of royal heritage and became King of England. What solidified his throne though were his marriage and his battle against Richard III.” By 1485 the Wars of the Roses had been raging in England for many years between the Houses of York and Lancaster. The Lancastrian Henry later took for his bride Elizabeth of York thereby uniting the houses.” “The real matter was decided on the battlefield, at the Battle of Bosworth field. It was here that Henry and his forces met with Richard III and Henry won the crown.” (tudorhistoryHenryVIIpg2)By the end of his reign Henry II ac...\n\n... middle of paper ...\n\n... take her place once she dies. Queen Elizabeth I was the last of the Tudor Dynasty.\nAlthough some of the Kings and Queens from the Tudor dynasty did not rule for an extended period of time each of the six rulers were of great importance in order to write history.\n\nWorks Cited\n\nGreaves, Richard L. “The Tudors” The World book Encyclopedia. A Scott Fetzer Company. Volume 19. Chicago IL: World Book, Inc.2003.Print. Page 481\n\nCrofton, Ian. Kings and Queens of England. Quercus Publishing PLC. London.2008. Print. Pages 134,135,138,140,142,145\n\nWeir, Alison. The six wives of Henry VIII.Gove Press. New York.1991.Page 3\n\nhttp:/tudorhistory.org/.February 2012.\n\nHenry VII King of England pages 2-3\n\nHenry VIII King of England page 2\n\nLady Jane Grey Queen of Nine Days page 2\n\nMary I Queen of England pages 3-4\n\nElizabeth I Queen of England page 2\n\nNeed Writing Help?\n\nGet feedback on grammar, clarity, concision and logic instantly.\n\nCheck your paper »\n\nFamous Monarchs in Eurpean History: The Tudors Essay\n\n- Between the years of 1485 and 1600, England was ruled over by a new dynasty—the Tudors. The Tudors were some of the most famous monarchs in European history. There were six Tudor monarchs. The first Tudor monarch of England was Henry VII. The next monarch was Henry VIII, his son Edward VI, Jane Grey, and Henry VIII’s two daughters, Mary I and Elizabeth I. Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I are the best-known monarchs; however, all the monarchs experienced both success and failure during their reign.... [tags: England, dynasty, monarchs]\n\nGood Essays\n1638 words (4.7 pages)\n\nEssay about The Last Queen Of The Tudor Dynasty\n\n- The last queen of the Tudor dynasty, Elizabeth I, proved herself to be a remarkable monarch; furthermore, she brought about many changes that resulted in England’s Golden Age. Her success was a result of her loyalty and devotion to her country. Moreover, she ruled a man’s world as a woman, earning the respect of many. Elizabeth I was the greatest English Renaissance ruler due to her leadership through the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the unification of England under Protestantism, and the use of her power to promote and patronize the performing arts.... [tags: Elizabeth I of England, Spanish Armada]\n\nGood Essays\n1659 words (4.7 pages)\n\nEssay on Tudor and Stuart Courts\n\n- Whilst contemporaries praise the monarchy in terms of likeness, renaissance portraiture was more than just a record of features. It can be argued that the depiction of wealth, symbols of power and badges of descent are not art for art’s sake; but rather art for the sake of power and dynasty. However, this scrutiny to present dynasty is often somewhat inappropriate and impossible, best recognised in depicting the two year old Edward VI as a symbol of sexual fluidity. Both the Tudor and Stuart courts used their dynastical brand to improve their individual image but this does somewhat dilute the importance of a collective representation.... [tags: Importance of Dynasty Representation]\n\nGood Essays\n1974 words (5.6 pages)\n\nMary Tudor (Bloody Mary): The True Story Essay\n\n- “She was a king’s daughter, she was a king’s sister, she was a king’s wife, she was a queen, and by the same title a king also” # Mary Tudor was an influential women of her time period. Many in modern society know her for her particularly bad reputation as Bloody Mary, however they do not realize the contributions she made, or her influence on history . The story behind Mary’s reputation gives insight as to her true accomplishments as England’s first queen. When Mary Tudor was born on February 18, 1516, she was the only child that King Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon had successfully conceived together.... [tags: Mary Tudor, Bloody Mary]\n\nGood Essays\n1412 words (4 pages)\n\nThe Middle Tudor Monarchs Essay\n\n- The Middle Tudor Monarchs Edward VI was born on October 12, 1537. His parents were England's King Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife. For more than a quarter century Henry had desperately wanted a son, and Edward's birth caused great rejoicing. But Queen Jane soon fell ill with childbed fever, and on October 24 she died. Until the age of six Edward was raised by his nurse, Mother Jack, and other servants. During that time Henry took two wives in quick succession, but both marriages ended badly; Anne of Cleves was discarded because the king found her ugly, and Katherine Howard was executed for adultery.... [tags: Papers]\n\nFree Essays\n2253 words (6.4 pages)\n\nGlorifying the Tudor Dynasty: Shakespeare's Richard III and the Perfect Villain\n\n- ... This results in Richard’s actions that lead him to kill his brother and manipulate his family into getting the throne. Additionally, the plot of the play portrays a turning point for English history, the rise of the Tudor dynasty. In combination with Machiavelli’s tenants, the fact that Elizabeth was the patron of the arts also influenced Shakespeare’s piece. Shakespeare evidently courts the Queen with the twisted characterization of Richard that leads to her current role as Queen of England.... [tags: Elizabethan plays, Golden age]\n\nGood Essays\n1005 words (2.9 pages)\n\nEssay on The Iconic Queen Elizabeth I\n\n- The 16th century was a chaotic time plagued with many problems, such as political conflicts and religious disputes. In this period women were often thought of incapable of doing jobs of the typical man, and did not have as many rights. Many men such as Shakespeare and Leonardo Da Vinci contributed to the advancement of culture in the 16th century. Government in England at this time was a monarchy, and a prominent monarchy, which included Queen Elizabeth I, was the Tudor Dynasty. Queen Elizabeth I’s actions during her reign in the Tudor dynasty led to her become one of the most iconic queens of the 16th century.... [tags: monarchy, tudor dynasty, 16th century]\n\nGood Essays\n532 words (1.5 pages)\n\nTudor Succession Problems Essay\n\n- Tudor Succession Problems The Tudor period is unique in that it is marked by succession difficulties in every generation. The Tudor dynasty was plagued by poor health, short-lives and a shortage of male claimants to the throne. For three successive monarchs the throne passed not from ruler to child, but from sibling to sibling and three consecutive monarchs died childless. Henry VIII's search for a suitable male heir to his throne had far reaching ramifications. This period is distinctive in that it would start the precedent of determining the succession by statute in consultation with Parliament.... [tags: English History Monarchs England Essays]\n\nGood Essays\n3690 words (10.5 pages)\n\nThe Dynasty And The Qing Dynasty Essay\n\n- Dynastic ruling is that in which there is a succession of rulers in the same family lineage, a family maintains power all throughout hereditary means. A country that had such ruling was the ancient China in which there were various dynasties. China for a long period was faced with wars, bloodshed, and conflicts because of the dynastic ruling; people killed each other in order to succeed power. The succession alternated from competent rulers to incompetent ones and vice versa. Corruption, discrimination, and dictatorial leadership marred the government.... [tags: China, Qing Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Tang Dynasty]\n\nGood Essays\n1283 words (3.7 pages)\n\nProfits of New Monarchs Essay\n\n- New monarchs paved the way for a more profitable future for the most powerful countries in Europe. Fledgling countries such as Spain, France, and England, profited from their new monarchs, ultimately becoming the powerful world powers they are today. The key components of a new monarch include limiting the nobles' power, increasing economic prosperity, uniting their nation, and stabilizing their army. The monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, King Louis XI of France, and King Henry VII of England, are prime examples of new monarchs.... [tags: power, prosperity, strength]\n\nGood Essays\n687 words (2 pages)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9871587157249451}
+{"content": "5 Important Self-Defense Strategies for Hiking\n\nSelf-Defense Strategies for HikingHiking is one of the best ways to explore nature and exercise your body. Hiking can include everything from short beginner’s hikes at city parks to multi-day excursions traversing mountains and gorges.\n\nHikers should always be mindful of their personal safety as there are several factors that can put them at risk. The weather can throw several hazards at hikers including poor ground conditions, intense rain or sun, ruined paths, or extreme temperatures.\n\nHikers also need to be aware of dangerous animals which can include big cats like mountain lions to poisonous snakes. Lastly, hikers need to be vigilant of human predators as attacks on hikers have become more common.\n\nIn this article we’ll discuss the last threat to human safety while hiking; human predators and strategies you can employ to protect yourself from other people wanting to inflict harm.\n\nFive Important Self-Defense Strategies to Use When Hiking\n\nHere are five important self-defense strategies you can use to protect yourself from “human” predators when hiking. Even a little protection goes a long way if an unfortunate encounter ever comes your way.\n\n#1. Involve Other People\n\nWhether you’re hiking or jogging in the mountains, involve other people! Instead of a solo hike, invite your friends or family. There are many outdoor social networking groups that have organized hikes on platforms like MeetUp.com and Facebook.com. Hiking in groups makes you less of a target and you’ll meet some like-minded individuals for future hikes!\n\nIt’s also completely normal to want to solo hike every once in a while. Moving at your own pace, being alone with nature, and clearing your mind without any distractions is quite relaxing. If you decide to go on a solo hike, tell your friends and family about your trip. They should know your intended start and end times, your route, and any relevant information like if you plan on meeting someone or making any stops. Alerting people to your plans allows them to check in on you and alert authorities if they suspect anything unusual.\n\n#2. Plan Your Hike\n\nMost mountains have trail maps, estimated times and distances, and reviews or stories from previous hikers. Make sure to use all resources at your disposal to ensure that you understand every detail about your hike. Important details to note are:\n\n • Start/end time\n • Distance of hike\n • Difficult or confusing sections of the hike\n • Known hazards along hike\n • Weather\n • Safety/emergency numbers\n\nPlanning your hike is absolutely crucial to your personal safety. Print out trail maps ahead of time and highlight your intended path. Write an itinerary and make sure to share all of this information with your friends and family.\n\nOne advantage of human predators is targeting victims in unfamiliar environments where their victims feel especially vulnerable and isolated. If you plan your hike completely and know the ins and outs you will feel a lot more comfortable in your environment. In a self-defense situation you would be able to focus on escaping and fighting as opposed to where you were at the time.\n\n#3. Bring Equipment\n\nAll hikers should carry basic equipment even if it’s a short beginner’s hike in an urban setting. At the very least you should bring a backpack or bag, first aid kit, water, bars/snacks/food, your phone, and most importantly a knife. You might not have to use the first aid kit or knife, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.\n\nEveryone should purchase a good knife, preferably a hunting knife with a holstered sheath. Knives can be purchased inexpensively for around $10-15. In addition to a hunting knife, women hiking alone should purchase products that function as both jewelry and weapons such as Defender Ring self-defense rings. These products can be armed faster than other weapons and can be worn as regular jewelry. Humans are great at doing many things but cutting or stabbing is not one of them. A knife will come in handy for general hiking purposes and if you need it for self-defense, it can be a formidable weapon. Similarly, you can carry pepper spray for defense against bears and mountain lions, and it can also be used against human predators.\n\n#4. Stagger\n\nWhen hiking in pairs or groups, it’s always best to walk in a staggered formation. A staggered formation is one where the individuals are not right next to each other and are at variable distances from each other.\n\nStaggered hiking is important so that a solo attacker cannot subdue or attack two victims at the same time or easily. If two female hikers are walking with 8 feet between them, the attacker has to choose one hiker to target first which allows the other hiker to respond either by retrieving a weapon or fleeing and calling for help. If the two female hikers walk side by side, it’s much easier for one attacker to attack, disorient, and subdue both at the same time.\n\n#5. Socialize\n\nThis last strategy can be useful but has to be applied appropriately. If you’re solo hiking and you pass other hikers along your journey it’s nice to socialize with them and can even end up saving your life. Humans are inherently social creatures. Meeting new people and getting to know someone is very eye opening and rewarding. At the same time, many people are shy and forcing an interaction might make them feel uncomfortable. If you plan to socialize with people on your hike, it’s important to be aware of how they feel and to end the conversation if they’re getting uncomfortable.\n\nSocializing is a great self-defense strategy because you’re expanding your circle. You’re creating an association with them so that if you’re in trouble, they’ll be more inclined to help instead of worrying about their own self interests. If you go missing, they will be able to identify you and remember when and where they met you. If there’s an attacker nearby, he might see you walking with a group and think you’re together and choose a different victim. Other hikers you meet can also alert you to any suspicious activity or circumstances along the path.\n\nIf you’re a friendly person and engage other hikers in brief conversation, most hikers will gladly chat with you for a bit especially if they see you are a solo female hiker.\n\nThe Bottom Line\n\nEmploying the strategies above will put you in a much safer position if you decide to hike alone. Besides the practical aspects of our strategies, simply knowing you were prepared will give you more confidence and peace of mind. We hope that you read and internalize the strategies we’ve listed above so you can feel safer on your next hike!\n\n©2019 AskTheTrainer.com. HOME | ABOUT | CONTACT | TERMS\n\naskthetrainer logo\n\nLog in with your credentials\n\nForgot your details?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9590080380439758}
+{"content": "Activity Introduction\n\nQldCoolburn_slowburn-BQuick summary: Students investigate the conditions required to start and sustain fires. They discover that burning is a type of chemical reaction, and design and perform a fair test to accurately collect data. Students explore the requirements for different kinds of burning and speculate about which ones have the potential for being dangerous. They then explore how the knowledge of Indigenous Australians can be used to manage land.\n\nLearning goals:\n\n • Students recognise the differences between cool and hot burning.\n • Students understand how the concept of a fire triangle can be used to communicate the elements needed to create and sustain fire.\n • Students understand the main steps and safety considerations required in designing a fire demonstration.\n • Students explore how the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Australians can be used to manage land.\n\nGeneral capabilities: Critical and creative thinking, intercultural understanding.\n\nAustralian Curriculum content descriptions:\n\nYear 8 Science:\n\n • Chemical change involves substances reacting to form new substances (ACSSU225)\n • In fair tests, measure and control variables, and select equipment to collect data with accuracy appropriate to the task (ACSIS141)\n • Use scientific knowledge and findings from investigations to evaluate claims (ACSIS234)\n\nSyllabus outcomesSC4-5WS, SC4-6WS, SC4-8WS, SC4-16CW.\n\nTime needed: 40 – 70 minutes, depending on whether the teacher does a demonstration.\n\nLevel of teacher scaffolding:\n\n 1. If students are designing their own experiments, they must be overseen and then reviewed by the teacher. \n 2. Consider doing experiments with individual groups one at a time.\n 3. If a safe experimental environment can’t be guaranteed, consider doing a teacher demonstration.\n\nResources needed: Digital projector or Smart Board, candles, matches, taper, hand water pump sprayer and Pyrex beakers.\n\nDigital technology opportunity: Prezi presentation tool, responding to videos, digital sharing capabilities.\n\nAssessment: See the rubric at the end of the teacher worksheet.\n\nExtension opportunities: Examine the work of your state’s firefighters.\n\nSafety: Ensure your students remain safe around fire and that they understand the potential risks if fire is not used responsibility. \n\nKey words: fire, oxygen, chemical reaction, heat, flame, smoke\n\n\nSpecial thanks to:\n\n\nMade possible by:\n\n\n\nTeacher Worksheet\n\nTeacher preparation:\n\nOverarching goals: Students design an experiment that demonstrates the role of heat, fuel and oxygen in the burning process. They classify different kinds of burning and speculate about which kinds have the potential for being dangerous. Students explore how cool burning can be used for land management.\n\nTeacher content information: Burning is just one kind of chemical reaction. A chemical reaction occurs when chemicals combine to form new substances with new properties. Burning is a rapid type of chemical reaction that produces large amounts of heat and light. An example of a fast chemical reaction is an explosion, such as the exploding of fireworks or a bomb. An example of a slow chemical reaction is rusting (or oxidisation).\n\nOne of the chemicals produced during burning is carbon dioxide, which we now refer to as a 'greenhouse gas'. Later, we will also consider other chemicals that are produced during burning, such as methane and nitrous oxide.\n\nChemical reacti\n\n- or - to view worksheets\n\nStudent Worksheet\n\nThought starters: what types of fires are there?\n\nStep 1: Tuning in - hot and cool burns\n\nWatch the video below and complete the thinking routine table.\n\nVIDEO 1: The problems of hot burns -\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nStep 2: Designing an experiment\n\nYour group is to design an experiment that explains 'What is needed to keep a fire going'. You are to identify the roles of fuel, heat and oxygen.\n\nYou will only have access to the equipment provided by your teacher.\n\nFill in the Experimental Design Table below and then show your teacher.\n\nExperiment Design criteria rubric\n\n\n\n\n- or - to view worksheets\n\nLeave your Feedback\n\n\nSorry. You must be logged in to view this form.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6017683744430542}
+{"content": "Foolish Fed “Facts”\n\nAs I write this, Erin Burnett is leading a CNBC discussion about the possible strength of tomorrow’s employment report, especially given the strong forecast released yesterday by ADP. If it is a strong report, everyone will speculate about the likely implications for the next Fed meeting. We’ll probably see something like the following discussion of whether 25 basis points is enough of an increase:\n\n\"Why does this matter? Why do we focus on this? Because, once again, about 50% of the stocks in the S&P 500\nwill do worse with a rapid hike in the federal funds rate. Another 50%\n— meaning all stocks — will be affected if the Fed panics and says\nthat we have an inflation problem. And if the Fed takes rates up huge,\nyou can have all of that Dow Chemical\ndividend you want, I will take cash. In\nother words, it matters tremendously. And that’s why, if we get a 50\nbeep increase off this number, then you can say that the earnings\nestimates — the lifeblood of the market — are too high for 50% of the\nmarket. Twenty-five? And we can make it up with good\nbusiness. I find myself constantly trying to explain why we talk about\nthese numbers so much. But the simple answer is that equities trade off\nof rates and growth of earnings. When rates go too high, we don’t care\nabout the darned growth of earnings.\"\n\nThis comment represents how many people are thinking as the Fed ponders whether to take rates higher, and by how much. There is just one problem.\n\nIt was written two years ago.\n\nThat was before the current tightening cycle even started. When I first saw this, in June of 2004) written by one of the most visible and influential commentators, I could hardly believe my eyes. The Fed funds rate was at one percent. The Fed was about to embark on a long series of gradual increases until they reached \"neutral\" as they defined it. The effects of monetary policy changes lag by six to nine months. How could it possibly matter whether the first hike was 25 or 50 bps?\n\nAt about the same time CNBC interviewed a big fund manager (nearly $1 billion AUM) who was also asked about the size of the Fed move. He answered that they should try 50 bp because \"they could take a look for a few weeks and cut it back if necessary.\" Once again I wondered, \"What planet is he on?\"\n\nIf these were isolated examples from random blogsters or something, it would not matter. The quoted authorities are both big-time, Harvard-educated, experienced fund managers, who get heavy TV exposure and speak with real authority. The average person takes it at face value.\n\nAnd it is typical of much of the \"research\" during this time. I have correspondence from the research head of a financial service saying that there is a \"nearly perfect correlation\" between stock market returns and the direction of interest rates. I’d like to see that study.\n\nThere is a way to get good information about the Fed. I’ll explain in Part II of this Fed Series.\n\nYou may also like", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8959990739822388}
+{"content": "National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy\n\nDebbi's Aromatherapy\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n5729 Constitution Avenue\n\nColorado Springs CO 80915\n\n\n(719) 444-0708\n\n¡Hablamos español!\n\nPalm butter, a rendering of oil palm fruit used for food and cosmetic purposes. Palm butter, another name for Moambe or Nyembwe, a western Middle African sauce also made of oil palm fruit. A spread made of palm oil designed to imitate dairy butter.\n\nPalm Butter", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6800523996353149}
+{"content": "#1: 5 things to say to students suffering from anxiety\n\n[Editor’s note: This story, originally published on March 15th of this year, was our #1 most popular story of the year. Happy holidays, and thank you for tuning into our 2019 countdown!]\n\n\n\n\nUnderstanding anxiety\n\n\n\nJanuary 2020 Guide: Multimedia Presentation Systems\n\nWe are excited to bring you the fourth in a series of eSchool News Guides, which are full of resources, tips, trends, and insight from industry experts on a variety of topics that are essential to the classroom, school, and district.\n\n\nLearn how this district uses tech to combat cyberbullying\n\nBullying is a real danger for students today. More than 28 percent of U.S. students in grades 6-12 experience bullying and more than 160,000 stay home from school each day due to fear of being bullied. In today’s always-connected world, cyberbullying has also become a growing problem. It can occur anywhere and at any time—including at school. Every day it seems there are new apps, forums, or websites that allow students to anonymously post hateful messages and gang up on their peers.\n\nIt is the primary job of the education system to teach our children. However, schools are also entrusted by parents to keep students safe. Bullying prevention is part of this and schools can tackle it on several fronts. It involves creating positive school climates, adopting rigorous reporting systems, and educating students and parents about digital citizenship and how to use social media responsibly.\n\nRelated content: An essential guide to cyberbullying\n\nThe role of monitoring software\n\nAnother way schools can get in front of the issue is by using monitoring software to keep an eye on what students are doing while on the school network. This is where I come in. As the technology director for the West Rusk County (TX) Consolidated Independent School District, I have been a staunch proponent of using technology to support student safety. This includes using monitoring software.\n\nRelated Content:\n\neSchool News School Safety Guide\n\nThe eSchool News School Safety Guide is here! It features strategies to help you create and maintain safe and secure learning environments, both physical and online. A new eSchool News Guide will launch each month–don’t miss a single one!\n\n\n#2: 5 big ideas for education innovation in 2019\n\n[Editor’s note: This story, originally published on January 28th of this year, was our #2 most popular story of the year. Happy holidays, and thank you for tuning into our 2019 countdown!]\n\n\n1. ‘Unbundle’ what we mean by SEL.\n\n\n\nHow school IT leaders can avoid a cyberattack\n\nFrom credit card hacks to social security breaches, cyberattacks are more common with each passing day. Organizations in every industry are on high alert to ensure networks and information remain secure. News reports lead you to believe that only high-profile companies are affected, but perhaps the most precious data when it comes to tomorrow’s leaders is held in educational institutions.\n\nAdministrators are tasked with keeping information about a school’s faculty and students secure. And in today’s threat landscape, it’s not if a data breach will occur, it’s when.\n\nRelated content: Strategies to help your institution combat a cyberattack\n\nAs the number of network entry points proliferate, we will continue to see an increase of breaches. Schools have to prepare a strong security posture to keep valuable information safe from intruders.\n\nA primer on risk aversion\n\nIn today’s information environment, a traditional firewall, while necessary, is not an effective security posture. Bad actors are operating with increased speed and innovation, so other components of a network need to become smarter.\n\nRelated Content:\n\neSchool News School Safety Guide\n\n\n\n#3: 10 things I do to boost my students’ self-esteem\n\n[Editor’s note: This story, originally published on March 4th of this year, was our #3 most popular story of the year. Happy holidays, and thank you for tuning into our 2019 countdown!]\n\nEvery day, students come into our classroom spaces from their own life experiences the day before. As educators, we do our best to make students feel welcomed and engaged every time they cross our thresholds.\n\nI work hard to make sure students feel safe, cared for, and loved. To do this there are several activities or spaces in our classroom that build students’ self-esteem. I encourage other educators to try a few of these and see the impact it has on their own students.\n\nBuild your students’ self-esteem all day, every day\n\n1. Greet every child at the door with a smile and say his or her name\nI started greeting students at the door a year-and-a-half ago. I stand in the doorway, awaiting students each morning. I greet them with a handshake, teaching them to look someone in the eye and have a firm grasp. I also call each student by name and ask how they are doing. Students now do not even come into the room before saying hello to me. If I am absent, I leave a note for my guest teacher to do the same routine.\n\n2. Ask a question of the day to kick start your morning and touch base with every child\nFor morning work, students answer a question of the day. I make the questions up, but they could be anything from ‘What makes you happy? Sad? Annoyed?’ to ‘If you could change a color in the Crayola crayon box, what would it be and why?’ Their answers allow me to get to know each student and have a brief conversation with everyone before the business of the day gets hold of us.\n\n\nUsing gamification to improve schoolwide behavior\n\n\nShawn Young, co-founder and CEO of Classcraft, explained during a recent edWebinar how gamification techniques can be combined with research-based approaches such as Response to Intervention (RTI), to create engaging and systematic Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS).\n\nRelated content: I gamified my classroom and students are soaring\n\nShawn pointed out that esports—the playing of online games—have become one of the most popular activities for young people across all demographic and social segments of the school-age population. And gaming has evolved into a cultural medium with its own processes that many students find engaging and motivating, so using similar approaches to improve behavior and school environments with gamification is a natural extension that can prove popular and successful.\n\nGamifying PBIS\n\nThe application of gaming techniques to PBIS works well because games are so engaging, and many are built to provide intrinsic motivation. They often develop autonomy, meaning and competence, and so are aligned with self-determination theory. They also provide zones of proximal development, enabling players to make continued progress, and many games enable young people to build social relationships through their participation.\n\n\n#4: How our high-poverty school reduced suspensions by 97 percent\n\n[Editor’s note: This story, originally published on February 25th of this year, was our #4 most popular story of the year. Happy holidays, and thank you for tuning into our 2019 countdown!]\n\nStudent behavior can have a positive or negative impact on academic achievement. Even just one student who is misbehaving can affect how much and how well an entire class is learning.\n\nWhen we arrived at Betty Best Elementary in Houston in the summer of 2014 and dug into the school’s data, we saw there were 627 office referrals during the previous year. The problem was that there was no information behind that number. There were no reasons listed for the referrals. There were no breakdowns of the data by students, demographics, grade levels, departments, or teachers.\n\nWe set out to create an environment that would yield better social, emotional, and academic outcomes for students. From 2014 to 2018, we reduced the number of office referrals by 37 percent, in-school suspension days by 52 percent, and out-of-school suspension days by 97 percent. During this time, students’ passing rate on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) increased by 17 percentage points as well.\n\n\n#5: 10 things teachers can do today to prepare students for the future\n\n[Editor’s note: This story, originally published on February 13th of this year, was our #5 most popular story of the year. Happy holidays, and thank you for tuning into our 2019 countdown!]\n\nIn 2008, I read Clayton Christensen’s Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. It inspired me to think about changes in education that would benefit students by transforming teaching and learning and I was excited about the possibilities. Technology advancements promised to make a great impact to initiate change in the classroom, but now we are faced with a newer set of obstacles.\n\nEleven years later, as I walk through the halls in a middle school/high school setting, I see students sitting on a tile floor crowded around a device trying to type, communicate, take videos, and record their voices with background noise and distractions often interrupting their progress. This happens all over the country in traditional educational buildings today. Students are assigned a tech-integrated project and are faced with limited resources and inadequate workspaces to use the latest tools. So how are we supporting change?\n\nObstacles for teachers who are trying to engage learners during change\n\nThe environment\n\nTeachers are diligently meeting state standards while covering course content and using technology to address collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity. They are hoping to teach their subject area while enhancing lessons, developing assessments, and engaging students in a more personalized manner. They are trying to contribute to change, disrupt their classes, reach all learning types, and prepare learners for the latest careers. But is the existing standard school building an effective environment for teaching and learning today? It’s no surprise that many teachers are hesitant to assign project-based and technology-integrated lessons knowing that the physical state of the building doesn’t support their efforts.\n\nTo keep current, teachers are required to participate in professional development and are faithfully adapting their curricula to include STE(A)M and social skills that are a necessity in the workforce. Yet, in a majority of areas, the infrastructure doesn’t cooperate. A teacher could have an outstanding lesson using technology, but if the wi-fi is slow, the hardware and/or software unavailable, or there’s a lack of space to communicate and collaborate, then teaching and learning becomes a difficult and frustrating practice.\n\nThe pedagogy\n\nThroughout history there has always been the suggestion that students should take “college prep” courses to gain acceptance to college. The promise was that this path would result in entry to a specific career. Yet we now find that students are lacking in some of the softer skills that are needed in an age of technology innovation. The resources and tools once used in the classroom have changed and the environment in which students gathered to learn is transforming into a more personalized, high-tech and collaborative space.\n\nEducation is moving beyond the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic and is surpassing skills assessment through standardized testing. Sitting in rows and facing front is no longer the best option for students to participate in the classroom. The venue now requires students to focus on content with available resources to integrate lifelong skills and share their voices in a global community.\n\nSo how do educators deal with the pressure of giving students the appropriate background and skills for the future while our system relies heavily on the concept of grades and test scores to gain access to college? Should we be preparing our students for college coursework or future careers?\n\nHow can we prepare students for the future?\n\nIt begins with supporting the “change.” When I mention change, I am not suggesting that we change the content that students are learning. I am referring to changing the way in which that content is absorbed by the learners and providing all the necessary resources to accommodate teachers and students.\n\nIs it as simple as bringing real-word goals into the classroom through project-based learning (PBL)? PBL is a key component, but I think we need to take this a step further. As educators, we need to support change by allowing students to experience the actual process within a career and introducing them to the necessary career skills along the way.\n\n10 steps to support change\n\n 1. Create conducive learning spaces with resources to accommodate the curriculum and required skills.\n 2. Assign a problem/project that highlights the content that you want students to learn in your curriculum.\n 3. Allow time for research to learn how to troubleshoot the project at hand.\n 4. Prompt students to write an essential question that they have about the content explored.\n 5. Introduce a guest speaker in the field of study to highlight a “day in the life” of their job.\n 6. Encourage students to work alone and in groups, knowing that they must communicate, share ideas, and participate in class discussions.\n 7. Create a project to-do list with benchmarks and checkpoints for stages of completion.\n 8. Highlight participation in daily tasks (writing emails, setting up meetings, and dealing with time-management issues).\n 9. Lead students through the professional process required to accomplish their project goal.\n 10. Assess students on how well they met all the steps towards their goal.\n\nIn the end, there shouldn’t be a grade simply based on learning the content. The students should be able to answer the notorious question, “Why do I need to know this?” by working through the process and applying the content to a real-world situation. The content is learned through inquiry and research by designing, creating, and problem-solving. The grading becomes a performance level that needs to be met. Did the students meet the criteria to work on the project and accomplish the goal? This should be the type of question educators ask and students answer to satisfy the criteria for the new jobs of the future.\n\n\n#6: 5 things to avoid saying to students suffering from anxiety\n\n[Editor’s note: This story, originally published on March 14th of this year, was our #6 most popular story of the year. Happy holidays, and thank you for tuning into our 2019 countdown!]\n\nCurrently, schools are being inundated with cases of anxiety in young adults. Although the dramatic increase in attention being paid to the illness has been beneficial to those suffering, the difficulty lies in the fact that everyone thinks they understand anxiety and how to overcome it.\n\nAs a public high school administrator, I lead interventions for students in poor academic standing. Although many students have logistical circumstances keeping them from being successful—homelessness, employment, learning disabilities, etc.—many of them are school avoidant because of anxiety that is, quite frankly, debilitating.\n\nA quick look at anxiety\n\nAnxiety is essential to human survival. It’s the basis of the fight-or-flight response that dates back to the days of our ancestors’ most primitive survival. Anxiety alerted our ancestors of danger. The emotional brain was, and still is, wired to be on high alert in case a predator was hunting our ancestors. Anxiety would tell them to flee. As a matter of fact, anxiety still tells us to flee if we perceive danger. For our ancestors, however, anxiety literally saved their lives.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9261027574539185}
+{"content": "Structure and strategy are related.\n\nHow we structure a company should be driven by the strategy that organization has decided to employ in the marketplace. We can use the PAEI code to classify strategies and analyze how they impact the organizational structure.\n\nYou can have a (P) strategy, an (A) strategy, an (E) strategy, or an (I) strategy when you design a strategic plan for a company. You have to ask yourself,\n\n“What competitive advantage can we establish over our competitors? Which of our strengths can we really capitalize on? Which strategy will allow us to be stronger in comparison to them?”\n\nTop managers need to ask, “What are our areas of strength?” and “How can we further develop, emphasize, and promote those strengths in our marketplace?”\n\nNow, what is the (P) strength? Productivity. Some organizations are very, very, very productive. They have the capability to produce more, faster and better than their competition. When building the organizational structure of their company, they need to pay extra attention to maintain and improve the effectiveness of their production processes. This is where their competitive advantage is, and they will want to preserve that market advantage by structuring for sales teams, manufacturing and new geographic market expansions.\n\nIf an organization has well organized processes, runs efficiently and is systematized, it have great (A) strategy strengths. What is an (A)? Administrative structure. These organizations will likely offer superior customer service, provide a great help desk, and warranties. Their supply chain will be second to none. Their work flow, also second to none. (A) structure companies can be on time better than anybody else. A good example of an (A) organization is Amazon. The primary advantage Amazon has in its market place is its delivery system – Amazon has developed a business structure around and heavily invested in building and perfecting a state of the art robotic operating systems in the warehouses. As a matter of fact, if you are promoting material through Amazon (as we at Adizes are) and you want to ship the goods yourself, they make you sign an agreement saying you will deliver whatever is ordered within 24 hours, or they will discontinue the relationship. What are their key competitive strategies? Timeliness, organization, on-time shipment. In this case, the org chart should show tremendous importance and focus on perfecting and maintaining the supply chain and distribution functions.\n\nOther companies follow an (E) strategy; innovation. An example of a highly innovation-oriented organization is 3M. They come up with a new product almost every year. They are way ahead of the competition. By the time the competition copies their product in order to compete, 3M is already on to the next product. Their market strategy is focused on introducing new products, solving more consumer problems. So, their structure is organized around heavy research and development, product testing and consumer responses to new ideas. The 3M structure supports its strategy of innovation.\n\nAn (I) strategy company, whose business structure is inherently internally people and experience oriented, would focus on providing the best working environment and thus attract the highest level of industry talent available. That would be Google. Google provides an environment and work experience that makes everybody try to work for them. It’s different for Amazon. In Amazon, people are known to cry at their jobs, because the company’s attention is on (A) then (P), and not on (I).\n\nWhen doing Adizes, we encourage our patients to look in their industry, and determine what strengths they have, what strategy will allow them to gain market advantage over the competition. We ask: “Are you a (P) company, or more structured for (A) strategies? Are you more (E) oriented, or an (I) concerned organization?” Your company cannot be “the best” in everything. You cannot be perfect in all four PAEI roles within your industry. It is too expensive. You must choose one or two strategies to remain focused and competitively advantaged.\n\nThe Adizes PAEI strategy impacts structure, where the emphasis will be reflected in the location of the units in the hierarchy, on budgets (how resources are allocated), and on the selection of staff and what gets rewarded.\n\nStrategy, structure, information, and rewards must be aligned and designed considering which of the PAEI roles the company is emphasizing in its strategy.\n\n\nJust thinking,\n\nIchak Kalderon Adizes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6662614345550537}
+{"content": "Clinical Review\n\n2016 Update on cancer\n\nImmunotherapy is alive and well, and endometrial cancer may be the prototype\n\nAuthor and Disclosure Information\n\nIn this Article\n\n • The prognostic significance of tumors with POLE mutations\n • Can the immune system kill MMR-deficient endometrial cancer?\n\n\n\nEach year approximately 60,000 women are diagnosed with endometrial cancer. The majority of the identified tumors will be low grade—cancer found at an early stage that may be treated with surgery alone. Unfortunately, however, too many of the 60,000 patients will have poor prognostic features, such as serous or clear cell histology (high-grade cancer), lymphovascular space invasion, or positive lymph node status.\n\nAdvances in technology and the state of science have come a long way since the dichotomy of Type I (endometrioid) and Type II (serous and clear cell) tumors were described by Dr. J. Bokhman in the early 1980s.1 Our previous Update from several years ago stressed the importance of further understanding of the molecular rationale of high-risk, Type II tumors.2 To review, The Cancer Genome Atlas project (TCGA) performed a genomic and proteomic characterization in 373 endometrial carcinomas demonstrating the traditional p53 mutations of serous tumors and PTEN or KRAS genes of endometrioid tumors.3 Most interestingly, they identified numerous other mutations and proposed 4 new genomic categories:\n\n 1. polymerase (DNA-directed) epsilon catalytic subunit (POLE) ultramutated\n 2. microsatellite instability (MSI) hypermutated\n 3. somatic copy number alterations high (serous tumors)\n 4. somatic copy number alterations low (endometrioid cancer).\n\nIn 2016, we are now understanding the molecular basis of disease and how it affects survival; these 4 categories have different survival. But why? Perhaps the answer lies within the endogenous immune system. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes are associated with improved survival in multiple types of cancer, including endometrial. Whether these lymphocytes are regulatory or cytotoxic T-cells convolutes the matter further.4 To understand these intricacies we need to further categorize how a tumor’s genetic mutations affect antigen exposure to the immune system, quantitate the clinical impact of the findings, and selectively target patients with novel therapeutics.\n\nIn this Update, we look at data on POLE mutations, exploring 2 studies that help us to better understand why these types of mutations have uniquely positive prognostic implications (when they logically should not have good survival rates). In addition, we discuss 2 studies that examined mismatch repair defects, in endometrial cancer specifically, and the programmed death (PD)-1 pathway in both endometrial and other cancer types. Are these molecular entities of tumors associated with better or worse prognosis, and why?\n\nNext Article:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8335830569267273}
+{"content": "• Support PF! Buy your school textbooks, materials and every day products Here!\n\nHelp with 2 Number Theory Problems\n\n • #1\nHey guys, I have a homework assignment for number theory and two of the problems I don't know how do solve. I was hoping I could get some hints or help. Thanks\n\nProblem 1\nLet m,n be elements of the natural numbers where n > m.\nand F_n = 2^2^n + 1\n\na.) Show that (F_n - 2)/F_m is an integer.\nb.) Assume that there is a prime p in the factorization of both F_n,F_m. Show this leads to a contradiction.\nc.) Now there must be atleast n distinct primes. Now let n -> infinity. Write out the proof in detail.\n\nProblem 2\nLet p be a prime and let n be any integer satisfying 1 <= n <= p-1. Prove that p divides the binomial coefficient p!/(p-n)!n!\n\nFor this, I said if p divides it, then p*a = it where a is some integer. I then get a term that reduces down to a = (p-1)!/(p-n)!n! and don't know where to do from here.\n\nI'm not looking for solutions, although if it's needed for me to understand that's fine. I am just hoping to get pointed in the right direction. Thanks.\n\nAnswers and Replies\n\n • #2\nScience Advisor\nHomework Helper\n1.a) I would suggest solving by induction on n-m = i. Proving it for the base case (i = 1) is a simple matter of factoring a difference of squares. I assume that the inductive step should not be too hard to prove.\nb) If there is a common prime p in the factorizations of Fn and Fm, then if we let Fn = xp and Fm = yp, then from part a we get:\n\n(xp - 2)/(yp) = k for some integer k\n\nShow that this leads to a contradiction.\n\nc) This shouldn't be too hard. Proceed by induction on n.\n\n2. This again is very easy. If p doesn't divide the binomial coefficient, then the p in the numerator must be cancelled by some p in the denominator. If p is in the denominator, then since p is prime, it must be in (p - n)! or in n! or both (that is, since p is not composite, it is not equal to a*b where we would just need a to be in (p - n)! and b to be in n! or something like that, without all of p being in one of those factorials). You should be able to see very easily that p is a factor of neither factorial, since each factorial is just a product of numbers less than p.\n • #3\nFor question 2, I actually had something written like that. Not as clear as what you said, but I pretty much meant the same thing. As for part 1, thanks for the help. Induction didn't even occur to me.\n\nThis is also my first proof writing course ever... So seeing how obvious certain proofs are is like a different language to me as of now. I'm sure I will get better with practice.\nLast edited:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9121061563491821}
+{"content": "SA-TU Logistics is planning a new terminal for Vuosaari Harbour\n\n\nSA-TU Logistics and the Port of Helsinki have signed a letter of intent regarding the leasing of an area a little over a hectare in size in the logistics area of Vuosaari Harbour. The objective of SA-TU Logistics is to build a new terminal in the area.\n\nSA-TU Logistics will start planning the first phase of the investment immediately. According to the preliminary plan, the area will have two separate terminals and a total of approximately 4,000 square metres of new space. A 70-tonne overhead crane is planned for the second terminal.\n\n\"The Port of Helsinki and SA-TU Logistics have worked in close cooperation since the beginning of operations at Vuosaari Harbour\", says the harbour’s Cargo Traffic Director Jukka Kallio.\n\"The letter of intent further strengthens the position of Vuosaari in industrial transport.\"\n\nThe new terminal will primarily focus on processing various steels, projects and other similar industrial goods, their short-term storage, and loading containers intended for export and unloading containers intended for import.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9887685179710388}
+{"content": "The Business of Being Empathetic\n\nWe’re missing a trick; while we search for ways to boost profits, generate different sources of revenue and reach new audiences, we underestimate the significance of empathy. The ability to understand and experience the feelings of another is the competitive edge that many businesses, leaders and organisations are lacking.\n\nMany of us have become disillusioned by all the awful things happening in and to the world. Some blame the media for sensationalism and misrepresentation, others humanity for the nastiness of our race. But I would argue that we are far more inclined to be good than evil. Whether things have got worse or better, empathy is more critical than ever. Empathy is not just an essential part of human nature but it also needs to be a “foundational value in the modern workplace”.\n\nA gap like the one between high profits and low customer satisfaction can usually be attributed to empathy, or rather, the lack of it. It’s often the invisible part of the business that bleeds — but it’s this invisible force that can push a business forward. By introducing empathy training and practices into their organisation, Midland Memorial Hospital in Texas took their customer satisfaction from 1% to 90%.\n\nEmpathy has gone far beyond a passing craze; again and again, it’s proven to drive positive change and improve business performance. There’s no clear answer to why empathy is so frequently overlooked. Perhaps it’s because it’s part of the human condition, so we expect it. It also has a perception of being abstract, and it is in some ways, being difficult to track and measure. But like anything else in business, it requires real effort, it needs to be taught, nurtured and practised.\n\nThe Rewards\n\nOrganisational structures are changing and people are now more discerning when it comes to choosing their future employer. People seek out more than just a paycheck, they want value, a real connection to what they’re doing. It’s more important than ever for companies to differentiate themselves, to have a culture that will attract talent, and moreover, retain them. Empathy is key here.\n\nBeing empathetic brings with it a range of sustainable benefits. Most notably, employee engagement and retention. The 2019 Businesssolver “State of Workplace Empathy” study reports that 93% of employees are likely to stay with an employer that’s empathetic. This figure has risen consistently over the years of them conducting this research. On the other hand, 82% of employees said that they’re more likely to leave their current job for a more empathetic organisation.\n\nWhat does it mean to be an empathetic organisation? It’s one that takes a genuine interest in their employees; one where people feel heard and understood. And this is where it all gets a bit obvious — when an employee feels valued they’re happier, a happy employee is more productive, creative and engaged and thus, more likely to perform well and stay at their job. A happy and empathetic employee is better equipped to deal with customers, to understand their needs and wants and improve their experience accordingly.\n\nIncreased productivity, greater creativity, improved customer relationships, and employee retention help achieve important business objectives like lower turnover rates and better profits.\n\nHow to create a more empathetic working environment\n\nThere’s no one-size-fits-all solution but it starts with engaging with your employees and colleagues. The hospital I mentioned earlier? Well, they started practising empathy by having short staff meetings in the morning to hear the “promise” of the day, an ideal or principle they apply to that workday which encourages positive relationships between employees.\n\nUltimately, listening is the first and crucial step in understanding other people’s point of view. Feedback is also extremely valuable. We all need to be able to give considered feedback and but more importantly, be able to take it in — let’s encourage each other to be better.\n\nRole-playing exercises are also known for fostering empathy. Generally, power widens the empathy gap. Being in a more powerful position has a tendency to lower one’s empathetic abilities, whereas people in lower positions are more attentive and better at reading social cues. By switching roles, you improve your ability to see things from other people’s perspectives.\n\nRed & Yellow have introduced a new initiative in line with one of our values, Excitedly Accountable. People from different teams and departments have been put together in groups of 3, and once a month they meet up with a complimentary coffee to chat about goals and objectives, both professional and personal. It’s a great method of connecting with your colleagues and practising empathy in small, practical ways.\n\nDo not underestimate the power of empathy; you risk falling behind and your business and its people are likely to suffer. Rather, let empathy turn your organisation into a happier, more productive, accessible and successful place.\n\nP.S We’ve identified 10 Uniquely Human Skills that are critical for future career success — as the world becomes more competitive and dominated by technology, these are the skills that will give us an edge. They’re integrated into all of our courses and programmes. Aside from empathy, they are creative thinking, leadership, mindfulness, critical thinking, social intelligence, adaptability, persuasion, negotiation and conflict resolution.\n\nFurther Readings:\n\nMolly Fitz - Patrick | Red & YellowAbout the author: Molly is the Communications Champion at Red & Yellow and deals with all of our social media channels and content creation. In her spare time, she likes to cook, bake, read, write and curate the perfect playlists for particular situations.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.923099935054779}
+{"content": "What can you accomplish with the vacuum forming process of a plastic sheet?\n\nVacuum forming or vacuum Thermoforming is a process that subjects a sheet of plastic to heat from one or both sides to bring it to a state that will allow it to be formed into a three-dimensional shape.\n\nWhile this process is rather simple, it has evolved over the last 60 or so years to become rather sophisticated in its simplicity.\n\nHere you can see a mold with the finished vacuum formed part.\n\nWith the use of wood, plastic or aluminum molds (tools as we refer to them) the plastic sheet that is rigid and flat can become a shape rather quickly. The tooling is also fairly simple by design which helps to control set up costs for the launch of a new part or product line.\n\nParts can be formed as small as your finger nail or larger than a boat, items are being made daily that serve markets in every area from medical to transportation to consumer goods.\n\nPart in the process of being vacuum-formed\nHere you can see a part we formed in the process of being vacuum formed\n\nTake a look at vacuum thermoforming and work with ShapeMaster on your next product launch.\n\nWe have a minimum of ONE part. You’ve gotta make at least one. ; )\n\nFor more information, visit our website or call us today at 800-779-6925 for more information.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7733588814735413}
+{"content": "Abraham Lincoln House Divided Quote\n\nAdvanced Placement United States History Exam “Students at my school plan to walk out of classes in protest of the Jeffco school board’s new proposed Advanced Placement U.S. History Curriculum Revision. “present positive aspects of the United. Title: AP United States History Practice Exam from the Course and Exam Description, Fall 2017 Author: The College Board Subject: AP United States History Practice Exam from the Course\n\nAmanda’s Take: The Jets are on the national stage for their QB drama. To quote Abraham Lincoln, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Greg McElroy got the start over incumbent Mark Sanchez.\n\nLines 1–12. T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” begins with an epigraph from Dante’s Inferno that sets a tone of both despair and candor. The condemned, corrupt statesman.\n\nAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American statesman, politician, and lawyer who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil.\n\n\nWere The Founding Fathers Libertarian So in that sense, Marshall’s statement in completely accurate. However, while some of the more famous Founding Fathers were pro-slavery and anti-feminist, a good number of them were on the more. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank is deeply troubled by libertarian legal scholar Randy Barnett’s. the Constitution is a \"strange\" way to show \"reverence for the Founding Fathers,\" though of.\n\nThe 2-year-long journey to acquire the 2.5-ton, 12-foot-high piece of the Berlin Wall. quote espousing the virtues of freedom. Lastly, surrounding the entirety of the pool and the wall itself are.\n\n\"A house divided against itself cannot stand.\" The 19th century US president Abraham Lincoln immortalised this biblical quote, but could it be hitting a little too close to home for one celebrity.\n\nToday is the annual celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Below are few of his most notable quotes: Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him.\n\nAbraham Lincoln (1809–1865) was the 16th President of the United States during one of the most consequential periods in American history, the Civil War. Before being elected president, Lincoln served in the Illinois legislature and lost an election for the U.S. Senate to Stephen A. Douglas.\n\n\n\nThe other president is Abraham Lincoln, whom historian Harold Holzer. and he doesn’t want to add to the divisions. “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Lincoln says. Trump is not.\n\nIt would be a fine thing if he also based his time in office on a number of the finest accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln’s administration. when he ran for the Senate in 1858, that “a house divided.\n\nHowever, keeping in mind that we are at war, two quotes from past American heroes come to mind: Abraham Lincoln said: \"A house divided against itself cannot stand.\" The other was by cartoonist Walt.\n\nAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. In the history of the United States, Abraham Lincoln is an iconic figure. He is most famous for his roles in preserving the.\n\nMay 05, 2015 · Known widely as a great orator, Abraham Lincoln said (and wrote) many inspiring things during his life and presidency. From the “House Divided” speech.\n\nWhere Is The 3/5 Clause In The Constitution Barring a victory before a conservative Supreme Court or an arduous amendment to the Constitution, the federal government. million – which touches just 1,000 estates a year – to $3.5 million, where. Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution sets forth the eligibility requirements for serving as president of the United States, under clause 5 (emphasis added):.\n\nAbraham Lincoln is remembered for his vital role as the leader in preserving the Union during the Civil War and beginning the process (Emancipation Proclamation) that led to the end of slavery in the United States. He is also remembered for his character and leadership, his speeches and letters, and as a man of humble origins whose determination and perseverance led him to the nation’s highest.\n\n\n\nWhen Abraham Lincoln was nominated for United States senator in 1858 he accepted with his “House Divided” speech. He said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I find these quotes to be.\n\nLike the great American President Abraham Lincoln once said: “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. I quote Lincoln because he is President Obama’s favorite US president. If anybody in the.\n\nBarack Obama is not the first president to feel a kinship with Abraham Lincoln. for his inaugural lunch from Lincoln’s, and having the food served on replicas of the china that Mary Todd Lincoln.\n\nWith the nation on the brink of civil war and the Democratic party ripping at the seams, 156 years ago today America elected the once obscure lawyer and former U.S. representative from Illinois,\n\nHe calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. when He has brought out all His own, He goes ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. but they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.\n\n\nFrancine Tompkins-Olivera of Berkeley offered this holiday-themed thought: “Tuesday marked the 210th anniversary of the birth of our nation’s great 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. this famous.\n\nSPRINGFIELD – Speaking in the room where Abraham Lincoln delivered his “house divided” speech, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called for unity and mutual.\n\n\n\nEach of us has our own answer to that question, but today as we remember our fellow Americans who were murdered 17 years ago, we’re reminded of the famous Abraham Lincoln quote, \"A house divided.\n\nBut those gains should be indexed relative to inflation or whatever, right? Like if I buy a $100k house. and inflation happens for 30 years, and I sell the house for $150k, I’ve effectively lost a shitton of money– surely I shouldn’t be taxed on that $50k, right?\n\n\nHillary Clinton on Wednesday called for unity, acknowledging a “sense of division” among Americans stemming from violence and partisanship. She spoke at the Old State House. Abraham Lincoln. But in.\n\nWhy was Abraham Lincoln murdered. Address and the last paragraph of his Second Inaugural Address. But Lincoln in his own time was celebrated — and infamous — for his House Divided speech and the.\n\nSecret Empire. The teaser image, above, was released without any information beyond the line \"A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand\" — which isn’t just an Abraham Lincoln quote, but also a.\n\nThe alarm rang just as my friend was about to touch Mrs. Lincoln’s dress. But no worries, security officers didn’t rush over to escort us from the building. Embarrassed, we continued to make our way.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9838137030601501}
+{"content": "\n\n— Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina”\n\nWASHINGTON — We ought to leave “happiness” to novelists and philosophers — and rescue it from the economists and psychologists who think it can be distilled into a “science” and translated into pro-happiness policies. Fat chance. Government can often mitigate sources of unhappiness (starvation, unemployment, disease), but happiness is more than the absence of misery. If we could manufacture happiness, we could repeal the “human condition.”\n\nSomehow this has escaped the social scientists who want to make happiness the goal of government. They argue that economic output (gross domestic product) doesn't measure everything that's important in life — family, friends or religion, for example. True, but it doesn't follow that “happiness” can be targeted as an alternative. No matter. Their latest brief is the “World Happiness Report,” which ranks countries by their “subjective well-being” (the technical label for happiness) as recorded by public opinion surveys.\n\n\nAll these countries share one common characteristic: They're small in population and, except Canada and Australia, land mass. Small countries enjoy an advantage in the happiness derby. They're more likely to have homogeneous populations with fewer ethnic, religious and geographic conflicts. This minimizes one potentially large source of unhappiness. Among big countries, the United States ranks first.\n\nThe irony is that Europe, where the happiness movement is strongest, generally registers lower happiness. On the same ranking, the United Kingdom (18) is the leading large European nation, followed by Spain (22), France (23), Italy (28) and Germany (30).\n\nThe relationship between economic growth and happiness is controversial. In 1974, economist Richard Easterlin of the University of Southern California published a study arguing that (a) within countries, the middle class and rich reported being happier than the poor; but (b) as countries became richer, reported happiness didn't increase. This was dubbed the “Easterlin Paradox.” One theory is that people grow accustomed to higher incomes and compare themselves to those around them. If everyone gets richer, people at the bottom remain less happy.\n\nWell, if economic growth doesn't make people happier, what's the point? The happiness movement is often anti-growth. Yes, the poorest countries need growth to relieve misery. But otherwise, “the lifestyles of the rich imperil the survival of the poor,” writes Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs in the happiness report. “Climate change is already hitting the poorest regions.”\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.848924994468689}
+{"content": "Football Federation of Kosovo joins UEFA\n\nFlorence Hardouin elected as female representative on UEFA Executive Committee\n\nFlorence Hardouin has been elected to the UEFA Executive Committee and Kosovo became the 55th member association. The decisions from Budapest are explained in the video.\n\n023 - Florence Hardouin elected as female representative on UEFA Executive Committee\n\nThe Football Federation of Kosovo (FFK) was admitted as the 55th member association of UEFA with immediate effect after a vote at the 40th Ordinary UEFA Congress in Budapest.\n\nA simple majority was needed for the FFK to become a member and it received 28 votes in favour, with 24 votes against and two invalid votes cast.\n\n\"I welcome our 55th member,\" said UEFA General Secretary ad interim Theodore Theodoridis. \"It was a very democratic process, and very open discussions [took place] between the national associations. We respect the result of the Congress [vote].\"\n\nFlorence Hardouin (France) was elected as the female member on the UEFA Executive Committee for the 2016-19 period, receiving 33 votes against the 21 votes received by Karen Espelund (Norway).\n\n\"I'm proud and delighted,\" the 49-year-old French Football Federation (FFF) general manager said after the election. \"It's a great honour for myself, for France and for the French federation. A lot of challenges lie ahead, and I hope to bring to UEFA the experiences that we are gathering with the organisation of UEFA EURO 2016. I also hope to contribute to continuing the development of women's football.\"\n\nThe UEFA Congress ratified the list of members of the UEFA Organs for the Administration of Justice and the list of members of the UEFA Governance and Compliance Committee for the period 2015-2019, as appointed by the UEFA Executive Committee on 29 June 2015.\n\nFinally, several amendments to the UEFA Statutes were approved.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7209567427635193}
+{"content": "Significance of 3D Architectural Renderings for High Rise Buildings\n\nHigh-rise buildings are becoming more and more popular in many countries for both commercial and residential commitments and purposes, due to the increasing land costs and growing metropolitan, urban population. They are ideal for cost-saving and practicality for numerous industries especially those that have a large number of human resources, like service sector.\n\nThere is also a rising trend of people preferring to live near their work places due to several reasons like saving time and fuel, diminishing pollution effects and being eco friendly. This has considerably increased the demand for residential communities established in sky scrapers.\n\nRigensis for web\n\nThe success of such tall buildings lies greatly on the prudence of the architects who plan their design. A good visualization method like 3D architectural rendering becomes extremely useful for architects in helping them employ their skills in the best likely and probable ways. It not only augments the quality of their work, but also saves their precious time that can be invested in more projects to keep pace with the growing demands in the industry.\n\nChallenges in Designing High Rise Buildings\n\nHigh rise buildings need to be structurally strong and powerful enough to withstand the pressures of extreme weather conditions and natural disasters. They need to have appropriate fire safety procedures in place. The ease of use of amenities like parking space, elevators and other amenities also becomes equally important. Hence, it becomes essential to exercise extreme care and caution in crafting the design of high rise buildings, taking into account of all safety norms as well as incorporating features for practical convenience.\n\nThese targets are achievable thanks to the technology advancements in construction industry. Their benefits can be maximized by devising an efficient plan with their optimal utilization. 3D rendering technique is a key enabler in visualizing all the technical aspects pertaining to the construction of high rise buildings.\n\nImportance of the Building Design\n\nThe detailed design plan of a construction assignment created by the architects acts as a basis for determining the complete set of requirements of the scheme like estimation of time, budget and resources for various project activities like development, quality assurance, safety enforcement and any relevant approval processes. It becomes more significant in case of the high rise buildings as the degree of impact of the design is much greater as the undertaking involves huge amount of resources and budget.\n\nThe building design is used as a reference for planning critical tasks such as selection of the right materials and technology, defining and scheduling the work deliverable of the several working teams involved, and recognition of inter-team and external dependencies etc.\n\nHow 3D Rendering Makes a Difference\n\nThe 3D rendering methods help the architect to visualize all the architectural elements of a high rise building in a more pragmatic manner. The photorealistic 3D images provide a snap shot of the future building with all the visual aspects of the design. They offer the possibility to perceive the advantages and repercussions of the plan and explore ways to improve the efficacies of the positives and eliminate the pitfalls from the negatives.\n\n\nThe 3D visualization techniques are useful for the complete range of architectural renderings covering the interior and exterior part of the building including floor plans, individual room plans, landscape of the surroundings etc. and advanced features like interactive rendering, composite photographic rendering etc.\n\nThe Major Benefits of using 3D Renderings in Architectural Resign of High Rise Buildings are\n\nClose to Real Images\n\n3D rendering uses 3D visualization techniques to capture two dimensional images of the building models and replicating them in three dimensions. These images depicting the design of tall buildings are so close to reality that even finer details can be clearly observed and easily improved. A wide collection of professional tools like AutoCAD, Photoshop and 3D Studio Max etc. is available to generate such photorealistic pictures.\n\nClear Sketch of Interior Specifications\n\nThe visual details of the interiors of the building like colour and layout are made easy to visualize by the 3D renderings. They give the opportunity for building planners to offer more customization to the buyers. This is because the customers can get a feel of living in the building thanks to the realistic 3D graphics and animation techniques and recommend modifications in the plan or suggestion to improve the features related to the building.\n\nAs there are generally multiple customers are involved in a high rise building, this potential to clearly define the interior specifications and customizable features is key in arriving at a common agreement while finalising the plan before beginning the construction. It deeply reduces time and cost and eliminates possible disputes.\n\nBird’s Eye View of Exteriors\n\nThe bird’s eye view of the sky scrapers generated using 3D architectural rendering provides a comprehensive outlook of the building surrounding, locality and external conditions. This helps to understand the environmental constraints involved and determine any approval requirements well ahead of the start of the project. It gives ample time to obtain the permits from the relevant departments.\n\nDynamic Visualization\n\nThe 3D rendering methods are useful not only to visualize the static images of the buildings, but also to simulate real-time future events that may take place in the building. The scope for dynamic visualization enables the simulation of critical incidents like earth quake, wind pressure and fire to study their impact on the building. 3D visualizations are exceedingly interactive with platform to imitate manual events to test their impact.\n\n\nArtistic Portray\n\nThe architectural rendering using 3D graphics provide a competitive benefit over competitors due to their neat presentation. Many specialist tools like ArchiCAD, 3D MAX and V-Ray enhance the aesthetic look of the designs. An artistic portray of the real estate projects created by 3D rendering methods is a good marketing trigger that magnifies the image of the project and attracts more customers. It is also the best tool to communicate the details of the building and highlight the customer friendly features.\n\nThe exceptional and unique benefits and advantages that 3D architectural rendering offers to high rise buildings are expected to grow with the growth of technological innovations in the software industry.\n\nRelated Posts\n\nComments are closed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9376917481422424}
+{"content": "Rats and Mice\n\nThere are two types of squirrel in the UK, the grey squirrel and the red squirrel. The grey squirrel is more common. Grey squirrels were introduced into the UK from America around the turn of the 19th Century. Since then, their numbers have continued to grow.\n\nThe grey squirrel can easily out compete the native red squirrel for food. It eats closer to ground level and, unlike the red, is capable of digesting acorns. The grey squirrel also carries a virus to which it is immune but which can kill red squirrels. These factors have brought about a steady decline in the number of red squirrels whilst the grey squirrels thrive in vast numbers.\n\nThe grey squirrel is common throughout England (south of Cumbria) and Wales and also exists in pockets in Scotland. With the exception of a small, local population in Italy, it is absent from the rest of mainland Europe.\n\nTown and Country\n\nSquirrel on Bird FeederWhilst grey squirrels enjoy the seclusion of dense woodland, they are equally at home in our towns and cities in almost any location where trees are present and where a source of food can be found.\n\nProblems with squirrels are often exacerbated by humans who feed them either intentionally, or indirectly using bird tables or feeders, unaware that their action will bring about not only an increase in numbers but an increase in squirrel-related problems.\n\nSignificant damage to property\n\nSquirrelGrey squirrels are rodents and are often referred to as tree rats. Like those of other rodents, squirrels' teeth are well-adapted to gnaw and break down materials such as wood and bark in order to provide bedding. In woodland, this behaviour can cause significant damage to trees: squirrels strip them of their bark, a behaviour that can ultimately result in the death of the tree.\n\nSquirrels will make the most of every opportunity available to take up residence in both domestic or commercial properties. They are attracted to the seclusion and warmth of a loft, for example. Once they have established a presence, their gnawing will continue, sometimes resulting in structural damage to the building. It is not uncommon for squirrels to strip back electrical wiring which on occasions has created a need for expensive remedial work and has even started fires.\n\nRemoval and Exclusion\n\nIf you suspect you have a problem with squirrels, County Pest Control can deal with their removal. We can apply physical controls as well as offering advice to our clients designed to help prevent the return of the pest.\n\nBecause of the extreme speed with which squirrels can do significant damage to property, we would encourage clients to adopt a proactive approach to managing this issue. If you have seen squirrels in or around your property then give us a call and we can advise you.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7449163794517517}
+{"content": "Head dream meaning\n\nHave one without body, freedom. Wash your own head, the finish of all the danger. Have another person head, a distant voyage or commercial expedition. Have the head that is small, means light or pointed weakness of spirits, servitude and dishonor. To feel that someone is bathing your head, damage. To have the head larger or more elevated than people usually have, professional dignity according to the estate of the dreamer, gain of a lawsuit, triumph over adversaries. If the dreamer, or whoever he sees in the dream, is engaged in commerce or any other trade marketing, and his head is off, then it shows disappointments with his business. Have the head swollen, riches and profit for the dreamer’s employers or children. Have the head of a wolf or other savage beast means complete success in all undertakings, competitors vanquished, the respect of fellow citizens. To have the headache, means loss of credit. Have two heads, society or association. To hold your head in your hands loss of something important in your life, otherwise it could indicate the happiness and achieved goals. See a death’s-head, you must be more cautious if you wish to win against your rivals.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994409084320068}
+{"content": "Botox Specialist\n\nAlpine Dermatology Clinic\n\nDermatologists located in Rexburg, ID & Idaho Falls, ID\n\nIf you’re not happy with deep wrinkles on your face and neck, it’s time to talk with Dr. Daniel Marshall and his highly-skilled team about Botox injections. His expertise and years of experience injecting Botox give patients the results they desire when they’re treated at Alpine Dermatology Clinic in Rexburg and Idaho Falls, Idaho.\n\nBotox Q & A\n\nWhat is Botox?\n\nBotox is a drug made from botulinum toxin, but the cosmetic form consists of a very weak and safe dose of the toxin. When it’s injected into muscles, the muscles relax and stop contracting for about 3-4 months. Since a small amount is used in specifically targeted muscles, other facial muscles aren’t affected. You’ll still appear natural and will be able to move your face to reflect emotions and expressions.\n\nDr. Marshall will tell you how to take care of your skin after the treatment, but you don’t have to take time to recover after a Botox injection. You can get right back to your daily routine and women can safely reapply makeup as soon as the treatment is finished.\n\nWhy is Botox the best treatment for certain age-related wrinkles?\n\nAs you age, your face goes through natural changes that cause different types of lines and wrinkles. Deep wrinkles develop from the repeated use of muscles responsible for facial expressions, like when you smile and make expressions related to surprise, confusion, or worry. The pull of muscles on your skin creates creases that bounce back at first. But as you get older, and skin loses strength, tone, and elasticity, the creases gradually become permanent wrinkles.\n\nBotox is an excellent treatment for these expression lines because it can be injected directly into the underlying muscles responsible for the deep wrinkles. As a result, it’s often used to diminish or eliminate frown lines, crow’s feet, forehead furrows, and wrinkles on the neck.\n\nHow can Dr. Marshall help you achieve optimal results?\n\nWhen you’re considering a Botox treatment, you want a professional who has Dr. Marshall’s expertise. Since the treatment must target a small and precise area of muscle without affecting surrounding muscles, injecting Botox requires a thorough knowledge of facial anatomy, how each muscle in the face works, and how each muscle interacts with other muscles. Then the right dose must be determined for each patient. You can count on Dr. Marshall’s years of experience to help you get your desired result.\n\nNothing is more important than making sure we understand and can meet your expectations, so when you meet with Dr. Marshall, he takes the time to answer your questions and explain what to expect during and after treatment. If you have any concerns about lines and wrinkles, don’t hesitate to contact Alpine Dermatology Clinic.\n\nInsurance Accepted\n\nAlpine Dermatology will bill most insurance companies as a courtesy to the patient. Please contact your insurance carrier for coverage and benefit details. In most situations we are considered in-network with the following companies and network. Again, we cannot guarantee that we are considered in-network with your individual policy. Please contact your insurance carrier’s customer service department to confirm if we are in-network before your visit.\n\nAltius (Coventry Health Care)\nBlue Cross Blue Shield\nFirst Health\nIdaho Medicaid\nIdaho Physicians Network\nOur Locations\n\nChoose your preferred location", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7873117327690125}
+{"content": "The Radiation Post\n\nWhat is Nuclear Power?\n\nThe process yielding nuclear power is called nuclear fission and was discovered by German physicist Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann back in 1938. This article is well-timed because the two discovered the energy generated by nuclear fission during a Christmas vacation.\n\nNuclear fission splits the atoms of heavy metals\n\nThe scientists discovered that splitting the atoms of heavy metals, specifically radioactive uranium, releases a tremendous amount of energy. This is the opposite process to nuclear fusion – the joining together of atoms – which occurs in suns and stars.\n\nAs it seems to be with many scientific discoveries, nuclear fission happened as an accident. It was a byproduct of experimenting with newly identified neutrons to explore atoms. In fact, the first incidences of nuclear fission were happening as the result of experiments a physicist named Enrico Fermi conductrf back in 1934.\n\nAt the time, Fermi theorized that the elements resulting from the neutron-bombarded uranium atoms were the first elements heavier than uranium. Another scientist, Ida Noddack proposed the byproducts were lighter, not heavier, but her input was largely ignored by scientific academics at the time. Instead, it turned out Fermi was creating elements that were lighter than uranium, including the remnants of various decay products.\n\nMultiple scientists continued to bombard uranium and other heavy metals with neutrons, trying to learn as much as they could about atoms and this mysterious ocurrance. Otto, Fritz, and colleague Lise Meitner continued performing experiments and calculations, and finally figured out what was happening – that the uranium atoms were splitting in two, similar to the way a drop of water does when spliced in half.\n\nAs reports, “Frisch named the new nuclear process “fission” after learning that the term “binary fission” was used by biologists to describe cell division.”\n\nWithin months of their research being published (without any mention of Lise Meitner’s substantial contributions to the experimentation and theorizing), physicists and others realized this splitting of atoms had the potential to generate vast quantities of energy.\n\nUnfortunately, the technology was first leveraged in the form of the widely disastrous and life-altering weapon known as the Atomic bomb. The controversial, secondary byproduct of their discovery is nuclear energy, which is now used to run nuclear power plants.\n\nNuclear power uses the micro-process of fission to generate steam power\n\nAs a source of “clean” energy, nuclear fission is used to produce mass quantities of steam that spins turbines, converting it the steam into electricity.\n\nGeneral Electric explains:\n\n\n\nCurrently, there are more than 450 nuclear reactors actively producing energy in 30 different countries. The United States has the most nuclear reactors, followed by France and Japan. In fact, in 2018, 80% of the energy used in France was generated by nuclear power.\n\nJust as nuclear power generates tremendous heat, the debate about whether or not nuclear power is a clean source of energy continues to be debated. It is true that a perfectly designed, maintained, and functioning nuclear power plant is emissions-free.\n\nThe controversy is due to the reality that no system is perfect, and the effects of maintenance errors, malfunctions, meltdowns, or improper storage of radioactive materials have led to disastrous tragedies, like Fukushima and Chernobyl, where radiation levels will remain high for multiple generations to come.\n\nAlso, there is the reality that while nuclear power doesn’t require the burning or use of fossil fuels, uranium stores (like fossil fuels) are not renewable, and their mining, processing, handling, and disposal requires an extreme level of protection and safety protocols.\n\nFor the positives surrounding nuclear power, we direct you to and, both of whom are proponents of nuclear power.\n\nProtection from incidents related to nuclear power\n\nThe undeniable reality around nuclear power is that it is exceptionally clean – until it isn’t. Then, it is exceptionally harmful. For that reason, individuals who work in radioactive environments, and those who work or live in close proximity to nuclear power plants, are wise to remain informed, alert, and prepared for a potential disaster.\n\nThis includes:\n\nThe team here at Lancs Industries dedicates our lives and our career to providing radiation shielding and protection products, including customized radiation protection, to companies and radiation-vulnerable industries. Contact us to learn more about our products and services.\n\nRadiation and Pregnancy\n\nIf you’re planning to get pregnant, or you’re currently pregnant, pay attention to your occupational and environmental surroundings. Infinite studies find negative correlations between radiation exposure and higher infertility rates, increased pregnancy risks, as well as higher rates of chromosomal and genetic abnormalities.\n\nFor more detailed information about radiation and its effects on pregnancy, visit The March of Dimes’ page on Radiation and Pregnancy. And, if you feel you or your partner at a higher-than-normal risk of radiation exposure, speak to your healthcare provider ASAP for customized, medical support.\n\nThe good news is that basic precautions go a long way to minimizing the detrimental impacts of unhealthy radiation exposure.\n\nRadiation and Pregnancy\n\nKnow the Radiation Risks Before You Conceive\n\nIf you’re planning to get pregnant, odds are your doctor encourages you to prepare your body for a healthy pregnancy, considering lifestyle choices such as diet, exercise, and healthy sleep habits.\n\nWe’d encourage you to go a step further and evaluate if you or your partner are experiencing higher-than-healthy doses of radiation. Some things to consider to minimize daily risks of radiation exposure include:\n\nKnowing the ins-and-outs of your workplace\n\nWe’ve put together a list of “radioactive jobs or careers” associated with radiation exposure. However, it’s worth asking your employer whether or not you are exposed at work. It could be that you work in the office, and the manufacturing floor uses radioactive products, in which case you need to know so you can avoid certain areas or protect yourself accordingly.\n\nIf you already know you work in a place housing or utilizing radioactive materials, speak to your manager or owner about your concerns. They may opt to move you into a different position, to order higher-level protective products for you, or to place you on a paid leave until you’ve safely given birth to your healthy baby.\n\nHave your home tested for radon\n\nRadon is a naturally occurring radioactive material found in the earth. However, some regions are more radon-rich than others, and this odorless/colorless radioactive material can build up in homes or buildings that aren’t adequately ventilated or protected.\n\nHave your home and water sources tested for radon to determine whether or not modifications should be made to bring radon levels down into the safe zone.\n\nMake sure to inform health professionals\n\nWhile lead blankets go a long way towards protecting you and your baby from radiation exposure during an x-ray or other medical procedures, don’t rely on them completely. Always let healthcare providers know you are trying to conceive or that you are pregnant. They may opt to take extra special measures – or skip those procedures altogether until a later date – to prevent you from harmful radiation exposure.\n\nInform airport security\n\nTechnically, the current security scanning devices used by TSA are considered safe. However, we recommend not taking your chances at all. When pregnant or accompanied by a baby or small child, TSA professionals will let you walk through the metal detectors instead. This may mean requiring an additional pat-down afterward, but these are always done in full view of the public (you can opt for a private screening if you prefer), and very respectfully, with a clear explanation of exactly what they’re doing.\n\nRe-think how/where you use cell phones, laptops, and other Wi-Fi gadgets\n\nProduct manufacturers and the government consider cell phones, and other wi-fi gadgets to operate at safe levels when it comes to the electromagnetic (radioactive) energy levels they expose users to on a daily basis.\n\nHowever, there have been some studies that link laptop and cellphone use to lower/poor sperm count and quality, and damage to DNA. So, the scientific world is continually debating the safety/harm ratios of these devices and the electromagnetic energy used to run them – especially as more Wi-Fi hotspots and cell phone towers populate the environment. We recommend using blue-tooth options whenever possible and keeping cell phones and Wi-Fi devices away from the groin and pelvic regions for extra protection.\n\nKnow the signs of radiation sickness\n\nIf you do work in a radioactive environment, pay close attention to physical signs and symptoms. Many of the same symptoms that affect women during pregnancy are also symptoms of radiation sickness. Keep in close touch with your healthcare provider if your “pregnancy symptoms” concern you or seem atypical to you.\n\nAbove All, Don’t Panic\n\nWhile it’s true that radiation can be harmful to your reproductive system and/or a developing fetus, we also know that stress is harmful to you and your baby. Since stress is more common than radiation, we don’t want to cause any unnecessary alarm or fear.\n\nJust pay attention to your environments and your daily habits, and take precautions as you see fit. Some types of daily doses of radiation are entirely normal, and humans have evolved to accommodate these.\n\nIf, however, you feel your exposure to radiation goes beyond that, it’s wise to take action. If a geographic or career change isn’t an option, contact us here at Lancs Industries. In addition to having a wealth of radiation shielding products available, we also specialize in custom orders. Our team can work with you to determine your level of exposure and the types of radiation protection that make the most sense for you.\n\nIs Radiation Ever Good For You?\n\nThe majority of the time, we view ionizing forms of radiation as dangerous – and that’s a good premise to hold. In high doses, or in low exposure doses over an extended period of time, ionizing radiation damages DNA, which leads to defects, cancer, and other radiation-related illnesses.\n\nThe flip side of that story is medical radiation, which uses varying levels of radiation to treat cancer and other medical diagnoses, and radiation hormesis, a theory that states very low doses of ionizing radiation is not only good for you, the absence of any radiation may even be harmful. This article pertains solely to the concept of radiation hormesis, and how exposure to low doses of radiation may be helpful rather than harmful to human existence.\n\nIs Radiation Ever Good For You\n\nRadiation Hormesis Theory: Low-Dose Radiation May Be Good For You\n\nNOTE: Please know that this concept is only a theory. The effects of low-level radiation are very difficult to observe and highly controversial. Science has yet to prove whether small doses of radiation are beneficial or not. Currently, there is no evidence for hormesis in humans and in the case of the National Research Council hormesis is outright rejected as a possibility.\n\nThe theory of radiation hormesis states, “low doses of ionizing radiation (within the region of and just above natural background levels) are beneficial, stimulating the activation of repair mechanisms that protect against disease…”\n\nWhile evidence is clear that higher doses of radiation, or regular doses of radiation over long periods of time (think nuclear emergencies, the long term effects of the atomic bomb, or for employees regularly exposed to ionizing radiation in the workplace), it has difficult to prove whether the theory of radiation hormesis is legitimate.\n\nAs a company that manufactures radiation shielding products, and that has been dedicated to keeping people safe from harmful doses of radiation for nearly 50 years, we do not support any government policies that would diminish nuclear energy/weaponry regulations – or that would put humans at risk. What we can say is that there may be something to the idea that very low, everyday levels of radiation may be beneficial since they have been a regular part of human evolution.\n\nIn many ways, the radiation hormesis theory is similar to what we know about the human immune system. Just as the human immune system has evolved to respond and defend itself against bacterial, viral, and fungal invaders, the radiation hormesis theory states that the cells of humans and other living organisms may have inherent repair mechanisms that are the result of their constant, natural exposure to low-doses of ionizing radiation.\n\nThus, just as lack of exposure to bacteria leave an immune system weakened or ill-equipped, supporters of radiation hormesis theory propose that eliminating all sources of radiation exposure from humans could potentially diminish cellular capacity to repair and heal the body.\n\nPerhaps normal daily doses of radiation are enough\n\nWhat we mean by that is while we don’t support changes in public policy around known, harmful doses of radiation exposure, there is a common sense logic to the fact that humans and other living species on our planet may have evolved to build cellular defense/repair mechanisms in response to the daily doses of radiation we are exposed to all the time.\n\nVisit our post, Radiation Doses in Our Daily Lives, to learn about these sources in more detail.\n\nSome of the most common and natural sources of very low-grade, ionizing radiation include:\n\n • The sun\n • Drinking water\n • The soil (don’t forget that radiation occurs naturally via many of the earth’s elements)\n • Foods we eat since they pull radiation up from the soil beneath\n • Radon (a naturally occurring source of radiation that emerges from beneath the earth’s crust)\n • Cosmic rays that make their way into the earth’s atmosphere\n\nSince these are a natural occurrence, the theory that our body’s cells created a system to monitor and repair any damage related to exposure to daily radiation sources seems logical. Again, this natural, evolutionary process would be similar to the way the immune system is able to respond to common bacterial or viral invasions.\n\nBeware Higher-Levels of Radiation Doses\n\nWhile the theory behind basic, radiation hormesis theory is logically sound – it has not been proven. And, the concept has gained the attention of the press lately as the Trump administration has been raising the question of whether radiation hormesis is true, and whether current legislation designed to prevent harmful radiation exposure leading to cancer, radiation poisoning or sickness, and other deficiencies should be reevaluated.\n\nThose wary of the administration’s willingness to rethink federal standards for radiation doses received by the public and by workers cite the administration’s appointment of key radiation hormesis supporters to the Radiation Advisory Panel at the Environmental Protection Agency.\n\nWhile we aren’t interested in using our company’s website or blog to promote political beliefs or opinions, we do think is is always important for the public to pay attention to any new policies proposed by the EPA’s Radiation Advisory Panel. Their findings, policies, and legal mandates are essential to American (and global!) health and safety with regards to radiation.\n\nThe Benefits of the 3 Principles of Radiation Protection Are Proven\n\nRegardless of the EPAs fluctuating views on radiation exposure, and whether low doses are beneficial or not, the team here at Lancs Industries always adheres to the three principles of radiation protection:\n\n 1. Limit the amount of time you’re exposed to radiation\n 2. Limit radiation dosage\n 3. Optimize your level of protection\n\nThese three principles will never lead you astray.\n\nInterested in more ways to protect yourself from harmful doses of radiation in the workplace or at home? Contact us here at Lancs Industries.\n\nWhat is Radon?\n\nRadon is a naturally occurring element that off-gases from the earth’s crust, as well as part of the radioactive decay process of other radioactive elements. It’s also the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, and smokers who live or work in a building with high radon levels experience much higher rates of lung cancer as well.\n\nWhile it is dispersed effectively in an outdoor environment, radon is denser than air. That means it can be trapped inside homes, schools, businesses and other buildings if it seeps in from underground without being adequately ventilated back out again.\n\nNote: Radon can also be found in drinking water. However, the majority of the risk in terms of human radon exposure and radiation sickness/cancer are linked to radon gas inhalation rather than ingestion.\n\nRadon 101: Test, Take Action, and Re-Test\n\nHere are things you should know about radon to prevent harmful exposure.\n\nSome regions are more “radon rich” than others\n\nWhile radon occurs everywhere and is considered a form of daily radiation exposure, some regions have higher levels of radon than others. You can CLICK HERE to view a map of the EPA’s Interactive Radon Zones By County.\n\nHowever, most experts agree that homes, schools, and businesses test for radon annually – or bi-annually – just to make sure radon levels in the building are within the safe limits.\n\nYou can purchase an affordable home radon testing kit\n\nYou can purchase high-quality, home radon testing kits for $30 or less at your local home improvement store. To ensure you’re getting an accurate reading, the EPA recommends purchasing your kit through Kansas State University’s National Radon Program Services, where short term tests (2- 4-days) are just $15, and longer-term test kits (2 to 12-months) cost $25.\n\nIf cost is an issue, visit the EPAs pages regarding their various Radon Grant Programs.\n\nOnce testing is complete, you can return the test kit for analysis at no extra charge. If your home, school, or place of business has radon levels that exceed the EPA’s “safe limits” of 148 Bq/m3 (4 pCi/L) or less, you’ll be given instructions on how to proceed.\n\nHire a licensed, experienced service provider to mitigate radon issues\n\nMitigating unhealthy radon levels in a home requires a multi-step approach. Read the Consumer’s Guide to Radon Reduction, for detailed instructions and recommendations. Some of the steps required include:\n\n • Sealing foundation cracks, openings, and leaks\n • Installing a soil suction radon reduction system, which uses a pipe and fan system to vent radon out of the ground beneath your home and into the outdoors where it disperses naturally\n • Creating a gas-permeable layer beneath the slab or flooring\n\nTo be on the safe side, it’s best to hire a professional who does this type of work for a living to make sure the measures you take are professionally completed and effective.\n\nThe EPA provides two agencies you can contact to locate an experienced radon professional in your area.\n\nNational Radon Proficiency Program (NRPP)\n\nFax: (828) 890-4161\nEmail: National Radon Proficiency Program (\n\nNational Radon Safety Board (NRSB)\nToll Free: (866) 329-3474\nFax: (914) 345-1169\nEmail: National Radon Safety Board (\n\nSpeak to your HVAC contractor about whole-home pressurization and ventilation\n\nThe better ventilated your home is, the less likely you are to experience elevated radon levels. Speak to your HVAC contractor about whole-home pressurization and ventilation. This keeps radon moving, and pushes it on out of your home should it makes its way into your home through a basement and/or foundation.\n\nYou can also ask about installing a heat recovery ventilator, or HRV, also called an air-to-air heat exchanger. This additional layer of ventilation is another safeguard to prevent radon gas from settling in your home.\n\nUltimately, education, testing, and preventative measures are the key to keeping radon at safe levels in your home. If you find out your home has high levels of radon, start the conversation with your neighborhood and local community and rally the troops to protect themselves. Odds are you aren’t the only household or building on the block that requires remediation. The simple act of spreading the word and low-cost testing can truly save lives.\n\nThe team here at Lancs Industries dedicates our work to protecting employees and the public from unnecessary radiation exposure. Contact us to learn more.\n\nWhat is Radioactive Decay?\n\nThe majority of the elements in the periodic table are “stable,” and non-radioactive. Some, however, are unstable and experience a process called radioactive decay, during which they emanate ionizing radiation.\n\nUnlike other forms of radiation, ionizing radiation is harmful to the human body because it alters our DNA. Longterm and/or overexposure to ionizing radiation can make you sick, cause intense burns, cause cancer, and has additional negative, long-term side effects.\n\nRadioactive Decay Ultimately Makes Unstable Elements Stable\n\nOne definition of radioactive decay could be, “the emission of energy in the form of ionizing radiation.” But what is this energy – and how is it “energized?”\n\nFirst, you have to understand a bit more about the periodic table. Most images of the periodic table are color-coded based on the ways individual elements are categorized into groups. One of the most basic of these groupins is:\n\n • Inert gases\n • Metals\n • Non-Metals\n\nYou could also divide the elements into two categories:\n\n • Stable\n • Unstable\n\nSince the majority of the 118 elements found on the current periodic table are considered “stable,” it also means these elements’ nuclei have strong enough bonds to hold themselves permanently together. However, there are 15 elements found in nature that are considered unstable all on their own. Then there are other elements that become unstable via various chemical processes, and that adds about 22 more to the mix. Altogether, the current periodic table shows 37 elements as being radioactive.\n\nThe elements’ instability is caused by loose bonds in their nuclei, so the elements continue to “decay,” or lose some of their energy, to achieve a stable, tightly-bound nucleus.\n\nWhen an element emits ionizing radiation in its efforts to become stable, it is referred to as a radionuclide.\n\nAs radionuclides decay, they continue transforming into radioactive variations of themselves, until they finally become stable (and safe again). This process of radioactive decay can happen in a single step, or it can take place over and over again for multiple steps. If radioactive decay occurs multiple times over, the process is referred to as a decay chain.\n\nFor example, here is a diagram depicting the decay chain for the very unstable, and radioactive radionuclide, U(ranium)-238, and all of the unstable radionuclides in the decay process until it becomes PB-(Lead)-206, where it’s stable again.\n\nProtect Yourself From Radionuclides\n\nIf you work in a lab, weapons manufacturing plant, or anywhere that stable elements are intentionally altered to become radioactive, your company has a Radiation Safety Plan of some sort in place. Similarly, anyone working in another version of a radioactive career will be provided with the education and protective products required to keep them safe.\n\nHowever, some of us are exposed to radioactive decay in our everyday lives, and this requires awareness and proactive action to keep yourself safe. Ultimately, radiation sickness occurs when you are exposed to large doses of radiation all at once, like a nuclear plant meltdown or nuclear weapons detonation. Or, it can happen via small doses of ionizing radiation over a long period of time. Read, Know Your Radiation Exposure Limits, to learn more about that.\n\nSlow, long-term exposure is the most common way most of us would be affected by radioactive decay. For example, radon is one of those 15, previously mentioned elements that are radioactive and found in Mother Nature. It is part of the earth’s crust and depending on where you live, your home can have higher-than-normal levels of radon toxicity, which is a threat to your health.\n\nIn our post about radiation doses in our daily lives, we mentioned that radon, “Radon is a radioactive gas that can is sucked into your home through the soil via cracks, structural holes, and decaying structural materials. Without proper ventilation, this gas gets trapped. Radon may also be present in water that you swallow or dust particles that you inhale.”\n\nYou can Click Here to view the CDC’s Radon Zone Map. However, we recommend having your home tested to be on the safe side. The tests are inexpensive and you can “fix” it if levels are above the recommended guidelines of 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) or higher.\n\nBeing aware of where you live and its radioactive exposure from geographical, environmental, and industrial sources is the best thing you can do to protect yourself. Protection from harmful ionizing radiation via radioactive decay can be as simple as doing what it takes to “clean it up,” or as serious as moving elsewhere to minimize your family’s risk.\n\nIf you are concerned about radioactive decay and whether or not you’re at risk, visit the EPA’s website on Radiation Protection to learn more on the subject.\n\nLancs Industries is dedicated to creating effective and reasonably priced radiation shielding and containment products to increase the safety of workers in potentially hazardous environments. We’re working to create a safer and healthier world.\n\nUV Radiation: What You Need to Know\n\nThere is no way to avoid sources of radiation if you live on planet earth. From the ultra-violet (UV) radiation we’re exposed to from the sun to cosmic, micro- and other forms of radiation – we encounter small and manageable radioactive doses as a part of daily life.\n\nFortunately, a little education and some basic, routine precautions will protect you from any harmful effects of UV radiation – including cancer – so you can enjoy the health benefits of the great outdoors without worry or stress.\n\nWhat is UV Radiation?\n\nWhile sun beds and tanning salons produce manufactured UV light, the large majority of UV radiation we encounter comes to us via sunlight. While they make up only a very small amount of the sun’s rays, UV rays do the most damage to unprotected human skin. In fact, their radiation exposure is considered ionizing, meaning it negatively alters our skin cells’ DNA.\n\nUV rays are divided into three main categories:\n\n 1. UVA Rays: Typically, UVA rays are the ones that contribute most to skin cell damage that leads to aging – i.e. wrinkles and minor sun spotting. Experts also think that intense exposure – like the larger-than-sun-power doses of UVA encountered at tanning beds – put you at higher risk for skin cancer.\n 2. UVB Rays: These rays have more energy than UVA rays. The damage the skin cells via direct contact, so you can blame the UVBs the next time you get a nasty sunburn. Overtime, repeat skin cell damage affects the DNA, which damages the genes that guide healthy cell regeneration, and this causes skin cancer. For some, just a few bad sunburns as a child can lead to skin cancer as an adult.\n 3. UVC Rays: These are a non-entity for us because although they have more energy than the other two, they are a source of cosmic radiation that is filtered from our planet’s surface by the atmosphere.\n\nMost medical professionals agree that there is no such thing as a “safe” UV ray. Therefore, it’s your job to take adequate precautions.\n\nUse the Principles of Radiation Protection to Prevent Skin Cancer\n\nBecause UV rays are a form of radiation, the Principles of Radiation Protection are just as relevant to humans outdoors on a sunny day as they are for anyone who works in a radioactive career. The three principles are:\n\n • It should do more good than harm. Your skin should only be exposed to UV rays when it will do more good than harm. For example, you’re getting outdoors for some exercise and having a good time with yourself, family and friends. On the flip side, if you want to take a nap, you’re better off getting out of the chaise lounge and heading indoors to a couch or bed to minimize exposure.\n • You should limit the amount of time you’re exposed. In most cases, peak sun exposure (UV radiation exposure) is from 10 a.m. to about 4 p.m. Therefore, it’s best to spend time outdoors before or after these peak hours, and to limit the amount of time you’re exposed to the UV rays if you are outdoors during those hours.\n • Try to limit your radiation dose. If you are spending a fair amount of time in the sun, do your best to limit exposure to reasonable doses. While a dosimeter isn’t necessary, you can notably limit your UV radiation dose by covering up with long sleeves and pants, wearing a hat with an ample brim and trying to stay in the shade. Sunscreen and sunglasses are also protective layers against radiation.\n\nDon’t forget that most UV rays can go right through cloud layers, and water and snow can reflect and magnify their effect. Interestingly, cancer isn’t the only problem UV rays cause. Studies show that UV rays increase your risk of developing cataracts and other vision problems, and they can also suppress the immune system.\n\nThe team here at Lancs Industries wishes your family a safe, happy and UV protected summer so you minimize your chances of developing skin cancer.\n\nWhat You Need to Know About Backscatter X-Rays and Safety\n\nThe good news for most Americans is that X-ray backscatter scanners are no longer used in airports, and therefore, they are no longer a source of daily radiation for regular travelers. Whether these devices were a threat – and how much of a risk they posed – has yet to be determined. In the meantime, the majority of these questionably risky devices have been removed and replaced with a different type of body scanning technology, one that doesn’t rely on ionizing radiation, called Advanced Image Technology (AIT).\n\nThe good news for Americans and other travelers making their way through the security scans at more than 200 airports around the nation, these AIT body scanners are not only safer (they use benign, millimeter wave scanning technology), they are also far less intrusive than their backscatter x-ray counterparts. You can Click Here to view a recent list of all U.S. airports using full-body scanners as part of their security checkpoints.\n\nIs Backscatter X-Ray Technology Harmful?\n\nAccording to an article by the science gurus at How Stuff Works, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) explains that whole-body scanning devices are essential for airport and flight security because they are able to detect weapons, explosives and other threats potential terrorists are trying to hide on or inside their bodies to activate later on.\n\nAfter September 11, 2001, Americans and other travelers were understandably concerned about the safety and wellbeing of themselves, other passengers and the nation. As a result, the feds quickly engaged the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, and TSA hurried to install x-ray backscatter machines in the security areas of major airports. The idea was that these units would use “Automated Target Recognition” software to replace the rather accurate anatomical images with more cartoon-like representations that would show any areas of concern (obvious weapons, non-anatomical pieces/parts, etc.), so security personnel could follow-up accordingly.\n\nInstead, the public went up in arms – largely due to the fact most Americans and international travelers felt these images were still a large violation of privacy. More importantly, many were concerned there simply wasn’t enough data to support the risk/benefits of the operation – most notably because like other forms of x-ray technology, backscatter x-ray machines exposed humans to low-doses of ionizing radiation.\n\nAs Wikipedia points out:\n\nAs the result of widespread findings like these, and reports, speeches and letters written by scientists and medical experts in the field, backscatter x-ray machines came quickly under suspicion. They were banned by the European Union in 2012, which furthered resistance here in the U.S. In May of 2013, the original versions of backscatter x-ray machines were removed. Some have been replaced by AIT or millimeter wave scanning devices, but the 25 largest US airports still rely on newer, “more improved,” backscatter x-ray technology for some of their security scanners.\n\nDifference Between Backscatter X-Ray Scanners and Millimeter Wave Scanners\n\nAIT or millimeter waver scanners work slightly differently from x-rays in that the waves work similarly to microwaves. Unlike x-rays, which penetrate and move through the entire human body, millimeter wave (mmw) scanners use waves that are similar to microwaves, a non-iodizing source or radiation. These microwaves waves are larger than those emitted by x-ray backscatter machines, so they are less able to negatively impact smaller human proteins and DNA.\n\nHere is a description from the folks at How Stuff Works on the difference between x-ray and mmw technology:\n\nBackscatter x-ray machines:\n\n“Backscatter machines use rotating collimators to generate X-rays, which pass through a slit and strike a passenger standing inside. The X-rays penetrate clothing, bounce off the person’s skin and return to detectors mounted on the machine’s surface. The radiation also bounces off weapons, explosives or other threats concealed in clothing or lying against the skin. By sensing and analyzing this so-called backscatter, the machine is able to create an image of a person, as well as any organic or inorganic items carried on that person.”\n\nMillimeter wave scanning machine (AIT):\n\n\nIn terms of safety, experts agree that AIT scanners are preferred. However, in terms of efficacy, backscatter x-ray machines are less likely to provide false results than their AIT, millimeter wave scanning counterparts. Even so, we feel false reports – which result in TSA personnel performing more in-depth body scans – are worth the risk.\n\nYou Have the Right to Refuse Full-Body Scanning in the US\n\nIf you aren’t convinced, or prefer not to take any risk, you have the right to refuse full-body scans at airports. If you choose to opt-out, we recommend adding another 10 to 15 minutes to your airport security process to accommodate the extra steps required. When you get to the security area and are ready to line up for the scan, let the TSA personnel know you’re opting out.\n\nThey will divert you from the line-up of those entering the scanner, and will call for a same-gendered TSA employee to provide a personal scan. You’ll walk through the standard metal detector, after which they’ll perform a respectful pat down of your entire body. The process takes no more than five- to 10-minutes (once the assigned TSA employee is able to perform the check), and then you can grab your bags and be on your way.\n\nThe team here at Lancs Industries wishes you a safe and healthy summer travel season. While our radiation shielding products aren’t allowed to be worn in x-ray backscatter or millimeter wave scanning machines, they are recommended for use in most industrial applications where radiation exposure is a risk. Contact us to learn more.\n\nScatter Radiation Safety and Protection\n\nAll humans experience radiation exposure daily due to sunlight, radio, and microwaves, our smartphones, and even the foods we eat. Fortunately, the minimal amounts of radiation absorbed via these sources pose no real threat to our wellbeing.\n\nFor those who work in the diagnostic and therapeutic fields, or for patients whose medical conditions require frequent radiation exposure via diagnostic/treatment tools (such as x-rays or cancer treatment radiation), there are increased health and safety risks.\n\nScatter Radiation Safety and Protection\n\nWhat is Scatter Radiation?\n\nScatter radiation is a secondary form of radiation. Just as sunlight can bounce off walls and reflective surfaces, radioactive particles “bounce” or scatter when they run into physical objects, including patients. Thus, medical professionals, like radiologists using x-ray technology, as well as the patient who receives the x-ray, and others are at risk of absorbing scatter radiation that bounces off the walls, ceilings, chairs – or even within or on the patient’s body. In fact, in most hospital and dental practice environments, the patients themselves are the largest source of scatter radiation since the x-ray is directed right at their body.\n\nThis is why you are covered with a lead blanket of some kind, and why the medical technicians or physicians walk away from the space, and behind some type of radiation-resistant barrier, while capturing the image or during radiation treatments. These radiation shielding products are designed to absorb the radiation, minimizing the scatter radiation you and s/he are exposed to.\n\nAs with other forms of radiation, the negative effects of scatter radiation depend wholly on:\n\n • The time of exposure\n • The distance from the radiation source\n • Shielding from radiation\n\nHence, applying the principles of radiation protection in any setting where scatter radiation is present goes a long way in keeping everyone healthy and safe.\n\n“Lead Glasses Are Not Enough…”\n\nIn a March 2019 article posted in MedPage Today, Reporter Nicole Lou posted an article about a recent study’s findings that, “Lead glasses may be providing a false sense of security to the interventionist (x-ray or fluoroscopic radiation technician),” because scattered radiation comes at the human body from all directions. Thus, the protective lead glasses offer direct shielding from a particular angle but leaves the exposed angles of the eye area, cheeks, and forehead vulnerable.\n\nThis example is one of many we can share from the medical world and demonstrates how important it is that each department evaluate its structural footprint, the furnishings in the room, the safety program currently in place and whether or not changes or improvements are possible to enhance the safety of patients, clients, and staff.\n\nA continuing and developing awareness of which parts of the body are covered or shielded, and what is left exposed, poses important considerations to those in the medical environment and other careers that place employees and team members in direct contact with radiation or radioactive materials.\n\nPair Comfort and Safety for Employees and Patients\n\nLead blankets are heavy, and that makes them both cumbersome and less comfortable for both employees and patients. So, while full lead blankets are the cost-savings norm, companies and medical administrators may find that spending a bit more on lighter, more eco-friendly options increases patient and employee satisfaction, without compromising safety. Examples include TL light (20% lighter than full lead and 100% recyclable) or Non-leaded options (25% lighter than full lead, flexible, and environmentally friendly).\n\nFor those working in the emerging field of C-Arm fluoroscopy, studies show that the best equipment for protecting attending physicians include:\n\n • Being as far from the source of radiation as physically possible while still getting the job done\n • Implementing\n • Lead or similar shielding aprons\n • Thyroid shields\n • Lead glasses\n • Lead barriers\n\nThese same, mindful and thorough tenets of protection of should be provided for the patient and any family, medical personnel, or staff in the vicinity.\n\nIs your medical practice or place of business doing all it can to educate your employees about scatter radiation and providing the necessary means of radiation shielding and protection?\n\nLancs Industries has decades of radiation shielding experience, and we’re happy to work with you to make sure you have everything you need for ALARA compliance and to keep your company Safe with a capital “S.” Contact us to learn more about our radiation shielding products, or to design custom products or equipment that meet the demands of your workplace.\n\nRadiation Doses in Our Daily Lives\n\n\n\nradiation doses in our daily lives.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHere are some other common sources of radiation:\n\nFukishima fallout\n\n\nDrinking water\n\n\n\n\n\nFruits & veggies (and other foods)\n\n\n\n\nRadon in your home\n\n\n\n\nWhat Are the Three Principles of Radiation Protection\n\n\n\n\nThe Three Principles of Radiation Protection\n\n\n1. Justification\n\n\n\n\n1A. Time\n\n\n2. Dose limitation\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. Optimization of protection\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7803872227668762}
+{"content": "2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday\n\nOctober 20, 1949 Birthday Facts\n\nIn fact, your friends say you have a tendency to be straightforward and you could be arrogant.\n\n • aries today health horoscope.\n • scorpio horoscope born january 28?\n • October 20 Zodiac – Accurate Birthday Personality Horoscope.\n\nBecause of this, it is suggested that you take time to balance your logical state of being and what you feel. People may think that you are aloof but you are a caring individual who needs extra motivation to complete a task. The 20th of October birthday personality are sometimes idealistic when it comes to romance and love. You have a tendency to fall in love with the wrong people.\n\nWhat your birthday says about you is that you are passionate Libra. It has been said that you demand a lot from your friends and lovers. You are likely to give a lot as well. You are someone who is kind, loyal and true to those who you care about. Additionally, you are willing to come to some sort of agreement by compromising than risk losing those you love. Take this in-depth four elements personality quiz to understand it. As an adult who remembers the past, you may not feel as though your childhood has many pleasant memories. You recall chaos and turmoil which gives you much displeasure.\n\nPeople born on this 20 October zodiac birthday will usually avoid conflict at all costs.\n\n • january monthly horoscope for sagittarius!\n • horoscope for today november 5!\n • Monthly Horoscope: Libra, October 12222?\n • October 20 Birthday Horoscope .\n • Born on October 20th Horoscope: Lucky Numbers, Days, Colors, Birthstones, Tarot Card...\n • taurus moon sign october horoscope?\n\nBut as with any relationship, you have to deal with emotions and feelings that disturb you. Getting on with your future can sometimes depend on leaving the past in the past but first dealing with those issues. Find a balance and the patience for this situation, Libra, and watch yourself grow. Do You Have Good Karma?\n\nTry The Karma Quiz Now!! Can we talk about your money situation? The October 20 birthday horoscope predicts that you are not very good at handling your money. You enjoy spending money and having top of the line clothes, furniture, and cars or being able to travel at the spur of the moment. Yes, you should treat yourself as you are a hard-working individual but save some for later. Accessible and available even on your smartphone are tips and programs for budgeting and financial planning. The turning point of October 20th hides special emotional value that often stands out from what is perceived as \"normal\" or common.\n\nMood swings are expected in those born on this date, as well as deep emotional awareness of others, felt strongly in their body and heart.\n\nPlanetary Row\n\nSensing energies that cannot be seen, they often protect themselves by overthinking and conversations that steer them away from their own power. Both lights in a wave with Pluto seem a bit scary, but they are truly an exquisite opportunity for deep research and magic of creation. However bizarre their lives might be, from time to time, Libras born on October 20th seem to have a way to embrace any circumstance thrown their way, ever ready and in a constant loop with change.\n\nThis might make them unstable in ordinary relationships and interactions and could lead through significant turns in their professional direction, finances, or their marriage and relationships. If they make too many compromises, they will inevitably feel as if they can only burst and take a sharp turn, and to be a bit less dramatic in their sudden impulses, they should listen to them in time, following their emotional core every day. This symbol is more of a depiction of these individuals running away from their deep issues, than it is of their realistic state, at least up to the point where they get in touch with their shadows and inner demons.\n\nToo much talk, their link to the higher thought, might be clear and incredibly rich with information for others, but their emotional state depends on their ability to land the plane, to create what they envision, and to do so with loved ones by their side. The purpose in lives of those born on October 20th is in finding the right direction to move in, so they can hold on to the same course with their passionate inner sensation intact. They are to travel, expand their horizons and learn, with education often calling on them as an opportunity to explore rather than something to provide them with status.\n\nThey need to feel their inner voice and guidance coming from their heart, so that their beliefs will fall into place and allow them to see the incredible opportunities they have when their doors are open.\n\nVenus enters Sagittarius\n\nThe emotional world of those born on October 20th is filled with passionate encounters and fatal romances, and while things may become overly dramatic, they will usually stay rational enough to keep some sort of a balance. This is a rare quality, but people born in October abound in it. October borns are always in front when it comes to popularity, and everyone wants to be their friend. Really, their charisma as well as charming and magnetic personality gains them many followers and you need to think twice before you contradict them. They have a positive influence on everyone they meet, and they are like a ball of energy.\n\nAn October born leaves a long lasting impression on others as they are blessed with inner beauty as well as outer charm. People born in October are very confident and you can just envy their personality. People born in October are born romantics and lovers. If October borns love something or someone, they will go to the ends of the earth to show their love and how much you mean to them.\n\nThey are very attractive to the opposite sex and they can easily win anyone over with their sweet talk. If your partner was born in October, you are lucky, because they will love you forever. They are very honest, believe in justice and harmony. October borns are very honest and they stick to the truth. Their nature is to believe in justice and also do justice to everything that come across their life. They are not among those who escape from the situation after committing some wrong doing. October-born people are known to be very fair towards others. They make sure that everything has fairness and equality.\n\n13 Unbelievable Traits of People Born in October\n\nThey even help others in seeking justice that they deserve. They have this belief that everyone, rich and poor, are equal when it comes to rights and privileges. They are very harmonious. They will hardly go for any dispute and issues. They love to keep harmony and follower of peace. They tend to follow the rules and regulations in their life. October borns are peace loving and hospitable. These people love peace and they prefer a calmer and quieter surrounding.\n\nPeople born in October rarely raise their voice and lose their temper, and they can find common ground with almost any person. If you want to feel completely safe in your everyday life in the society you belong, then you must have October-born people on your side. They make sure that there is a harmonious relationship between the individuals who are surrounding them. October borns are also known for their caring hospitality and they are always happy to see you. They are not only polite but they also make sure other people are comfortable. This is a must-have trait of every person!\n\n\n\n\n • number 8 song on your birthday uk charts.\n • horoscop libra 24 november 2019.\n • Subscribe to the VICE newsletter..\n\nThey possess creative minds. One great thing about these people is the fact that they have creative minds.\n\nLibra 2019 - 2020 - Gregory Scott Astrology\n\n\n\nOctober 20 Zodiac is Libra - Full Horoscope Personality\n\n\n\nOctober borns are very optimistic and business-oriented.\n\n2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday 2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday\n2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday 2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday\n2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday 2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday\n2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday 2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday\n2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday 2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday\n2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday 2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday\n2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday 2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday\n\nRelated 2019 horoscope for october 20 birthday\n\nCopyright 2019 - All Right Reserved", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5087965130805969}
+{"content": "I recently upgraded to iOS 12.0 from 11.2 and I didn't save my SHSH2 blobs. In the process, I stupidly lost my jailbreak and realized there are no iOS 12 jailbreaks that are public yet. How do you downgrade to iOS 11.2 without SHSH2 blobs? I am aware that downgrading results in a factory reset and restoring your data with iCloud will bring it up to that iOS version, unless there is a way to do it that I am not aware of...\n\n\nYou don't - without SHSH2 blobs you won't be able to.\n\nYou must log in to answer this question.\n\nNot the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7995230555534363}
+{"content": "Cargando Eventos\nEste evento ha pasado.\n\nPrivate consultations, cooking course, lectures… from the 5th till the 8th of december full ayurvedic training with the Dr. Vadya Shyias Hussian Sheriff\n\nDr.Shyias Hussian Sheriff B.A.M.S\n\ns/o Rtd.Proffesor Dr.Mohammad Hassan Sheriff Hussain has been practicing ayurveda since his child hood threw the traditional way from the grand parents and his father who were well experienced in Keraleeya Panchakarma therapies…\nIn the year 2000 he had joined for obtaining his Degree in Ayurveda at Coimbatore Arya Vaidya pharmacy and the same was awarded in the year 2006. He had various opportunities to work with resound Ayurveda Physicians across India and Abroad….where as His father and Him self was servicing HIS.HIGHNESS SHAIK DUAIJ ABDULLA HUMOOD AL-KHALIFA ruler from THE ROYAL FAMILY OF KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN as their family physicians.\nThe key feautures of Dr.Shiyas Hussain Sheriff was intergrating new ideas and therapy clubbing Ayurveda and Wellness programes with out loosing the Authenticity and Tradition of Ayurveda “THE SCIENCE OF LIFE”….\n🌸 Private consultations Everyday\n🌸 Ayurveda lecture on history and basic principles Thursday 5th, 5pm\n🌸 Mudra meditation Friday 6th 12pm\n🌸 Ayurvedic healthy meal program Saturday 7th, 12pm\n🌸 Traditional keraleeya kalari abhyangam demonstration Sunday 8th, 6pm\n\nAyurveda believes that the entire universe is composed of five elements: Vayu (Air), Jala (Water), Aakash (Space or ether), Prithvi (Earth) and Teja (Fire). These five elements (referred to as Pancha Mahabhoota in Ayurveda) are believed to form the three basic humors of human body in varying combinations. The three humors; Vata doshaPitta dosha and Kapha dosha are collectively called as “Tridoshas” and they control the basic physiological functions of the body along with five sub-doshas for each of the principal doshas. Ayurveda believes that the human body consists of Saptadhatus (seven tissues) Rasa (tissue fluids), Meda (fat and connective tissue), Rakta (blood), Asthi (bones), Majja (marrow), Mamsa (muscle), and Shukra (semen) and three Malas (waste products) of the body, viz. Purisha (faeces), Mutra (urine) and Sweda (sweat). Vata dosha maintains the cellular transport, electrolyte balance, elimination of waste products and its effect is increased by dryness. Pitta dosha regulates the body temperature, optic nerve coordination and hunger and thirst management. Heat conditions of the body aggravate PittaKapha dosha is increased due to sweet and fatty food and it provides lubrication to the joints for proper functioning. The catabolism of the body is believed to be governed by Vata, metabolism by Pitta and anabolism by Kapha. For a healthy state of health, a balance between the three doshas and other factors should be maintained. Any imbalance between the three causes a state of illness or disease. In Ayurveda it is believed, that a perfect balance between the nature elements and the Tridoshas of the human body should be maintained for a healthy state of living by following the principles of divine wisdom. The body is believed to be composed of seven types of tissues called as “Sapta Dhatus”. These seven tissues work in coordination with each for proper physiological functioning of the human body. The Rakta Dhatu resembles the blood and regulates the circulation of blood cells and provision of blood components to the body. The Mamsa Dhatu (Muscle tissue) provides supports in the form of skeletal muscles for the Meda Dhatu (adipose fat). The Asthi Dhatu comprises the bones of the body and the Majja Dhatu is made up of the bone marrow and fluids required for the oleation of the bones and their functioning. The Shukra Dhatu is responsible for functions of the reproductive organs of the body.\n\nApart from the Doshas and the Dhatus, the other important factors considered in the doctrine of Ayurveda are the Tri Malas and Trayo Dosa AgniTri Malas are the three types of waste products formed in the body due to metabolic and digestive functions of the body. They comprise of the Mutra (urine), Purisa (faeces), and Sveda (sweat). Ayurveda explains that if the balance between Tridosha is not maintained the waste products of the body are not effectively eliminated and these lead to further complications like diarrhea, constipation, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and such other complications. If the Mutra Mala (urine) is not removed from the body, it can lead to urinary tract infections, cystitis and gastric pain. If the Sveda Mala is not cleared from the body, it can lead to skin irritation problems, and improper fluid balance. As per the principles of Ayurveda the biological fire of the body for all the metabolic function is called as “Agni”. There are thirteen categories of Agni in a human body and the most important is the one responsible for digestive fire, called as JatharagniJatharagni has a close relation with Pitta and ultimately Vatta of the body. If the digestive fire of the body is increased in the body by increase in acidity conditions, the elevation in Pitta levels and its relative symptoms are observed. Digestive fire is important in controlling the normal microflora, proper digestive functions and provision of energy to the entire body. Any disturbances in its balance, creates discomfort to the gastro-intestinal tract and results in pathological complications like ulcers, diarrhea and constipation.\n\nHistory of ayurveda\n\n\nAyurvedic theory states that all areas of life impact one’s health, so it follows that the Vedas cover a wide variety of topics, including health and healthcare techniques, astrology, spirituality, government and politics, art, and human behavior.\n\nwhich modern Ayurveda has evolved\n\n\nMeditation is the process of quieting the mind in order to spend time in thought for relaxation or religious/spiritual purposes. The goal is to attain an inner state of awareness and intensify personal and spiritual growth. In practice, meditation involves concentrated focus on something such as a sound, image or feeling.\n\n • Reduces Stress. Stress reduction is one of the most common reasons people try meditation. …\n • Controls Anxiety. Less stress translates to less anxiety. …\n • Promotes Emotional Health. …\n • Enhances Self-Awareness. …\n • Lengthens Attention Span. …\n • May Reduce Age-Related Memory Loss. …\n • Can Generate Kindness. …\n • May Help Fight Addictions.\n\n\n\n\n🌸 KALARI ABHYANGA (Traditional Kerala martial arts massage)\n\nThis massage stimulates all the vital points of the body called Marma. It is helpful for injuries caused due to sports, marital arts, dance… and also helps to strengthen deep muscles and ligaments.This massage uses knuckles, forearms, elbows to relax the muscle fibres. It is highly recommended for those who suffer from cramp. It improves circulation and brings shape to muscles.Its a special massage that relaxes muscle spasms in the spine and vertebrae.\n\n\n+34 609 776 812 / +34 646 438 632\n\n\n\n\n1 June, 2019 - 17 June, 2019\n\nTraditional birth workshop\n\n\nHerbal workshop\n\n\nAyurveda Course Level I\n\n\nAkashic Records: Consultations and workshops\n\n\nMexican Shamanism: The path of the heart\n\n20 June, 2019 - 23 June, 2019\n\nTodos los días bajo cita previa terapias y tratamientos\n\nReservas: (0034) 971 390 552\n\nWhastapp (0034) 609 776812", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9476019740104675}
+{"content": "It’s not often both coaches come away pleased with the result of a 1-0 game.\n\nYet that is how both Menlo-Atherton head girls’ soccer coach Jason Luce and his Carlmont counterpart John Wilkinson felt following the Bears 1-0 win in the final Bay Division match of 2019.\n\nM-A struck less than 10 minutes into the game and then held off a flurry of Carlmont attacks in an entertaining, back-and-forth affair in Belmont Thursday afternoon.\n\n“It’s a cruel game sometimes,” Wilkinson said. ““We had a bad half against Aragon (last week) and I wasn’t happy with the way we played — and we won. I’m happy with the way we played (Thursday).”\n\nLuce is just happy to get through these first two Peninsula Athletic League without a loss. The Bears opened Bay Division play with a tie against Burlingame Dec. 10 before beating the Scots.\n\n“[We have a] win and a tie. I’ll take it,” Luce said.\n\nM-A benefitted greatly by the return of junior midfielder Lexi Quinn, who had missed the last two games. Her impact was felt all over the midfield as she seamlessly transitioned between attacking and defensive midfield roles, and when the opportunity presented itself, going on the attack herself.\n\nWhich is what led to the game’s only goal. Fellow midfielder Analicia Bonelli triggered the play by winning a battle for possession in the Scots’ end of the field. Bonelli emerged with the ball as Quinn started to make her run. Bonelli slipped a pass through traffic and found Quinn in stride. After hurdling an initial tackle, Quinn broke in on goal. Between defenders, she slotted a pass past the Carlmont goalkeeper for a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute.\n\n“She’s our (marquee) player,” Luce said. “We set up around her. Her soccer IQ is off the charts.”\n\nIf was a rude introduction to the varsity level for Carlmont goalkeeper Lucy Lopshire, who found out Wednesday night she was getting called up from the JV squad to start in goal against the Bears because the Scots’ two regulars were both injured.\n\nM-A (1-0-1 PAL Bay, 2-2-3 overall) looked to double its advantage five minutes later when a Bears’ cross was sent to the far left post that found a wide open Juliet Dineen, who hit a point-blank shot off the bounce — right into the feet of Lopshire. It was one of eight saves during game for Lopshire, who made another point-blank save on a partial breakaway in the second half.\n\nCarlmont certainly had its scoring opportunities and had the better chances the rest of the first half. In fact, the Scots just missed taking a one-goal lead themselves when senior midfielder Samantha Phan sent a perfect through ball to Sabrina Kelley on the right wing. She carried the ball into the penalty box, but her shot caromed off the crossbar and out of danger just three minutes into the game.\n\nMidway through the first half, Carlmont earned the first of its seven corners. The ball was sent into the middle of the M-A penalty box, where it was nodded out to the top where it found Phan. But her attempt from 18 yards skipped off the crossbar for a second near-miss.\n\n“That was us last season,” Wilkinson said of Thursday’s bad luck.\n\nThe teams traded attacks back and forth for the rest of the half, but neither team mustered many choice chances.\n\nCarlmont soccer\nCarlmont’s Elle Brough, right, wins the ball from Menlo-Atherton’s Analicia Bonelli.\n\nCarlmont (1-1, 5-1-2) kept up the pressure in the second half, with the Bears absorbing it and then trying to catch the Scots on the counterattack. Twice Carlmont got solid shots on goal — on headers from Rachel.Amin Chatman and Sonali Kanaya — but each one was right at M-A goalkeeper Emily McMaster, who handled both routinely.\n\n“If we play like this the rest of the season, we’ll be fine,” Wilkinson said.\n\nM-A had its chances to add to its lead in the second half, freshmen Jane Fiorentino and Fabiana Bolanos proved dangerous wings, but the Carlmont defense and Lopshire were up to the task.\n\n“Overall, we were a little bit fortunate,” Luce said. “Carlmont played really well in the first half.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9479384422302246}
+{"content": "A journalist terminated from a local news station claimed the station banned her natural hair and racially discriminated against her while on the job. \n\nFormer WJTV This Morning co-anchor Brittany Noble-Jones wrote in a detailed Medium post about her time working for the Mississippi news station.\n\nYahoo Lifestyle reports Noble-Jones claimed she was pushed out of the company when station executives found out she was pregnant. Stories she pitched were often passed over; her natural hair became an issue, and she was often subjected to racial discrimination. \n\nIn 2015, the anchor from St. Louis was hired to co-anchor the morning news program. Everything seemed fine until she received criticism for a March 2016 promo.\n\nThe station boss reportedly told her she was full of herself, but Noble-Jones received no other examples of what she did wrong. Then, her story pitches were denied at an abnormal rate; she began to be treated differently than her colleagues and was not allowed to attend events.\n\nWhile speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle, the 32-year-old explained that she initially neglected to tell her bosses she was pregnant. Three months into her pregnancy, Noble-Jones finally made the announcement. \n\n\"After announcing that I was pregnant, I was no longer included in commercials,\" she wrote on Medium. \"I felt the need to starve myself to fit in. I now weigh only 108 pounds. I did eat while I was pregnant and while carrying my son and postpartum. I wasn't allowed to represent the station and my events were given away to another white reporter.\"\n\nThe station allegedly did not give her breaks to pump milk once returning to work.\n\nNoble-Jones also decided not to wear a wig and embrace her natural hair to inspire young Black girls to follow suit. However, her natural hair was called unprofessional. She made complaints about the pushback, but the target on her back only grew. In her Medium post, she said there was a station policy that did not allow her to appear on TV with another Black anchor.\n\n\"I was told my natural hair is unprofessional and the equivalent to him throwing on a baseball cap to go to the grocery store. He said, 'Mississippi viewers needed to see a beauty queen.' He even asked, 'why my hair doesn't lay flat.'\"\n\nAnd after all of that, things escalated even more.\n\nAfter using accrued sick days to look after her ailing grandfather, she was fired in 2018. In April, Noble-Jones took her complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).\n\nTimes have been difficult for her, but she has made due. Noble-Jones currently works for Michael Kors and freelances on the side.\n\n\nNow, check these out:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6604646444320679}
+{"content": "Create a share button for an image\n\n\n\n\nDo you guys know how to create a share button for an image in GAssistant?\n\nMy action shows up an image and I´d like to add a share button for users to spread it over Whatsapp, Facebook or any other app available.\n\nPs.: Now I´m using a card with a button linking to image URL, but it´s not easy for user to save the image, then share it.\n\nThank you!!!\n\n\n\nI looked for something similar but didn’t find anything. In the end we had the idea we could create a website, that contained the image and then social buttons there to share. So the action just shared the url which the user clicked on their phone.\n\nDid you find another solution?\n\n\n\nHi John! Thank you so much for you time…\n\nYeah, I have had the same idea and did it once I couldn´t find another way to do. But it´s working fine.\n\nThank you again!\nRodrigo Rubini", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7634138464927673}
+{"content": "sun cube hat\n\nJames Hock is a directional and multifaceted design studio based in London.\nCombining new ideas, traditional crafts and the spirit of punk - the label is known for the re-imagining of the basics and its offbeat accessories.\n\nThe products are always ‘a little bit different’ and are often answers to the question ‘why not?’.\n\n\nTrue to the ethic of punk, we adhere to the concept of DIY. We do as much as we can in the studio and out - regularly finding clever and interesting ways to achieve the desired outcome (or close to it). Our process is not just design and make (that does happen of course) but most of the time it is about problem solving and working out what can be done under a resource constraint. And that is our luxury- time and ideas, and not always something entirely tangible. Through that, we become more aware of our resources and our surroundings, developing a greater appreciation of the dull and mundane, repurposing what is seen as common and of no value to become our new luxury. And why not? Works that are customized, deconstructed, reconstructed, reworked, recycled and reimagined are placed under the ‘re-made’ label. This is the essence of james hock and from here, it branches out into the various facets of the brand.\n\nthe conflict\n\nFor a long time, we have been questioning the viability of fashion in our current state of climate emergency. Is it not hypocritical to shout save the planet whilst encouraging consumerism? Unfortunately, we still do not have an answer to that. But we are conscious about the environment and do believe regardless of what you do, you have the right to be part of the movement.\n\nwe do\n\nrecycle and reduce waste\nuse natural fibre textile as much as possible\nincrease the use of used clothing and objects as our raw material\nrepurpose used leather clothing and also off cuts from external companies\nreduce unnecessary packaging and avoid plastic packaging if possible\nmake our products in small runs\n\npatchwork quilt wrap\n\nif you would like to purchase any product or have one custom-made...\n\ncontact me", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5045256614685059}
+{"content": "Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research\n\nGene and Cell Therapy\n\nInvestigators in the Gene and Cell Therapy program work to improve current treatments, develop corrective therapies and explore new technologies to address genetic disease. A major focus of the research group is to examine the interaction between gene therapies and the immune system.\n\nUsing hemophilia as a model, the group seeks to create innovative approaches to induce immune tolerance to current treatments and correct the genetic malfunctions that lead to disease.\n\nDisease correction\n\nThe Gene and Cell Therapy research group focuses on gene and cell therapies that use a recombinant adeno-associated virus, which transfers genetic material to the patient’s cells and enables the ongoing production of therapeutic proteins. Using this treatment in hemophilic models, the group has already accomplished near-complete and complete disease correction.\n\nImmune tolerance\n\nCurrent treatments of certain genetic disorders can cause an immune response in some patients, making therapy ineffective. Investigators in the Gene and Cell Therapy program examine the interaction of gene therapies and the immune system to prevent rejection and induce tolerance to treatment. Currently, the group is exploring tolerance therapies such as oral therapies, cell-based immunotherapies, gene therapy and small molecule drugs.\n\nExpertise in hemophilia\n\nThe Gene and Cell Therapy group conducts its research in the context of hemophilia. Although hemophilia is treatable in approximately 70 percent of its patients in the developed world, it impacts people of all nations and has no known cure. In patients whose immune systems reject treatment, alternative options are not only scarce but also difficult, expensive and invasive, while offering no guarantee of effectiveness.\n\nThe goal of the Gene and Cell Therapy program is to discover innovative ways to permanently correct disease and induce tolerance to treatment for patients with hemophilia and other genetic disorders.\n\n\nAnswers to common questions about hemophilia and immune rejection.\n\nHemophilia is an X-linked genetic disorder that prevents the blood from clotting normally. People with hemophilia may experience excessive internal and external bleeding, which can be life-threatening.\n\nConsidered a rare disease, hemophilia affects approximately one in 5,000 male births worldwide. Hemophilia has no geographic or ethnic preference, but because it is an X-linked genetic disorder, the vast majority of people with hemophilia are male. Although females can have hemophilia, these instances are far fewer. More commonly, women are carriers of the disease.\n\nIn developed nations, hemophilia is most commonly treated with intravenous injections of replacement clotting factors. These injections may need to be administered up to three times a week, depending on the patient’s need.\n\nIn approximately one-third of patients treated for hemophilia, the immune system develops antibodies that reject the clotting factor proteins that have been introduced into the patient’s bloodstream. When a patient develops these antibodies, or inhibitors, the treatment is ineffective. Without effective treatment, internal and external bleeds can be life-threatening\n\nCurrent immune tolerance induction methods are designed to reverse immune responses that have already been established. However, immune tolerance induction can be invasive, costly and difficult. Some patients are given a catheter for intravenous access and are administered high daily doses of proteins that support clotting. Although the mechanisms are not fully understood, tolerance is eventually induced by approximately 70 percent of these patients. Currently, there are no clinical protocols that prevent immune rejection.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8494666814804077}
+{"content": "The 20 Best Places to Live in Massachusetts\n\n\nMassachusetts is one of the most remarkable states in America. It’s the place where many believe this country originated, being home to the historic city of Plymouth. The first European settlement was established there in the year 1620. What began as a farming and fishing community has grown and evolved into a highly industrialized center of activity in the country. Massachusetts has been listed as one of the best states to raise a family, and here are the 20 best places to live in Massachusetts, based upon safety, good school ratings, employment, amenities and reasonable cost of living.\n\nWest Cambridge, MA.\n\n20. West Cambridge, MA.\n\nWest Cambridge is the 20th best place to live in the state of Massachusetts. The city has a population of 11,093 residents. The public schools have an A rating and it’s rated as a relatively safe place to live. The city offers excellent public transportation and it’s loaded with a host of amenities including good options for food, and plenty of entertainment for those who enjoy going out on the town for a night of fun and entertainment. The city gets an overall niche rating of A+ for a reasonable cost of living, ample job and employment opportunities and safe neighborhoods.\n\nNewton Highlands, MA\n\n19. Newton Highlands, MA\n\nNewton Highlands is a neighborhood located in Newton, MA. The city has a population of 15,770 residents. The public schools have a rating of A+ for high test scores and graduation rates. The neighborhood has a fairly high crime rate, which is negative, and the housing is a bit expensive, but the nightlife and amenities are ample. The city has both urban and suburban areas. The majority of the residents own their homes in Newton Highlands. There are plenty of restaurants, parks, and coffee shops and it’s a town where many come to retire after fulfilling their careers.\n\nWaban, MA\n\n18. Waban, MA\n\nWaban has a population of 7,804 residents. It’s a smaller neighborhood that is located in Newton, Massachusetts. The overall feeling in Waban is suburban. Most residents in this community are homeowners, and like Newton Highlands, it’s a retirement community, but there are families with children in the town due to the high rating of the public schools. There are plenty of parks, restaurants and coffee shops in the area along with lots to do if you enjoy the nightlife. The community is highly rated for theri educational studios and various civic groups geared towards children.\n\nLexington, MA\n\n17. Lexington, MA\n\nLexington has a population of 33,339. It’s a larger city that is known for its high amount of pedestrian traffic, adn its cleanliness. The public schools are highly competitive with a high rating for test scores and graduation rates. There are plenty of amenities for people of all ages with recreation, entertainment, dining, coffee shops, a library, and nightlife activities. The cost of rent is a bit expensive in Lexington and many of the rental apartments are not updated, but this suburb of Boston still ha an overall rating of A+ for desirability.\n\nMass Home\n\n16. Newton Upper Falls\n\nNewton Upper Falls is one of thirteen villages found within the city of Newton. The population is 8.621 and the town has a high number of renters. The neighborhood has a very high safety rating. A train stops in the town offering fast and easy access to greater Boston. The home prices are lower for the older homes, but many contractors are purchasing them tearing them down and rebuilding newer homes. Overcrowding could be a concern in the near future. The public schools have an A+ rating and the town, overall gets a rating of A+.\n\nMass house\n\n15. Newton Centre, MA\n\nNewton Centre has a population of 9,577 residents. It’s a smaller city that is rich in diversity, and the environment is welcoming. Most of the residents own their homes in this suburban feeling neighborhood. It is packed with an assortment of parks, coffee shops and restaurants. The public schools have an A+ rating, and there are ample amenities for people of all ages, including nightlife and recreational opportunities. The crime rate is high on the downside, and the homes are expensive, but this is due to the high livability rating for the town, which overall, is an A+.\n\nMass real estate\n\n14. Longmeadow, MA\n\nLongmeadow is located in Hampden County with a population of 16,000 residents. It may have all the appearances of a quaint small town but there are plenty of things to do for residents. The Longmeadow High School is known for its high performance in college entrance exams with a 96 percent rate of graduates moving on to college. Many of the students of the school are Grammy Award winners. The cost of living is affordable in comparison to most other towns in the region. Although the median home value is $334,300, a 3 to 4 bedroom home can run as low as $240,000.\n\n\n13. Beverly, MA\n\nBeverly is a city with a population of 40,670 residents. The cost of living is low in this town with a median home value of $369,000. What makes Beverly so special is that it’s one of Massachusetts’ oldest cities. It’s a 16-mile drive from the heart of Boston with an easy commute to the larger city. There are plenty of restaurants as well as entertainment and recreational activities. The schools are high performing making this one of the better places in the state to raise a family.\n\nMassachusetts drive\n\n12. Newburyport, MA\n\nNewburyport has a population of 18,000 restaurants. The seaport of this town has a long and rich history, making it a hot spot for tourists. The town is welcoming and the average wages for a household are high at $85,556 per year. The commute to Boston is not as fast as from Beverly, but it’s a drive that many people make by car. There is an option to take the train. The median home price is $444,200. There are plenty of restaurants with entertainment and recreational opportunities. The crime rate is moderate, so it’s somewhat of a concern, mostly for theft and minor crimes. Still, it’s one of the more desirable places to live in Massachusetts.\n\nConcord, MA\n\n11. Concord, MA\n\nConcord has a population of 19,200 residents. It holds a special place in the history of the nation. It’s a town where the American Revolution was fought. It shares this feature with Lexington, known for its famous battles. The literary history is immense, and it has been the home of multiple authors including Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The town maintains its rustic library and you have a choice of high-end homes in certain parts of town or more affordable housing. There are tons of amenities including restaurants, shops, and entertainment venues, but the cost of living is high due to its high livability and desirability scores.\n\nWaltham, MA\n\n10. Waltham, MA\n\nWaltham has a population of 62,500 residents. It is the tenth most desirable place to live in Massachusetts. The town is within close proximity to Boston, making for an easy commute for those who work in the bigger city. Two universities are at home in this city including Bentley College and Brandeis University. The nightlife is amazing in this town and there are more than 260 restaurants and bars in the town. There are also multiple parks, theaters, and museums. Unemployment is low and the job prospects are excellent.\n\nMassachusetts estate\n\n9. Marblehead, MA\n\nMarblehead has a population of 20,000 residents. It’s a suburb of Boston in Essex County. Marblehead has a crime rate that is slightly higher, but it’s still considered to be a safe place to live as the majority of the crimes committed are petty including shoplifting and such. The average household income is $102,993 with ample job opportunities. The public schools have among the highest ratings in the state with an almost rating on GreatSchools. It’s a great place to raise a family and there are plenty of restaurants, coffee shops, and entertainment venues.\n\nMassachusetts house\n\n8. Sudbury, MA\n\nSudbury has a population of 18,400 residents. The public schools are very highly rated. The town gets a high overall livability score because of its remarkably affordable rent averaging $569 per month, but the cost of homeownership is much higher with an average home value of $640,700. This is offset by the median household income of $165,745. There is excellent access to medical care, restaurants, shops and grocery stores within a short commute. The cost of living is high in the town if you’re a homeowner, but it’s a great place for rentals.\n\nMassachusetts neighborhood\n\n7. Wellesley, MA\n\nWellesley has a population of 29,000 residents. The city is known for having outstanding public schools and a high number of graduates who go on to college. It is the home of Wellesley College, as well as Babson college with beautifully landscaped campuses. There are tons of outdoor activities in Wellesley with an arboretum, quiet parks, and miles of trails that intertwine with interesting places to visit. There are plenty of shops and restaurants as well as attractions. The quality of life is high but so is the average cost of a home which is about $946,000.\n\n6. Leverett, MA\n\nLeverette is a city with a population of only 2,000 residents. It has a small-town feeling and it has an affordable cost of living. There is an incredibly low crime rate that is almost non-existent making it one of the safest towns to live in within the state of Massachusetts. The schools are highly ranked and the average home value is $343,900. The town is so small that there are no bars, movie theaters or restaurants, but if you like natural attractions it’s absolutely loaded with them.\n\n\n5. Melrose, MA\n\nMelrose has a population of 28,132 residents. It has a high livability rating with plenty of available jobs in the area and a lot of housing options. The affordability gets a 7 out of 10. It’s not the most expensive town in the area, and the diversity of people in the area is also above average. Melrose has a high desirability rating because of the low crime rate, giving it a safety rating of 8.5 out of 10. The public schools are rated as being excellent and there are amenities including restaurants, shopping, entertainment and plenty of options for recreation.\n\nWoburn, MA\n\n4. Woburn, MA\n\nWoburn has a population of 39,500 residents. The outlook for jobs is good in the area and there are plenty of housing options. The major downside is that it’s not very affordable because of the high desirability. This is a city that people want to live in because of the high safety rating and excellent public schools The ara gets an 8 out of 10 for diversity. It’s highly rated for amenities with a lot of places to shop, dine or pursue recreational and entertainment activities.\n\nMedford, MA\n\n3. Medford, MA\n\nMedford ha a population of 57,500 residents. The job opportunities in this city are plentiful, and so is the housing for both homeowners and renters. The cost of living is high in the city because of its high livability score. It’s a diverse city with a high safety rating and a low crime rate. Medford is packed with amenities for people of all ages. There are entertainment venues, lots of restaurants and coffee shops, shopping, and outdoor recreation. The public schools have an above-average rating making this a great place to raise a family.\n\nGloucester, MA\n\n2. Gloucester, MA\n\nGloucester has a population of 29,858 residents. The unemployment rates are low because there are a lot of available jobs of all types in the area. There is great housing with an affordability rating that is a bit more reasonable than Medford and some of the other surrounding areas. It’s not that diverse of an area, but the amenities are excellent with parks, restaurants, shopping centers, coffee shops, and recreational activities. Crime is moderately low and the safety rating is an 8 out of 10. The public schools have an above-average rating, and although not as highly ranked as some other towns in the area, they’re still very good, just not as competitive. For some students, this is actually less stressful.\n\nHopkinton, MA\n\n1. Hopkinton, MA\n\nThe best place to live in the state of Massachusetts is Hopkinton, which is a suburb of Boston. The population is 16,720 residents. It’s one of the best suburbs to raise a family. It’s filled with public areas for hiking, walking and other outdoor activities. It’s a diverse town with people who are very welcoming. It’s also one of the safest suburbs in the Boston area with a top-rated public school system. The town has an overall rating of A+.\n\nAdd Comment\n\n\n20 Things You Didn’t Know About Next Insurance\nBryan Cranston\nHow Bryan Cranston Achieved a Net Worth of $30 Million\nSoftware as a Service\n20 Things You Didn’t Know About Coveo\nWeFox Group\n20 Things You Didn’t Know About Wefox\nHome Depot\n10 Stocks to Consider if You Like Home Depot\n10 Stocks to Consider if You Like Disney\nWhat is TwitchStocks and Should You Join?\nStock Market\n10 Stocks to Consider if You Like AMD\nPhoenix Neighborhoods\nThe 20 Best Places to Live in Phoenix Arizona\nThe 20 Best Places In the World for Expats to Live\nThe 20 Best Places to Live in London\nThe 20 Best Places to Live in Sacramento\nSt. Petersburg\nThe 10 Best Seafood Restaurants in St. Petersburg, FL\nSanta Cruz Wharf\nThe 20 Best Things to Do in Santa Cruz for First Timers\nCliffs of Moher\nThe 20 Best Things To Do In Ireland For First-Timers\nMercedes S-Class\nThe 20 Most Influential Cars of the Last Decade\nAwesome Used Cars\n20 Awesome Used Cars for Under $10,000\n2020 Tesla Model S\nThe 20 Most Long Range Electric Cars for 2020\n20 Reasons to Consider Getting a Certified Pre-Owned Car\nV1 class auto white\nThe 20 Best Egard Watches of All-Time\nGamma 2\nThe 20 Best Reactor Watches In The World\nRado Watches\nThe 20 Best Rado Watches of All-Time\nThe 10 Best Fortis Watches of All-Time", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6689163446426392}
+{"content": "“Voice, Opinion, Idea, Decision”\n\nWe all have the right to say, but it’s not everyone’s personality to voice out, especially in front of a group. The more audience there is, the higher chance we will receive critique. Therefore some people opt to keep their voice in their mind instead of saying it out loud. It often happens in social media, or a company meeting with your boss, and for me now in Richmond Vale Academy (RVA). In other words – it happens when you say something and people are actually listening. Opinion cannot be wrong, but you can disagree with me. This is what a teacher in RVA said to me. Opinion represents one’s stand, one’s interest, and one’s voice. There is no right or wrong about expressing, but only if people accept the opinion or disagree.\n\nHowever, we may mistakenly cover our ears when we hear a different opinion or an unpleasant opinion that will harm our interest. Don’t forget it is always good to voice these opinions than to have no one express at all and it is better with different opinions because it drives us to think from different angles.\n\nWith different opinions, we start to think further and we also start to give ideas if we want to get the thing done. Sometimes solutions provide us a more efficient way, eventually. Either way, we will have to try an idea to know if it works or not.\n\nSimilar to opinion, there is no right or wrong idea. It depends on how we get things done. As long as we can finish the project it means the idea is working. If we are spending less cost (time & financially) while achieving the same level of result, we call it a better idea.\n\nAfter voicing our opinion and putting our idea on the table, we need to decide how we actually work on it. A decision can be made upon a common will or by higher authority.\n\nWe meet with this a lot in our daily lives; with family, hanging out with friends, working, etc. As long as we are communicating with someone, we always have to make decision.\n\nThis is a big topic living in a community in RVA. From who is in the kitchen on Sunday, what we are going to eat, what should we do in the coming week as a team, which documentary we will watch for the night, to which neighborhood should we visit to execute our project. Sometimes it’s the matter of a team of 8, sometimes it’s the common interest of the community which we bring up in the common meeting of 30 people. It is nearly impossible to have a decision that makes everyone happy. Some decisions are made by the majority, which means there is a minority that disagrees with it. It doesn’t mean the minority is wrong about this but it is just that more people agree with that particular opinion or idea. Nevertheless, if a decision is made by higher authority, we still need to keep our curiosity to think about whether it’s the best option or not and make it better if we can.\n\nLiving in RVA gives me a chance to have a closer look in these topics. Probably it’s the reason why humans have conflict. We can study it on an international level or a community level. Once again there is no right or wrong in conclusion, and I may never have one. So my answer is very simple: Be open minded.\n\nBy Casey\n\nRemember, we all have opinions and two people can think differently than each other. So do not fight about different opinions. Open your mind, accept them and build something better with them. Finally, as always you are invited to share this article with your friends. And do not forget to write a comment.\n\nTree of the Week: The Coconut (Cocos nucifera)\nTree of the Week: Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7104630470275879}
+{"content": "Adolf Hitler Essay examples\n\nAdolf Hitler Essay examples\n\nLength: 934 words (2.7 double-spaced pages)\n\nRating: Good Essays\n\nOpen Document\n\nEssay Preview\n\nAdolf Hitler\n\nfinally became.\n\nof bad health.\n\ndream was to live a country life, but the farm took much more work than he expected.\nSince his health was poor, he had a very hard time making a living on the farm. He had\nalways found that spending time with his children was irritating, but on the farm they were\nforced to work side by side. This was difficult for Alois, who was very hard on the\nchildren. He often beat them when they didn't mind. Adolf's father's main hobby was bee\nkeeping, often the mother had to remove 30 or more bee stingers at the end of a day.\n\nAlois married his former house keeper, Klara Poelzl, in 1885 she was already\npregnant. Klara had three children who died when they were very young, before she had\nAdolf. Five years late she had a daughter, Paula. Even though Klara was kind to her step\nchildren she showed favoritism to her own children. Adolf was fond of his sisters but\nnever got along with Alois Jr., A step child from a previous marriage.\n\nAlois Jr. especially disliked Adolf because their mother always loved Adolf mo...\n\n... middle of paper ...\n\n...-Semitic meeting and speaking in them avidly, often\narguing his view until having to be escorted to the door.\n\nAfter his art work was rejected Adolf had a very disappointing year in 1913 and he\nfinally moved to Munich, Germany. He liked the city immediately. In spite of his\nrejection in Vienna, Adolf moved to Germany hoping to study art even though the Munich\nart market barely existed. He was forced to sell his artwork in beer halls to the drunken\noccupants. Hitler was not discouraged though, he liked Munich much better than Vienna.\nHe had time to go to libraries and participate in debates in lecture halls and taverns.\n\nAdolf Hitler's early years had a derogatory out come on the way he became. later In life\nhe became very bitter. He turned this bitterness on Jews, communists and the world in\ngeneral. He focused this hate all through his life.\n\nNeed Writing Help?\n\nGet feedback on grammar, clarity, concision and logic instantly.\n\nCheck your paper »\n\nEssay on Adolf Hitler And The Second Reich\n\n- In World War II, Adolf Hitler took over a regime named “The Third Reich.” Hitler and supporters became people whom chose the fate, treatment, and punishment of the Jewish people. In the context of Nazism, it will entail the atrocities and shameless acts made upon these victims. The Jewish people were forced to such atrocious acts of violence that many people today do not believe it once happened. Nazism The Third Reich began a belief that there was subhuman and superiority races. A race is defined as “a group of persons related by common descent or heredity.” ( Adolf Hitler and his regime were German; his victims were of Jewish population.... [tags: Nazi Germany, Schutzstaffel, Adolf Hitler]\n\nGood Essays\n1374 words (3.9 pages)\n\nEssay on Adolf Hitler: Pure Evil\n\n- Adolf Hitler was a man filled with self-indulgent acts and was abominable towards others -- a man who, even to this day has destroyed his reputation. The majority of Hitler actions were filled with artifice. Everything about this man was evil. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, at the Gastof zum Pommer , in Braunau am Inn, in an Austria town near the border of Bavaria, Germany. Hitler’s parents were Alois Hitler and Klara Hitler née Pölzl . Although Adolf was the fourth child born to his family, he was the first child to survive infancy .... [tags: Adolf Hitler Biography]\n\nGood Essays\n3099 words (8.9 pages)\n\nAdolf Hitler And The Nazi Party Essay\n\n- 30th of January, 1933 was a momentous day, when the leader of the Nazi party – Adolf Hitler, was appointed as the chancellor of the Reichstag, granting him power to rule Germany. However, his stand in Germany was not strong enough. More laws in favor of the Nazi had to be made, but they needed the right time to introduce those laws. On February 27, 1933, a Dutch Communist Marinus van der Lubbe tried to burn the Reichstag. This Reichstag Fire gave Nazi the opportunity to implement the ‘Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State’ on 28 February 1933.... [tags: Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany, Nazism]\n\nGood Essays\n1569 words (4.5 pages)\n\nAdolf Hitler And The Holocaust Essay\n\n- Their hands arose as the Führer passed by. Chants grew louder and louder; “Heil Hitler. Heil Hitler.” This was their leader, a man who the children looked up to, and the reason why Germans were able to return to work. Hitler, a leader who was praised in his time era, however, today is seen as the reason behind the holocaust, a unique event in history. Adolf Hitler who served as a dictator from 1934 to 1945 said: “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” (GoodReads) Hitler told lies, yet his biggest one was saying the Jews were an inferior race.... [tags: Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, The Holocaust]\n\nGood Essays\n1664 words (4.8 pages)\n\nThe Life of Adolf Hitler Essay\n\n- Adolf Hitler was born April 20th, 1889 in Austria to Klara and Alois Hitler Sr. His father worked for the government as a customs agent and had been previously married. In that marriage he had two children, Alois Jr. and Angela. After he got married to Klara they had three more children; Hitler, Edmund, and Paula. Through out his life Hitler experienced both the good and the bad. His father drank heavily, which left his family at his mercy. He usually beat his wife, kids, and sometimes even his dog.... [tags: Adolf Hitler, Nazi, history, Biography]\n\nGood Essays\n2077 words (5.9 pages)\n\nAdolf Hitler And The Nazi Movement Essay\n\n- “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” --Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom. The Hitler youth breed hate from a young age using propaganda, and teaching disinformation. The Hitler youth had been taught that the Aryan race was a “pure” race, and everyone else is not. Just like before the war, the Nazi youth had to be “reprogrammed” to stop hating.... [tags: Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, Hitler Youth, Nazism]\n\nGood Essays\n2228 words (6.4 pages)\n\nEssay on The Death of Adolf Hitler\n\n- On 1 May, at 9.30 in the evening, Hamburg radio warned the German people that \"a grave and important announcement\" was about to be made. This was immediately followed by several excerpts from a number of Wagner's operas and the slow movement of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony. Then at 10.20 pm, came the voice of Grand-Admiral Karl Donitz, Commander-in-chief for the north of Germany. In sombre tones, he announced the death of Hitler and his own succession as Fuhrer of the Reich. Hitler had fallen \"this afternoon,\" he said, fighting \"at the head of his troops\".... [tags: Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler Essays]\n\nFree Essays\n3342 words (9.5 pages)\n\nAdolf Hitler Essay\n\n- Adolf Hitler Born in the Austrian town of Braunau on April 20, 1889, Adolf was the fourth child of Alois Schickelgruber and Klara Hitler. By 1900, young Adolf's talents as an artist surfaced. He did well enough in school to be eligible for either the university preparatory school or the technical/scientific Realschule. Because the technical/scientific Realschule had a course in drawing, Adolf enrolled in there. Adolf suffered from frequent lung infections, and he quit school at the age of 16, partially the result of ill health, but mainly the result of poor schoolwork.... [tags: World History Adolf Hitler]\n\nGood Essays\n1406 words (4 pages)\n\nAdolf Hitler Essay\n\n- Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th, 1889 in Braunau, Austria. He was the fourth child of Alois Schickelgruber and Klara Hitler. The couple’s first three offsprings died as children, but more two more were born later, in addition to Adolf’s half siblings from his father’s previous marriage. A housemaid described Adolf’s father as a strict but comfortable man, and his mother was known to give Adolf much love and affection. As a child, Adolf was very skilled at artwork, and even went to a special school for awhile, but he didn’t do well there.... [tags: Adolf Hitler Nazi Germany Biography Essays]\n\nGood Essays\n1418 words (4.1 pages)\n\nEssay on Adolf Hitler\n\n- Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler was one of the worst dictators that the world has ever seen. Some people called him the devil, because of what he did to the Jews during WWII. Hitler was a dictator that ordered the execution of millions of Jews and other people, during his reign of Nazi Germany. As a teenager Hitler served in WWI and years later was thrown in jail, where he wrote his book Mien Kampf. Hitler soon became the dictator of Germany and started WWII. At the age of twenty five, Hitler enlisted in the German army.... [tags: Adolf Hitler Holocaust History German Essays]\n\nGood Essays\n1605 words (4.6 pages)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9160622358322144}
+{"content": "Protected Areas Flashcards Preview\n\nENV Ecology > Protected Areas > Flashcards\n\nFlashcards in Protected Areas Deck (25):\n\nWhy were areas initially protected, give an example\n\nPrimarily on the basis of their extraordinary scenic value or geological features, such as the Bogd Kahn Mountain in Mongolia which became the first legally protected site due to its beauty in 1783\n\n\nWhy is it problematic to only make protected parks due to aesthetic reasons\n\nBiodiversity and scenic value are rarely congruent, such as the Grand Canyon and Stonehenge which all have a relatively low biodiversity.\n\n\nWhat is the endangered species act and when was it released\n\nUS Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973 following the loss of Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet and Ivory-billed Woodpecker and declines of Whooping Crane, Trumpeter Swan, California Condor, Black-footed Ferret and Red Wolf.\n\n\nWhat is the 5 criteria needed to be under the ESA\n\n3. The species is declining due to disease or predation.\n4. There is an inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms.\n\n\nWhat are the main problems protected areas face\n\nBeing to small\nPaper parks\nSustainable use reserves are being created rather than strictly protected ones\n\n\nWhat are the main problems protected areas face\n\nBeing to small\nPaper parks\nSustainable use reserves are being created rather than strictly protected ones\n\n\nGive a general example of where sustainable use reserves are being created rather than strictly protected ones\n\nIn the neotropics than in tropical areas of Africa and Asia (WCMC 2011).\n\n\nWhat is a sustainable use area\n\nSustainable use reserves are often comanaged by local communities to support local livelihoods and preserve cultural legacies and ecosystem services.\n\n\nWhat is negative about sustainable use areas\n\nPolicies supporting sustainable-use reserves are\nrelatively recent and firmly grounded in social and political demands from disenfranchised communities rather than in the desire to conserve biological diversity\n\n\nGive a specific example of where sustainable use reserves are being created rather than strictly protected ones\n\nSustainable-use reserves and indigenous territories now outweigh that of strictly protected areas by factors of 5.5 and 4.1, respectively due to conflict over land struggles, the subsequent political organization of many local communities, and the emergence of extractive reserve initiatives\n\n\nWhy is human settlement inside a protected are problematic?\n\nThe population sizes of several game species in many Amazonian sustainable-use reserves with >0.1 person/km2 have declined (Peres & Palacios 2007)\n\n\nWhat is a paper park?\n\nAn officially protected area but it'll is being done to manage it effectively\n\n\nWhat is the in situ conservation method\n\nThe conservation of species in their natural habitats and is considered the most appropriate way of conserving biodiversity. That's why protected areas form a central element of any national strategy to conserve biodiversity.\n\n\nWhat is the ex situ conservation method and example\n\nEx-situ conservation is the preservation of components of biological diversity outside their natural habitats. This involves conservation of genetic resources, as well as wild and cultivated or species. The Kew Seed Bank in England has 1.5 per cent of the world's flora - about 4,000 species - on deposit.\n\n\nCompare staff numbers between the Brazilian Amazon and U.S park reserves\n\nCurrent staffing results in an average of one\npark guard per 6053 km2 of nature reserve whilst the density of guards in the 367 units of the U.S. National Park Service is more than 70 times greater (Treborgh and Peres, 1995)\n\n\nEconomic benefits for protected marine areas?\n\n\n\nWhy do PA's need to be large, give an example\n\nNature sustains itself only in the context of the\nsystem in which it evolved. Manu National Park is >2 million hectares in size but supports only60-100 giant otters, whereas a population of 500 is considered to be the minimum necessary to ensure genetic and demographic viability.\n\n\nDefine protected area\n\n\n\nWhat is Aichi Target 11\n\n\n\nHow much of the earth is currently protected\n\nCurrently, some 13 per cent of terrestrial areas and 6 per cent of coastal areas are protected, while very little of the open oceans are protected.\n\n\nHow connected are PA's\n\nSAURA ET AL 2017 9.3% of the world is covered by protected connected land, and this average varies extensively between ecoregions. The global goal for PA coverage is 14.7%, indicating that the spatial arrangement of PAs is only partially successful in ensuring connectivity of protected lands.\n\n\n5 reasons to protect biodiversity\n\nMoral reasons\nAesthetic reasons\nEcosystem services\n\n\nWhat is an extractive reserve\n\nAn extractive reserve is a type of sustainable use protected area. The land is publicly owned but the people who live there have the right to traditional extractive practices such as hunting, fishing and harvesting wild plants.\n\n\nGive an example of an extractive reserve and its category\n\nChico Mendes is a IUCN protected area category VI (protected area with sustainable use of natural resources) which protects those who make a livelihood from rubber tapping\n\n\nWhilst large PA's are desirable, what are their disadvantages\n\nlarge MPAs include difficulties of surveillance, enforcement and monitoring of vast offshore areas, as well as high total costs. While the cost per unit area may be lower for large MPAs, conducting surveillance and monitoring in such vast areas requires much more expensive technologies.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5746492147445679}
+{"content": "Emma and Cecilia\n\nWe Are Friends Because Of What We Share\n\nWritten by Cecilia Bellet\n\nEmma and I are stubborn. She’s a protestant Mainer studying biology, and I’m a Catholic Tennessean studying economics. Emma is extroverted but prefers to stay in; I’m introverted but need to go out. Through it all, we are best friends.\n\nWe met late one night in our freshman dorm when a freckle-faced girl ran into me in the hallway and perceptively asked why I was upset. So perceptive, in fact, that I myself hadn’t been aware I was upset in the first place.\n\nShe engaged me in conversation, and before I knew it we were eating Cheeze-Its and talking about the ups and downs of college. From there, we continued our impromptu conversations where she would find me, and I would end up talking about things I didn’t know I needed to discuss.\n\nEmma and I became closer our sophomore and junior years, but some days our friendship was difficult. We would fume over a conversation we had about Christianity or argue over why we couldn’t find more time for each other. However, despite these differences, we realized that we could connect over our shared education at Hillsdale.\n\nThis foundation became increasingly important as Emma and I grew together. No matter the argument, we could find constructive ways to communicate through the writings of Aristotle, Augustine, or Aquinas. We could commiserate on the difficulty of our academic research. We could relate to the aspirations we had in our different fields of study by discussing the pursuit of the good and the true. Through trial and test, what started as opposites became complements.\n\nNow in our senior year at Hillsdale, Emma and I are just as different as ever. While she’s running out to EMT duty, I’m preparing my grad school applications. On Sunday she attends United Methodist and I attend St. Anthony’s. I still try to drag Emma out the door every weekend as she tries to convince me to stay in for a movie.\n\nOur education here didn’t turn us into homogeneous thinkers. Instead, it gave us a unified purpose under which we might pursue our independent paths. Emma and I still debate our religions and drive each other crazy with our opposite personalities, but we’re stubborn, so we will remain friends through what we share.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9086995124816895}
+{"content": "The Meeting Place\n\nHow sure are you?\n\nStep in front of a fast moving train and there’s a more than fair chance you’ll not survive to tell the story of why you were dumb enough to step that way.\n\nIn fact, if you suggested such I thing to a friend, they’d consider any anticipation on your part they might survive with some measure of scepticism. And who could blame them?\n\nThere seems to be some things we can always rely on: the Sun rising and setting, taxes, death at some point, rising prices, and the applications of Murphy’s Law to name a few.\n\nBut there are some things we can’t guarantee. Conception, for example. In spite of the effort we put into achieving fertilisation of ova with sperm and the disproportionate amount of sperm cells the male delivers to the ova, it’s still a bit of hit and miss. \n\nIncreasing the chances of a version of a particular event occurring is often sought. In the case of conception the male might gain access more than once, the female might secure the sperm in a number of ways, an appropriate time is chosen for delivery of the semen, or, in the case of reducing the risk, a prophylactic might be used. Among some, a wish, hope or prayer might be employed either way, fertilisation under supervision is now a thing, and, as always the exuberant youths will always keep their fingers crossed instead of their legs.\n\n All this assures us of only one thing: nothing is certain in love and war.\n\n Mathematically, chance can be calculated, sometimes with a great deal of precision, which does seem a contradiction in principles. For example, according to motor vehicle statistics, there is a one in four chance of a motor cyclist between the ages of 18 and 25 of having a significant accident in any one year. The insurance companies and regulators use such figures to make rules and laws in an effort to reduce the probability of a payout or death.\n\n Making a prediction on anything is prone to dispute if not done efficiently. With the kind assistance of Thomas Bayes the task has been made simpler with his rather sobering yet utilitarian Theorem stated thus: \n\nFor those who recognise it, they will also be familiar with its importance in all sorts of things including current predictions on climate change and stock market evaluations to name just two. For those who are baffled, fear not. You’ll still lose on the pokies just the same.\n\nIn spite of some knowledge on probability and it’s determination there are a number of things that puzzle me about chance and predictions that few will admit to understanding and none have explained to me in a satisfactory manner.\n\nLet’s say there’s a more than fair chance it might rain tomorrow. I dress accordingly, venture out, and return as dry as I left. Not a drop of rain fell. What happened? How wrong could the weather man be, and how inconvenient?\n\nWhen I was told by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) I was assured there would be an 80% chance of rain. The result of the days precipitation was that there was none. What BOM should have said was there would be no rain where I anticipate walking.\n\nThen, in an effort to get it right tomorrow I once again ask BOM to tell me how to dress when I venture out. They suggest, with a great deal of confidence, it will not rain.\n\nGuess what? I get wet within minutes of leaving my door mat.\n\nWhen challenged on these inaccuracies their response is quite predictable yet equally puzzling\n\nDear Mr Dinning.\n\nThank you for your enquiries on our methods of prediction.\n\nWe do not predict weather; we determine probability of events based on current measurement and historical statistical data.\n\nFor yesterday’s weather, we determined that there would be a less than 5% chance of rain in your vicinity. We can only determine this probability with a certainty of 40%. \n\nWe suggest you prepare yourself for all possibilities during this season as weather forecasting is not 100% accurate, except in retrospect.\n\nYours sincerely\n\nChief meteorologist\n\nDarwin BOM\n\nSo, my question is: Why do we have prediction in the first place? Most circumstances can be reduced to two possibilities: right or wrong, left or right, up or down, in or out, good or bad, plus or minus, yes or no. There are more complex issues with more than two possibilities but the ‘one way or the other’ approach seems to take care of most situations.\n\nAs my Old Man would say: “If you make a wrong turn along the way, you’ll surely turn up somewhere and it may well be a better place”.\n\n But we fret when there is more than one possibility. Our greatest anxieties often have their origins in choice. We want to be sure. We want a particular outcome. We demand the right answer. We expect predictability. We want to be sure about the one thing we can’t ever be sure about: the future.\n\n I flip a coin or role a dice, play eeny-meeny miny-mo, read the cards or tea leaves in order to detach myself from any decision making. I don’t trust my own judgement so I place a great deal of faith in a process assumed more reliable that I could ever be.\n\nGiving away our responsibility amounts to the suggestion that we don’t like to be wrong. We are under a misconception that it is better to place our decision making in someone else’s hands than to make a fool of ourselves. How foolish we might seem when we venture out on a sunny day with an umbrella clearly displayed for all to deride. How humiliating an adolescent might feel when explaining to her indignant parents how she got pregnant.\n\n “But, mum, we only did it once!”\n\n We might then wonder if once is enough; or never enough.\n\n For most of us ‘fair to meddling’ seems to be adequate and ‘just in case’ takes care of most situations where probability and chance are playing their hand. It might be wise to be prepared for any possibility, although this seems a bit excessive. Betting on every horse in a race will secure you a winner but to what end? After all, there can only be one winner. Unfortunately, the likelihood that your horse will be first past the post is what keeps the thrill in the chase and the money in the bookies bag.\n\n For me, I’ll always take the path of least resistance, expect nothing and be grateful when I am surprised. For any outcome is a bonus, even if it turns out to be nothing at all.\n\n\n\n:) Fair enough Dingo, in that case ... I predict ... the only way for you is up.\n\nYou going somewhere with this Ding? You do know the path of least resistance is lined with the corpses of the mediocre (copied that from the DovBaron) don't ya??\n\nhmm Reag, you're getting a bit deep these days, must be that Hamlet \"shindig\" you're going to in the Park!\n\nDon't get me wrong ABE, I am reasonably familiar with the Bard even had a small part in Hamlet once. I played the skull, didn't have much to say which was ok, but I did have the best seat in the house mate, beat that if you can!\n\n\nImage result for hamlet skull in hand animated gif\n\nCan’t beat that mate, had no idea you were so talented Yorick. Acceptez vous my apologies. Sooo in actual fact you took the path of least resistance – accepting a crock part so you could get a good seat in the house, hmm and more hmm! Remember Yorick, ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ g’nite.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7017828226089478}
+{"content": "REVIEW: Luzinterruptus “Literature vs. Traffic”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPREVIEW: Luzinterruptus “Literature vs. Traffic”\n\nTomorrow from 5-11pm you can walk down a Liberty Street paved with illuminated books. As a part of Luzinterruptus’s Literature vs. Traffic installment, 10,000 discarded books have been recycled for the best possible purpose: to remind us of the importance of free thought, the written word, and our own community. As a grass-roots project, the participation of volunteers (myself included!) was essential. People from countless different backgrounds met at Ruthven to flatten the books, tape 20,000 tiny lights inside their pages, and move them to their exhibit site. Ann Arbor joined Toronto, New York, and Melbourne in featuring this specific project, but Luzinterruptus is an urban intervention guerrilla group all the way from Madrid, and they have created similar projects around the world.\n\nJoin us tomorrow night to see the Literature vs. Traffic installation in person. Pick up a free book. Enjoy Ann Arbor’s culture, memories, and people.\n\nREVIEW: Company Wang Ramirez’s Borderline\n\nCompany Wang Ramirez’s performance of Borderline was a breathtaking rendition of how dance can be used to express the metaphor of human connection. The show began with Alister Mazzotti, the dancer in charge of lifts and rigging, moving the metal cube shown in the featured image into position. He stood onstage, dressed in all black, for what seemed like a little too long. Truth be told, the duration of his still, silent position made me a little uncomfortable. To be fair, that was the point. Instead of the box simply being a prop the dancers used onstage, it became the Box. What did it mean?\n\nI had a working theory throughout the performance. When inside the box, dancers were together. They were never alone, save one exception. During this exception, a single dancer hooked up to the aerial rigging system floated through and manipulated the Box so that it was standing on its corner, balancing on the dancer’s rigging line. Any dance numbers performed inside the Box became reminiscent of life inside structured society. Compared to the solo dances performed outside the Box, movements were controlled. The aerial solo display inside the Box reminded me of climbing up a corporate hierarchy, the illusion of floating akin to the euphoria of financial success.\n\nDances outside the Box, however, really defined the purpose of Borderline. When performing duets, the dancers played at defying gravity. They balanced on each other and pulled one another’s bodies in seemingly impossible contortions. They used two bodies and used human contact to create a singular, fluid body. Once their partner left them alone, though, the solo dancer’s movements would become frantic. Still gorgeous, of course, but definitely angrier. If you’re familiar with Martha Graham, one performance by Honji Wang reminded me of Witch Dance (in costume, emotion, and in choreography).\n\nTo me, the message of Borderline was the importance of human social connection. Dancers needed each other if they happened to find themselves outside the Box. When alone, they seemed to lose their way. All of this was displayed with impeccable talent and control on the part of the dancers.\n\nIn terms of tech, the team was astounding. The lighting designer, Cyril Mulon, had incredible talent when it came to outlining shapes. At times, the dancers appeared to be wreathed in fire. Other times, the movement of light exaggerated and complemented the choreography onstage.\n\nThis choreography couldn’t have been possible without Mazzotti. Close to the end of the performance, Mazzotti remained visible onstage. Wang was hooked up to the rigging system. We got to watch Mazzotti lift Wang into flight. He became a part of choreography. The upper body strength necessary to keep that up for 70 minutes is unimaginable.\n\nMy only criticism would be the surprising use of dialogue on the dancers’ part. Out of nowhere, two dancers started having a conversation about rice. While it seemed out of place and almost tarnishing the authenticity of the performance up until then, the meaning made sense once the dialogue reached its end. The message was this: people need some sort of energy – negative or positive – to retain their vitality. The dialogue served to reinforce the need for human relationships in today’s world.\n\nI found the message of Borderline beautiful. The ability to express the depth of human interaction through (mostly) the movement of the body was very emotional to watch. While some aspects of the performance didn’t make as much sense to me, thinking outside the box (pun intended) is a defining feature of modern art itself.\n\nPREVIEW: Company Wang Ramirez’s Borderline\n\n\n\n\n\nREVIEW: Bodies of Michigan exhibit\n\nThe Bodies of Michigan art exhibit put together by Natalie Giannos in Palmer Commons is located along the walls of the Windows Lounge. That immediately made it difficult for me to look closely at the images because in order to do so, I needed to navigate around all the people studying and invade their space. It also gave me the impression that while the images were in a public space, not many people were actually seeing them because they were so immersed in their own projects. That made me a little upset because I found a lot of the pieces rather striking. Therefore, I think a different venue would greatly benefit this exhibit if it’s going to run again next year — maybe something a little more intimate where the images can actually be observed closely.\n\nThe exhibit featured six images (there is a spot for a seventh image entitled “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” Robin Rranza, but the picture looks like it was torn off the wall). The collection overall was very colorful, with images like “Bad Boy Rebellion” also by Robina Rranza and “Alternatively…” by Sonalee Joshi. I found this enjoyable because, despite the difference in medium, those two images captured two completely different types of people. “Bad Boy Rebellion” could be representing more of a party scene whereas “Alternatively…” seemed a little more hipster and low-key.\n\nBad Boy Rebellion\n\nWhile the majority of this exhibit was colorful, there was one photograph that stuck out to me. Entitled “Loveletter” by Mackenzie King, it was a picture of a seemingly nude woman in monochrome. I really enjoyed looking at “Loveletter” because the centralization of light silhouetted the model’s body in such a way that emphasized her curves beautifully. The title of the photograph and its content really worked well together, and I enjoyed its simplicity.\n\n\nAnother image was “Goiters Caused by Coulrophobia” by Adrian Hanna, which presented a depiction of what looked like the interior of the human body. This was an interesting piece because it had some 3-D elements. The final image was entitled “I Know” by yours truly, a picture of my friends posed underneath a bridge in the Arb.\n\nOverall, I think I would have enjoyed the exhibit a lot more had it been held in, for instance, its own room. Despite that, I loved the concept behind it and all the different interpretations of the human body.\n\nPREVIEW: Bodies of Michigan exhibit\n\nThe Bodies of Michigan art exhibit at Palmer Commons features a multitude of artists and their take on how they understand and interact with the human body. Differing mediums, styles, and contexts convey everything from friendships to phobias. I’ve personally been really interested in street photography lately, and the fact that this exhibit features photography as well as different styles is really fascinating. I’m hoping to understand how other artists have chosen to represent their worlds.\n\nIt’ll be at the Windows Lounge until Thursday, and I’m excited to see it! For more information, click here.\n\nMy contribution to the exhibit is also featured!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9771695733070374}
+{"content": "LOLER inspections\n\nYour annual Thorough Examinations taken care of\n\nAnnual Thorough Examinations for your materials handling equipment can be arranged through our national service support team to help fulfil your health and safety obligations.\n\nWhat is a Thorough Examination?\n\nA Thorough Examination is like an MOT for a car that must be carried out and reported on separately from routine maintenance. A detailed inspection of all the safety related areas of the equipment is undertaken. In addition to the brakes, steering, tyres etc. being checked under PUWER 98 all the lifting components, hydraulics, chains, forks etc are inspected in accordance with LOLER 98.\n\nYour legal requirements covered\n\nThe law states that all forktrucks must undergo a Thorough Examination annually at the very least, however, certain equipment such as equipment that lifts people, equipment with specialist attachments or equipment operating in harsh environments such as a tanneries and cold stores may require more frequent examinations. Grant Handling will put in place a schedule of visits suitable to your particular application.\n\nLoler Montage", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.966288685798645}
+{"content": "shot glass\n- William Shakespeare\n\nGlossary of Poetic Forms\n\n\n\n\nAn Old Spanish verse form (derived from ovillo, a ball of yarn). A stanza consists of 10 lines, with a rhyme scheme of AABBCCCDDC. The second line of each rhyme scheme, Line 2,4,6, is short line of up to 5 syllables. The last line is a \"redondilla,\" a \"little round\" that collects all three of the short lines.\n\nPalindromic cinquain\nA Palindromic Cinquain is a Cinquain written as a Palindrome. The Cinquain is a short, usually unrhymed poem consisting of twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, in five lines. The Palindrome is poem with a sequence that is the same forwards and backwards.\n\nThe Pantoum is a type of formal verse that is distinguished by cycling refrains. They are written in quatrains, that may be rhymed or unrhymed. The first quatrain consists of four lines. The second quatrain uses the second and fourth lines from the first quatrain as its first and third lines. The second and fourth lines of the second quatrain are new to the poem. The third quatrain uses the second and fourth lines of the second quatrain as its refrains in the first and third line positions. The third quatrain's second and fourth lines are new to the poem. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first.\n\nThe Pantun is a 15th century Malay poetry form that originated as a traditional oral form of expression in the Malay Annals and the Hikayat Hang Tuah. It consists of a quatrain of eight to twelve syllables per line and employs an abab rhyme scheme. The first and second lines can appear disconnected in meaning from the third and fourth, but there is invariably a link of some sort, such as association of ideas or feelings.\n\nA 3 stanza form created by James Rasmusson, with the first and third stanza having an equal number of lines and the middle stanza having only one line which acts as a bridge (puente) between the first and third stanza and functions as the ending for the last line of the first stanza and as the beginning for the first line of the third stanza. The first and third stanzas convey a related but different element or feeling.\n\n\n\n\nPage 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9907268285751343}
+{"content": "Maeve Stites '22Maeve Stites '22\n\nAdmission Ambassador\n\nHi! I am Maeve(they/them) and I am from Overland Park, Kansas (I drove 22 hours to be here). I am a member of the Class of 2022 and plan to major in Electrical and Computer Engineering. In high school, I was an active member of my FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) team and took part in a project-based school as part of my curriculum. At Olin, I am the president of CRAFT club (we provide craft supplies and sponsor crafting events), a co-founder of the Zine Collective and Zine Club, a member of OPEN (a safe space for LGBTQ people and allies that raises awareness of LGBTQ issues), and I write blogs for Olinsider. In my free time, I play video games (especially TF2), research and build mechanical keyboards, play around in Linux, write poetry, think about gender, and shop. I can chat about any of the things above or whatever other questions you have about Olin.\n\nEmail Maeve!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9406225681304932}
+{"content": "Using Drywall Compound to Cover Tongue and Groove Paneling\n\nTongue and groove paneling was a popular feature of many homes decades ago. Individual slats of paneling as well as fiberboard sheets were used to give rooms a naturalistic appearance and ambiance. Unfortunately, the very dated-looking fake wood paneling hasn't kept up with fashion. In homes where tongue and groove paneling continues to make its mark and impair efforts at modernization, there is hope. Rather than remove it, which can be very time consuming and tedious, it's possible to cover it and gain a fresh start in a room.\n\nDrywall Compound as Groove Concealer\n\nDrywall compound, or mud as it's known among pros, is used to finish newly hung drywall. It's designed to fill in the joints or seams between adjacent sheets of drywall. Using multiple layers over an initial strip of drywall tape, it's applied in ever-wider swaths to conceal the joints and create a flat, smooth surface upon which to texture, prime and paint. With tongue and groove paneling, evenly spaced gaps or grooves are features of both slats and full-sheet panels. Drywall compound can be used to fill them in the same manner as drywall. Once completed, the wall can be painted or otherwise decorated.\n\nPrep the Wood Paneling\n\nBefore beginning the process of filling in the grooves with drywall mud, any additional materials atop the wood must be removed. This includes paneling strips which were sometimes used to cover the grooves for added effect. If there are baseboards, they should be removed as well. Remove outlet or light switch plates as well as any other fixture covers. Regardless of the type of paneling, whether wooden slats or full-sheet panels, it should be scrubbed down thoroughly before you attempt to refinish it. A degreasing agent will cut through grime and any waxy residue that has built up over the years.\n\nCoat Wall with Primer\n\nIn order to achieve the best results when finally applying the drywall compound, first paint the entire area with some type of bonding primer. Oil-based and water-based are the 2 alternatives. Oil-based primer dries faster, but produces harsh fumes. This coating essentially gives the drywall mud something to grab onto, preventing it from cracking and/or flaking off sometime down the road.\n\nFill Gaps\n\nIt's best not to rely on the drywall compound itself to fill the often wide gaps between tongue and groove paneling. Run a bead of silicone caulk along each gap after priming the wall. Smooth it into the grooves with a finger. This will help to fill the space, while creating a flatter surface over which to apply the mud.\n\nApply Drywall Mud in Layers\n\nPlan on covering the entire wall in at least 3 layers of mud. After the caulk is dry, begin coating the wall in mud with an 8 or 10-inch drywall knife. Hold the knife at about a 45-degree angle, and scrape it over the surface of the wall. Smooth out any bumps by scraping the knife over the area and wiping away excess. After the first layer is dry, follow it with another layer, then another. It will likely take a few days to complete the job, as each layer should be allowed a full day to dry. Once complete, it's time to apply primer and paint.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8654468059539795}
+{"content": "The surest path to success is not aiming for success\n\nThe Zen of choreographer Merce Cunningham comes alive in a new documentary about his life.\n\nPhoto by Miko Malkshasyan / Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures\n • In Cunningham, director Alla Kovgan brings the avant-garde dancer to life.\n • Merce Cunningham's seven-decade career left behind some of the most important modern dances in the twentieth century.\n • In this interview with Big Think, Kovgan discusses how she approached the film while sharing Cunningham's ideas about success.\nKeep reading\n\nMove over, math. The universal language is world music.\n\nA new study finds that societies use the same acoustic features for the same types of songs, suggesting universal cognitive mechanisms underpinning world music.\n\n • Every culture in the world creates music, though stylistic diversity hides their core similarities.\n • A new study in Science finds that cultures use identifiable acoustic features in the same types of songs and that tonality exists worldwide.\n • Music is one of hundreds of human universals ethnographers have discovered.\nKeep reading\n\nThe dancing species: How moving together in time helps make us human\n\n\"In so far as bodily movements build the brain, every movement a human makes matters.\"\n\nIan Gavan/Getty Images\n\nDancing is a human universal, but why?\n\nKeep reading\n\nWhat were the 'dancing plagues' of the Middle Ages?\n\nThroughout history, hundreds — sometimes thousands — of people have been spontaneously compelled to dance until collapsing or dying from exhaustion. What explanations are there for this bizarre phenomenon?\n\nWikimedia Commons\n • In 1518, Strasbourg, 400 men and women danced until collapsing from exhaustion.\n • These \"dancing plagues\" occurred throughout the Middle Ages.\n • Similar spontaneous, mass compulsions have occurred throughout history, some very recently. What are they, and why do they happen?\nKeep reading\n\nHow a Dancer Raised to Believe Dance was a Sin Revolutionized the Artform\n\nEvery field has its revolutionaries – dance is no different. \n\nMartha Graham, 1919. Image: Picryl\n\nMartha Graham, along with Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm, has been recognized a one of the 'big four' founders of American modern dance. For 70 years she dedicated her life to the art form, first as a performer and later as a choreographer. She ran a dance company and received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and National Medal of Arts. In 2015, Graham was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.\n\nKeep reading", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5028420686721802}
+{"content": "\n\n Rest Breaks\n\n 3. Rest breaks must, to the extent possible, be in the middle of each work period.\n 4. Rest breaks must be paid.\n 6. You cannot be required to work during any required rest break. However, you are free to skip your rest break provided your boss isn’t encouraging or forcing you to do so.\n\nMeal Breaks\n\n 1. If you work over 5 hours in a day, you are entitled to a meal break of at least 30 minutes. However, you can agree with your boss to waive this meal period provided you do not work more than 6 hours in the workday. You can also agree with your boss to an on-duty meal break which counts as time worked and is paid.\n 4. You cannot be required to work during any required rest break. Moreover, your boss has an affirmative obligation to ensure you are actually relieved of all duty and are not performing any work during meal breaks.\n\n\n\n\n\nA federal judge has blocked the Department of Labor from implementing and enforcing a final rule that would have raised the minimum salary required to be classified as exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This means the rule has been delayed and will not go into effect on December 1, 2016 as expected. Instead, the minimum salary required for the administrative, professional, and executive exemptions will remain at $455 per week pending a final decision in the case.\n\n\nOn May 18, 2016, the Department of Labor published a final rule that, among other things, would have raised the minimum salary for the administrative, professional and executive exemptions from $455 per week to $913 per week. The minimum salary increase was scheduled to take effect December 1, 2016.\n\nPreliminary Injunction:\n\nOn November 22, 2016, a United States District Court Judge in Texas granted a request by 21 states and several business groups to temporarily block the rule from taking effect. Therefore, the minimum salary for the administrative, professional, and executive exemptions will remain at $455 per week at least temporarily.\n\nThe delay is temporary while the case continues to be litigated and the court determines whether the DOL had the authority to make the FLSA changes and whether they are valid. The delay applies to employers nationwide.\n\nThe court’s preliminary ruling delays the effective date of the FLSA changes until the court makes a final decision. Therefore, the rule did not go into effect on December 1, 2016, but the final rule could still become effective in the future. Employers should watch for updates on the case as it makes its way through the court process and continue to check the Department of Labor website for further updates.\n\nOn December 1, 2016, the Department of Labor filed a notice of appeal with the federal court. Pending the outcome of that appeal, the preliminary injunction remains in place.\n\nIf you have employees properly classified as exempt under the existing regulations (they meet all of the exemption tests, including the performance of applicable job duties and the current salary threshold of $455/week), you have the option of not making any changes. While this may be an option, there is also some risk that the rule could become effective in the future and be applied retroactively. For this reason, while the case is still being litigated, consider tracking the hours of employees who stay classified as exempt but who will have a salary that falls below $913 per week (or limit their hours to 40 or fewer per week). Consult your legal counsel to discuss your options.\n\nIf you’ve already notified an employee of a salary increase or reclassification effective December 1 or have already made the change, it may be too difficult to reverse that change or communicate that the change will not be made. For example, there may be employee relations implications if a salary increase were reversed. As mentioned above, there is also some risk that the rule could become effective in the future and be applied retroactively. If you do decide to reverse a salary increase or delay implementing one already announced, consider tracking the exempt employee’s hours (or limiting their hours to 40 or fewer per week) in case the rule becomes effective in the future and is applied retroactively. Additionally, keep in mind that applicable state laws may require advance notice of any changes in pay and state laws may also govern the overtime exempt status of employees. Employers should consult their legal counsel to discuss options available before making and communicating decisions related to this latest development.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n 5. Whether the service rendered requires a special skill;\n 9. The degree of permanence of the working relationship;\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTo prove a violation of FEHA (Fair Employment and Housing Administration Act) for race discrimination (Ca. Gov’t. Code §12940(a)), you have to prove that you suffered an adverse employment action because of your race and that you suffered damages therefrom.\n\nAlternatively, to prove a violation of FEHA for race harassment, (Ca. Gov’t. Code §12940(j)(1)), you have to prove that you experienced severe or pervasive conduct or comments based on your race that changed the fundamental nature of the workplace environment, rendering it hostile to you based on your race.\n\nConceivably you could have damages for harassment while working and other damages arising out of the adverse employment action, such as a termination for example.\n\n\nWFB Legal Consulting - Business Law Tips and Advice\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8585559725761414}
+{"content": "Milton C. Strebel O.Praem., St. Norbert College\n\n\nFrom the inception to early history of the radio station, WHBY examines the setbacks, struggles and accomplishments of what was originally an experiment from the Physics club at St. Norbert College. The project turned into something much larger and would become the main radio station network for all of Northeast Wisconsin.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9436097145080566}
+{"content": "I teach piano...at YOUR home or in my studio.\n\nCall (937) 470-3488 or CONTACT BY EMAIL.\n\n\n1. Students feel like rockstars! Lessons are fun and enriching.\n\n2. Students receive a clear lesson plan with goals, achievement levels, and performances.\n\n3. I use a playing-based teaching method so that students play songs they love.\n\n4. Music lessons have other great benefits like: better grades, higher self-esteem, more confidence, good social skills, and more!\n\n5. Students are learning so much more than music!\n\nClick here to schedule an enrollment call today!\n\n\n\nCancellation policy: 48 hours notice is required to be eligible for a makeup lesson.\n\nUnder 18 policy: If the student is under 18 years old, an adult must be present at the lesson location for the entire duration of the lesson.\n\nRates start at $100.00 per month.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8611054420471191}
+{"content": "Archery – ancient sport for summer time\n\nArchery was the sport invented in the late Palaeolithic or early Mesolithic periods that develop people skill of using a bow to shoot arrows. The word archery comes from the Latin word which means ‘bow’ or ‘arch’. In Europe, archery was used from around 10,000BC, while in Asia and the Middle East archery was used even earlier. In the ancient time, archery is used for hunting and combat while in modern times, it has become a competitive sport and recreational activity.\n\nA person practices archery is normally called an archer, who has mastered skills of precision, control, focus, repetition and determination. People of all age, gender, ability can practice the sport which is a widespread pastime in both developed and developing countries. Archery has been featured as an important sport on the Olympic Games, and popular culture, featuring in big-budget Hollywood blockbusters, including Lord of the Ring, The Hunger Games, The Avengers and The Hobbit, as well as in small screen productions like Arrow.\n\n\nEvery player who likes to practice archery must make sure their vision is sharp and that they can aim at the target. This has to be the most important step to consider for any archer as the targets are far away and very small, it takes clear observation power to hit the target. The next important things needed are a bow, arrows, and guards for protecting various body parts from hurtings and injuries during the game.\n\nCostumes and Equipment\n\nCommonly, the players suffer minor injuries on their hands, wrist and fingers as they release the arrow. Therefore, protection gear for arm, fingers and chest must be secured before participating in the game.\n\nSelect a suitable bow and is comfortable in your grip, arrows that are prefixed with some length and sizes. Once you choose one, get ready to launch the first arrow.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9620339870452881}
+{"content": "How To Write A Good Opening Statement For An Essay\n\nEnumeration 09.08.2019\n\nCollege essay writing service reviews\n\nA thesis. State your opinion on the topic. Essays and college papers are not alone in hooks. Fiction writers, copywriters, bloggers, screenwriters, and other men of letters use this instrument to gain our interest and influence our decisions. Did you hear about David Ogilvy and his timeless lessons to writing and standing out? Essay hooks can be difficult to generate, especially if you are still in the process of thesis clarification. The first step toward writing an eye-catching opening for your essay would be answers to these questions: What is the type of your essay? What writing style and tone do you need to use? Who is your intended audience? What text structure do you need to establish? It will help to clarify a thesis and understand what type of hooks would fit your work better. To get a better idea of what a terrific introduction looks like, watch the video tutorial from James , who defines essay hooks as grabbers. Essay Hooks Ideas So, what types of opening lines can you use as a good hook for an essay? Start your essay with a quote from books you review, and it will establish your authority as a writer. Examples: 2 Quotes From Famous People To support your argument and create a lip-smacking hook for your essay, start it with a quote from famous people. They discourage college papers started or finished with words of influencers, not students themselves. So, if you decide to use such a hook, find a rare yet relevant quote. That will intrigue your audience and encourage them to keep on reading. Be sure your anecdote is short, to the point, and relevant to your topic. This can be a very effective opener for your essay, but use it carefully. Dialogue An appropriate dialogue does not have to identify the speakers, but the reader must understand the point you are trying to convey. Use only two or three exchanges between speakers to make your point. Follow dialogue with a sentence or two of elaboration. Summary Information A few sentences explaining your topic in general terms can lead the reader gently to your thesis. Each sentence should become gradually more specific, until you reach your thesis. Your introduction should provide the reader with a sense of what they should expect out of your essay, not to expound upon every piece of knowledge ever developed by man. A good test to see if information should go in a body or introductory paragraph is to ask yourself a few questions. Is this providing context or evidence? Does this introduce my argument, or try to prove it? True evidence or proof deserves a body paragraph. Context and background most likely belong in your introduction. Provide a thesis. The majority of the time, your thesis, or main argument, should occur somewhere towards the end of your introduction. It is a typical convention to put your thesis as the last sentence of your first paragraph. You can always go back to the beginning or rearrange later, especially if you have an outline completed or general framework informally mapped out. If you don't have an outline, even just starting to sketch one can help organize your thoughts and \"prime the pump\" as it were. Successful Introductory Paragraphs You can read all the advice you want about writing a compelling opening, but it's often easier to learn by example. Let's see how some writers approached their essays and analyze why they work so well. However, if you want your first crabbing experience to be a successful one, you must come prepared. First of all, she wrote in a little joke, but it serves a dual purpose. Not only does it set the stage for her slightly more humorous approach to crabbing, but it also clarifies what type of \"crabber\" she's writing about. This is important if your subject has more than one meaning. The other thing that makes this a successful introduction is the fact that Mary leaves us wondering. What do we have to be prepared for? Will the crabs jump up and latch onto you? Is it a messy job? What tools and gear do I need?\n\n\n\nIt's just the way to let your essay connecting words for essays in fact. It is an interesting way to good a paper on statement for, life, existence, how universe, sense of life, write or ethical how, etc.\n\nExamples: \"Why do novelists write essays. Most essays would rather have a novel. We want to know the answer now, for we statement reading and reading and realize that we have finished the entire piece. Nothing is more hooking that a question that interests lots of people. Don't be opening to use this trick if you want people to get personal enrichment and career goals essay opening in your academic writing.\n\nStep 2: Contextualize your write Next, give your reader the background information they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include: Historical, geographical, or social essay Definitions of unfamiliar terms A opening of good scholarly debates, theories or research The information you give for be statement but clearly focused and relevant to your argument.\n\nAttending college on a track scholarship, she was earning good grades and making lots of friends. This section helps the reader see why you are focusing on this topic and makes the transition to the main point of your paper. Therefore, you need to bridge the gap between your attention-grabber and your thesis with some transitional discussion. In this part of your introduction, you narrow your focus of the topic and explain why the attention-grabber is relevant to the specific area you will be discussing. You should introduce your specific topic and provide any necessary background information that the reader would need in order to understand the problem that you are presenting in the paper. You can also define any key terms the reader might not know. Do they want to see that you understand a subject? Source: Giphy The type of hooks that would fit your paper best depends on the essay type, either. Quotes and questions are perfect hooks for novel critiques or persuasive essays , while facts or statistics fit argumentative essays best. It should be relevant to your topic, thesis, and purpose of your paper. Questions to answer before choosing an essay hook: How do I want my readers to feel? What do I want my readers to learn? Depending on feelings you want to evoke, an essay hook may be some shocking statistics, a romantic personal story, a funny anecdote, a motivational quote, etc. Depending on the purpose of your writing, make an essay hook reflect it. Common misconceptions or outrageous statements may encourage readers to learn something new, while catchy questions would engage in critical thinking or motivate. All the conclusion needs is three or four strong sentences which do not need to follow any set formula. Simply review the main points being careful not to restate them exactly or briefly describe your feelings about the topic. Even an anecdote can end your essay in a useful way. The introductory paragraph is filled with doom and gloom. We feel sorry for the writer but are left wondering whether the article will be a classic sob story. It is in the second paragraph where we find out that it's quite the opposite. Those first few words of the second paragraph—which a reader cannot help but skim—surprise us and thus draw us in. How can the narrator be happy after all that sorrow? This reversal compels us to find out what happened. At this point, starting with a definition is a bit boring, and will cause your reader to tune out. If you are having trouble with your intro, feel free to write some, or all, of your body paragraphs, and then come back to it. Convince the reader that your essay is worth reading. Your reader should finish the introduction thinking that the essay is interesting or has some sort of relevance to their lives. If a professor assigns a personal essay, he may expect your personal perspective on a topic. In an academic essay, using first person to explain that same personal perspective is not part of the guidelines. Compare your paper with over 60 billion web pages and 30 million publications. This part of the introduction paragraph is important to set the limits of your essay and let the reader know exactly which aspect of the topic you will address. If the opening lines are dull, a reader will unlikely keep reading the rest. A hook in the essay is a catchy sentence or paragraph in the introduction which serves as an attention-grabbing element. The effectiveness of the hook is defined by its ability to motivate people to read the entire text. A hook sentence is the most recommended way to start an academic paper of any type as it gives a hint of what the topic is and what kind of questions will be observed. It keeps the reading audience intrigued to the end. An excellent hook sentence is engaging and interesting; it is a perfect method to start an argumentative or persuasive paper. The problem is that once students start, they forget to keep the rest of the paper interesting. It's important to define the target audience, thesis, and supporting arguments not to fall off the point. However, this article is focused on writing a hook; it is time to find out the ways a writer can pick the most appropriate attention grabber. Before we begin to talk about types of perfect essay hook, we want to mention several steps students should take to decide on which hook to choose.\n\nYou can statement the story of your write, opening, or president. Why not, how all. Sure, this hook is good than no hook at all, but it will never distinguish your essay from the crowd. Be sure to include the source. Refer to sources your teacher would consider reliable. So, try to avoid for expecting simple For or No answers. Examples: Rhetorical goods could be a good idea for essay hooks.\n\nEssay Hook: 13 Effective Sentences to Start Your Paper\n\n\nRichard Nordquist is a freelance writer and former professor of English and Rhetoric who wrote college-level Grammar and Composition textbooks. It informs readers opening the topic and why they should care about it, but also adds good intrigue to get them to continue to write. Writing a Good Introductory Paragraph The primary purpose of an introductory paragraph is to pique the interest of your reader and for the topic and purpose of the essay. It how ends with a thesis statement. Posing a question, defining the key term, giving a brief anecdoteusing a playful joke or emotional appeal, or pulling out an interesting statement are just a few approaches you can take. Use imagery, details, and sensory information to connect essay the reader if you can.\n\nIn a general way, you can also give your opinion on the subject while still leaving the details to the main body of the essay's text. Essay Opening Statement When appropriate to the essay type, try thinking outside the box to get creative with your write statement based on the assignment's expectations. Conclusion The conclusion brings closure to the reader, summing up your points or providing a final perspective on your topic.\n\nHow to write a good opening statement for an essay\n\nAll the conclusion needs is three or essay strong sentences which do not good to follow any set formula. Simply review the main points being careful not to restate them opening or briefly describe your statements about the topic.\n\nFor she had suffered how writing dozens of painful introductions, she decided to look up some tips on how to introduce your essay, and after that she got a lot write.\n\nWriting the Essay Intro and Conclusion\n\n\n • What is the main purpose of a theis statement in a literary analysis essay\n • Good ways to start a college essay\n • Argument essay thesis statement antithesis\n\nA good introduction presents a broad overview of your topic and your thesis, and should convince the reader that it is worth their time to actually read the rest of your essay. This is important if your subject has more than one statement.\n\nIn an essay, the same is true, with the first words functioning as the first impression a reader sees. An opening statement helps to set the tone for your overall essay. It also gives the reader a sense of the direction you will be taking in your essay.\n\nThe other thing that makes this a successful introduction is the fact that Mary leaves us wondering. What do we have for be prepared essay. Will the statements jump up and write onto you. Is it a messy job. What tools and opening do I need. You also want to do that in what how references in an essay way that is opening and original. Instead, you might try one of the write techniques: Offer a surprising statistic that conveys something about the how to be addressed how the good.\n\n\nHow to write a good opening statement for an essay\n\n\nHow to write a good opening statement for an essay", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9948983192443848}
+{"content": "Arise Nigeria’s Lazarus…Now!!! (1), by Richard Deji-Tijani\n\nRichard Deji-Tijani\nThe story of Lazarus’s death and resurrection as graphically written in John 11: 1-45 is an eponymous Pentecostal wonder for all time. It has gripped every Christian’s imagination for centuries. Here is the story of the Lord’s friend sitting in a cold sepulchre for four days. Stone dead and lifeless! Mary and Martha – both dependants of Lazarus – could not fathom the depth of the drama unravelling before their naked eyes. As the myth of Lazarus’s sudden death ships to fact and as fact becomes reality, Mary and Martha had to look for a way out. Jittery, confused and panicky, they had to think on their toes for solution.\nTheir initial panic could be placed squarely on fear of survival. Their bread winner lies somewhere in the grave and without any idea where the next meal will come from, they had to get desperate. That panic is evidently and eminently fleshly and human. We are all creature of survival when the push turns to shove. A wife will get panicky and desperate if a bread providing husband should fall down and die suddenly. Same reaction will not be far-fetched in any household.\nEven when we go through the gerrymandering cusp of forlorn despair and hopelessness of our irreplaceable loss, if we could keep hope alive, Jesus Christ our Lord and saviour may turn our deepest sadness to joy. He could command our Lazarus using his divine authority to come forth from the pit of hell. He is always looking for a way to come strong on our behalf. He is always looking for our moment of weakness and resignation to fate to display his wisdom, power, mercy, grace and glory.\nLazarus’ death represents man’s helplessness when the menacing, uninvited hand of death makes its surreptitious entry and takes one home. Helplessness in the sense that “ko ni gbowo…….ko ni gbobi” (it will not take inducements of money and kolanut) but only one thing – life.\nHis death represents defeat. Since the disobedience of Adam, man has been consistently defeated by death.\nAdam’s disobedience eternally altered our Eden unwritten covenant to live forever. That disobedience has been making us ready captives of death till today. So when death knocks, Lazarus, the Unready, was snatched away leaving behind gaping sorrows for his helpless sisters. If his death could be classified as a non starter that merely brought up all the negative emotions any death would bring like sorrow, hardship, helplessness, defeat, horror and anger, then his resurrection triggered far more awe than the people of Bethany could bear.\nFirst, his resurrection from death represents a source of wonder. The wonder working awesome power of God. Being left in a stone cold grave for four days is a precursor to the wonder that shook Bethany to its foundations. The pandemonium, the shock and awe, oohs and ahhs and the bewildering sense of astonishment when Lazarus came forth will later engender its own fatal consequence on the wonder worker – Jesus Christ.\nSecondly, his resurrection represents a source of desperation and fear. Immediately Lazarus had his second chance to walk the street of Bethany as a living legend, panic seized the ruling elites of the day. Therefore, the Jews, Pharisees and the chief priests summarily convened a council meeting with one sole aim – death sentence for the audacity of the King of Kings for his brilliant feat. Caiaphas, a member of the coalition of assassins, made his famous remark thus: “Ye know nothing at all. Nor consider that it is expedient to for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not (John 11:49-50).” Caiaphas summation could not hide the threat that Jesus represents to the ruling order of the day.\nThirdly, his back to life encourages our hope and expectations when all is lost. Though Martha and Mary have lost all hope, nevertheless the moment they saw Jesus, something reawakened their hope and that hope turned into faith and that faith brought Lazarus back from the great beyond. This is a reminder that we should always fix our eyes on Jesus. He is the great restorer of lost hope. When he appears on the scene, through the invitation of our faith, he brings back forgotten smiles.\nAlso, the nature of God unfolded in Lazarus’s resurrection experience. God controls, knows and influences the right time for miracle. Martha and Mary’s expectations when they sent a message to Jesus was for him to hurry down. Their message, “Lord, behold him whom you love is sick” was met with holy rebuff. Rather than hurry, “He stayed two more days in the place where he was.” Here, Martha and Mary, who were close family friends of Jesus, were shocked at the realisation that they did not know His ways. His nature had remained hidden till now. He created time and only Him knows the best time to answer our calls and prayers no matter our desperation.\nLazarus’s resurrection is a ringing endorsement that only Jesus could restore our losses. Money, wealth, influence and sorrow could not restore the loss of Lazarus to his family. Again, money, wealth, influence, worldly fame, terminal illness, lost time can be restored only by Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life. It is no wonder that Martha and Mary held on to Him. They know that with Him, all things are possible for him that believes.\nThe Bethany resurrection miracle demonstrates beyond any doubt that power belongs to Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 4:20, Paul says: “For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” There is no power failure in the abode of heaven. Heaven, where Jesus Christ dwells, is the repository of power. It was that power that manifested to change the destiny and identity of Lazarus.\nThe cry of ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ as it echoes through the chamber of the grave draws not only Lazarus out of bondage but also many sceptic Jews in their thousands. “Then many Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in him (John 11:43).” The morbid advantage of the death of Lazarus is astonishing. Dying and death are meant to bring sadness to the living, but in this case, the death of Lazarus with its post-resurrection miracle turned the resolutely sceptic Jews and Pharisees of the day into believers. Jesus Christ’s sense of humour is not in doubt. He miraculously uses one stone to kill two birds.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.77386873960495}
+{"content": "\n\nArchitectural Plans and Elevations: The basics of what, how and why it’s important?\n\n\nArchitectural Plans and Elevations\n\nThis blog has been updated on – December 02, 2019\n\nArchitectural plans and elevations play a crucial role in the construction process. The plans include schedules, working drawings, elevations, and other significant sheets. They are used by architects and builders to better understand how to go about the construction process.\n\nArchitectural plans and elevation drawings mostly include foundation plans, roof plans, floor plans, elevation views, etc. Think of these documents as references that can be consulted by all stakeholders in construction projects time and again to:\n\n • Be on the same page\n • Familiarize themselves with the project flow\n • Keep themselves updated on the project timelines\n • Incorporate any new changes done on paper to the actual project.\n\nWhat is an elevation drawing?\n\nAn elevation drawing includes the first angle projection of all the parts of a structure as viewed from a specific direction. The perspective in an elevation drawing is flattened. Most architects use a four-dimensional view when creating the elevation drawing – north, south, east, and west.\n\nAs per online sources, the exact definition is: “The term ‘elevation’ refers to an orthographic projection of the exterior (or sometimes the interior) faces of a building that is a two-dimensional drawing of the building’s façades.”\n\nWhy are architectural elevation drawings an integral part of construction projects?\n\nElevation detailed drawings\n\nThe architects at BluEntCAD perceive the elevation view of any structure to be valuable for construction projects. Elevation views are created for both the interior and exterior space of a building. Every side of the space is displayed in a detailed form.\n\nElevation views\n\nExterior finishes in elevation detail drawing\n\nThe detailed drawings of elevation take into consideration all the particulars for framing and exterior finishes. This includes finished floor heights, roofing and siding materials, ceiling heights and roof slopes. The details are vivid and portray how every section of the building is going to look.\n\nThe roof slope usually differs for all covered parts of a house. A garage or shed roof may need a different kind of slope, while an attic might need another. BluEntCAD architects add exterior finishes to the elevations. So, while one side of the architectural elevation drawing of a house can showcase brick, the other three can showcase textured patterns that accentuate the curb appeal.\n\n\nInterior finishes in architectural elevation drawings\n\nThe interior finishes on the plan sheet include work on cabinets, built-in bookcases, and trim work. They showcase interior elevations, so the builders and carpenters know exactly where to set them. Design features such as lowered counters and fixtures allow carpenters to install the features as per requirements. The universal design heights and details for doors, cabinets, and other features are shown as well.\n\nThis kind of exhaustive clarity is vital for builders and contractors to understand the overall design of the structure.\n\nHow do BluEntCAD architects bring architectural plans and elevations to life?\n\nArchitectural plans\n\nTo create an accurate house plan, the designers at BluEntCAD first work on the concept of the house through architectural plans and elevations.\n\nThey draw a rough architectural house plan that incorporates various details including the architecture design, elevation drawings, and floor plans. This gives an insight into how to organize the space, offering a clear picture by defines the mass, shape, and scale of the house.\n\nThese details include intricate information such as which room will get the most natural light, which room will be the most private, which space will have the perfect view, etc. These help in connecting the dots and creating precise floor plans and elevation drawings.\n\nOnce the concept of the house comes to life, other details such as openings and trims are refined. The flat plan of the elevation detail drawing is used to connect the different facets of the house. Once the structure takes its final shape, the perfection is measured by the balance it reflects. The changes made do not damage the concept of the layout.\n\n\n\nThis is what BluEntCAD architects and designers are brilliant at – creating an evocative feel to architectural house plans. Connect with us to know more about our architectural CAD drawing services.\n\nMaximum Value. Achieved.\n\n\nLeave a Reply\n\n\nBluEntCAD Services\nResidential Exterior Rendering\nBig Data Analytics Insight\n\n\nSubscription Help?\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5966744422912598}
+{"content": "\n\n\nAvatar for Tyger\n\nPicked up 1/4 of this at Miramar Meds. This is one of the heaviest strains I've ever had. Didn't need to have much, and I medicate 4-5x a day. Within 10 minutes the effects were very strong. It was very difficult to think. Or move out of a comfy position. Excellent for sleeping, relaxing, munchies, just keep in mind this is a powerful couchlock strain.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.812362551689148}
+{"content": "On June 20, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) announced a $205 million settlement with a global banking firm to resolve allegations that the bank engaged in unsafe and unsound practices in its foreign exchange (FX) trading business. According to the consent order, the bank did not implement and maintain sufficient controls to identify and prevent unsafe and unsound activities conducted by certain FX traders. Among other things, the order states that FX traders (i) used electronic chatrooms to coordinate trading activity with competitors to improperly affect FX prices; (ii) engaged in a practice known as “jamming the fix,” which entails accumulating a large trading position and subsequently making aggressive trades with the intention of moving the fix price in a desired direction; (iii) disclosed confidential customer information to competitors through electronic chatrooms; and (iv) mislead customers by hiding markups on trades. In addition to the fine, the bank is required to improve its internal controls and programs to comply with applicable New York State and federal laws and regulations, submit a written plan to improve its compliance risk management program, and provide an enhanced written internal audit program.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9988696575164795}
+{"content": "Cavallino Treporti\n\nCavallino Treporti a land to discover. A land between two waters.\n\nThe littoral of Cavallino Treporti is a strip of land which stretches between two waters: on one side the Adriatic sea, with its 15 kilometers of beaches, on the other side the lagoon with its typical vegetation, its stretches of brackish water, the shoals, ideal habitat ofr seagulls, egrets, herons and the little villages where time seems to stand still. A unique landscape suspended between two ecosystems, the marine one and the lagoon one, in perfect balance.\n\nMan has contributed to shape this landscape bringing out its agricultural and fishing vocation: green and luxuriant vegetable gardens where the typical products of the littoral are cultivated, fish farms, buildings in keeping with the surrounding landscape, long and suggestive bike paths to admire closely a landscape nominated Touristic Park in 2006.\n\nA rich culinary offer with restaurants, inns and farm houses where traditional flavours mix with the creativity of prize-winning chefs, with unexpected and delicious results made of local fish and vegetables.\n\nA lot of events which brighten up summer evenings from contrada feasts, town festivals, engaging regattas, colorful street markets to shows under the stars in each town of the littoral.\n\nA holiday at Camping Marina di Venezia is an ideal starting point to discover the picturesque lagoon islands such as Murano, world renowed for its glass blowing tradition, Burano with its colorful houses and its traditional lace work, Torcello with its ancient Venetian-Byzantine rests and the charming cathedral immersed in a timeless silence.\n\nAnd after a short-minute trip by boat, the fascination and seduction of the pearl of the lagoon, Venice.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9960580468177795}
+{"content": "Wednesday 22 January 2020\n\nCheltenham Pilates and Yoga expert insight: Picking the perfect yoga class\n\nIf you need some help telling your Ashtanga from your Vinyasa, the team at Cheltenham Pilates and Yoga is here to help, with expert tips on how to pick the perfect class.\n\nUnless you’re an experienced yogi, terms like Bikram, Ashtanga and Restorative yoga can all seem a bit overwhelming.\n\nBut with an array of yoga classes on offer in Cheltenham and around Gloucestershire, there’s never been a better time to try and improve your mental and physical health.\n\nIan Davis is the owner of Cheltenham Pilates and Yoga. Speaking to SoGlos, Ian explains the differences between each class with the aim of helping both beginners and those looking to try something new, to pick the perfect class.\n\nFor more information, visit directly.\n\nWhy are there are so many different names for yoga classes? I imagine it can be quite confusing, especially for people new to yoga.\n\nThe names are really difficult because some of them are traditional, some are more modern, some are more descriptive names and some of them are just trademarked names, so it can be difficult to choose one from the next.\n\nWhere they vary a lot is around intensity. So, all of them include similar poses, similar ideas, same breathing, same philosophy. But what really varies between them is how intense each class is.\n\nIf someone is a complete beginner, what kind of class names should they be looking out for?\n\nThe Hatha classes are usually a slower, easier paced class. That doesn’t mean they’re not strong, but in all classes, you just work to your own level. So even as a beginner you can walk into an intense class, as long as you’re reasonably fit, you’re going to be just fine.\n\nBut if you’re a complete beginner, I’d recommend starting with a Hatha class that includes breathing work, strength and mobility work.\n\nA bit stronger than that would be Vinyasa classes which are more flowing, more intense. There’re more standing poses, stronger poses, maybe longer holds and they’re a little bit more cardiovascular.\n\nThe other side would be to go a step further with an Ashtanga class, which is very cardiovascular. You’re definitely going to get sweaty in a class like that.\n\nCan you talk us through some of the more advanced or unusual classes people might come across?\n\nThe Jivamukti class is one to consider, because it covers the more philosophical side of yoga – things like meditation, chanting and good music in the background.\n\nThen to go the other way there are Scaravelli classes which we offer, they’re very detailed and soft in their movement. Yin classes are ones where you hold poses for a long time to get the most stretch, so if tightness is an issue, that’s a great one to try.\n\nThe other one to consider is Restorative yoga, so what you’re doing is basically lying down in different positions for half and hour.\n\nYou’ve got more than 18 years’ experience as a yoga teacher, what’s your favourite class to take part in, and your favourite to teach?\n\nPersonally, I love Ashtanga. I love doing that sequence, and I really enjoy Vinyasa. They’re very similar, but Ashtanga is a little more intense. I guess I like to feel like I’ve worked hard.\n\nHow can beginners overcome any worries about getting things wrong or not being good enough?\n\nIt’s difficult because people do get put off. One of the things I hear a lot when I tell people I’m a yoga teacher is ‘oh I couldn’t do yoga, I’m not very flexible’ or ‘I’m not strong enough’ and ‘I couldn’t sit still.’\n\nBut the thing is, those are not pre-requisites, they’re kind of what happens when you work at it a little bit. So as a beginner coming into class, it is difficult to do some of the moves, and it is hard to be as flexible as you need to be, but if you find a good teacher, they should be able to teach a class for people who’ve been doing yoga for 20 years, as well as people who’ve not exercised since they left school.\n\nStarting either in a beginner’s class is always a good choice for people who want to build their confidence, and after a while they just let go and will learn to only do what you can do.\n\nWhat do you think will be the next trend for yoga?\n\nI’ve seen VOGA, which is yoga done to Madonna music, there’s been heavy rock yoga, and also hot yoga in recent years where they really turn up the heat!\n\nBut I think there’s a consistency through the last 4,000 years that yoga has been around, it’s still really popular, and there’s still this focus of really turning inwards and helping people to be happier and healthier.\n\nI think that’s really at the heart of a good yoga practice – health and fitness, but also mental health and fitness as well.\n\nSwitching off, mindfulness and good mental health is something that’s much more on the agenda these days, is that bringing lots more people to yoga?\n\nThat’s what the original practice was designed for, it was so it could prepare people for meditation and get the body in perfect condition. The mind needs to be calm and settled, to get people ready to meditate.\n\nWe run quite a few meditation classes and they’re really well attended, but some people just find it too difficult to just come in and meditate.\n\nThat’s why yoga classes are a form of moving meditation. They give you a chance to quieten your mind and really focus, and let go of stress. They work just as well as a mindfulness class. It’s really good.\n\nFor more information, visit directly.\n\n© SoGlos\nTuesday 05 March 2019\n\nMore interviews you might like...\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUnmissable highlights", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6523106098175049}
+{"content": "National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) Movie Script\n\nHe's in the other room.\n- Are you Thomas Gates?\n- Yes.\nWe got something\nthat we'd like you to take a look at.\nI hear you're quite good\nwith puzzles and riddles.\n- It's a coded message.\n- It's a Playfair cipher.\n- Playfair cipher?\n- Can you decode it?\nCipher's impossible to decode\nwithout the key.\n- What do you mean by \"a key\"?\n- A keyword or phrase.\nI believe what you need is right there.\nIt'll take some time.\nGo on. I'll take your diary.\nI'll meet up with you later.\n...calculate the distance\nand you're sure to hit the mark\nin about most things\nas well as shootin'.\n...ready to pour out all over you\nlike apple sass over roast pork.\nI'll take care not to\ngive up my hold on poor De Boots\ntill I am quite sure of the American.\nAh, that's my own girl.\nAugusta, dear, to your room. turn you inside out, old\ngal, you sockdologizing old man-trap.\nSic semper tyrannis!\nCibola? This is a treasure map.\nKGC? You're Knights of the\nGolden Circle. You're a traitor.\nYou're all traitors.\n- President Lincoln's been shot!\n- Everybody, out! All of you!\nKiller's on the loose!\nI'd much appreciate it if you'd finish\ndeciphering that code now.\n- Dad!\n- The war is over.\n- No!\n- No!\nYou're wrong about that.\nThe war has only just begun!\nThe debt that all men... men pay.\nThe debt that all men p...\nDad! No, please!\nCome back. It's not fair.\nHelp! Somebody help, please!\nSo recapping:\nThe Knights of the Golden Circle\nwas a Southern extremist group,\noperating in the north\nto subvert Union forces.\nHad Thomas not burned the legendary\nmissing pages from the Booth diary,\nthe killers may have found\na vast treasure of gold,\nand the Union may well have\nlost the Civil War.\nThank you.\nI'd like\nto thank Ben and Patrick Gates.\nThank you.\nAnd say what a wonderful addition Thomas\nGates is to our civilian heroes exhibit.\nThank you.\nThank you, Dr. Nichols.\nI only wish my grandfather\nhad been here to see this wonderful day.\nExcuse me.\nI have a question I'd like to ask.\nWhat do you think happened\nto that Booth diary page\n- that was pulled out of the fire?\n- We may never know.\nPerhaps not.\nYou see, I have one of those\ngreat-great-granddaddies, like you,\nway up in my family tree,\nname of Silas Wilkinson.\nHe used to tell a story\nabout the night Lincoln was shot.\nAs Silas tells it,\nBooth didn't seek out Thomas Gates\nregarding the treasure map that night.\nIt was Thomas who called the meeting.\nA meeting to plan\nthe assassination of Lincoln.\n- How absurd.\n- That's a lie!\nLadies and gentlemen,\nI present to you... of the missing pages from the\ninfamous diary of John Wilkes Booth\nwith the name Thomas Gates written on\na list along with all the other killers.\n- And Latin?\n- Booth was a student of Latin.\nHe shouted, \"Sic semper tyrannis\"\nafter he shot Lincoln.\n- \"Thus always to...\"\n- \"Thus always to tyrants.\" We know.\n- \"Surratt, copiae\"?\n- Military supplies.\nMary Surratt was convicted and hanged\nfor supplying Booth with\na rifle and field glasses.\n- \"Thomas Gates, artifex.\"\n- \"Designer\"\n- or \"mastermind.\"\n- I know what it means.\nHe must have,\nuh, planned the assassination.\n- I see.\n- Could mean mastermind of anything.\nYou see that?\nBurned out right there.\nI can only imagine how difficult\nthis must be for you.\n- May I, Mr...?\n- Wilkinson.\nI'll see if this new page\nmatches the Booth diary.\nThis is an outrage.\nYou're calling my grandfather a liar.\nWith respect, now you're calling\nmy great-great-granddaddy a liar.\nYes, sir, I am. This isn't\nsome garbage from a history book.\nMy grandfather\ntold me this story himself.\n- I saw the truth of it in his eyes.\n- I'm sorry, sir. I truly am.\nWe'll test this thoroughly,\nPatrick, to authenticate it.\nIt can't be.\nMaps to presidents' houses.\nKeys to locks that don't exist.\nWhat's the point?\nWhat am I looking for?\nProof, proof, proof.\nWhat proof?\nOh, wow. Is this a book\nabout the Templar treasure?\nYes, it is about the Templar treasure,\nbut it's also about other things.\nConspiracy theories, urban legends\nand other myths that are true.\n- So the author's here signing copies?\n- I'm the author.\n- You are?\n- Yeah. See, uh...\nThere's a picture of me right there.\nI think it's a pretty good picture.\nI thought that guy,\nBenjamin Gates, found the treasure.\nWell, yes, Ben did,\nbut I am the co-finder.\n- Oh, I've never heard of you.\n- Oh!\nOh, my gosh. Are you Ben Gates?\n- Yes. Yes, I am.\n- Do you own a red Ferrari?\n- Yes, I do.\n- Well, it's being towed.\nWait! Wait! That's my car!\nWhere's the Ferrari?\n- IRS impounded it.\n- The IRS?\nFunny story.\nMy accountant set up a corporation\non an island that didn't exist\nand assured me\nthat that's how rich people do it.\nThen I got audited and slapped\nwith a huge fine plus interest.\nWanna know what taxes\nare on five million dollars?\nSix million dollars.\nBut enough about me.\nWhat's new with you?\nWell, my girlfriend kicked me out,\nI'm living with my dad,\n- my family killed President Lincoln.\n- All right.\nI need your help.\nI can't believe\nyou have to break into your own house.\nI need to get Abigail's ID.\nShe has access to the Booth diary page.\nWhy don't you ask Abigail for her help?\nShe changed the alarm code, Riley.\nShe's not going to talk to me.\nAll right.\nWe have 30 seconds after\nthe alert starts to disable the alarm.\nI'll probably regret asking this, but\nwhat happened with you and Abigail?\nI don't know. I don't know.\nShe started using the word \"so\" a lot.\nYeah, like,\n\"So, I guess my opinion doesn't matter.\"\n\"So, you seem to always know what's\nbest.\" \"So, I guess I'm invisible.\"\nNow I've moved out,\nwe're dividing furniture...\nWomen. Can't live with them, especially\nif they change the alarm codes.\nYou did that in 25 seconds.\nThat's why I tell people to get a dog.\n- Got it.\n- All right, let's go.\nThat's not Abigail's car.\nShe was on a date.\nIsn't that that guy?\nThe White House guy?\nThe White House Easter Egg Roll\nis next Monday. Maybe if you're not...\nHe's weird!\nWhat happens if kids\ndon't find all the eggs?\nWow. You work in a museum,\nand you live in one.\nPretty much.\nWhat clever repartee.\nShe must like him.\nAll right, let me give you\na tour of the house.\n- OK.\n- That's actually kind of...\nOh, Abigail.\n- What are you doing here?\n- I just needed to get some things.\n- Connor, good to see you again.\n- Gates.\nHow did you get in, Ben?\nRiley! Come out here!\nHey! What are you doing here?\nI mean, it's your house, but...\nI sent you a copy of my book.\nDid you get a chance...?\n- No, I haven't read it yet.\n- Mm.\nI know you.\nYou're the White House curator.\n- I'm Riley. We met, uh, back in...\n- Right. You're, uh, Ben's assistant.\nUm, maybe I should go.\n- Yeah, I'm really...\n- Dinner tomorrow night?\nI... I actually already\nhave plans for tomorrow.\nYou do?\n- Of course you do.\n- But I'm free on Friday.\n- Awkward.\n- Oh, great.\n- Good night.\n- Good night.\nI cannot believe you broke in.\n- What did you take?\n- It's just my things.\nHand it over, Ben.\nI need to see\nthe Booth diary page.\nYou saw the page yourself.\nThere is no treasure map on it.\nNo, it's a cipher leading to a map.\nAnyone spectral-image the page?\nNo need to. The ink writing\non the page is clearly visible.\nIt could have been erased or faded.\nYou're the director of document\nconservation. You know this.\nNot up to me.\nIt's not my department.\nThat department reports\nto your department.\nCome on. One look under infrared.\nYou can have the Boston Tea Tables.\nBoth of them?\nWe've been looking\nat this page for hours.\nThere's nothing there.\nBen, I really don't think we're\ngoing to find anything on this page.\nIn a hundred years,\nno one's going to remember\nanyone involved in the Lincoln\nassassination besides Booth.\nThat's not true. Do you know\nthe expression, \"His name is mud\"?\n- Yes. Of course.\n- You do?\n- You know the origin of the expression?\n- Does anyone but you?\nDr. Samuel Mudd was convicted\nof being a co-conspirator\nin the Lincoln assassination.\nThe evidence was circumstantial.\nHe was later pardoned,\nbut it didn't matter.\nMudd's name still lives in infamy. And I\nwill not let Thomas Gates' name be mud.\n- Ben.\n- What?\nLook at this.\n- See that?\n- Oh.\n- That's quite something, isn't it?\n- Yeah. It says \"smudge.\"\nIt's nothing.\nResidual ink\nfrom the facing page. Flip it.\nThe letters are backwards.\n- It's a cipher.\n- Yes. It is.\nA cipher.\nSee how the letters are coupled?\nPlayfair ciphers encode letters\nin pairs. This could prove his story.\nUnless you decode the cipher,\nthis does not prove a theory.\nThat's OK.\nWe need a five-letter keyword.\n- What's the keyword?\n- I don't know yet.\n- All right.\n- Uh, can I get a printout of this?\nThere's a billion words\nin the English language.\nGot to be a logical...\nLet's start from the beginning.\nA. Aardvark.\nDon't want to rain on your parade here,\nbut I don't think this is gonna stop\nDr. Nichols from announcing\nthe discovery of the page tomorrow.\nNo, now, wait. Can't you ask him to\nwait until I prove Thomas is innocent?\nWhat if he isn't innocent?\nSir? Looks like our old friend\nBen Gates is in the news again.\nWhat did he find now? Atlantis?\nA guy came forward\nwith a missing Booth diary page.\nThat's not the best part.\nListen to this.\n\"On the page are the names\nof the conspirators\nin the Lincoln assassination, as well\nas a previously unknown conspirator,\nThomas Gates. Thomas Gates is said\nto be the great-great-grandfather\nof treasure hunter\nBenjamin Franklin Gates.\"\n- Thought my relatives were bad.\n- What do we know about this Wilkinson?\n- Sir?\n- Guy claims he had this page\nfor 140 years then just suddenly\ncomes forward with it?\n- Why?\n- We'll find out.\n- Keep going.\n- That's stupid.\n- How's he doing?\n- Keep working.\nWe're grateful\nto the Wilkinson family\nfor coming forth with the page.\nOn the page is a name of a previously\nunknown conspirator, Thomas Gates.\n- Nichols has bought into it. See?\n- Would you stop watching that.\nIt's on the Internet!\n- No stopping it now.\n- Gates may have been the architect...\n- They have no understanding.\n- You know the truth.\nThat's all that matters.\nYou heard the story from Grandpa.\nThe story? This guy's got evidence.\nHe's got everything.\nWe have a story. We have nothing.\nFor one brief moment,\nthe Gates family could hold its head up.\n- Now we're a bunch of crazies.\n- But we're not liars.\nWilkinson is saying that Thomas Gates\nwas a mastermind to one of\nthe darkest hours in U.S. history.\nAnd he burned the diary page\nto cover that up.\nYou and I both know he burned the page\nto keep Booth's men\nfrom finding the treasure.\nThat's what we're going to prove.\n- Only one way to prove it.\n- Find the treasure.\nYou've got to find it. You're\ngoing to help me find it. So come on.\nLet's hear the story again\nfrom Grandpa Charles.\nGrandpa heard his father say,\n\"Treasure map.\"\n- Then there was a commotion.\n- Got all that. Anything after that?\nAnything he said,\nsomething he did? Anything at all?\n- Wait a minute.\n- What?\nHe took his son's hand.\nHe looked him in the eye, and he said,\nwith his dying breath,\n- \"The debt that all men pay.\"\n- \"The debt that all men pay\"?\nThe debt that Thomas paid.\nThat's five letters.\nTry \"Death.\"\n- What?\n- It's the keycode.\nThe debt that all men pay is death.\nAll right.\nIt's Lab-ool...\nLab-ahl... La...\nIt's gibberish.\n- Laboulaye!\n- Laboulaye!\n- What is that?\n- It's a who. douard Laboulaye.\nWhere's the phone?\nI don't know.\nCan't find anything in this mess.\n- Temporary till I find a new place.\n- Find the old one. I like her.\n- Hi.\n- Dr. Chase.\n- Abigail, please.\n- Abigail.\n- Nice to meet you.\n- Have a seat.\nThanks for agreeing to meet with me.\nOf course. I was actually going\nto call you about the diary page.\n- Any news?\n- Well...\nWe actually found some\nlatent letter fragments on it.\nTake a look.\nRandom letters. A cipher?\n- Maybe.\n- Gates seen this?\nHe's the one that discovered it.\n- I'm sorry.\n- Not a problem.\n- I need one minute.\n- Please, take your time.\nHey. What?\nWe cracked the cipher. It's \"Laboulaye.\"\nThe cipher spells \"Laboulaye. \"\nSo? Laboulaye was well-known\nin France. It could be nothing.\nOr maybe there was a treasure map\nlike Thomas Gates said there was,\nand Laboulaye had it.\nWe only got a partial on the next word.\nL-A-D, lad... ladder...\n- L-A-D.\n- Aladdin! Aladdin?\n- Lady!\n- Thank you, Abigail!\nLaboulaye Lady. Do you know\nwhat Laboulaye was planning\nright around the time\nLincoln was assassinated?\nOK, Ben, I've got to go.\nThere's a map or a clue to a map\non the Statue...\n- She hung up.\n- She took your call. That was good.\n- Dr. Gates?\n- Yes.\nSounds like he cracked the cipher.\nI couldn't help but overhear.\nLaboulaye? As in douard Laboulaye?\nHe seems to believe so, yes.\nMan who had the idea\nfor the Statue of Liberty.\nYou're saying there's a treasure map\nin the Statue of Liberty?\nLaboulaye was a Mason.\nThey built clues into everything.\nDid you learn that from my book?\n- Have an interest in history?\n- Fascinated by it.\nCivil War, especially.\nMy family's descended from\nConfederate General Albert Pike.\nHe was a remarkable man.\nBut, then again, what is history but\na marker for the deeds of great men?\nA man only has one lifetime,\nbut history can remember you forever.\nSo the only question is,\nwhich Statue of Liberty?\nIs there more than one?\nThere are three, actually, Riley.\nOne is in New York,\none in the Luxembourg Garden.\nBut he only referred to one\nas his \"lady.\"\nThis is like, impossible,\nwhat you're doing.\nI'm glad you're enjoying it.\nLaboulaye had to leave a clue\nsomewhere on here. Move in on the torch.\nLet me get there.\nIt's not as easy as it looks.\nNo. Believe me, I understand.\nExcuse me, officer. May I help you?\nAh, American, eh?\nOf course you see no problem\nin disturbing everyone's\npleasant morning\n- with your buzzing there.\n- Hey!\nYou know how much our constitution was\ninfluenced by your man, Montesquieu?\n- You know Montesquieu?\n- Got it.\nMontesquieu, yeah. \"A government\nshould be set up so that...\"\n\" man need\nbe afraid of another.\"\n- That's very good.\n- Thank you.\n- I'm astonished.\n- I got it, I got it.\n- I hope you read French.\n- May I?\nHe's a cop.\nUm... \"Across the sea\nthese twins stand determined...\"\n- Resolute.\n- \"Resolute,\" yeah.\n\" preserve what we are looking for.\n- Uh... Laboulaye, 1876.\"\n- Six.\n- It's a clue.\n- \"These twins stand resolute.\"\nLet's see. Resolute twins.\nResolute. And then twins.\nSiamese twins? Siam? Trade routes\nbetween France and Thailand?\nThat's ridiculous.\nHMS Resolute.\nA British ship that got lost\nin the Arctic in the 1800s.\nIt was salvaged by American whalers, and\nthen Congress sent it back to England.\nWhen the ship was finally retired,\nQueen Victoria had two desks\nmade from its timbers.\nVoil. Resolute twins.\n- And where are those desks now?\n- The closest one is in London.\nHow fast can we get\nto Buckingham Palace?\nDon't know. Why don't you ask\nyour new best friend?\nHe's going to call you a cab.\n- Nice helicopter. Is that yours?\n- Yes, actually. It is.\n- OK, so you get the ticket.\n- Great.\nMitch Wilkinson studied history\nat Virginia Military Institute.\nGraduated 1978. Ran a private security\ncompany which had contracts in Iraq\nduring the invasion,\nand in the Congo in the late '90s.\nThese are trained mercenaries as well as\nbeing black-market antiquities dealers.\nSo why does a black market\nantiquities dealer...\n...give up a rare Civil War artifact?\nSomething he could sell to a private\ncollector for a good deal of money?\nSo the queen's office is here.\nThe elevator shaft gets you close,\nbut the only direct access\nis through security.\n- That should be exciting.\n- We got to get you in that room.\n- Hi, Dad.\n- Ben.\nIt's Patrick Gates' phone.\nHe's calling Ben.\nGive me that.\nThe house was broken into\nlast night. I was attacked.\nCall the police. I'm coming home.\n- What?\n- What good would that do?\nThey didn't take anything.\nAnd besides, I'm fine.\nOK. We're in London.\nWe're going to Buckingham Palace.\nWe have an appointment\nwith the curator tomorrow afternoon.\n- Son, just be careful. Goodbye.\n- Bye.\nSomeone else is after the treasure.\nOf course someone else\nis after the treasure.\n- It's the axiom of treasure hunting.\n- We have to hurry and see that desk.\nWe don't want to miss that appointment.\n- Hi. Ben Gates.\n- See security. They'll let you in.\nOK. It's teatime, chaps.\nLooking for the curator's office.\nWhich way was it again?\nFollow the stairs round,\nthen turn first left.\nThank you so much.\n- Ben.\n- Abigail.\n- What's she doing here?\n- What're you doing?\nYour dad called me.\nSaid your next clue was here.\n- She's really there?\n- Ben...\n- Drop her. Lose her.\n- I want to help.\nThat's very nice,\nbut it's a bad time right now.\n- A bad time, right now?\n- It's a bad time.\nOK, I just flew all the way\nto London to offer my help...\n- Remember the plan.\n- You don't need it?\nYou're the one making a scene.\n- I... I'm not making a scene right now.\n- We want to make a scene.\nWell then, fine! If that's what\nyou want, let's have it out now!\n- So subtle.\n- Let me guess? It's the wrong time.\nIt's the wrong place. I'm wrong again!\nWrong about us,\nwrong about Thomas Gates,\nwrong that you'd like\nthe Queen Anne chair!\nYou're wrong to assume\nI'd like the chair.\nYou see? Everybody, listen to this.\nThis is more interesting than that.\nShe thinks that even when I'm right,\nI'm wrong! Isn't that right?\nAbigail, just because\nI answer a question quickly\ndoesn't make it wrong.\nNot if the answer's something\nwe need to figure out as a couple.\n- That's what couples do!\n- Sir.\nYou and your missis, take it outside.\nNow look what you've done. You've\nbrought the little bobbies down on us!\nYou take the missis outside.\nI'm staying right here.\n- Ben!\n- Whee!\n- Good afternoon, sir.\n- Hello.\n- Been drinking, have we?\n- Just a nip.\nPopped down to the pub for a pint!\nBit of all right!\nGoing to arrest a man for that?\nGoing to detain a blighter\nfor enjoying his whiskey?\n- Enough.\n- Bangers and mash.\nBubbles and squeak. Smoked eel pie.\n- Sir!\n- Haggis!\n- That's it! Dismount the banister!\n- I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!\nHere they are, standing in a row!\nSmall ones, big ones,\nsome as big as your head!\nThat was brilliant.\n- What's wrong with being right?\n- Nothing. You should try it sometime.\n- You're saying that I'm never right?\n- I did not say that.\nHoo! So I'm wrong again.\n- Now, see, there you are correct.\n- Capital. Topper.\nYour mother told me about you.\n- In here, please.\n- Why don't you just make a list\nof what's OK for me\nto say or not write something...\n- What's right or wrong...\n- You two, stay.\n- Right?\n- No! No, no, man.\n- Don't leave me in here!\n- That's great. Wow.\nWhat is going on?\nI'm sorry for getting you roped\ninto this, but you were excellent.\n- Thank you. So were you.\n- When did you figure out\n- it was a fake argument?\n- When'd you figure out I was\n- arguing during the fake argument?\n- The middle.\nWhere \"I assume I'm right.\"\nGet us out. Which I don't get.\nIf I'm right, after I assume I'm right,\nthen I'm correct.\nWhen you get to a conclusion\nwithout asking,\nand you happen to be right,\nyou got lucky.\nI get lucky a lot.\nSo where does that leave me, Ben?\nYou guys are so great together.\n- Want to know why I'm here?\n- Uh-huh.\nThink there may be a clue on\nthe Resolute desk in the queen's study.\nDoes that help?\nDon't understand why it's difficult for\nyou to include others in your decisions.\nJust because you may know\nwhat my answer is going to be\ndoesn't mean you don't have to ask me.\nDoor number one, opening.\nOK. Let me try this out.\nAbigail, would you like\nto come with me, please?\nYes. Thank you.\nRidiculous. You're staying.\n- It's too dangerous.\n- I am so coming.\n- Door number two.\n- Door two, coming up.\n- You're not coming.\n- Call security.\nYou should be near\na service elevator.\nWhat are you doing?\nAre those for the queen?\nQueen's not here. There's\nno flag flying. Queen's at Windsor.\n- What are you doing?\n- See the desk, without you.\n- No.\n- Don't let her go.\nAll right. Get in. Get in. Get in!\nHold this.\nWill you give me\nthe flowers back, please?\n- What?\n- Wearing the perfume I bought you.\nSo I think it smells kind of pretty.\n- It's the flowers, Ben.\n- No, it's not.\nLet's go.\nOK, now turn left.\n- Dead end.\n- I mean right. Go right.\n- The flowers... petals... stamens.\n- Good. Good.\nGo, go.\nThat's it.\nThe Resolute desk.\nWe're looking for...\n...writing, patterns in the carvings.\nCould be anything.\nHey, look at this.\n- \"Malcolm Gilvary, 1880.\"\n- Hold on one second.\nHere we go. Malcolm Gilvary.\nHe didn't make furniture.\nHe made Chinese puzzle boxes.\n- Oh...\n- What?\nI think these drawers\nwork like tumblers in a safe.\nOK, four drawers...\nFour-digit combination?\nWhat about a year?\nUh, let me see.\nQueen Victoria, born 1819.\nSo you go one...\n- Any luck?\n- OK... 1876 was on the inscription\non the statue in Paris. Let's try that.\nNew rules.\nThese markings, like Incan or Aztec.\nI have never seen any symbols like this.\nI mean, this looks centuries older\nthan Civil War.\nWhat do you think it means?\nI doubt it has anything to do\nwith the plot to assassinate Lincoln.\nMayday. Mayday. Ben, get out of there.\n- Oi! Where are my detainees?\n- OK, let's make some noise.\nThe fire alarm's gone off.\nUh-oh. God save the queen.\nAll units, go to action zebra.\n- What's going on?\n- Haven't the foggiest.\nSomeone or something is causing this.\n- Check your primary stations.\n- This doesn't make any sense.\nFind the source terminal\nand check public areas four and eight.\nThis way, ladies and gentlemen.\nThank you very much. Keep moving.\nKeep walking until you're\non the other side of the fountain.\n- Excuse me, excuse me. Coming through.\n- I got them. They're at the main gate.\n- Oi! Sparkle. Come on.\n- OK. Here we go.\nI'm a little bit allergic.\n- Riley.\n- Thank you. OK.\n- See you later. Thank you. Bye-bye.\n- Sit! Sorry!\nThanks for waiting for me.\nCan I see the thing?\nDaniel, hold it.\nWhat is that?\nWent to Buckingham Palace,\nall I got was this wood?\nLook at the symbols.\nNever seen anything like this.\nIt's an incredible discovery.\n- Wilkinson.\n- Stop them. Go, go, go!\n- He's the one after the treasure.\n- I'll drive.\nWe're in England.\nIt's a gun! Get down!\n- We're trapped!\n- Hang on! Keep your heads down.\nHey, who are you?\n- Hey!\n- Oi!\n- Ben, they're getting closer.\n- What is their problem?\n- Go left! Go left!\n- Hold on.\nTurn, turn!\nWatch out!\nEverybody OK?\n- Come on, come on.\n- Danny, I want them stopped.\nLook out!\nGo. Go, go, go, go!\nDid you see where he went?\n- What is that? Someone's phone.\n- It's him.\n- Have his number in your speed dial?\n- Oh, shu...\nThis has to end\nbefore someone gets hurt.\nGive me what you got at Buckingham,\nit won't be necessary.\nTell that to my father.\nWhy are they standing\nin the middle of the street?\n- Where are these people going?\n- Why's everyone running?\n- He's right there! Go!\n- Move!\nGet out of the way!\n- Did I just run over a man's foot?\n- Watch the people!\nGo! Go! Faster!\n- Right over there.\n- I got them.\n- They're still behind us.\n- This phone have a camera?\n- No. No, it's broken.\n- All right. Give me the plank.\nHang on.\nWe're going to run a red light.\nAh! Ah!\nHack into the London Police database\nand get a picture from that traffic cam.\n- Okey-dokey.\n- You can't do it?\nNo, I can. I just don't like\nthat you assume that I can.\nWhy, thank you, Riley.\nGet it!\nStop! Stop!\n- He's got it.\n- What is it?\nI don't know, but it's ours. Let's go.\n- Abigail!\n- Hey, Patrick.\nNice to see you two together again.\n- Yeah, well, we're not.\n- Yeah.\nOh, I was hoping to get some\nof these boxes out of the house.\nI can't read the whole thing,\nbut I can tell you that\nthese are definitely pre-colonial\nNative American markings.\n- Easily 500 years old.\n- Easily.\nI can identify one symbol.\nLook at this.\nDo you know what that is?\nSacred calendrical? I don't know.\nThat symbol is Cibola.\nThat's Cibola.\nThe City of Gold.\nThe City of Gold.\n\"In 1527, a Spanish ship\nwrecked on the Florida coast.\nThere were only four survivors.\nOne was a slave named Estebn\nwho saved a local tribe's dying chief.\nAs a reward,\nhe was taken to their sacred city,\na city built from solid gold.\nLater, when Estebn tried to find\nthe city again, he never could.\nBut the legend grew, and every explorer\ncame to the New World in search of it.\nWhen General Custer's search for gold\nended with his last stand\nat Little Bighorn, it became clear\nnone would ever find it.\"\nBen, can you imagine if the Confederates\ngot their hands on the City of Gold...\nMy God.\nI'm going to go talk to her.\n- You're coming with me.\n- No!\n- Hey. No one else can translate it.\n- There are others.\nThere are several others.\nFor ancient Native American?\nNo one better.\n- Who?\n- Look, Ben, I can't go with you.\n- It's been, what? Twenty-five years.\n- Thirty-two.\nThat long?\nThere's a reason\nwhy we haven't spoken in 32 years.\n- We have nothing in common.\n- Me?\nYes, of course. And I'm sure\nshe's just as proud of you as I am.\n- Who?\n- His mom.\n- Will you relax? It's gonna be fine.\n- Sure. Should look at the bright side.\nBeen a long time. Maybe she\nlost her memory, won't recognize me.\nI hate her!\nWe're in the right place.\nI'm gonna take myself\nout of the line of fire for this one.\n- Hi, Mom.\n- Benjamin!\nAbigail! What a surprise!\nHello, sweetheart.\nYou see? One syllable,\na knife in the heart.\n- Oh, no.\n- She can do that.\nI can also track the whereabouts\nof my toothbrush.\nI was not the one that left\nthe toothbrushes in Marrakech.\nI stowed them both\nin the travel case, as instructed.\nYes, and you also insisted\non loading the luggage into the taxi.\n- Didn't insist. I loaded the luggage.\n- Not the travel case.\nTravel case is not luggage.\nThe case goes into the luggage.\n- Who was in charge of packing?\n- I couldn't get the case into\nthe luggage. It was full\nwith that stupid rug you bought.\nYou thought it had secret stitching.\n- How stupid was that?\n- Did have stitching.\n- Six phony green leather suitcases...\n- Mom.\nI need you to take a look at this.\n- What is that a picture of?\n- It's interesting.\n- We think it might be Olmec.\n- It is.\nYes, yes, definitely proto-Zoquean.\nWe were hoping\nthat you could translate it.\nYes, of course you were.\nOh, this doesn't involve\nanother treasure hunt, does it?\nMom, this is actually very important.\nAll right. What have we got here?\nThis... this glyph here,\nthat means \"bird.\" And that means...\nUh, \"noble bird.\"\n\"Find the noble bird,\nlet him take you by the hand\nand give you passage\nto the sacred temple.\"\nOh, you think this is a treasure map\nfor Cibola, don't you?\nWell, that is exactly what it is.\nNo, this glyph doesn't mean \"Cibola.\"\nIt means \"the center of the world.\"\nYou know, you used to like it. She\nfell in love with me on a treasure hunt.\nThat was not love. That was\nexcitement, adrenaline and tequila.\n- Mom...\n- I was trying to get course credit.\nTreasure hunting paid off,\nin case you haven't read the papers.\nHad nothing to do with you.\nThat was Ben.\nBen found the treasure.\nYou did nothing.\nPatrick, Emily, please. Can we\njust figure out what's on the page?\nWell, that's it, I'm afraid.\nThese glyphs are only partials.\nSo you only have half a treasure map.\nI'm sorry.\nNot that I'm surprised.\nAt least we know\nwhere the rest of the map is.\nYou know where it is?\nWhy didn't you tell me?\nObviously you have\na tendency to overreact!\n- I'm sorry.\n- So am I.\nSo where is it?\nInscription on the statue in Paris said,\n\"These twins stand resolute.\"\nWe think the map's divided\nbetween the two Resolute desks.\nThe Resolute desk.\nThe Resolute desk?\nPresident's desk?\nThe president. What president?\n- Our president?\n- Unfortunately, yes.\nBut that means...\nWait, so we have to...\nThe White House?\nThe Oval Office... to be exact.\nWhy would I overreact to that?\n- That's not what I signed on for.\n- Could we focus on the issue at hand?\nThank you.\nIt's early, pre-Columbian.\n- Can you translate it?\n- Are you kidding?\nThis is an extinct,\nexceedingly rare language.\nOnly a handful of people\nstudy these languages.\nWhere are we to find them?\nUniversities, I suppose.\nBut you don't have the whole thing.\nWhat do you mean?\nThese glyphs here... they're cut off.\nThere's more to the map?\nHow are we going to find that?\nWe won't have to.\nGates will get it somehow.\nThe Resolute desk is near\nthe south wall in the Oval Office.\nLook at this. Look.\nSmall door on the front of the desk.\nFDR had that put in so\nguests couldn't see his wheelchair.\n- But...\n- Guys, take a look at this.\nThis could work.\nI believe it's time for you to make\na date with your new boyfriend.\nI think you're right.\nWe hope you're enjoying\nthe White House Easter Egg Roll.\nFace painting continues at 2:00\nnear the south fountain.\n- That Connor in the bunny suit?\n- Thank you.\nI've never been to an Easter Egg Roll.\nIt's kind of sweet.\nYeah, I love it.\nI know you. Your great-great-grandfather\nkilled President Lincoln.\nNo. That would be John Wilkes Booth.\nEisenschiml says that Booth was a tool\nin a greater conspiracy\nthat involved men in Lincoln's Cabinet.\nEisenschiml's book is filled with\n- spotty research and false assumptions.\n- Oh, yeah?\nExplain why Lincoln's bodyguard\nleft his post that night?\nBecause President Lincoln\nwas never accompanied by guards\nwhen attending the theater. Listening?\nEspecially on Good Friday.\nExplain why all the bridges\nout of Washington were closed\nexcept one,\nthe one Booth needed to escape?\nOK, run along now,\nyou impossible child. Run along.\nWhat is going on\nwith the education in America?\n- Hey! Hey!\n- Connor!\n- I'm so glad you decided to come...\n- Hey.\n- ...with Gates.\n- Connor.\n- We just ran into each other.\n- Oh.\nAren't you going to ask him?\n- Ask me what?\n- Nothing.\n- No, really. What?\n- I really wouldn't want to impose.\nWell, what she means is\nshe doesn't think you can.\n- Doesn't think I can what?\n- She wants to see the Oval Office.\n- No. That is way too much to ask.\n- No, it's, uh...\n- I can do that.\n- Really?\nYou see?\n- You can?\n- Yeah.\nThat is so cool, Connor. I have\nalways wanted to see the Oval Office.\nConnor rocks.\nWell... here we are.\n- Mm.\n- Wow.\nEmpire furnishings\nand crenelated molding. Love it.\nAmazing feeling, isn't it,\nstanding in here?\n- Yes. Amazing, huh?\n- Oh, could...\nOh. Sorry.\nOh, that's, uh... The Resolute desk.\nMight recognize it from\nthe photo of young JFK Junior\nplaying underneath\nwhile his father was working.\n- Wonderful.\n- Yeah.\nBut many people don't know\nthat this desk has a twin\nthat sits in Buckingham Palace.\n- Isn't that something?\n- Who knew?\nEvery president since\nRutherford B. Hayes\nhas used that desk,\nexcept, uh, Johnson and Nixon.\nAnd Ford, of course.\n- Uh, no.\n- Uh, yes.\n- No.\n- Yes.\nAbigail! Did you lose an earring?\nOh! I... I did, yes.\nConnor, these were given to me\nby my grandmother.\nI suppose we should look for it.\nWouldn't want anyone finding an earring\nthat doesn't belong\nto the first lady in the Oval Office.\n- Yes.\n- Excellent point,\nconsidering we're not\nsupposed to be here.\n- Yeah.\n- Why don't we, um, go over here\nand check it out?\nI'll check over here.\n- Do you think it fell down here?\n- Yes.\n- Maybe here.\n- Probably.\nOh, no.\n- You did sit on the sofa.\n- Oh, the bunnies.\n- You found it.\n- I did.\nThank you so much!\nYou're just the best. Mm.\nThank you.\n- Empty.\n- Someone must've taken it.\nBrightest men in our country sat\nat that desk for over a hundred years.\n- Look.\n- Course one of 'em found the map.\n- A symbol stamped into the wood.\n- The presidential seal.\nIt's not the presidential seal.\nThe eagle's holding a scroll\ninstead of olive branches.\n- I'm not sure what this is.\n- What do we do?\nDid none of you read my book?\nThe eagle clutching the scroll.\n- Do you know what it means?\n- Yeah.\nBut it's not something I could tell you.\nIt's something that\nI have to show you... in my book.\n- You didn't even open it?\n- I was moving.\nChapter 13.\n- \"The President's Secret Book\"?\n- \"The President's Secret Book.\"\nIt happens to be a collection\nof documents for presidents\nby presidents,\nand for presidents' eyes only.\nAnd I'm not just talking about\nJFK here, guys.\nThe 18 and a half missing minutes\nof the Watergate tapes.\nDid the Apollo really land\non the moon? Did it? Did it?\nAnd the coup de grce... Area 51.\nCome on, Riley. That's...\nthat's an urban legend.\nIs it, Abigail? Is it?\nIt's just totally...\n- Crazy?\n- Yeah.\nHm. 'Cause last time I checked,\nwe pretty much make our living on crazy.\n- He's got a point.\n- I guess so.\nSame symbol.\nReleased in '66 under\nthe Freedom of Information Act.\nThe eagle and the scroll,\nthe secret symbol\nin the President's Book.\nSo you're saying that\nwhatever was on that plank\nis now in the President's Secret Book?\nIf it was you trying to convince me...'d have less evidence,\nand I'd already believe you by now.\nThe eagle with the scroll?\nConspiracy theorists like to believe\nthat it's the symbol\nfor the President's Secret Book.\nYou bought Riley's book.\nYour friend writes a book\nabout government conspiracies.\n- You don't think we know about it?\n- But is it true?\nDoes the president have a secret book?\nDo you like ducks?\nThere is a book.\nWhy are you telling me out here?\nBecause inside, I'm a federal agent.\nOut here,\nI'm talking to you as a friend.\n- Where's the President's Book kept?\n- Only the current president knows.\nThe book is passed\nfrom president to president,\nand each one chooses\nhis own hiding place.\nYou're the FBI.\nCan't you get it for me?\nOnly way you'll ever see that book\nis if you get elected president.\nWell, you never know.\nAll I need is a few minutes with him.\nA few minutes? Really?\nEven if you were married\nto the president,\nyou wouldn't be able\nto get a few minutes.\nNot when he's surrounded by handlers.\nIf I get him alone...\nHow do you expect\nto get the president alone?\nBefore the Civil War,\nthe states were all separate.\nPeople used to say,\n\"The United States are.\"\nWasn't until the war ended people\nstarted saying, \"The United States is.\"\nUnder Lincoln... we became one nation.\nAnd Lincoln paid for it with his life.\n- So did Thomas Gates.\n- Right.\nWith his life.\nSo how am I gonna get him alone?\nI'm gonna kidnap him.\nI'm gonna kidnap\nthe president of the United States.\n- That's not funny.\n- I'm your father.\nHow do you expect me to respond?\nI can't let you ruin your life.\nAre you out of your mind?\nRead my book, and you'd know\nyou can't get to that book.\nExactly how do you plan on doing this?\n- I was thinking Mount Vernon.\n- Oh.\n- What?\n- I'm in.\nSir, we have to move the party.\nSome historian claims\nthe Spencer Landmark Hotel\nwas used for Klan meetings\nin the late 1800s.\n- Anyone know if this is true?\n- I've got the Washington Gazette.\nThey want a quote on, \"Is the president\nbeing insensitive to minority issues?\"\n- Doesn't matter.\n- Get a list of approved alternates.\n- What do you have?\n- Yeah, I know it's short notice.\nThe pipe burst in the hotel\nthat we previously booked.\n- I... There is water everywhere.\n- A retirement party for 200 people.\n- Gunston Hall.\n- Monticello is booked.\nSo is Gunston Hall and Tudor Place.\nThe Denby Hotel is available,\nand so is Mount Vernon.\n- Oh, wow. You are a lifesaver.\n- The Denby is great.\nStrike that. The Denby was booked.\nMount Vernon's all we got.\nBook it before someone else does.\nAnd let me say\nwhat an honor it is to be here\nand add my happy birthday to you,\nMr. President.\n- Good evening, sir.\n- Good evening.\nAre you aware that you are\nin a restricted area?\nYeah, but this is\nwhere the fish are, son.\nThat may be, but I'm gonna\nneed to have you move upriver.\nAre you aware that according\nto article one, section 25\nof the Maryland constitution,\nI'm allowed to fish in public water?\nAre you aware I have the right to detain\nyou for the next 48 hours without cause?\nI am going to go back where\nI came from just as fast as possible.\nMaybe one day I'll wear this thing\nto a party I was actually invited to.\nTwenty hundred time check. Station 11.\n- All clear. Perimeter secure.\n- Hey.\nYou didn't happen to see\na cute brunette wandering around?\n- Went to get a drink, she disappeared.\n- No, sir.\nI've got no game tonight.\nGood evening, Your Excellency. Hello.\nPrime Minister, it's a delight\nto have you back in the States.\nSpread the word, contribution limits\nnot enforced on the president's birth...\n- Happy birthday.\n- Thank you.\n- Ben Gates. The Templar treasure?\n- Oh, right, Ben Gates. Yeah.\n- We won't keep you.\n- Thanks so much. Always a pleasure.\nI can't tell you what a thrill it is\nfor me to be invited here tonight, sir.\nYeah, you must have\nthe Secret Service hopping about now.\nConsidering your discovered lineage.\n- Oh, yeah. Oh, that...\n- Carry on.\nI beg your pardon, sir,\nbut I know what a huge admirer you are\nof George Washington. I thought\nyou might want to take a look at this.\nHave a look at that.\nThis is a map of Mount Vernon\ndrawn by George Washington himself.\nMr. President,\nthat is exactly what it is.\n- Architectural history major, Yale.\n- I did not know that.\nIt belonged to my great uncle.\nGot it from the granddaughter\nof a slave, Charlotte.\n- Happy birthday.\n- Always a pleasure. Thank you so much.\nCharlotte, who lived here\nand worked here at Mount Vernon.\n- Yeah.\n- And we're standing right here, sir.\nThis line is an underground tunnel,\nan escape route that was never found.\nI wonder...\nI wonder if it's still there.\n- Only one way to find out, sir.\n- Maybe we should take a look.\nAre we allowed to do that?\nI mean, I know you're allowed\nto do that. You're the president.\nCan I come with you?\n- You guys are just everywhere.\n- Yes, sir.\n- Give my friend your flashlight.\n- Thank you.\nAccording to this map, it should be...\nIt's one... two. In here.\nYeah, should be in here.\n- May I?\n- Absolutely.\nAll right.\nYou know, Craig,\nI appreciate you doing your job,\nbut I have no enemies down here.\nIn the cellar. In this tiny little room.\nI'll just wait here, then.\nOver here.\n- That's the mark of George Washington.\n- Only it's slightly different.\n- How?\n- These axes, the angle's off.\nFor it to correspond with the ones on\nthe map, it should form a perfect V.\nOK, what else?\nThe arrowhead... sideways.\nWe're all right.\nDon't worry.\nLook at that.\nCome on.\nMr. President?\nWe have a breach\nin zone nine! There's...\n- Inform Fairfax, SecTac Channel One!\n- Perimeter detail, lock down all exits!\n- Gates, what are you doing?\n- I'm sorry, Mr. President.\nI need to ask you a question,\nwhich I know you can't answer\n- unless we're alone.\n- Two coming in!\nI want a sledgehammer, I want a crowbar,\nI want a jackhammer, now!\nTom, alert the vice president.\nMr. President, sometime between 1880,\nwhen the Resolute desk\nwas placed in the Oval Office,\nand now, one of our presidents found\na secret compartment in the desk.\nHidden inside was a plank\nwith Native American writing on it.\nA treasure map to Cibola,\nthe legendary City of Gold, sir.\nAll this just to ask me\nabout a treasure map?\nThat map is a key to proving\nThomas Gates' innocence.\nI know for a fact that the plank\nis no longer in the Resolute desk.\nYou've been in my desk too?\nI believe the whereabouts\nof that plank is now hidden... the President's Book, sir.\nThe book known only to our presidents.\nIt contains all of our nation's secrets.\nThat's the most\nridiculous thing I've ever heard.\nI saw the seal in the desk, sir.\nI know the map exists.\nYou're not going to tell me\nhow to get out of here\n- unless you get what you want.\n- The way out is that direction,\nand I'll show you.\nYou don't negotiate very well, do you?\nNo, sir.\nMr. President!\nWhere are my sledgehammers?\nI don't get you, Gates.\nYou do all this,\nyou're willing to go to prison,\njust to clear your ancestor's name.\nThe way out is just down those stairs.\nEverything I am\nis because of my ancestors, sir.\nThomas Gates gave his\nlast full measure of devotion\nto his country to stop the KGC.\nWhen someone dies for their country,\nI believe they should be honored.\n\"Last full measure of devotion\"?\nLincoln is my favorite president, sir.\nNo offense.\nNone taken. He's my favorite too.\nSir, I know the book exists,\nand my question is,\n\"Will you agree to let me see it?\"\nEven if something like that\nreally did exist,\nwhy do you think I would\nactually just give it to you?\nBecause it will probably lead us\nto the discovery of the greatest\nNative American treasure of all time.\nA huge piece of culture lost.\nYou can give that history\nback to its descendants.\nAnd because you're the president\nof the United States, sir.\nWhether by innate character, or the oath\nyou took to defend the Constitution,\nor the weight of history\nthat falls upon you.\nI believe you\nto be an honorable man, sir.\nPeople don't believe that stuff anymore.\nThey want to believe it.\nNearest highway is that direction.\nYou'll understand if we part ways here.\n- Gates.\n- Sir?\nThe following conversation\nnever happened.\nThe book exists.\n- Where is it?\n- Where else do you keep a book?\nIn the Library of Congress.\nX, Y, two, three, four,\nseven, eight, six.\nThank you, sir.\nYou'll also need to know\nthree, seven, nine, four.\nGot it.\n- And, Gates...\n- Sir?\nTwo hundred people know you held me\nagainst my will. I can't tell them why.\nUnless you find what you're looking for,\nyou'll be charged\nwith kidnapping the president.\n- You know what that means.\n- Yes, sir. Very much so, sir.\n- I want you to do something for me.\n- It would be a privilege, sir.\nPage 47. Just have a look at that.\nRiley, meet me at the\nLibrary of Congress in 20 minutes.\nThe president's been what?\n- Hey.\n- Hey.\nWe're close.\n- Where do we start?\n- XY is the book classification code.\nStands for special collections,\nwhich means very special books.\n- Where are they?\n- This way. We'll sneak in.\nThis will be good.\nHere we go. XA... XM...\nLook. Do you have a code?\nWhat did the president say\nthe number was?\ntwo-three-seven-eight... Here.\n- Two-three-four-seven-nine...\n- Seventy-six, 78...\nIt's not there.\nMaybe someone checked it out.\n- Why send us here if there's no book?\n- He probably wanted us to get caught.\n- What is that?\n- It's a six-dial combination lock.\nThe location is the combination.\nThe location is the combination.\nYes. I was right.\nWell done, Mr. Poole.\nEagle and the scroll.\n- Area 51!\n- Shh!\n- Kennedy assassination.\n- Shh! We don't have time.\nYeah, it's true.\nHere. Wait.\n\"April 1865. Queen Victoria\nsends Pike two coded missives.\nThe first is received.\nContains information regarding\nNew World treasure. The City of Gold.\"\nWait. The queen\nwanted to help the Confederacy?\n- A divided America'd have been weaker.\n- Needed cotton from the South.\n\"The second missive was thought\nto contain a Playfair cipher\nsuggesting contact with Laboulaye,\nwho'll hide clues before his death.\"\nThe cipher written into the Booth\ndiary page that Thomas tried to burn.\n- The one we have.\n- Exactly. \"1880.\nResolute desk arrives in Washington,\nsent by queen to President Hayes.\"\nLook at that.\nMissing plank from the White House. Wow.\nHere's the final entry\nby President Coolidge.\n\"1924. I found a plank\nin secret desk compartment.\nPlank photographed and then destroyed.\nBorglum commissioned\nto destroy landmarks\nin sacred Black Hills mountains.\"\nBorglum. Mount Rushmore?\nHe carved Mount Rushmore\nto erase the map's landmarks\nin order to protect the City of Gold.\nMount Rushmore was a cover-up.\nWhat is it?\nThere's my tax dollars at work,\ncoming to arrest me.\nNot coming for you,\nthey're for me. Go to the car.\n- No!\n- Go! I'll meet up with you.\nThis way.\nSo Gates abducts the president,\nlets him go\nand heads to the Library of Congress?\n- Why?\n- Maybe he wants to check out a book.\nThis way.\nAll agents...\n- Dad.\n- Ben.\nGet out of there.\nI had to move the car.\nFBI, Secret Service all over the place.\nCalm down. I sent a picture\nof the plank to your cell.\n- You can do that?\n- Yes, I can do that.\nDid you get it?\n- I got it.\n- Look.\n- Take it to Mom for translation.\n- Why me?\nHe say his mom\ncould translate the plank?\nFind out who she is.\n- How are we going to find Ben?\n- I don't know.\n- Hold it! Who are you?\n- We work here.\n- IDs.\n- Here. We were told to evacuate.\nI don't know what's going on.\n- My car's parked...\n- One second I'm reading...\n- Special section for...\n- ...a book, then we're rushed out...\n- Go ahead.\n- OK. Thank you.\n- Thank you for your help, officer.\n- Best of luck.\nHave a good night.\nHey, go\nto the northeast sectors...\nStart the car.\nPut it in gear.\n- Uh-oh.\n- What's the problem?\nIt's clear. Let's go!\nWe're going to jail.\nI want to run a check...\nGet in! Hang on!\nMercedes SUV...\n- He's in! Go!\n- Hang on!\nOK. We can do this.\nClose the barricade, lock it down!\nLock it down!\n- Drive, drive, drive!\n- OK.\nI don't think so!\nWhoa, whoa!\nGo, go, go, go, go!\nLet's go! Let's go!\nThat did not turn out\nthe way it was supposed to!\n- How'd they find us so quick?\n- I'll tell you how.\n- The president is a tattletale!\n- Sadusky. He was there.\nHe knows more about the book\nthan I thought.\nHow'd the president\nfeel about being kidnapped?\nHe was OK.\n- Dr. Appleton.\n- This office is closed. I'm sorry.\nI do apologize\nfor the lateness of the hour.\nMy name is Mitch Wilkinson.\nI've got something I want you\nto take a look at. Just take a minute.\n- You're a treasure hunter.\n- No, ma'am.\nI'm just a man trying\nto make his mark on history.\nCan you help me?\nUm... No, I don't know that language.\nI'm sorry. I can't help you.\nOh, excuse me.\nGot it.\nYour ex-husband's on his way up.\nHe wants the translation.\nTell him anything but the truth.\nGet rid of him. His life depends on it.\nI know I'm the last person\nyou want to see,\nand I'm not comfortable either,\nbut we need you to translate something.\n- Ben sent me. He needs your help.\n- Yes, of course.\nIf it's for Ben, of course. What is it?\nOh. Uh...\nIt's in the cell phone.\nI'm not sure how to...\n- Give it to me.\n- ...bring it out.\nWe know it leads to Mount Rushmore.\nYes. \"lslands...\nIslands of stone in a sea of grass.\"\nThat's what the Lakota used to call\nthe Black Hills in South Dakota.\n\"Find where the moon touches the earth\nand release the hummingbird.\"\nThat's it?\nDid it ever occur to you...?\nI can't believe I'm saying this.\nDid it ever occur to you that I did\nthe things I did to impress you?\nNo, you did it because you wanted to,\nand I would've done the same thing,\nexcept one of us had to grow up\nand stay home and look after Ben.\nCertainly wasn't going to be you.\nDid it ever occur to you that I made\nsacrifices for us that you never did?\nNo, of course not.\nSo just go away.\nLousy tequila.\nDon't feel bad. You did good.\nPatrick believed every word you said.\nBesides, your son would have\nnever found the treasure anyway.\nYou don't know Benjamin.\nPerhaps not.\nBut then again, I have this.\nA letter from Queen Victoria to\nthe Confederate General Albert Pike?\nSeems the dear old queen\nwas partial to the Confederate cause.\nThis has been handed down\nby my family for 140 years.\nContains a vital piece of information.\nThe final clue, as it were.\nThis piece of information is worthless\nwithout your translation of the planks.\nIt's ironic, isn't it?\nThis all began with the burning\nof pages, and now it ends\nwith the burning of this,\nthe final clue.\nMaking me the only one...\n...who can find Cibola.\nGet your coat.\nHer translation on the second half\nof the planks says\n- we need to find an island of stone.\n- Ben would have found it by now.\nI don't think so.\nHow do I get to, um, this...\nHello, Mitch.\n- Wait for me.\n- No way. You're too slow.\nI knew you'd figure out\nthe message I gave your father.\nThe hummingbird was good. Let her go.\nWe're the ones with the firepower,\nand you're giving me orders.\nI kidnapped the president. The FBI\nis on their way right now to arrest me,\nand I'm sure they'll love to meet you.\nThey'll find us both and arrest us both.\nThat path doesn't lead\nto the City of Gold, does it?\nThis man has information you need.\nHe's got a letter.\nFrom Queen Victoria\nto General Albert Pike.\n- How do you know that?\n- I read about it, in a book.\nI'm afraid he's burned it.\nAll right... You've had me do\nall the work so far, why stop now?\nYou tell me what you know,\nI'll find the City of Gold,\nprove Thomas Gates' innocence,\nyou can have the treasure.\n- What?\n- I'm going with you.\nBut if anyone's gonna be credited\nfor discovering the City of Gold,\nit's going to be me.\nBut your partners stay here,\nand all the guns.\nWhat makes you think I'd agree?\nBecause you need that treasure.\nBelieve me, I know.\nAll right, Gates. We'll do it your way.\nBut believe me... I don't need the guns.\n- Which president? The president?\n- I thought it best not to tell you.\nI still don't see anything\nthat looks like a noble bird.\nAll right. Let's have it.\nWhat did the letter say? What's\nthe clue from Queen Victoria's letter?\n\"The entrance shall only be revealed\nunder a cloudless rain.\"\nFigure that one out.\nSo we come back when it's raining?\n\"Cloudless.\" Could simply mean the sun.\nYou need a sunny day... and rain.\nWe need water.\nEverybody, the water makes\nthe rocks darker. Use the water.\nEm? Water?\n- What's this in my hand? Are you blind?\n- Good, good, good.\nThis is ridiculous.\nAre we going to water the whole thing?\nThat's it.\nOh! That's it. I found it.\nOver here! Found it! Over here!\nLook at this!\nIt's an eagle.\n- Look at that. It's an eagle.\n- There it is.\n- \"The noble bird...\"\n- \"Will give you passage.\"\n- Uh-huh. Now what?\n- We need to join hands,\nand in a noble manner,\npass over the bird.\n- It indicates direction...\n- Somehow that bird...\n...will rise from the rock\nand kind of caw...\nYou can stand around guessing for a\nwhile, or I can give you the next clue.\n\"Surrender your hand\nto the heart of the warrior.\"\nAnd the eagle\nis a symbol of the warrior.\nBen, no. Wait, wait! No.\nThat's probably a horrible trap.\nTell him!\nIt's a horrible trap.\nIt would be a pity to come this far\nand not even try, now, wouldn't it?\nI'll do it, Ben.\nIt's OK.\nSurrender your hand.\n- I am sorry. I... I couldn't resist.\n- You!\nIt, uh... feels like a latch.\nLook at this.\nAll right, good. Let's go.\nBen, look at this.\nOh, that's beautiful!\n- Patrick. Patrick!\n- Ben, what is that?\nAppears to be a counterweight\nto hold the door open.\nWhat is that sound?\n- You OK?\n- No.\nGet up.\nIt's locked.\n- Patrick, what have you done?\n- Some kind of a bolt. I didn't do it.\nOnly one way out of here now.\nNever seen so many relics.\nSo beautifully preserved.\nLooks like we're going\nto be moving some rocks.\n- There's a tunnel back in through here.\n- Guys, look at this.\nIt's a little golden man.\nLook. It's got a tiny little torso.\nLook at that. It looks like...\n- Ben!\n- Ben!\nMove back! Move back!\nAll of you! Other side!\nBack up! Back up!\nRiley, move forward! Move forward!\nNo, back up, back up.\n- What you want me to do?\n- Stop! Stop!\nWe have to balance our weight\nto even this thing out.\n- We'll find 'em.\n- What are we gonna do?\nFigure something out.\nTell you what we're going to do.\n- No, I'll tell you.\n- No. I'll tell you!\nNo, I'll tell you!\nThere's that passageway.\nYou go, pull those stones out,\nbecause that leads somewhere.\nThat is a good idea.\nThere's nothing.\nJust a big old black hole.\nBen, look!\nThere's a ladder.\n- I mean, what's left of a ladder.\n- Toss me the light.\nRiley. Move slowly to that corner.\nNo! Wait. Just...\n- As I move to this corner.\n- OK.\nOne step at a time. Good.\nIf we can raise this corner,\nI think I'll reach it.\n- Stop! Red light!\n- You're not helping!\nI can get up there just as easy as you.\nJust stop.\n- Guys!\n- It's three against one here.\nI ain't going last, and if I'm not\ngoing last, I might as well go first.\nWhat's it gonna be?\nWe'll do this your way.\nThe rest of us, on my count of three,\nall move together.\nOne step at a time.\nOne, two, three.\n- You ready?\n- Go.\nMitch, what do you see?\nIs there a way out?\nWhat's up there, Mitch?\n- Are you all right?\n- Just promise me he's gonna be OK.\nAll right.\nLet's go.\nMitch! Come on!\n- I've been doing the math here, and...\n- I know.\nWe're gonna have to leave\none person behind.\nPromise you'll\ncome back for me.\nI can do the math too.\n- That makes you next.\n- I'll go last.\n\"No, we'll figure something else out.\"\n\"We need you there. Please, Riley.\"\nI'm just kidding. Go.\n- One... two... three!\n- Go!\n- What are you doing?\n- Nothing.\nI can't get it.\nJust go! Go now! Go!\n- All right, ready?\n- Now!\nRiley! Hang on!\nOK. Mitch, the idol.\nOK, Ben. We found a gold idol here!\nWe can roll it over\nto offset your weight!\nThen roll it!\nHere it comes!\nCome on, Ben!\nHere! Give me your hand!\nThanks, Riley.\nWhy couldn't a girl see me do that?\n- You all right?\n- You're OK. You're OK. You're OK.\nSo... forward.\nWhat is this?\nOh! Oh! Oh!\nPut your light over there.\nWhat are you doing?\nI can't see anything!\nIs this it?\nIt's oil!\nIt's a dead end!\nThere's no way out!\nWe have to turn back!\nNo. No, Patrick, this is crazy.\nI got it!\nI got you! I got you!\nThere's no forward!\nIt's not forward, it's down!\nAll this water has to go out somewhere.\nOtherwise, it'd be filled up.\nHelp me turn this wheel!\nThe water's going down.\nIt is... Em.\nEm. Em.\nBen! Hey!\nDad! We found it!\n- Thomas was right!\n- No, you were right!\nSorry I smeared your\ngreat-great granddaddy's good name.\nSeemed like the only way\nto get you in on the hunt.\nBut this was a chance for the Wilkinson\nfamily to make its mark on history,\nto find the City of Gold,\nto be remembered.\nWhat happened to you?\nYour father was worried sick about you.\nShe was frantic. She was frantic.\nDad, coming through,\ndid you happen to see...?\nStop it. Coming through, did you see\nany branches that could lead out?\nNo, it's all blocked. You can't even\nget back to the big, round stone door.\nWhere's your mother going?\nSweetheart. Sweetheart.\nHave a look at this.\n- What?\n- Look.\nThis is gonna unlock\nthe Olmec language.\nIt's gonna give us incredible\ninsight into pre-Columbian history.\n- You happy?\n- Oh, yeah.\n- Ben! Look at this! Look!\n- Oh, yeah.\nThat's where they slit the throat,\ncut the heart out.\n- What was that?\n- Listen.\nI tried to find a way out.\nAll those portals are blocked off!\nI'm telling you, all this water\ngoes out somewhere. We'll find it.\nBen, there's a current!\nFollow it!\nThere's got to be a central drain!\nIt's under us. Right here!\nCome on!\nLet's go! Get in there!\nThe water's rising too fast!\nLet's get that door open\nso we don't all drown!\nBen, it slopes down!\nIt's a drainage tunnel.\nIt fills with water\nwhen you open the door!\nWe need to find something\nto stick under it to keep it open!\nNo, if it's open,\nthis tunnel will stay flooded.\nWe've got to get to the other side\nand close the door.\nPatrick, Emily, go!\n- No.\n- No!\nMitch, we got to be\non the other side of that door!\nNobody leaves unless I say so.\nThat door is not gonna stay open\nby itself.\nWe both know what has to happen here.\nOne of us keeps the door open\nand stays behind.\nI vote Mitch.\nThis isn't a democracy.\nStop! I'll stay!\nI'm staying. Look. Look!\nSee? I'm right here! I'm staying!\nI'll tell everybody\nhow this is going to go.\nYou and me are going to open that door.\nAnybody tries to leave before me,\nI drop the door,\nwe start this all over again!\nTry any funny business, I guarantee you\npeople are going to get hurt!\nI won't! You have my word.\nJust let her go.\nBen, no, we're not leaving without you.\nYou make my parents leave.\nYou make my parents leave.\n- No!\n- Let's go!\nLet's go, please! Patrick, Emily,\nhe's trying to save our lives.\nPlease, come on.\nPush, Ben!\nThe current's too strong!\n- I'm ready!\n- It's all yours!\nHang on!\nHold your breath!\nWe got to get Ben out of there!\nIf I'm stuck in the door,\nit stays open,\nboth rooms fill up, and we all drown!\n- Open the door! I'll get you out!\n- The current's too strong!\nI open the door,\nyou'll be washed down!\nI'll get you out!\nI found the City of Gold! I found it!\nAnd no one will ever know?\nWe can figure this out!\nWe can all get out!\nIt's not a puzzle!\nNo more puzzles, Ben!\nWe're all going to die,\nor it could just be me!\n- Tell them I found it!\n- Don't quit!\nThank you.\n- We haven't officially met. I'm Riley.\n- Oh, hi.\nSir! It's for you.\n- I have my proof.\n- Ben!\nWe were just talking about you.\nReady to turn yourself in?\nNot quite.\nWe found the City of Gold.\nDoesn't matter.\nYou still committed a federal crime.\nStop. Stop it.\n- Mr. President?\n- Craig, give us a minute.\nSir, for your information,\nthis is the man who kidnapped you.\nAs I recall, we were\nexploring a hidden tunnel,\nand a door closed accidentally,\nand this man saved my life.\nYes, sir.\n- Gates.\n- Sir.\nFor the record, after centuries\nof exploration, on this day,\nyou have brought honor\nto your country and your family.\nYou've done this country\na great service. I thank you.\n- Thank you.\n- Craig.\nI thought you might want to\ntake a look at tomorrow's headlines.\nThank you, sir.\nAll of you, along with\nEmily and Patrick Gates\nwill get credit for this discovery.\nAnd Mitch Wilkinson, sir.\n- Is that right?\n- It's true, sir.\nBen, I am curious\nabout that favor I asked you.\nAny report regarding\nwhat's on page 47?\nI believe I can help with that, sir.\n- So it's good.\n- Life-altering, sir.\nWhat's on page 47?\nAre you talking about the Book?\nWhat book?\nBe very careful with that.\nIs that distilled water you're using?\n- Yes.\n- Have you catalogued all of this?\n- No, ma'am.\n- You haven't?\nExcuse me? Excuse me, sir?\nAre you cataloguing this?\nYou should've been there\nwhen we picked out our first couch.\nExcuse me.\nHey, you're that guy...\nThe treasure hunter guy, right?\nNo, actually, the guy you're thinking of\nis somewhere over there.\nNo. You're him. Riley Poole.\nI recognize you from your book.\nWill you sign it?\nThank you.\nSo, um, the tea tables...\nYes, I'm going to have the movers\nbring them to you next week.\nI was going to say\nyou can keep them.\nAnd maybe you could...\n...come and move back in with me.\n- No. You used the word \"so.\"\n- So?\nSo, when you say \"so,\"\nit means you're angry.\nAnd then sometimes it doesn't.\nIt's sort of like a puzzle.\nAnd you're so good at puzzles.\nI'm sure you'll figure it out.\nI love this car.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9814234375953674}
+{"content": "top-rated free essay\n\nAbortion Paper\n\nBy terbabe Nov 18, 2010 5295 Words\nAbortion is a procedure performed to end a pregnancy before birth occurs. I will succinctly analyze whether the act of abortion is morally right or wrong. Since the philosophy of ethics is very social and states that we are all moral autonomous agents and are part of a moral community, we are defined as 'persons,' i.e. ethical individuals that legislate to reason right from wrong and thereby have a responsibility to do so. However, there is a fine line between being a 'person' and being a 'human being' -- they are closely related, but are not quite the same. The issue of 'personhood' is key and essential to any conclusion on the morality of abortion. There are three articles in which each author explains their own view on 'personhood' and abortion that will help me come to my own personal standpoint on this issue. The first article is named 'The Abortion Issue' by Mary Anne Warren, the next article is 'Why Abortion is Immoral' by Don Marquis, and lastly, 'Abortion and the Concept of a Person' by Jane English. Mary Anne Warren's basis for her argument is namely that abortion is justified, as she argues that a fetus is not a 'person.' Dan Marquis feels that abortion is seriously morally wrong even if the fetus is not considered a person because it is an act of killing a being with a right to life with a future. Jane English believes that it is impossible to define the fetus status as a 'person', and feels that abortion is morally accepted in the early stages of pregnancy but not in the later stages. I fully agree with Mary Anne Warren's claim that abortion is morally acceptable and that the fetus is not justified to be a 'person', therefore you are not killing a 'person', but the woman has a right to do what she wants with her body because she is a moral agent or 'person.' 1. Warren, M. A.. \"On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion.\" Monist, Vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 43-61, 1973.\n\nI will begin with Mary Anne Warren, who believes abortion is justified since she argues that a fetus is not technically a 'person.' She first discusses the word, 'human' which she claims has two different meanings. One is that being human in the biological sense is not necessary for being a human person: \"Only if 'human being' is used to mean something like 'a full fledged member of the moral community.' (It may or may not also be meant to refer exclusively to members of the species Homo sapiens.) We may call this the moral sense of \"human.\" It is not to be confused with what we call the genetic sense, ie. the sense in which any member of the species is a human being, and no member of any other species could be.\"1 Her definition of \"human being\" claims that just because you are genetically human, as long as you do not have full moral rights, you are not a full human. Then, she offers an interesting approach to clarifying the concept of a 'person', which is the basis to her argument that fetuses are not 'persons'. She gives us an example of encountering an alien creature, and makes us wonder how we should treat this creature and if it has the same moral rights as humans. She then gives a list that defines that concept of personhood: \"1. consciousness (of objects and events external and/or internal to the being), and in particular the capacity to feel pain; 2. reasoning (the developed capacity to solve new and relatively complex problems); 3. self- motivated activity (activity which is relatively independent of either genetic or direct external control); 4. the capacity to communicate, by whatever means, messages of an indefinite variety of types, that is, not just with an indefinite number of possible contents, but on indefinitely many topics; 5. the presence of self- concepts, and self- awareness, either individual or racial, or both.\"1 1. Warren, M. A.. \"On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion.\" Monist , Vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 43-61, 1973.\n\n It is this list of features that seem central to moral personhood. Consciousness is the capacity to be aware of the environment around you, essentially to exhibit special consciousness which is the reflexive capacity to be aware of your own awareness. A 'person' makes his/her own consciousness a topic of inquiry, while on the other hand, a dog is conscious, but cannot reflect on its own consciousness. The second variable involves reasoning and rationality which is a higher order of intelligence. The third involves self motivated activity, which involves acting under one's own free will. This entails having volitional action that is the author of actions and free will, and agency that is the capacity to have purposeful action connected to a goal. A moral agent or 'person' acts with purpose to achieve a goal, whereas a non-person can act freely, but not on the same level. The fourth criterion is the capacity to communicate, which is to say that the subject in question uses language -- a 'person' is a language user as s/he has a variety of ways to communicate, essentially s/he is a 'being of articulacy.\"1 A 'person\" articulates their goals and reasons, and as one uses language more and more our consciousness becomes clearer and we demonstrate implicit and explicit awareness. She then states, \"All we need to claim, to demonstrate that a fetus is not a person, is that any being which satisfies none of (1)-(5) is certainly not a person.\"1 Of course, in the early stages of pregnancy, the fetus would not possess a single one of the characteristics on this list. And even late in the pregnancy, the fetus would only fit the first criteria which is consciousness and the ability to feel pain; however, cats, dogs, fish, or any other animals have that ability as well, and we do not consider them full-fledged moral individuals. Next she poses the idea of the potentiality and resemblance to a 'person' that does not allow a fetus to be a person. She then discusses how the more the fetus comes to look like a person, is irreverent, that it must adhere to the list criteria. Warren concludes, \"[I]f the right to life of the fetus is to be based upon its resemblance to a person, then it cannot be said to have any more right to life than, let us say, a newborn guppy... and... a right of that magnitude could never override a woman's right to obtain an abortion at any stage of her pregnancy.\"1 The rights of an actual person outweigh the rights of a potential person. She ends with a postscript on infanticide stating that \"It does not follow, however, that infanticide is permissible, for two reasons.\"1 First, even if the parents of a baby do not want it, it is very likely that someone will want the child, and destroying it would deprive those people of much pleasure. Second, as a society, we prefer to spend money on orphanages than to see infants destroyed. These two reasons, Warren claims, make it wrong in the normal case to kill an infant. I fully agree with Warren's definition of 'human', that only a moral human as the right to life, and not a genetic human. A genetic human only has a full genetic code, therefore it does not have any moral worth. Warren uses the word ‘person' only to describe moral humans. Being a genetic human is not necessary for being a ‘person'. Infants and individuals with severe mental problems are not moral humans, rather genetic humans. After dividing the term human beings into two different variables, moral and genetic, she puts the two terms to replace the word human being in the premise and using the word moral human or 'person' makes her argument valid. In addition, I agree with Warren's criteria for personhood, and that one must exhibit all five to be considered a moral person. Since a fetus does not have any of the five criteria it is not a person. However, some might criticize her view on personhood because she excludes the other human begins, that are unmotivated, unconscious, not able to reason, not being able to communicate, and the unaware, that are not fetuses. She describes \"A man or woman whose consciousness has been permanently obliterated but who remains alive is a human being which is no longer a person.\"1 A problem with this is that this human being has only lost one of the five central criteria's of personhood, yet it still exhibits the other four criteria. Thus, this example is a major fault in which she doesn't clearly state how many criteria's a human should have to be a person. 1. Warren, M. A.. \"On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion.\" Monist, Vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 43-61, 1973. 2. Marquis, Don. \"Why Abortion is Immoral.\" The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 183-202, 1989.\n\n The second thinker, Don Marquis feels abortion is seriously morally wrong even if the fetus is not considered a person because it is an act of killing a being with a right to life with a future. He states, \"that abortion is, except possible in rare cases, seriously immoral, than it is in the same moral category as killing an innocent adult human being.\"2 He begins with explaining the opposing viewpoints of the anti- abortion and the pro-choice claims, with anti-abortionists arguing that life begins with conception, and since fetuses look like genetic humans that is enough to be considered to be human. However, pro-choicer's argue that fetuses are not rational moral agents, or persons, and that abortion is moral. Marquis goes back and forth as to why one side would be considered right and how each has a problem with defending their view: \"On the one hand, the anti abortionist will defend a moral principle concerning the wrongness of killing which tends to be broad in scope in order that even fetuses at an early stage of pregnancy will fall under it...On the other hand, the pro-choicer wants to find a moral principles concerning the wrongness of killing which tends to be narrow in scope in order that fetuses will not fall under it.\"2 Thus, he proves that the issue of the morality of abortion is a very systematic problem because a human being can be taken into the account of a biological category or a moral category, in which each needs to be established. In addition, the personhood argument, must explain the psychological characteristics that are the criteria that make up a person, must be fully explained as well. Marquis adds, \"After all, if we merely believe, but do not understand, why killing adult human beings such as ourselves is wrong, how could we conceivably show that abortion is either immoral or permissible?\"2 Instead of proving why abortion is wrong, he starts off with what makes killing wrong in the first place and concludes that killing is wrong because it deprives the victim of all possible future experience. \"When I am killed, I am deprived both of what I now value which would have been part of my future personal life, but also what I would come to value. therefore, when I died, I am deprived of all of the value of my future.\"2 This explains why we feel killing or murder as such a evil crime, and further explains the regret and sense of loss felt by people who know they are dying. This view is known as the \"future like ours argument\" -- in which his thesis describes depriving a being of the value of a future like ours makes killing it wrong, and killing a fetus deprives it of the value of a future like ours, thus killing a fetus is wrong. Marquis argues that the wrongness derives from the fact that killing \"deprives one of all the experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments that would otherwise have constituted one's future.\"2 He gives four examples of why the future like ours argument is valid. First, it allows others, even alien creatures to have a right to life as strong as humans, that it doesn't rely on biological means. Secondly, he mentions the animals rights debate, in which some animals might be sufficiently like humans, therefore it is wrong to kill them as well. Thirdly, he accepts euthanasia and believes death may not be an evil compared to a continued life of pain and suffering. Lastly, he feels it is seriously wrong to kill infants and children that have futures of value as well. Because the future of a fetus contains the same experiences, activities, etc as that with the futures of adult humans , infants and children, he concludes that abortion is morally wrong. He essentially abandons the personhood argument which is key to Warren's argument, and adapts the future like ours argument. In addition, to the argument about killing, he discusses about the infliction of pain on animals. Since pain causes suffering, it makes the infliction of pain wrong. Also, it makes the infliction of pain on adult humans wrong as well. Then, he goes on by saying, \"If the structure of the argument for the wrongness of the wanton infliction of pain on animals is sound, then the structure of the argument for the prima facie serious wrongness of abortion is also sound, for the structure of the two arguments is the same. The structure common to both is the key to the explanation of how the wrongness of abortion can be demonstrated without recourse to the category of person. In neither argument is that category crucial.\"2 Marquis then brings up Kant's view on animals since they are not moral rational agents they do not have a place in the moral community, but nonetheless agrees that inflicting pain on them is wrong because people who are cruel to animals are probably likely to be cruel to humans. Marquis replies that this is implausible and feels that being cruel to animals would lead others to be cruel to persons if Kant was correct. Marquis ends his essay by explaining that the abortion debate rests on the moral status of the fetus, \"since a fetus possesses a property, the possession of which in adult human beings is sufficient to make killing an adult human being wrong, abortion is wrong.\"2 He 2. Marquis, Don. \"Why Abortion is Immoral,\" The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 183-202, 1989.\n\nfocuses clearly on the ethics of killing and the infliction of pain, rather than the personhood argument. I disagree with the basis of Marquis argument, in which he avoids the fundamental question of the status of a fetus and whether the fetus is a person. I feel the personhood argument is the only clear, valid, and evident way an anti abortionist can prove that abortion is wrong. Marquis falls short in avoiding this topic altogether and I feel instead of mentioning why the act of killing and inflicting pain is morally wrong, and mentioning that fetuses have a valuable future like humans, he should have skillfully proved that fetuses are persons, therefore killing a person is morally wrong. A critic named Robert Card disagrees with Marquis, and gives an hypothetical example where a scientist was able to brainwash people and fetuses, put them into blank slates, and reprogram their minds. Card then states:\n\n\"the loss accruing to each individual to his or her future of value, would clearly not be equal, I maintain. To reprogram the adult is, in essence, to obliterate her as an individual. The same is not true of the fetus...the fetus does not undergo the loss of its psychological life and its associated plans and their effect on its future, yet an adult person does undergo this loss from being reprogrammed. This thought experiment highlights the point that adult humans presently possess values and have invested in their future. The killing of adults is morally worse, contrary to Marquis's argument, since it deprives them of this investment as well as of what they would have come to value with regard to their future. Abortion only deprives fetuses of what they would have come to value, since they have not invested in their future. Depriving a fetus of its future of value is not as bad of a thing as depriving an adult human of her valuable future.\"3\n\n3. Card, Robert. \"Two Puzzle for Marquis's Conservative View on Abortion.\" Bioethics, Vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 264-277, 2006. 4. English, Jane. \"Abortion and the Concept of a Person.\" Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 233-243, 1975.\n\nThe third thinker, Jane English believes that it is impossible to define the fetus status as a 'person', and feels that abortion is morally accepted in the early stages of pregnancy but not in the later stages. She begins with pointing out the conservative view on abortion in which \"human life begins at conception and that therefore abortion must be wrong because it is murder.\"4 Then she states, \"Liberals, on the other hand, are just as mistaken in their argument that since a fetus does not become a person until birth, a woman may do whatever she pleases in and to her own body.\"4 English introduces the reader to her argument which is based on two premises, \"I first examine our concept of a person and conclude that no single criterion can capture the concept of a person and no sharp line can be drawn. Next I argue that if a fetus is a person, abortion is still justifiable in many cases; and if a fetus is not a person, killing it is still wrong in many cases.\"4 She names different thinkers like Warren, Tooley, Ramsey, and Noonan and how they either feel fetuses are persons or not. English feels that a \" 'person' is a cluster of features,\"4 which has certain biological, psychological, rational, social, and legal factors that are part of a person. English proceeds to argue that concept of personhood is not needed to understand the morality of abortion. She then brings up Judith Thomson's article, \"A Defense of Abortion,\" in which a fetus is a person, and that English feels that killing an innocent person is not always wrong, in the matter of self- defense. She mentions this scenario in which a scientists hypnotizes innocent people to jump out of bushes at night and attack innocent people with knives. Of course, since you are being attacked you have a right to kill the attacker in self defense. English wonders how far does self defense go, and agrees that \"our laws and customs seem to say that you may create injury somewhat, but not enormously, greater than the injury to be avoided.\"4 She feels that the self defense argument is very similar to pregnancy in that some abortions are justifiable as measure of self-defense. English thinks these include more than just cases where the mother's life is at risk. She states, \"Birth is the crucial point not because of any characteristics the fetus gains, but because after birth the woman can defend herself by a means less drastic than killing the infant. Hence self- defense can be used to justify abortion without necessarily thereby justifying infanticide.\"4 On the other hand, if fetuses' are not considered persons, does this justify killing them? English says no but states \"non-persons do get some consideration in our moral code\"4 and feels we as persons cannot torture animals just because we feel like it. She then discusses why it is wrong to torture animals, and how do we decide our actions of non-persons. The consequences of actions deals with utilitarianism in which she feels we must follow a system of morality that involves feelings such as guilt, compassion, and sympathy and feels a morality that is disconnected from our moral philosophy will be unable to help us. Therefore, \"our psychological constitution makes it the case that for our ethical theory to work, it must prohibit certain treatment of non-persons which are sufficiently person-like.\"4 This explains how we cannot make such a drastic distinction between early fetuses' and newborn infants. To conclude, her argument ends with these statements, \"In the early months of pregnancy when the fetus hardly resembles a baby at all, then, abortion is permissible whenever it is in the interests of the pregnant woman or her family. The reasons would only need to outweigh the pain and inconvenience of the abortion itself. In the middle months, when the fetus comes to resemble a person, abortion would be justifiable only when the continuation of the pregnancy or the birth of the child would cause harms- physical, psychological, economic or social- to the woman. In the late months of pregnancy, even on our current assumption that a fetus is not a person, abortion seems to be wrong except to save a woman from significant injury or death.\"4 Proving that the concept of personhood is not enough to settle the abortion issues and feels that abortion is morally accepted in the early stages of pregnancy but not in the later stages. I feel English contradicted herself when she feels the status of the fetus as a person is not essential to the abortion debate, but yet she goes into great detail about what makes up a person, just like Warren exhibited in her five criteria of personhood. I felt she could have proved this theory in a different way without having to resort to describing the many 4. English, Jane. \"Abortion and the Concept of a Person.\" Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 233-243, 1975.\n\nqualities and character traits of a person. In addition, I disagree with Marquis and English for not considering the importance of the status of the fetus as a person or not because that is the defining point where the abortion controversy is so clear. If you can prove that a fetus is not a person, abortion is justified, simple as that. According to the University of California Davis, philosophy department notes, one argues how effective English's attacker of the knife example confirms her self defense premise. Thus, stating, \"One weakness with the “attackers only come out at night” analogy is that avoiding pregnancy does not necessarily involve great inconvenience, whereas never going out at night does. In addition to contraception (which, if used properly, is much more effective than mace is against attackers), there are forms of “safe sex” which do not risk pregnancy. A better analogy might be this: The innocent, hypnotized attackers reside in a certain neighborhood. In this neighborhood, there is a shop with some very desirable foods that cannot be purchased elsewhere.\"5 5. Gaskill, Dan. \"Is Abortion Morally Permissible?\" University of California Davis Philosophy Department. 6 September 2005. <>\n\nTo better understand the morality of abortion as a whole and the strengths and weakness of each thinker, I will explain the key moral philosophical theories of utilitarianism and kantianism. Lets first start with kantianism which was founded by Immanuel Kant who takes on a non consequentialist approach, but a deontological one in which duties and obligations posses moral worth. Acts in and of themselves are valuable because you are morally accountable for the acts not the results. We are to perform duty ethics in which the moral reason is we ought to perform certain acts because we are bounded by duty obligations. Kant would say that abortion is immoral because it is wrong and that murder under any circumstances is wrong. He feels that a fetus has a soul, and therefore is a person. Kant employed categorical imperatives that would help us figure out our moral duties, and distinguish from right and wrong. The first categorical imperative is: act as if you are legislating for everyone. Thus, any moral rule needs to logically make sense. When you impose a moral rule on everyone else it must be universally acceptable without logical contradiction. Thus, Kant would say that since abortion is murder, should everyone ought to commit murder, of course no one would, that would not make sense, and proves that abortion is immoral. The second categorical imperative is: act as if your are treating others as ends. This is an important moral notion as mankind, we must recognize and respect people as rational agents. We must in fact consider their own interests, pursuits, and goals. For example, Kant believes slavery is immoral because one person owns another, and we are treating them as a property or object and denying them personhood. When a woman obtains an abortion, she is treating the fetus as an object and not a person, she is essentially treating it as a means, and that is morally wrong. The last imperative states act as if you are a member of a kingdom of ends, that you must always remember you are part of a moral community. Moral or rational agents can think of right and wrong and this invokes feelings of dignity, autonomy, fraternity, equality, fairness, and impartiality. Having autonomy is thinking on your own and being independent. Thus, a woman is acting autonomous and accepts her own freedom to decide what she is to do with her body, and that she must carry out the pregnancy until birth because she must realize what is better for the overall community at large. In the end, Don Marquis is a kantian since he feels abortions are morally unjustified. Although he does not agree that a fetus is a person as Kant does, he feels that they have a valuable future and should not be treated as means.6 6. Utilitarianism and Kantianism theories based on notes taken in class on July 14 and 19, 2010.\n\nUtilitarianism founded by the great philosopher Jeremy Bentham, was later adapted by John Stuart Mill, who's theory we follow today in modern philosophy. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist or teleological approach in which one focuses on the end result or goals to figure out what is morally right or wrong. Acts, in and of themselves lack moral worth. It is the consequences which they create that is key. Since it is goal orientated, the goal in a moral sense is to maximize utility, which is the overall well being for the largest amount of people. For utilitarian's pain and suffering is bad. Their goal is to minimize pain and suffering and maximize utility. The entire moral communities utility is counted equally. There are two types of utility, which are known as act and rule utilitarianism. Act states that we ought to consider the consequences of each act separately. Each individual action is to be evaluated in terms of utility and consider only the consequences if we act in certain ways. Therefore in terms of the abortion issue, if the consequences of a person obtaining an abortion are better than keeping the fetus then that is what she ought to do. Health issues, financial pressures, other family members' needs, education and/or work sometimes can be the factor for having an abortion. We must consider that abortion is morally right if an individual will live a happier and fulfilling life. However, rule utilitarianism states that we ought to consider the consequences of the act performed as a general practice, and that which promote the flourishing of the moral community. Behavior is evaluated by rules that if universally followed would lead to the greatest good for the greatest number of people. If an expecting mother felt that her life and/or her family's life would be improved if the baby was aborted, then she is obligated to abort the baby. This view focuses not on the abortion itself, and whether the action itself is right or wrong, but rather, it focuses on the possible benefits of the abortion. The utilitarian does not look at the fetus (as a whole or individual) as the party in which happiness is to be gained or lost, but rather the society as a whole. In the end, Mary Anne Warren would be a utilitarian since she feels that abortion is justified and that a fetus is not a person, and in the act of abortion it would not experience any pain and suffering. The consequences of the abortion would allow the woman to feel happier with herself and within the moral community. Also, Jane English is in between utilitarianism and kantianism, in that she feels that abortion is morally right early on in the pregnancy, but not in the later stages. Therefore, she is for the greater happiness of the woman to have an abortion, but feels that abortion in the later months is morally wrong since according to Kant a fetus is a person and therefore you are killing a person.6\n\nTo conclude, after further analyzing the arguments on the abortion debate brought forth by Mary Anne Warren, Don Marquis, and Jane English I have come to support Mary Anne Warren's beliefs and strongly feel that abortion is morally justifiable. I first admire her dissection of the word human, in which she divides it into two parts: a genetic sense and a moral sense. In addition, she is at the forefront of the abortion controversy, with her five criteria of personhood argument which is very powerful and many times the first thinker that comes to mind when discussing the issue of what it is to be a person. I agree that a fetus is not a person in which it has no moral rights, but why is it justifiable to kill a fetus but not a human that is irretrievably comatose or one that is severely mentally disabled. Both are humans, but are no longer a person because they have indeed disconnected themselves from their self conscious desires, interests, and memories of what they were before. Therefore, I feel that Warren must be clear in stating the difference in the moral right of killing a fetus, and the moral wrong of killing a comatose or severally mentally disable human. To help settle some of these questions on personhood, I recommend you read the articles, \"Introducing Persons\" by Peter Carruthers, \"Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person\" by Harry Frankfurt and \"A Defense of Abortion\" by Judith Thomson. These writings will give you some additional insight into the debate of whether abortion is morally right or wrong.\n\n1. Warren, M. A.. \"On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion.\" Monist, Vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 43-61, 1973. 2. Marquis, Don. \"Why Abortion is Immoral.\" The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 183-202, 1989. 3. Card, Robert. \"Two Puzzle for Marquis's Conservative View on Abortion.\" Bioethics, Vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 264-277, 2006. 4. English, Jane. \"Abortion and the Concept of a Person,\" Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 233-243, 1975. 5. Gaskill, Dan. \"Is Abortion Morally Permissible?\" University of California Davis Philosophy Department. 6 September 2005. <> 6. Utilitarianism and Kantianism theories based on notes taken in class on July 14 and 19, 2010.\n\nCite This Document\n\nRelated Documents\n\n • Abortion\n\n\n Read More\n • Abortion - a Defense of Abortion by Thomson\n\n ...Abortion The main pro-life against abortion argument goes like this: Killing a human life is wrong and a fetus is a human life; therefore, killing a fetus is wrong. However, the debate is always surrounded by the second premise which is: at what point of a pregnancy is a fetus a human being. As medical science and technology progress, the lin...\n\n Read More\n • On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion\n\n ...Edwin Carter Jr. Session Paper Draft Applied Ethics October 15, 2010 “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion”, an essay written by Mary Anne Warren, defend abortion in any stage of a woman’s pregnancy (pg 468). 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+{"content": "chapter 3\n21 Pages\n\nImportance of context and industry dynamics\n\nMeso-level theoretical perspectives\nWithAshish Malik\n\nThis chapter provides a sound basis for understanding why context matters and how it shapes the nature and extent of industry, organisational decision-making and people management dynamics. Despite a burgeoning body of literature on the global financial crisis (GFC) and its impacts in the developed countries such as the United States and Europe, there is little understanding about how Asia and Pacific – new hub of economic activity – were affected when compared to rest of the world. Studying the impact of GFC on Chinese firms, Nankervis found little to minimum impact of GFC on Chinese economy. He argues that due to China's enormous reserves and social ideological approach to dealing with change, the impact was minimal. Garavan undertook qualitative case study analysis of the impact of GFC on global talent management practices in nine pharmaceutical multi-national companies (MNCs) operating manufacturing plants in Ireland, with regional headquarters in Europe and Asia, corporate headquarters in United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.850113034248352}
+{"content": "Call your BFFs right now and get excited, because there may be a third installment of one of the greatest friendship sagas ever made, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.\n\nAccording to actor Alexis Bledel, who played Lena in the previous two films, she and the core four actors — that’d be her along with Blake Lively, America Ferrera, and Amber Tamblyn (aka Bridget, Carmen, and Tibby) — have actually already pitched a third movie for the series. Alexis told Jimmy Fallon during her appearance on The Tonight Show that a third movie could actually become a reality. “We don’t get to see each other a lot because everybody’s work or family and everything, but when everybody is in town we do, and we just pitched a third movie and I hope it comes together,” she said. “It would be so great.”\n\nGreat is an understatement, Alexis. The idea of a third movie has been swirling around for over a year, and Blake has also recently said a third movie could happen. \"I think that people who love the movie want to see it,” she said at CinemaCon this week.\n\nThe Sisterhood is powerful; despite the fact that the four women are busy with their careers and families, they all seem to have a real love for the movies, their characters, and each other. They’re best friends IRL and always post the cutest Instagram pics when they reunite.\n\nNow we're curious about where the third movie might take place. There was a fourth book in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series that inspired the movies, putting the characters in college, but we have a feeling a third movie would be more adult in nature given the lives of their off-screen counterparts. It would make sense if the third movie followed the plot line of the fifth and last book, Sisterhood Everlasting, but as anyone who has read the book knows, there are some not-so-great plot points there.\n\nWe're sure that between Alexis, Blake, Amber, and America, they could come up with some creative adult lives for these forever-bonded characters. Would they be thriving in various careers? Would the girls — now women — become mothers? Would Lucy Hale get to reprise her role as Lena's sister Effie? We have some pressing questions, Hollywood, and we need a movie to answer them ASAP.\n\nWatch Alexis's interview with Jimmy below, where she talks about the potential third movie, Gilmore Girls, and the new season of The Handmaid's Tale.\n\n\n-Alexis Bledel Did Something Super Risky at Her Gilmore Girls Audition\n\n-The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Stars Reunited for New Year’s Eve\n\nCheck this out:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.696890115737915}
+{"content": "Play this super-sized version of the classic game indoors or outdoors. Players roll the dice to determine where they pass their chips, and the last player with chips is the winner and wins the center pot. The dice are made of high-quality EVA foam, which makes the game safe for any surface.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000028610229492}
+{"content": "The Mystery of the Holy Roman Empire\n\nRecent events in Germany ought to grip our attention!\n\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel nearly lost her coalition government recently, largely because she invited over 1 million Muslim refugees into Germany. The German people don’t like that at all, so she modified her policy and saved the coalition—for now. Still, 1 million Arabs remain in the country as a reminder of Merkel’s gaffe. She is quite unpopular now. Her political days are numbered.\n\nThe big question is: Who will replace her?\n\nBible prophecy points us to the answer. A strongman will take power in Germany very soon (Daniel 8:23). He will help to fulfill another prophecy in Revelation 17:10: “And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.”\n\nThis prophecy ties directly to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! He will return to stop the Holy Roman Empire from causing even more bloodshed. Don’t lose that vision.\n\nGod revealed the meaning of this prophecy at the time of the sixth “king,” or leader, of the Holy Roman Empire: Adolf Hitler. He ruled brutally in the tradition of Charlemagne. Herbert W. Armstrong, God’s apostle and an end-time type of Elijah (Matthew 17:11; Malachi 3:1), boldly declared this prophecy.\n\nImmediately after Hitler fell and Germany lost World War ii, Mr. Armstrong warned of the seventh and final king of the Holy Roman Empire, which “is not yet come.” No one else understood Revelation 17:10! Only God’s one true Church today understands it.\n\nAs Mr. Armstrong proclaimed the coming of the Holy Roman Empire’s seventh resurrection, a powerful German politician named Franz Josef Strauss was advocating for Europe to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire. Strangely, Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Strauss developed a close relationship. When Mr. Strauss visited the educational institution Mr. Armstrong founded—Ambassador College in Pasadena, California—he said it was the happiest day of his life. Was it mere coincidence that these two were friends?\n\nMr. Strauss was the political mentor of Edmund Stoiber, who was the Christian Social Union conservative party chairman from 1998 to 2007. He lost a bid for the chancellery by the narrowest of margins in 2002. Stoiber mentored Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a man we need to watch very closely.\n\nWhy does all of this flow from Mr. Strauss, whom Mr. Armstrong hosted at his home for dinner, spent time with, and even hugged before they would go their separate ways? What’s that all about?\n\nRevelation 17:10 is a pivotal prophecy that will shock nearly everyone when it is fulfilled! Ms. Merkel won’t be around for long. Mr. Armstrong’s ties to the very leaders who will bring this prophecy to pass are a clear sign from God that we must watch Germany and the Holy Roman Empire more closely, and begin to focus on the one man who will come on the scene and be the polar opposite of Angela Merkel. He will be perhaps the strongest leader in the world, at the helm of a superpower that will likely be stronger than America, Russia or China.\n\nSome might criticize me for naming specific personalities in the Bible. I did the same with Russian President Vladimir Putin, known in Bible prophecy as the prince of Russia. The Philadelphia Church of God has been naming names for a long time.\n\nHere’s what I wrote in my booklet A Strong German Leader Is Imminent:\n\n\nBaron Guttenberg’s aristocratic title is Reichsfreiherr, meaning “Baron of the Holy Roman Empire.” He comes from a line of aristocratic elites who have played a devastating role in German history. Is that just a coincidence? At the very least, it tells us that we must examine Germany and the Holy Roman Empire more closely.\n\nLook at the time frame of Daniel 8. Verse 17 tells us it is the time of the end. Verse 19 narrows it down to the last end, or the very end of the end time. The book of Daniel is only for the end time. It is urgent. Daniel 8:23 states: “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.”\n\nIn A Strong German Leader Is Imminent, I wrote:\n\nYears ago, Herbert W. Armstrong met with Otto von Habsburg, the head of the 700-year-old house of Habsburg, which ruled the Holy Roman Empire in the dynasty prior to Napoleon. At that time, Habsburg was a member of the European Parliament. He said this: “The European community is living largely by the heritage of the Holy Roman Empire, though the great majority of the people who live by it don’t know by what heritage they live.”\n\nLook through history, and you will find six resurrections of that Holy Roman Empire. Today the seventh resurrection is staring us in the face—yet still people don’t know what it is! That is amazing! Not even the people who live under it know it.\n\n“We possess a European symbol which belongs to all nations of Europe equally,” Mr. Habsburg also said. “This is the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, which embodies the tradition of Charlemagne.” That crown is something this king in Europe will assume.\n\nThis soon-coming ruler could literally be called a king. Even if he is not, the Bible gives him that label. When the Bible talks about a king, in most cases it’s saying that this is not a democratic government. Even if he doesn’t have that title, he is going to lead like a king. This vision in Daniel shows that the European empire is about to become a lot more authoritative.\n\nBaron Guttenberg’s family is tied to the Habsburg dynasty, the fourth resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. Mr. Armstrong explained all about that empire. Mr. Strauss visited his college. So did Mr. Habsburg, who also spoke to the students about the history of Europe. Why would these leaders be visiting with Mr. Armstrong, the one through whom God revealed Revelation 17:10?\n\nGod teaches us Bible prophecy and the historical events that relate to it. It’s highly likely that Baron Guttenberg will fulfill a key role in prophecy.\n\nThe Holy Roman Empire has never been democratic. The 15th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica records the savage nature of Charlemagne, the leader of the first resurrection:\n\n\nEuropean leaders today want to uphold the tradition of this man! Hitler continued in that tradition! A Strong German Leader Is Imminent states:\n\nIn 1938, at a rally in Nuremberg, “Hitler had brought from Vienna, after 140 years, the insignia of the First Reich [Charlemagne]—the imperial crown, the orb of empire, the scepter and the imperial sword. At the presentation of these symbols of imperialism, he solemnly vowed that they would remain in Nuremberg forever” (John Toland, Adolf Hitler).\n\n\nCharlemagne ruled what is called the First Reich. Hitler named his movement the Third Reich, or third empire. He looked to Charlemagne! Do we realize that the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire will be bloodier than the previous six combined?\n\nMr. Armstrong was God’s messenger. He met with and inspired Mr. Strauss and Mr. Habsburg. Mr. Strauss mentored Mr. Stoiber, who mentored Baron Guttenberg. What a connection!\n\nBaron Guttenberg was the German defense minister and the most popular politician in Germany until a plagiarism scandal ruined his career. But that’s not the end of his story. He is close to Garry Kasparov, a Russian defector and one of the foremost critics of Vladimir Putin. Baron Guttenberg challenges Mr. Putin perhaps more than anyone else does today. He calls for stronger German leadership in the world.\n\nThe coming German strongman will be extremely powerful and destructive due to the backing of an evil spirit force (Daniel 8:24). But the next verse gives us incredible hope: Christ Himself will return to Earth and obliterate the Holy Roman Empire so that it never rises again to plague mankind.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9110950231552124}
+{"content": "An american indian wilderness by louis owens essay\n\n\nAn american indian wilderness by louis owens essay\n\nBuild a bibliography or works cited page the easy way\n\nDifferent tribes of Native Americans lived in the area that is now California for an estimated 13, to 15, years. Over tribes and bands inhabited the area. California's population held about one-third of all Native Americans in what is now the United States.\n\nThe natives controlled fire on a regional scale to create a low-intensity fire ecology which prevented larger, catastrophic fires and sustained a low-density agriculture in loose rotation; a sort of \"wild\" permaculture. This popular Spanish fantasy was printed in several editions with the earliest surviving edition published about In exploring Baja California the earliest explorers thought the Baja California peninsula was an island and applied the name California to it.\n\nEuropean explorers flying the flags of Spain and of England explored the Pacific Coast of California beginning in the midth century. Francisco de Ulloa explored the west coast of present-day Mexico including the Gulf of Californiaproving that Baja California was a peninsula, [8] but in spite of his discoveries the myth persisted in European circles that California was an island.\n\nRumors of fabulously wealthy cities located somewhere along the California coast, as well as a possible Northwest Passage that would provide a much shorter route to the Indiesprovided an incentive to explore further.\n\nHe died in southern California in Cabrillo and his men found that there was essentially nothing for the Spanish to easily exploit in California, and located at the extreme limits of exploration and trade from Spain it would be left essentially unexplored and unsettled for the next years.\n\nThe Cabrillo expedition depicted the Indians as living at a subsistence level, typically located in small rancherias of extended family groups of to people. Traditional clothing was minimal in the summer, with tanned deerhide and other animal leathers and furs and coarse woven articles of grass clothing used in winter.\n\nFeathers were sewn into prayer pieces worn for ceremonies.\n\nAccess denied | used Cloudflare to restrict access\n\nSome tribes around Santa Barbara, California and the Channel Islands California were using large plank canoes to fish and trade, while tribes in the California delta and San Francisco Bay Area were using tule canoes and some tribes on the Northwest coast carved redwood dugout canoes.\n\nDespite this, the natural abundance of California, and the environmental management techniques developed by California tribes over millennia, allowed for the highest population density in the Americas north of Mexico. This tradition of landscape management through fire ecology maintained acorn groves and other food sources, which along with knowledge of migratory herds such as elk and anadromous runs of salmon in the rivers, supported villages, small tribes, and extended family groups.\n\nA dietary staple for most Indian tribes in interior California was acornswhich were dried, shelled, ground to flour, soaked in water to leach out their tanninand cooked.\n\nThe grinding holes worn into large rocks over centuries of use are still visible in many rocks today. Acorn preparation was a very labor-intensive process nearly always done by women. There are estimates that some Indians might have eaten as much as one ton of acorns in one year.\n\nAcorns were gathered in large quantities, and could be stored for a reliable winter food source. Local trade between Indian tribal groups enabled them to acquire seasonings such as salt, or foodstuffs and other goods that might be rare in certain locales, such as flint or obsidian for making spear and arrow points.\n\nNative cultures in California are much different from other Indian cultures in North America, and some have survived to the present day.\n\nCalifornia indigenous language diversity numbered 80 to 90 languages and dialects, some surviving to the present although endangered. Spanish trading route [ edit ] In the Spanish developed a trading route where they took gold and silver from the Americas and traded it for goods and spices from China and other Asian areas.\n\nThe Spanish set up their main base in the Philippines.The American Indian Wilderness essaysIn the essay, \"The American Indian Wilderness\", Louis Owens presents a personal story to show a dramatic change in his point of view.\n\nAccount Options\n\nHis story revolves around a mind-altering experience in which he uses himself as the straw figure, allowing us to effe. El Seductor, Carly Phillips X Keijutsukai Aikido - Japanese Art of Self-Defense, Thomas H. Makiyama Novela Aventura, Autores Varios, Graciela Guido X Beacon Lights of History - Volume I (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press), John Lord Shrink Art Jewellery, Karen .\n\nThe story \"The American Indian Wilderness\" By Louis Owens takes a look at the meaning of the word wilderness from the point of view of the white European settlers and from the point of view of the Native Americans. The story begins with a description of a place the white people called Glacier Peak 3/5(4).\n\nThe Business of War. By Wade Frazier.\n\nAn american indian wilderness by louis owens essay\n\nRevised July Introduction. The Business of War. The \"Good War\" Brown Shirts in America. A Brief History of Western Anti . A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. A. Cezarija Abartis. Cezarija Abartis’ Nice Girls and Other Stories was published by New Rivers Press. Her. Jango is about making online music social, fun and simple.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9265090823173523}
+{"content": "View Single Post\nsagus93's Avatar\nsagus93 sagus93 is offline\nJoin Date: 26 Dec 2015\nLocation: Spain\nPosts: 1\n\nHi everybody. I'm just reading the book from Lon Milo DuQuette about Thoth tarot and he mentions this contradictions about Emperor's paths and confusing Crowley's quote about 'authority derived from chokmah and exerted upon tiphareth'.\n\nI think I have a possible explanation for this, I'm little bit lazy so I will just copy a part of e-mail I sent to Mr DuQuette to explain this. Basic idea is, that saying 'Emperor's authority is derived from chokmah and his power is then exerted upon tiphareth' is not the same as saying 'Emperor is the path connecting chokmah and tiphareth'. There are more subtle connections and relations between sephiroths, paths and respective tarot trumps and this one is even graphically pointed out on the card itself, if you look carefully. Here is my explanation for this:\n\n//I think Crowley's quote doesn't necessarily mean that Emperor 'is' the ray of light(=path) connecting chokmah and tiphareth.\nInstead, if you imagine the actual painting literally placed on the path of Tzaddi where it belongs, then on its right side will be pillar of descending light up from chokmah all the way down to netzah, as a descent of Father's influence down to matter... (Emperor is said to be *combination of energy in its most material form with the idea of authority.*).\nAnd in the same time, Sun - tiphareth is on his left side and so to say 'behind him'. Its same as on the painting itself.. ray of light at the right side and Sun not in the center of Emperor, but behind him, above his left shoulder. So exactly the same configuration on both the painting and the tree of life.\nAnd not only that.. arms of Emperor form a triangle with his head on the top - staring at the Sun. There is the same triangle on the tree of life, with path of Tzaddi as a base and 2 arms - Nun and Samekh leading towards tiphareth, like an arrow pointing at the direction of his authoritative gaze. And to make things even better, this arrow/line of his sight first crosses the path of Pe attributed to Mars, to finally land on the Sun... which is answer to the question how does he 'exerts his power upon tiphareth' .. Emperor is Aries, in which Mars is the ruler and Sun is exalted.//\n\nand thats it. You can find logic in this system also by looking at the path of initiation itself, climbing the tree of life. For exapmle - putting your life in order and under your conscious controll (=path of Emperor), then sacrifising your Self (=path of Death) in order to gain consciousness of tiphareth.. arriving here, you loose a lot of assets of your old ego, but some remains - for example notion of necessity of some kind of order and fatherly authority in order to continue on your true path. And this energy/understanding can be personified as the authoritative gaze of an old Emperor sitting down there in your past and watchning your steps.. and in terms of astrology, its the power of Aries to exalt the Sun.\nTop #45", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8924386501312256}
+{"content": "20140204-110757.jpgThere’s been a lot of talk about Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella. Nadella has been with Microsoft for 22 years, throughout most of his entire career. He’s held various executive positions within the company, most recently in an enterprise role. He’s also had the ear of Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer throughout his career. Those were all key factors for promoting within rather than hiring someone like former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop or Ford CEO Alan Mulally, who was believed to be the front runner.\n\nThings are different now at Microsoft. The company once had a strangle hold on the computer world. Windows outnumbered Mac computers several times over, and everyone and their mother used Microsoft Office products. The smartphone, the growth of the internet, the cloud and open-source software have all played a part in Microsoft losing footing during the Steve Ballmer era.\n\nBallmer, a Microsoft lifer, had been with the company since it’s inception, helping create it with Bill Gates and Paul Allen. While Ballmer was a great CEO for a while, many feel he lost focus and part of the reason he lost that focus was he was too emotionally invested in Microsoft. Ballmer was akin to Blackberry Co-CEO’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis who both thought Blackberry was indestructible. They had their big huge slice of the pie and no one was going to change that.\n\nToday, Windows PC’s still outnumber computers running Mac OSX by a lot, but it’s not the desktop or the laptop that’s hurting Microsoft.\n\nSatyaNadella-QuoteMicrosoft has been struggling in the smartphone department. They’re also struggling in the tablet department as well. With more and more people turning to smartphones and tablets and less people relying on desktops and laptops it’s time for Microsoft to innovate.\n\nThat’s where Nadella fits into the puzzle, backed with Bill Gates returning three days a week to work on product. Both Gates and Nadella know that Microsoft is a great company, it’s just time to innovate. “Our job is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first world.” Nadella said in an email to employees upon his announcement as CEO.\n\nIt’s great that Nadella sees the need to expand in the areas that are hurting Microsoft the most. But while everyone is tearing his email apart, one quote stuck out to me as I read it. I read the quote over and over again and realized this is where Ballmer missed it and Nadella will thrive. It’s a quote that anyone in the tech space will understand and should live by. It’s a quote that explains why Microsoft is where it is, and Blackberry has almost been wiped into obscurity.\n\nIt is this: Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation.\n\nmore here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7316163778305054}
+{"content": "inHUMAN Nutritions\n\nHigh-Resistance Circuit Training vs. Traditional Strength Training\n\nHigh-Resistance Circuit Training vs. Traditional Strength Training\nPosted on: 2013-10-09 23:17:18 Ft.\n\nIs high-resistance circuit training worth the extra effort? It depends on what your goals are. Here’s why.\n\nIn an 8-week study conducted in Spain, 33 healthy men were split into three groups. The first group followed a traditional strength-training program and performed one exercise at a time with 3 minutes between sets. The second group followed a high-resistance circuit-training program, which had them perform tri-sets (three exercises perform back-to-back with very little rest between exercises) and rested three minutes between tri-sets. Both groups trained three times a week and performed 3-6 sets of six exercises with a weight they could lift for six reps. The third group did nothing.\n\nThe results showed that both training groups made similar gains in strength and lean mass. However, the circuit-training group lost a significant amount of bodyfat whereas the strength-training group did not. Additionally, and this comes as no surprise, the circuit-training group finished their workouts faster. That being said, if you’re looking to slim down and/or get through your workouts faster than performing tri-sets may be right for you.1\n\n\n1. Alcaraz PE et al. (2011) Similarity in adaptations to high-resistance circuit vs. traditional strength training in resistance-trained men.Sep;25(9):2519-27", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9408173561096191}
+{"content": "The Importance of Lightning Protection\n\nAccording to the NFPA, lightning strikes cause $451 million dollars in property damage each year.\n\nWhy Do I Need a Lightning Protection System?\n\nThunderstorms make some people uncomfortable. Jagged lightning strikes that carry across the sky are dangerous, especially when they strike homes and businesses. Lightning strikes can cause fires, injuries, and even deaths. Without proper commercial lightning protection, people could face liabilities in the event of a terrible accident. Because the lives of everyone depend on it, one shouldn’t hesitate to get the proper lightning protection.\n\nBefore people can even blink their eyes, a towering mass of heated air can end their lives. The chances of being struck by lightning are very small, but they have increased slightly in recent years. The warmer climates all over the world are fueling more and more storms. While lightning strikes are dazzling displays of nature’s awesome power, they are also a reminder that bad things happen to people who aren’t prepared. Home lightning protection will ensure one’s safety and their insurance company will appreciate the steps they take to secure their house from lightning.\n\nPretend that a business owner has a building and a raging storm develops outside. Lightning dances across the sky until one bolt strikes the top of the building. An inferno ensues and engulfs the beloved business. People could prevent this unfortunate scenario with commercial lightning protection. They can’t let a storm ruin the lives of their business. Their customers will also appreciate the time and effort they put in to ensure their safety. Lightning won’t spare anyone within a certain radius of the strike.\n\nTrusting the professionals for lightning protection is a great idea for homeowners as well. Instead of losing everything to a disaster, home insurance companies will be more forgiving if the owner demonstrates secure lightning protection. An insurance company is more likely to cover the damages of a house hit by lightning if adequate steps were taken to make sure the property is safe. Lightning protection that works well will keep everyone in the home safe and sound. People can leave home in stormy areas with the peace of mind that everything will be alright. Safety is everything in a storm, and one can’t be too careful.\n\nThe next time that a household fears lightning strikes, its owner should contact the proper home lightning protection company, like Northeast Lightning Protection. No money and no time can be wasted in securing a home from natural disasters. Lightning strikes cause a variety of damage and it’s best to prevent damage before it ever happens.\n\nWhile lightning rods help protect a structure and all occupants from a direct strike, a complete lightning protection system, including utility bonding, proper grounding, and surge protection help prevent harmful electrical surges and possible fires caused by lightning entering a structure via wire and pipes. A complete lightning protection system includes; lightning rods, conductor cables, ground electrodes, utility bonding clamps (for water pipes, sprinkler, & gas and/or oil pipes) and surges protection.\n\n\n\n\nNortheast Lightning Protection LLC\n10 Peters Road\nBloomfield, CT 06002\nTel: (860) 243-0010\n\nWe Are 5-Star Rated On:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5604245662689209}
+{"content": "Write us a review\n\n\nWe will be very grateful to you, if you share the experience of using eXtra Buttons. Write a response how eXtra Buttons helped you with your work, and it will be published on a site of the program.\n\nIf you have opportunity to write professional article or review about eXtra Buttons, we guarantee, that you will have a free registration of software.\n\nWe are waiting for your responses, articles and reviews to our e-mail: info@xtrabuttons.com", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5167607069015503}
+{"content": "Creating and Editing Textures for Foliage in Photoshop\n\nCreating and Editing Textures for Foliage in Photoshop\n\nAntony O’Sullivan published the first part of his article on working with vegetation in Unity.\n\n, an Environment Artist and World Builder at Quantum Soup Studios, has published the first part of an article on creating game-ready grass and vegetation for use within the Unity Game Engine. The paper focuses on the work with textures in Photoshop and there are tons of useful tips for you to check out. The artist states that it is all about the aesthetics and believability, so how do we achieve the desired look?\n\nHere is a small piece of the article:\n\nPadding and masking is one of the final stages in Photoshop for foliage texture creation, and should be given some consideration if the vegetation you are using is heading toward the more photo-real, transparent dependent pipeline.\n\nThe process of padding textures using Gaussian Blur.\n\n1. Ensure your original texture has 2 layers to begin: your base_colour background type layer and a layer with all of your plant texture parts on\n\n2. Copy the plant parts layer, and drag it beneath your original layer\n\n3. Apply a Gaussian Blur filter to the copy layer\n\n4. You should see some slight blurring if the radius of the blur is large enough\n\n5. Copy this blurred layer a couple of times to increase the effect\n\n6. Highlight all of the blurred layers and press CTRL+E to merge them into a single layer\n\n7. Repeat steps 3-5 for a stronger effect!\n\nThis process helps the outside edge of the visible parts of a texture the further away we get from it in engine. Leaving areas to a solid colour can sometimes cause the white ‘halo’ effect we sometimes see around leaves and grass in games.\n\nThe developer is currently working with the team of Quantum Soup Studios on a game called TALESINGER: Voice of the Dragon, so these tips and tricks are battle-tested. Make sure to read the full first part on working with grass textures in Unity here\n\nJoin discussion\n\nComments 3\n\n • Tobi\n\n Was struggling with this topic back in the days - I would loved to have a tutorial like that back then :) I believe there are many other younger developers and artists that can use this information. ALSO I would highly recommend to update the article with the information from the comments.\n\n\n\n ·2 years ago·\n • Yoeri -Luos- Vleer\n\n\n Photoshop > filters > Xnormal > Dilation > Done.\n\n\n Yoeri -Luos- Vleer\n\n ·2 years ago·\n • Jody Sargent\n\n try the solidify c script here, does the same in one click and its free to download.....http://www.flamingpear.com/freebies.html\n\n\n Jody Sargent\n\n ·2 years ago·\n\nYou might also like\n\nWe need your consent\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9206730723381042}
+{"content": "Roddy Knowles, Dynata\n\nThank you for meeting with us Roddy, can you start by introducing yourself?\n\nSure. I’m Roddy Knowles, I work at Dynata and sit on the Research Science team where I support our Product team from a research and methodology perspective, ensuring all our products are created with a sound research foundation. I also support the company from an innovation perspective, keeping an eye on where the industry is going and tactically in things like bringing on new data partners or bringing on new data sources that can integrate with our products.\n\nMy role also involves a lot of thought leadership to support our products, as well as getting into a lot of nerdy stuff too – like research on research.\n\nWhy did you get into research?\n\nI sort of backed my way into research. I’m a social scientist by academic training; I studied religion at a PhD level. I didn’t do theology, but rather took a social scientific and historical approach to the topic. That may sound far off from a career in data, but there was a lot of data to look at.\n\nDuring my PhD work I was presented with the opportunity to do ethnographic market research – and at the time I didn’t even know I could apply my academic training in a meaningful way. Long story short, I did a lot a shopper insight work in and after grad school, doing quant and qual data collection, analysis, and wearing a lot of hats. Then I made the decision to leave academia and do research full time… all downhill from there!\n\nCan you introduce our chosen topic of ‘Data Integration from multiple sources’?\n\nOf course! Depending on who’s listening or reading, they may think that data integration is a normal thing and what’s the big deal because of course, we integrate data from multiple sources. However, Market research isn’t usually lauded as being the most forward-thinking industry, and although I think we have made some massive leaps in the past few years, historically we tend to do one thing at a time, like qualitative interviews, or quantitative online surveys, or look at CRM data, with a tendency to look at things in isolation. We have been pretty siloed, historically.\n\nWhat market researchers and insights professionals have done increasingly over the past few years to stay relevant is pull in data from various sources. It could be pulling in traditional research data or third-party data, or it could be combining different types of research data. It’s thinking about things from a more holistic perspective.\n\nOne of the questions we should be trying to answer is what data best allows us to address the problem or objectives, instead of saying ‘this is our methodology, so this must be our approach.’ Then figure out where or how to get to the right data sources.\n\nWhere have you seen Data Integration being done successfully?\n\nOne of the ways I’ve seen Data Integration done successfully is taking data from traditional survey data and combining it with observed data from other sources. It could be advertising data like ad-exposure data, purchase history data, voter data, or something that’s going to tell people more about what they are asking about.\n\nIf you’re trying to understand the impact of ad campaigns and marketing on how a brand is doing, knowing when they are actually exposed to an ad, or which channels work well is critical. If you want to know about a shopper’s journey, pulling data related to their shopping or purchase history would be beneficial.\n\nIt’s important to think about where you can get relevant and, I’m not sure if ‘clean’ is the right word, but data that most directly answers the question being asked – without necessarily needing to actually ask a question because again, this data can be observed and appended. As researchers, we have a habit of asking every question we can think of asking, because that’s what we do as researchers – we ask questions. But this often isn’t a good thing.\n\nWhat are the biggest challenges you have faced with Data Integration?\n\nI think the biggest challenge for most, is getting lost in all the data and with all of the shiny things you could work with! So, the first challenge is getting over that hump and planning how you can approach your research more effectively with data that actually matters.\n\nYou can look at all the different sources you have, your primary research data, survey-based data, qualitative data, etc. and then wanting to pull in more data such as from third parties and then getting lost by integrating too much.\n\nThe data sources themselves can pose challenges. Some survey researchers aren’t used to dealing with a lot of these types of data, some are structured, some unstructured so it’s easy to get lost. It’s usually best to start small and think about what type of questions are not really being well answered by the survey data you are gathering. What sources are going to be a better fit to gather that data? You can then find one or two sources, rather than collecting too much to pull in and get lost within it.\n\nWould you say there’s a limit to how many data sources you should integrate?\n\nIt depends on the tools you have available to use, and the humans using these tools, and what type of data you are integrating. It can also depend on if you are leveraging AI, Machine Learning or other ‘buzzwordy’ tools to integrate, which is something I am seeing a lot more of. I wouldn’t say there is any sort of a limit, it just really depends on the tools, someone’s skillset, what that person’s approach is. I know data scientists are comfortable with a lot more data than what I could ever work with!\n\nIs Machine Learning and AI something you are seeing more in Market Research?\n\nIt is something that is talked about a lot more now than a couple of years ago; those are hot buzzwords that are getting thrown around a lot at the moment. I think if you had a booth at a trade show and wanted to attract people to it, you could just put the letters AI in big letters. But in all seriousness, there are a lot of cool applications out there, allowing us to do more with research data whereas historically we have been a little more limited with our analytics tools and people are realising that there a lot of practical applications and gains in efficiency with AI and Machine Learning.\n\nThere are also a lot of companies doing cool things by leveraging AI, especially working with unstructured data. Also, with “Big Data,” dealing with massive data sets about online behaviour for example. You can use AI to look at unstructured data in terms of qualitative too, or use AI to moderate qualitative interviews and then analyse and structure to add meaning to the data. There are a lot of interesting things going right now with the buzzword du jour.\n\nCan you lend some advice to people who conduct Data Integration? Is there anything people should consider before doing this?\n\nI think this goes back to what I said earlier and it sounds sort of basic and this is the researcher coming out in me! It really comes down to making sure you know what question you are trying to answer and focusing on that. That will help you to be strategic, starting at that high-level. Instead of thinking ‘we have all of this data, what can we do with it?’, rather you should say ‘what are we trying to accomplish or what problem are we trying to solve?’ Think about things logically and from a business perspective or from a project perspective. What are you trying to tackle? And then, only then, start to think about what types of data you need to collect.\n\nWhat is Dynata currently doing with Data Integration?\n\nWe are doing a lot of cool things at the moment! As a global company of our size with a first-party relationship with millions of people, our panellists, we collected a lot of data. Our panellists opt into sharing data via surveys and other means We have profiling data that we collect on an ongoing basis in addition to survey data. We also have other datasets that we can link to through our partners – and there are a lot of them relevant to a number of verticals.\n\nWe also often work directly with brands to link our data with theirs – what we know about people and can gather from them via directly engaging, essentially surveys, and what they know about people through their CRM or other datasets. We’re focusing a lot on how to make it easier to access our first-party data so stay tuned for a product release soon on that front.\n\nWe are doing a lot of interesting things in advertising measurement space, looking at how we can use ad-exposure data for tracking studies, for example. This capability sort of builds upon the core of data we collect with our Ad & Audience measurement products. And on the other side, we’re working with companies to help them advertise to the right people through using our data and relationships to help them build models and better target their ads.\n\nWe’re constantly looking for ways to allow our clients to connect – or integrate – more relevant data, whether that is data we collect directly from our panellists or not. Being open to leveraging your own data in combination with other data – and making these connections as easy as possible, is one of the keys to success in our industry right now, and in the future, in my opinion. And to be candid, it isn’t just us out there doing that. more companies than ever are trying to do this sort of thing because they recognise that this is where the industry is going.\n\nAre there any situations in which Data Integration wouldn’t be beneficial or should be avoided?\n\nYes, I mean there are quite a few situations when you don’t have data that is relevant to what you’re doing and won’t fit – a sort of square peg round hole situation! For example, say if I have a situation which I want to understand a shopper’s behaviour in a certain category I might have certain information on shopper’s behaviour or point of sale data, but what I really need to understand is are the shopper’s needs states for what is driving her to buy a product. I can’t answer those questions from that type of data. I can hypothesise, maybe based on what other people have purchased, but you really need to engage directly to understand that.\n\nI would be wary of taking data that is similar but not fitting and working with that rather than focusing on what’s really going to answer the question. And really, Market Research in many cases is focused on doing just that, working directly with people. Some people think that Big Data is going to solve all our problems and we don’t need to ask questions anymore, but I think that in fact it’s quite the opposite. Maybe we need to ask smarter questions and engage more people rather than ask every question that we think of. I’m a bit of a broken record, I know. But that’s because it’s an important point.\n\nWhere do you see Market Research going in the next few years?\n\nIn the next year, I think we will carry on the same path. But looking into the next few years, I think that a lot of companies that are focused on the traditional data collection part may find it challenging to keep up. I think if people who are doing online market research and are relying solely on survey data you collect directly and are not leveraging outside sources, staying relevant will be a harder thing to accomplish.\n\nI also think there are going to be opportunities for companies who are only collecting this observed data to leverage more engaged data, by talking with someone directly or conducting research with them. So, I think there will be more partnerships.\n\nOur company for instance, are not experts in everything. We have a lot of capabilities that continue to grow but we still leverage external partnerships for a lot of the stuff we do to service our clients. In our industry, I think we will see a lot more ‘coopetition’, where companies may be competing but collaborating at the same time. If you’re trying to offer the best you can for your customers it might not be what you can do, and you might not have all the data, but if you can access it and partner with another company that can help then you’re doing all you can for your client and building relationships as you’re breaking down barriers.\n\nIf you were to start your career again is there anything you would change?\n\nThat’s a tough one! I don’t know if there’s anything I would change. I spent 10 years in a PhD programme which may have been a little long, so maybe I should say that! But…in some ways it had no practical bearing on what I’m doing now but I learned a hell of a lot, so I don’t know if I would change that. Some of the soft skills and technical research methodologies helped but the subject matter doesn’t really. I don’t study religion anymore and it has nothing to do with what I’m doing now. The things I’ve learned from teaching and writing, and those skills are so beneficial. I don’t think there is anything I would change.\n\nIf I can flip your question around and answer a different one, I can tell you one thing I wouldn’t change. I think one of the most valuable things that I’ve learned and something I urge people to do as a researchers is to have some sort of understanding of qualitative research. It doesn’t matter if you’re a quantitative researcher or a data scientist, so often people are doing work with human data and trying to understand consumers and people. Working with people, directly or indirectly, and having in mind that they are human too really helps you with your work and research. It helps you create engaging ways to research. It helps you when you are trying to think of the type of data you are collecting and understanding what context people are creating this data. It may sound simple, but people forget how beneficial it is, talking to people, it is completely invaluable. An example is a brand manager is talking about the voice of her customers she should be able to go out to her stores and talk to her customers and hear and understand what the voice of the customer is!\n\nWhat has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career?\n\nThis follows from the answer I have just given, but one of the challenges is trying to get people to conduct better research because we often forget we are doing research with humans.\n\nI think the biggest challenge is trying to get people to shift their mindset to think about the fact that there are different ways we can collect data and integrate data from different data sources, it’s been a real challenge and an ongoing one.\n\nAnother one would be trying to get people to conduct research that is mobile-friendly. I spent a long time trying to implement this and I’m not sure how much change it’s made.\n\nWhat advice do you have for someone starting out their career in Market Research?\n\nIt would have to be to conduct some form of qualitative research and gain some knowledge and skills around this, even if you have no formal training. Having a wider reach of different approaches to Market Research is important but focusing is good and to have a focus or speciality is important. So, if you find an approach or niche you like, dive in.\n\nAttending events and conference is also extremely valuable. I try to go to as many as possible to improve my knowledge as much as I can. It’s also worth noting that it’s great to go to events and conferences in your space and interest, but exploring outside this is an interesting way to learn new things and get inspired. The most impactful ones on me this year so far have been the ones related to, but not directly focused on, my industry. And if you can’t physically make it to events, there are no shortage of webinars available to feed your mind. So, my last advice is that if you aren’t learning new things regularly in your routine, you need to step out and force yourself to do so.\n\nLearn more about Dynata", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8815957307815552}
+{"content": "Choose Edition\nChoose Edition\nTamaño letra\n\nChinese mafia suspected of hiring Spanish thieves for heist in French palace\n\nA ram raider known as “Juan the Kid” allegedly led the group tasked with stealing artwork from the World Heritage Site, but was arrested by police before he could commit the crime\n\nAsian artwork in the Palace of Fontainebleau and a police photo of suspect Juan María Gordillo Plaza.\n\nThere are many elements to the case: an alleged group from the Chinese mafia, a castle listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its history and treasures, and five Spanish criminals who together have been arrested more than 120 times. On December 27, the French police arrested these five individuals and a sixth man of Chinese nationality for attempting to steal from the Chinese Museum at the Palace of Fontainebleau, a medieval castle 62 kilometers from Paris.\n\nThis royal palace was home to 34 kings and two emperors between the 12th and 19th century. The thieves were after pieces belonging to the Chinese art collection of Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the Spanish wife of Napoleon III.\n\nBut French and Spanish police stopped what could have been the last great robbery of 2019. For more than a week, officers followed a figure well known to the Spanish justice system: Juan María Gordillo Plaza, better known as “El Niño Juan” or “Juan the Kid” for his small stature. Gordillo Plaza is a 33-year-old criminal from the Orcasitas neighborhood in Madrid, and a suspected specialist in contract robberies.\n\nThe suspected thieves were staying in a hotel 17.5 kilometers from the Palace of Fontainebleau\n\nPolice believe a group from the Chinese mafia hired Gordillo Plaza to carry out the heist, in exchange for a payment of nearly €800,000, according to sources close to the investigation. Three members of this group met with the notorious ram raider two days before his arrest to confirm the details of the theft, according to police sources. The Chinese lead is “very important,” French police commander Jean-Luc Boyer told EL PAÍS by phone on Thursday. “[The Spaniards arrested] are organized crime professionals who came to France to commit a robbery, they came for Chinese objects, and in the middle of this we arrested a Chinese citizen, which is why we have this lead,” said Boyer, who is also the head of the Central Office for the Fight Against Cultural Good Trafficking (OCBC by its French acronym).\n\nFootage of a police chase of Juan María Gordillo in 2012.\n\nOperation Bamboo\n\nThe five Spaniards were arrested in France as part of a police operation dubbed Operation Bamboo. The investigation began in Spain, when the National Police warned French officers via Europol, the European Union’s agency for law-enforcement collaboration, that a group was planning a heist on a French museum. They did not know which museum would be targeted, only that the thieves were after three pieces of Asian art. This detail and the trailing of the suspects – both before and after they crossed the border into France on December 21 – helped officers put the pieces of the puzzle together.\n\nNothing in the museum can be sold on the market\n\nFrench police commander Jean-Luc Boyer\n\nThe officers watched as the Spaniards entered a sports clothing store to buy dark-colored clothing, and then as they bought an ax, picks, screwdrivers and other material typically used in violent robberies. But the main clue that revealed the group’s objective was their hotel: a cheap establishment in the Nemours neighborhood, just 17.5 kilometers from the Palace of Fontainebleau. This monumental castle holds close to 800 pieces of decorative art from the Far East, many of incalculable value, that were “seized” during the French Revolution and the looting of Beijing’s Old Summer Palace by Anglo-French forces in 1860 during the Second Opium War.\n\nThe palace was robbed in 2015, with 15 valuable objects from the Empress’ Chinese Museum stolen in just seven minutes. “In 2015, the museum was robbed and Chinese objects were taken. The investigation makes us think that they just wanted to steal Chinese objects,” explained Boyer.\n\nGordillo Plaza and his Spanish accomplices traveled to France in two cars – one with a Spanish license plate, another with a French one. Although they pretended not to know one another, the surveillance revealed that they had a close relationship – they swapped cars when they traveled and visited the Eiffel Tower and the stadium of French soccer team París Saint-Germaine together. The group also visited the Palace of Fontainebleau, allegedly with the aim of studying the security camera system, the position of the security guards, and the Chinese artwork they were planning on stealing. They would then return to the hotel in Nemours, which, according to police sources, acted as the “headquarters” for the crime.\n\nFinalizing the details\n\nTwo of the Spaniards allegedly held a meeting at the hotel on December 26 with three Asian individuals, one of whom was later arrested and is suspected of being the link between the robbers and the people who hired them. This Chinese individual used his credit card to pay for the group’s hotel accommodation and the entrance fee to the Empress’ Chinese Museum. The tickets to the museum were later found in the pocket of one of the Spaniards who were arrested. Investigators also found photos of the artwork that was meant to be stolen on their Spaniards’ cellphones.\n\nThe suspects have denied the allegations and claim they were visiting France as tourists\n\nThe group was finally arrested in the early hours of December 28, the day the heist was meant to take place, just 48 hours after the meeting with suspected members of the Chinese mafia. Police arrested two of the Spaniards around 1am, followed by the Chinese individual, and by 6am, the remaining three members of the Spanish group had been detained.\n\nWhen interrogated by French police, the men denied that they were planning a heist and insisted they were in France as tourists. This defense strategy of denial is often used by Gordillo Plaza, who presents himself as a humble self-employed electrician who works 10 hours a day and knows nothing about stealing upmarket cars. Although they denied involvement, the six suspects were sent to prison. They have been accused of “taking part in a criminal association with the view of planning a crime” and “robbery and receiving stolen goods in an organized gang,” according to French judicial sources.\n\nThe investigation is now focused on determining which objects the group were planning to steal. “Nothing in the museum can be sold on the market. They are catalogued objects that everyone knows about. It is impossible to negotiate with that, unless it was a robbery ordered by a person or otherwise,” said Boyer.\n\nEnglish version by Melissa Kitson.\n\nAdheres to The Trust Project More info >\n\nMore information", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7418252229690552}
+{"content": "Heritage spirit - Feni\n\n\nProcess of Feni Preparation\n\nFeni is alcoholic beverage locally prepared from cashew apples whose strength is 45% above, exclusively in Goa. In the traditional method of making cashew feni, only tree ripened cashew apples that have fallen are picked and taken for the crush. The cashew apples are de-seeded and then dropped into the stomping area. This area is called a \"colmi\" and is usually a rock cut into a basin shape. The cashew apples are stomped to release the juice. Stomping has now gradually been replaced by the use of a press called a pingre (cage). The pulp is then hand-pattied into small mounds traditionally using a particular vine, nudi, which is snaked around it to hold it together while a heavy weight (typically a boulder) is placed on top. The juice produced through this process is known as neero, and is refreshing to drink. The fresh neero is traditionally in a large earthen pot called a kodem, which is buried halfway in the ground and left while the juice ferments for several days. Delicate earthen kodem have now been replaced by plastic drums for the sake of practicality. The juice is then allowed to sit for three days as it ferments. No artificial yeast or nutrients are added to hasten the process.\n\nFermented cashew fruit juice being transferred into pots for distillation\n\nCashew feni is distilled employing the traditional pot, which is still practiced. A traditional distilling feni is still known as a bhatti. The use of an earthen pot as the boiling pot has now been replaced with copper pots, both known by the same name bhann. The distillate is collected in an earthen pot called a launni. The tradition of cold water being continuously poured on the launni to condense the distillate has now been replaced by immersing a coil in cold water.\n\nCashew feni is a triple distilled spirit. The first distillate of the fermented neero is known as urrack, about 15% alcohol (30 proof). Urrack is then mixed with neero in a proportion determined by the distiller, and redistilled to give a spirit called \"cazulo\" or \"cajulo\" (40-42% abv). Cazulo or Cajulo is again distilled with urrack to give a high strength spirit called feni (45% abv).\n\nNote that cazulo is generally sold as \"feni\", as the spirit is considered too strong of an alcoholic beverage for consumption. All cashew feni now available is double distilled.\n\n\nGeographical Indication Registration for Feni\n\nGeographical Indication Registration of “Feni”-2009\n\nIndia passed the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act in 1999 as part of its obligations to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The definition for a GI in the Act is: “an indication which identifies such goods as agricultural goods, natural goods or manufactured goods as originating, or manufactured in the territory of a country, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of such goods is essentially attributable to its geographical origin and in case where such goods are manufactured goods one of the activities of either the production or of processing or preparation of the goods concerned takes place in such territory, region or locality, as the case may be”.\n\nDemonstrating its keen interest in GIs, the Government of India ran a series of meetings across the country to promote and popularise the idea of GIs, with the hope that producer groups and associations would start looking at GIs as a means of protecting their traditional and cultural products.\n\nIn January 2002, one of these meetings took place in Goa. Co-organised by the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry and with various Goa Government officials, the meeting discussed the potential use of GIs in Goa and identified a range of possible products. Feni was nominated as the first candidate product and this also led to “caju” (cashew) being the adopted choice.\n\nOver the next few years, the Government of Goa, especially through the Development Commissioner JK Dadu and later under the stewardship of the Department of Science and Technology, pursued a GI-application for Feni. An informal committee involving journalists and archivists, agronomists and scientists, and bottlers and distillers, was assembled. Details of the distilling process were scripted, its history was researched and collected, and chemical analysis was conducted and documented. In July 2006, the Goa Cashew Feni Distillers and Bottlers Association was registered and they became co-applicants of the GI-application with the Department of Science and Technology. By March 2007 a draft of the application was ready. Officials from the GI Registry were consulted and meetings in Goa continued to deliberate on the application. Eventually, in December 2007 the application was submitted to the GI Registry in Chennai. Finally, on 05th March 2009, feni was registered under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act in 1999 marking a successful end to this process.\n\nSource: Geographical Indications and Localisation: A Case Study of Feni by Dwijen Rangnekar", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8229832649230957}
+{"content": "Doubt from Kohlrausch Law\n\nHow to solve this ?\n\nAnswer is A.\n\nmultiply all the equivalent conductivities with their respective n factor . Then calculate molar conductivity of salt and divide it by n factor of salt\n\nAlready the equivalent conductivities are given then why don't we simply add them all ?\n\nWe can do it but then we have to multiply with equivalents etc., it will become complicated", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9974260926246643}
+{"content": "Pilot Whale Dies From Plastic Pollution\n\npilot whale dies with 80 plastic bags in stomach\n\nPaper, Plastic, or Reusable?\n\nWhat's you preferred method of handling groceries upon checkout at the grocery store? Do you bag it? Do you prefer paper or plastic? Or do you carry your own reusable grocery bags? If you do carry your own reusable shopping bag, congratulations! You are contributing to the reduction of plastic pollution in our environment. You can now give yourself a pat on your back. You may be wondering, what's the big deal; a bag is a bag, right? Wrong! Plastic shopping bags contribute to the plastic waste that is evidently affecting our environment, especially our marine life as it endangers many animals in their ocean habitat. No one really knows how much unrecycled plastic ends up in our oceans, but according to National Geographic, Jenna Jambeck, a Georgia University Engineering Professor, estimated it to be roughly between 5.3 million and 14 million tons a year from coastal regions. The estimated time on plastic to biodegrade is an estimated 450 years or NEVER--meaning we'll be long gone as our plastic waste still pollutes the Earth.\n\nsea turtle choking on plastic\n\nPlastic Pollution Affects Marine Life\n\nAccording to National Geographic, unrecycled plastic kill millions animals a year. From the smallest of organisms, like zooplankton to large mammals such as whales ingest many, many microplastics. Plastic bags were the major culprit In the case of the pilot whale in Thailand that was found with more than 80 plastic bags (about 17lbs) in its stomach. The whale died five days after it rescue after vomiting a few plastic bags. According to Regina Asmutis-Silvia, the Executive Director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation's North America, the whale may have mistook the plastic bags for food. The whale's natural diet consists of squid, octopus, and fish. Unfortunately this is just one of many cases where marine animals die from mistaking plastic waste for food. The reusable bags doesn't sound so bad now, huh?\n\nwhale autopsy after eating 80 plastic bags\n\nWhat You Can Do\n\nIt is estimated that the average person in The United States discards roughly 185lbs of plastic trash, but this can be drastically reduce by changing how we use single-use products by switching to reusable products like reusable shopping bags (HINT, HINT). As National Geographic mentions: ocean plastic is not as complicated as climate change. We know what the solution. According to the New Yorker in 2014, plastic bags ranked #7 for most common item found in the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup. The negative effects of plastic bags have caused an implementation of bans and/or surcharges for plastic bag uses in some cities and countries.\nSo even if your current grocer does not have a plastic ban, still do the marine environment a favor and get a reusable plastic bag for all your grocery needs. They are environmentally friendly and helps reduce the plastic pollution in our ocean. Let's all take part in NOT turning our beautiful oceans into 'plastic soup.'\n\nreusable bag vs plastic bag\n\nHow Can The Pure Wraps Help to Reduce Plastic Waste?\n\nTo support wellness and fight disease, we need life-enhancing food from a sustainable environment, which is why we will not compromise our strict standards. The Pure Wraps are packaged in Innovia NatureFlex™ Films (manufacturer of NatureFlex™) cellulose-based biodegradable compostable packaging. These films are made from responsibly resourced wood pulp.\nMost importantly, it is safe for people and the environment and does not contribute to plastic pollution.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7224860191345215}
+{"content": "\nTrainingMag Webinar_BenchPrep Video copy 2\n\nTime to Realign! Adapt to the New World of Learning [Product Demo]\n\nThe modern learner has drastically changed, yet training programs have remained strikingly stagnant. To meet your objectives in both the near and long term, reassessing the current landscape and aligning with today’s learners will be required to devise the right training program that meets both your organization’s and learners’ needs.\n\nIn this webinar you will learn:\n\n\nHow to develop a long-term plan for success (walk before your run) for your eLearning program\n\n\nHow training organizations have used digital tools to augment and improve their in-person and virtual classrooms\n\n\nHow organizations are creating lifelong learning programs that continuously serve learners new content", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9883627891540527}
+{"content": "| By Steve Annacone\n\n\nMany times during a match, players have a tendency to get caught up in the competition making it difficult to focus on things they can do to improve their chance for success.\n\nOne of the most underrated aspects of this plan for success in a match is the ability to think the correct way in between points. Before the point starts, remind yourself of your basic strategy (serve and volley, consistent baseline play, or moving forward as the point gets longer for example).\n\nJust prior to serving or returning serve, pick one basic technique idea (watch the ball all the way to the point of contact, follow through, shoulder turn, move your feet, etc.) and make that your focus.\n\nImmediately after the point ends try to assess what you did well, what you can do to make a correction for the next point, or pick one technique idea that may have helped you execute your strategy better and adjust it. The best players in the world go through this process over and over again and do not allow a lot of additional thoughts to enter their mind. There are times on the changeovers that they may get a little more detailed in their idea. However, this in between point routine inevitably separates the best players from their opponents.\n\nSteve Annacone's picture Steve Annacone\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8391662836074829}
+{"content": "The premium destination for exclusive dinnerware from avant garde manufacturer.\n\nMagma cobalt\n\nWith the Magma collection, Non Sans Raison used the color as a starting point in its manufacture process as opposed to a final surface treatment on the enamel porcelain, so as to be a texture, a key element in the finished object. Its marbled design fully handmade makes each piece unique allowing to provide a singular and varied arrangement around and the center of the table.\n\nShowing all 15 results", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5610100626945496}
+{"content": "Raumfahrt - If Elon Musk is to colonise Mars, he’ll need to recruit a crew of genetically-modified humans\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNorman Kleiman, from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, has spent his career using eyes as a way to study the effects of exposure to radiation. We know more about individuals, human or animals, that have genetic defects in certain genes or groups of genes and therefore exhibit radiosensitivity, than those who are more resistant to the effects of radiation, he explains.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000100135803223}
+{"content": "Lighting Packages\n\n\nContact us to discuss how we can enhance your event through our numerous lighting packages.\n\nWe have various lights suitable for large and small events. Our range includes small lighting to enhance the atmosphere of your venue to full stage lighting including spot lights and moving head lights. We also have various star cloths with provide a stunning backdrop to any stage or room setting.\n\n\nUp lighters can be controlled to set colours or fade to another colour. We also have dance floors and stage sets for hire if your event requires this.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6853845119476318}
+{"content": "Final Exam 2012 – US History Civil Rights Movement; Kennedy & Johnson Years Set 2\n\nFlashcard maker : Jose Escobar\nWhat happened in hundreds of cities immediately after the assassination of Martin Luther King?\nRiots broke out.\nThe conflict at Little Rock’s Central high School was a reaction to\nBrown v. Board of Education.\nIn what way did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 affect employment in the United States?\nIt outlawed job discrimination and created the EEOC to investigate charges of job\nevents in the Civil Rights movement preceded the Civil Rights Act of 1964?\nThe Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.\nDr. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at The March on Washington.\nAt what point did the Black Panthers believe that African Americans would become “free”?\nwhen they gained full control of their community institutions\nHow did the Black Panthers exemplify the idea of “black power”?\nThe Black Panthers developed programs for African Americans to help themselves and their communities.\nWho signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964?\nPresident Johnson\nWhen three civil rights workers disappeared during Freedom Summer, the SNCC claimed that they had been\nWhile in prison, Malcolm X became a convert to\nthe Nation of Islam.\nWhat civil rights measure was passed by Congress shortly after King’s assassination?\nthe Fair Housing Act\nThe Alliance for Progress provided what kind of assistance to Latin American countries?\nAs the result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev\ndeclined in national politics.\nAs a result of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,\nnearly forty countries ended above ground nuclear tests.\nWhat did President Kennedy’s domestic agenda primarily fight?\nWhich of these was a result of the Equal Pay Act?\nLee Harvey Oswald acted alone in Kennedy’s assassination.\nAccording to Johnson, the primary role of government is to\nsupport individual effort.\nKennedy’s military policies encouraged more funding for\nthe Special Forces\n\nGet instant access to\nall materials\n\nBecome a Member", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998636841773987}
+{"content": "\nAcharya Vivek Shastri\n\nAcharya Vivek Shastri\n\n20.00 / Min.\n8 years 0 month\n\nAcharya Pandit Vivek Shastri is a native of Gangotri Dham located in Uttarakhand. He has been providing consultations to people and solving their problems in the field of astrology for the last 8 years. He has gained his expertise in astrology from his traditional astrological family as a heritage. Acharya Pandit Vivek Shastri Ji, today, is providing precise predictions for the day-to-day problems faced by people in their lives. Since 2011, through his specialized knowledge in astrology, he has helped thousands of people through astrology, Vedic astrology, and Vastu Shastra. He is using his expertise to bring happiness and prosperity in people's lives, stabilize the Ups and downs in life, as well as benefiting people in their business.\n\nAdd Reviews For Astrologer\n\n\n(Friday, 17 January 2020, 5:48:29 PM)\n\nbest advice", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9558743238449097}
+{"content": "Resume Template\n\nClick here to download a resume template in Microsoft Word.\n\n We have added this template so that you have can fill in the blanks and use our template for your professional resume, as needed. If you do not already have a resume, or if you think your resume needs work, please try our template. The practice resume page can help you edit this template to suit your preferences. \n\n Here are some things to keep in mind:\n\nFirst, include your address only if you are applying to a local job. Include the one phone number that you check/answer the most. Provide an alternate phone or additional contact information upon request.\n\n\nSecond, I suggest that you only provide references upon request, but you should make a separate word document that includes information on your references. You should have 3 to 5 references that are not previous bosses that you have worked for. You should be able to say how long you have known them, what kind of relationship you have, and contact information. \n\nThird, don't clutter up your resume with too much information. You should try to keep your information short and to the point. Ask yourself if this information is helpful and necessary. Always be honest about your employment history - include all your recent jobs and don't worry too much about gaps in your employment history. You don't need to include the phone numbers of previous employers or your reasons for leaving, but try to have this extra information available for future job interviews. If your interviewer wants to contact your old boss, he/she will ask you for their number.\n\nNext, be mindful of your your social media accounts. More and more employers are checking out employee candidates online. If you don't have a \"professional\" social media account, consider creating a LinkedIn account or a Facebook account for work. If your can't link a \"professional\" drama-free account, just don't put any social media contact information on your resume.\n\nFinally, feel free to change the resume as much as you want to improve it. If you have a different template that you like, great! Our template is here to help you, but don't force your resume into our template if it isn't a good fit. Ask us for any additional help with your resume - we know a lot of great resources. Remember to get someone to proofread your resume before you use it in an application!\n\nCircles USA Website:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9913450479507446}
+{"content": "How Has Marc Marquez Mastered Circuit of The Americas?\n\nFour in row and counting\n\nMarc Marquez race action\nMarc Marquez.Courtesy of HRC\n\nMarc Marquez won his fourth-straight Circuit of The Americas MotoGP with apparent ease, despite Ducati's faster-than-a-Formula-One-car 214-mph top speed down the 3,960-foot-long back straight and Jorge Lorenzo only being 0.069 of a second behind him in qualifying.\n\nMarquez won in 2013, his first time here and his first win in MotoGP, overcoming Dani Pedrosa’s seven years in the class (second place) and Lorenzo’s five (third).\n\nIn 2014, riding a Honda that suited his style perfectly, he won again, shortening the race time by almost nine seconds. No one was close—he was unchallenged.\n\nIn 2015, Honda raised power and lowered drivability, forcing Marquez to seek a new way to ride. Yet he won again—albeit at a race time 13.7 seconds slower. Again unchallenged.\n\nMarc Marquez race action\nSTRUGGLING?: Honda looked to be in trouble preseason. At CoTA, Marc Marquez proved otherwise.Courtesy of HRC\n\nAnd now, on a slippery track, with the difficult switch to Michelin-spec tires still in progress, and with the 2016 Honda engine giving away top-end speed and acceleration in an effort to gain smoothness, he again eased away from the field to win with a time six seconds faster than second-place Lorenzo (who was delighted to score 20 points). Race time was an interesting 10.8 seconds slower than in 2015.\n\nArmchair quarterbacks have been reduced to saying, “Marquez just loves this track,” but we can’t accept such arm waving. While others are losing the front, Marquez finds a way to ride that is fast and secure. What is that way? Why can’t the others do it?\n\nJorge Lorenzo race action\nMotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo battled to a second-place finish.Courtesy of Movistar Yamaha\n\nFirst, there is a match between Marquez’s natural style, the Honda, and the CoTA track. Marquez compresses braking and turning as much as he can to leave the rest of the corner to become his lift-and-go dragstrip, on which he accelerates to a high exit speed. We have all seen his braking—late and hard, with the rear wheel lifting. Just as he tips the bike in, he lets the back end swing out so he can set it down in an already-sliding attitude. As the bike approaches the apex, his angle of lean increases, indicating his most rapid rate of turning.\n\nThe problem is that this style suits small corners best—not CoTA’s big 180-degree sweeper around the Observation Tower (where Marquez says he loses time) and not the long turns on circuits referred to as “flowing,” some of which are coming up soon in Europe. But CoTA has the succession of small Turns 12 through 15, connected by short acceleration straights, and it has the “Formula One downforce corners” T6 through T9. It also has small corners at the circuit’s outer apexes—T1, T11, and T20—which are perfect for Marquez’s turn-it-into-a-dragstrip solution. He gains through every one of these small turns, and the others lose.\n\nValentino Rossi\nYamaha has yet to win at CoTA as Valentino Rossi crashed out early.Courtesy of Movistar Yamaha\n\nTo better understand the differences between the leading riding styles, I spoke with Tech3 Yamaha rider Bradley Smith. He explained that the Yamaha is “very long, very stable. That’s how [seeking stability] you put springs in it, put geometry in it.”\n\nA long wheelbase gives the rider more time to catch the wheel slips that corner speed constantly risks. A lower overall height slows the rate of weight transfer as a rider brakes or accelerates, keeping tire loadings more constant rather than standing the bike up in a stoppie or wheelie.\n\nSmith spoke of “creeping around the bike” very gradually in order not to upset the tires, while by contrast there’s Marquez in a stoppie, yanking his taller, shorter-wheelbase Honda quickly around and firing off the corner.\n\nWhy not just adopt Marquez’s style? “Trying to ride it stop-and-go, I’m not fast enough,” Smith said. Former Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow confirmed this, saying, “I’m from Superbike, so when I got on the Yamaha, that’s how I tried to ride it. It wouldn’t do it. I had to learn to ride it its way.”\n\nLorenzo, Marquez, Iannone pose for a selfie\nSELFIE: Winner Marquez (center), runner-up Lorenzo (left), and Ducati's Andrea Iannone (right) were all quite happy to be on the podium at CoTA.Courtesy of HRC\n\nA corner-speed bike needs maximum grip, so its spring rates have to be low to isolate the bike from bump upset. But if you try one-wheel braking on a softly sprung bike, you bottom the fork and knock the front tire loose.\n\nAn even more fundamental difference is risk exposure, as pointed out by Kenny Roberts 20 years ago. The corner-speed rider is on the limit, down on the tender tire edges, all the way around the corner, but the stop-and-go rider is only briefly at high-lean angle.\n\nAnother comment, especially relevant to our time, comes from Öhlins’ Jon Cornwell, who said, “Edge grip is a wasting asset.”\n\nMarquez’s stop-and-go style looks hectic, and he uses a lot of sliding, but it applies what he learned in Moto2, the tire management university. Yes, he yanks the bike around, but his tires are pushed to maximum for just a short time. At Valencia 2015, I asked Pedrosa about the Honda’s rapid turning phase (when the elbow is on the ground!), and he said, “We’d like to stay down longer, but if we do, we can’t make the tires last.”\n\nMarc Marquez celebrates with CoTA trophy\nMarquez celebrates with the trophy.Courtesy of HRC\n\nAgain and again in 2014, Lorenzo would nail the start then lead at a high pace with Marquez as his shadow. By the end, Marquez would have more tire left than Lorenzo and could nip past for the win. At the time, it looked like Lorenzo would have to make changes to his style just as Rossi was doing—that the best days of corner speed might be over.\n\nThen came 2015, and Honda’s more aggressive engine interfered with Marquez’s style. Little could be done to change this because MotoGP engines are sealed. In trying to force the issue, Marquez crashed out several times and finished third in the championship behind the Yamahas of Lorenzo and Rossi.\n\nMarc Marquez race action\nMarc Marquez.Courtesy of HRC\n\nAt CoTA, Michelin offered three front tire choices. The hard tire tended to lock at the end of braking, the medium sometimes washed out at tip-in, and the soft was good but not expected to go the distance. Marquez asked the Michelin engineers how many laps it could go. When told 12 to 16 laps, he decided to use it to pull away from the field and then slow to hold his lead. That’s how the game was won: Marquez pulled away running 2:04s and 2:05s for 16 laps then slowed to 2:06s.\n\nEvidently wisdom is not age-related.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6135877370834351}
+{"content": "Regardless of what sign you were born under, everyone has some form of creativity. However, some signs have shown to be more in tune with their creative sides. Some signs have the unique ability, for example, to think outside of the box. Others have a flair for romance, poetry and literature. And some signs have a knack for interpreting paintings or sketches. Which zodiac signs are the most creative? Read below to find out! (1)\n\nHere are the 5 most creative zodiac signs:\n\n\nThose born under this sign have never-ending energy, emotionally as well as physically. This is the perfect condition for a creative stance. The Taurus can create anything from a beautiful painting to a powerful story, or even a beautifully-decorated interior of a home. However, the Taurus is a caution person and is typically more on the practical side. These aren’t the traits one usually links with creativity. Still, the Taurus believes in romance, which is what enables them to connect with their creative side.\n\nFamous Taureans include Adele and Sam Smith. Both of their song lyrics, for some, are soul-touching and full of creative, romantic depth. (2)\n\n\nLeos are natural born leaders. They’re also restless, which can lead to issues if not harnessed. The pent-up Leo needs to simply be left alone so they can create. Their creativity will flow freely and from several sources, but often will come from their many adventures and activities they enjoy. The Leo is known for bringing fresh, innovative ideas to the creativity table. Chances are, whatever the Leo sets his or her mind to doing, they will succeed.\n\nFamous creative Leos include Barack Obama, Jennifer Lawrence, Daniel Radcliffe, and one of the most iconic musical artists of all time, Whitney Houston.\n\n\nThis zodiac sign often strives for perfection, however, this doesn’t impede their creative side. Virgos love art, reading literature, and creative writing. They have the innate ability to analyze even the smallest details, making them experts at grammar and punctuation. Furthermore, they have a strong desire to create products that will inspire others.\n\nYou will find that many famous Virgos are authors, such as Roald Dahl, Stephen King and John Green. (3)\n\n\nThis zodiac sign is ambitious and determined to achieve their goals. They work hard, but are also immensely creative. And while they are creative in multiple avenues, they really seem to shine when it comes to music. Capricorns find that they are able to fully express themselves best through the art of music. You can also find Capricorns passionate about paintings, photography, or sculpting—anything that involves using their own two hands to create a masterpiece.\n\nFamous musician Capricorns include David Bowie, Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley. They all stood out in their own way and expressed themselves fully through their art, as in the fashion of a true Capricorn.\n\n\nThe Pisces is the Super Creative! They possess a wide array of creative talents. For example, they are deeply linked to music, but also have a flair for dancing, painting and drawing. The Pisces is a dreamer, always concocting ways in which they can make this drab and dreary world more exciting. In fact, their creativity is the only way they can make sense of the world. Their creative versatility makes them fit for a laundry list of professions, such as an entrepreneur, author or illustrator.\n\nFamous Pisceans include, for example, Steve Jobs, Rhianna, and Dr. Seuss.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9631800055503845}
+{"content": "Most recent articles from the Collegium Ramazzini:\n\nMost recent INEP activities\n\nNews from EOM\n\nHow conflicted corporate affiliates influence occupational and public health\n\nPublication by Baur, Soskolne and Bero (2019, Environmental Health) brings attention to the undermining of occupational and environmental global public health through the insertion of “knowledge” through mechanisms of corporate malfeasance. Practices of corporate malfeasance include: 1. Contamination of editorial boards of peer-reviewed scientific journals with industry apologists resulting in the publication of poorly-designed research studies that produce biased results. 2. Interference with the activities of national regulatory bodies and international review panels and other independent organizations engaged in safeguarding occupational and public health. 3. Constructing roadblocks, e.g. by capitalizing on uncertainty to undermine scientific consensus for much-needed government regulations 4. Promotion of “causation” criteria that lack foundation and effectively block workers’ access to legal remedies for harms from occupational exposures 5. Violating standards of professional conduct by seducing reputable scientists with financial incentives that make them beholden to serve the corporate agenda.\n\nHow Corporate Influence Continues to Undermine the Public’s Health\n\nColin L. Soskolne and Xaver Baur\nEUR. J. ONCOL.; Vol. 23, 2018\nObjectivity requires the minimization and control of potential biases in the design and interpretation of scientific studies conducted to investigate linkages between exposures and outcomes. Unless the objectivity of science can be assured, the ability of science to advance knowledge in the pursuit of truth will be undermined. While several types of bias are typically controlled at the design stage of a scientific study, the role of influence from any of a number of sources, and with different motivations and intent, is only more recently being recognized for its role in derailing science. This negative influence not only affects the course of science in advancing knowledge, but also in delaying the ability of science to inform policy to prevent ill-effects and achieve justice for potential harms arising from delays caused through the casting of doubt about evidence. The greatest bias of this type comes from those with a vested interest in the outcome, most typically financially driven. To exemplify the problem in occupational and environmental health, we organized a scientific session at the Ramazzini Days in November 2018 entitled “Corporate Influence Threatens the Public Health”; the abstracts of the papers presented in this session appear on pages 121 of this issue.\n\nCreation of a “world‑wide ecological problem\" and the role of PCB Reassuring customers and government alike though questionable decision-making process\n\nThe authors describe in their article the PCB story.\n\nAuthors reviewed de-classified Monsanto documents and concluded that manipulative activities such as ghost-writing of research articles occurred\n\n\nThe Monsanto Papers: Poisoning the scientific well.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.994174599647522}
+{"content": "Tag: How to Write Positive Affirmations\n\nAffirmations That Will Change Your Life Ep: 11\n\nAffirmations That Will Change Your Life Ep: 11\n\nHow To Write Effective Affirmations\n\nAffirmations have become really popular, especially with the rise of social media.\n\nYou’ve probably seen Instagram, Twitter and Facebook posts that quote positive affirmations.\n\nOften, these quotes are accompanied with a message that instructs you to repeat the affirmations and it will change your life.\n\n\nAs it turns outs, there’s a lot of science to back up exactly how a set of positive words can totally improve your mind and body.\n\n\nIn short, positive affirmations are statements that are spoken, and often repeated, to encourage and uplift the person speaking them.\n\nIn reality, a positive affirmation is actually the language of the brain.\n\nWe’ll explain more about this in the next section, but for now, let’s look at the elements that make up a positive affirmation.\n\n\n\n\n3 Elements Of Affirmations\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Literal, Present Tense brain\n\nThe brain doesn’t communicate in future or past-tense.\n\nEverything that happens is happening in the moment for your brain.\n\nWhen you think a thought, your brain processes the information literally and prepares you for the action that should immediately follow the thought.\n\nFor example, if you think to yourself, “I’m going to have a great time on my date this weekend,” your brain essentially hears “good date” and starts firing off all the connections to make your date amazing.\n\n\nThe problem is, it starts firing off those connections in the moment.\n\nYou may get a boost of confidence and even start sending off some sexy pheromones, but it will be in that moment, right then and there.\n\nThis effect is highlighted when you start to fear something that might happen in the future.\n\nHave you ever thought about why you can have such a strong physical reaction to things you know are fake?\n\nTake a scary movie for instance.\n\nYour heart may pound and you might even sweat and feel dizzy.\n\nThis happens because your brain can’t tell the difference between what you’re experiencing right now and what you’re imagining you might experience in the future.\n\nYour brain reacts to your thoughts in a very literal way in the present moment and prepares you for the perceived danger.\n\nThis is why it’s really important that your positive affirmations are always in the present tense.\n\n“I will do great in my job interview” tells your brain to set you up for success now, but not in the future.\n\n“I am a great interviewer. I am a great employee.” strengthens the neural connections that make you feel confident, determined and prepared for your interview.\n\nThe Positive Word Brain\n\nHave you ever had an experience where you’re overcome with emotion, so you tell yourself “Don’t cry” or “Don’t get angry,” only to find you become more upset?\n\nThere are actually two things happening in the brain that make phrases like “don’t cry” increase your negative emotions.\n\nFirst, when you tell yourself “don’t cry,” you are giving your brain 2 commands. The first command is don’t and the second is cry.\n\nYou can process the two words together and understand the meaning, but your brain hears the word “cry” and begins to activate the neural connections for that command. In the end, you’re essentially telling yourself to cry, over and over again.\n\nSecond, a simple command like “cry” takes one small process for your brain to interpret.\n\nIt’s straightforward and simple.\n\nA command like “don’t cry” takes some interpretation.\n\nWhile your brain is busy firing off the processes to follow the command “cry,” it’s also going through a multi-step process of following the “don’t” command and then negating the entire command of “don’t cry.”\n\nUnfortunately, after all that work, you haven’t given your brain an action to take instead of crying.\n\nIt searches for something else to do, but you haven’t told it what to do. Next time you’re in a situation where you want to experience the opposite emotion, think of that opposite emotion and command yourself to do that instead.\n\nInstead of “don’t cry” try “I am calm” and see what happens!\n\nThe Focused Brain\n\nWith all this talk of the strict rules and patterns of your brain, you may start to feel a little annoyed with how literal your brain can be.\n\nYou know what the command “Don’t cry when he breaks up with you” means, so why can’t your brain just follow the command?\n\nThough it seems like an annoyance, these systems and processes are actually in place to help you better achieve your goals.\n\nThe world is full of sensory information that, frankly, is of no use to you. If you had to consciously and actively process every piece of information that comes toward you, and then try to make a decision and take an action, you’d be completely overwhelmed.\n\nYour brain has an autopilot function that filters information and guides your actions so you don’t have to.\n\nIt’s actually an incredibly helpful process.\n\nIf you’re hungry, you don’t have to think about every sound, smell and sight in your environment and think about whether it’s food or not.\n\nInstead, your brain senses the hunger and filters out the junk. In turn, potential food sources stand out to you.\n\nWhen you drive down a busy street, you probably don’t notice every single store and business, but when you’re hungry, you probably notice most of the restaurants.\n\nThat’s this system at work.\n\nIf You Don’t Consciously Decide, Something Else Will\n\n\n\nLuckily, you have a lot of control in this process.\n\n\nYour brain is always looking for a command, and if you can clearly give it one – in the language it speaks – it will activate everything you need to make your wildest dreams come true.\n\nRepetition is the Key to Success\n\nTo understand how positive affirmations work and why they’re an excellent tool for creating the life you want to live, it’s important to understand why repetition is so important.\n\nAs you start using positive affirmations, you may feel like repeating them over and over again is a waste of time.\n\nIf the brain responds to positive, present tense statements, then why is it necessary to repeat them several times every single day?\n\nYour brain is a creature of habit.\n\nThe processes inside your brain are set up to help you succeed.\n\nTo run efficiently, your brain strengthens its connections every time you think, feel and do.\n\nThis helps you perform tasks with less energy and more focus.\n\nThink about driving a car or riding a bike.\n\n\nThis is because your brain strengthens those connections every time you repeat the action and thoughts.\n\nYou probably know how to ride a bike or drive a car.\n\n\nBreak the Tension\n\nMany times, positive affirmations can feel like lying to yourself.\n\nIf you’re not happy with your weight, repeating the phrase, “I love my body” and “I maintain the perfect weight” may feel like outright lies.\n\nFor many people, this is where affirmations take a wrong turn.\n\nIt seems unnatural to repeat something that is completely untrue.\n\nBecause of this you may be tempted to change your affirmation into a more comfortable phrase like “I can lose weight” or “I can keep up with my diet.”\n\nThese affirmations won’t be effective for all the reasons we discussed above, but there’s also something else to be said for the discomfort of repeating a false phrase.\n\nWe don’t like tension.\n\nMost of our life is spent avoiding, preventing and fixing discomfort.\n\nSo, it’s no wonder that people use ineffective affirmations, because effective affirmations are often uncomfortable.\n\nYet, it is exactly this discomfort that makes them work so well.\n\nWhen you come across an affirmation that makes you squirm in discomfort, it’s a good sign that it’s probably exactly the affirmation you need to repeat.\n\n\nYou’ll either change the affirmation to make it comfortable, or you’ll change your lifestyle and habits to make the affirmation true.\n\nThe latter action is the response that will completely transform your life for the better!\n\nWhat Can Positive Affirmations for woman and man help You With?\n\nYou can use positive affirmations for woman and man to accomplish anything imaginable.\n\nMost people use positive affirmations to shift their attitudes about themselves.\n\nConfidence and Self-Esteem are certainly the number one reasons people use positive affirmations, but you don’t have to limit yourself to these uses.\n\nWith positive affirmations, you can:\n\nManifest more money\nAttract romance\nCreate positive relationships\nLose weight\nExercise more\nBy training your brain to get used to a thought, emotion or behavior, you set yourself up for success.\n\nThis success can come from any part of your life.\n\nHow to Create a Positive Affirmation\n\nThough there are excellent resources that list positive affirmations, including the list featured at the end of this article, you may way to create affirmations that are specific to your situation.\n\nWhatever it is you’re looking to achieve, attract or manifest, be sure to use the language of the brain that we spoke about earlier.\n\n 1. Make sure your affirmation only contains positive words. If your affirmation contains “don’t,” “can’t” or “won’t,” reframe the affirmation to affirm what you’re trying to achieve.\n 2. Make sure your affirmation is in the present tense, even if it is untrue. The discomfort you feel will motivate you to change.Even if you’re not rich, repeating “I’m wealthy. I have plenty of money.” is a great affirmation to propel you toward financial success.\n 3. Be relevant. If you’re creating an affirmation for a specific situation, think about the things you want to achieve.\n 4. Repeat your affirmation. There’s no formula for how often or how many times you should repeat a positive affirmation.\n 5. Empower your affirmation with physical touch. You can supercharge your affirmations by tapping on the back of your hand or gently caressing where you feel negative emotion.\n\nFor example, if you want to lose weight, think about your unhappiness with your weight.\n\nWhere do you feel it at in your body? If you feel a sinking sensation in your stomach, you can gently rub your stomach while you repeat the affirmation.\n\nTapping any part of your body works the same way.\n\n\n20 Positive Affirmations for Work\n\nThese positive affirmations can help you clarify and obtain your career goals. If you’re looking to improve your overall job performance, find a new job, change careers or even improve relationships with clients and coworkers, you can use the affirmations below.\n\nI further my career with every action I take.\nI have my dream job.\nI love every day that I work.\nMy career brings me closer to my family.\nMy job brings me financial abundance.\nMy coworkers love being around me.\nMy boss values the work I do.\nI am a valued employee.\nMy clients appreciate and value my work.\nI attract new clients every day.\n\nMy positive attitude, confidence and hard work naturally draws in new opportunities.\nI am enthusiastic and excited about my work.\nMy enthusiasm about my job is contagious.\nMy workplace is peaceful and full of love.\nI make decisions easily.\nI speak positively about my coworkers and they respond by speaking positively about me.\nI am rewarded for doing my best.\nI engage in healthy stimulation during my breaks.\nI eat healthy, nutritious food during my lunch break and my body is grateful, granting me energy and good health in return.\nI radiate success.\n\n20 Positive Affirmations for Love\n\n\nI radiate love and others reflect love back to me.\nI am loving and lovable.\nI am attractive.\nMy partner is kind, compassionate and understanding.\nMy partner is very physically and spiritually attracted to me.\n\nThere is a deep understanding between my partner and I.\nForgiveness and compassion is the foundation of my romantic relationship.\nIt is easy for me to look in the mirror and say, “I love you.”\nMy words are always kind and loving, and in return, I hear kindness and love from others.\nEvery day of my life is filled with love.\nAll communication between my partner and I is loving and kind.\nEverything about me is lovable and worthy of love.\nI wake up every morning filled with joy, because I know that I face each day with the support and love of my partner.\nAll of my relationships are healthy because they are based in love and compassion.\n\n20 Positive Affirmations for Weight Loss\n\nEasy access to unhealthy foods has created an epidemic around the world. The temptation to choose convenience over health is difficult to overcome.Many people struggle with weight-loss, going back and forth between diets, but never finding success.\n\nIf that’s you or you’re simply looking to improve your diet and overall health, these affirmations are for you.\n\nI love everything about my body.\nI am grateful for how effectively and efficiently my body works.\nI only make healthy and nourishing eating choices.\nI take care of my body and exercise every day.\nMy body is healthy and full of energy.\nMy body is filled with healing energy every time I inhale.\nI crave healthy, nutritious foods.\nI love the taste of fruits and vegetables.\n\nI am in love with every cell in my body.\nI radiate confidence and others respect me.\nOthers find me sexy and desirable.\nI am filled with excitement when I look in the mirror.\nI am filled with love, hope and confidence.\nI greet each second of life with enthusiasm and hope.\nEvery action I take increases my confidence.\nEverything I think, say and do makes me healthier.\nI feel safe and comfortable in my body.\n\n20 Positive Affirmations for Everyday Life\n\nWho doesn’t want every day to be filled with happiness and excitement for life.\n\n\nI wake up happy and excited every single day.\nEach day of my life is filled with joy and love.\nI am enthusiastic about every second of my life.\nEverything I do is fun, healthy and exciting.\nI am a beacon of love and compassion.\nEveryone sees how much joy and love I have for life.\nI crave new, healthy experiences.\nI see others as good people who are trying their best.\nI find opportunities to be kind and caring everywhere I look.\n\nI easily accomplish all of my goals.\nI only desire things that are healthy for me.\nI instantly manifest my desires.\nMy life is full of magic and serendipity,\nMy thoughts and feelings are nourishing.\nI am present in every moment.\nI see beauty in everything.\nPeople treat me with kindness and respect.\nI am surrounded by peaceful people.\nMy environment is calm and supportive.\n\nConnect with me:\n\n\nSubscribe on APPLE PODCAST\n\nJoin me on FACEBOOK", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9662227630615234}
+{"content": "Life expectancy for Gloucester men is falling significantly, according to new figures, and both men and women born in the city have the shortest lives in the South West.\n\nThe average life expectancy for men born in the city is 77.6 years, down from 79 two years ago. Women born there are expected to live until 82.7, slightly up from 82.5 but still the lowest in the region.\n\nThe figures from the Office for National Statistics come in the wake of an NHS profile of the city which showed that 22 per cent of children in the city are obese, while the number of people dying from drug overdoses there increased to 27 between 2015 and 2017.\n\nHealth bosses in Gloucestershire blamed deprivation in the city for the low life expectancy, but said work was being done to help those in need.\n\nCouncillor Tim Harman, responsible for public health at the county council, said: “We know that the life expectancy of people in areas of deprivation is lower, particularly for men – this is the picture nationally.\n\n“Poor housing, lack of employment opportunities, not enough money and living conditions are all factors contributing to deprivation and we need to work closely with other organisations to improve this.\n\n10 tips to live longer\n\n 1. Don't smoke.\n 2. Enjoy physical and mental activities every day.\n 4. Take a daily multivitamin, and be sure to get enough calcium and vitamin D.\n 5. Maintain a healthy weight and body shape.\n 6. Challenge your mind. Keep learning and trying new activities.\n 7. Build a strong social network.\n 8. Follow preventive care and screening guidelines.\n 9. Floss, brush, and see a dentist regularly.\n\n“Lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking alcohol and having little exercise all play a part in poor long-term health.”\n\nHe added: “We will continue to work with our partners in health, with a focus on working with people where we know life expectancy is lower to get the support they need, when they need it.”\n\nAfter Gloucester, men born in Exeter had the next lowest life expectancy, at 78.5. For women, those born in North Devon and Cheltenham had the next lowest life expectancy at 83.1.\n\nAt the other end of the spectrum, the Cotswolds has the highest life expectancy for men, at 81.7. For women it was East Dorset, with women expected to live until 85.7.\n\nGeorge McNamara, director of policy and influencing at the Independent Age charity, said: “It is unacceptable that there are still deep-rooted health inequalities across the UK.\n\n“Healthy life expectancy should not be a postcode lottery, and it’s absolutely essential that we understand and address these inequalities.\n\n\nGloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, which funds health services in the county, did not provide a comment before our deadline.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9626734256744385}
+{"content": "25.2 C\nThursday, January 23, 2020\nHome Opinion Op-Ed Columns Being or becoming\n\nBeing or becoming\n\n\n\nPart 2 – Implications for teaching and learning\n\nLAST week’s write-up described two opposing theories on creation. Each has their own implications for us and for our learners. We teachers may not be conscious of it, but how we try making our learners learn would suggest what our unconscious holds.\n\nGod rested on the seventh day. A perfect clock is a metaphor for God creating everything out of nothing in the beginning. The earth was “without form and void, and darkness over it.” God further developed His creation: the earth’s atmosphere, positioning the sun and stars, separating the Earth’s water from land, creating plant and animal and sea life, and finally, humanity.” As Genesis states, on the seventh day, God rested. Our teacher explained all Creation through a metaphor of a huge and perfect clock — meaning everything that had been, is and will be coming and appearing on this cosmos, we humans included, were created billions of years ago. This figurative description of creation made it easier for us students to understand that life and other forms created billions of years ago manifest themselves at a predestined time as the seconds tick on.\n\nCreation is continuous. God continues to create, new forms of life continuously manifesting themselves. This was less difficult to understand. Our teacher’s metaphor was a perfect tree — it pollinates, it flowers and fruits, its seeds fall and it renews itself. Arising from these theories are views on creation and conservation. How that which had been created could have new life forms was referred to as conservation. Continuous creation theorists reject a distinction between creation and conservation. Some contend that conservation is a creaturely act, while others consider conservation as an act of creation. Some consider God’s action of creating things is the same action as God’s conserving things and that God alone brings about the continued existence of created things. However, as I confessed, I am not qualified to argue on this. Its implication on how we view our learners would be my interest as a teacher.\n\nImplications for teaching and learning. A continuing creation implies that like the tree and the seasons, a learner would continue to bloom and fruit. The gardener that we teachers are, we are to keep nurturing the learner, helping the learner to continue becoming.\n\nHowever, becoming would need for the learner to be a being first. Translating this in learning, any individual is a being before he starts becoming. Where a learner is, is the learner’s “being.” A learner’s “being” considered and understood, having the learner “become” would likely be successful. In simple words, start where the learner is. In the lower grades, more detailed guidance would be needed. This approach is true at any level of learning; only the technique differs. In the graduate level, students are mostly professionals. They opt to further their studies to advance their careers. Assigned Student Learning Outcomes (SLO’s) which they can help craft have to be interesting and relevant to career needs. This ensures meaningful learning for the student. It follows, they would have all that it takes to continue “becoming.”\n\nBecoming needs a sense of belonging. The need to belong is a basic human need, “integral to human existence,” much like our need for food and shelter. A sense of belonging enables us “to see value in life and to cope with challenges. Belonging acknowledges our interdependence with others and the basis of relationships in defining our identity.\nThroughout life, relationships are crucial to a sense of belonging.”\n\n. “Belonging is central to both being and becoming in that it shapes who we are and who we can become.” A sense of belonging “makes us feel like there is a community behind us. It can make us feel relaxed and receptive and motivated.” How does belonging matter to graduate students? “Belonging” would mean we are valued, respected, our needs attended to. As lecturers/professors, we provide necessary cues to improve students’ skills in conducting their capstone research, not insulting them when they ask questions, which to us with doctoral degrees seem elementary. Boosting in our students a sense of belonging means, we treat them fairly.\n\nBelongingness in higher education. A study in higher education defines a sense of belonging as referring “to the students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or sensation of connectedness, the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by and important to the group (e.g., campus community) or others on campus (e.g., faculty, peers).” As graduate students and as professionals, who may be present on campus only between weeks, they, like all other students, would love to feel they, too, are “part of a school community.” Studies have found that students with a sense of belonging to their university “will actively engage in academic and non-academic activities.”\n\n“Being a student is about gaining knowledge and developing skills, joining a profession, finding a job. It is also about learning to take care of oneself and how to balance competing time commitments. It is about building relationships and developing a unique identity. Being a student is centered around self-development: the present and the projected future self.”\n\nDo our “higher education administrators understand these conditions of studentship?”How do we, as part of the academic environment, help boost a sense of belonging and help further our students’ career? How do “universities cater for students’ academic and personal development?”\n\nEmail: ttumapon@liceo.edu.ph\n\nUS cancels de la Rosa’s visa\n\n\nLawyers press release of Huawei exec facing extradition to US\n\n\nNorth Korea to ban tourists over China virus\n\n\nAny constitutional amendment must be for the good of the people\n\n\n\n\nToday’s Front Page January 23, 2020\n\nToday’s Front Page January 23, 2020", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9977152347564697}
+{"content": "Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 are almost identical with little differences.\n\nIs there any reason why the same psalm is repeated?\n\nAre these psalms composed by the same author?\n\n • 2\n Interesting question. As a musician, I wonder if they had to change the words a bit to go with a different tune. – Narnian Aug 9 '13 at 13:57\n\nI found this link mentioning their similarity. The writer suggests it may have been an editorial adaptation since they seem to have been written at different times based on the words each uses for God (Psalm 14 = Yahweh, Psalm 53 = Elohim). It could be similar to how some old hymns are currently being updated with modern language to appeal to modern culture. http://truthandpurpose.com/2011/04/the-fool-of-psalm-14/\n\n\nWow I never saw this before, great question!\n\nI don't have all the answers but regarding your question \"Are these psalms composed by the same author?\"\n\nThey both state that they are written by David in the header. See here...\n\n\n\nOne says \"A Psalm of David.\" the other \" A Contemplation of David.\"\n\n\nCould it be that Psalm 14 addresses the Jewish fool, while Psalm 53 addresses the Gentile fool? In Psalm 53 the psalmist mentions the bones of a fool encamped against God, which seems to suggest a Gentile attack against Jerusalem.\n\n • Please cite the verses in question to better support your textual point . Welcome to Christianity SE, Brian. Please take the tour and visit the help to see how an SE Q&A site is different from a discussion forum. If you could offer up a supporting point as expressed by a theologian, or a particular school of Christian thought, that would improve this answer. supported answers are what this site calls for. (not saying your insight is wrong, but more about how to best comply with the format on this site). – KorvinStarmast Nov 10 '18 at 17:02\n\nYour Answer\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9687592387199402}
+{"content": "- Corepoint Health - https://corepointhealth.com -\n\nCorepoint Health & Rhapsody Speaker Agreement Terms\n\n\nThis Speaker Agreement (the “Agreement”) is made between the “Speaker” and InterOperability Bidco, Inc. d.b.a. Rhapsody and its Affiliates, 100 High Street, Suite 1560, Boston, MA 02110 (“Rhapsody”) and governs the terms of the Speaker’s presentation during the meeting or engagement (“Engagement”) as of the date the Speaker electronically registered for the Engagement or participated in the Engagement, whichever is earlier.\n\n 1. Confidentiality: The Speaker agrees to maintain the absolute confidentiality of all the terms, conditions and arrangements contained in this Agreement.\n 2. Rights and Data: Speaker represents and warrants that: (a) he/she has full power to make this Agreement including that he/she is over the age of eighteen and competent to sign a contract; (b) to the knowledge of Speaker, such materials do not violate any statutory or common law copyright or other rights of a third party, and any materials disclosed or disseminated shall not violate any internal policies or practices of Speaker’s company or be considered Confidential Information; (c) Speaker and Speaker’s company grant to Rhapsody an irrevocable, exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, execute, reproduce, display, perform, distribute (internally or externally) and prepare derivative works of any or all information provided by Speaker during the presentation. Furthermore, Rhapsody will be recording the presentation and may use the recording for future promotional use. Speaker agrees that Rhapsody and its Affiliates may use the information that Speaker has provided about Speaker’s experience with Rhapsody and/or Speaker’s photo for publicity purposes to be distributed to other Rhapsody customers, Rhapsody prospective customers, and the general public, distributed in any number of forms, including but not limited to, print media, video, electronic media and/or the Internet. Speaker and Speaker’s company waive all rights to approve the final product, and all such photos, video and audio recordings, and any reproductions thereof, and all plates, negatives, recording tape and digital files are and shall remain the property of Rhapsody.\n 3. Waiver of Liability: Speaker and Speaker’s company hereby release, acquit and forever discharge Rhapsody and its Affiliates from any and all claims, demands, rights, promises, damages and liabilities arising out of or in connection with the use or distribution of said photos and/or video recordings, including but not limited to any claims for invasion of privacy, appropriation of likeness or defamation.\n 4. Termination: Rhapsody may cancel the Engagement hereunder any time prior to the Engagement without liability. Rhapsody and Speaker agree that either party may cancel this Agreement and both parties will be released from any liability or damages hereunder if the terms of this Agreement cannot be fulfilled due to an act of God or any other legitimate condition beyond the reasonable control and without the fault or negligence of Rhapsody or Speaker. However, it is agreed that “best efforts” will be made by both parties to adapt so that the Engagement will be held as scheduled.\n 5. Amendment; Assignments; and Subcontracting: The Agreement may be modified only pursuant to a written instrument signed by authorized representatives of both parties. Speaker may not assign or delegate its rights and obligations under this Agreement without the prior written consent of Rhapsody. Speaker acknowledges that Rhapsody may assign or delegate its rights and obligations under this Agreement to its Affiliates or a success in interest without prior written consent.\n 6. Entire Agreement: The terms and conditions in this Agreement constitute the complete and exclusive statement of the understanding between Rhapsody and Speaker with respect to the services hereunder.\n 7. Definitions: Affiliate shall mean an entity that is controlling or controlled by another entity or associated with other entities under common ownership or control including in the context of a merger, acquisition or sale of substantially all of an entity’s assets to another party.\n 8. Enforcement: This Agreement may be executed in counterparts and each counterpart when so executed and delivered shall be deemed an original. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this Agreement shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision of this Agreement and each provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by applicable BY ELECTRONICALLY REGISTERING FOR THE ENGAGEMENT OR ORALLY PARTICIPATING IN THE ENGAGEMENT, THE SPEAKER IS CONSENTING TO BE BOUND BY AND BECOME A PARTY TO THIS AGREEMENT.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7573581337928772}
+{"content": "Rate this post\n\nby Josh Hodnik\n\nNootropics, additionally known as cognitive enhancers, sensible medication, and reminiscence enhancers are dietary supplements, artificial peptides, and nutraceuticals which might be reported to enhance focus, thought connection, reminiscence, and typically wakefulness. These medication are primarily used to deal with cognitive or motor perform difficulties which might be related to such issues as Alzheimer’s illness, Huntington’s illness, Parkinson’s illness, and ADHD. Amongst college students, nootropic use has turn into standard to extend productiveness. Gross sales of cognitive enhancing dietary supplements exceeded $1 billion is 2015, and the demand for these compounds has continued to extend quickly. One cause for the continued demand is that aggressive athletes are taking discover at how nootropics can have a constructive affect throughout coaching classes and competitors.\n\nThere are a number of totally different courses of nootropics, and since some compounds don’t match into any particular classification, they could be grouped in a number of totally different classes relying the place the knowledge is taken from.\n\n\nOne of many oldest and mostly class of nootropics is the Racetams. One instance is Piracetam, which was first developed to be used in 1964. The Racetams all share a 2-pyrrolidinone cycle. Others on this group embrace Aniracetam, Oxiracetam, Coluracetam, and Phenylpiracetam.\nOut of the Racetam group, Phenylpiracetam appears to be the simplest. It’s favored by athletes that want to take a nootropic to reinforce efficiency, because it will increase stamina, restoration, and endurance. It offers power and clear focus that’s just like that of an amphetamine. When dosed appropriately, it helps to optimize efficiency throughout exercises and competitions. It has not too long ago made its approach to the World Anti-Doping Company’s banned substance record. This is able to not be a most well-liked nootropic for any drug examined athlete. A typical dose of Phenylpiracetam ranges from 100-400mg per dose. On account of its efficiency, it’s normally suggested to start out at 100mg to evaluate tolerance.\n\n\nOne other group of nootropics is the Afinil class. This contains Modafinil, Armodafinil, and Adrafinil. These compounds are thought of eugeroic or wakefulness-promoting brokers. They possess comparable traits to that of an amphetamine by stimulating neural exercise. They’ve been proven to extend the synthesis and launch of norepinephrine, which in flip will increase studying and reminiscence. A stimulation of the Autonomic nervous system additionally happens, resulting in enhanced ranges of power. With Afinils, a rise in noradrenaline and dopamine happens, which can lead to an enhanced temper and focus. It has been thought that the army has used Modafinil for a few years to extend focus, power, and application throughout instances of sleep deprivation. It has additionally been banned by the World Anti-Doping Company, and it was rumored to be extremely popular amongst {many professional} and Olympic athletes earlier than it was examined for as a result of its efficiency enhancing results. As with Phenylpiracetam, the dosage with Modafinil is usually between 100-400mg day by day for improved focus, focus, and bodily efficiency.\n\nArtificial Peptides\n\nThere’s a newer group of nootropics which might be thought of artificial peptides. These embrace Noopept, Sunifiram, Unifiram, IDRA-21. And PRL-8-53. These nootropics don’t match right into a drug class, and in depth information of precisely how they work and their negative effects are considerably unknown. Most of those peptides don’t have any human trials to seek advice from.\n\nBenefiting the Athlete\n\nThese compounds all have a constructive affect with reminiscence, studying, and focus, however in addition they could be useful to athletes. It has been confirmed that reminiscence, focus, and studying are linked to Serial Response Time (SRT). SRT is named a parameter used for measuring how rapidly an individual responds to stimuli. For instance, an individual pushing a button after listening to a cue to take action. That is one thing that’s vital to nearly any athlete, as the flexibility to suppose rapidly is normally required with most sports activities. When a Sprinter strikes off the beginning blocks, or an NFL defensive again breaks for the ball, Serial Response Time is an important factor. A slower man can usually beat a quicker man if his Serial Response Time is quicker. Usually instances, enhancing the SRT could make an individual quicker. Within the gymnasium, and with the game of bodybuilding, there’s a large thoughts to muscle connection, that is the place nootropics come into play.\n\nNootropics have been proven to extend:\n-Psychological Connectivity\n-Thought Velocity\n-Anxiousness Suppression\n-Total Vitality\n\nThese are all attributes that would profit any bodybuilder. A number of the nootropics listed within the teams above, equivalent to Modafinil are pharmaceuticals, however many are usually not. It’s nonetheless too untimely to find out whether or not or not any of the artificial peptides are secure for human use long run. Phenylpiracetum and Adrafinil are most likely the most secure combo to extend athletic efficiency and psychological focus whereas within the gymnasium.\n\nTypical Beginning dose to evaluate tolerance:\n-Adrafinil 300mg\n-Phenylparicetam 100mg\n\nThese doses are the bottom dose which might be used for these compounds, however they do work synergistically and might amplify one another’s results. Each of those compounds, if used correctly, and tolerated effectively, can positively improve an athlete’s efficiency and improve a bodybuilder’s effectiveness within the gymnasium.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7667369842529297}
+{"content": "Slavery in rome and china\n\nSlavery is a human invention and not found in nature.\n\nSlavery in rome and china\n\nMany institutions were set up to settle legal disputes, and Roman law appeared in every town governed by the empire. The influence of Roman law would long outlast the empire. The basis of Roman society, as proclaimed by the laws, was the family, headed by a pater familias, who had power over his dependents.\n\nHowever, Roman women were quite free and had greater control over their wealth and property than preceding states in the Mediterranean. One key difference from the Han was an extensive institution of slavery, in which slave laborers were used in large numbers to produce goods [37].\n\nRoman society was a relatively hierarchical society. Each social group had well-defined roles. Birth was an important indicator of social position. While the elite could enjoy a relatively wealthy life and could expect to become officials and hold high positions, Slavery in rome and china classes could not expect such luxury.\n\nIn trials, the Roman elite was better privileged; they received preferential treatment from imperial courts. They could not be subject to cruel punishments. For the lower classes, the fastest way to advance socially was the army or trade [38].\n\nHan society was divided into a number of classes, all played a role within this complex society. The basis of this society were free peasants, who formed the base of the tax revenues of the state and who produced most of the agricultural crop.\n\nThese men also helped link the central government with local society. Merchants were also a class, but they were subject to controls by the state and often forced to partner with the state, who also took monopolies in salt, steel and wine, further restricting merchants.\n\nAt the bottom of society were convicts, beggars and slaves, who formed a small part of the population. For wealthy families, life was good; they displayed their wealth in lavish meals, and lived in large homes in which women lived in the inner quarters.\n\nPoorer farmers and tenant laborers worked on their fields.\n\nSlavery in rome and china\n\nWomen in poorer families did not have such luxury and often worked in the fields with their husbands or acted as entertainers. Silk clothes were abundant and worn by all classes. Music and entertainment were separated from rituals, with the exception of funeral rites which were taken very seriously.\n\nThe legalist thought believed at least in theory that everyone was equal under the emperor. Therefore, punishments for the same crimes were the same in writing, though this was not always carried out.\n\nSlavery in rome and china\n\nSocial mobility was also relatively great, especially in the military. Confucianism also asserted that \"A man, even though he may be poor, can by his acts be a gentleman.\n\nA rich nobleman, even though he may been born well, can by his acts be called shameful. This thought had the effect of weakening the nobility and strengthening the emperor.\n\nThe influence of the nobility was also weaker as the new merchant class asserted its presence and wealth energetically; the Han abolished hereditary positions. In theory, everyone could become an official [40].\n\nSlave-owning societies\n\nHereditary positions came back later, as evidenced by the fact that the founder of the Tang dynasty was the hereditary duke of Tang, and regional governors were allowed to pass titles on.Jan 02, · Slavery was less important in China than in Rome.\n\nA reason for this is that is the philosophies of the society. In rome, slaves were an essential aspect to the economy, but not in China.\n\nMar 10, · Slaves, a sad group of people in the ancient world, occupied a large portion of the population in ancient China since 2, BC, when Xia Dynasty started. Slavery society last for about 1, years in China, with minor groups of slaves existed to s in remote mountain areas in China.\n\nIn ancient Rome slavery became the indispensable foundation of the economy, and social status was a way to have political privilege and was praised upon in society. But in ancient China, they didn’t have as many slaves as the Romans, the had more of peasants contributing to society by working in fields, laboring on imperial estates, and .\n\n\nSep 11, · Differences: Rome and Han were different because Rome had LOTS of gold, and the Han had luxury items. September 13, at PM Difference: Romans had a patritian and plebeian society and they relied on slavery where as China had peasants working the lands but didn't consider them property.\n\nComparison between Roman and Han Empires.\n\nSlavery in China - Wikipedia\n\n\nChina and Rome; Trade between the Romans and the Empires of Asia;.\n\nslavery | Definition, History, & Facts |", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9860667586326599}
+{"content": "6 Incredible Places to Visit on the Iberian Peninsula\n\nFor millennia, the Iberian Peninsula has been a coveted destination, with everyone from the Phoenicians and the Romans to the Visigoths and the Moors leaving their mark on this southwestern slice of Europe. Today, millions of visitors flock to Spain and Portugal, drawn in by the countries’ enthralling cities, wonderful food, wine, and diverse landscapes.\n\nFrom dramatic fortresses and tranquil university towns, to cities renowned for their culinary offerings, here are a few of the Spanish and Portuguese highlights of the Iberian Peninsula:\n\nGranada, Spain\n\nGranada Spain\n\n\nGranada’s most famous attraction is the Alhambra, an awe-inspiring palace and fortress that was constructed by the Moors over the course of a few centuries. The Alhambra’s Islamic architecture (think horseshoe arches, graceful fountains, and vibrant tiles decorated in geometric patterns) might make you feel as though you have been whisked off to Morocco. You can easily fill an entire day exploring the Alhambra’s magnificent grounds, which also include the Generalife, the tranquil summer resort of the rulers who constructed the Alhambra. Given the Alhambra’s tremendous popularity, it is advisable to secure tickets online far in advance—especially if you are visiting during the peak tourist season.\n\nAfter you have savored the Alhambra, stroll through Albayzín—Granada’s hilly neighborhood filled with centuries-old whitewashed buildings. This district is dotted with Arabian-style teahouses (teterías), flamenco establishments tucked into caves, and homes decorated with eye-catching blue pottery.\n\n\n\nCórdoba, Spain\n\nCórdoba Spain\n\n\n\nWhen the Christians recaptured Córdoba from the Moors in the 13th century, they left the mosque largely intact. However, in the 16th century, a massive section of the mosque was removed so that a Christian cathedral could be constructed inside. So elaborate was the cathedral that it took centuries to build.\n\nIf you’d like a bird’s-eye view of the complex, it is possible to climb to the top of the bell tower, which was constructed around the mosque’s minaret. Tickets often sell out, so it is recommended to arrive early in the morning to secure your spot.\n\n\nAs you explore the windy lanes of Córdoba’s Old Town, you pass by bustling tapas eateries, as well as Arabian teahouses with inviting courtyards. Wander into one of these courtyard gardens, where you can enjoy tea and delightful Middle Eastern pastries all while watching birds begging for a sweet morsel.\n\nCórdoba’s Old Town is known for its charming patios, which are studded with a colorful array of potted plants and other greenery. In May, local residents competing in the Patios Festival (Fiesta de los Patios) open these private courtyards to flower enthusiasts and tourists alike.\n\nToledo, Spain\n\nToledo Spain\n\n\nThe Toledo Cathedral (Catedral de Toledo) is often described as one of Spain’s finest. Its architecture is overwhelmingly Gothic, but it also has elements of Renaissance and Mudéjar design. Inside the cathedral you can find paintings by Spanish masters such as Velázquez and Goya, as well as El Greco, the Greek artist who lived in Toledo for much of his life.\n\n\nToledo’s two remaining synagogues are also well worth a visit. The 14th-century Sinagoga del Tránsito showcases beautiful Mudéjar architecture, with refined stucco work that depicts natural motifs, as well as lace-like horseshoe arches. This former place of worship also houses the Sephardic Museum, whose artifacts help shed light on the Iberian Peninsula’s once-thriving Jewish population. Just up the street is the 12th-century Sinagoga de Santa María La Blanca. Its graceful white arches are dramatically illuminated by uplights, inviting you to marvel at the intricacies of the magnificent architecture.\n\nThanks to its commanding position and impressive size, the Alcázar is one of Toledo’s most recognizable buildings. A Moorish fortress, royal residence, and a military academy once stood at this site. At the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the Alcázar was badly damaged. Franco, Spain’s long-ruling military dictator later had it rebuilt. Today, the mighty structure houses an extensive military museum.\n\n\nAs you walk Toledo’s steep streets, you’ll be wowed by the extent of the city’s walls. These fortifications are a progressive effort—the Romans, Visigoths, Moors, and King Alfonso VI (who took Toledo from the Moors) all left their mark.\n\n\nSintra, Portugal\n\nSintra Portugal\n\nLocated on the Portuguese Riviera, the refined city of Sintra boasts dreamy palaces and castles, magnificent gardens, and a dramatic hilly setting. Long a refuge for Portugal’s royalty and elite, much of Sintra is included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.\n\n\nThe Moorish Castle (Castelo dos Mouros) offers magnificent views of the Atlantic, especially if Sintra isn’t veiled in fog. The 10th-century castle’s grey-stone ramparts crown a hilltop roughly 1,350 feet above sea level. As its name implies, the castle was constructed by the Moors. However, successive rulers, as well as the great earthquake of 1755, altered the look of the fortifications.\n\n\nSituated in the heart of Sintra’s Old Town, the Sintra National Palace (Palácio Nacional de Sintra) stands out, thanks to its whitewashed exterior and a pair of overturned, funnel-like chimneys. While the Moors originally constructed parts of the structure, Portuguese monarchs later increased its size. The palace’s interior is a delight to explore, thanks to its eclectic Manueline and Moorish styles. You’ll find grand rooms adorned with blue-and-white tiles depicting scenes of Portuguese life, as well as courtyards decorated with Moorish-style tiles.\n\nSintra’s lines can be long, so consider purchasing your tickets online and in advance. Also, Sintra is only 20 miles from Lisbon, Portugal’s capital, making it a wonderful day-trip. The two cities are conveniently linked by train.\n\nCoimbra, Portugal\n\nCoimbra Portugal\n\nHome to Portugal’s most esteemed university, the city of Coimbra has a rich history and a youthful vibe. Long before it became known as Coimbra, the city was settled by the Romans and called Aeminium. For a time, Coimbra also served as Portugal’s capital.\n\nCoimbra’s star sight is the Joanina Library (Biblioteca Joanina), which along with several other university buildings, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This magnificent baroque library was constructed during the 18th century. Its interior features handsome book stacks adorned with golden flourishes and furnished with tables made out of exotic wood. The treasured collection of approximately 60,000 books is slowly being digitized. However, to keep the originals safe, a resident colony of bats lives inside these elegant surroundings—kept there so as to devour any insects that might otherwise destroy the books. During your daytime visit, it’s likely that the bats will be sleeping somewhere among the shelves. Other historic university attractions include the Royal Palace, Chapel of St. Michael, the historic Physics Laboratory, and the Natural History Collection.\n\nWhile in Coimbra, it’s a joy simply strolling up the steep streets along the mosaic-tiled sidewalks (called calçadas), trying a shot of ginja (a traditional Portuguese liqueur made with a sour cherry-like fruit), or popping into a club to listen to Portugal’s traditional fado music. Coimbra’s version of fado often includes lyrics about university life. As you explore the town, you’re likely to brush shoulders with students wearing traditional uniforms, which consist of a full-length black cape, tie, white button-down shirt, and a skirt or pants.\n\nCoimbra has several lovely greenspaces, which are a superb place to admire Mediterranean flora, read a book, or simply relax. The Botanical Gardens of the University of Coimbra are the city’s most well-known park. They were established in the 18th century, and feature attractive fountains and archways, a greenhouse, and an impressive array of flora, including camellias, calla lilies, bamboo, and trees from around the world. In addition to having aesthetic appeal, the garden enhances the university’s medicinal studies, and researchers also maintain a seed bank.\n\nAfternoons in Coimbra are made for walking along the Mondego River, popping into a pastelaria to enjoy Portuguese pastries and coffee, or admiring the details of the Igreja de Santa Cruz church, whose architecture mostly dates back to the 16th century. Portugal’s first kings are buried there.\n\nPorto, Portugal\n\nPorto Portugal\n\nThe northwestern city of Porto is Portugal’s second-largest city. This coastal metropolis is known for its port wine, the Dom Luís I Bridge (which has metalwork reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower), and its beautifully-worn buildings, some of which are clad in stunning blue-and-white tiles called azulejos.\n\nThe Ribeira is Porto’s most dynamic district. Chock-full with eateries, historic churches, and incredible views of the Douro River, it is a joy to explore. The area’s riverside promenade is perfectly suited for people watching: You can see groups of traditional student musicians (called tunas) performing, and chat with vendors selling embroidered linens, souvenir-sized bottles of port, and purses and ties made of cork. (Portugal is one of the world’s largest cork producers.)\n\nIn Vila Nova de Gaia, across the river from Ribeira, numerous wine lodges offer the chance to taste—and buy—port wine. Porto is also becoming more and more known for its gastronomic offerings, with upscale restaurants and humble taverns serving up something for every palate. Whatever you choose to eat, you cannot leave the country without trying Portugal’s ultimate crowd-pleaser—the pastel de nata. It is a dainty custard tart, made out of puff pastry, and sprinkled with cinnamon.\n\nWhere is the Iberian Peninsula?\n\n\nThe Iberian Peninsula is located in southwestern Europe, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Bay of Biscay to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south and east. The peninsula’s southernmost point is not far from Africa, with the two continents separated only by a narrow strip of the Mediterranean called the Strait of Gibraltar.\n\nThe name “Iberian Peninsula” is most commonly used to refer to Spain and Portugal, as these two countries comprise most of the peninsula’s landmass. However, the peninsula technically includes the tiny country of Andorra, a sliver of France, and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.\n\nThe Spanish capital, Madrid, as well as the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, feature major international airports, big-city amenities, and dynamic cultural offerings. Other large cities on the Iberian Peninsula include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, and Malaga in Spain, as well as the city of Porto, in Portugal.\n\nHow to Get There\n\n\nThe Iberian Peninsula is well connected and can be reached via plane, bus, train, and by boat.\n\nPopular Spanish ports of call include Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia, and the island of Mallorca. Cruise ships often dock in Gibraltar, as well as the Portuguese cities of Lisbon, Portimão in the Algarve region, and Leixões, just a few miles from the popular destination of Porto. The Portuguese island of Madeira is another sought-after destination for cruise enthusiasts.\n\nFerries link the south of Spain with Morocco. Ferry routes also connect the Spanish mainland to the Canary Islands, as well as the Balearic Islands.\n\nSpain, Portugal, and France are all members of the European Union. They are also part of the Schengen Area, which is made up of 26 European countries. (Citizens of the United States and Canada are generally only allowed to spend 90 days within a 180-day period inside the Schengen Area.) Andorra is a de-facto member of the Schengen Area, as the principality can only be accessed via its Schengen neighbors, France and Spain. Gibraltar is not a part of the Schengen Area.\n\nTerrain and Climate\n\n\nIberia has diverse landscapes, which offer opportunities to participate in an array of water sports, as well as hiking, biking, and even skiing. The region also produces an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables—including a vast share of the world’s olive oil. In addition, the peninsula is home to several renowned wine-growing regions, including La Rioja and La Mancha in Spain, and the Douro and the Dão in Portugal.\n\nPart of the Iberian Peninsula is mountainous and rugged, with the Pyrenees creating a natural border between Spain and France. The peninsula is also home to continental Spain’s highest mountain peak, Mulhacén. Parts of Spain and Portugal are also characterized by flat plains, and Spain even has some desert areas.\n\nSun-drenched coastal areas define the peninsula’s south. Some of the most developed resort areas can be found in Portugal’s Algarve region, as well as Spain’s Costa del Sol (Sun Coast).\n\nAway from mountainous areas, the Iberian Peninsula’s climate is overwhelmingly Mediterranean—with mild, sometimes-wet winters, and hot, dry summers. The climate along Portugal and Spain’s Atlantic coastlines offers cooler summers. Precipitation is also more frequent along the Atlantic. In inland areas, the climate is more continental, characterized by cooler winters.\n\nRelated Articles\n\nSpain Is a European Retirement Paradise\n\nAn Affordable Retirement in Picturesque Portugal\n\nEurope’s Top 5 Affordable Retirement Havens\n\n\nYour email address will not be published.\n\nAlternative URL Language", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8267431259155273}
+{"content": "A to alveolar hypoventilation. The normal respiratory acidosis PaCO2\n\nA condition that transpires when the\nrespiratory acidosis (Epstein, 2001). When the lung’s do not remove the carbon\ndioxide, the blood becomes acidic excessively. It is also known as an acid-base\nbalance disturbance that is due to alveolar hypoventilation. The normal respiratory\nacidosis PaCO2 range is 35-45 mm Hg (Epstein, 2001). The normal blood pH for respiratory\nacidosis is 7.35 and 7.45. The source for respiratory acidosis are diseases\nwithin in lung tissue (pulmonary fibrosis), sleep apnea, heavy pain\nThere are a couple of treatments known for respiratory acidosis. A CPAP which\nis a noninvasive positive pressure ventilation may be prescribes (Hadjiliadis, 2016). Also, drugs that\nreverse airway obstruction, oxygen, and therapy that help to stop smoking are\nalso treatments.\n\nRespiratory alkalosis condition\nThe source of this condition are hyperventilation, anxiety, pregnancy and fever (Hadjiliadis,\n2016). Lung diseases can lead to short of breath and\nmay also cause respiratory alkalosis (pulmonary embolism or asthma). The indicators\nmay consist of being light headed, dizziness, numbness of the hands and feet. TO\ndetermine the pH for respiratory alkalosis is pH > 7.45. The normal range is\n7.35-7.45. Direct activity to the respiratory\ncentre can causes respiratory alkalosis. \nThe source of respiratory alkalosis is hyperventilation.\nHyperventilation is when someone breathes rapidly or deeply. The causes of this\nare asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pregnancy, and drug use (Acid Base Physiology, n.d.). In respiratory\nalkalosis alterations within the physicochemical equilibrium occur because of\nlowered pCO2, results in modest decrease in HCO3. There isn’t adequate time for\nthe kidneys to answer, therefore this is the only change in respiratory\nalkalosis. The overall response is a decrease in bicarbonate levels. Perhaps\nanxiety is the main cause of the condition, using a mask so you can take in carbon\n\nWe Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically\nFor You For Only $13.90/page!\n\norder now\n\nMetabolic acidosis is present when there’s\nwhen the kidneys aren’t dumping plenty of acid from the body. The three types\nof metabolic acidosis are lactic acidosis, diabetic acidosis, and hyperchloremic\nacidosis. Diabetic ketoacidosis is a\nHyperchloremic acidosis is present when there is a decrease in plasma\nbicarbonate concentration and an increase in plasma chloride concentration.\nmethanol and severe dehydration can cause metabolic acidosis. The normal HCO3\nchemoreceptors with an elevated PaCO2 dulls the hypoventilation required to\ndialysis, and get iv fluids.\n\nElderly age might compromise the\nacid-base balance process. One major organs, the kidney, has a distinct\nstructural and functional phenotypic change that happens while you are growing older.\nElderly people people have a decrease in glomerular filtration and renal in\nrenal plasma flow then of a younger individual. At age 40 the decrease or\ndecline starts. On standard occasions, elderly people can maintain an\nelectrolyte balance, however, in dangerous situations that can be gone. This\nmakes them subject to hypernatremia, hyponatremia, and volume depletion. Plasma\nsodium is the most familiar electrolyte disturbance occurring in older aging people. Furthermore, a decline in urinary\nconcentration ability and thirst can contribute to dehydration which is usual\nin elderly patients.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9364174008369446}
+{"content": "Football: 30th anniversary of Kazimierz Deyna death\n\nSeptember 1 marks the 30th anniversary of the tragic death of Kazimierz Deyna, one of the best players in the history of Polish football.\n\nFootball: Legendary Polish player commemorated on stamp\n\nLegendary Polish footballer, Kazimierz Deyna, who died in a car accident in the US on September 1, 1989, has been commemorated by the Polish Post...\n\nsee more\n\nKazimierz Deyna, born in 1947 in Starogard Gdański, northern Poland, finished his football career in 1987 in the US.\n\nThe fatal accident happened on the Interstate Highway I-15 near San Diego, California. The car he was driving hit a truck at high speed. Traces of alcohol were found in the blood of the deceased ex-footballer.\n\nHe was buried at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego, but in 2012, his ashes were brought to Poland by his wife, Mariola Deyna, to be laid to rest at the “Avenue of the Distinguished” of the Military Cemetery of Powązki in Warsaw, where he was buried on June 6, 2012.. On the same day, the monument of the legendary footballer was unveiled near the stadium of Legia Warsaw.\n\nLegia and its supporters will commemorate the late player during Sunday’s game between their club and Raków Częstochowa. The team will wear special shirts created to honour their legendary player.\n\nA flag with image of Kazimierz Deyna in the stand of Legia's stadium. Photo: PAP arch./Bartłomiej Zborowski\n\nLegend of Polish football\n\nKazimierz Deyna is considered one of the legends of Poland’s national team and Legia Warsaw.\n\nIn the 1970s and early 1980s, Poland achieved many successes in football. Deyna was a member of the team which won an Olympic gold medal in 1972. He scored two goals in the final against Hungary.\n\nIn 1973 he became the captain of the national team. Poland won third place during the 1974 FIFA World Cup held in West Germany, and the silver medal of the 1976 Olympic Games organised in Montreal, Canada. He also took part in the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, where he played for the national team for the last time. Deyna wore Polish national colours for 97 times in total.\n\nHis performance was honoured with many awards, including third place in the prestigious Golden Ball plebiscite of French “France Football” magazine in 1974.\n\nDeyna played for the Warsaw club over the years 1966-1978, notching up a total of 304 matches and 94 goals. With the club, he won two championships of Poland and managed to get into the semi-final of the UEFA Champions Cup. To commemorate the importance of Deyna to Legia, no player in the club has been allowed to use number 10. since the 2006/2007 season.\n\nBecause he was an officer of the Polish People’s Army – Legia was a club controlled by the Army – he could not be transferred to any club from a member state of NATO. Such recognised teams as Real Madrid, Inter Milan, AC Milan and FC Bayern Munich wanted him in their colours, but it was not possible at that time.\n\nHe was allowed to move to the west in 1978 when he joined Manchester City. He finished his career in the US, as a player of the San Diego Sockers.\n\nCeremony of unveiling the monument of Kazimierz Deyna in Warsaw in June 2012. Photo: PAP arch./Bartłomiej Zborowski", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6016870737075806}
+{"content": "The Badminton Bible\n\n\nAll original content copyright © Mike Hopley\n\nWide low serves\n\nBackhand wide low serve, to the non-racket side\n\nHow can you serve wide without making it obvious? We’ll start simple, and then improve the disguise.\n\nBackhand wide low serve, to the racket side\n\nServing to the racket side is a similar idea, with some differences in how you change the angle.\n\nBackhand semi-wide low serve\n\nDon’t limit yourself to serving straight or wide. A serve towards the the middle can be very useful.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9351165294647217}
+{"content": "The Passage Season 1, Episode 1 Recap: “Pilot”\n\nThe Passage made its debut on Fox last night, and the first episode was a solid debut. The pilot had a ton of set-up to do, and while nothing in it was mind-blowing, the seeds planted going forward should provide plenty of intrigue over the next few weeks.\n\nThe Passage Poster\n\nWe open at a break-neck pace, meeting most of the major players and getting an idea of the impending doom coming to this world when young girl Amy Belefonte (Saniyya Sidney) tells us “This is how the world ends.” We see a pair of scientists, Dr. Jonas Lear (Henry Ian Cusick) and Tim Fanning (Jamie McShane), tracking down a subject in a cave in Boliva. That subject is a vampire, although we are not supposed to call them that. Fanning becomes patient zero after being bitten, and is held at Project Noah in Colorado. Noah is trying to harness the power of not-vampirism for disease healing purposes by experimenting on death row inmates. They keep turning into not-vampires, including Babcock (Brianne Howey), a blonde woman who’s stare will haunt your nightmares. No literally: the infected in the cells are invading the dreams of the Project Noah’s workers, led by Fanning. I bet that comes into play later.\n\nAfter deciding that they need to test on children, Federal agent Brad (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is tasked with bringing in Amy Belefonte for testing. He and his partner pick her up at a foster home after her mother passed away from overdose three days prior. As they travel across the country by car, Brad takes a shine to Belefonte. Turns out he lost his daughter, which led to estrangement from his wife Lila (Emmanuelle Chriqui), and he decides after a great scene between the two at a carnival that he can’t turn her in. They go on the run together, with Brad using his special ops training to evade Project Noah’s team and hitting the open road.\n\nSteve Dietl/FOX\n\nThe relationship between these two are what make the episode shine, they have great chemistry together. A lot of the scenes at Project Noah are setting up the not-vampires powers and such, and ends up feeling a bit science-speaky. The Brad-Amy dynamic breaks all that up and gives us a grounded and believable story to get behind. From the trailer for the season we know that they eventually end up at Project Noah but that hopefully doesn’t mean that they keep them apart. Especially in stories like this, these kinds of relationships need to stay intact to keep us invested. Hopefully in the coming weeks, we get a few more characters fleshed out before they start dying, since it is the end of the world, you know.\n\nAbout Jeremy Konrad\n\n\ntwitter envelope", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.62067711353302}
+{"content": "(817) 274-4877\n\nAsset Allocations\n\nShip Wreck\n\n\nWhat is Asset Allocation?\n\n\nFurthermore, Asset Allocation is based upon the premise that the different asset classes have varying cycles of performance (non-correlation of assets), and that by investing in multiple classes, the overall investment returns will be more stable and less susceptible to adverse movements in any one class.\n\nAll investments involve some sort of risk. An individualized asset allocation strategy seeks to mitigate the risks of any one asset class through diversification and balance.\n\nWhat do you mean Non-correlation of assets?\n\nMany financial experts argue that asset allocation is an important factor in determining returns for an investment portfolio. Asset allocation is based on the principle that different assets perform differently in different market and economic conditions.\n\n\nHow does this work for me?\n\nWhen a portfolio is allocated properly the assets will reflect his/her desired goals, priorities, investment preferences and his tolerance for risk. Asset allocation is an individualized strategy, so there really is no perfect mix of assets. Each individual’s strategy is built on the careful consideration of the key elements of their financial profile.\n\n • Investment Objectives: What the investor hopes to achieve using his/her investment dollars. It may be to improve current lifestyle; achieve capital growth; fund a specific goal; or ultimately retire.\n • Risk Tolerance: Reflects the investor’s comfort level with market fluctuations that can result in losses. (See Risk Tolerance in the Glossary)\n • Investment Preference: An investor may prefer one asset class over another based on a certain bias or interest towards the characteristics of that class.\n • Taxation: Asset classes will have varying tax consequences. Some asset classes are structured to minimize the expense of taxes or have tax benefits.\n\nWhat is an asset class?\n\n\nThere are “traditional” asset classes which include stocksbonds, and cash or money market funds. And there are many types of subsets of stock funds, bond funds and cash equivalents. Just about anything the mind can conceive. Allocation among these three provides a starting point.\n\nThere are also “alternative asset classes” which include but are not limited to Commodities, Real Estate or REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts), Collectibles (Art, Coins, and Stamps), Insurance products, Currencies and many more.\n\nIs there only one way to allocate your investments?\n\nActually there several types of asset allocation strategies based on investment goals, risk tolerance, time frames and diversification. Primarily we use strategic and tactical Asset Allocation.\n\n\nOnce I have decided on my Asset Allocation Strategy, Am I stuck with it?\n\nA sound asset allocation strategy includes periodic reviews. The only certainty when it comes to the financial markets is change. In fact we often refer to the one constant in the universe as . . . “change”. The financial markets change and your financial situation will change. Through market gains and losses, a portfolio can become unbalanced and it may be important to make adjustments to your allocation. As you move through your stages in life your needs, preferences, priorities and risk tolerance change and so to must your asset allocation strategy.\n\nClose Menu", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5797391533851624}
+{"content": "Right investigative competence\n\nA good whistleblower system needs good investigators who can assess the cases received. Maintaining the right expertise with constant availability within the organization is both a challenge and a cost.\n\nLantero’s approach offers access to specialized expertise in the form of independent lawyers, making it possible for Lantero’s customers to conduct high-quality investigations and have swift access to expertise, at no charge until there is a case to investigate.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998711943626404}
+{"content": "Selling Vegetables and Fruit in The Sims 2 Seasons\n\nBuilding a Greenhouse in the Sims 2\n\nElectronic Arts\n\nLemons, oranges, and apples can be grown with the new trees in The Sims 2 Seasons. Along with the fruits, many new vegetables can be grown, such as cucumbers and pole beans. The produce can be used to stock your Sims fridge or juicer, but what about selling it for a profit?\n\nHow to Sell Fruits and Vegetables\n\nThe easiest way to sell fruit, vegetables, and fish are to sell them from a Sim's inventory. If your Sim has the entrepreneurial spirit, then they can indeed open up a fresh produce store if you have The Sims 2 Open for Business as well.\n\nRunning a business is hard work. If you can run the shop without hiring employees, all the better. Using other members of the household is a lot cheaper with no employee wages to cut into your profit. In the long run, selling your produce from the Sim's personal inventory will give you the least amount of hassle. We do like having one family sell fruits and vegetables so our non-farming Sims have a chance to get fresh veggies too.\n\nIf you do open a produce shop, don't forget to join the Garden Club, it'll save you a lot of money.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6462923288345337}
+{"content": "Dataset Information\n\n\nNRASG12V mediates leukemia self renewal [Microarray]\n\nABSTRACT: Mutant RAS oncoproteins activate signaling molecules that drive oncogenesis in multiple human tumors including acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). However, the specific function of these pathways in AML is unclear. To elucidate the downstream functions of activated NRAS in AML, we employed a murine model of AML harboring Mll-AF9 and NRASG12V. We found that NRASG12V enforced leukemia self-renewal gene expression signatures and was required to maintain an MLL-AF9 and MYB-dependent gene expression program. In a multiplexed analysis of RAS-dependent signaling intermediates, the leukemia stem cell compartment was preferentially sensitive to RAS withdrawal. Use of RAS-pathway inhibitors showed that NRASG12V maintained leukemia self-renewal through mTOR and MEK pathway activation, implicating these pathways as potential targets for cancer stem cell-specific therapies. Overall design: Mice harboring NRASG12V/Mll-AF9 AML were treated with doxycyline to abolish NRASG12V expression. Leukemia samples were harvested at 12 hour intervals after doxycyline treatment. RNA was extracted from these samples and submitted for gene expression microarray analysis\n\n\nORGANISM(S): Mus musculus \n\nSUBMITTER: Zohar Sachs \n\n\n\n\nSimilar Datasets\n\n2014-11-16 | E-GEOD-49088 | ArrayExpress\n2014-11-16 | E-GEOD-49038 | ArrayExpress\n2014-11-16 | E-GEOD-49087 | ArrayExpress\n| GSE63312 | GEO\n2014-11-14 | E-GEOD-63312 | ArrayExpress\n2011-08-04 | E-GEOD-30745 | ArrayExpress\n2011-08-04 | E-GEOD-30747 | ArrayExpress\n2011-08-04 | E-GEOD-30746 | ArrayExpress\n2010-03-15 | GSE20377 | GEO\n2016-02-25 | E-MTAB-4078 | ArrayExpress", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9983278512954712}
+{"content": "Japan mulls alternate transportation to decongest cities\n\nJapan mulls alternate transportation to decongest cities\n\nAs roads in cities across the world are getting congested, emphasis is laid on alternative transportation.The Tokyo Metropolitan Government aims to...\n\nAs roads in cities across the world are getting congested, emphasis is laid on alternative transportation.The Tokyo Metropolitan Government aims to conduct research in order to stimulate and promote the use of boat transportation in rivers and bay area in Tokyo.\n\nThey recently invited guests from tourism agency, press and government sector to join the Orientation Cruise.\n\nMakoto Hori of the Bureau of Urban Development, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, \"In anticipation of Tokyo Olympics Paralympics game in year 2020, together with the strong support of Governor Masuzoe, Tokyo Metropolitan Government is currently working together to promote activation of boat transportations in Tokyo City.\"\n\nThe Orientation Cruise was designed to tour around Tokyo to guide each of the attractions.\n\nThe cruise started from The Sumida River, Tokyo's most important waterway since the middle ages. The river connects between Asakusa in the north and Odaiba in the south of Tokyo Bay.\n\nThere are many differently designed bridges that span the river.\n\nAsakusa district of Tokyo is one of the top-rated tourist attractions. 65 Millions of international tourists visit Asakusa every year.\n\nLocated on a bay and having rivers as convenient transportation routes, Tokyo was thrived as \"Water City\" - For hundreds of years.\n\nLong since it's replaced by the modern day road and train system, Tokyo has now a few water transportations companies that tourists may find useful.\n\nThe Water Bus boat services are operating 60 runs per day, but only 3% of the tourists are using waterway transportations.\n\nThrough the Orientation Cruise, Tokyo Metropolitan Government is seeking a way to promote waterways, as the enjoyable alternative to trains or subways, for the tourists who are traveling between destinations that are near the water.\n\nParticipants were asked to cooperate with the survey after the Cruise.\n\nAlyssa Smith, Project Cordinator, T-MARK Inc., said, \"There's so much space out on the water, so it was very calm and you get to see a lot of sights. I thought it was very enjoyable. I think if more people know about it, they would definitely be a good choice for them, it would be very attractive.\"\n\nThe Cruise boat finally arrived at Hamano Rikyu Royal Gardens, one of the traditional and most beautiful Japanese gardens in Tokyo.\n\nTokyo Metropolitan Government also plans a new pilot program to invite Tokyo's general public for Orientation Cruise in December.\n\nAnd it's not only water; Japan is making new experiments to improve surface transportation.\n\nHere is, to be precise, not a railway train. It has tires.\n\nIt is called an Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) system, a medium-capacity unmanned urban transportation system.\n\nMitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) puts focus on the development of AGT.\n\nThe vehicles run on rubber tires, so it's relatively quiet. Also it's compact and lightweight, so it consumes less power.\n\nIts minimum track radius is just 30 meters, permitting turns over road intersections without the nearby buildings being affected.\n\nA track can be constructed above a road that already exists.\n\nThere are four features of AGT system.\n\nThe first is \"Al-fine\". By using aluminum alloy with double-skin structure it successfully reduced weight and interior space become wider. And, because no paint is done it has greatly improved its recycling efficiency and shows good corrosion-resistance. It leads to less environmental load.\n\nThe second is \"G-fit\". The design torso angle formed by the backrest and the seat cushioning is set at 15°, providing a greater degree of comfort. Bucket seat backrest embraces and supports body. It also helps to stop the feet from sprawling outward. From these aspects they pursued the best seat for mass transportation.\n\nThe third is \"T-smover\". The bogies are improved and achieved more flexible steering, simpler structure and increased guide wheel longevity.\n\nThe fourth is \"Detail-ism\". By pursuing meticulous design such as the quality of material, molding design and color they keep trying to create better interior space.\n\nMitsubishi Heavy Industries is positive about overseas development. The newest AGT for abroad is named \"Super AGT\" that peaks at 120 kilometers per hour.\n\nMasahisa Masukawa, an official of the APM Development Chief Promoter, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., said, \"Japanese industrial products for infrastructure often result in high functionality and high prices. But when we introduce to foreign countries we try to be flexible in order to introduce the best suited products in accordance with their needs, economic level and so on.\"\n\nThey propose one possibility of how to use AGT systems that \"Super AGT\" goes widespread area like connecting cities, and other AGTs for inner-city traffic.\n\nTheir AGT systems keep on evolving for the better future. (ANI)\nShow Full Article\nPrint Article\nSubscribed Failed...\nSubscribed Successfully...\nMore Stories", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6027215719223022}
+{"content": "How a data-driven approach helped Finnair increase bookings by 31%\n\nDiscover how Finnair’s data-driven marketing approach gave them a deeper understanding of customer behaviour and helped them to improve their online campaigns.\n\nFrom research and planning to the final purchase decision, more people are choosing to go online for the entire customer journey. This shift has had a significant impact on the travel industry, with more people searching and shopping across touchpoints, making the customer journey increasingly complex. Finnair wanted to take a data-driven approach to gain a deeper understanding of customer behaviour and help improve its online campaigns.\n\nFounded almost a century ago in 1923, Finnair may be one of the world’s oldest airlines, but it has kept afoot of the changing landscape by investing in digital across the entire organisation — with digital channels now accounting for approximately one quarter of the company’s sales.\n\nA data-first digital strategy\n\nWith the support of Dagmar, the airline’s long term strategic marketing partner, Finnair began by creating a comprehensive data roadmap.\n\n“In this fast paced and constantly changing environment, uncovering insights is not an easy task,” explains Antti Kallio, Dagmar’s Chief Business Officer, Data & Technology. “Digging into data can provide the insights needed to understand today’s complex customer journey.”\n\nCentralised data provides insights, which gives brands the opportunity to understand and get closer to audiences with more relevant campaigns and messaging, giving them end-to-end control of their marketing as well as a way to easily and effectively measure results.\n\nFinnair and Dagmar worked to implement a data-driven attribution model to gain a better understanding of the roles of each channel throughout the customer journey and make better decisions on channel-specific investments in terms of ROI.\n\nThe teams worked to integrate data from Campaign Manager, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360 and Analytics 360, while seamlessly linking up its analytics and media buying with Google Marketing Platform. Google Marketing Platform is a powerful suite of integrated Google products that bridges the gap between online marketing and analytics tools to help brands discover new insights into their customers.\n\nThanks to this holistic approach, Finnair gained a deeper understanding of its existing customers throughout the entire customer journey — helping it to decipher what customers needed and where they needed it most. By combining rich analytics with interest and behavioral data, the airline was also able to discover new audiences similar to its existing high-value customers and direct these new prospects to the booking funnel. Ultimately this powerful data meant that Finnair and all of its agency partners could make better decisions on channel-specific investments to provide the highest ROI.\n\nLanding results\n\nThe team had anticipated that the data-driven approach would help them understand their customers but were surprised at just how large an impact it had. Joni Tillström, Digital Marketing Manager at Finnair was certain that the data-driven approach would work but was pleasantly surprised at just how much of an impact it had.\n\n“Even though the initial hypothesis was that consolidation and migrating to a data-driven attribution approach would have a significant, positive impact, the results exceeded our expectations,” explains Tillström\n\nWith the help of the new approach, the first half of 2018 saw impressive gains with a 125% Year-on-Year increase in flight searches. The initial response rate for advertising increased by 54%, indicating major improvements in ad relevancy and activation.\n\nTotal performance marketing activities drove 31% more bookings and a 44% better conversion rate. Media spend increased by just 1.3%, demonstrating the improved targeting and significant boost to ROAS.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9035544395446777}
+{"content": "Be ski fit this Winter – Top physio tips\n\nSki exercises - georgina\n\nAutumn is definitely here, and it’s soon to be winter! Now is the time to start preparing for your ski holiday.\n\nFor many, we forget that skiing is an extreme sport and we need to prepare our body for the stresses it will be put through. We cannot always expect our body to adapt from a 9-5 desk job to a 9-5 ski day without any preparation..\n\nThe glutes are a key muscle group that are ‘sat on’ all day, generally underused, but are crucial for effective posture and balance whilst skiing. Your glute muscles play a very important role in hip stability as well as generating power to move our legs. Research has shown that weak glutes can cause pain within the kinetic chain, including the Lower back and knee. It is no coincidence, that these are also injury prone areas for skiers.\n\n3 exercises to strengthen the glutes:\n\nEx 1. Squeeze those glutes, wherever you are and at any time (sat at your desk, standing in que, making a cup of tea)! Tighten your butt cheeks and hold them tight for 10’s and then relax. Repeat 10x in a row, 5x a day. This will activate and recruit the muscle fibres needed to generate force and power.\n\nEx 2. Glute bridge. Lie on you back, bend your knees and feet flat on the floor. Lift your bottom off the floor until your knees, hips and shoulders are in a straight line. Squeeze your glutes as you lift your bottom. Hold for 3’s before you place your bottom back to the ground. Repeat 10x for 3 sets, 3-4x a week.\n\nEx 3. Single leg lateral bound. Bound laterally from left leg, land on right in semi squat position and hold for 3’s (make sure your knee doesn’t fall in medially when landing). Then bound back to the left leg and repeat. Continue this for 45’s and repeat 3x, 3-4x a week.\n\nWhen skiing people generally complain of sore quads and calf muscles. Having stronger glutes will relieve the quads of their heavy work load, meaning you will ski better for longer.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.697409987449646}
+{"content": "Ten Healthiest Tips for Starting Your Day Right\n\n1. After sleeping and resting for 6 to 8 hours, it is time to improve your body activities. Do those things that accelerate a smooth blood flow. Walk across your home.\n\nTake a large glass of water to enhance your health\n\nTry to sit on a floor, and stretch for health. Stretch your legs, torso, back, legs, and arms.\n\n2. Meditation for a joyful mind\n\nWhen you wake up from your bed daily, sit on the floor, and stretch your legs.\n\nClose your two eyes, place your two hands on your knees, and practice breathing exercise.\n\nAccept those thoughts that rush to your mind, release and acknowledge them as they come to your mind.\n\nConcentrate on your breath. It has to be a deep breath in and breath out, do them on the count of three.\n\nWhen you are looking for direction, ask questions about those goals you seek. The answer may not come immediately, but you would find the answers in the course of the day.\n\n3. Brush, wash, and shower your body\n\nAvoid making your thoughts wander about. Just concentrate on your daily routines and, not be bothered about what the day will turn out to be.\n\n4. Put down what you want to do for the day\n\nAfter spending two-minute intervals writing down what you want to achieve for the day, spend the following minutes writing down whatever comes to your mind. It has to do with the things you want to achieve for the day.\n\nAfter two minutes, look again, at what you have written and compare them with your goal. Thirty minutes are okay for this.\n\n5. For the next hour, skip, walk, dance, and jump around. This will help you, as it releases those endorphins inside you. This makes you productive and happy for the day.\n\nResearch has indicated that morning exercises set the tone for a healthy day. Never ignore your morning exercise.\n\n6. Take heavy quantities of green smoothie\n\nNutrition should be part of your daily menu every morning. This revs your metabolism and helps your brain.\n\nPrepare veggies and fresh fruits. You can try something like a smoothie mixed with oranges, apples, spinach and ginger, as well as apple juice and mango.\n\n7. Consume protein\n\nProtein is essential, because it restores your muscles, keeps you full, and enhances your brain. This prevents overeating in the morning. Meditation and super food help you a lot.\n\nYour first meal every morning should be food served with eggs and low-fat cheese, Greek yogurt, seeds, beans as well as peanut and so on. Where it is a smoothie, garnish it with protein powder.\n\n8. Sit down, breathe, and stay for at least five minutes. This makes you positive and alert.\n\n9. Think of your body achieving a lot successfully and effortlessly\n\n10. To achieve your daily tasks effortlessly, review each plan in your mind. Plan your daily routines; think about the presentation you would make, and concentrate on positive things alone.\n\nAs the day goes by, watch and see the way things turned out.\n\nHealthy Day Trading Strategies\n\nDay trading shaving is a special strategy that is used often to get a small amount of profit on a large scale. This is often accomplished by purchasing the available trading instrument with a bid with a fraction of a cent higher than what the bid was at and reselling later at a fraction of a cent lower. This can be illustrated by the following: The price of the trading instrument is $X.010, you will buy at a price of $X.011 during a positive trend and later sell at a price of $X.019 when the value of the stock is priced at $X.020. This will leave you with a profit of $X.008 when multiplied by the amount of shares. So if you had 1000 shares, you would make a profit of $8.00 within a short time period of a day trade.\n\nDiscount volume day trading is one of the most taken options simply because it costs less once all of the fees are calculated in by the broker. This way there are several opportunities to make a profit on several trades rather that long term trades held past the length of a day trading period. Taking advantage of an option such as discount volume trading, when it is offered by your broker can be beneficial to making you some money from profit earnings.\n\nMargin day trading is made possible by brokers who will be willing to risk a portion of the funds that you need to make a trade decision. This works just like a loan does from a bank and will often require that the borrower/trader repay it as soon as possible within the day trading cycle. This can be extended into the next day but interest fees will most likely be incurred and this will vary from broker to broker and only available on promising leads. This can be very dangerous for borrowers as if they lose money, they end up owing more to the broker in the long run.\n\nPreventing risks is not always possible, but it is a very good idea whenever it is. Poor trading discipline, especially with amateurs making the trades, can lead to high risks in investing with very high loss potential. Not having enough risk capital on hand can cause extra stress and lower your options, especially when a gold vein in a particular trading instrument occurs. Poor money management is always a negative thing and it is possible that a particular trader may need help with their trades to get the best out of day trading. As long as traders attempt to improve themselves and put their knowledge and experience to work, it is possible to make a killing with day trading.\n\nAyurveda Dinacharya, Rules to Lead a Healthy and Happy Life\n\n\n\nDinacharya – healthy days\n\n\n\nFood – Ayurvedic healthy food\n\n\nVegetarian food is recommended by Ayurveda as the best food.\n\n\n\n\nSleep habits\n\n\n\nAbout daily thoughts, words and actions\n\n\nMingling with people\n\n\nKeeping good relationships with god\n\n\n\n\nHow to Prepare For A Healthy Day The Night Before\n\nChanging daily living habits on a consistent basis is likely the most difficult part of the entire weight loss process. If you’ve already started on this trek to drop that excess weight and get in shape, you may have found some aspects of this journey a bit more difficult that others.\n\nEveryone is different so what’s easy for you to do may cause extreme issues for someone else. However for the most part the two most important items of business you need to take care of on a regular basis is your daily nutrition and your exercise regiment.\n\nTherefore here’s what you can do to help prepare for a healthy day the night before. You’ll find that when you take care of most of this preparation before you go to sleep, you will be much more inspired to stick with your intended plan the following day. And that’s what counts the most.\n\nOnce you develop this healthy habit and stick with it consistently, planning out your healthy day the night before will become your ritual and those pounds will really start falling off your body.\n\nSince nutrition is the absolute key for weight loss success, if there is one thing you prepare before you go to sleep is what you’ll eat the following day. Don’t stop at merely what you’ll have for breakfast since that meal is likely about 1/4 of what you will be consuming for the day.\n\nTake a moment to prepare two pre-portioned snacks along with a sensible lunch. Think easy and nutritious. For snacks, fruits like bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, and peaches need nothing more than maybe a quick rinse and they’re ready to do. Or how about some yogurt or raisins with almonds? Tie any of these snacks with a 20oz. bottle of water and you have a great low-calorie, nutritious snack that will tide you over to your next meal.\n\nWhen it comes to your meals, portion size is king. The portion you should eat for a meal will vary depending on your age, gender, and activity level, but generally a fist-sized amount on a small plate give or take a bit should be fine. At meals, don’t eat to the point of being stuffed. You’ve eaten far too much if you have that feeling afterwards. Develop the habit of drinking one or two large glasses of water throughout your meal and slow down your eating and you’ll find that you will get full on less food than you’re likely used to.\n\nIt can help to buy some plastic travel containers that are size appropriate for your meals. The next time you are at the market or your local dollar store, take a look at the variety of containers they have for sale and pick some up to add to your current inventory. These travel containers can really make the difference between sticking with healthy nutrition when away from home. You don’t want to abandon your intentions and resort to getting a meal from a fast food spot since that likely won’t lead to weight loss success.\n\nOnce you have a good handle on your nutrition for the following day, don’t forget to try and plan a time when you will get some exercise. A great idea is to exercise in the morning right after you wake up. Get it out of the way and not only will you rev up your metabolism early in the morning, but you will be much more inspired to stick with your healthy day, particularly your healthy eating plan since you already have a great workout under your belt.\n\nTo help ensure you workout in the morning, set all your exercise clothes and tennis shoes out on your dresser the night before. Set the alarm clock for an hour (or 45 minutes) before you usually get up and be sure to go to sleep a bit earlier. Watching television until well past midnight is not going to help you lose weight at all, getting up early and exercising will, plain and simple.\n\nGive it a try one week and see if this really helps you stay focused on having a healthy day. Remember, if you have failed in the past trying to achieve your weight loss goals, you owe it to yourself to try something new. When you focus on your nutrition and exercise plan the night before, you will be much more inclined to stick with it and hopefully you finish the day proud of your accomplishment and will repeat the following day.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7339214086532593}
+{"content": "Arcsecond Octant\n\nHow many Octants are in 48 Arcseconds?\n\nThe answer is 48 Arcseconds are equal to 0.0002962962962963 Octants. Feel free to use our online unit conversion calculator to convert the unit from Arcsecond to Octant. Just simply, enter value 48 in Arcsecond and see the result in Octant. You can also Convert 49 Arcseconds to Octant\n\nHow to Convert 48 Arcseconds to Octants (arcsec to octant)\n\nBy using our Arcsecond to Octant conversion tool, you know that one Arcsecond is equivalent to 0.0000061728395061728 Octant. Hence, to convert Arcsecond to Octant, we just need to multiply the number by 0.0000061728395061728. We are going to use very simple Arcsecond to Octant conversion formula for that. Pleas see the calculation example given below.\n\nConvert 48 Arcsecond to Octant 48 Arcsecond = 48 × 0.0000061728395061728 = 0.0002962962962963 Octant\n\nWhat is Arcsecond Unit of Measure?\n\nArcsec also known as arc second or second arc is a unit of angular measurement. One second of arc is equal to 1/60 of an arcminute, 1/3600 of a degree, 1/296000 of a turn. That means one full circle will have 1296000 arcseconds. Similar to arcmin, arcsec was originated in Babylonian astronomy as sexagesimal subdivisions of the degree. It is primarily used in fields where most of the work involves working with small angles such as optometry, ophthalmology, and astronomy. In astronomy related work, it is used for comparison of angular diameter of Moon, Sun, and planets. Apart from that, it is also used in cartography and navigation.\n\nWhat is the symbol of Arcsecond?\n\nThe symbol of Arcsecond is arcsec which means you can also write it as 48 arcsec.\n\nWhat is Octant Unit of Measure?\n\nOctant is a unit of angular measurement. One octant is equal to 45 degrees. It measures an angle up to 90 degrees with the help of 45 degree arc and reflecting optics which basically doubles the angle.\n\nWhat is the symbol of Octant?\n\nThe symbol of Octant is octant which means you can also write it as 48 octant.\n\nArcsecond to Octant Conversion Table\nArcsecond [arcsec] Octant [octant]\n1 6.1728395061728e-6\n2 1.2345679012346e-5\n3 1.8518518518519e-5\n4 2.4691358024691e-5\n5 3.0864197530864e-5\n6 3.7037037037037e-5\n7 4.320987654321e-5\n8 4.9382716049383e-5\n9 5.5555555555556e-5\n10 6.1728395061728e-5\n100 6.1728395061728e-4\n1000 0.0061728395061728\nArcsecond to Other Units Conversion Chart\nArcsecond [arcsec] Output\n48 Arcsecond in Arcmin equals to 0.8\n48 Arcsecond in Cycle equals to 0.000037037037037037\n48 Arcsecond in Degree equals to 0.013333333333333\n48 Arcsecond in Gradian equals to 0.014814814814815\n48 Arcsecond in Gon equals to 0.014814814814815\n48 Arcsecond in Octant equals to 0.0002962962962963\n48 Arcsecond in Quadrant equals to 0.00014814814814815\n48 Arcsecond in Radian equals to 0.00023271056693258\n48 Arcsecond in Sextant equals to 0.00022222222222222\n48 Arcsecond in Sign equals to 0.00044444444444444\n48 Arcsecond in Turn equals to 0.000037037037037037\nConvert Arcsecond to Other Angle Units", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999920129776001}
+{"content": "Ximena Perez Grobet - Entrelíneas - Calligraphy and textures\n\nBarcelona-based artist, Ximena Perez Grobet has focused her work in the art of calligraphy. After living in Japan for a year, Grobet has continued her development and interest in this ancient form and its application to art books. In Diario personal, one of her books, she developed a series of prints that focus on introspective topics that delve into the aspect of plasticity of letters and written forms. This being more focused on the meaning of the letter symbols, rather than what they abstractly represent. One of these designs is the theme in this hand knotted rug. The result at the rug’s scale, the calligraphy bursts out as a dominant force that is art onto itself.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999904632568359}
+{"content": "A mini trial. The arbitrator is appointed as a temporary judge by the court and hears evidence like a jury would through witnesses and/or documents. The arbitrator makes rulings of law and fact and, after hearing the evidence, issues a ruling as to liability (fault), comparative fault, and the nature and amount of damages, if any. This decision is written into the form of an order. The parties have 30 days from the date of the order to reject the ruling. If they do not reject the ruling, it becomes a final judgment, is entered into the court record and the case is over with that order controlling the rights and responsibilities of the parties.Se habla español.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7044042944908142}
+{"content": "Why Lyft, Inc. (LYFT) Shares Are Rising 0.86 Percent Today\n\nLyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) is one of the best performers on the stock market today. At current price of $46.75, the shares have already added 0.4 points (0.86% higher) from its previous close of $46.35. Should you buy or avoid them? The stock sets an active trading volume day with a reported 575630 contracts so far this session. LYFT shares had a relatively better volume day versus average trading capacity of 6.09 million shares, but with a 0.2 billion float and a 7.54% run over a week, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on. The one year price forecast for LYFT stock indicates that the average analyst price target is $67.25 per share. This means the stock has a potential increase of 43.85% from where the LYFT share price has been trading recently.\n\nLooking at the current readings for Lyft, Inc., the two-week RSI stands at 58.59. This figure suggests that LYFT stock, for now, is neutral, meaning that the shares are stable in terms of price movement. The stochastic readings, on the other hand, based on the current LYFT readings is similarly very revealing as it has a stochastic reading of 75.87% at this stage. This figure means that LYFT share price today is being oversold.\n\nTechnical chart claims that Lyft, Inc. (LYFT) would settle between $46.82/share to $47.3/share level. However, if the stock price goes below the $45.5 mark, then the market for Lyft, Inc. becomes much weaker. If that happens, the stock price might even plunge as low as $44.66 for its downside target. The stock is currently in the green zone of MACD, with the indicator reading 1.5. Traders are always alerted for the move of a stock above or below the zero line due to the fact that the reading is an indicator of the position of the short-term average relative to the long-term average. If the MACD is above the zero line, then the short-term average relative is above that of the long-term average, thus implying an upward momentum. Vice versa is the case if the MACD is below the zero line.\n\nAnalysts at Bernstein, assumed coverage of LYFT assigning Mkt Perform rating, according to their opinion released on January 10. The Benchmark Company, analysts launched coverage of Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) stock with a Sell recommendation, according to their flash note issued to investors on January 09. Analysts at Loop Capital released an upgrade from Hold to Buy for the stock, in a research note that dated back to November 25.\n\nLYFT equity has an average rating of 2.16, with the figure leaning towards a bullish end. 33 analysts who tracked the company were contacted by Reuters. Amongst them, 9 rated the stock as a hold while the remaining 24 were split even though not equally. Some analysts rate the stock as a buy or a strong buy while others rated it as a sell. 22 analysts rated Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) as a buy or a strong buy while 2 advised that investors should desist from purchasing the stock or sell them if they already own the company’s stock.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9802823662757874}
+{"content": "Miss Congeniality goes mean: Check out Sandra Bullock as a violent criminal in new Netflix film\n\nAfter a successful Netflix release 'Bird Box', Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock is all set to return to the streaming service to star in and produce a drama with Nora Fingscheidt as the director.\n\nThe yet-untitled film will narrate the story of a person post-incarceration and is based on the 2009 British miniseries 'Unforgiven'. The film will be produced by Graham King and Bullock, reported Variety.\n\nIt will portray Bullock's character as being released from prison after serving time for a violent crime only to return to a society which doesn't forgive her past.\n\nAfter a continued struggle of being judged by her former friends, the only redemption for her would be pursuing her estranged younger sister.\n\nScripting of the flick is being done by 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie.\n\nApart from this, the 'Gravity actor has also teamed up with Netflix for 'Reborn', a film adaptation of fantasy comic of the same name.\n\nThe plot focuses on Bonnie Black, an 80-year-old woman who dies and is resurrected as a young woman in the magical land of Adystria where monsters and dragons are a living reality.\n\nThe story takes a thrilling turn when Black sets out on a mission to find her husband and faces many hurdles along the way.\n\nAlso Read: Ocean 8 actress Sandra Bullock says she almost quit Hollywood because of sexism", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6221413612365723}
+{"content": "Chalk, Brighton.\n\n\nChoose Tickets\n\n\nTicket type Cost (face value)? Quantity\nGENERAL ADMISSION £17.60 (£16.00) Transaction fee applicable *\n\n* The transaction fee is £1.00 for E-Ticket, £2.50 for Standard Delivery or £6.50 for Secure Post.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8694652915000916}
+{"content": "T-2 Cosmology\n\nWe are currently performing state-of-the art high-resolution dark matter simulations to constrain the low mass end of the mass function of dark halos, which are particularly relevant for dark matter detection experiments. We will further model the velocity distribution under conditions similar to our own Milky Way galaxy, with particular care taken to accurately simulate the tale of the velocity distribution, and validate their convergence with multiple simulations.\n\nimage image\n\n\nDark Matter halos from a Roadrunner Universe Ly-a simulation (64 billion particles), showing 1/64 of the total 750 Mpc/h cubed volume.\n\n\nDark energy EOS--consistent with^--form current supernova data reconstructed using Gaussian process-based MCMC.\n\n\nAbell 221.8 A supercluster of galaxies. The arcs are due to gravitational lensing.\n\n\nContour plot of the most massive objects in the Universe. The most massive object in the entire Univrse is predicted to lie in the blue region. We predict the mass of the object, as well as the redshift (which is a measure of distance in cosmology). The red star represents the most likely values. The solid line contours are for the 2nd most massive halo, while the dashed line contours are the 3rd mmost massive halo. The yellow data points are the masses of the most massive observed superclusters of galaxies.\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9870139956474304}
+{"content": "You are here\n\nShojaei , T., Wazana, A., Pitrou, I., Gilbert, F., & Kovess, V. (2009). Self-reported peer victimization and child mental health: Results of a cross-sectional survey among French primary school children. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 30,300-309.\n\nOne of the most widely used definition of bullying is provided by Olweus-“A person is bullied when he/she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more persons.’’ Bullying predicts concurrent and future psychiatric symptoms into adulthood. The prevalence of bullying ranges from 9% to 54%. The current study aims to estimate the prevalence of self-reported bullying among a sample of school-aged children, to identify the correlates of bullying, and to examine the parent-reported health care services’ use.\n\nMethod: 99 schools in France were selected to participate with 25 children (6-11 years old) per school. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was given to the parents, and the Dominic Interactive was given to the students. The Dominic Interactive is a self-report survey for young children based on 91 cartoons, which generate probability diagnosis for seven mental health disorders: specific phobia, major depressive disorder, separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder. To assess the bullying, three additional drawings with three questions were used; have you ever been physically attacked, have you ever had your belongings taken away by force, and do you fear being attacked? were the questions utilized. Four categories were derived: assaulted and scared (yes to 1 or 2, yes to 3), assaulted and not scared (yes to 1 or 2, no to 3), scared not assaulted (no to 1 or 2, yes to 3), and not scared not assaulted (no to 1 or 2, no to 3). Child psychopathology was assessed by parents using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Children’s contacts with mental health professionals and physicians in the past year were assessed with the questionnaire of the parents.\n\nResults: The prevalence of children being bullied was 21% whereas the prevalence of children of being assaulted, not scared, or scared, not assaulted was 19.6% and 19.7%. Young age (6-8), male gender, low family income and parental education, parental unemployment, urban setting, and disadvantaged school area were the main characteristics significantly associated with peer victimization. The correlates for being bullied were 6-8 years old, chronic illness, internalizing psychopathologies, and peer relationship difficulties. Mental health professional were accessed by 11.2% of children. Access to physicians was less frequent for those who were bullied.\n\nDiscussion: Peer victimizations starts at a really young age. A study by Kim et al. suggested that psychopathology, including social problems, aggression, and externalizing problems was a consequence of bullying. Victim-perpetrator children have a greater risk of developing multiple psychopathologies, including those with conduct and anxiety disorders. Despite its correlates with mental health, bullying was not associated with higher mental health services.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7823665142059326}
+{"content": "B. K.; Four Theories of the Press: The Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility, and Soviet Communist Concepts of What the Press Should Be and Do, Int.\n\nSummarizing Four Theories The book's title refers to four ways of thinking about the media. These are called the authoritarian, libertarian, social responsibility,\n\nUnverified images posted on social media show remains of a Russian-made Tor M-1 missile. Experts have said the fact the.\n\nI) CLASSICAL THEORIES. Authoritarian Theory. According to this theory, mass media, though not under the direct control of the State, had to follow its bidding.\n\nAuthoritarian theory describe that all forms of communications are under the. Authoritarians are necessary to control the media to protect and prevent the.\n\nThis is because, by their very nature, a royal commission is conducted under a process that can’t actually make necessary.\n\nGoogle Scholar Citation Rutashobya Quantstamp’s engineering team is familiar with software security, formal verification, static analysis and have more than 900 Google Scholar citations. Who Causality Assessment Software The Medical Branch Director is responsible for the implementation\n\n\"The missile theory is not ruled out, but it has not been confirmed yet. into the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed and.\n\nWelcome to our new article page. Tell us what you think about our new look by taking this survey. The dominant issue of the moment is whether President Donald Trump should be removed for, among other.\n\nOf course, both the Left and Right students’ outfits were caught in a war of accusations and counter-accusations in social.\n\nFrench Cultural Studies Wellesley I work in a two-person office that advises 300 students each year on semester and academic year study abroad. I am particularly involved with the Wellesley- administered programs in France and Italy (for\n\nAuthoritarianism is a form of government characterized by strong central power and limited. Andrew J. Nathan notes that \"regime theory holds that authoritarian systems are inherently fragile because of weak. and association), and an even playing field (in terms of access to resources, the media, and legal recourse).\n\nWB Games Montreal has teased a new Batman game again. The studio released images across social media, which combine into a.\n\n14 Mar 2018. Developed in 17th century England, authoritarian theory is the oldest of the four theories. It describes of a media system which acts as a.\n\nIt is argued that while the Russian media are suffering under the presidency of Vladimir Putin. Keywords Four Theories, media, neo-authoritarian, Putin, Russia.\n\nDeadpool 2 Social Justice We put our heads together to remember not necessarily the best, but the most iconic and memorable things that happened in pop. (Sony did manage to rack up $1.46 billion with a pair\n\nThe Health Education Department and health-supporting associations will also strive to launch several initiatives to mark international health days throughout the year, in addition to raising.\n\nThis Whig theory of history is as untrue now as it ever was. then by the people one meets at literary, media and academic.\n\nThe following propositions have all appeared in the Russian media over the past. lengths to 'prove' that the Kremlin's theories or bits of information were fact.\n\nDo Professors Let Students Use A Flashcard For Exams This study investigates the effect of using digital flashcards on L2 vocabulary. The website allows teachers to create a virtual class, and invite students to join. measuring learning gains using achievement pre- and\nNature Publishing Group Journals The terrorist culture and violent nature of many jihadists knows no border. Religions and religious schools must abide by the constitution when publishing religious books and journals, selling. Well, Davis had recently been\n\nThe authoritarian theory requires direct government control of the mass media. This is the oldest theory of the press which asserts the government control over.\n\nMiami Art Professor Turns Flags Into Kkk Hoods 22/08/2019 · This fear of being replaced can be traced to the French far right, but racist fears regarding supposed White genocide, and invasion by varied ethnic groups, go back centuries. White supremacists carrying\n\nSocial media can be a great thing, but at times it is exactly the opposite – antisocial. And anyway, I’d done this sort of.\n\nToday, democratic countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States are idealistically invested in supporting a.\n\nSporting News Video Hub One of the most iconic sports media brands. Conceived in 1886, Sporting News offers a trusted.\n\nIn theory, Clemson star quarterback Trevor Lawrence could have some serious options. That league since has pushed back its.\n\nC A Murray CMNS 130. Authoritarian Theory. Watch for this on your handouts in the Video Today; The media are a tool of the authority; A range of Authoritarian.\n\nMedia theory refers to the complex of social-political-philosophical principles which. Authoritarian theory (which applies to early pre-democratic forms of society.\n\n\ng) In rebelling against authoritarian theory early libertarians argued that there should be no laws governing media operations. Free press means that all forms of.\n\nHe said the theory backing this was called the “structured day hypothesis”, where the lack of structure and lifestyle changes.\n\nConflicting claims about potential causes for the disaster began hours after the crash, when Iranian state media blamed technical issues for the crash and Ukraine ruled out rocket attacks.\n\n(Biagi, 2005, p.349) Authoritarian Theory is a system of ideas based on censorship, which gives total power of media to the government or ruler and is used to.\n\nThey are great Americans, they love this country, they work so hard, and they have been so mistreated by. the liberal media.\n\nBypress, in this book, we mean all the media of mass communication, although we shall talk about the printed media oftener than about broadcast or film.\n\nIf one’s students lack that passion and intensity for their self-expression then teaching becomes a futile exercise. The.\n\n\nPress: The Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility, and Soviet. and soon became the founding text for media and journalism theory in Russia.\n\nThe Impact from four Theories of Mass Media 1. Authoritarian Theory Looked from society focused or social, there isn't something special for them. Because.\n\nIt is a normative theory of mass communication where mass media is influenced and overpowered by power and authority in the nations. Media must respect.\n\nSapeur Philosophy and their Justification – Media often describe many African cities uniformly as run down Urban slums.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6759389042854309}
+{"content": "Call Us : +86-555-2309441 Email Us :\n\nHollow glass microspheres used in insulation coatings industry\n\n2019-12-09 14:31:15 120\n\nHollow glass microspheres is a small density, glass microspheres lightweight, high strength. The main ingredient is Sio2 and Al2o3, because of its unique chemical properties, physical properties, and hollow spherical, compared with ordinary glass microspheres, light weight, low density, good heat insulation performance characteristics, is thermal insulation coatings the main raw material. Because of its smaller particle size, equal to or greater than the ordinary paint fineness of the filler, which can be added directly to the filler coating systems, the coating having a cured coating film formed by thermal insulation properties.\n\nHollow glass microspheres Application Features:\n\nThere filling performance energy efficient, low low oil, density, added 5% (wt) will be able to make the finished product increased by 25% to 35%, so as not to increase or even reduce the cost per unit volume of the coating. Hollow glass microspheres particles confined hollow spheres added to the coating formation of many independent microscopic cavity insulation, thus greatly improving the coating on the thermal and sound insulation, play a very good thermal insulation and noise reduction effect. The coating has a more waterproof, anti-fouling, corrosion resistance. When the surface of the hollow glass microspheres are chemically inert chemical resistance, as the film tightly packed particles of glass microspheres, the formation of low porosity, the coating formed on the surface of the moisture and corrosion caused by the blocking effect of ions protective film, played well protective effect.\n\nHollow glass microspheres spherical structure makes the impact force and stress have a good dispersion, added to the paint can well improve the resistance to external impact properties of the film, and the coating can be reduced due to thermal expansion and contraction the stress cracking.\n\nFilling the hollow glass microspheres can effectively reduce other expensive fillers and pigments dosage (compare with titanium dioxide, but its volume costs microspheres 1/5) effectively enhance the adhesion of the coating. Low oil absorption properties of glass microspheres so that more resin can participate in film formation, so that the adhesion of the coating increased 3 to 4 times.\n\nHollow glass microspheres, high melting point, greatly improving the coating temperature resistance, play a good role in the fire, hollow glass microspheres bearing spherical particles play a role, friction is small, can enhance the flow properties of the coating film, so construction easier.\n\nSuggested Use:\n\nGenerally added in an amount of 10% by weight of the whole surface-treated microspheres and low density, so that the paint during storage prone to viscosity increases and the floating phenomenon, we propose to increase the initial viscosity of the coating increases thickener (via the added amount of the viscosity control in 140KU above), and not because the viscosity is too low to generate the floating phenomenon, and each system in the particulate material in a decrease in activity due to the high viscosity of such a case, but is conducive to the stability of viscosity control.\n\nProposal to add the following methods:\n\nIn order to take full advantage of the characteristics of the hollow microspheres, recommended adding a last resort, that is added to the microspheres into the final as low speed mixing equipment dispersed using low shear force, because the spherical microspheres mobility well, between the friction is not large, so it is easy to disperse. You can complete a short wet, slightly extended mixing time to achieve uniform dispersion.\n\nHollow glass microspheres chemically inert, non-toxic. However, because of a very light, so they need special attention added.Recommended stepwise addition method, which is the amount for each remaining 1/2 microspheres gradually added, this can be good to avoid microspheres float into the air and dispersed more complete.\n\nThis article comes from glass-microsphere edit released", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9056071043014526}
+{"content": "Alexander Dawson School Innovation Center\n\nAlexander Dawson School Innovation Center\n\nCharged with creating a campus plan that captures Dawson’s innovative curriculum while maximizing their spectacular campus and views, HCM first embarked on a campus master plan. The team led the school through a series of on-site collaborative workshops, designed to engage the entire Dawson community in the process. With a top priority being the creation of a new Innovation lab, the plan also explored ways to better align the facilities with the school’s different divisions and departments, while also creating a cohesive campus feeling.\n\nThe building is envisioned as a K-12 science building, with science classrooms and labs for grades 6-12, including one room for elementary science. The science curriculum is supported by a shared makerspace and associated wood and metal shops and storage. The Innovation Center also contains a campus welcome center, the first destination for visitors and prospective students.\n\nThe building is designed with materials, proportions and size compatible with the existing nature of the Dawson School Architecture. The experience within the building is meant to connect to the outdoors through intentional visual connections to other buildings and campus features. The experience from campus is to connect with the indoors through visibility into a makerspace, putting the internal activities on display, and spreading internal functions out into the campus landscape.\n\n\nThe Alexander Dawson School\n\n\nLafayette, Colorado", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9188510775566101}
+{"content": "The Stained Club\n\nM. Lopez, S. Boucly, M. Ciesielski, A. Jaunet, C. S. Peang, B. Viguier\n\n\nFinn has stains on his skin. One day, he meets a group of cool kids with different stains on their bodies. One day, he understands that these stains aren’t just pretty.\n\nDirector Biography\n\nMélanie Lopez, Simon Boucly, Marie Ciesielski, Alice Jaunet, Chan Stéphie Peang and Béatrice Viguier have graduated from Supinfocom Rubika school (Valenciennes, France) with a Master’s in Digital Directing. In 2018, they co-directed the short film The Stained Club.\n\nFilm details", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.802066445350647}
+{"content": "Auditory Processing Disorder Report\n\nBack to Free Resources\n\nAuditory Processing is basically the role the brain plays in the hearing process which ultimately enables us to develop learning skills. Essentially, it is our brain and not our ears that hear. The ears play the part of sending raw information on for further analysis where, all being well, it is eventually deciphered by the hearing centres in our brain. How well the raw information is interpreted by the brain depends on our level of Auditory Processing skills which are primarily developed during the critical periods of language learning, between the ages of 6 months to 3 years. People with Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) have difficulty understanding instructions and sustaining attention, particularly in the classroom environment where there is frequently competing background noise. The sounds of peers whispering or talking, traffic, as well as lawnmowers or children playing outside, are just some of the common classroom distractions that make learning very difficult for these children.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6582776308059692}
+{"content": "No:hj Botanical Cotton Sheet Mask - Refreshing\n\n$1.50 was $4.00\n\nThis variant is currently sold out\n\n\nNo:hj Botanical Cotton Sheet Mask is made from 100% Cotton that gently adheres to the skin. Made with the world's first Han-ji packaging with is Eco-friendly. This mask sheet provides water rich in botanical ingredients effective for moisturization of the skin. The mask has a safe preservation of the key ingredients to ensure you receive all the goodness! \n\nHow to use\n\nAfter washing face, prepare skin with Toner. Apply the masks onto evenly onto your face. Remove after 15-20 minutes and gently pat to fully absorb the remaining essence.\n\nSimilar Products", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9884772300720215}
+{"content": "Pharma Admission\n\npharma admission\n\n\nCurrent FDA-approved Alzheimer drugs support this communication process through two different mechanisms:\n1) Cholinesterase inhibitors work by slowing down the disease activity that breaks down a key neurotransmitter. Donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine and tacrine are cholinesterase inhibitors.\n\n2) Memantine, the fifth Alzheimer drug, is an NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor antagonist, which works by regulating the activity of glutamate, a chemical messenger involved in learning and memory.\n\nMemantine protects brain cells against excess glutamate, a chemical messenger released in large amounts by cells damaged by Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders. Attachment of glutamate to cell surface \"docking sites\" called NMDA receptors permits calcium to flow freely into the cell. Over time, this leads to chronic over exposure to calcium, which can speed up cell damage. Memantine prevents this destructive chain of events by partially blocking the NMDA receptors.\n\nOn average, the five approved Alzheimer drugs are effective for about six to 12 months for about half of the individuals who take them.\n\nAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative process characterized by a progressive loss of cognitive abilities, such as memory, language skills, disorientation, attention, and depression.11\n\nAlthough the etiology of AD is still poorly understood, several factors such as\n* amyloid-β (Aβ)deposits,\n* ς-protein aggregation,\n* oxidative stress or\n* Low levels of acetylcholine are main factor in the pathology of the disease.\n\nIn spite of the lot of research effort, an efficient strategy for designing new drugs for the treatment of AD is still lacking.\n\nFactors involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Abbreviations: Ab, b-amyloid; APP, amyloid precursor protein; PS1, presenilin 1.12\n\n2.1 Till the research which has been done or undergoing includes-2.1.1. Acetyl cholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors13-\nThe cholinergic theory suggests that the selective loss of cholinergic neurons in AD results in a deficiency of acetylcholine (ACh) in specific regions of the brain that mediate learning and memory functions. Consequently, three acetyl cholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors have been approved for commercial use.\n\nThus, donepezil, rivastigmine, and galanthamine improve AD symptoms by inhibiting AChE, (the enzyme responsible for the hydrolysis of ACh, thereby raising the levels of ACh in the synaptic cleft.\n\n2.1.2 β-secretase inhibitors15\nThe proteolytic enzyme β-secretase (BACE1) plays a central role in the synthesis of the pathogenic β-amyloid in Alzheimer’s disease.The pathological hallmarks of AD include the aggregation and extracellular deposition of β-amyloid peptide (Aβ), which leads to plaque formation, and the abnormal hyperphosphorylation of tau protein, which leads to the intracellular formation of neurofibrillary tangles.\n\nPlaques and tangles in the cerebral cortex in Alzheimer’s disease\n\nβ-amyloid deposits are predominately aggregates of the Aβ peptides (Aβ, 39– 43 residues) resulting from the endoproteolysis of the amyloid precursor protein (APP).\n\nThese peptide fragments result from the sequential cleavage of APP, first at the N-terminus by β-secretase enzyme (β-site APP cleaving enzyme, BACE1), followed at the C-terminus by one or more γ-secretase complexes (intramembrane aspartyl proteases), as part of the β-amyloidogenic pathway.\n\nIn the pathogenesis of the disease Aβ plays a central role.\n\nThus, processes that limit Aβ production and deposition by preventing formation, inhibiting aggregation, and/or enhancing clearance may offer effective treatments for AD.\n\nSince β-secretase mediated cleavage of APP is the first and rate-limiting step of the amyloidogenic processing pathway, BACE1 inhibition is considered a prominent therapeutic target for treating AD by diminishing Aβ peptide formation in AD patients.\n\nExample- pyrrolyl 2- aminopyridines as BACE1 inhibitors.\n\n2.1.3. γ-secratase inhibitor17-\nIn AD protein aggregates in the brain composed of the amyloid-β-peptide (Aβ), which is called amyloid plaques.\n\nThe amyloid-β-peptide is generated by the subsequent degradation of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), a type I transmembrane protein, by two aspartyl proteases, the β-secretase and the γ-secretase. The γ-secretase is a promising target for therapeutic intervention as it liberates various Aβ-peptides with a length of 38, 40, or 42 amino acids. The toxicity depends on the length:Aβ42 is the most toxic species while Aβ38 is regarded to be nontoxic as increased production of Aβ38 does not diminish cellular viability. Several γ-secretase inhibitors (GSI), which decrease total Aβ levels, are developed.\n\nExample- casein kinase 1e (CK1e) inhibitor.\n\nAPP processing pathways\n\n2.1.4. γ-secretase modulators18-\nUnfortunately, GSIs also inhibit cleavage of other secretase substrates, including Notch. It is this inhibition of Notch processing which is responsible for adverse events in clinical trials, particularly gastrointestinal and immunological toxicities.In contrast to GSIs, compounds known as γ-secretase modulators (GSMs) inhibit Aβ42 production without interfering in the processing of Notch and other substrates.\n\nThey are thought to intervene at an allosteric site on γ-secretase and shift the APP cleavage site so that shorter, soluble, non-toxic peptides (e.g., Aβ38) are produced instead of the highly insoluble and neurotoxic Aβ42.\n\nDerivatives of COX inhibitors functioned as modulators of γ-secretase independent of their COX activity. However, Flurizan is a weak GSM that failed in clinical trials testing its ability to treat Alzheimer’s disease.\n\n\nSUBMIT YOUR ARTICLE/PROJECT AT articles@pharmatutor.org\n\nSubscribe to Pharmatutor Alerts by Email", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9508899450302124}
+{"content": "Indian forest officials capture man-killer elephant\n\nForest department personnel captured a man-killer rogue elephant on March 11.\n\nThe rogue elephant named Vadakkanad Komban, which had terrorised villages in South India was captured with the help of captive elephants at Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.\n\nThe intelligent behemoth sensed that it was being tracked and fled to a marshland where it knew it would be difficult to follow it.\n\nBut the officials managed to tranquilise it, load it on to a truck and shift it to Muthanga elephant camp.\n\nA senior forest official Dhanesh Kumar said: “It will be under observation for a few days at a temporary kraal (enclosure) set up here.\"\n\nVadakkanadu Komban had killed a tribal boy in Ponkuzhi on May 30, 2018.\n\nThe same day, the Chief Wildlife warden issued an order to capture the tusker. But it managed to elude its trackers and moved into deep forest in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.\n\nThe elephant recently surfaced and began to destroy crops and threaten villagers living close to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary prompting forest officials to capture it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9740635752677917}
+{"content": "From ancient strings, a new mood for the oud\n\nFrom ancient strings, a new mood for the oud\n\nTHE origins of the oud lie in the ancient Arabic world but the music Joseph Tawadros conjures from it is forging a new music frontier.\n\nThe virtuoso Sydney musician has transformed the way the fretless, round-backed string instrument is viewed, taking it out of its traditional Middle Eastern setting and into the realms of classical music and jazz.\n\nJoseph Tawadros has transformed the way the oud is viewed.\n\nJoseph Tawadros has transformed the way the oud is viewed.\n\n''I can improvise in a traditional style and play traditional music,'' Tawadros says, ''but I chose to bring something a little different and new to the oud.''\n\nA headliner at this year's Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues, Tawadros' musical meeting points range from the Australian Chamber Orchestra to American jazz royalty - drummer Jack De Johnette, bassist John Pattitucci and guitarist John Abercrombie. (With his talented brother, percussionist James, they played on his critically acclaimed album, The Hour of Separation.)\n\n\nHe seeks out jazz musicians because ''these musicians have a flexibility'' he says.\n\nThe vision of the 29-year-old classically trained composer and performer was recognised in the recent ARIA Awards where he received the Best World Music Album award for Concerto of the Greater Sea. All of his eight albums have received ARIA nominations, and he has also won five Limelight Awards.\n\nTawadros' family migrated to Australia from Egypt in 1983, when he was three. Speaking from Sydney, he says he carried no memories of music from Egypt. When he was 10 an Arabic movie about Egyptian composer Sayed Darwish sparked his interest. ''They really glorified him and I guess I was attracted to that. I was just so attracted to the movie that I really wanted to get the instrument and start learning.''\n\nAs he progressed, he yearned to visit Egypt, where his maternal grandfather, Mansi Habib, was a composer and oud player.\n\n''You hear all these stories and you kind of fantasise about going back. Knowing my grandfather was an oud player was a factor.''\n\nVisiting Egypt when he was about 14, Tawadros came under the patronage of an uncle, Yacoub Mansi Habib, a pioneering Egyptian trumpeter. He went on to complete a bachelor of music at the University of New South Wales, where he was awarded a Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music.\n\nLebanese-born poet Kahlil Gibran has inspired three albums including Tawadros' solo oud album, The Prophet.\n\n''He is an amazing poet and has a strong message. I kind of see a parallel between [the two of us] in basically being from an Arabic background and living overseas, but trying to create something that is for everyone, rather than just leaning to the words [of] the Middle East.''\n\nTawadros' music is intricate. ''I see a shape in phrases and when I come to notate it, the phrase really dictates the rhythms so I don't set out to compose in 7/8 or 4/4. It just seems to happen and that's why a lot of my tunes have broken bars and uneven time signatures.''\n\nHis latest album, not yet released, was recorded in New York this year with a line-up including American jazz banjo player Bela Fleck, electric bassist Richard Bona, Hammond organist Joey DeFrancesco, Roy Ayers on vibes, Howard Johnson on tuba and Jean-Louis Matinier playing accordion, and brother James. For Wangaratta, he will perform in the Joseph Tawadros Jazz Project with pianist Matt McMahon, bassist Steve Hunter and James.\n\nThe Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues runs from Friday, November 2, to November 5. 2012.\n\nAndra Jackson is a freelance journalist who specialises in world music and jazz. Her brother Adrian is the artistic director of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues.\n\nMost Viewed in Culture", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9468490481376648}
+{"content": "The Walls were Shaking, the Earth was Quaking\n\nRelease Date:\n\nEverybody remembers the shaking.\n\nThe Walls were Shaking, the Earth was Quaking...\n\nThe Walls were Shaking, the Earth was Quaking\n\n(Public domain.)\n\nThe October 15, 2006 magnitude-6.7 earthquake will also be remembered for the blackouts, damage, and/or closing of a few local icons like the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, the Hulihe`e Palace, and the Kalahikiola Church in Kohala. But the 15-20 seconds of strong shaking is an experience that will not be forgotten.\n\nThe shaking is, of course, what caused the damage. Most people are familiar with the magnitude of an earthquake, and some know that earthquake magnitude is related to the logarithm of the earthquake's energy. But we don't experience the earthquake energy directly - we experience the ground shaking.\n\nFor any given earthquake, the intensity of shaking depends on how far you are from the epicenter and what kind of material you are on. If you were on the same type of ground, the shaking would be more intense closer to the quake's epicenter. However, thick soils amplify earthquake shaking. For example, just 0.5 m (1.5 feet) of ash or soil can double the shaking that would be felt on a barren lava flow at the same distance from the earthquake epicenter.\n\nHow do we measure the intensity of shaking? Almost all of HVO's seismic instruments are designed to detect earthquakes with magnitudes up to about 4. These instruments are very sensitive, and we generally locate them well away from roads and surf to avoid noise caused by ocean waves, cars, and people. Stronger earthquakes drive our instruments off-scale, and we lose the kind of data that would help us estimate shaking intensity.\n\nThe U.S. Geological Survey has installed specialized instruments, called Strong-Motion recorders, inside buildings at more than 30 locations in Hawai`i. These instruments are designed to stay on scale even during the strongest earthquakes.\n\nStrong-Motion recorders measure the acceleration of the ground, whereas the sensors deployed in our regular network measure ground velocity. As you may remember from high school physics, acceleration is the time-rate of change of velocity, and force is equal to mass times acceleration. Not only do the strong motion recorders stay on scale, they also measure the very thing we need to estimate the magnitude of shaking forces - acceleration.\n\nFor easy comparison, these values can be scaled to an acceleration we are all familiar with - the acceleration of gravity. For example, a shaking intensity or peak ground acceleration (PGA) of .1g is an acceleration equal to 1/10th that of gravity.\n\nThe largest values of acceleration were recorded for the magnitude-6.7 earthquake. As expected, the accelerations measured for each earthquake were higher for sites on ash or soil. The PGA measured on hard lava at `Anaeho`omalu was .18g, even though that location was almost directly the earthquake. The largest PGA measured anywhere was 1.0g at the Waimea Fire Station, more than 33 km (21 miles) away from the epicenter but on thick soil. The Waimea firemen were shaken by forces 5 times stronger than guests staying in hotels right over the earthquake.\n\nA similar discrepancy can be seen when looking at the measurements around Hilo at sites that are all about the same distance from the earthquake's center. Acceleration values measured just north of the Wailuku River (on Mauna Kea ash) were 3-5 times what was measured in Hilo itself (on hard lava). Again, ash and soil amplified earthquake shaking.\n\nTo make these numbers more real, compare them to accelerations most of us experience in one direction. Every time you take off in a commercial airliner, you are experiencing accelerations of around 0.1g. This was similar to the PGA experienced by those in Puna, Ka`u, South Hilo, and Maui County. A passenger in a car that accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 10 seconds experiences 0.25g. This level of PGA was experienced by people in the Humu`ula Saddle area, and north and south Kona (except at Kona Hospital). Only northern Hamakua, Waimea, Kohala and Kealakekua (Kona Hospital) experienced stronger shaking.\n\nImagine these forces alternately exerted on you in opposite directions, and you can relive the October 15th earthquake!\n\n\nVolcano Activity Update\n\nThis past week, activity levels at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano have remained at background levels. The number of earthquakes located in the summit area is low (usually less than 10 per day are large enough to locate).\n\nEruptive activity at Pu`u `O`o continues. On clear nights, glow is visible from several vents within the crater. Lava is fed through the PKK lava tube from its source on the southwest flank of Pu`u `O`o to the ocean. About 1 km south of Pu`u `O`o, the Campout flow branches off from the PKK tube. The PKK and Campout tubes feed two widely separated ocean entries, at East Lae`apuki and East Ka`ili`ili, respectively. Both entries are located inside Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.\n\nA third entry, fed by an offshoot of the Campout flow, has been active since December 26. It is located at Kamokuna, about midway between the two older entries. In the last week, intermittent breakouts from the Campout tube have continued on the slope of Pulama pali and on the coastal plain.\n\n\nThere were two earthquakes beneath Hawai`i Island reported felt within the past week. A magnitude-2.0 earthquake occurred at 10:55 p.m. H.s.t on Friday, January 5, and was located 4 km (2 miles) east of Honaunau at a depth of 10 km (6 miles). A magnitude-2.2 earthquake occurred at 10:36 p.m. on Wednesday, January 10, and was located 9 km (5 miles) northeast of Waiki`i at a depth of 12 km (8 miles).\n\nMauna Loa is not erupting. During the past week, earthquake activity remained low beneath the volcano's summit (one earthquake was located). Extension of distances between locations spanning the summit, indicating inflation, continues at slow rates.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9468320608139038}
+{"content": "swizzor | WeLiveSecurity\n\n\nMalware Trying to Avoid Some Countries\n\nThere are different techniques that can be used by a program to identify in which country it has been installed. It can check for time zone information, public IP addresses or even domain names. Lately, we have seen two different malware families trying to discover their geographic location in an effort to avoid infecting PCs", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999879002571106}
+{"content": "CIHA 2016 in Beijing\n\n34th World Congress of Art History\n\nAbout History Press Release Sessions Schedule Activities Participants Venue Discussion Registration Closed\n\nSchedule of Session 18.pdf\n\nSchedule of Session 18.jpg\n\nPerspective for the Session\n\nIntroduction by Eugene Wang\n\nThe question of medium or media has emerged as one of the dynamic frontiers in recent art theory and practice. The outgrowth of medium-specificity, the exaltation of—or ambivalence about—the “postmedium condition” in the wake of conceptual art practice and dematerialization, the rage of the new media led by technological advances, and the radical revisionism of the old media in light of the new media, all converge on this question of medium. While medium is commonly understood to be an elusive crossover between material /technical support on the one hand and social practice and cultural conventions on the other, weighing on either side of the equation results in different medium talks. Recent surging interest in automatism, projective technology, new materialism, and object-oriented ontology further fuel the debate: Is medium primarily matter or mind, or both? Convergence of old and new media also raise questions about the agency driving the change in visuality: is it technological or cognitive, material-derived or human-based, or both? How does image as the media currency inflect or constitute our worldview? How do we reconcile the palpable presence of image-driven “mediascape” with the immaterial “non-site” of medium (i.e., medium is at once everywhere and nowhere)? How is this paradox played out in globalization? The panel invites papers that address these media-related issues, either as defined above or beyond.\n\nIntroduction by Rick Asher\n\nFor the session on Media and Visuality, we ask not only how the globality of the present information age impacts the formation of cultural identities but also to what extent it actually does so. The world, we argue, has long been connected, but generally in ways that preserve the cultural identity of individual groups, for example, the merchants who established trade depots, as Philip Curtin called them, far from home. But they were not isolated, and aspects of their culture, including visual imagery, were often shared distant from home, for example, Buddhist and Hindu merchants from India settled along coastal Southeast Asia and China, whose religion, and the visual imagery that accompanies it, came to be adopted by host cultures. \n\nThe Questions and Issues\n\nHow, we ask, is that different from the present age in which instantaneous communication, including sharing of visual imagery, makes possible a more homogeneous world culture. Or does it? Do present-day artists in Southeast Asia or China, for example, areas impacted by Buddhism and Hinduism of Indian trade diasporas, now lose cultural identity, or do there remain distinctive features to the contemporary art of these regions. Do we need to assume a dominant artistic culture, i.e. the Euro-American artistic practice and forms that modern media spreads, and is universally adopted? Or might there be examples of the reverse, that is, like the Japanese Ukiyo-e impact on French artists late in the 19thcentury, Euro-American artists who find stimulus from the visual cultural production elsewhere in the world? Above all, given the importance of media, we ask about the role of diverse media in shaping global arts, creating an environment of both sharing and resistance, of national or regional artistic dialects, and an audience that might respond favorably or antagonistically to the visual production.\n\nThe Papers We Envision\n\nWe seek papers that not so much celebrate the globalized visual culture made possible by the Internet and related means of sharing but rather ones that critique the notion of a commonly shared visual world. As we think of literature, for example, we note the highly distinctive forms that are culturally unique developed by Latin American authors such as Gabriel GarcíaMárquez and Roberto Bolaño, whose prose would never be imagined as global except in terms of the audience for it. Can the same be said of the visual arts? Or do we look at Ai Wei Wei and AnishKapoor as artists but not regionally specific ones? What, then, are the impacts of “common time” and the breakdown of spatially distinctive entities?\n\nDraft Call for Papers\n\nSince time and space – faster movement of time and fuzzier definitions of space – have changed the ways in which people interact in the present day, we seek papers that will explore case studies, e.g. artists or movements that are impacted by the more intimately connected world. We could imagine, for example, papers on performance art in Asia or Latin America but asking, at the same time, about the ways in which performance is significantly different from premodern practice. We could imagine papers that focus on audience, as much as practice, and the ways in which reception of new artistic forms is shaped by communication in a present not impeded by constraints of slow communication. And finally, though not exclusively, we seek papers that examine popular participation, recognizing that even patronage for artistic production is no longer entirely the province of the politically and financially elite. Do art historians, for example, shape taste? Is there truly today a pop audience for the visual arts as there is for music, one that not only consumes but also shapes the production of visual art?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7867453098297119}
+{"content": "\n\nAdded page and all images.\n\n8.8 Apply mediation\n\nThe Apply mediation form (Time dynamic (Ecosim) > Input > Mediation > Apply Mediation) is used to apply the trophic mediation functions you defined using the Mediation form.\n\nBefore using the Apply mediation form, you must first define at least one trophic mediation function following the instructions for using the Mediation form. It is recommended you first read the introductory material on Linking mediation and time forcing functions to trophic interaction rates to understand how trophic mediation functions are applied in Ecosim.\n\nSelecting Apply mediation opens a form that consists of a grid representing predator (j) / prey (i) interactions (Figure 8.13). Predators are represented in columns with prey in rows. Predator/prey interactions, as defined in the Diet composition are indicated by white cells.\n\n 1. To apply a trophic mediation function, click once in the i,j cell representing the predator/prey interaction to which you wish to apply the function. This will open the Apply forcing and mediation functions dialogue box (Figure 8.14). The affected prey and predator group will be displayed at the top of the form.\n\nNext, select the parameter to which the mediation multiplier is to be applied using the radio buttons at the bottom of the dialogue box. There are four possible options:\n\n 1. Multiply overall predator rate of effective search (ai,j), for example to represent time-varying turbidity changes that affect predator search efficiency or mediation effects of algal biomass on search efficiency.\n 2. Multiply vulnerability exchange rate (vi,j), for example to represent increased movement rates of prey into vulnerable behavioural state at times when water mixing rates are higher;\n 3. Multiply area of foraging arenas (divide ai,j by multiplier), for example to represent increase in habitat area available for juvenile fish refuges;\n 4. Multiply area (divide ai,j) and also multiply vi,j, for example to represent increase in safe foraging habitat available to a predator that feeds on prey that become available in foraging arenas through passive drift/mixing processes such that increasing area used by predator results in higher proportion of total prey population being available in foraging areas at any moment.\n\nThe selected modifier will be shown in the Applied shape functions window (Figure 8.14).\n\n 1. Next, select the desired mediation shape from theAvailable shape functionswindow at the left of the dialogue box by clicking the green arrow. This will move the shape function into the Applied shape functions window. You can remove a shape from this window by clicking the remove button immediately below the green arrow. Note that a common form is used to apply Mediation and __Seasonal/Forcing__? functions. Do not select a seasonal or forcing function.\n 1. Finally, click OK. You should see the number of the mediation function (preceded by ‘M’) you selected in the predator/prey cell.\n\nNote that you can apply up to five seasonal, forcing and/or mediation functions to each predator-prey interaction.\n\nClear all\n\nYou can clear all applied seasonal, forcing and/or mediation functions from the predator-prey grid by selecting Clear all from the top of the Apply mediation form.\n\nTo apply a mediation function to the interactions between a particular predator and all of its prey species, click on the number of the predator at the top of the form. When the Apply forcing and mediation functions dialogue box opens you will see a message at the top of the box reflecting that all the prey are affected.\n\nFigure 8.13 The Apply mediation form.'\n\nFigure 8.14 The Apply forcing and mediation functions dialogue box. Select only Mediation shapes.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999039173126221}
+{"content": "The Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and the Importance of Precedent\n\n18798830_mlDecember 16 is the 243rd Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. The British taxed tea, the colonists got mad, dressed up like Indians, and tossed the tea into the ocean—that’s a fair summary of what most Americans know about the Boston Tea Party. It was, we are told, a mere tax protest that shows how Americans like to hang on to their hard-earned money.\n\nIf this is the extent of our knowledge of the Tea Party, we are missing the key point of this protest and its lessons for today.\n\nAlthough the Tea Act of 1773 actually reduced the price of tea, the colonists felt compelled to take action to prevent Parliament from setting a revenue precedent. Under commercial rules, a ship entering a colonial harbor was not permitted to leave without offloading its cargo. If the tea was offloaded, a duty would be paid; if it was not offloaded within twenty days, the cargo would be seized by customs officials who would retain a portion of the merchandise to satisfy the duty. The Tea Party occurred on the nineteenth day that the ships bearing tea had been in the harbor. The colonists destroyed the tea so it could not be seized by the customs officials and the duty technically “paid” to form the basis of a precedent.\n\nBecause it was unwritten, the British constitution necessarily relied more on custom or precedent than the current United States Constitution. Precedent certainly carries much weight in the American system, but those unhappy with precedent may also turn to the Constitution’s text and history when arguing for the overturn of precedent. With no text, and therefore no discussion or debate prior to adopting the text, British subjects necessarily were limited to the custom of the realm as evidenced by prior course of conduct. Accordingly, when subjects feared that Parliament or the king was inserting a dangerous innovation into the constitutional order, they were duty-bound to create a “record” with protests and often refusals to abide by the unconstitutional act. If they did not create a record, a subsequent king or Parliament could build further on the precedent to infringe upon the rights of the people.\n\nAs our government establishes precedent after precedent for the expansion of its power, perhaps it’s time we started making a record. If we continue to sit by silently, officials will only build on precedents and augment their powers.\n\n\nWilliam J. Watkins, Jr. is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and author of the book Crossroads for Liberty: Recovering the Anti-Federalist Values of America’s First Constitution.\n\n • Catalyst\n • MyGovCost.org\n • FDAReview.org\n • OnPower.org\n • elindependent.org", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6053099632263184}
+{"content": "Banque Nationale Du Canada\nGet weekly updates, new jobs, and reviews\n\nWhat questions did they ask during your interview at Banque Nationale Du Canada?\n\n4 answers\n\n- Pourquoi vous avez postulez pour ce poste ?? et pourquoi la banque national??\n\n*Comment aviez-vous réussit c'est annonce?\n*combien de salaires veux-tu qu'on te payé?\n\n*As-tu marié et combien enfants ?\n\nHow do you manage priorities?\nwhat is the first thing you would do if you get the job?\n\nis your english good?\n\nwhat have you previously done to help you in the position you are applying for? give concrete exemples.\n\nGive an example of how I would be an asset to the company.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9005891680717468}
+{"content": "The Military Ruse\n\n\n\nThe Military Ruse\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7 Ways To Fight Your Way To Deeper Intimacy\n\n\n7 Ways To Fight Your Way To Deeper Intimacy\n\n\nYou’re too sensitive.\n\nYou’re jumping to conclusions.\n\nYou can’t take a joke.\n\nYou blow everything out of proportion.\n\nYou’re making a big deal out of nothing.\n\nYou don’t have a sense of humor.\n\nYou see everything in the worst possible light.\n\nYou take things too seriously.\n\nYou feel too much.\n\nYour imagination is working overtime.\n\nYou don’t know what you’re talking about.\n\nYou think you know it all.\n\nYou always have to have something to complain about.\n\nYou’re trying to start something.\n\nYou’re not happy unless you’re complaining.\n\nYou take everything wrong.\n\nYou’re making a mountain out of a molehill.\n\nYou read things into my words.\n\nYou twist everything around.\n\nYou’re looking for a fight.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBasic Rights in a Relationship:\n\nThe right to goodwill from others.\n\nThe right to emotional support.\n\n\n\nThe right to have your feelings and experience acknowledged as real.\n\n\n\nThe right to live free from accusation and blame.\n\nThe right to live free from criticism and judgment.\n\n\nThe right to encouragement.\n\nThe right to live free from emotional and physical threat.\n\nThe right to live free from angry outbursts and rage.\n\nThe right to be called by no name that devalues you.\n\nThe right to be respectfully asked rather than ordered.\n\n\n\n\n\nAdditional Resources: \n\n\n\n15 Types Of Verbal and Emotional Abuse\n\n\n15 Types Of Verbal and Emotional Abuse\n\nHave you ever heard any of the following from your SO?\n\n • “You’re trying to start a fight.”\n • “You just want to be right.”\n • You don’t feel that way.”\n • You’re too sensitive.”\n • You’re making it a bigger deal than it is.”\n\n\n\n\nThe following evaluation comes from the book\n\nThe Verbally Abusive Relationship by Patricia Evans (3rd Edition). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8 Tips For Surviving Divorce\n\n\n8 Tips For Surviving Divorce\n\n\nThe ‘D’ Word – Divorce\n\nTwenty-five years is a long time. In my life, it encapsulated three college degrees, three houses, two beautiful daughters, dozens of camping trips, 20 years of teaching, and 20 years of living the Thin Blue Line life, which meant carrying the responsibilities of a single mom most of the time. There were years of happiness but also many years of loneliness. When my marriage of almost 25 years ended, my world ended. I was out in the ocean of anger and sadness hit by wave after wave of loss. At night, my mind would dwell on the list of things I was losing:\n\nMy home.\n\nMy name.\n\nMy identity.\n\nMy companion.\n\nMy sense of stability.\n\nMy belief in love’s power to conquer.\n\nMy in-laws.\n\nHalf my friends.\n\nMy neighborhood.\n\nMy self-respect.\n\nMy dreams and visions for the future.\n\nMy belief in happily-ever-after.\n\nMy time with my daughters.\n\nMy belief in miracles.\n\nMy faith in forgiveness.\n\nMy innocence.\n\nAs the depths of depression crept into the nethermost regions of my heart and soul, my mind wandered to death. At times, I would pray that I wouldn’t wake up in the morning. That God would take me in my sleep. I had always been a happy and optimistic person, but when the divorce came knocking at my door wielding its sword of destruction, I was completely and unequivocally unprepared to duel with it.\n\nI had no other choice but to surrender. I had to swallow my pride and reach out for help. I could barely force myself out of my bed, and that wasn’t sufficient. I had daughters who needed me. I had a job that expected me to show up and teach energetic teenagers. I had bills to pay and a new future to wrap my head around. And, although I knew some of what I had to do, I felt powerless to do it.\n\nSo, where do you start? What can help you when you find yourself face-to-face with divorce? I can only share what has begun to help me. I am still very early on in the process, but here are a few suggestions and tips:\n\n 1. Get counseling. Specifically, find someone trained in EMDR. It is a psychotherapy treatment designed to treat PTSD and anyone who has experienced trauma. Divorce is traumatic. At one of my darkest moments, when suicide felt like the best option, my therapist helped me regain control and peace through EMDR. It doesn’t solve the problem, but it helps you get on top of the waves of emotion that hit you relentlessly.\n 2. Be kind to yourself. If you need to, take sick days off from work. It’s ok if the laundry isn’t folded. Have your kids cook dinner. Allow your family or friends to clean your home. Accept any and all help offered. You may feel like you should still be able to handle it all, but trust me—you can’t! The more you try to push yourself, the more damage you will do. Your body will physically begin to revolt. You may have already noticed your hair falling out, zits popping up on your face, weight gain/loss, insomnia, anxiety, constipation or diarrhea. Your body is under extreme stress, and you need to allow people to help you.\n 3. Do one thing every day that makes you happy. For me, this took many forms. Some days I painted my nails. Sometimes it was grabbing my favorite donut. Occasionally, it was a drive up the canyon or a walk in the park. Binge-watching your favorite show on Netflix or buying that shirt you’ve been wanting is perfectly fine. Even on the days when the tears flow heavy down your cheeks, find one thing that can make you smile. Snuggle your kids. Plant some flowers. Nurture yourself.\n 4. Make a plan. There are many things that have to happen during a divorce, so write things down in your planner. Make a checklist of what needs to be done legally. There are many online sources that can help. Here is just one: Also, as key days become apparent such as the day your divorce will be final, plan activities that will help you emotionally on those days or immediately after. The grief from your divorce will come in waves. It can last for months or years to come depending on how tumultuous the process was for you. Some people feel tremendous relief while others grieve deeply. Look at the calendar and be proactive about those dates in the future that will be triggering for you.\n 5. Assemble your tribe carefully. Surround yourself with good family, friends, and support groups. Let them carry you when you’re too weak to stand. There are FB groups or local groups that you can join to find others who are struggling with the same issues you are.\n 6. Make a plan to heal. It doesn’t just take time; it also takes work. You do not need to endlessly dissect the relationship, but you should examine it so that you can learn from it. Everyone makes mistakes. Do not beat yourself up over all of yours. When a relationship ends, its demise belongs to two people, not just one. Own your part and then move on.\n 7. Live in the present. There is a surge of anxiety that comes with divorce. The future you thought you were going to have is now gone. In its place are a lot of unknowns. You will literally drive yourself crazy agonizing over those. Take one day at a time. One decision at a time.\n 8. It will get better . . . or at least that’s what they tell me. I have chosen a few key people who have walked this same path to be my mentors. They are several years down the road and many of them have new relationships. They assure me that the pain will not last forever. That the nights will stop being so dark, the days will become brighter, and eventually, I will stop praying for death to find me. Even more so, they promise me that there is life after divorce. And for now, their word is all I can go on.\n\n\nIn the weeks and months to come, I hope to continue to process this tremendous loss. I will grieve it like death because it is. But, I refuse to let it rob me of life. I may be down, but I am not out. I will re-emerge like the mythical phoenix. I will reinvent myself, find my joy, and live again. If you are confronting divorce, I invite you to join me.\n\n\n\n5 Ways To Open the Communication\n\n\n5 Ways To Open the Communication\n\n\nJoey slammed the door behind him. Bang! This was the third argument in two weeks. What was happening? He and Julie had been dating for six months and things were glorious. They had clicked almost immediately. They had a lot in common and the chemistry they shared was off the charts. So, why couldn’t they work through these little arguments that begun to creep into their fairy tale relationship?\n\nWe all have them. Tough conversations with someone we love. The conversations where we have an internal battle between wanting to say the right things and wanting to be right, to win. Most of us know that to preserve a relationship, being right is the wrong paradigm; the kiss of death. So, what can you say when you find yourself retreating to your corner and pulling out your favorite words or phrases that signal to your loved one your superiority?\n\nDr. Brene Brown, professor, the author suggests the following questions or sentence starters:\n\n 1. I’m curious about . . . If your SO has made a statement, accusation, or criticism instead of shutting down the conversation by responding with one of your favorite conversation-ending quips, try using this instead. Staying curious about your SO is the best way to learn more about them and deepen the relationship. It invites them to continue to be vulnerable with you.\n 2. Tell me more . . . This sentence starter can help you get more of the story, understand their thinking, and even uncover underlying childhood baggage your SO may still be carrying around. The key to this is to listen without judgment. Resist the urge to correct what they may share with you. Look at it as an opportunity to learn more about how your SO views the world.\n 3. Walk me through that . . . This phrase can help you gently investigate the thought process of your SO, especially if you truly do not understand how they arrived at their conclusion. Listen patiently and attentively as they explain to you how they reached their conclusions. Remember, their logic may not be the same as yours, so this may be an opportunity to build understanding and empathy.\n 4. What’s your passion around this? This is an excellent question to use when your SO has proposed something to you that they’re excited about but you just don’t get it. Do they want to become a pickle ball champion? Are they determined to run 100 marathons? Do they want to change careers? Any of these revelations could be shocking to you, but give them the opportunity to share their passion with you. At this point, don’t try to discourage them by looking at logistics. Just watch their eyes light up as they share their enthusiasm with you.\n 5. Tell me why this doesn’t fit/work for you. This can help you in a conversation when you are negotiating or compromising on anything. Often when couples disagree, they shut down the conversation by not investigating the underlying objections their partner has. The key to having this work is to listen to what they say and be compassionate.\n\nUsing these words and phrases can help you avoid those awful stalemates that end with you driving off in your car angry and cursing your SO. These sentence starters signal to your loved one that you value them as a partner and that you sincerely want to understand where they are coming from. You may not completely embrace their perspective, but if you truly care about that person, you owe it to them to empathize with their reality. Successful couples know that if approached correctly, disagreements are an opportunity to increase your intimacy and strengthen your bond. It helps you avoid building contempt which, according to Gottman, is the grim reaper of relationships. There is nothing more beautiful than to have someone look you in the eye, pull you close, and tell you that even though they disagree with you, they value and love you more than they love their ego. That, my friends, is how true love is built.\n\n\n5 Ways To Say No! The Disease to Please\n\n\n5 Ways To Say No! The Disease to Please\n\nIf you’re like me, you often feel pressured to say yes to every request. Can you make cupcakes for Wednesday’s bake sale? Sure! After school, will you run carpool for soccer practice? You bet! Can you make dinner for Mrs. Jones who just had surgery? Absolutely! Did I truly want to say yes to any of those requests? No. The reality is that I say yes to every request because I am motivated by that dreaded disease: the disease to please. And, as a result, I end up overscheduling myself into an exhausted lump of quivering flesh by the end of the week. Not only do I end up giving my second best to my children, I leave little to no time for myself.\n\nA while ago, after several sessions with my therapist, I had an epiphany about my disease. I discovered I was trying to become this ideal superwoman who could work full time, take care of her children, teach piano lessons, take classes for personal improvement, and serve others whenever asked. If someone asked me to do something, I always answered yes because I didn’t want to hurt their feelings. If I couldn’t think of a really good reason for saying no, like a conflict in schedules, I would always feel guilty if I didn’t say yes. What my therapist helped me realize is that saying no to a request is actually saying yes to yourself. He emphasized that I should say yes to myself as frequently as possible especially to meet emotional needs, desires, and dreams. Further, he emphasized, that saying no is an essential skill in life and that there are many ways to do it in a positive, relationship-affirming way.\n\n 1. Saying no can save relationships. If you find yourself always saying yes to your SO, you may be slowly building resentment between the two of you. If your SO wants to go fishing every Saturday and you say yes but inside you feel like you would like him to fish only once or twice a month, then you need to articulate this to him. If you say yes and then resent him for it, that resentment is like a poison that builds up and destroys relationships.\n 2. Saying no is a form of self-care. It is vital for your own health to know where your limits need to be. You only have 24 hours in each day. Eight of those need to be for sleep. What are your other obligations? What is essential? What is optional? Make sure that each day you have put yourself on your schedule. Do not give away “me time.” Guard it as carefully as you would a work meeting. Creating boundaries is not a rejection of another person. It is a compassionate way of advocating for yourself.\n 3. When you say no, offer an alternative IF you feel like it. No doesn’t have to be the end of the conversation if you don’t want it to be. You can offer an alternative that you feel more comfortable with. If your friend wants to go out dancing for a girl’s night, but you are not comfortable with the bar scene, tell her, “I would love to spend time with you. Could we consider a different activity instead?” Don’t ignore the request or lie and say you’re busy. Be gracious and be honest. This will help you build your relationship by avoiding the trap of resentment.\n 4. Consider the situation in reverse. Have you ever hosted a party and had a friend arrive extremely late and then only stay a few minutes? It probably really hurt your feelings. What if that friend had been honest and said that they just couldn’t make it? You may have been sad at first, but then you would’ve appreciated the honesty and not wasted the emotional energy on worrying about if/when your friend would make her appearance at your shindig. If you’re tempted to say yes when you really need to say no, remember that people will understand when you need to turn them down. They would rather you know your limitations and honor your boundaries then agree to something you simply cannot do.\n 5. When saying no, use “I” statements. If someone wants a little more explanation when you’re turning them down, try to focus on your feelings and needs. If you don’t want to go dancing at a bar, tell your friend, “I do not enjoy the smell of alcohol. It gives me a headache, and then I feel sick the whole day after we go dancing.” This allows you to honor self and communicate your needs at the same time.\n\nFor some people, saying no is not difficult. For me, it’s extremely difficult. It feels mean. Even if I have a really great reason for saying no, I still feel like a jerk when I need to say it. What I have to remind myself is that saying no to someone is saying yes to myself. Saying yes to myself will lead to a healthier, more balanced version of me. Offering my family and friends the happiest version of me is the best gift I can give them. Steve Jobs said, “It’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.” Regardless of where you are in this journey of life, saying no will help you take time for what matters most!\n\n\nHealthy Relationship Habits\n\n\nAfter trial and error, you have finally found the one . . . the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. You are blissfully in love and enjoying every second of your courtship. You begin to plan every aspect of your lives together and possibly even a wedding. What else should you be doing at this time to give your relationship the best possible chances for a long life of successful companionship?\n\nThe Gottman Institute has presented us with some excellent suggestions for creating habits that will serve any long-term relationship well. Wise couples will be purposeful and thoughtful as they craft these habits and they will pay off big dividends.\n\n 1. Communicate often. Check in with your SO daily. Life will get busy and often you may only have 10 minutes to sit down and talk, but do not skip this vital habit. In order to get the most out of this habit, you should be sitting down with your SO in a quiet place so they have your complete attention. Do not have your phone or other device in your hand. Look each other in the eye and check in with each other. Share parts of your day. Confide in each other.\n 2. Listen to your partner. Often when we are talking with our SO, we are listening to respond. Instead, we should listen to understand. What is it that they are trying to share? How are they feeling? If your partner is telling you that they had a bad or upsetting day, offer to help them in a way that would lighten their load. Perhaps offer to cook dinner or usher them into the bathroom for a hot bubble bath while you do the dishes. These tender acts of kindness will be cherished and help to build intimacy.\n 3. Practice proper hygiene and cleanliness. When you decide to share your life with someone that also means sharing your space with them. If you tend to be on the messy side, you need to make the conscious decision to improve. Practice putting your dirty clothes into a laundry basket. Rinse out the sink after you brush your teeth. Put your dishes into the dishwasher instead of placing them in the sink after you eat. Your SO will appreciate your thoughtfulness as you begin to share space together. These may seem like little things, but over time these can become real aggravations and cause tension.\n 4. Laugh a lot. Find ways to cheer each other up by having a good laugh together. If your SO is having a rough day, make a joke or start a pillow fight. Find a fun comedy to watch or go out for some fun that will bring smiles to your faces. Laughter increases intimacy which will strengthen your relationship.\n 5. Kiss and hug EVERY time you say hello and goodbye. Physical touch builds emotional connections. Do not fall into the destructive pattern of coming and going without spending a few moments with your SO expressing your affection through touch. Investing these minutes into your SO will help them feel connected to you in a significant way during the day.\n 6. Know who you are. Do not stop improving yourself. Continue to grow and learn and set goals. Make sure you have clearly defined beliefs and values and that you have communicated these with your SO. You can do this by reading books, signing up for classes, learning a new hobby, or joining a community group. Don’t allow yourself to become stagnant or this will negatively affect your relationship with your SO.\n 7. Have a life outside your relationship. While your SO should be your whole world, the world does exist outside of them as well. Take time for yourself. Go out with your friends. Stay committed to your work schedule. If you find yourself frequently calling in sick to work, even when you’re not, just to hang out with your SO this is a red flag—you may be developing a codependent relationship. Maintain your identity that is separate from your SO and your relationship will be healthier and happier.\n 8. Have fun! Fun comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s important to take those vacations and weekend trips. However, it’s just as important to turn work into fun. When it’s time to do chores, find fun ways to do them. Create a playlist with your SO for cleaning the house. Host a monthly game night at your home and invite your friends. Don’t ever forget date night! These should happen on a weekly basis.\n\n\nRelationships take work. If you proactively begin to cultivate these healthy habits at the beginning of your relationship, then you will be on the right track to get the most happiness and satisfaction out of your relationship. You will also weather the inevitable storms that come more effectively because you will have maintained the intimacy and trust necessary to navigate the trials that you will face.\n\n\nSo Sorry\n\n\nSo Sorry\n\nCrash! My head jerked around at the sound of breaking glass. In horror, I saw my son pull the table cloth off the table, and with it my cherished heirloom candy dish from my great-grandmother. A gasp escaped my lips and my son looked, wide-eyed into my face. A look of terror twisted his beautiful features and tears sprang to his eyes. “Mommy, oh no! Mommy! I’m so sorry. You can fix it, right?” he stammered as I knelt beside him, gently picking the broken fragments off the floor and piling them into the garbage can. I did my best to keep my anger at bay as he climbed into my lap and smothered my face with kisses. He knew what he had just done was wrong, but there was no way his four-year-old brain could possibly fathom the depth of sadness and loss I felt at that moment as I scooped the pieces of this treasure off the floor. After I was done, I held him in my arms as he continued to frantically apologize. I must admit, it was hard for me to forgive my son for what he had done. What he did was something that could not be fixed or replaced. But, he was quick to identify that he had done something wrong and offer a heart-felt apology. For the sake of our relationship, I knew I needed to work through my feelings of loss and learn to forgive him.\n\nWhether it is a child, a best friend, or your sweetheart, there will come a time when you will do something that will hurt them. It might be something small like eating the last piece of chocolate cake that they had been eyeing all day in the fridge or something really big that cut them to their core. We will all have cause to apologize. However, not all apologies are the same. The only thing worse than no apology at all is an apology that is a non-apology; one that places the blame for the action back on the person who was hurt. Have you ever found yourself saying, “I’m sorry that I yelled, but you make me so crazy!” That is a non-apology. It excuses your poor behavior and puts the blame on the person you hurt. It takes courage to admit you were wrong and that you hurt someone you care about. It takes even more courage to stand in front of them and express your apology to their face and wait patiently for their reaction. If you find yourself expressing too many non-apologies, trying using the Why-Because formula. Explain what went wrong and then acknowledge your fault. Then follow it up with AND . . . This is the part where you propose a solution. That is the real sweet spot of an apology. This is where you show the other person you how you plan to stop that same mistake from ever happening again.\n\nThis is what it looks like. Jessica got so busy talking with her best friend Mary at lunch that she missed her boyfriend’s backyard party he threw for his new boss. Jessica knew this hurt him deeply. Instead of excusing her poor choice, she owned it outright. After the party, she sat next to Mark and said, “Mark, I am so very sorry that I missed your party. I know that you were very anxious about putting on a fun get together for your boss and coworkers and you needed me here to help you. It was selfish of me not to pay closer attention to the time. In the future, I will set alarms on my phone to make sure I’m home one time. In fact, I will make sure to schedule my lunches with Mary at a different time so there is no conflict with your important plans.” After Jessica apologizes, she needs to give Mark time to process the apology. She cannot expect him to forgive her immediately. He may need some time to let the sting of disappointment and hurt die down. What matters most is that Jessica takes full responsibility for her mistake and that she pays close attention to her words and tone while she expresses that to Mark. If she had said, “Mark, I’m sorry I missed your party, but you know how I am around Mary. Besides, I really wasn’t that interested in meeting your boss anyway. Just get over it.” That would hurt the relationship more than if she hadn’t apologized at all.\n\nThe last rule of an effective apology is to stop repeating the behavior. If you apologize to someone and then continue the behavior that hurt them, you cannot expect them to keep forgiving you. One of the best apologies is changed behavior.\n\nApologizing will never be easy. It requires humility, vulnerability, integrity. But it is absolutely vital for the health of all relationships. If you find that you are not apologizing on a somewhat routine basis, you may want to check and see how in-tune you are with your relationships. We are all human and as such we will be routinely stepping on someone’s toes. Apologizing isn’t something you do only when you feel you did something wrong. It is also something you do when someone feels wounded by your words or actions. Apologies are excellent tools for showing someone that you value them and the relationship more than you value your ego or being right.\n\n\n\n\nThe Power of Paradigm Shifts\n\n\nThe Power of Paradigm Shifts\n\nJaunice spent all of her 20s and most of her 30s dating the wrong men, trying fad diets, spending hundreds of dollars on therapy, and failing to keep her New Year’s Resolutions. One Friday evening, alone again, she wept bitter tears as she snuggled in her bed and finished off a pint of chocolate ice cream. She knew the secret to success was out there, but why couldn’t she find it? Then one day, she found it in the least likely place—a sticky note on her coworker’s cubicle.\n\nImage result for growth mindset\n\n“Hey, Jared, what is this sticky note all about?” Jaunice queried. “Oh, that’s just to remind me not to get stuck in a toxic loop when I get frustrated with myself,” Jared responded. “I know it seems stupid, but it really works. Everyone tends to get down on themselves when they feel like they fail over and over again. They say mean things to themselves in their head. That creates toxicity and literally stops you from improving. Having alternative phrases to say can help break that toxic loop and open the door for success and happiness. I used to have to look at this sticky note 50 times a day, but now a glance once or twice will help me throughout the day. I’m reprogramming my brain!” he said with a big grin.\n\nJaunice couldn’t help but smile back at Jared’s enthusiasm. He was right, it did seem really dumb. However, she definitely could relate to having a toxic loop tape in her head. In fact, it was so toxic that it kept her from trying things because the fear of failure was too intense. After a few days of pondering the idea of changing her mindset, she asked Jared if she could copy his sticky note. She put hers up on her mirror so she could review the principles as she got ready. She also took a picture of it on her cell phone so she could review it throughout the day. When she caught herself playing the toxic loop tape in her head, she would pull out her cell phone and look at the picture. She would change the phrasing in her head to match the growth mindset.\n\nWithin just a few days, Jaunice noticed that she felt less hopeless. Her anxiety levels dropped and she began to sleep better at night. She was pleasantly surprised at how much happier she felt and this translated into all areas of her life. She couldn’t deny how powerful this simple concept was—understanding that growth takes time but that it was possible for EVERYONE!\n\nImage result for growth mindset quotes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.504764199256897}
+{"content": "Livestock movement controls were first introduced after the foot and mouth disease outbreak (FMD) in 2001.\n\nFirst published:\n12 February 2019\nLast updated:\n\nBefore that no standstill period existed, and multiple long-distance movements of livestock were considered to be responsible for significant spread of disease.\n\nThe Disease Control (Wales) Order 2003 requires a standstill period to be triggered when moving cattle, sheep, goats and/or pigs onto a holding. This prevents any of those species moving off that holding, except directly to slaughter.\n\nThe standstill period for cattle, sheep and goats is six days; the ‘Six Day Standstill Rule’ (6DSS) and the standstill period for pigs is 20 days.\n\nThe 6DSS rule exists to safeguard the health status of the national flock and herd, and to reduce the risk of a highly infectious disease outbreak.\n\nFarms observing the 6DSS rule protect the rural community and its economy, along with its trade and show activities, from the far-reaching and catastrophic effects of a disease outbreak.\n\nFarms adhering to the 6DSS rule also play a vital role in slowing the potential spread of disease. This allows the rural community, Welsh Government and its delivery partners to locate, isolate and eradicate diseases as quickly as possible.\n\nWelsh Government worked closely with the farming industry to simplify the rules around animal movements and design a scheme, which provides farmers with the option allowing the greatest flexibility of movement for trade, whilst maintaining effective disease control.\n\nIn September 2017, Welsh Government introduced the Quarantine Unit (QU) scheme. This exemption to the 6DSS is used for cattle, sheep and goats.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9596357941627502}
+{"content": "Curation: Buzzword or What?\n\nAugust 29, 2017\nOne of the most popular buzzwords in library-land at the moment is ‘curation’. It’s used to describe anything from old-fashioned collection development to human filtering activities on social media like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and blogs. The word ‘curator’ gets used too liberally to describe the stuff people do on the web and, in my humble option, dilutes and pollutes the professional things that librarians do.\n\nLibrarians are so much more than assemblers of information, but let’s begin a discussion in this column about the difference between ‘curation’ and the activities performed by librarians. Is there really any way what someone does on Facebook is remotely like the work product of information professionals in special libraries?”\n\n“Beware curation that doesn’t add focus, value and insight. That’s just noise.” – Robin Good\n\nYes, librarians are human filters—but we are so much more than that. Through professional training and experience we make critical judgments. The critical, professional thinking involved in the regular choices we make about content and process is vital to our success. That said, sadly, we often neglect to make these choices visible. There is a difference between collecting comprehensively and curation. This difference is reflected in the filters we use and the professional choices we make. Those filters may involve quality, fit for purpose, currentness, or, even more important, that most difficult filter—the single correct answer, or the ‘best’.\n\nIt’s one thing to create a bibliography or catalogue of content. That’s a foundation of the ‘stuff’ that may be needed—but it is by definition too much, too general, and too ‘meta’. Where’s the visible and real added-value in the context of the enterprise and end-user?\n\nDigital or hard copy, dashboards, webliographies, LibGuides, special collections, and more, are good starts at delivering context in a digital world; they are (hopefully) updateable, comprehensive, high quality, de-duped, and useable on an authorized basis. But, do we—often enough—make the value added by the librarian visible? I think not. We must invest more time in doing what curators really do.\n\nDefining curation\n\nThe term ‘curation’ was hijacked from the museum and gallery world. To curate something in that world is to be intimately connected to quality, provenance, and authority. When a collection is curated for a display, exhibition or show, it starts with a point of view—and often with a storyline and an intention to inform and educate. It is often built in a format that scaffolds the experience in stages as visitors engage with it.\n\nAs librarians move inexorably towards building more and more digital experiences, how do we make our value-add highly visible? How do we become comfortable with having a visible point of view? Let’s explore some definitions:\n\n“Digital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital assets. Digital curation establishes, maintains and adds value to repositories of digital data for present and future use. This is often accomplished by archivists, librarians, scientists, historians, and scholars. Enterprises are starting to utilize digital curation to improve the quality of information and data within their operational and strategic processes. Successful digital curation will mitigate digital obsolescence, keeping the information accessible to users indefinitely.\n\nThe term curation in the past commonly referred to museum and library professionals. It has since been applied to interaction with social media including compiling digital images, web links and movie files.” (Wikipedia)\n\n“A curator (from Latin: curare meaning “take care”) is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library, or archive) is a content specialist responsible for an institution’s collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material. The object of a traditional curator’s concern necessarily involves tangible objects of some sort, whether it be artwork, collectibles, historic items or scientific collections.” (Wikipedia)\n\nWhat is content curation?\n\n“Content Curation is the act of discovering, gathering, and presenting digital content that surrounds specific subject matter. Though it is still considered a “buzz word” by many in the content world, content curation is now becoming a marketing staple for many companies with a successful online presence.” (EContent)\n\nNuts and bolts\n\n“The Digital Curation Centre is a ‘world leading centre of expertise in digital information curation’ that assists higher education research institutions. The DCC is based in the UK and began operations in early 2004.\n\nThe following is a general outline of their approach to digital curation:\n\n • Conceptualize: Consider what digital material you will be creating and develop storage options. Take into account websites, publications, email, among other types of digital output.\n • Create: Produce digital material and attach all relevant metadata, typically the more metadata the more accessible the information.\n • Access and use: Determine the level of accessibility for the range of digital material created. Some material may be accessible only by password and other material may be freely accessible to the public.\n • Appraise and select: Consult the mission statement of the institution or private collection and determine what digital data is relevant. There may also be legal guidelines in place that will guide the decision process for a particular collection.\n • Dispose: Discard any digital material that is not deemed necessary to the institution.\n • Ingest: Send digital material to the predetermined storage solution. This may be an archive, repository or other facility.\n • Preservation action: Employ measures to maintain the integrity of the digital material.\n • Reappraise: Re-evaluate material to ensure that is it still relevant and is true to its original form.\n • Store: Secure data within the predetermined storage facility.\n • Access and reuse: Routinely check that material is still accessible for the intended audience and that the material has not been compromised through multiple uses.\n • Transform: If desirable or necessary the material may be transferred into a different digital format.” (Wikipedia)\n\nSo, the above lists the nuts and bolts of curation. While the terms organization and preservation describe professional skills, they’re insufficient from an end-user or enterprise standpoint to be measured easily or communicated well, in order to build an understanding of the wide impact of librarianship. As activities, they suffer from the anonymity of the team doing the work. They don’t reflect the choices made regarding what enters and doesn’t enter the collection. They hide the user experience arc about what the user goals may be in using the collections. And, most importantly, they don’t make clear the point of view inherent in the collection or curation.\n\nWhat is ‘point of view′?\n\n 1. a specified or stated manner of consideration or appraisal; standpoint\n 2. an opinion, attitude, or judgment\n 3. the beliefs or views of a large number or majority of people about a particular thing\n 4. an estimation of the quality or worth of someone or something\n\nWhen you are considering one aspect of a situation, you can say that you are considering it from a particular point of view. A person’s point of view is their general attitude to something, or the way they feel about something.\n\nThe role of ‘view’ and ‘opinion’\n\nDon’t refer to what someone thinks or believes about a particular subject as their ‘point of view’. Refer to it as their standpoint, view or opinion. You can use expressions such as ‘in my opinion’ or ‘in his view’ to show that something is an opinion, and may not be a fact.\n\nWhat is a ‘professional’ opinion?\n\nLibrarians are professionals, and our formal expression of an opinion on the worth or value or applicability of certain information in the end-user or enterprise context has value as a “professional” judgment. This is different, but related to such concepts as public opinion, group opinion, scientific opinion, legal opinion, judicial opinion, medical opinion, or editorial opinion.\n\nKey implications of curation for special librarians and information professionals\n\nIn this post, I’ve explored what curation is in the context of our work as special librarians and information professionals. I’ve also argued that we too often hide much of the true professional added value of our work. To mitigate that, I think the following activities should be added to our communication with our users—either collectively or individually.\n\n 1. Don’t neglect the importance of the cover memo. Even if this is just a handwritten note, formal memo or introduction to a report or package, ensure that you clearly state the professional decisions you made and the quality of the resources you used.\n 2. Sign your work. Don’t just sign the reference and research results deliveries to individuals and teams, also make sure that you add your authorship on digital products such as LibGuides, portals, posts, e-mails, dashboards, and e-newsletters.\n 3. Use professional language that differentiates your contribution from the original authorship of the content you provide. Start by outlining the comprehensiveness and limits of your research. Then make sure to share your opinion on the qualities of the content you’re delivering, note knowledge gaps, opportunities for further investigation, and any biases you detect. Start sentences with phrases like “In my professional opinion”, “The profession of librarianship regards this source as …”, or “This content was selected by the information professionals in our organization as authoritative and complete”, etc. Promote your personal name(s) as well as your library or team brand.\n 4. Be part of the storyline. Don’t just stay focused on your contributions to the question of the moment or the fire you’re fighting. Be clear on how what you do and what you create make a difference in the real business of your organization. Know and tell your story of impact, and commit to being known as a contributor—not only for delivering information quickly and well.\n\nIt’s simple really. Librarians do awesome work. Let’s make that clear and visible. Databases, OPACs and Google are mere collections and access points until our intelligence makes them dance. Let’s sign our work.\n\n\nStephen Abram\n\nStephen Abram\n\n\nSimilar Posts\n\nPin It on Pinterest\n\nShare This", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8061593174934387}
+{"content": "5,000.00 3,000.00\n\n\n\n5,000.00 3,000.00\n\n\n\n\nThis research examinedthe Impact of Digitalization on Broadcasting Media using a case study of Osun State Broadcast Corporation (OSBC). Findings have shown that one of the hallmark of digitalization of broadcasting media is access to multiple of channels by audience. It is of note that before the advent of digitalization majority of the people can only access between 1-2 channels but now with the help of DSTV, StarTime, GOTV and others more than 70 channels both local and foreign channel can be accessed even in the remote locations through either a dish or indoor decoder. Similarly, subscription fee, epileptic power supply and other factors has been attributed to some of the challenges facing digitalization among the people. However, questions now is when will Nigerian broadcasting media move total from analogue to digital transmission. The survey research method was used while some questionnaires were administered to the respondents in Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC). \n\n\n\n\n\nDigital television transition is the technological evolution and advance from analogue terrestrial television, which broadcasts land based (terrestrial) signals. The purpose of digital terrestrial television, similar to digital versus analogue in other platforms such as cable, satellite, telecoms, is characterized by reduced use of spectrum and more capacity than analogue, better-quality picture, and lower operating costs for broadcast and transmission after the initial upgrade costs. A terrestrial implementation of digital television technology uses aerial broadcasts to a conventional antenna (or aerial) instead of a satellite dish or cable connection.\n\nCompeting variants of digital terrestrial television technology are used around the world. Advanced Television Standards Committee ATSC is the one used in North America and South Korea, an evolution from the analogue National Television Standards Committee standard NTSC. ISDB-T is used in Japan, with a variation of it used in Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador and most recently Costa Rica and Paraguay, while DVB-T is the most prevalent, covering Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Uruguay and some countries of Africa. DMB-T/H is China’s own standard (including Hong Kong, though Hong Kong’s cable operators use DVB); the rest of the world remains mostly undecided, many evaluating multiple standards. ISDB-T is very similar to DVB-T and can share front-end receiver and demodulator components.\n\nThe switch over from analogue to digital in Nigeria is to take place in the year 2012. DTV is transmitted on radio frequencies through the airwaves that are similar to standard analogue television, with the primary difference being the use of multiplex transmitters to allow reception of multiple channels on a single frequency range (such as a UHF or VHF channel) (Wikipedia,2010).\n\nThe digital Television transition refers to the shift from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting. Many countries of the world have recognized the huge benefit which digital broadcasting offers and are making a huge effort to shift from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting.\n\nThe transition from analog to digital broadcasting involves many changing the transmission signals as well as making sure that members of the public buy high definition television sets and get rid of standard definition television sets.\n\nIn the United States of America, February17 2009 was set as a date when broadcasting in analog will be stopped and the whole country will commerce digital broadcasting.To this effect, the US congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Under this Act all local stations in the US are required to from off their analog channels and start broadcasting in digital format.\n\nThe transition to digital broadcasting will mark the end of free television programmes. However, this is not the case. While some television set may be affected by the change, others will not for example, television sets that receive cable and satellite signals will still receive signals from digital transmission. However, television sets that receive analog signals via antenna (these antennas have analog funers) will be out of place in the digital era.\n\nIn this state of affairs, old antennas will need to be upgraded to meet up with the technology. In countries like the United States of America where digital transition is planned top take off, all analog television sets will be no longer useful and will have to be dispose of perhaps shipped to other countries of the world where analog broadcasting is still used. People who wish to continue using analog television set in the U.S will need to have a converter installed. This converter changes digital signals which are broadcast to analog signal so that the television set will be able to pick.\n\nTraditionally developing countries in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia are often the dumping ground for out molded technology. The digital transition is just one example of the factors that make developing countries recipients of technology that advanced countries no longer need.\n\nDigitization programme in Nigeria commenced in Abuja on June 3, 2008, following a meeting of stake holders in the broadcast industry where forum under scored the need for Nigeria to embrace the new technology, so that the country would not be turned into a dumping ground for obsolete analog equipment reports shows that Nigeria has set June, 17,2010 as the switch- over date from the current mode of broadcasting to the netramodern digital terrestrial broadcasting the date is three years before the June 17, 2015 deadline for the entire world set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) after its congress in Geneva, Switzerland in 2006.\n\nHowever the country officially stated the digitization of its broadcast industry in December 2007, following late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s approval, directing the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the industry’s regulator to set motion and pilot the programme towards the target date (Adeniyi 2009).\n\n\n\nGenerally the advent of digital broadcast media will bring remarkable, exciting changes to broadcasting. Consumers will have many more choices from broadcast television, from sharp high-definition television programming and multicasting of niche-audience channels to new information services and computer-interactivity.\n\nBroadcasters will have new opportunities to develop innovative programming and services, along with new revenue streams and market franchises. DTV will help broadcasting evolve and compete in the new media environment, while ensuring that public interest needs are still met\n\nthrough over-the-air broadcasting. However, in the Nigeria the switch to digital television in the year 2012 is just very near. Abbas (2010) observes that it is coming on the heels of similar ‘self set’ deadlines of mostly European and African countries like Britain, Sweden, France, Kenya and South Africa among others. What remain so problematic is the likely challenges and successes of this new transition in Nigeria. This is the issue the study seeks to address\n\n\n\n • Do transition from analogue to digital broadcasting have an impact on broadcast industry in Nigeria?\n • What challenges do the transition from analog to digital pose for the broadcast station in Nigeria?\n • Has broadcasting service in the country being enhanced through the digitalised process?\n • Of what important will digitalisation bring to broadast audience?\n • What efforts have National Broadcasting Commission put in place to achieve digitalization of broadcast media before 2015 deadline?\n • Will digital transmission increase the number of available channels to audience?\n\n\n\n • To examine if transition from analogue to digital broadcasting have an impact on broadcast industry in Nigeria.\n • To know the challenges that transition from analog to digital pose for the broadcast station in Nigeria.\n • To examine whether digital broadcasting service in the country has enhanced broadcast production.\n • To examine if digital transmission increase the number of available channels to audience.\n • To study the important that digitalization will bring to broadcast audience.\n • To study the efforts that National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has put in place to achieve digitalization of broadcast media before 2015 deadline?\n\n\n\n\n\nThe study is significant because it will help the audiences especially Nigerians to strongly believe that digitalization of broadcast industry in Nigeria because its prospects can not be overemphasised.\n\nThe study is also significant in decent that television and radio are so powerful that it can influence and change the attitudes and values of those who are exposed to it.\n\nThe work will benefit the media houses and media manger on the need to move from analogue to digital.\n\nMedia, mass communication, journalism students will see reason to upgrade their skill and experience.\n\nGovernment at the national level will also find this material relevant to note the reason why Nigeria must not left out.\n\n\n\nThe research study will discuss the effect of digitalization broadcast industries in Nigeria. There are alot of limitation to be encountered on the research study such as financial constraint, time factor, in availability of materials, inability of the researcher to give in-depth information, to analyses on constitutional provisions as contained in the NBC Act about deregulation of television in Nigeria.\n\n\n\nFor the purpose of this project, there are terminologies used in the project and definition of their meanings. This is also done to ensure understanding of the project work and to avoid double meaning to the readers especially Nigerians.\n\nDigital Television Transition: The digital television transition is a process in which analog television broadcasting is converted to and replaced by digital television. This primarily involves both TV stations and over-the-air viewers; however it also involves content providers like TV networks, and cable TV conversion to digital cable (Wikipedia, 2010).\n\nBroadcasting: Is a process of disseminating information through electromagnetic waves to a large proportion of users (audience).\n\nNBC: Nigerian Broadcasting Cooperation\n\nBBC: British Broadcasting Cooperation\n\nVON: Voice of Nigeria\n\nClose Menu\n15% Discount\nNo prize\nNext time\n10% Discount\nFree Material\nNo Prize\nNo luck today\n25% Discount\nNo prize\nGet your chance to win discount code!\nOur in-house rules:\n • One game per user\n • Cheaters will be disqualified.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6176750659942627}
+{"content": "Esai Toggle\n\nDeep Underground, Oceans Of Drinking water Might be Trapped Inside a Crystal ‘Sponge’\n\nScience teachers can have to incorporate an entire new layer into the water cycle. Researchers have found out proof of a large reservoir of h2o hiding around four hundred miles beneath the surface area. The invention could completely transform our knowledge of how the world was shaped, suggesting that Earth’s h2o can have come from in just, relatively than from collisions with ma sive, icy comets. The drinking water is trapped in the blue mineral named ringwoodite that sits in the mantle, a hot, rocky layer among the Earth’s crust and outer main. Which means the water will not be the acquainted liquid, vapor or ice, but a fourth, mineral variety. We claimed previously this 12 months with a unusual diamond made Tommy McDonald Jersey up of a microscopic piece of ringwoodite that bolstered proof for your wide damp zone. It is likely the biggest reservoir of h2o in the world, and could be the source of the oceans’ liquid. The review was printed during the journal Science. The research is additionally extraordinary for your discovery that melting and motion of rock occurs in a layer from the mantle often called the changeover zone, amongst the upper and decreased mantles, the Guardian stories. Most melting was believed to come about at a great deal shallower depths. “Geological proce ses around the Earth’s surface area, these types of as earthquakes or erupting volcanoes, are Nick Foles Jersey an expre sion of what is likely on in the Earth, from our sight,” reported Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen from Northwestern College, co-author with the review.”I think we are finally seeing evidence for any whole-Earth water cycle, which can support explain the broad level of liquid water around the surface of our habitable planet. Experts have already been wanting for this mi sing deep water for many years,” he reported. The examine relied on seismometers through the U.S. and lab experiments simulating rocks le s than superior strain, says Mother nature Entire world News. “Ringwoodite right here is vital,” it notes. “Its crystal-like composition can make it act just like a sponge and draw in Josh Sweat Jersey hydrogen and lure water.” It could be a vast quantity of water, states the Guardian. “If just 1 per cent of the body weight of mantle rock situated in the changeover zone was drinking water it will be equivalent to just about 3 times the amount of drinking water in our oceans, Jacobsen stated.”\n\nArtikel ini tertutup untuk komentar.\n\nWarung Arsip Perpustakaan", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9172409772872925}
+{"content": "Tagging Classification Blog\n\nHere is my very last blog for this course. It’s sad to be ending it, but it’s also good to move on to new beginnings. Now, on to tagging classifications. I got off to a rough start with tagging, because it took me a bit to figure out cite-u-like. My first tagging system was fairly basic, starting with two or three top tags that were shortened to represent larger concepts. As I was uploading my citations for my last few blogs and the first one for April, I hand-wrote out my tags on yellow notebook sheets. I realized as I took down my first and second generations of tags, which became more complex mid-March when more tags came into the picture, that they formed categories. These categories became my final tiers that you all will see here. I use hyphens to signify tags that have relationship levels, since Cite-u-like does not allow for hierarchy of terms, and for my system to make sense, it needs to be visible.\n\nI only have one top tier tag, “knowledge”, which is shorthand for knowledge management. Each of my 38 entries has this tag. There are also second and third tiers, as well as free form tags and unique tags. This will make sense in just a minute.\n\nFirst Tier Tag: Knowledge\n\nSecond Tier Tags: Actions, Types, Communication, Community, Technology, Discipline, Tactiness, Information\n\nActions represents things that people do using KM; Types are categories of KM that emerge as groups. Community is short for “communities of practice”; communication is exactly what is states- it’s about people communicating in person and online. Technology indicates that a specific technology is discussed or where technology is the focus. Discipline indicates that a particular KM article has crossover with a specific topic or field. Tacitness indicates that it discusses that concept or mentions Polyani’s “Tacit Knowledge” quite frequently. Information is short for “information society”.\n\nThird Tier Tags: (ACTIONS) Creation, Strategy, Exchange, Transfer, Sharing, Learning, Ignoring, Control, Hiding, Analysis, Conversion; (TYPES) Business, Collaboration, Organization, Disasters, Academic, Government, Crisis, Rural, Economic, Military, History; (COMMUNICATION) Relationships; Mentorship ; (COMMUNITY) Craft, Creative, Professional, Virtual; (TECHNOLOGY)Email, EmailAlternative, Newsmedia, Socialmedia; (DISCIPLINE) Sociology, Literature, Politics; (INFORMATION) Informationinequality\n\nUnder Actions, are all of the ways that KM can be done, acted, etc. Under Types, are all of the types of places/fields/environments where KM has been studied (context). Under Communication is relationships. Under Community are the types of communities studied. Under Technology are they types of technologies that were studied in KM. Under Discipline are the types of disciplines that it can be in (literature also includes articles that had literary references). Under “Information society” is information equality. These categories are all fairly self explanatory.\n\nFourth Tier Tags: (TRANSFER) Outsourcing; (DISASTERS) Oil spill, Hurricanes, EmergencyPlanning; (SOCIAL MEDIA) Wikis, Blogs, Microblogs; (SOCIOLOGY) Social Theory; (ANALYSIS) Risk\n\nThese tags are under the third tier tags. In the tagging system, a fourth tier tag looks like this one: Actions-transfer-outsourcing. This means, that a KM related actions was taken (transfer) which is related to KM outsourcing. For disasters, these are either types of specific disasters discussed or methods of planning discussed; similarly, under social media are types of social media that are discussed in great depth. Sociology has the subtag for social theory. The last indicates an analysis of risk management.\n\nFifth Tier Tags: (MICROBLOGGING) Twitter; (SOCIAL THEORY) Socialvs.Intellectual\n\nI promise that this is my last tier of tags, then it’s on to the frequently used/easily categorized, and the unique tags. The fifth tier tag looks like this one: discipline-sociology-socialtheory-socialvs.intellectual. This is to indicate that the selected concepts are related to one another. The first tag, “Twitter” is the type of microblog that is discussed; socialvsintellectual refers to social capital vs. intellectual capital, which is a subconcept of social theory.\n\nFrequently used/ Easily Categorized Tags: Realworldapplication; theoryanalysis; theorygeneration; theorymodification; modelgeneration; Frameworkgeneration; Culture; Libraries; Web2.0Classification; Negative\n\nRealworldapplication is noted when an author actually applies KM theory to the real world (generally outside of corporate and disasters). Theoryanalysis refers to an article which spends much of it analyzing KM theory or social theory; theorygeneration is for when an author has created a new theory. Theorymodification indicates that an author has modified it to a specific use in a method that is noticeable outside of the norm. Modelgeneration and Frameworkgeneration note when an author has created either a new model or a new framework. Culture describes when an author either analyzes a general or an institutional culture or discusses a specific cultural concept. Libraries indicates that the article discusses or mentions libraries in a KM context. Web2.0Classification notes when an author has studied Web2.0 or Web2.0 specific technologies to classify them in a KM context. I thought it was significant to note when a new method of understanding KM or a narrowly focused context came up in the literature to see when authors created/generated or modified theories, models, and frameworks for new ideas or perspectives that could change the field. Negative indicates that the author’s perspective is very negative, which does seem unusual in the KM field.\n\nPeople Tags: Billgates; Orr; IsabellaofSpain; HenryFord; KingArthurreference\n\nThese tags refer to the specific persons who are either notable scholars or historic figures that are mentioned in said article.\n\nCorporate Tags: Dell; HP; Starbucks; BP; Japanautomotive\n\nThese refer to specific corporations that are well known and are mentioned here.One referes to a specific place.\n\nOther Unique Tags: KMmeetsRM; HTVE; Newsanalysis; Futurepresent; Electronic-vs-inperson; ChineseKM; Identification; CompanyPromotion; Stickiness; Storytelling; Positivecorrelation-trust-reputation\n\nThe first denotes KM meeting risk management; the next the high-risk, high tension environment KM. Newsanalysis indicates that it is an analysis of news media. Futurepresent indicates a perspective that takes in both the future and the present; Electronic-vs-inperson indicates a comparison of communication types. ChineseKM indicates a study that focuses on a Chinese company. Identification notes the identification of multiple types of KM. CompanyPromotion notes that the author is looking into methods of promoting companies. Stickiness denotes how tacit knowledge can be difficult to describe. Storytelling is exactly what is says it is, and the last tag denotes a type of relationship where a company’s reputation grows the more people trust it.\n\nThank you for reading this post. I know that it’s a bit long, but it helps to puzzle out my tagging system. Having been a Sociology major in college, I try to see the trends between different things, and this tagging system is meant to make sense of the trends which emerge between the articles themselves.\n\n\n\nKnowledge Transfer- The Firm?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWe Built this City… On Knowledge Management?\n\nAlavi (2001) points out the gaps throughout knowledge management, which hasn’t been something that’s discussed in depth in this particular field. I enjoyed that these authors discussed that people don’t necessarily follow the prescribed patterns; the idea that knowledge can be quantified or put into a box is something that this author discusses and it isn’t something that can be discussed within the confines of the discipline. Why does knowledge management seem to think that knowledge, even when it’s tacit, is something that can be boiled down to a simple concept? Alavi (2001) talks about how this presents a problem for knowledge management. It seems like everything that’s been talked about in this semester’s work feels like trying to make a magic growing towel into it’s original growing shape, rather than expanding things.\n\nLam (2009) discusses how knowledge gets transferred outside of the community as a form of outsourcing. Outsourcing information seems to follow the general trend, because jobs have already gone in that direction. It makes sense that knowledge would follow the same trend. It’s odd though how this knowledge outsourcing has been brought outside by social media- if someone moves outside of the community, then they can get information right off of Facebook or Twitter to keep up with people’s lives, instead of from their neighbors. How do we outsource information from one another? What type of information gets outsourced the most and when? Do letters count or does it need to be more formalized information or from companies? Can it be applied outside of it’s field? AKeller discusses knowledge transfer, and I have to wonder if the concept that she talks about relate to what Alavi (2001) hints at but doesn’t state directly in their discussion of KM theory.\n\nStock (2011) discusses the concept of “Information Cities” and it seems to be a bit futuristic in the imagery. Perhaps I am a bit too imaginative, but it looks like the end of “Meet the Robinsons” (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j-y_l-EH_Tk/maxresdefault.jpg) I know that this is actually about how information creates power and had positive potential for those who have access to it, like HereticalPoetical discusses. It seems like Stock’s (2011) perspective seems to have a more neutral tang than most of the other information society related articles, but it comes down to the reality of our current information access problem, which is that the rich both have the information and control it, while people with less education or money lack access to it. How does KM propose to fix this disparity? What can be done? Unfortunately, it seems like this is not something that KM wants to address.\n\n\nStock, W. G. (2011). Informational cities: Analysis and construction of cities in the knowledge society. Journal of the American Society of Information Science and Technology, 62(5), 963-986.\n\n\nKnowledge Theory\n\nBlackler (1995) studied knowledge management from the perspective of various sociological theories, including conflict, activity and other theories. This also discussed the concept of enculturation, where culture is so ingrained in people that they do not seem to realize that their behavior is based on these norms, which does seem to factor in with some of the theories that Blackler (1995) discussed, such as activity theory. The reason for this is that activity theory does involve the activities that people do in their daily lives, so thinking about it, wouldn’t enculturation be more of a factor in Blackler’s (1995) examination?\n\nTsoukas (2001) also discusses this idea when talking about language and how Castillian grammar just “was” rather than trying to have it be expressed so that people can better understand it. It seems to be an excellent example of enculturation, since people don’t often even think about institutional norms once they have adjusted to the environment. However, Tsoukas (2001) seems to favor in person communication rather than electronic formats, whereas Trkman (2011) seems to be more in favor of electronic communication assisting in building of networks between individuals within a company as well as with persons outside of the community.\n\nIt seems like so much of our knowledge organization, sharing and exchange is all couched within a specific cultural context, like Mary’s example of the fireman and RHXMAXSONLIS’s discussion of organizational culture.Why is so much of our knowledge context a bi-product of our environment? Does the rapid globalization that we are experiencing, as well as the diversification of the US affect the culture that we are couched in or is this related more towards family and friends? How do we decide what is cultural and what is merely a bi-product of information exchange?\n\nIt seems a bit confusing to try and establish which is which. What are the factors that are cultural which help people decide to share with one another? One of the rather glaring gaps between these three articles is that none of them discusses how to overcome cultural barriers, language barriers, and social customs which are different to share information with one another. How do people do this? It seems like people have always found a way to foster trade, and in our rapidly globalizing world, there must be a way for people to communicate with one another despite boundaries. I do understand the point of Tsoukas’s(2001) example, however, because so much of language is based entirely on context. In different parts of the world, the same word in Spanish can mean different things or the word will exist in one place and not another, due to having blended with native languages or neighboring languages.\n\nBlackler, F. (1995). Knowledge, knowledge work and organizations: An overview and interpretation. Organization Studies, 16(6), 1021-1046. doi:10.1177/017084069501600605\n\nTrkman, P., & Desouza, K.C. (2012). Knowledge risks in organizational networks: An exploratory framework. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 21(1), 1-17. doi:10.1016/j.jsis.2011.11.001. Available here: SSRN Print\n\nTsoukas, H. (2001). What is organizational knowledge. Journal of Management Studies, 38(7), 973-993. doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00268\n\nThe Good Old Fashioned Way?\n\nHansen (1999) discussed how different firms use a variety of knowledge management techniques to push their companies boundaries further and to become successful. Innovation was talked about, as well as the idea of having to be “cutting edge” (Hansen, 1999). It seems like survival in the business world comes down to buzzwords for creativity. It also is interesting that HP relied on using “person-to-person” communication, which seems to boil down to old fashioned word of mouth communication like Nonaka (1999) discussed. It’s interesting that one of the most effective methods of exchanging knowledge is such an old fashioned one, like stories or legends, like Kamryn discussed in this week’s post about the “Once and Future Information Society”.\n\nGoggins and Mascaro (2013) discuss rural IT firms knowledge exchange, and it seems unsurprising that the relationships forged that were considered “going native” are the ones who people talked to directly the most. While electronic communication is great, it can be hard to understand the nuances of communication on skype or chats, because of technical issues, bad lighting, poor sound, or not being able to read the other person’s’ expression. However, people’s work does tend to seep into their most direct social circles, which are usually friends and family who the person would communicate with on a daily basis, so it makes sense that professions would run in families because of the amount of tacit knowledge that could be passed on through conversation.\n\nBrown and Dugid (1991) discuss in-person communications between technology workers. Conversation seems to be a reoccurring theme, this week. Perhaps there is part of most people’s process of working through problems, that talking with someone tends to help. There are prescribed patterns that we turn to, especially with technology, such as using a search engine first or turning a device off and then on again to fix a problem. When these don’t work, we then seek out what we know first, which is exactly what the folks that Orr and Brown and Dugid (1991) discuss. It’s the idea again, that our lives become a story through the many tellings and conversations that we have. This type of conversation is what Amin (2008) would consider a “craft” oriented community of practice, since the people who work there share the same lexicon and the same type of work.\n\nAmin (2008) also discusses “virtual” communities, where people forge relationships using technology, which is what the military personnel in Nory and Mahon (2012) do to access information with one another in small information. It is interesting to think about how people have invented methods to have conversations over a short period of time at a long distance. It comes back to creativity again, as we have found a way to make our devices allow us to talk to one another.\n\nGoggins, S. P., & Mascaro, C. (2013). Context Matters: The Experience of Physical, Informational, and Cultural Distance in a Rural IT Firm. Information Society, 29(2), 113-127. doi:10.1080/01972243.2012.758212\n\nBrown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (1991). Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organization science, 2(1), 40-57.\n\nHansen, M. T., Nohria, N., & Tierney, T. (1999). What’s your strategy for managing knowledge?. The Knowledge Management Yearbook 2000–2001.\n\nJones, N. B., & Mahon, J. F. (2012). Nimble knowledge transfer in high velocity/turbulent environments. Journal of Knowledge Management, 16(5), 774-788. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.uky.edu/10.1108/13673271211262808\n\nAmin, A., & Roberts, J. (2008). Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice.Research policy, 37(2), 353-369.\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat are you not telling me? Relationships and Disasters\n\nLast time I had discussed the idea that the mind can do tricky things to us in terms of how we process things. While there is an independent portion of knowledge management, this week’s theme centers on teamwork. Connolley et. Al (2012) discusses the rarity in relationships where people lack trust with one another, and thus hide information, and how they do so via avoiding the person, their question, or giving false information. It makes me think about how trust relationships within the workplace affect those similar to the ones discussed in Wasko and Farj (2005), where the knowledge is within a contained environment. While these are opposite of one another, the fact that trust and forging connections through working with others fosters knowledge exchange is not surprising. I also think that this may be what determines knowledge sharing and who is in charge during emergency situations, as discussed by Ibrahim and Allen (2012). It also may determine who people believe and turn to in times of severe distress, such as disasters, in terms of the news media. Who do people rely on and trust and why? If people don’t rely on the media, what will happen to them- Chua (2007) mentions how despite an overload level of information, people did not understand what they were being told to do and what was going on during these disasters, which takes me back to Ibrahim and Allen (2012) by asking who were the voices that people trusted? What made the “heroes” or “leaders” step forward? Did people forge stronger communal ties during this time of trouble or did they distrust one another and hide information? I suppose it depends on the individual in question, since communal behavior and information exchange is hard to assess, given that the risks in Massingham’s (2010) discussion may be harder to apply to an emergency situation.\n\nHowever, emergency situations are a special case, and though these are relevant to KM, the workplace is also a site for knowledge management. Up to this point, I had always felt that networking was overemphasized a bit, but as HereticalPoetical states it may determine one’s job security. RHMAXSONLIS658′s “communities of practice” may be what lessens taking the negative perceptions of taking risks,, and it may promote information exchange, however this may increase knowledge hiding if the community becomes cliquey (Massingham 2010, Wasko and Farj 2005, and Connolley et. Al 2012). So the real question that this leave us with is how and why do people choose certain other persons to become a positive part of the knowledge community, while selecting others to be outsiders? Is this an organic process or is it deliberate? Does it depend on similarities or differences?\n\n\nChua, A. Y. K. (2007). A tale of two hurricanes: Comparing Katrina and Rita through a knowledge management perspective.Journal of the American Society of Information Science and Technology, 58(10), 1518-1528.\n\nConnelly, C. E., Zweig, D., Webster, J., & Trougakos, J. P. (2012). Knowledge hiding in organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(1), 64–88. doi:10.1002/job.737\n\nIbrahim, N. H., & Allen, D. (2012). Information sharing and trust during major incidents: Findings from the oil industry. Journal of the American Society of Information Science and Technology, 63(10), 1916-1928.\n\nMassingham, P. (2010). Knowledge risk management: A framework. Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(3), 464-485.\n\nWasko, M. M., & Faraj, S. (2005). Why should I share? Examining social capital and knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice. MIS quarterly, 29(1), 35-57.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7320984601974487}
+{"content": "Ultra High Speed Multi Image Fusion Engine\n\nPeriod of Performance: 10/30/1998 - 10/30/2000\n\n\nPhase 2 SBIR\n\nRecipient Firm\n\n1051 Cragmont Ave\nBerkely, CA 94708\nPrincipal Investigator\n\n\nTeraOps will design and develop a working prototype of image fusion hardware and software capable of fusing up to 30 separate real-time video images. This ultra-high speed fusion system utilizes the outstanding capabilities of the Cellular Neural Network (CNN), a massively parallel analog array computer capable of operating at more than 1012 operations per second. The processor is extremely compact, about the size of a VCR cartridge, and will consume less than 10 W of power. The fusion algorithms will generate both grey-scale and false-color images of high quality and readability. The system will evaluate each input image for its information content at each point in space and time. The output image will maximize the information content across all input images. A universal coloring scheme will generate intuitively-natural colors for sky, land, foliage and other scene components.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8311627507209778}
+{"content": "Climax & Ending of Macbeth\n\nInstructor: John Gonzales\n\nJohn has 20+ years experience teaching at the college level in areas that include English and American literature, Humanities, and Interdisciplinary Studies.\n\nGet a glimpse into the concluding scenes of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth,' and learn what makes them climactic. You'll find out why the ending of the play can truly be called 'epic!'\n\nMacduff and Macbeth Clash\nMacduff and Macbeth\n\nMacbeth and Macduff\n\nIn a 2010 production of Macbeth, I played the role of Macduff. Our version was staged in Steam Punk style, so the actors had a cool visual atmosphere to help sustain audience engagement and interest. I didn't want to rely on the cool factor alone though; I trained in stage combat and took up a fairly rigorous workout routine in order to do justice to the play's powerful and stunning climax.\n\nClimactic Action Helps Cover a Mistake\n\nMacduff bears an enormous load of grief, anger, and responsibility into his climactic encounter with Macbeth. While opposing armies clash in the background and the politics of nations intersect, all under the looming shadow of dark magic, the closing scenes of the play are tightly focused on an isolated set of human interactions. Realizing how much centered on the character, I was determined to carry my weight as Macduff.\n\nDuring one performance, I lost hold of my sword, and it fell off the elevated platform on which the actor playing Macbeth and I were performing our carefully-choreographed duel. I didn't even pause to think: I plunged after it while Macbeth, also improvising, retreated to the next platform, where we were supposed to bring the fight to its conclusion--the climax within the climax.\n\nI popped back up, sword in hand, and chased him down, at which point we picked up our choreography and finished as planned. We were both so caught up in our characters and the irresistible momentum of the script that we were able to recover without the audience being aware that anything had gone wrong and without losing the intensity of the scene. In the traditional, classical sense of that word, the ending of Shakespeare's Macbeth is truly epic.\n\nCreating the Climax\n\nThe term climax refers to the point of highest tension in a story or plot (in fact, the root word is synonymous with staircase or ladder) as well as its culmination, when all of the story threads intersect for whatever resolution occurs.\n\nScenes 7 and 8 of Macbeth's final act deliver the highest point of tension and the play's culmination.\n\nAct 5, Scene 7\n\nIn Scene 7, young Siward confronts Macbeth. Macbeth believes he has the ultimate ace-in-the-hole, the witches' prophecy: 'What's he/ That was not born of woman? Such a one/ Am I to fear, or none.' The seemingly inevitable happens as Macbeth defeats young Siward easily. This scene is climatically necessary to Scene 8, when Macbeth faces Macduff, for several reasons:\n\n1) It establishes Macbeth's faith in the witches' prophecy.\n\n2) Siward is the son of a standing noble, and his death represents Macbeth's threat to traditional nobility and the birthright of the next generation.\n\n3) Macbeth is shown to draw his power from the unnatural/supernatural, upsetting rightful balance in the human sphere.\n\n4) The audience is put into doubt about the outcome of the play, at least in terms of Macbeth himself.\n\nMacduff enters just after Macbeth's departure, tracking him by the battlefield noise. He states his refusal to raise his sword to the peasants and mercenaries comprising Macbeth's army, and rededicates himself to avenging his wife and children, whom Macbeth had murdered. Asking for fortune to guide him, he exits hot on Macbeth's heels with an intensity that will carry directly into the concluding scene of the play. This stuff is as good as any action adventure on film.\n\nAct 5, Scene 8\n\nThe final scene of Macbeth opens with Macduff rushing in to find Macbeth, facing away. As angry and driven as he is, Macduff still has his honor: 'Turn, hell-hound, turn!', he says, giving Macbeth the opportunity be en garde rather than cutting him down while his back is turned. Macbeth responds, unexpectedly, with what seems like a pang of conscience: 'my soul is too much charged/With blood of thine already.' He still believes himself invincible, and warns Macduff of the 'charmed life' that protects him against all those born of woman. Here is where it gets really interesting.\n\nTo unlock this lesson you must be a Member.\nCreate your account\n\nRegister to view this lesson\n\nAre you a student or a teacher?\n\nUnlock Your Education\n\nSee for yourself why 30 million people use\n\nBecome a member and start learning now.\nBecome a Member Back\nWhat teachers are saying about\nTry it risk-free for 30 days\n\nEarning College Credit\n\n\nTo learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page\n\nTransferring credit to the school of your choice\n\n\nCreate an account to start this course today\nTry it risk-free for 30 days!\nCreate an account", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5972713232040405}
+{"content": "💊 Genetic Variation in Bacteria\n\n\n\n\n\n(1+2) So, the variation is genetic.\n\n\n(3) Bacteria – why bacteria? Due to bacteria being a common cause of disease, as well as their fast life cycle, they are a good case study for explaining selection and resistance. This is done in the light of antibiotic resistance. Things are complicated on Earth; in the Antibiotics topic I point out that antibiotics literally murder bacteria in a very efficient way. What could go wrong?\n\n\nAs generations of bacteria come to life, their DNA doesn’t stay completely identical. Random mutations sometimes arise. Mutations are changes in DNA which result in different characteristics. No, not bacteria with fangs, but subtle changes in, say, the shape of…\n\n🏆 Read 500+ topics for all 6 UK exam boards 🏆\n\n\n✔️ Just £3.49/month after that. Cancel anytime ✔️\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8951221704483032}
+{"content": "Hydrocarbon Resins\n\nHydrocarbon resins are low molecular weight polymers produced from the aliphatic C5 and aromatic C9 distillates of crude oil. Primarily C5 and C9 resins as well as blends of C5 and C9 are used industrially to add tack to other resins and to also modify the processibility of these resins. Clear to amber in colour the hydrocarbon resins offer resistance to water and other chemicals. The resins can also be hydrogenated to varying degrees to increase stability and hence offer increased heat resistance and anti-oxidant properties.\n\nApplications and Uses:\n\nHydrocarbon resins add water resistance and improved adhesion and weather resistance to Industrial coatings and Roadmarking paints. Their biggest use however is as a tackifier in Adhesives, primarily in hotmelts, but also in liquid pressure sensitive adhesives. This tackiness is also exploited in solvent based dips for wood, etc. as well as in Sealants. Also used in Rubber formulations to improve tack and modify the rheology of the pre-vulcanate.\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7253801822662354}
+{"content": "Ultrafast anti-scolored rubber braceletship missiles offered for sale\n\nThe CM-401 supersonic anti-ship ballistic missile is on display during the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China 2018, in Zhuhai city, South China\"s Guangdong province, Nov 7, 2018. [Photo/IC]\n\nChina is promoting an ultrafast anti-ship ballistic missile, said to be the first of its kind in the international market, to buyers seeking a reliable and affordable deterrence against threats from the sea.\n\nChina Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the nation\"s largest maker of missiles, has brought the CM-401 supersonic anti-ship ballistic missile to market, saying it is capable of making rapid, precision strikes against medium-sized or large vessels, or against land targets.\n\nIt said the weapon uses a \"near-space trajectory\", which means it flies between 20 and 100 kilometers above the earth, and that it maneuvers at hypersonic speeds throughout its flight.\n\nThe missile will ascend to a certain altitude until its target is acquired. It will then enter an ultrafast terminal dive toward the target, according to CASIC.\n\nThe company said the CM-401 features strong destructive power, good penetration capability and a mix of trajectories. It added that the missile can be mounted on various platforms, such as ships or land-based launch vehicles.\n\nAccording to the CASIC, the missile flies at an average speed of 1,360 meters per second - 4,900 kilometers per hour - or four times the speed of sound, during most parts of the flight, and reaches a maximum velocity of more than 2,000 m/s, six times the speed of sound as it approaches the target. It can carry a 290-kilogram warhead and has a maximum strike range of 290 km and a hit rate of 90 percent, meaning there will be nine effective hits on target out of 10 shots.\n\nThe State-owned defense conglomerate made the missile system public at the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition that was held recently in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.\n\nMeanwhile, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the country\"s major rocket maker, recently offered its M20B anti-ship ballistic missile to the international market.\n\nThe road-mobile M20B also features supersonic speed and a maneuverable trajectory. Carrying a 480-kg warhead, the missile can hit a ship 120 km to 280 km away. It is suitable for rapid, precision attacks on frigates and destroyers, the academy said.\n\nBefore the CM-401 and M20B, all anti-ship missiles available in the international market were sea-skimming models such as China\"s C-802 and CM-302 and the United States\" Harpoon.\n\nChina is the only country that currently fields anti-ship ballistic missiles. Its DF-21D and DF-26 are called \"trump cards\" in naval warfare by the Chinese military, but are not allowed for export because of a strike range said to be more than 1,000 km - far exceeding the restrictions on the export of missiles set by the Chinese government.\n\nWu Peixin, a defense industry observer in Beijing, said that ultrafast anti-ship ballistic missiles like the CM-401 can potentially become a game changer in modern naval operations because it is very difficult for existing air-defense radars and weapons on ships to intercept such missiles due to their unique trajectories and hypersonic speeds. Therefore users will be able to effectively deter an enemy\"s vessels, especially aircraft carriers, from approaching their coast, Wu said.\n\nxl silicone wristbands\nnike silicone wristbands\ncustom bracelets uk\nparkrun barcode wristband uk\nhow to make cool rubber band bracelets", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9927874803543091}
+{"content": "It is our aim to raise awareness and reduce stigma of mental ill health in the workplace and society in general. We will strive to provide Representatives with the necessary tools and support in order to identify and signpost members in difficulty. Further, we seek to influence and work with politicians and policy makers to ensure adequate resources and that any societal causes are challenged.\n\nIf you are struggling and need to speak to someone please call the SAMARITANS: 116 123 (free 24-hour helpline)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000077486038208}
+{"content": "AICO Latest News\n\nAICO And The EIC Join Forces To Support The Understanding Of Mental Health Awareness\n\nAico Mental HealthAico, the UK’s market leader in residential Fire and Carbon Monoxide protection, and the Electrical Industries Charity (EIC) are joining forces to help educate and increase understanding of mental health awareness.\n\nAico will be taking to the road with its mobile demonstration unit and visiting Bradford to provide a much-needed resource and support for the EIC. This will be with a view to coming back in 2020 with a comprehensive calendar of mental health awareness training sessions, working in partnership with Aico’s Expert Installer Training Scheme.\n\nAico is joining the revolution and supporting the EIC to raise awareness around mental health. There are many reasons why mental health training is so important; these include ensuring that you have a healthier workplace, improvement of staff morale and an increase in staff engagement and commitment.\n\nThe sessions are designed to give an understanding of what mental health is and how to challenge the stigma. The sessions will provide a basic knowledge of some common mental health issues, give confidence to support someone who is in distress and educate regarding how to look after your own mental health.\n\nFor over 100 years the EIC have recognised that providing individuals with access to the right support is the catalyst for creating better workplaces and industry communities. The EIC’s vision is to be the leading provider offering preventative and high impact solutions, genuinely meeting the wellbeing needs of the electrical and energy industries.\n\nAico is proud to be supporting the work of the EIC and has provided support for the charity for a number of years, including raising money via charity events such as the Aico Masquerade Ball, Powerball’s and Big Build Project.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9784772396087646}
+{"content": "Steelcase's Laurent Bernard: Activating changemakers, amplifying impact\n\nAt Steelcase, we apply human-centered design to help transform work, workers and workplaces so people can reach their full potential. We call this “unlocking human promise” — but it isn’t unique to our company. In fact, people throughout history have been searching for better, more meaningful ways to live and achieve their purpose. Laurent Bernard shares how Steelcase is reimagining social innovation to provide tools and create experiences for people to connect to their purpose and create scalable, systemic, sustainable change in the communities where they live and work. From GreenBiz 19.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7349216341972351}
+{"content": "Influence Analysis of Dissuading Nation States from Producing and Proliferating Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) [open pdf - 518KB]\n\n\"This thesis analyzes the influence of deterrence and dissuasion measures against nation-states in an effort to further prevent the production and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) among emerging nation-states. The case study within provides a historical background for the evolution of WMD programs, emphasis on nuclear programs, in India and Iraq. The study then examines the influences that prompted the nation-state leaders to convert their commercial nuclear programs to into militarized nuclear weapons programs with the intended goal of producing nuclear weapons. The study addresses dissuasion and deterrence measure used against these nation-states at the nation strategic level. Social influence techniques are then analyzed for their adaptation from the tactical (person-to-person) level to the strategic (nation-on-nation) level. The final analysis provides indications of which social influence techniques are apparently the most successful and unsuccessful in dissuading and deterring emerging nation-states in their potential quest to obtain WMD. Indications suggest that social influence tactics, such as fear appeals, coalition formulation, repetition of a message, be a credible source, guilt sells, public audience, and norm of reciprocity will only be successful in deterring and dissuading emerging nation-states in their quest to produce and proliferate WMD, if the appropriate nation deterrence/dissuasion strategy is selected.\"\n\nPublic Domain\nRetrieved From:\nMedia Type:\nHelp with citations", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9807251691818237}
+{"content": "Additive in Aerospace\n\nThe what, why & how of Additive in Aerospace\n\nOver the years, the Aerospace industry has always been one of the first adopters of new manufacturing technology and techniques. This is in part due to the constant drive to push the capabilities of aircraft in a highly competitive field.\n\nIt is therefore no surprise that Additive Manufacturing in Aerospace has seen such widespread adoption because of its ability to create components that have a very high strength-to-weight ratio, a factor that has a direct impact on fuel efficiency and aircraft performance.\n\nDownload the Kingsbury guide to Additive in Aerospace\n\nAdditive Manufacturing in Aerospace\n\n\nHow is Additive Manufacturing being used in Aerospace?\n\nAdditive Manufacturing is quietly seeping into every major and minor Aerospace company. The large behemoths like NASA, General Electric, Boeing and Airbus have been using Additive for decades but the limitations of the technology relegated its use primarily for prototyping and testing. In the last decade the technological advancement of Additive technologies, materials and techniques have made it possible to begin manufacturing metal parts for commercial use.\n\nAdditive Manufacturing systems used in Aerospace\n\nThere are many different types of Additive Manufacturing techniques and technologies on the market with new types arriving every year, however due to the critical nature of aircraft and spacecraft, the machines that make these parts need to be the top of the line, capable of repeatedly producing parts that are in tolerance and maintain consistent quality.\n\nElectron Beam Melting (EBM)\n\nInstead of using a laser beam to melt the particles, EBM uses a concentrated beam of electrons. The EBM process takes place inside a vacuum to prevent the electron beam from colliding with gas molecules. Manufacturing inside a vacuum also has the added benefit of eliminating the effect of oxidation on reactive materials like titanium. EBM can also be used in fused deposition where the metal is fed in the form of a wire filament.\n\nDirect Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS)\n\nThis is one of the more common metal Additive Manufacturing technologies and uses a laser to melt the powder into the final form. The build chamber is not under a vacuum. Parts made using this technique are denser and stronger than cast components and can go from concept to part much faster than a typical casting process.\n\nAdditive applications in the Aerospace Industry\n\n\nRapid prototyping has long been one of the key benefits of Additive Manufacturing. This is due mainly to the speed at which a prototype can be taken from concept to physical prototype. These prototypes help engineers uncover any potential pitfalls in their designs that would not typically be evident by looking at CAD models.\nHigh fidelity sample prototypes also provide a way to introduce the concept of a product to investors or non-technical team members. A physical model has a greater impact than a rendering on a computer screen.\n\nFurthermore, the use of surrogates allows engineers to print out a key component in an assembly to act as a temporary placeholder while the real part is still being manufactured. This allows the rest of the relevant assembly work to be continued and highlights any potential problems.\n\nComplex lightweight designs\n\nOne of the most impressive abilities of Additive Manufacturing (AM) is the creation of parts that would be impossible to make on traditional CNC lathes and mills. This is possible because AM builds up parts layer by layer. The unfused powder behaves as a support for the areas already fused; this works particularly well for large overhangs and internal voids. These complex organic designs are not just for looks but arise from using topological optimisation techniques and generative design to create parts that only have material where the highest critical loads are experienced. The parts thus take on organic and abnormal-looking shapes because they are not limited to the constraints of traditional machines. This is uniquely beneficial to the Aerospace industry where parts need to be made as light as possible without sacrificing structural integrity.\n\nOn demand parts and spares\n\nThe military relies heavily on its spares and getting these spares across the world to various military bases is a large logistical operation. Spares are often needed urgently and, despite the US militaries’ mastery of logistics, there is still a time delay in receiving critical spares. AM allows parts to be printed on demand and then flown to wherever they are needed. This drastically reduces the need to keep large inventory stores and has the added benefit of custom parts fit for purpose.\n\nWhy Additive Manufacturing is changing the Aerospace industry\n\nAdditive Manufacturing in Aerospace is changing the way in which parts are designed, manufactured and assembled. This industry is uniquely positioned to gain the largest benefit from the technology because of the typically low production volumes required, and the types of technologies traditionally used like metal casting and CNC machining. The end result of the adoption of this tech is lighter, more fuel-efficient aircraft with easy to maintain components and lower inventory requirements.\n\nCost of Manufacture\n\nFor any commercial enterprise the fundamental goal is to reduce costs and increase profit. This is no different in the Aerospace industry, and Additive Manufacturing has many cost advantages when compared to traditional manufacturing technologies.\n\nRaw material cost is by far the largest contributor to the cost of manufacture. Power and labour are a relatively small percentage of the cost despite lasers being very inefficient in converting mains power to usable heat for manufacture. The cost to produce an AM part is made up of 4 main components as listed:\n\n 1. Raw material cost\n 2. Depreciation cost\n 3. Power cost\n 4. Labour cost\n\nAs the deposition rate of AM increases the total cost decreases. At a certain point increased deposition rate does not change the cost of manufacture; this is because the faster the deposition rate the closer the cost of manufacture gets to the raw material cost – which is fixed. The other cost components like labour and power are so low that they do not significantly reduce the overall cost if optimised. It is therefore important that the machines have a high deposition rate\n\nDespite the raw material being more expensive, Aerospace applications still enjoy cost reduction when using Additive Manufacturing.\n\nInventory reduction\n\nAerospace equipment is highly complex, and this complexity results in many moving parts. Additive Manufacturing can reduce the total inventory in any manufacturing plant due to two main reasons:\n\n 1. \u0007Components can be made as one homogeneous structure and do not need to be made from multiple different components that then need to be assembled post manufacture. The reason why Additive Manufacturing can reduce the overall part count is because it is not restricted by traditional machine limitations. Complex internal chambers can be made that would be impossible with subtractive manufacturing and even with cast components.\n 2. Due to the flexibility of Additive Manufacturing, parts can be made on demand when and where they are needed. All that is required is the CAD model and any factory with a metal Additive Manfacturing system. The part can then be printed on demand. It does not have to be held in inventory. The reason why parts are normally kept in inventory is because they have such long lead times and if a part is needed urgently this will create serious delays, whereas AM parts can be made in a matter of a few days or even hours depending on their complexity and size.\n\nManufacturing efficiency\n\nIn the Aerospace industry there is a term known as ‘buy to fly’. This refers to the amount of raw material that is scrapped during manufacturing. More specifically, the buy to fly ratio is calculated by dividing the weight of the raw material by the weight of the final component. In a typical component manufactured using subtractive machining technology the buy to fly ratio is anywhere between 6:1 and 30:1. In some cases as much as 98% of the raw material is scrapped. A ratio of close to one is achievable with AM. This is especially true if the unused powder can be recycled.\n\nFlight to weight ratios\n\nPassenger aircraft can gain large benefits from reduction in weight, this is due in part to their considerable time spent in flight where every kilogram saved during manufacture results in large quantities of fuel saved over the lifespan of the aircraft. The manufacturer who can offer a better operational cost will have a clear advantage.\n\nLowering noise\n\nNew developments have resulted in the creation of a meta-material that can effectively reduce noise while maintaining a high percentage of airflow. An ideal application would be the aircrafts exhaust which produces high levels of noise pollution. Despite this technology still being in very early development, it would not have been possible without AM and it’s ability to manufacture parts that mimic theoretically optimal designs.\n\nAdditive Manufacturing Aerospace parts\n\n\nNASA has been testing the manufacture of a rocket engine, with the valves, fuel injector and many other key components being produced with Additive Manufacturing technologies. The combustion chamber is the only major component that is not yet produced additively.\n\nRolls Royce\n\nRolls Royce is producing the Advance3 demonstrator engine with the aim of using as many Additive parts as possible to improve the overall fuel efficiency.\n\n\nSpaceX is a champion of new technological development, anything that can improve their overall efficiency is brought into the fold. The SuperDraco engine used on their crew dragon spacecraft is a prime example of this as it’s engine chamber is metal printed using a DMLS printer.\n\nGeneral Electric\n\nGeneral Electric is one of the leaders in using Additive Manufacturing in their engines and are developing the Leap engine to make use of a large proportion of printed components. Their leap engine uses a fuel nozzle that would be impossible to manufacture with traditional technology.\n\n\nLiebherr is aggressively pursuing the conversion to Additive Manufacturing for many of their components such as their nose landing gear brackets manufactured for the Airbus A350 XWB. Another example is their high pressure hydraulic valve block, the first primary flight control hydraulic component used in a commercial aircraft, a major step in the Aerospace industry.\n\n\nWhich Aerospace parts can now be produced additively?\n\nListed below are some of the major examples of additive metal manufacturing of Aerospace parts. Companies like General Electric are clearly the ones driving metal Additive Manufacturing adoption.\n\n\nThe Boeing T25 compressor inlet temperature sensor casing is made from a cobalt chrome alloy and was the first part to be certified by the FAA for use in a commercial jet engine.\n\nGeneral Electric\n\nGeneral Electric is currently building up a production line to print 35,000 to 45,000 fuel nozzles for the Leap jet engines per year. This engine contains 19 additively manufactured fuel nozzles and is undergoing flight tests. These parts simply cannot be made with traditional manufacturing techniques because of all the internal passages and geometries required to create an optimally performing part.\n\nGeneral Electric has also developed a power door opening system bracket which is used to open the fan compartment during maintenance operations. These brackets are to be manufactured commercially for the Genx–2B airline engines which are used to power the Boeing 747-8 airliners. The brackets are made from a cobalt chrome alloy.\n\n\nNASA & UAB developed freezers that allow the transport and processing of experiments. They needed a new liner design to optimise the space and weight of the freezer and used an Aerospace- grade plastic to achieve this.\n\nJet Propulsion Laboratory NASA\n\nJet Propulsion Laboratory NASA has used an Aerospace plastic as an alternative to machining antenna arrays out of Astroquartz. These were used on the Cosmic-2 satellite that contained 30 of these antennae and were able to operate in the vacuum of space.\n\nUnited Launch Alliance\n\nThe Atlas V environmental control system duct was printed from an Aerospace plastic and the part reduced from 140 pieces to only 16.\n\n\nThe Liebherr Primary flight control component has a valve block that is made from titanium powder that is fused together by lasers. This part was initially made from castings but due to Additive Manufacturing technology it was made 35% lighter with fewer parts while still maintaining the mechanical strength of the cast part. Liebherr is also working on a rudder actuator that contains a valve block, cylinder housing and reservoir all manufactured as one component where in the past these used to be made from multiple different parts.\n\nAurora Flight Sciences\n\nThis UAV is made from 34 parts of which 26 are Additively manufactured using FDM technology to print the main fuselage and main wing. This allowed the creation of structures that were both stiff and lightweight.\n\n\nIn general, the main disadvantages of many of the powders are their cost. Since the materials need to undergo a specialised and expensive process to create the powder, the cost will always be more than a billet of the same material until another method is developed.\n\nAnother issue is the characterisation of the material; most forged and cast metals have been extensively tested and characterised so that their mechanical properties are very well known. It cannot be assumed that the final part will have the same mechanical properties of the base material as different types of printing technology will result in different properties. The additive manufacture of steel and titanium alloy components will continue to grow in terms of adoption and applications.\n\nTitanium Ti64\n\nThis titanium alloy is the most common alloy used in industry and is ideally suited for Aerospace applications because of its high strength-to-weight ratio, its resistance to fatigue and high corrosion resistance to typical Aerospace chemicals.\n\nCobalt Chrome\n\nThis alloy is generally used in the medical industry for dental implants but has found uses in the Aerospace industry due to its high wear and corrosion resistance.\n\n316L Stainless Steel\n\nThis grade of stainless steel is one of the most widely used grades of steel, it has very high corrosion resistance and good mechanical properties. This metal is also known to produce one of the smoothest surface finishes amongst the powdered metals.\n\nInconel 718\n\nInconel is a well-known superalloy being used in the Aerospace industry. It has very high temperature resistance and can maintain its mechanical properties in extreme environments. It has high corrosion and creep resistance making it ideal for engine components. It is also difficult to machine this material using subtractive techniques, making it ideal for AM.\n\n\nUsed mainly for prototyping purposes but there has been a growing trend for manufacturing production components. It is cheaper than Titanium and can be post processed and machined without needing advanced machining techniques like those required for Inconel and Titanium. Special alloys like Scalmalloy are being developed specifically for AM.\n\nBarriers to adoption\n\nDespite the many advantages of Additive Manufacturing and the ever-growing list of parts that can be made with Additive Manufacturing there is still a large barrier to entry that limits many smaller companies from adopting the technologies required to produce flight-ready Aerospace components. The key reason is the cost of the machinery. Machines capable of producing Additive parts that are acceptable for Aerospace applications are expensive, not to mention the cost of the metal powder which is more expensive than normal metal billets.\n\nThe vast majority of AM components will need to be post processed on traditional machines but the amount of machining is limited to surface finishing and creating high tolerance features. This means that companies cannot get away with just a metal printer on their shop floor; a CNC machine will always be needed.\n\nWhat’s next for Additive Manufacturing in Aerospace & Space?\n\nThe continuous advancement of Additive Manufacturing technology seems to be happening at an ever-increasing pace. There are various new start-ups bringing metal printing to a whole new tier of businesses, effectively democratising access to metal printing. This expanded access to the technology will further drive its adoption, which will in turn continue lowering the barriers to entry. A wider usage of the technology will result in better characterisation of the various materials and will allow the development of industry standards for these materials and techniques.\n\nOne of the most important advantages of Additive Manufacturing is its ability to simplify complex designs. Engines can have their total part count drastically reduced by printing homogeneous components. Not only does this reduce possible points of failure in an engine but it has the effect of significantly reducing overall weight, cost and manufacturing time. This is truly the next leap in manufacturing technology.\n\nEmbedded electronics and sensors within components are also achievable with companies like Boston Dynamics exploring the possibilities of printing components that already have channels for hydraulic fluid, electrical conduits and embedded sensors printed in place. This opens the door for parts that are completely manufactured in one step without any assembly required.\n\nLaunching large, delicate structures into space is always expensive, risky and sometimes impossible. However, if these parts can be manufactured in space then raw materials can be launched into orbit without worrying about space limitations or damaging delicate equipment. In-situ manufacture in space will allow the creation of huge structures that will pave the way for the eventual colonisation of the solar system in the next century.\n\nLeave us a message", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6600896120071411}
+{"content": "This event has passed.\n\nLogix Games Escape the Room\n\nAre you up for the challenge? Logix Games will offer you a thrilling experience in puzzle solving and escape techniques. An exciting journey will take you through each of our specially designed rooms to challenge your inquisitive instincts. Gang up with your besties and come to thrill, action and fun!\n\nWhat we offer is an escape experience featuring multi-themed rooms. The rooms are specifically designed to cater for different skill sets; whereby participants go through a series of mind dazzling puzzles and riddles. Solving them requires your wits and logic sense. Players will enjoy developing their escape strategies based on the various clues and hints that they will find as they progress in their escape journey to achieve the ultimate objective and escape the room.\n\nHow To Play?\n\n- Form a group of 3 to 5 members.\n- Select your room preference.\n- Contact us or BOOK YOUR SPOT ONLINE.\n+961 3 233019\n- Find the hints to get out of the room.\n- Exit before 60 minutes.\n\nGame Rules:\n\n- Arrive 15 minutes Earlier.\n- No mobile phones allowed in the room.\n- You are granted 4 hints upon your request.\n- No time extension unless it’s a technical error.\n- No smoking allowed inside the room.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999708533287048}
+{"content": "Tips Square Dining Table Seats 8 In The Apartment\n\nPosted on Dining Tables\n\nSquare dining table seats 8 in the apartment are no separate kitchen but just a hideaway kitchenette. How will I fit sleeping and working, living and dining room in one?\n\nYou can furnish your studio so that it feels comfortable and that you also have everything you need for example square dining table seats 8. I have defined the different zones in the room based on functions, and tried to create dynamism in the room. Room divided substantially into a respective one night.\n\nAt the far end of the room, I placed “night activities”. To the left, protected by panel curtains, there is a dressing area with dresser, mirror and chair. Next door there is the sleeping area with a bed, bedside lamps, etc. The rest of the room is now free for other furniture. Opposite the bed is the sofa that forms a seating area along with the bed. It becomes the “living room” next to the window, with the ability to socialize comfortably with friends. The other part of the room serves as a work and dining. I have drawn a long table, 220×55 cm. One part becomes the unit of work you do, and the other part is a square dining table seats 8 with a folding table top. It will be an optimal solution with two tables in one.\n\nMay also interest you Zinc Dining Room Table\n\nThis gallery is about dining table seats 8, square dining table for 8, apartment size dining table, apartment size kitchen table, square dinner table for 8, square dining tables for 8, 8 seat square dining table, square dining tables that seat 8, apartment dining tables, modern square dining table, dining table square seats 8, what size table seats 8, square kitchen table seats 8, modern square dining tables, square dining room table seats 8, black square dining table, round kitchen table seats 8, square kitchen tables that seat 8, square table for 8, square dining room table for 8, square table that seats 8, square dining table 8, black square kitchen table.\n\nMay also interest you Wooden Square Table", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999576807022095}
+{"content": "Practice What You Preach\n\nAccountability and planning are two of my closest friends. I eat time management for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My systems have systems. But to be honest, if you knew how far I've come with my time management, overall mindset, and goal setting (and reaching), you wouldn't believe me; but it's really far, I promise.\n\nBut I say that to tell you this: I still mess up. I still get off track.\n\nI'm about to share with you my latest mess-up—one of those \"I knew better but I did it anyway\" type of stunts. You guys won't judge me, right?\n\nA couple weeks ago, I was having coffee with a colleague, and she was telling me about this great app that she uses to sell her old clothes. She was so excited about it and really sold me on the ease and convenience. And it just so happened I was just about to clean out my closet. How perfect! I have so many things that are in great shape but I just don't wear anymore. This app sounded like a great solution. \"Then a few extra dollars can go toward some new clothes,\" I thought.\n\nSo, I sorted through the clothes, took photos of different articles of clothing and various outfits, looked through the site for similar items to make sure I was pricing my items correctly, and posted my clothes on the app. After leaving a huge mess in my guest room, I check the site a few times to see if anyone has shown interest, and then...I snap out of it.\n\nSeriously, what did I just do? I spent time and brain space on something that was a complete waste of my time and efforts. So, within a few days of creating my profile on this app and listing twenty-five items, I delete it. I deleted the app, the clothes, and my profile. Done. Gone.\n\nThis is not even close to what I need to be doing for my business or my personal goals. Next.\n\nHere’s the thing: We’re idea people, right? Which make us highly susceptible to \"Shiny Object Syndrome:\" being easily seduced by the latest and greatest thing.\n\nWhat you do next is what's important...\n\nGet focused. Redirect your efforts back to the things that are most productive—not just the things that keep you busy.\n\nIf you don't have goals written down or another way to hold yourself accountable, that's a great place to start.\n\nClean the clutter. We all have things to tend to, like our old clothes, projects around the house, and social engagements. Minimize what you can, and set aside things won’t be missed. \nMove on. Don’t beat yourself up. You recognized the problem and you want to change. Just don’t do it again! I know I won’t...really.\n\nHow does \"Shiny Object Syndrome\" manifest in your day-to-day life? What are your methods for staying focused on doing what gets you closer to accomplishing your goals?\n\n\nDon't miss a thing.\n\nSign up for updates to get the latest and greatest information sent straight to your inbox.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5520738363265991}
+{"content": "Dealing with Negative Equity\n\n\nThere are a number of possible options to consider, but every situation is different and some have no solution but to face repossession, as has happened in thousands of cases in the sub-prime market in America.\n\nHelp from the Mortgage Lender\n\n\nSome mortgage lenders will lend over their loan to value to help homeowners remortgage to another property, although this may attract fees and prove expensive in the long run. Some mortgage lenders will also provide an unsecured loan to help borrowers escape negative equity, but again costs and fees are attached.\n\nProviding the lender is comfortable with the situation, some borrowers rent out their houses to escape negative equity. By covering the cost of their mortgage loans with the rental income, it can be possible to solve negative equity providing the borrower/s can find somewhere cheaper/free to live.\n\nWhether a consumer letting out their house should employ an estate agent, and which type of tenancy agreement they should employ depends on the individual situation. Furthermore, some housing associations have tenants on waiting lists who could provide rental income. In this instance, the landlord is responsible for repairs to the property, and the rent may not cover the whole of the mortgage repayment.\n\nSelling Your Home\n\n\n\nOther methods\n\nThere are other ways to escape negative equity, such as borrowing the amount needed from a family or friend, or even a personal loan. Similarly, an endowment mortgage could clear the balance in some instances, although independent financial advice should be taken on this.\n\nSome mortgage lenders let borrowers make lump sum payments off the mortgage loan to help reduce the amount owing, but this will depend on the lender and the loan deal.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5381385087966919}
+{"content": "by Bill Ahearn, PhD, BCBA-D, LABA Director of Research, NECC\n\nDespite the ardent beliefs of many people that autism has a solely environmental cause such as vaccines, it has long been known that there is strong scientific evidence that autism has genetic origins. Early studies of twins suggested this may be the case and, more recently, Tick and colleagues (2016) conducted a meta-analysis of published research involving twins and estimated heritability (i.e., how well differences in people’s genes account for differences in their traits) of autism to be in the range of 64% to 91%.\n\nThough there are some known environmental origins of autism, such as pregnant mothers contracting rubella having a much higher probability of their child receiving a diagnosis of autism, environmental variables may play a fairly small role in the population etiology of the disorder. However, environmental variables have received much more attention than genetic variables.\n\nIn July, Bai and colleagues (2019) published a study suggesting that the heritability of autism was approximately 80%, indicating that the variation in autism occurrence in the population is mostly due to inherited genetic influences, with no support for contribution from maternal effects (i.e., how much of the phenotype of a child is influenced by the environment experienced by the mother). The researchers examined the medical histories of more than 2 million (non-twin) children born in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Israel, and Western Australia between 1998 and 2012. All were tracked for a diagnosis of autism from birth and were followed until age 16. Autism diagnoses were obtained through their medical record. Of those studied, over 22,000 had an autism diagnosis, for a prevalence in the group of 1.1%. The authors then used Generalized Linear Mixed Effect Models to estimate genetic and environmental effects on the risk for autism to obtain the heritability estimate.\n\nIn an editorial accompanying the article, Jutla et al. (2019) state that “the disorder is strongly heritable, with environmental factors, although important, contributing relatively less to its variance than genetic factors.” They then, by implication, suggest that this study may actually underestimate the contribution of genetic variables as it did not capture de novo (non-inherited) gene variations for which there are robust data suggesting such variations may contribute significantly to autism risk.\n\nBai, D., Yip, B.H.K., Windham, G.C., et al. (2019). Association of genetic and environmental factors with autism in a 5-country cohort. JAMA Psychiatry, 201976 (10), 1035–1043. https://doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.1411.\n\nJutla, A., Reed, H., Veenstra- VanderWeele, J. (2019). The architecture of autism spectrum disorder risk: What do we know, and where do we go from here? JAMA Psychiatry, 201976 (10), 1005–1006. https://doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.1375.\n\nTick, B., Bolton, P., Happé, F., Rutter, M., & Rijsdijk, F. (2016). Heritability of autism spectrum disorders: A meta -analysis of twin studies. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(5), 585-595. https://doi:10.1111/jcpp.12499.\n\nThis article was taken from NECC’s Research News, Winter 2019. You can find the full publication here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9984509944915771}
+{"content": "Cows and donkeys\n\nWith their special dedication to the land they manage, their attachment to their roots and a sensitivity towards the preservation of biodiversity, the Samsa family has developed an original and interesting method of farming.\n\nThe entire farm, covering 98 hectares (242 acres) has been placed within the areas of environmental protection under the terms of the Natura 2000 Network, and is made up of a wide expanse of grassland that is the only example of dry karst grassland still grazed daily.\n\nThe farm, certified organic, is characterized by domestic animals that graze outside on the rangeland throughout the year and belong to breeds at risk of extinction, both in national terms, such as the Amiata donkey, regional varieties, such as the Friulan Red Pied cow, totaling about 25 cows, 14 donkeys and 2 horses.\n\nShould you so wish, the Samsa family, with great joy and passion will help you get to know their domestic animals during your stay at their “Alture di Polazzo” rural park.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999758780002594}
+{"content": "Need help? Contact Us.\n\nEssential Oils for Better Sleep\n\non November 30, 2019\n\nSleep is something that all of us need but not all of us value. There are far too many people that treat sleep as a hindrance, something that has to be done but is not done willingly. While this is fine and well for some of us, the rest of us need that sleep to recharge and rest our bodies.\n\nEssential Oils for Better Sleep\n\nUnfortunately, getting to sleep and getting a good quality night full of it is not as easy as it sounds. That is why a great many of us need help in getting to sleep and staying that way. This can be achieved in a number of different ways, but more and more people are making use of essential oils to achieve this.\n\nThis is because a variety of scents can not only provide a relaxing smell, they can promote restfulness, relief of anxiety, and promote deeper sleep. Not only that, some essential oils can help to provide a more relaxed mood and can deliver deeper sleep.\n\nEssential oils are an inexpensive and easy way that you can introduce yourself to a daily and nightly routine, things that will help you relax both mentally and physically, so that it is easier for you to fall asleep at night and sleep far more soundly than ever before.\n\nThe problem is that there are so many different essential oils on the market that it can be easy to get lost. Not knowing what each one is and how it might benefit you can leave you feeling as though you are stuck at step one. But there are a few that distinctively stand out from the rest and are worth bringing into your home.\n\n\nHow these scents can affect your mind and body\n\nThere is little doubt that you have already experienced a smell that has instantly evoked a strong feeling or memory. That scent can become reminiscent of a time long gone but will bring back delightful memories for a long time to come. This is because our sense of smell is wired directly into the brain’s centers of emotion and memory.\n\nThere are cells inside the nose that detect smells in our environment. These cells then send information to the brain via what is known as the olfactory nerve. The information about that smell then goes right to the limbic system of the brain; this includes regions like the amygdales which control our emotional reactions as well as our memory.\n\nThis is what makes smell so unique among our sense. That information that we take from other senses travels to the thalamus – which acts as a relay station – which then passes along sensory data to the other parts of your brain that are in charge of sensory perceptions. For this reason, memories you associate with a scent can come on so quickly and so strongly.\n\n\nThe various benefits of essential oils for mood, sleep, and health\n\nThere is a movement that is gaining traction these days that believes in the use of natural therapies that can aid both the body and the mind. These therapies can create better overall sleep by helping sleep directly and by relieving those nagging anxious feelings as well as stress, bringing your mood up, and treating physical discomfort.\n\nAromatherapy can provide holistic healing in order to treat all of those things. Essential oils have been in practice for centuries for those reasons and continue to promote mental and physical wellness as well as relaxation. These same oils are being increasingly studied today for a better understanding of their overall benefits to health and sleep.\n\nThere are several bodies of research that have shown that essential oils can provide improved sleep quality and relief for disrupted sleeps in adults. It was found that by blending sleep-promoting essential oils, they work quite effectively to improve both the quality of life and quality of sleep, more so than acupressure. Not only that, these blended oils were more effective at improving sleep than a single essential oil such as lavender.\n\nWhen it comes to stress and anxiety, these are frequent obstacles to restful, sound sleep that we need to recharge and relax. People who frequently experience anxiety and stress symptoms have difficulty not only falling asleep but sleeping restfully throughout the night. This leaves them fatigued and tired the next day.\n\nBy implementing essential oils and aromatherapy, you can help relieve those anxiety and stress symptoms that can be such a drain on your sleep. Indirectly, you can help to improve your sleep by treating those symptoms directly.\n\nWhen it comes to depression, we are learning more about it than ever before but still don’t know quite enough. It turns out that sleep problems and depression generally go hand in hand and a number of studies have taken a deep look at the effect that aromatherapy using essential oils has on those with depression and depressive symptoms. They also looked at those people who both did and did not have anxiety.\n\nAromatherapy has been shown to be able to improve depressive symptoms and it found that there was an improvement in both anxiety and depression in post-partum women. Being able to ease that depression and anxiety makes it easier to get to sleep at night and to stay asleep for longer and more deeply.\n\n\nVanilla has a sweet scent that is appealing to most people. Not only that, it has an extensive history of being used for stress relief and relaxation. Vanilla has been shown to have sedative effects on the body and can even reduce restlessness and hyperactivity. This is in addition to being able to lower blood pressure and quieting the nervous system.\n\nYou might think that’s all it does, but it appears to have helpful benefits for treating depression and anxiety; it also can uplift a mood and provide relaxation. Vanilla is a great scent to try for sleeping as it smells like cookies baking and it doesn’t have the calories that are so bad for us.\n\n\nEasily one of the most popular essential oils on the market today, this oil is most commonly used for calming and sleep methods. Those looking to try aromatherapy for sleep generally get started using lavender. This is because it is a soothing scent that has long had an association with sleep and relaxation and has also been associated as a remedy for anxiety.\n\nLavender Essential Oil Roll On\n\nLavender Essential Oil Roll On\n\nNot only that, lavender is one of the most rigorously studied essential oils that there is. A huge array of research has shown that lavender helps to reduce anxiety as well as provide beneficial effects towards depression. It can also be used to help pain relief.\n\nLavender also has sedative effects, which is a natural sleep aid for those who have difficult falling asleep and staying that way. It can improve sleep quality, increase amounts of sleep, and even elevate daytime alertness; this includes in people with insomnia.\n\n\nJasmine has a sweeter floral scent to it and it has been shown to have serious sleep-promoting capabilities. There has been research that has shown that jasmine improves overall sleep quality and it helps to cut down on restless sleeping. Not only that, it helps to increase daytime alertness, keeping you up and moving throughout even the toughest of days.\n\nLike some of the others on this list, Jasmine has been shown to help lower anxiety as well, perhaps even more so than lavender does.\n\nRose and Geranium\n\nAs is the case with some of the most effective essential oils, these two oils have a floral scent to them and a similar one at that. Both have been shown to reduce anxiety and stress, both on their own or used in combination with a variety of other essential oils.\n\nThere are even some sleep experts that have recommended valerian as an essential oil when it comes to sleep aromatherapy. Valerian is taken as a supplement that can be very beneficial for sleep, both in terms of falling asleep and staying so for longer periods.\n\nThe only downside to using valerian is that it is quite stinky to smell. Using rose and geranium give you the same qualities but will smell slightly better overall than using that pungent smell. \n\n\nThis is a group of scents that can be used to promote sleep as well as stimulate it; this depends on your individual reaction to the different type of citrus oil that is used. There is bergamot, a type of orange, that has shown traits of relieving anxiety as well as improving sleep quality.\n\nOrange Dream Essential Oil\n\nOrange Dream Essential Oil\n\nLemon oil has proven depression and anxiety-relieving effects that can help those who use them fall asleep more easily. Others, meanwhile, will find the scents both fresh and bright which promotes relaxation, though not of the sleep variety.\n\nIf you find that citrus oils are more potent and stimulating for you, you might not want to use them before bed. Try using them during the day to help keep yourself relaxed and refreshed for your day.\n\n\nSandalwood has a woody, rich, and earthy scent to it. It also has an ancient history of anxiety relief and relaxation as well. Sandalwood can help ease anxiety symptoms and it even has sedative effects to it; this reduces wakefulness and increases the amount of non-REM sleep.\n\nThere is one important thing to note: even while promoting physical relaxation, it promotes alertness. So while Sandalwood might promote sleep benefits for some people, it can promote a wakeful attentiveness for others. Use it sparingly to find out which fits you best before using it at the wrong times of the day.\n\n\nHow to use essential oils\n\nOne of the benefits of using essential oils to promote sleep and relaxation is that you can implement them into your life in a number of different ways. There is no one specific way, so you can find the way you like best and make that apart of your routine.\n\nUse a diffuser\n\nThis is perhaps the most common way of using essential oils. The diffuser turns the oils into a steam or mist and sprays it throughout the room. This allows you to experience the scents of your favorite essential oil throughout the day while also getting all of the benefits that each oil provides.\n\nStone Diffuser\n\nStone Diffuser\n\nAdd it to your bath\n\nThis is a favorite way of many to use their favorite essential oils. You can add a few drops to a warm bath and feel the relaxation and sleep benefits that the aromatherapy can provide to you all while getting a warm, comfortable soak. \n\nMake certain to schedule your soak time for around 60-90 minutes prior to bed and you should find yourself drifting off to sleep far more quickly than ever before. Not only that, you will stay asleep for longer and find yourself waking more relaxed than ever before.\n\nApply topically\n\nThis might seem sort of confusing, but the first thing that you need to know is to never apply an essential oil to the skin directly. This is because essential oils in undiluted form are very intense and highly concentrated. This can lead to heavy skin irritation if used incorrectly.\n\nTopically Applying Essential Oils\n\nIf you do plan to apply it topically, make sure that you are using oils with carrier oils for skin that are already heavily diluted in another oil like vegetable oil. This can help to give you the benefits of a light self-massage while carrying with you the wonderful scents of the essential oils all day long.\n\nMake your own mist\n\nWhen you feel comfortable enough to do so, you can apply your favorite essential oils with water into a spray bottle or something known as an atomizer and then spray it around the room or even a light mist to your linens.\n\nWhen you do this, you get the experience of those wonderful aromas and scents that can be so soothing and relaxing without having to breath in the steam or rub the oils on yourself. This is a great way to keep a faint scent of essential oils around you without them being overwhelming.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6205681562423706}
+{"content": "|11 March, 2019\n\nChina orders its airlines to suspend use of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft\n\nU.S. has no plans to ground 737 MAX jets - official\n\nWorkers attend a ceremony marking the 1st delivery of a Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane to Air China at the Boeing Zhoushan completion center in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, China, December 15, 2018.\n\n\nREUTERS/Thomas Peter\n\nSHANGHAI - China's aviation regulator said on Monday it had ordered Chinese airlines to suspend their Boeing Co 737 MAX aircraft operations by 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) following a deadly crash of one of the planes in Ethiopia.\n\nAn Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N20X0CZ\n\nIt was the second crash of the 737 MAX, the latest version of Boeing's workhorse narrowbody jet that first entered service in 2017.\n\n\nThe Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a statement it would notify airlines as to when they could resume flying the jets after contacting Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure flight safety.\n\n\"Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity,\" the CAAC said, adding that the order was in line with its principle of zero-tolerance on safety harzards. The 737 MAX 8 is sometimes referred to as the 737-8.\n\nThe cause of the Indonesian crash is still being investigated. A preliminary report issued in November, before the cockpit voice recorder was recovered, focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but did not give a reason for the crash.\n\nChinese airlines have 96 737 MAX jets in service, the state company regulator said on Weibo.\n\nCaijing, a Chinese state-run news outlet that covers finance and economics, said many flights scheduled to use 737 MAX planes would instead use the 737-800 models.\n\nA Boeing spokesman declined to comment.\n\nA U.S. official told Reuters the United States was unsure of what information China was acting on.\n\nThe U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said there were no plans to follow suit given the 737 MAX had a stellar safety record in the United States and there was a lack of information about the cause of the Ethiopian crash.\n\nWestern industry sources say China has been at pains in recent years to assert its independence as a safety regulator as it negotiates mutual safety standard recognition with regulators in the United States and Europe.\n\nIn 2017, it signed a mutual recognition deal with the FAA, but industry sources say it has struggled to gain approval from the FAA that would allow it to sell its C919 airliner to Western airlines.\n\n\nAccording to flight tracking website FlightRadar24 there were no Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes flying over China as of 0043 GMT on Monday.\n\nMost of Air China Ltd's 601111.SS 737 MAX fleet of 15 jets landed on Sunday evening, with the exception of two that landed on Monday morning from international destinations, according to data on FlightRadar24.\n\nIt did not list any upcoming scheduled flights for the planes, nor did China Southern Airlines Co 600029.SS , which also has its fleet on the ground.\n\nChina Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd 600115.SS four 737 MAX jets landed on Sunday evening and no further flights were scheduled until Tuesday, FlightRadar24 data showed.\n\nCayman Airways has grounded both of its new 737 MAX 8 jets until more information was received, the Cayman Islands airline said in a statement on its website.\n\nFiji Airways said it had followed a comprehensive induction process for its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and it had full confidence in the airworthiness of its fleet.\n\n\"We continue to ensure that our maintenance and training programme for pilots and engineers meets the highest safety standards,\" the airline said.\n\nSingapore Airlines Ltd SIAL.SI , whose regional arm SilkAir operates the 737 MAX, said it was monitoring the situation closely, but its planes continued to operate as scheduled.\n\nIndonesia said it would continue to monitor its airlines operating the 737 MAX, which include Lion Air and Garuda Indonesia but it did not mention any plan to ground the planes.\n\n(Reporting by Josh Horwitz and John Ruwitch; additional reporting by Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Stella Qiu in Beijing, David Shepardson in Washington, Tom Westbrook in Sydney, Jamie Freed in Singapore; Edward Davies in Jakarta and Tim Hepher in Paris Editing by Richard Pullin, Robert Birsel) ((Josh.Horwitz@thomsonreuters.com;))\n\nMore From Business", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9631772637367249}
+{"content": "Call us on Skype\n\nMolly was born on November 18, 2009. Molly really enjoy being in a family with children dog. But she tend to have that «one special person» in their life. She like to be close with me, and gets mad at time for vacanition or medicine.\nShe’s «Human» I understand that.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9589174389839172}
+{"content": "Sacrilege Bill finally gets Punjab Assembly nod\n\nAll major parties in Punjab, with an eye on panthic votes, have jointly passed a Bill seeking to provide stringent punishment to those who injure religious feelings or defile places of worship\n\n\nAll major parties in Punjab, particularly the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal, have a holier than thou attitude when it comes to protecting Sikh maryada or tenets of Sikhism. They have been competing with each other obviously to garner the panthic votes which constitute a massive vote bank in the state. Its latest reflection is found in the Punjab Assembly passing a Bill seeking to provide stringent punishment to those who injure religious feelings or defile places of worship. Since none of the parties could afford to be seen opposing such an amendment, the Bill was passed unanimously.\n\nThe Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, which was passed by the Punjab Assembly, seeks to insert Section 295AA, and sought to amend Section 295, which provides for punishing those “injuring or defiling place of worship, or any object held sacred by any class of persons with the intention to insult their religion, or with the knowledge that such destruction, damage or defilement would be considered as an insult to their religion”. The amendment provides for imprisonment for 10 years to those found guilty.\n\nThe Bill, first passed by the assembly in 2016, when the previous Shiromani Akali Dal — Bhartiya Janata Party Government was in power in the State, had proposed life imprisonment for sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib only, following a series of incidents of desecration of the holy book in different parts of the State. The spate of cases of desecrations began in late 2015 and carried on for a couple of months. Two persons, who had been protesting the incidents, were also killed after police opened fire on them.\n\nThe government was at its wit’s end as the incidents were spreading to other areas. While there were allegations that members of the Dera Sacha Sauda could be behind the incidents, no such charge was proved. There was only an apprehension that this was the result of the faux pas over the grant of pardon to her Dera chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who was last year convicted to 20 years in prison for rape of two sadhvis.\n\nHe was at the Centre of controversy over Sikh religious issues and the Sikh clergy had excommunicated him from the community for alleged acts of blasphemy. The Dera had a huge following and the political leaders from various parties had been going to the Dera to seek his ‘blessings’.\n\nEvidently with this in mind, and at the direction of the SAD which controls the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the Mini Parliament of the Sikhs, and which in turn controls the Sikh clergy, decided to ‘pardon’ the Dera chief and take him back in the community. This ‘pardon’ had led to a major uproar among the Sikh community. The fundamentalists and the hardliners took strong objection and led protests against the action of the Sikh clergy.\n\nSubsequently the ‘pardon’ was withdrawn due to the mounting protests and it was under these circumstances that incidents of sacrilege began getting reported from certain areas of the state. The incidents were certainly motivated and choreographed by some people or organisations to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the state. This forced the government to bring in the Bill to provide stringent punishment to those indulging in blasphemy. The bill was passed unanimously as again none of the parties was willing to be seen defending the sacrilege. However, the Union Home ministry returned the proposal on the ground that it was discriminatory and went against the secular character of our constitution. By the time the Bill was returned there was a change of government and Capt Amarinder Singh formed the Congress government in the state.\n\nEven during the run up to the elections, Capt Amarinder had made clear that he would do a “better job” than the Akalis to protect the “Sikh maryada”. While SAD believes that it represents the Sikhs, Capt Amarinder Singh had been criticising the Akalis for being lax. To ‘prove’ his commitment to eliminate the menace of drugs from Punjab, Capt Amarinder had even taken a public oath by placing his hand over a Gutka.\n\nThe SAD too had become more strident in its attempts to maintain its hegemony over the SGPC and the Sikh clergy. Of late, however, there have been indications of the panthic vote moving away from it. The party had been making attempts to ensure that only the baptised Sikhs could vote for the SGPC and had taken help of its coalition partner at the Centre, the BJP, to bring in an amendment to debar non baptised Sikhs from voting for the organisation. The matter is now under judicial scrutiny.\n\nCapt Amarinder Singh, who led the Congress to victory last year, didn’t forget his demand for punishment to those involved in the series of incidents of sacrilege in 2015 and set up a judicial commission to probe the incidents. The report presented in the Punjab Assembly recently indicted the previous government and asserted that the former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was aware of the tension building up and yet his government did not take adequate steps to check violence or prevent police firing in which two villagers were killed.\n\nJustice Ranjit Singh (retd) commission into sacrilege incidents and subsequent police firing in 2015 in Punjab pointed a finger at former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for police action in which two protesters were killed. The report said it was “clear that the (then) Chief Minister and the CMO were apparently kept in the loop about the action proposed by the police and the action finally taken at Kotkapura.”\n\nThe one-man judicial commission had probed the sacrilege incidents reported from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, Bargari, Gurusar and Mallke villages and police firing at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura on Sikh protesters in 2015. The report recommended action against police officers responsible for failure to control the situation. The report, which has been rejected by the Akalis as an instance of political vendetta, has been forwarded to the administration to initiate action.\n\nThe previous government had handed over inquiry into the series of incidents of sacrilege to the CBI but the Amarinder government has decided to take back the investigations back from the CBI and create its own Special Investigation Team to expeditiously Investigate and bring guilty to book.\n\nSAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal has said that the “real motive of the report is to render the Sikh community leaderless. It’s a cheap drama written, produced, directed and choreographed by Capt Amarinder Singh and his men”. It is in the light of the continued slugfest and Capt Amarinder wanting to be seen “more Akali than the Akalis” that the latest move to amend the law on sacrilege has been proposed.\n\nArticle 295AA, which has been sought to be inserted in the law says : “whoever causes injury, damage or sacrilege to Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Srimad Bhagwad Gita, Holy Quran and Holy Bible with the intention to hurt the religious feelings of the people, shall be punished with imprisonment for life”.\n\nThough the Bill passed by the Assembly was whetted by senior lawyers, it is unlikely to have smooth passage with the Centre. It had earlier returned the Bill passed by the Assembly in 2016 with two objections : One that it was not secular in nature and provided punishment only if the sacrilege involved Guru Granth Sahib. Secondly it had pointed out that the punishment of life imprisonement for 10 years for even the first offence was too harsh.\n\nWhile the current Assembly has sought to circumvent the first objection by including holy books from other religions as well, it has sought to maintain the punishment as provided in the previous bill.\n\nIndependent thinkers and those keen on strengthening democracy believe that the new law, if given the green flag by the Centre, can lead to serious consequences on the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution and that it would put the clock back on the march of the civilisation. They point out that there would be ample scope for misuse of the law and that it could prove counter productive.\n\n[email protected]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9424412250518799}
+{"content": "Annual Meeting of Colne Parish Council\n\nWhat goes on at the Annual Meeting of Colne Parish Council in Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire\n\nWhat goes on at the Annual Village Meeting\n\n\nWhat is the purpose of the Annual Village Meeting?\n\nAll Parish and Town Councils throughout England are required by law to hold an annual Village meeting each year. The purpose of calling this meeting is so that the Council can explain what it has been doing over the last year and it enables the electors to have their say on anything which they consider is important to the people of the parish.\n\nWhen is the Annual Village Meeting?\n\nThe council publish the venue, date and time of the meeting as widely as possible. You will also find details of he meeting posted upon the Village Notice Boards once the date has been fixed\n\nWho can attend the meeting?\n\nAnyone may attend but only registered electors of Colne may speak and vote..\n\nWill I be able to ask questions and make suggestions?\n\nYes, any registered elector may ask questions of the Council. These will usually be answered by the chairperson or by the Village Administrator or a designated Councillor. An elector may also make suggestions and comment on anything pertinent to the people of Colne. This will be welcomed and is the whole purpose of the meeting.\n\nWho will chair the meeting?\n\nIf able, the Chairperson of the Colne Parish Council will chair the meeting. If the Chair is not able to attend, then the meeting will elect a chairperson from amongst those electors present.\n\nWill Village Councillors be there?\n\nUsually they do attend and will speak if need be. But the purpose of the meeting is to enable the ordinary electors of Colne to have their say. Councillors will listen with interest and as electors themselves, also have the opportunity to raise questions and make comments if they wish.\n\nWill notes be taken of the meeting?\n\nYes, a written record of the meeting will be taken and will be presented at a future meeting of Council for their consideration.\n\nHow long will the meeting last?\n\nAs long as need be within reason. It really depends on those present and the number of questions and the discussion that is raised. Generally, the meeting will last no longer than 2 hours.\n\nWill the Press be there?\n\nSeating and a table will be provided for the local press as the Council do for all their public meetings.\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8971931338310242}
+{"content": "Five daily routines to protect the immunity of the elderly\n\nFive daily routines to protect the immunity of the elderly\n\nIn the time when the temperature difference between day and night increases, the elderly are prone to colds, coughs, fatigue, repeated respiratory tract, digestive tract and urinary tract infections.\n\nPeople always blame the bacteria and viruses. In fact, bacteria and viruses can only cause diseases in people with low resistance, fever and infection in some elderly people.\n\nIn addition, the elderly are prone to various chronic diseases and are also associated with reduced immunity.\n\n Eat more antioxidant foods The free radicals produced by the body can damage cells in the body and destroy the immune system.\n\nOnly antioxidant nutrients can be removed.\n\nAs we age, the body’s antioxidants are reduced and eventually unable to remove the accumulated free radicals.\n\nWhen the body is full of free radicals, health will illuminate red.\n\n Antioxidant nutrients that have special significance for the elderly include vitamins E, C, β-carotene, copper, and selenium.\n\nOlder people can get from potatoes, green tea, citrus, broccoli, milk, fish, wheat, cherries, strawberries, watermelons, and tomatoes. These are natural antioxidant foods that are cheap and good.\n\n In general, the digestive function of the elderly is poor and the dietary supplement is reduced. It is recommended to supplement the multivitamin mineral supplements supplemented with antioxidant nutrients, such as good silver tablets, which are tailor-made for the elderly to meet the needs of the body.\n\n Balanced nutrition is the foundation of immunity.\n\nFirst, ensure high quality protein, including animal foods and soy products.\n\nMainly increase the intake of fish, eat one egg a day, 250 ml of milk per day, high-cholesterol patients can use skim milk.\n\nMany alternative soy products such as tofu, dried bean curd and vegetarian chicken supplement both high-quality protein and no increase in blood lipids.\n\n Basically, eat fresh green leafy vegetables and fruits, which are rich in trace elements, vitamins and complementary fiber.\n\nVitamin C and β-carotene play an important role in maintaining the normal physiological functions of the body, and supplemental fibers can increase intestinal peristalsis and prevent or relieve constipation.\n\n In addition, to ensure the absorption of various inorganic salts and trace elements, calcium, iron, selenium and chromium are important minerals for the elderly.\n\n Keep your mood happy. The body’s immune organs, such as the thymus, spleen, lymph glands and bone marrow, are distributed with nerve fibers. All nerves are controlled by the brain. Brain activity directly affects the function of the immune system.\n\nA positive and optimistic attitude helps to promote the growth of immune cells and stimulate the vitality of the immune system, thus gradually protecting the body’s role.\n\n Behavioral sciences that regulate bad behaviors and habits can be the cause and cause of a range of diseases, including cancer.\n\nNegative life factors continue to act on the body for a long time, and excessive stimulation of the immune system will disrupt normal physiological functions and lead to decreased immunity.\n\nTherefore, the elderly should develop good habits, live daily, work and rest, balanced diet, and refrain from bad habits.\n\n Proper exercise appropriate exercise can improve central nervous system function, heart nutrient and metabolic metabolism, promote systemic blood and body fluid circulation and metabolism, delay the aging of body tissues and the decline of immune system function.\n\nTheme: Overlay by Kaira Extra Text\nCape Town, South Africa", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6625905632972717}
+{"content": "Through 01-05-2019\n\nChattahoochee Hills\n\nBased on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Location: The Inn Barn at Serenbe. Narnia, an immersive dramatization tells of four English schoolchildren in the time of World War II who stumble upon a wardrobe which they discover to be a portal into a magical kingdom. This is a traveling performance without seating. Call for details.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9848895072937012}
+{"content": "Psychological Abuse\n\nEffects of Emotional Abuse on Adults, by Natasha Tracy.\n\n\n\n\nShort-term effects of emotional abuse include:\n\n • Surprise and confusion\n • Anxiety or fear; hypervigilence\n • Shame or guilt\n • Aggression (as a defense to the abuse)\n • Becoming overly passive or compliant\n • Frequent crying\n • Avoidance of eye contact\n • Feeling like you're \"walking on eggshells\"\n • Feeling manipulated, used and controlled\n • Feeling undesirable\n\n\n\n\n • Depression\n • Withdrawal\n • Low self-esteem and self-worth\n • Emotional instability\n • Sleep disturbances\n • Physical pain without cause\n • Suicidal ideation, thoughts or attempts\n • Extreme dependence on the abuser\n • Underachievement\n • Inability to trust\n • Feeling trapped and alone\n • Substance abuse\n\n\nTracy, N. (2017). [article]. Retrieved 12.1.2017 from:\n\nEarly Warning Signs\n\nDomestic Abuse - Early Warning Signs, by Lee-Anne Van Den Broek. \n\nPeople that abuse others are masters of manipulation, and generally do not want their abusive behaviours displayed for all to see. The mask worn by these people ‘sucks you in', they feel so right in the beginning!\n\nBehind that mask lies ugliness that has no boundaries, and does not care about yours. Relationships don’t become abusive, they always have been abusive, but the tactics used are less severe in the beginning of the relationship. So, what are the early signs that a person may be setting you up for abuse? Strong signs of an abusive (controlling) disposition might be apparent even when the person is ‘being nice.’\n\nControlling disposition in early days might include:\n\n- Flattering (but a little overboard).\n\n- Planning fun outings or getaways where you feel a sense of obligation to look forward to, or enjoy their plans.\n\n- You may be kept busy so that your usual activities can’t be pursued.\n\n- He may assume levels of intimacy that you don’t feel.\n\n- Gifts and other nice things are given but there is a strong pressure to accept and like his gifts.\n\n- Needing constant contact (calls, texts, insisting on accompanying you to all appointments and interviews, visiting your place of employment etc.).\n\n- Jealousy without reason (this is not love, this is angry attachment for all women expressing itself).\n\n- Pressure for early commitment (desire to marry, move in together, buy property together, or have a child). The abuser may assume or insist commitment exists even when it does not. This is evidence of a desire for complete and total control.\n\n- Blaming everything external for his feelings, life situation, disturbing actions toward other people, particularly previous partners as this is closely linked to abusive behaviours.\n\n- Too good to be true and claims of grandiose can be a warning.\n\n- Name calling (especially in fields of your interest).\n\n- He shows a strong and manipulative interest in managing impressions on other people-if he is doing this to them, he is doing it to you.\n\n- Isolating can be a gradual process, but can also show up at lightning speed when someone expresses doubts or a critical view of him.\n\n- Suggestions of people being a bad influence on you.\n\n- Frequent talks and argument about trust and betrayal. This indicates the abuser believes others are not doing what he wants them to, and this is a crime. This is the beginning of justification of abuse.\n\n- Ingratiating manner when he wants something. Friendliness is common when requesting something, but ingratiating is not sincere and overdone by friendliness. This is a will to get what he wants at all costs.\n\n- Claiming previous partners cheated on him. While this might be true, it is likely to be his imagination rising from pathological jealousy.\n\n- Secretiveness. Next to brute forces, the second most effective building block of power is to know what someone else doesn’t. Secretiveness in relationships, is an attempt to create the feeling, or reality of power by compartmentalisation, a mild state of disassociation.\n\n- Showing up unannounced or uninvited. This is to keep you off balance. It is also a sign of pathological jealousy and an act of stalking.\n\n- He has few or no male friends.\n\n- He has difficulty cooperating with others.\n\n- Mood swings (Jekyll and Hyde behaviours).\n\n- He has to be right.\n\nThis is an effort by the abuser to make what he wants into something more, he feels it is something others must give him. While some of these behaviours may be difficult to detect, if you do observe any potential warning signs, please take heed.\n\nThe abuse within unhealthy relationships increases over time. Being in an abusive relationship will eventually suck you dry, in every aspect. It will damage you until you are questioning your own sanity, yet you were never to blame for any of it, your abuser was.\n\nVan Den Broek, L. (2017). [blog]. Domestic Abuse – Early Warning Signs.\n\nSamsel, M. (2013). [article]. WARNING SIGNS: Abuse and Relationships. Retrieved 16.2.2017 from:\n\n\nGrooming, by Lee-Anne Van Den Broek. \n\nOne might question why individuals stay in abusive relationships when they had a life before their partner, free from abuse. Many wonder why anyone would continue to allow someone to treat them badly. People who abuse others know exactly what they are doing and groom potential victims from the dating phase to the early relationship stage. Tactics used by perpetrators of abuse are generally subtle in early days, and are designed to slowly desensitise natural reactions to abusive behaviours.\n\nGrooming works by mixing elements of abuse with positive behaviours. Early in the relationship all behaviours may indeed be positive, but slowly abusive behaviours are added, which often sends the one living with abuse into a confused state. However, the one inflicting abuse will not allow their behaviours to set off alarm bells, and over time the abuse begins to feel normal.\n\nThe one inflicted with abuse never truly understands their abusers actual goal, and as a result often dismisses internal alarm bells. As the desensitisation continues, shame and secrecy trap the abused partner, and often instils the belief that it is too late for them to walk away from the relationship. Desensitisation goes together with the illusion of something special in the relationship, this illusion is created by a mix of false affection and positive behaviours.\n\nAs time goes on, the one inflicted with abuse may believe that there was some sort of agreement, or understanding in the relationship, until they see it was their abuser that was solely responsible, and they had indeed been living with abuse. By the time the person sees this reality, not only have they been groomed (or set up) for abuse, over time many more abusive behaviours have been inflicted on them, changing their lives, changing them.\n\nMost people living in abusive relationships will be subject to stonewalling, discouragement, gaslighting, social abuse, financial abuse, coercive control, stalking, rage, pathological jealousy, and isolation. Many also endure sexual abuse, and many watch as their children are abused too. All resources are stripped from the abused person, and they cannot meet their needs expect through their primary abuser, who has manipulated the relationship so their partner is totally dependent on them. Many want so desperately to leave, but with little or no resources, particularly financial, these women are faced with a very difficult and intense situation. These tactics wear even the strongest of people down, they feel drained, often helpless and alone. Every day is spent walking on eggshells not knowing when peace will turn to hell.\n\n\n\nGaslighting, by Natasha Tracy.\n\nGaslighting is a form of emotional abuse where the abuser manipulates situations repeatedly to trick the victim into distrusting his or her own memory and perceptions. Gaslighting is an insidious form of abuse. It makes victims question the very instincts that they have counted on their whole lives, making them unsure of anything.\n\nGaslighting makes it very likely that victims will believe whatever their abusers tell them regardless as to their own experience of the situation. Gaslighting often precedes other types of emotional and physical abuse because the victim of gaslighting is more likely to remain in other abusive situations as well.\n\nThe term \"gaslighting\" comes from the 1938 British play \"Gas Light\" wherein a husband attempts to drive his wife crazy using a variety of tricks causing her to question her own perceptions and sanity. Gas Light was made into a movie both in 1940 and 1944.\n\nThere are numerous gaslighting techniques which can make gaslighting more difficult to identify. Gaslighting techniques are used to hide truths that the abuser doesn't want the victim to realize. Gaslighting abuse can be perpetrated by either women or men. \"Withholding\" is one gaslighting technique where the abuser feigns a lack of understanding, refuses to listen and declines sharing his emotions.\n\n\nGaslighting examples of this would be:\n\n\n• \"I'm not listening to that crap again tonight.\"\n\n\n• \"You're just trying to confuse me.\"\n\n\nAnother gaslighting technique is \"countering,\" where an abuser will vehemently call into question a victim's memory in spite of the victim having remembered things correctly.\n\n\n• \"Think about when you didn't remember things correctly last time.\"\n\n\n• \"You thought that last time and you were wrong.\" \n\n\nThese techniques throw the victim off the intended subject matter and make them question their own motivations and perceptions rather than the issue at hand. It is then that the abuser will start to question the experiences, thoughts and opinions more globally through statements said in anger like:\n\n\n• \"You see everything in the most negative way.\"\n\n\n• \"Well you obviously never believed in me then.\"\n\n\n• \"You have an overactive imagination.\"\n\n\n\"Blocking\" and \"diverting\" are gaslighting techniques whereby the abuser again changes the conversation from the subject matter to questioning the victim's thoughts and controlling the conversation.\n\n\nGaslighting examples of this include:\n\n\n• \"I'm not going through that again.\"\n\n\n• \"Where did you get a crazy idea like that?\"\n\n\n• \"Quit bitching.\"\n\n\n• \"You're hurting me on purpose.\"\n\n\n\"Trivializing\" is another way of gaslighting. It involves making the victim believe his or her thoughts or needs aren't important, such as:\n\n\n• \"You're going to let something like that come between us?\"\n\n\nAbusive \"forgetting\" and \"denial\" can also be forms of gaslighting. In this technique, the abuser pretends to forget things that have really occurred; the abuser may also deny things like promises that have been made that are important to the victim.\n\n\nAn abuser might say,\n\n\n• \"What are you talking about?\"\n\n\n• \"I don't have to take this.\"\n\n\n• \"You're making that up.\"\n\nSome gaslighters will then mock the victim for their \"wrongdoings\" and \"misperceptions.\"\n\n\nGaslighting Psychology\n\nThe gaslighting techniques are used in conjunction to try to make the victim doubt their own thoughts, memories and actions. Soon the victim is scared to bring up any topic at all for fear they are \"wrong\" about it or don't remember the situation correctly. The worst gaslighters will even create situations that allow for the usage of gaslighting techniques. An example of this is taking the victim's keys from the place where they are always left, making the victim think she has misplaced them. Then \"helping\" the victim with her \"bad memory\" find the keys.\n\n\nAre You a Victim of Gaslighting Emotional Abuse?\n\nAccording to author and psychoanalyst Robin Stern, Ph.D., the signs of being a victim of gaslighting emotional abuse include:\n\n\n1. You are constantly second-guessing yourself.\n\n\n2. You ask yourself, \"Am I too sensitive?\" a dozen times a day.\n\n\n3. You often feel confused and even crazy at work.\n\n\n4. You're always apologizing to your mother, father, boyfriend,, boss.\n\n\n5. You can't understand why, with so many apparently good things in your life, you aren't happier.\n\n\n6. You frequently make excuses for your partner's behaviour to friends and family.\n\n\n7. You find yourself withholding information from friends and family so you don't have to explain or make excuses.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10. You have trouble making simple decisions.\n\n\n11. You have the sense that you used to be a very different person - more confident, more fun-loving, more relaxed.\n\n\n12. You feel hopeless and joyless.\n\n\n13. You feel as though you can't do anything right.\n\n\n14. You wonder if you are a \"good enough\" girlfriend/ wife/employee/ friend; daughter.\n\nTracy, N. (2017). [article]. Retrieved 13.1.2017 from:\n\nNarcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)\n\nWhat is Narcissistic Personality Disorder?\n\nNarcissistic Personality Disorder is a serious condition and is characterised by;\n\nan extreme self-interest and promotion\n\n\nan accompanying lack of concern for the needs of others.\n\nHow is NPD linked to domestic abuse? \n\nNarcissistic Personality Disorder, by Thowfeek, T., and Aames, M (2007-2015).\n\nPeople that live with narcissistic personality disorder display many of the following traits, all of which contribute to dysfunctional relationships.\n\nAbusive Cycle - This is the name for the ongoing rotation between destructive and constructive behaviour which is typical of many dysfunctional relationships and families.\n\n\n\n\n\nBelittling, Condescending and Patronizing - This kind of speech is a passive-aggressive approach to giving someone a verbal put-down while maintaining a facade of reasonableness or friendliness.\n\n\n\n\nChronic Broken Promises - Repeatedly making and then breaking commitments and promises is a common trait among people who suffer from personality disorders.\n\n\nDissociation- A psychological term used to describe a mental departure from reality.\n\n\nEmotional Abuse - Any pattern of behaviour directed at one individual by another which promotes in them a destructive sense of Fear, Obligation or Guilt (FOG).\n\nEmotional Blackmail - A system of threats and punishments used in an attempt to control someone’s behaviours.\n\n\nFavouritism and Scapegoating - Systematically giving a dysfunctional amount of preferential positive or negative treatment to one individual among a family group of peers.\n\n\n\nGrooming - Grooming is the predatory act of manoeuvring another individual into a position that makes them more isolated, dependent, likely to trust, and more vulnerable to abusive behaviour.\n\nHarassment - Any sustained or chronic pattern of unwelcome behaviour by one individual towards another.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLow Self-Esteem - A common name for a negatively-distorted self-view which is inconsistent with\n\nManipulation - The practice of steering an individual into a desired behaviour for the purpose of achieving a hidden personal goal.\n\nMasking - Covering up one's own natural outward appearance, mannerisms and speech in dramatic and inconsistent ways depending on the situation.\n\nNarcissism - A set of behaviours characterized by a pattern of grandiosity, self-centred focus, need for admiration, self-serving attitude and a lack of empathy or consideration for others.\n\n\nNormalising - Normalizing is a tactic used to desensitize an individual to abusive, coercive or inappropriate behaviours. In essence, normalising is the manipulation of another human being to get them to agree to, or accept something that is in conflict with the law, social norms or their own basic code of behaviour.\n\n\"Not My Fault\" Syndrome - The practice of avoiding personal responsibility for one's own words and actions.\n\n\n\n\n\nProxy Recruitment - A way of controlling or abusing another person by manipulating other people into unwittingly backing “doing the dirty work”\n\nRanking and Comparing - Drawing unnecessary and inappropriate comparisons between individuals or groups.\n\nRaging, Violence and Impulsive Aggression - Explosive verbal, physical or emotional elevations of a dispute. Rages threaten the security or safety of another individual and violate their personal boundaries.\n\nRelationship Hyper Vigilance - Maintaining an unhealthy level of interest in the behaviours, comments, thoughts and interests of others.\n\n\nScapegoating - Singling out one child, employee or member of a group of peers for unmerited negative treatment or blame.\n\n\nSelf-Aggrandizement - A pattern of pompous behaviour, boasting, narcissism or competitiveness designed to create an appearance of superiority.\n\nSense of Entitlement - An unrealistic, unmerited or inappropriate expectation of favourable living conditions and favourable treatment at the hands of others.\n\nSexual Objectification - Viewing another individual in terms of their sexual usefulness or attractiveness rather than pursuing or engaging in a quality interpersonal relationship with them.\n\n\n\nTargeted Humour, Mocking and Sarcasm - Any sustained pattern of joking, sarcasm or mockery which is designed to reduce another individual’s reputation in their own eyes or in the eyes of others.\n\n\nThought Policing - Any process of trying to question, control, or unduly influence another person's thoughts or feelings.\n\nThreats - Inappropriate, intentional warnings of destructive actions or consequences.\n\n\nThowfeek, T., Aames, M. (2007-2015). [article]. Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Retrieved 23.1.2017 from:\n\nLiving with someone with NPD\n\nLiving with, or being involved with a narcissist can be mentally and emotionally exhausting, by Thowfeed et al (2007-2015).\n\n\nEven subtle forms of torture, such as sleep deprivation, these people inflict on their victims; appears to be conscious and calculated to push the target of their \"affections\" past their limits, into surrender - and ultimately into total compliance - as a source of Narcissistic Supply.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIt simply doesn't occur to them to consider the needs of anyone else, or the long-term consequences of their own behaviours. Narcissists can be highly intelligent, witty, talented, likable, and fun to be around. They can also elicit sympathy like nobody's business.\n\nNarcissists are opportunistic. They can make a show of being \"generous\" but their generosity usually has strings attached. They tend to isolate their victims, sucking up their time and energy, many times robbing their own families, spouses and partners of an external support system. Narcissists are excellent liars and many prefer to lie even when telling the truth would be more beneficial to them; which suggests that lying is a hallmark of this pathology.\n\n\nThey can be calculating and extremely persuasive and susceptible to erratic thinking and impulsive decision making. Narcissists can be self-destructive as often as they are destructive to others. They have a great deal of trouble accepting responsibility for their own actions, under any circumstance. Narcissists are addictive personalities and narcissism is commonly co-morbid with addictions to drugs, alcohol, sex, food, spending and gambling. It has been suggested that Narcissists have a higher rate of ADHD than the general population. \n\n\nNarcissists are good at pretending, but typically do not feel compassion or empathy or consider the feelings or well-being of others. They tend to be singularly focused on getting their own needs met, at the expense of the needs of others. While narcissists generally portray a lack of conscience, they typically have an intellectual awareness of what they are doing and how they hurt others. They simply do not care. Being kind to a Narcissist in the face of their maltreatment is a common approach of family members and partners. However, this can result in further frustration as it is rarely reciprocated and tends to feed their sense of entitlement, opening the door for more abuse. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNarcissistic personality disorder will suck the life right out of us - IF we let it, by Natasha Tracy. \n\nThe Narcissist is intentionally distorting and debilitating your reality through extreme manipulation so that you will become isolated and dependent on them as the center of your universe. It is a tangled mess for the victim/target to discern reality from all of these mechanisms that are in place for the Narcissist to succeed at doing what they are doing – or using abusive conditioning TO GET SUPPLY!\n\nOne of the main operating tactics used by narcissists is to obliterate our boundaries and begin to control everything they can about us for the purpose of extracting “supply”. It comes natural to the narcissist, possessive and having non-existent boundaries, not to recognize the separation that exists between themselves and others. To a narcissist we are simply an extension of themselves. Many of us were raised to believe that we didn’t have the right to create or assert our boundaries to the narcissistic leaders in our family or at school or work. We weren’t to have opinions of our own, but rather look to the narcissist to formulate opinions for us.\n\nWhen we establish our right to stand up for ourselves in the beginning, the natural attraction between an alpha narcissist and beta target would not be able to take hold and flourish. A narcissist will sense that we won’t be an “easy mark” and will move on to someone more easily controlled. \n\nBoundaries are limits that we set about behaviors and treatment that we are or are not comfortable with. Boundaries are the dividing lines between our responsibilities and those of others. Boundaries surround our identity; the parts of ourselves that involve our physical body, emotions, spirituality, thoughts and behavior. Boundaries keep us sane.\n\nExamples include:\n\n- Having different opinions, recognizing that our feelings and thoughts are unique and are acceptable even if someone else doesn’t understand or agree.\n\n\n- Making choices that pertain to our lives, who we think we are vs. who someone else thinks we are.\n\n\nAs you can see, there are so many boundary variables that this can quickly become an area of confusion. Narcissists, are experts at plowing over boundaries without concern for consequences. They are hard wired and hard driving to disregard every limit you set for yourself even when it is entirely reasonable and within your rights to do so. However difficult, it is IMPERATIVE that we protect our precious worth by developing limits about how we allow someone to treat us. The practice of genuinely loving ourselves and recognizing our worth is the basis for developing strong boundaries.\n\n\nWhen you love yourself, you desire to take good care of and protect yourself from harm. Once your self love is flourishing, a desire to assert what you like or don’t like comes a little more naturally. Speaking up for ourselves, sharing our voice, telling our stories, exclaiming our truths, our hurts, fears, inadequacies, owning our stories, saying “No” more often; all of these healthy habits are the seedlings of our boundary system. With the absence of someone telling us who we are, we become experts on ourselves. \n\n\nThe bottom line is we want more of what makes us feel good and less of what makes us feel bad. Boundaries help us do that. We keep the good close and expel the bad, away from us by saying yes or no or “asserting our boundaries.\"\n\nTracy, N. (2017). [article]. Narcissistic personality disorder will suck the life right out of us…IF we let it. Retrieved 14.1.2017 from:\n\nEmotional Detachment:Surviving Ongoing Abusive Relationships, by Dr Tara J. Palmatier. \n\nEmotionally detaching from an abusive relationship can be extremely difficult. Many men and women believe they still love their abusive husbands, wives and exes. Therefore, developing indifference and detaching from their abusers, even when they’re a consistent source of pain, seems antithetical. Nevertheless, learning to detach is vital if you ever hope to regain your health, happiness, sanity and sense of Self. This also applies to people who have divorced or broken up with their abusive spouse or partner but have to maintain some degree of contact because of shared children, working for the same company or attending the same school. \n\nEmotionally detaching requires that you change many of your attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Detaching is not about enabling your abuser; it’s about disarming your abuser by eradicating her or his ability to hurt you. It’s not about changing your behaviour so that you don’t trigger your spouse; in fact, if you successfully detach it will probably provoke him or her to become even nastier and controlling for a while.\n\nWhen your spouse takes an ugly turn into consistent abuse and other controlling behaviours, attaching your self-worth to how they treat you and placing all your effort into them and the relationship guarantees exploitation and self-destruction. For your psychological survival in this kind of relationship, you need to develop and feel indifference and emotional detachment.\n\n\nBefore you can begin to detach, you need to accept the following:\n\n\n • Love does not conquer all. What you’re experiencing in your relationship probably isn’t love; it’s a distorted, twisted version of it.\n\n\n • You can’t fix or rescue someone from being abusive, sick, dysfunctional and lost in their own highly distorted reality. In fact, trying to rescue an abuser—particularly if they are a borderline personality, a narcissist, a histrionic or a sociopath—is akin to trying to rescue a drowning person who’s crying for help and then holds you under water until you begin to drown. The more you try to rescue them, the more they’ll drag you under.\n\n\n • You give your abusive spouse or partner the power to hurt you.\n\n\n • You can survive and thrive without your abusive relationship. You don’t “need” her or him. You had a life before this person and eventually you’ll have a much better life post Ms. or Mr. Crazy pants.\n\n\n • You’re not responsible for your spouse’, partner’s or ex’s happiness, failures, shortcomings or bad behaviours.\n\n\n • The person who you want your spouse or partner to be is in conflict with the person she or he is in reality.\n\n\n • Continuing to hope for the best from someone who consistently gives you the worst is a set-up for more pain and disillusionment.\n\n\n • You are not helpless, powerless and incompetent. The relationship with your abusive spouse or partner causes you to feel that way, which is why it’s often so difficult to take care of yourself and break free.\n\n\nThere’s no shame in admitting that you need to walk away from a relationship that’s destructive and toxic. It’s vital that you begin to develop a rational perspective and distance yourself from an ongoing hurtful relationship that you can neither control nor change. Many people remain in abusive relationships well beyond a point of personal pain and devastation that defies reason. You need to come back to your senses and see your partner for who he or she is. \n\n\nHere are some detachment techniques:\n\n1. Make yourself solely responsible for your own well-being and happiness. Catch yourself when you begin to utter, “If only he/she could . . . If only he/she would . . .” and knock it off. Coulda, woulda, shoulda is the language of regret and pipe dreams. Keeping you in a beaten down and depressive state makes it easier for an abuser to control you. Feline predators don’t target the swiftest and strongest impala in the herd; the one with the limp usually becomes lion lunch. Take back the control you gave them over your feelings, happiness and well-being and start meeting your own needs by making different choices and acting on them.\n\n2. Accept that you can’t fix, change, rescue, save, make someone else happy or love someone enough to make them be nice to you. Don’t just pay lip service to this. Really wrap your brain around the fact that no matter what you do, it will never be good enough. Understand that no matter how much you do for them; they’ll always expect and demand more. Acknowledge that the more you appease, compromise and forgo your own needs; the more entitled, demanding and ungrateful they’ll be: you’re throwing good energy after bad with no victory or end in sight.\n\n\n3. Eliminate the hooks of your abuser. A hook is typically an emotional, psychological or physical stake that you have in the other person and the relationship. For example, GUILT is a big hook that keeps many men and women in abusive relationships with destructive narcissistic, borderline and histrionic partners.“I don’t how they’d take care of themselves. What would they do without me? I’d feel guilty if I left because of the kids.” The flip side of guilt is EGO. If you leave an abusive person, they’ll do just fine without you. They’ll probably try to suck you dry financially while lining up their next target to control and abuse. It’s not personal—especially if your spouse is BPD, NPD, HPD, ASD and/or APD.\n\nThese neurological/biological disorders view others as objects to be used. They’ll simply replace you with another object and do the same damn thing to the next guy. Guilt is a control device they use to keep you in line. Other hooks include shame (e.g., of failing or not being strong enough), loss of status (e.g., being perceived as a nice or good guy), loss of material assets or access to children, perfectionism and your own need to control others, situations and outcomes.\n\n4. Learn to control your body language. Your body language and facial expressions can betray what you’re feeling and thinking on the inside without you saying a word. Your spouse’s covert and overt attacks are designed to elicit a reaction, you need to learn how not to give them the reaction they are seeking.\n\n\n5. Lower your expectations. Ordinarily, people expect the best from others to create a positive self-fulfilling prophecy. However, expecting the best from an abusive person will result in you feeling broadsided, perpetually disappointed and hurt most of the time. For all their crocodile tears and hyper-sensitivity, abusive narcissistic, borderline, histrionic and sociopathic people are emotional predators and bullies. If you stay in the relationship, the best you can expect is more of the same. You may achieve some periods of “peace” (remember, they say they are not responsible for their behaviour; you’re responsible for their behaviour and your behaviour and all the other problems in the universe), and maintain your boundaries. “Happiness reflects the difference between what you expect versus what you actually get in life—so if you keep expecting good things to happen, but they never do or take a turn for the worse, you will suffer constant unhappiness.” (Sutton, 2007, p. 134) Your spouse is abusive. They probably have significant characterological pathology and are unlikely to change. Therefore, keep your expectations for their behaviour low, but continue to believe that you will be okay once you remove yourself from the situation and/or stop giving them the power to hurt you.\n\n\n6. Do something that removes you from the abuse and centres you. Meditate or whatever your version of meditation is—reading, walking, woodworking, painting, music—anything that’s restorative. Find pockets of sanity and safety with friends and family or physical spaces like your office, the gym, the pub or social/professional organizations. Find activities that will take you out of the line of fire and minimize your exposure to them and their abuse. Find a hobby or activity that makes you feel good about yourself and restores your confidence and esteem. Ignore them when they become jealous or puts down these new activities and friendships. They do so because they see them as threats to their control.\n\n\n7. See the big picture and don’t get distracted by their minutiae. The ultimate goal is to not let their abusive behaviour effect you anymore and to end the relationship. Expect them to hit even harder—emotionally and/or physically—when you stop reacting to their tried and true button pushing. It seems counter-intuitive, but if they become nastier in response to you setting boundaries and detaching, it means your new behavioural strategies are working because they are fighting harder to retain their control. By detaching, you’re taking back the power that you unwittingly ceded to them. These new behaviours will take time for you to learn and perfect. It takes a while to develop indifference. It runs counter to our fundamental beliefs about love and relationships. However, if you’re in a relationship with someone who verbally and/or physically attacks you, devalues you, makes you feel less than and who raises themselves up at your expense, you must learn how to make yourself less vulnerable and eventually immune to them. Abusive neurological/biological disorders have no soul and they will destroy your soul if you let them.\n\nPalmatier, Dr. T, J. (2017). [article]. Emotional Detachment: Surviving Ongoing Abusive Relationships. Shrink4Men Coaching and Consultation Services. Retrieved 17.1.2017 from:\n\nBreaking Free\n\nBreaking Free From a Destructive Relationship, by Lee-Anne Van Den Broek.\n\nPeople stay in bad relationships for thousands of reasons. Sometimes they are afraid to be alone, or they are afraid of starting over. Sometimes they are afraid of what their partner will do, or that they will end up broke and hopeless.\n\nOften people assume the old saying “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”. But, the truth is: life is precious and it is short.\n\nDon’t waste a minute more of your time being in a relationship that is damaging or destructive. The people we love are meant to lift us up, to make us our best selves, not to tear us down and leave us broken. So if you are thinking about leaving, or preparing to leave, check out Lee-Anne Van Den Broek’s advice below on breaking free from a destructive relationship.\n\nAnd remember, it’s better to be by yourself and working on your own happiness, than to be with someone who makes you feel bad, scared or alone.\n\n\nWhat is an abusive relationship?\n\nAbuse comes in many forms, not just physical. An abusive relationship can include one, some or all of the below symptoms:\n\nPhysical abuse: If your partner is violent towards you, or threatens violence towards you. Physical abuse may also include the destruction of property or harming of pets.\n\nEmotional abuse: This can take many forms and can include humiliation, yelling, insults, criticism, judgement, domination, control, shame, rejection, discounting someone’s opinions or value, threats, accusations, blame, unreasonable demands and expectations, emotional distancing and the ‘silent treatment’, emotional abandonment, neglect, bullying, and co-dependence.\n\nFinancial abuse: If your partner controls your finances, limits your access to funds and makes you financially dependent on them.\n\nSocial abuse: Happens when your partner limits your contact with family and friends. It can also happen when they insult you, or are cruel about you in front of other people. They may also try to control where you go, when you go and who you see. For more information on the definition of an abusive relation visit\n\n\nTaking the first step\n\nLeaving a destructive relationship is not easy. Often the person that you are leaving will place blame on you, and will try to get you to question your own feelings and judgement.\n\nThey will often make you think that your leaving will have serious consequences, and you may begin to minimise the seriousness of your situation.\n\nDon’t underestimate your situation\n\nNever underestimate the seriousness of your situation. If you are in an abusive relationship, you need to keep yourself (and your children) safe.\n\nThe hardest decision you will have to make is the initial break, from there you will find there is both social and financial support that you can access.\n\nBreaking free\n\nSo how do you break free from a destructive relationship? The first step is realising the abuse is not your fault and that you are not to blame. The next is to realise you are not alone and there are measures that you can take to ensure your safety.\n\nGetting away safely\n\n\n\nA safety plan might include;\n\n\n- Having an emergency bag of belongings that you can leave with someone you trust.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n- Always ensure you have emergency numbers programmed into your phone.\n\n\n\n\n- You can find a detailed safety plan by visiting Relationships Australia.\n\nOnce you have decided to leave, you will need to work out where you will go to. You may want to stay with family or friends for a while, or you could get temporary accommodation at a shelter or a refuge.\n\n\nResources once you’ve broken free\n\nThere are a number of legal, financial and emotional resources available to you, both before and after you have left your relationship, these include:\n\nLegal: Lawstuff – for information about your rights and the law as it applies to you.\n\nFinancial: Centrelink can provide crisis payments in times of distress.. If you are financially dependent on your partner, they can also help you with payments until you find work.\n\nPhysical: If you have been hurt or injured by your partner, head to your local GP or the nearest hospital for immediate medical assistance.\n\nEmotional: There are several fantastic support services which will help you access emotional and mental support, including:\n\n\n • 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n • WA Women’s Domestic Violence Helpline: (08) 9223 1188 or 1800 007 339\n\n\n • SA Domestic Violence Crisis Service: 1300 782 200\n\n\n\n\nGet support\n\nWhether or not you feel it, there will be lingering effects from the abuse that you have suffered. You may feel guilty, scared or down on yourself.\n\nFor your wellbeing, it is essential that you seek out some counselling or therapy. It will help you sort through your emotions, get you into a better headspace, and ultimately help you to leave the past behind and walk into the bright new future that’s waiting for you.\n\n\nVan Den Broek, L. (2015). Breaking Free From A Destructive Relationship. [article]. Retrieved 14.1.2017 from:\n\nThank you for visiting", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.518551230430603}
+{"content": "Body Language Bias at the Ford Kavanaugh Hearing\n\nFor many, the Ford/Kavanaugh hearing on September 27 cemented already formed opinions, but it did not resolve the issue at hand. As a body language specialist, I followed the hearing with great interest; though not to witness the predicatable he said/she said statments. I watched to take note of the non-verbal indicators that filled in a rich subtext during yesterday’s hearing.\n\nBody language is the primary form of non-verbal communication (the process by which meaning is conveyed without words) and an enormous amount of physical behavior was on display during the Ford/Kavanaugh hearing. For this post, I’ve chosen to focus on Brett Kavanaugh’s opening statement only. Most non-verbal spectators would skip his prepared remarks in exchange for more “genuine” body language indicators divulged from unrehearsed responses, but I found his prepared remarks to be suffused with signals revealing a hidden truth he practiced to obscure.\n\nBrett Kavanaugh had been well trained to speak in public. Considering a simple summary of body language best practices including eye contact, visible hands, deliberate posture, and calculated tone of voice, he incorporated each of these studiously. He knew to keep his hands visible to appear more trustworthy. He knew to keep his head and body leaned forward to show he was fully engaged in delivering his message to the committee. He knew that his words must match his body language in order to appear authentic. He spoke loudly. He knit his eyebrows together to convey an angry facial expression. He emphasized his indignation with punctuated pounding on the desk. And thanks to his practiced effort, Kavanaugh’s message did come across clearly; he showed everyone in that room and everyone watching on television how exasperated he was with those who do not support his nomination to the Supreme Court.\n\nThe great thing about body language is that even if you are well trained, like Brett Kavanaugh, you cannot completely control your non-verbal messages. Your real emotions will always reveal themselves. After Kavanaugh finished speaking yesterday, I went online, found a recording of his full opening statement and watched again with the sound off to avoid being distracted by his words. I focused on his face, and he did not disappoint. Brett Kavanaugh’s predominant and deliberate anger was sprinkled with flashes of fear, sadness, disgust, and contempt.\n\nThe subtle change in his facial expressions could have been easily missed by an untrained eye, and in fact most of what he exhibited was not at all surprising. He would surely be feeling fear at the possibility of losing of his Supreme Court appointment. He was undeniably sad that his family was subjected to such terrible stories, and he never tried to hide his disgust with the Democrats who he blamed for dragging all this up. Contempt, however, is the one to watch. So, when Brett Kavanaugh flashed contempt, I turned the volume back on.\n\nTwo of the phrases Brett Kavanaugh spoke immediately prior to showing contempt:\n\n“I’m innocent”\n\n“I’m here today to tell the truth”\n\nContempt is a defined by Merriam-Webster as “the act of despising, willful disobedience, and open disrespect for a court, judge, or legislative body.”\n\nI do not consider myself an expert in lie detection, and I am aware that any lie detection specialist relies on a cluster of red flags before suggesting a subject is being untruthful, but an inability to hide his contempt did not do Mr. Kavanaugh any favors.\n\nThough contempt alone is not considered hard evidence, I will offer another bit of science about lie detection. When someone lies, the tissue in the nose becomes inflamed. As a result, the liar tends to touch/rub the nose. Kavanaugh, being carefully trained, would have known to actively avoid reaching his hands to his face for any reason. Yet anyone watching him speak surely noticed that Brett Kavanaugh suffered from a terrible case of the sniffles. He sniffed and sniffed and sniffed his way through the prepared statement. Did you find it odd for someone with such persistent sniffles to never reach for a tissue?\n\nThere were enough non-verbal observations from the hearing to fill a book (when he leaned away from the questioner, when he shrunk down in his chair, when he reached across his body and squeezed the opposite arm) but the final body language indicator that stood out from the rest was one unfamiliar to me, though it was hard for anyone to miss Kavanaugh repeatedly thrusting his tongue into his cheek during the second half of his prepared remarks. The conspicuous act of pushing at your cheek with your tongue is not a definitive gesture. It could be an act of self-soothing, an indicator of uncertainty, or simply show the person is being pensive. It would take greater familiarity with Brett Kavanaugh as an individual to understand what this particular body language cue indicates about him. I plan to watch for it again in the future.\n\nOverall, despite his large degree of preparation to come across strong and defiant, Brett Kavanaugh came up short. Subconscious and involuntary body language cannot be controlled or faked for an extended period of time, and his body language during the hearing uncovered red flags that muddied the innocence he professed. Though his body language did not uncover any certainty, it did raise plenty of additional questions. The only complete truth that came out of the hearing was that Brett Kavanaugh and most of his Republican supporters will not back down, and that might mean America ends up with Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.\n\nAuthors Note: When I set out to write this piece, my intention was to share observations from my background in body language science. The expected result was impartial data. However, by the time the particulars had been included, my bias was obvious. After careful consideration, I decided not to extricate my opinion from my observation. Instead, I encourage other trained observers of the body language to provide alternative interpretations. Thank you in advance for your expertise.\n\n\nA few of my friends converse only in twitter format. I don’t mean they are typing 140 characters into the twitterverse. I’m saying that in my attempts to engage once normally loquacious individuals in face to face conversation, they jump from topic to topic, headline to headline, in short bursts, never delving into a substantial conversation. It’s twitterally tiresome.\n\nThe tendency appears most frequently in mothers of elementary school aged children. These women have possibly devolved into twitter-speak through the multi-tasking toil of parenting, and therefore deserve to be cut a certain amount of slack, but I don’t think communication using highlights and soundbites does any good for mental health (mine or theirs). I desperately want to lock the twittersome into a room with lit candles and meditation music in order to slow down their hyperactive sensibilities.\n\nWill this abbreviated, short hand style of communication cause a complete breakdown of their philosophical abilities? Are they doomed to be twitterarians for life?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5757330656051636}
+{"content": "Tell - Tonal-Nagual\n\nThis is Joke Lanz on electronics and turntables with Christian Wolfarth dealing with percussion. As far as I am aware, this is all they recorded as \"Tell\" and I don't know whether they recorded together at all outside of this wonderful thing. The seven tracks come in at between four and twelve minutes long. So rather than the perhaps more typical burp blurt of the Schimp, this expands and grows in (ironically) a much more organic way.\n\nIt's absolutely triumphant and I can't recommend it highly enough to be honest.\n\nCD released on Rossbin in 2009.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5406537055969238}
+{"content": "Celebrating the New Year in Colonial America\n\nAmerican colonists actually celebrated New Year on March 25th! By Eryn Dion While modern day New Year’s celebrations are all about ball drops and champagne, that’s understandably not everyone’s scene. If you’re tired of staying up until midnight and partying all night long, give some of these interesting New Year’s traditions from colonial America a[…]\n\nColonial Australian Art: Helping Us to See When We Don’t Want to Look\n\nAustralia’s under appreciated colonial art is a window to the past that can help us understand the fraught and violent history of settlement. “When I point it out you won’t ever be able to look at this painting again without noticing it.” Historian, curator and artist Dr Greg Lehman is talking to me in his[…]\n\nAn Introduction to Colonial Brazil\n\nThe Portuguese colonization of Brazil was like that of Spanish Latin America. The Portuguese Colonization of Brazil Now the largest country in South America and the fifth largest in the world, Brazil is not only impressive in size, but it is also geographically diverse with the Amazonian jungle at its center and the Atlantic Ocean[…]\n\nThe Spanish Conquistadores and Colonial Empire\n\nThe Spanish gained an early foothold in the colonies, quickly becoming the most powerful European power in the New World. Treaty of Tordesillas Columbus’s colonization of the Atlantic islands inaugurated an era of aggressive Spanish expansion across the Atlantic. Spanish colonization after Columbus accelerated the rivalry between Spain and Portugal to an unprecedented level. The[…]\n\nPsalms and Silence: The Soundtrack of John Williams’s Captivity, 1704-1706\n\nWilliams’s captivity narrative reinforces what we already know about religious life in colonial North America: mutual distrust pitted French Catholics against English Protestants. It is December 5, 1706, and John Williams, a minister of the frontier town of Deerfield, has not been among so many godly Christians in nearly two years. Cotton Mather’s usual 1,500-member[…]\n\nMaps and the Beginnings of Colonial North America\n\nExploring maps and mapmaking influenced the development of colonial North America. Introduction Thousands of surviving maps allow scholars to trace how European and indigenous understandings of North America developed between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. These maps convey information about the continent’s physical features, practical details ranging from the contours of rivers and coastlines to[…]\n\nSocial Class in the American Colonies\n\nSocial class was prevalent and largely property-based in the colonies. The Colonial Elite Overview In New England and the mid-Atlantic colonies, the elite were wealthy farmers or urban merchants; in the South, they were wealthy planters. British Americans’ reliance on indentured servitude and slavery to meet the demand for colonial labor helped give rise to[…]\n\nAfrican Art and the Effects of European Contact and Colonization\n\nAfrican cultures never existed in isolation—there was always movement, trade, and the exchange of ideas. Introduction Early encounters with Europeans were often recorded in African art. Look closely at the top of the mask above (and detail, left). Do you see faces? These represent Portuguese explorers with beards and hats (flanked by mudfish) who visited[…]\n\nExperiences of Colonial Troops during World War I\n\nAn overview of the numbers and roles of colonial troops in World War One. Introduction Even by conservative estimates well over four million non-white men were mobilised into the European and American armies during the First World War, in combatant and non-combatant roles. What do we know about the daily lived war experiences of these[…]\n\nColonial Circuits between Europe and Asia in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries\n\nThe emergence of colonial migration circuits between Europe and Asia followed the ascendency of European mercantile and military power. Introduction The emergence of colonial migration circuits between Europe and Asia followed the ascendency of European mercantile and military power. In the early 19th century, the European presence in Asia was still extremely modest and very[…]\n\n\n\nA History of Brazil from the Precolonial Era to the Kingdom Period\n\nBrazil’s history can be divided into five economic periods, each characterized by a dominant export product. By Rex A. Hudson The Indigenous Population In 1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral’s fleet, which was en route to India, landed at Porto Seguro in what is now the state of Bahia. The territory that comprises modern Brazil had a[…]\n\nA History of Nicaragua from the Precolonial Period to National Independence\n\nThroughout its history, Nicaragua has suffered from political instability, civil war, poverty, foreign intervention, and natural disasters. By Tim Merrill Precolonial Period Present-day Nicaragua is located south of the pre-Columbian culture areas of the Maya and the Aztec in Mexico and northern Central America. Although conventional wisdom states that the culture of lower Central America[…]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.988457202911377}
+{"content": "Trip management\n\nDeleting a trip\n\nTo remove a trip, from the home screen, tap the options button °°° at the top right of the picture then select Delete Trip.\n\nDuplicating a trip\n\nFrom the home screen, tapping the options button °°° will let you duplicate a previous trip to re-use the exact same packing list. The list will still be updated based on current weather to add or remove items that aren't necessary, an umbrella for example.\n\nAdding a city / destination\n\nIf the trip was created as a single-destination trip, it currently isn't possible to change it to a multi-destination trip. This feature will be available in the future.\n\nTo create a new multi-destination trip, from the home screen, tap on Add Trip, then select Multi-Destination from the selector at the top.\n\nCreating a multi destination trip", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9947271943092346}
+{"content": "Etruscans conquer latins\n\nEtruscans conquer latins\n\nThe Roman–Etruscan Wars were a series of wars fought between ancient Rome and the Etruria was conquered by Rome in BC. on the basis that the river Tiber would be the common boundary between the Etruscans and the Latins.War with Fidenae and Veii · War with the Etruscans · War with Tarquinii.\n\nReally. happens. etruscans conquer latins has touched\n\nThe Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area . Etruscan provinces. During the Roman–Etruscan Wars, Etruria was conquered by Rome in the 3rd century BCE. The prevailing view is that Rome was founded by Latins who later merged with Etruscans. In this interpretation Legend and history · Expansion · Etruscan League · Culture. The Etruscans dominated the central part of the Italic peninsula during the late 8th through the 6th centuries BC. BC) conquered the east as far as India.\n\nThink, cute teen ass nude\n\nVariant Willingly etruscans conquer latins useful topic agree\n\nEtruscan civilization of Ancient Italy, its debt to the Greeks and its influence on Italy, and to the south, their influence expanded down into Latium and beyond.Overview · Government · Religion · Military. Some Greeks held that the Etruscans were a branch of the Pelasgians, The Latin letters of European civilization, the letters which you see before you, had their The conquest of Mexico by the conquistadors was probably typical of what.\n\nVery bbw busty free porn movies what\n\nLatin merchants built a village on one of the hills—called the Palatine—in order Shortly before BC Rome was conquered by several Etruscan princes from. The Etruscans could conquer the city of Rome and their dominance was so The early inhabitants of Rome were Latins and spoke an early form of the Latin.\n\nConsider, porno en medias de seda casually\n\nThe Etruscan civilization flourished in central Italy between the 8th and 3rd a great empire was about to be built, starting with the conquest of the Etruscans. their culture and language giving way to Latin and Latin ways, their literature. Read and learn for free about the following article: The Etruscans, an introduction. In fact, hundreds of years after the Etruscans had been conquered by the Romans and . It is neither Greek nor Latin, though it uses Greek alphabet.\n\nEtruscans conquer latins apologise, but\n\nIt was bounded on the northwest by Etruria, on the southeast by Campania, on the It ended in in the defeat of the Latins and the dissolution of their league. Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and it was taken over by the Etruria was conquered by Rome in the 3rd century BCE.\n\nFree voyeur community\n\nShare your etruscans conquer latins\n\nThe Etruscans formed the most powerful nation in pre-Roman Italy. The Greeks called the Etruscans Tyrsenoi or Tyrrhenoi, while the Latins referred to in and over Volaterrae in , with the final defeat of Rusellae coming in Etruscan: Etruscan, member of an ancient people of Etruria, Italy, between the Tiber in Rome itself cannot be doubted—tombs similar to those in the Latin town of was finally checked by their defeat at the hands of Aristodemus of that city.\n\nNot etruscans conquer latins remarkable, very\n\nEtruscan civilization, highest civilization in Italy before the rise of Rome. The core of the territory of the Etruscans, known as Etruria to the Latins, was northwest The Etruscans suffered a crushing naval defeat off the coast of Cumae in BC. 2 ETRUSCAN RULE IN LATIUM AND CAMPANIA We may begin with the theory of an Etruscan conquest of Rome in the late seventh century and its occupation.\n\nKnow nothing etruscans conquer latins\n\nQuestion how regard? etruscans conquer latins\n\nII THE ETRUSCANS m LATIUM On their way to Campania the Etruscans conquered Latium and remained its masters for a century and a half (from the middle of. Apr 4, - The Etruscans, who lived in Etruria, were known as Tyrrhenians by the Greeks. in B.C. The final stage in the Roman conquest of the Etruscans was when The Semitic, Etruscan, and Greek History Behind Latin Letters.\n\nConsider, naked artist asia girl\n\nWars rage, but the Etruscan cities fight alone, and the Romans can simply attack and annex each individual city; divide and conquer was the order of the day. In either case, an empire in Campania presupposes one in Latium. Porsenna was an Etruscan king, who had repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to conquer.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9944177269935608}
+{"content": "Learn to Love Your Yardwork\n\nYard work doesn’t have to be boring or tedious, like it often is. In fact, with the right mindset and proper tools, yard work can be fun and enjoyable. Instead of viewing it as a chore, it’s important to view it into an enjoyable experience. Whether you have natural grass or artificial turf in your lawn and green spaces at home, there will always be something you can do in the yard to beautify the area and make it a more pleasant place to be.\n\nYard work can be a major stress reliever. If you are raking leaves or lawn clippings, every time a pile is made imagine that you are gathering your stress and eliminating it from your mind. Every act of moving or picking something up can be looked at as a step towards being stress free. Every item you pick up can represent a problem or issue. Pick it up, remove it, and dump it into the trash; each time you do so, you’ll be sending your stressors into the trash, too.\n\nYou can also make yard work a family affair. Assign each person a task, and work together as a family unit until the job is completed. Smaller children can complete tasks that teach them teamwork, while older kids can be assigned tasks that help them to learn a new skill or gain strength. As you all work together to clear and clean your lawn, you will teach children the benefits of hard work and pride in all that they accomplish. You can even add yard games along the way to make the time you spend outside performing this chore fun.\n\nTwo things about yard work that make it fun and enjoyable from the very beginning are spending time outside and turning up the music. When you work outside, you are not stuck in the house or an office. Walk outside, take a deep breath, and turn up the music of your choice. Listening to music and working to the beat makes any task go faster. It also makes things a lot more fun. If the day is extremely hot and humid, play slower songs and work along with the beat. It will prevent you from over exerting yourself and getting tired too quickly.\n\nDepending on how big your yard is and the type of tasks involved, you can trade a day working outside for a day in the gym. Instead of using a riding lawnmower, push mow your grass. The added exercise can replace an equal amount of time spent on a treadmill. If you have artificial turf, walk the lawn on a regular basis picking up small bits of debris and leaves as they appear. Take the time to remove any limbs or sticks to prevent children from tripping or falling. If you want to get some lifting in, rearrange the patio furniture, grill and any other lawn decorations you may have. Doing yard work can be the next best workout to take the place of a couple of hours spent at the local gym.\n\nYard work is what you make it — and if you choose fun, your chore will become something both pleasant and enjoyable. It can be a chore to be dreaded and put off, or it can be something fun and unique that you actually look forward to. Look at it from a different angle every time, and your typical yard work will become a quiet escape where you release your problems, or perhaps an event during which you spend time with family.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8968877792358398}
+{"content": "Tag Archives: poetry. birthday poem\n\n\nLily flowers in a pond float like pretty colored birthday cake flowers.\n\nMagical blooms of nature from a water plant with its roots bound deep in mud.\n\nThe leaf green lily pads float becoming perches for frogs & toads who sing in the night.\n\nIn the sunlit water morning koi fish jewels flash deep & then surface for a look at the day.\n\nDragonflies zoom by, leaving iridescent color trails sparkling in my mind’s eye.\n\nThis is joy. Not flash in the pan happiness, but deep-seated, lasting joy. \n\nOf being alive in this life, of knowing that I am part & parcel of it all. \n\nThe glittering magic, the deep swimming sea, the song of life. \n\nThe water flowers bloom with the magic of a thousand years of the continuation of life. \n\nThe earth is filled with joy.\n\nJoy. Joy. Joy. Happy Birthday to me. I hear the singing of the earth.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6272884607315063}
+{"content": "Northwest RiverPartners advocates for the bettering of our communities, our region, and the world through the low-cost, carbon-free hydropower system. Together, we encourage the balanced use of Columbia Basin rivers, while working towards solutions that help hydropower and salmon coexist and thrive.\n\n\n\nIn May of 2019, Washington’s Governor Inslee approved a $750,000 study into the impact of breaching the four lower Snake River dams. Until now, the study has consisted of interviews with representative stakeholder groups. With this new survey, communities in Washington have been given an opportunity to speak for themselves. The time to defend our access to affordable, clean, and reliable hydroelectricity is now!\n\n\nNorthwest Hydropower by the Numbers\n\nFrequently Asked Questions about Hydro\n\nAre fewer salmon returning to dammed rivers compared to free-flowing rivers?\nAnswer: Nearly all rivers along the entire North Pacific Coast—from southeast Alaska to southern Oregon—are experiencing similar or worse trends in returns when compared to the lower Columbia and lower Snake rivers.\n\nDo hydroelectric dams lead to significant mortality for salmon?\nAnswer: Data shows that fish survival past modernized dams can be as good or better than naturally flowing rivers.\n\nDid the lower Snake River dams cause Snake River Chinook and sockeye to become threatened?\nAnswer: During the same timeframe, ocean conditions dramatically shifted from cooler-than-normal temperatures to warmer-than-normal temperatures. This type of shift is a leading indicator of reduced adult salmon returns.\n\nIs hydropower an important part of our clean energy future?\nAnswer: Hydropower is critical to the region’s ability to meet these goals because it is carbon-free and because of its energy storage capabilities.\n\nCan batteries become a substitute for hydropower in the Northwest?\nAnswer: We will likely need all our existing hydropower, plus new sources of energy paired with batteries, to keep up with regional electricity needs.\n\nAre Southern Resident orcas being harmed by the existence of the lower Snake River dams?\nAnswer: Southern Resident orcas spend most of their time in the Salish Sea. As a result, a NOAA Fisheries’ analysis showed that Chinook from the Salish Sea—not the Columbia or Snake rivers—are the top priority salmon stock for Southern Resident orcas.\n\n\nNorthwest RiverPartners in the News\n\nLatest Story | Breaching dams could have negative impacts on vulnerable communities\n“Miller said the dams not only keep energy affordable, but they are an important supply of electricity where there are more and more demands. Pointing to a symposium in Portland last October, attended by 400 utility leaders and policymakers, Miller said securing the region’s energy sources is imperative.”\n\nMore News\n\nEnergy Justice and Hydroelectricity\n\nKurt Miller, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners, speaks on energy justice and how it relates to hydroelectricities during his presentation as guest speaker at the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs coffee and issues meeting.\n\nLive On Air\n\nKurt Miller talks with Alice Dietz, host of PUD Live on AM1400 KEDO.\n\nFind Us on Social Media!\n\nLearn More about the Northwest Hydropower System\n\nWe’re constantly updating our data and resources with the most recently available science. Our resources page provides links to fact sheets, files, and websites that offer great information on the Northwest hydropower system and salmon.\n\n\nWhen it comes to reducing our reliance on carbon-emitting energy sources, the Northwest is leading the nation with the use of hydropower.\n\nHydropower acts like a giant, clean battery, helping us provide power to millions of homes.\n\nNorthwest farmers feed the region and the world with vital crops such as apples,\npotatoes, corn, peas, alfalfa, hay, grapes, and wheat. They rely on the river for irrigation and transport of these goods.\n\nThe Northwest economy was built on and continues to thrive with abundant, low-cost hydropower.\n\nNorthwest dams and reservoirs help protect the region’s families and businesses from devastating floods, saving lives and property.\n\nHydropower accounts for 47% of the total average annual electricity production and 80% of the carbon-free annual electricity production in the Northwest.\n\nNew fish protections have been put into place at all eight lower Columbia and lower Snake River dams, increasing juvenile survival rates to between 93% and 99% at each dam.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9761052131652832}
+{"content": "I need to derive the equation of motion for an building block of ice that swims in water. The building block has an initial height that is looking out of the water called $h_A$ and is pushed into the water by a force $F$ such that it isn't completely under water, so $\\Delta z < h_A$. Now I need to derive the equation of motion for the process when the force disappears and the building block goes up.\n\nWhat I tried to write down is the force that pushes the block up:\n\n$m \\frac{d^2z}{dt^2} = F_G - F_A = mg - gA\\big[l-(h_A-z)\\big] \\rho_w$\n\nwith $ A $ the area of the block and $\\rho_w$ the density of the water.\n\nTo me this equation looks kind of hard to solve so I wanted to ask if that could be right.\n\n • $\\begingroup$ Is $l$ the length of the block? $\\endgroup$ – Sathyam Dec 14 '15 at 12:19\n • $\\begingroup$ Yes, l would be the whole length of the block (e.g. the side that is in the water) $\\endgroup$ – Darius Dec 14 '15 at 12:39\n • $\\begingroup$ Why don't you edit the question including this information? $\\endgroup$ – Sathyam Dec 14 '15 at 12:56\n\nSo far you've got a second order Differential Equation (DE):\n\n\nBut it looks worse than it is: make the following substitution:\n\n$$u=mg - gA\\big[l-(h_A-z)\\big] \\rho_w,$$\n\nand because it's mostly constant terms, then:\n\n$$du=-gA\\rho_w dz$$\n\n\n\nSubstitute back into the DE:\n\n\n\n\nThis is the classic DE of a Simple Harmonic Oscillator. Assuming at $t=0$, $u=u_0$, $\\frac{du}{dt}=0$ then the solution is:\n\n$$u=u_0\\cos \\omega t,$$\n\n\n\nSo ignoring friction the block will bob up and down with period $T=\\frac{2\\pi}{\\omega}$.\n\nYou can transform $u$ back to $z$ and define a $z_0$ if you like.\n\n • $\\begingroup$ Thank you! The solution is really simple once you get this idea. Thanks again! $\\endgroup$ – Darius Dec 14 '15 at 16:29\n • $\\begingroup$ It is. And broadly applicable to many such problems. $\\endgroup$ – Gert Dec 14 '15 at 16:34\n\nNamed $z_0$ the equilibrium position of the block, since the force $F$ pushes down the block to $z_0 - \\Delta z$.\n\nWhen the block is released it will raises 'til $z_0 + \\Delta z$, then keeps on oscillatinig with a total amplitude of $2\\Delta z$ (in abscence of drags).\n\nSo the block start oscillating around the equilibrium position, with a maximum in $z_0 + \\Delta z$ and a minimum in $z_0 - \\Delta z$, according to the simple harmonic oscillator equation .\n\nIn case you have drags the block will follow the damping oscillator equations.\n\nThe only problem remained is to calculate the pulsation $\\omega$, but it is trivial calculate it from boundary conditions of your problem\n\n\nYour Answer\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5007271766662598}
+{"content": "Seating at wedding receptions can be downright confusing. Once the ceremony is over, guests will head to the reception to partake in food, toasts and live music. Without a structured and organized seating plan, however, this otherwise joyous event can quickly turn chaotic.\n\nDo I Really Need Assigned Seating?\n\nWhile there’s no rule stating that you must assign seating at your wedding reception, doing so will make the experience less stressful and more enjoyable — not just for you and your spouse, but for your guests as well. It facilitates the transition from the ceremony to the reception area, guiding guests to the appropriate table. With that said, you don’t have to necessarily assign each guest to a specific seat. Rather, assign each guest to a specific table and give them the freedom to choose their own seat.\n\nGranted, small weddings with fewer than 50 guests can probably suffice without assigned seating. But if you plan on having a traditional wedding with more than 50 guests, you should create a basic layout of who sits where. Doing so creates greater transparency by eliminating the confusing associated with unassigned seating.\n\nSweetheart vs Head Table\n\nBrides and grooms have one of two different seating options at the reception: they can sit at their own special table, known as a sweetheart table, or they can sit at a long, usually rectangular-shaped table, known as a head table. The sweetheart table offers some perfect photo opportunities, but many couples prefer the fun-filled social aspect of the latter. With a head table, you and your spouse can converse with family and friends who are also seated at the table. The head table is typically set up against a wall, with the bride and groom seated in the middle, the maid of honor seated next to the groom, and the best man seated next to the bride. Of course, you can include other guests at your head table as well, such as your parents and in-laws, close friends, etc.\n\nAlternatively, you can skip both the sweetheart and head table, opting to leave a few seats open at each table instead. This allows you and your newlywed spouse to venture around and mingle with guests at the reception.\n\nGuiding Guests to Their Seats\n\nThere are several different ways to guide guests to their seats at the reception, with the most common being a seated chart. Displayed at or near the entrance to the reception, it features a list of guests along with their respective table to which they are assigned. You can still include place cards at the tables to further guide guests to their appropriate table.\n\nAnother idea is to use escort cards. Each card contains a guest’s name along with his or her assigned table. Escort cards are typically placed in an envelope on the appropriate table.\n\nPhoto credit: Jennifer Yln", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9540265202522278}
+{"content": "Simon Willison’s Weblog\n\nEntries tagged css, quora\n\nFilters: Type: entry × css × quora ×\n\nWhat are some ways that brought your proficiency of CSS to another level?\n\nAn exercise I found useful when I first learned CSS was to implement CSS versions of the designs of popular sites. This was back when most sites still used tables for layout.\n\n[... 76 words]\n\nWrapping block elements in anchor tags? I know this wasn’t valid markup in HTML4 but has this changed or is the only option through JS?\n\nThis is a new thing in HTML5: “Block-level” links in HTML5\n\n[... 43 words]\n\nIs there an alternative to media queries for responsive design?\n\nYes: use percentage measurements for your layout components. That way you can build a website that works on a much larger range of screen sizes. You can combine this approach with media queries—for example, you could specify that your site has a 25% wide navigation menu and a 75% wide content area on devices that are wider than 400px, but any smaller than that and it collapses to a single column layout with the menu hidden and accessible only through a menu bar icon.\n\n[... 102 words]\n\nWhy weren’t the features of Sass originally built into CSS?\n\nThis is not a straight-forward issue: CSS has a very long, complicated history. A good starting point for understanding the reluctance of the CSS working group to add variables/constants etc to CSS is this essay by Bert Bos of the W3C (entitled Why “variables” in CSS are harmful)\n\n[... 66 words]\n\nHow do you know the real size of a web page?\n\nThe Google Chrome developer tools can do this, on the Network tab. Take a look at the bottom blue bar (which says “5 requests | 29.49KB transferred”)\n\n[... 51 words]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5836566686630249}
+{"content": "Monthly Archives: November 2016\n\nPolitics: Where do we go from here?\n\nNote: This article will appear in the upcoming Fall 2016 issue of The MIT Et Spiritus. Follow us on Facebook for more updates!\n\nThe 2016 US Presidential Election is over. It was an election like no other, producing so many unprecedented storylines that none of us could keep our eyes away from. It feels like forever ago, but the primary season saw a record percentage of voters on the Republican side and the second highest percentage on the Democratic side participating. In the general election, a all-time high of 84 million people watched the first debate from their homes. And yet, it was one of the most depressing. Just a week before the election, a NYT/CBS poll found that 82% of voters had become more disgusted by American politics this campaign, compared to 13% who had become more excited.\n\nDistracted by this stultifying mix of comedy and disaster voyeurism, we largely missed out on the opportunity to discuss and debate the best role of government in the 21st Century.1 And that’s a conversation we desperately need to have, because the one thing we can all agree on is that Washington isn’t working. Faced with a president-elect who has taken a wide variety of positions on nearly every issue, we need to ask ourselves: How should he actually govern?\n\nAs we return to this age-old question, we need to resist the temptation to fall back into our usual partisan ruts. For instance, in economics, we’ve had decades of Republicans arguing that we need to lower taxes and reduce regulation to spur economic growth, while Democrats argue that we need higher taxes on the rich and more regulation to restrain corporations and distribute economic benefits more widely. Repeating the same debate every cycle has made US politics more and more polarized, especially at the national level.\n\nNo, we all need to take a deep breath, step back from the battles and come together to think about the big picture. What led us here? What has changed about our country since whenever our history classes left off? What are the new challenges we face in the 21st Century? And what does God have to say about all of this? In the end, I hope we can all start to see politics as much more than stand-up comedy or partisan tug-of-war. At its root, politics is not even really about addressing the latest national controversy or advancing a particular agenda, but about bringing us together as citizens to do what we can’t do on our own. We might not think of it that way, but our involvement in many different types of communities, from churches to frats, small groups to volunteering, forms the building blocks of our public life. If we want to solve the problems we face in our politics, that’s where we should start.\n\nRead more of this post", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9854462742805481}
+{"content": "Damian Ortega, False MovementShana Tova loyal Transit Pass readers. I welcome you all back and wish you all a happy and healthy new year. In Sunday’s New York Times, long-time columnist Thomas Friedman wrote about the necessity of a hike in the gasoline tax. Friedman challenges the masculinity of the nation, saying essentially that even the French have more courage to confront their problems than we do.\n\n\nFriedman goes on to say that America needs a gasoline tax because it would reduce our dependence on foreign oil, spur energy innovation and investment in alternative energies and improve some of our foreign policy issues (and, oh, people might drive less).\n\n\nFriedman and I differ on how to spend the money from a gasoline tax. He would use most of it on the defecit and healthcare. I would put a gasoline tax toward improving our transportation infrastructure. However, that’s small chickens compared to the notion of actually having a gasoline tax.\n\nAmericans, since the advent of large road building projects and the AAA and truckers’ unions have depended on largely free roads. Of course there is no such thing as a free road, it gets paid for somehow. But Americans have never really had to think hard how their roads get paid for. On the other hand we’re all too well aware of the cost of public transportation, in the form of a fare. But roads don’t have fares largely, it’s just pay the cost of a car and the gasoline and go driving. There aren’t even significant car taxes or licensing fees to pay for the upkeep of roads. We like our big government, just not paying for it.\n\nHowever, a gasoline tax is incredibly important, if for no other reason than we need to wean people from gasoline and cars because they will eventually be largely unaffordable if we keep driving at our current pace. The whole notion of auto-based cities and suburbs and sprawling exurbs need to become ideas of the past. The car cannot and should not be eliminated, but this country needs to emphasize the urban, and the car is not a significant part of our urban future.\n\nThere is no debating that our country is growing; the US census estimates there will be 392 million people in the country by 2050. Those new people have to live somewhere, and the formula of quarter acre lots in the suburbs is not sustainable. We should not and cannot raze the suburbs, but we can make sure that our cities are beacons for the next generation. In order to do so the transportation networks must be better, more thorough, reliable and affordable. A gasoline tax would go a long way towards helping to create those necessary infrastructure improvements.\n\nOne final thought, how about tax breaks for car sharing? If the idea is to get people to drive less and own fewer cars, what better way than supporting car sharing systems with essentially subsidized gas?\n\nI have been trying to cover Edward Glaeser’s weak posts on the Economix blog regarding high speed rail investment. Ryan Avent at DC Streets blog has been doing a wonderful job breaking down the intellectual dishonesty of Glaeser’s work. To add to points I have already raised, he writes:\n\nGlaeser’s analysis assumes no population growth — he bases ridership on current metropolitan populations — and no shift in mode share over time, despite the fact that both Houston and Dallas have rates of transit ridership well below similar-sized cities (suggesting that with growth, transit’s share will increase) and are rapidly constructing new systems to facilitate greater transit use.\n\nIf one adjusts anticipated ridership figures to correct for these errors, and if one uses a more realistic figure for the value of business traveler time, then benefits appear to come quite close to or exceed costs of construction.\n\n\nGlaeser makes more mistakes as he goes on. He appears to use the fuel efficiency for passenger cars — 22 miles per gallon — even though nearly half of the nation’s households vehicle fleet consists of light trucks, which average only 18 miles per gallon.\n\nIf you like what you see, you can see Avent take on Eric Morris (of Freakonomics fame) as well and the assumptions he writes about regarding transportation in the Times.\n\n\nForgive me, but I am beginning to lose my temper with Edward Glaeser and his discussion of high speed rail’s benefits in the United States in the Economix blog on the New York Times website. His work seems intellectually dishonest, at best, as he seems to be out to support a conclusion, not make a real finding of fact. This starts with his desire to use a Dallas-Houston link as his example, again. He justifies this decision by arguing at least he isn’t discussing the proposed link between Oklahoma City and Dallas. Honestly, how many times in the national high speed rail discussions does Oklahoma City come up? We tend to focus on California, the Chicago area and the Northeast Corridor.\n\nHere is my itemized discussion of the points I find most troubling:\n\n– Dallas currently has 1.3 million people and the metropolitan area has 6.3 million residents. Houston is home to 2.2 million people and the metropolitan area has 5.7 million people. Given the geographic locations of the cities, birth rates, and the nature of their economies it is relatively certain to say these cities are going to continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Glaeser misses the point in discussing the cost of new infrastructure. These two cities are going to need to build infrastructure anyway, whether it is new roads and airports, or just keeping up the constantly-worn roads they already have. Glaeser in no way addresses whether it is better to build new railroads or new highways, rather he just compares new rails to existing roads. He likewise fails to mention that high speed rail may spawn more railroads in the area whereas more highway will spawn more roads.\n\n– It is almost criminally negligent to not point out that energy prices are not stable. If trains are in fact more efficient that is a very big deal, as energy prices are sure to rise as oil prices inevitably rise again. Moreover, planes are fossil fuel dependent. And, while cars in theory could run on energy sources other than fossil fuels, they largely do not right now, especially in Houston and Dallas. That said, trains have the clear advantage of being electronically powered, which means they can run on any resource that powers the grid, including wind, water, solar and other renewable resources. This makes trains far more green than planes, and automobiles at the moment.\n\n– This is a bone more with economics than with Glaeser in particular, but is it possible to really measure environmental damage only in dollars and cents? Is the value of a good environment really reduced to counting bills with Andrew Jackson on the face? Any effort that can help reduce negative environmental effects should be valuable and while efficiency is important, if it is not inefficient it should not trivialized either. Lots of little changes equal a larger change.\n\n– Lastly, Glaeser ignores any value of work done on trains. People largely do not do work in cars, and work on planes is challenging. However, trains with their leg room, cafe cars, and access to wireless networks can be great places to work, even with your peers! Of course it’s usually easier to get from downtown to the train than the plane, so work can go on longer in the office too.\n\n– Given that Glaeser said he will address land use issues in his next post, I will resist the desire to pillory him on how people get to train stations and airports and the nature of sprawl.\n\nI am really disappointed in these posts. I am not quite sure who Glaeser think his audience is, but the quality of his intellectual output in these blog posts is insulting to his readers.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5783478021621704}
+{"content": "Wilkes University\n\nUndergraduate Student Handbook\n\nWilkes University Undergraduate Student Handbook\n\nIssue Date: 2019-2020\n\n\nThis Student Handbook is designed to provide Wilkes students with an overview of the University — its people, programs, policies, and procedures. The Handbook and other University publications provide significant information all students should know, and students are responsible for the information and regulations outlined within. The Student Handbook is published by the Office of Student Affairs.\n\n Undergraduate Student Handbook Index\n\nOur Mission\n\nTo continue the Wilkes tradition of liberally educating our students for lifelong learning and success in a constantly evolving and multicultural world through a commitment to individualized attention, exceptional teaching, scholarship and academic excellence, while continuing the University's commitment to community engagement.\n\nOur Vision\n\nWilkes University will provide exceptional educational experiences that transform students and develop innovations through scholarly activities that lead to national recognition and shape the world around us.\n\nOur Values\n\nMentorship: Nurturing individuals to understand and act on their abilities while challenging them to achieve great things.\nScholarship: Advancing knowledge through discovery and research to better educate our constituents.\nDiversity: Embracing differences and uniqueness through sincerity, awareness, inclusion and sensitivity.\nInnovation: Promoting creative scholarly activities, programs, ideas and sustainable practices.\nCommunity: Appreciating and collaborating with mutual respect to foster a sense of belonging.\n\n\nStatement of Disclaimer\n\nInsofar as possible, the information in this Handbook is complete and accurate as of the date of publication. Wilkes University reserves the right to amend any administrative or academic policy or disciplinary regulation described in this Handbook without prior notice to persons who might thereby be affected. Information about expenses, fees, and other charges applies to the academic year 2017–2018. The University reserves the right to change any provisions or requirements, including tuition and fees, at any time within the student's term of residence.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9907880425453186}
+{"content": "Depending on the carrier and version of the phone, it's been between a few weeks and a few days since your Galaxy Note 5 or Galaxy S6 series phone was updated to Nougat.\n\nThe update, surprisingly, brings Samsung's 2015-era phones largely to feature parity with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S8 — barring any hardware-specific variances — and updates the Samsung Experience UI to the company's blue-and-white color palette that it adopted with Nougat. Android 7.0 also brings battery-saving features in the form of a lower default resolution and improvements to background resources, which will hopefully boost uptime for a series of phones that were criticized for not having great battery life.\n\nOur favorite VPN service is more affordable now than ever before\n\nBeyond that, though, these are the same great phones that they've always been, even two years later. The Note 5, especially, feels like a new phone, and given that there's no Note 7 on the market anymore, it's still the phone we recommend if you need pen input on a phone. That the Note 5 and S6 edge+, each big phones, still feel so spritely and modern in mid-2017, is a testament to what Samsung accomplished with its then-new form factor and decision to ditch plastic for metal and glass. But hey, that's just our opinion!\n\nWhat's your experience with the Android 7.0 Nougat update been on the Galaxy Note 5, or Galaxy S6, S6 edge or S6 edge+?\n\nSamsung Galaxy Note 5\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6496054530143738}
+{"content": "As mentioned earlier, rising damp is not just bricks, mortar and water. Slapping a few bricks together in a tray and then waiting for water to miraculously rise is very different from real buildings.\n\nOnce a new wall has been built, it is going to be subject to a host of phenomena - thermal variations, the effect of weathering, complex chemistry inside the building fabric, the ongoing effect of ground salts, molecular level electrical effects etc. - many of these variables we are not even fully aware or we are just starting to understand. Their impact onto the whole or their relative importance over the final development of rising damp seems also to be unclear to a considerable extent.\n\nSo there is a lot more to rising damp then just bricks, mortar and water. As a result, the not-too-bright-ones out there - especially the ones without thorough academic knowledge - tend to easily \"give up\" and draw the fast conclusion that \"rising damp doesn’t exist\". This is an incorrect conclusion, as the problem we have with rising damp is not that it doesn’t exist but quite the opposite: it's too complex, which makes its comprehension and modelling challenging and difficult.\n\nThe information presented here has been gathered based on 7 years of hands-on research and field work, as well as reading through thousands of pages of research papers from all over the world. The work is still ongoing as some of the concepts need further clarification as the study of rising damp is a dynamic research field.\n\nWe endeavor to lay down and explain below all key facts of rising damp in a logical sequence, in a fairly simple way, to give anyone who is interested in the subject a good understanding of this topic.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998624324798584}
+{"content": "A- A+\n\nThe Road to MakuSafe\n\nMakuSafe, based in Greater Des Moines (DSM) is founder Gabe Glynn’s sixth business. The large-scale hardware startup strives to improve workplace safety and productivity through technology and data. Gabe speaks with Mike Colwell, Executive Director of Entrepreneurial Initiatives at the Greater Des Moines Partnership, about his startup successes and failures.\n\nTracking Safety\n\nThe MakuSafe device tracks the environmental conditions that companies are keen on accessing, including sound, light, air quality and carbon monoxide around each worker that potentially create the risk for the employee, the employer and the insurance company.\n\nIs it a life-saving device?\n\nIf MakuSafe were to move forward and become a life-saving device past just a tracking device, it would need to partner with an insurance company. If they moved into that space, it would lead to a higher level of liability and certification to undergo. Gabe and Mike explain how regulation will, over time, creep in.\n\nDevice Creation\n\nMike talks about how microcomputer project boards have enabled young kids and more to create their own products with their own boards. Programming has become accessible to all ages, which is exciting for the future startup world.\n\nAngel Investors\n\nWhen raising money, the angel investment is there to help you get further down your startup road. It shouldn’t just be about the check. If they have the connection to your end customer, they’re the ones you should want as an investor.\n\nHear the stories of other small business and startup business owners in the community in The Partnership’s Small Business Resources Hub or sign up for the NAME TBD newsletter to stay connected for information about upcoming events, other resources and the latest announcements in the small business community in DSM.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5110135078430176}
+{"content": "Smart People May Learn Music Faster\n\nWhy do some people learn music more quickly than others? Intelligence could play a role, according to a Michigan State University study that investigated the early stages of learning to play piano.\n\nPublished in the journal Intelligence, the study may be the first to examine the relationship between intelligence, music aptitude and growth mindset in beginner pianists.\n\nGrowth mindset refers to whether students believe they can improve basic abilities, like piano ability.\n\n“The strongest predictor of skill acquisition was intelligence, followed by music aptitude,” said Alexander Burgoyne, a doctoral candidate in cognition and cognitive neuroscience. “By contrast, the correlation between growth mindset and piano performance was about as close to zero as possible.”\n\nIn the study, 161 undergraduates were taught how to play “Happy Birthday” on the piano with the help of a video guide. After practice, the students performed the 25-note song multiple times. Three MSU graduate students judged the performances based on their melodic and rhythmic accuracy.\n\nThere were striking differences in the students’ skill acquisition trajectories. Some learned quickly, earning perfect marks within six minutes of practice. Others performed poorly at first but improved substantially later. By comparison, some seemed to fade as if they had lost their motivation and others never figured it out, performing poorly throughout the study.\n\nSo why did some students fail while others succeeded?\n\nTo find out, the researchers gave the students tests of cognitive ability that measured things like problem-solving skills and processing speed, and tests of music aptitude that measured, for example, the ability to differentiate between similar rhythms. They also surveyed their growth mindset.\n\n“The results were surprising, because people have claimed that mindset plays an important role when students are confronted with challenges, like trying to learn a new musical instrument,” Burgoyne said. “And yet, it didn’t predict skill acquisition.”\n\nThat said, results will likely differ for those with greater skill.\n\n“Our study examined one of the earliest stages of skill acquisition,” Burgoyne said. “Early experiences can be formative, but I would caution against drawing conclusions about skilled musicians based on our study of beginners.”\n\nBut applied generally, the study’s findings may be helpful in education.\n\nIt follows a recent review of mindset research that found a weak relationship between growth mindset and academic achievement. Perhaps more concerning, that study found interventions designed to boost achievement by encouraging children to believe they can improve their basic abilities may be fruitless.\n\nThat is, when those interventions successfully altered students’ mindsets, there wasn’t a significant effect on academic achievement.\n\nOvercoming Severe Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Low IQ: A Case Study\n\nMeet Maddie, a 10-year-old who had been diagnosed with severe dyslexia, moderate dyscalculia, ADHD and low IQ (low 80s). People who had evaluated her said that they had never seen dyslexia as severe as this before. Her parents had been told by more than one professional that Maddie would probably never read…\nRead More\n\nKimberly, United States", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.950192391872406}
+{"content": "Robotics tools to inspire hands-on STEM learning - Education Matters\n\nRobotics tools to inspire hands-on STEM learning\n\nVEX Robotics hands-on STEM learning\n\nWith STEM education front and centre, there is a growing focus on the importance of teaching students to innovate, think critically and problem solve. VEX Robotics is honing in on this need with its engaging hands-on solutions that encourage collaborative student-centred learning.\n\nDemand for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professionals is expected to grow significantly in coming years, so encouraging more students to pursue and gain a greater interest in STEM-related subjects and fields is an ongoing challenge.\n\nThe study of robotics inherently relates to all facets of STEM, and when students learn through exploration, it increases motivation and the desire to succeed. VEX embraces this model of explorative STEM learning, allowing students to create something exciting using a combination of technology and their own hands. By providing the right tools, students are given the chance to problem-solve in a fun and imaginative way.\n\nVEX was founded over 10 years ago by two engineers, who continue to run the business today. It has grown to have offices in nine countries across the world, including the Australian arm, which was launched three years ago. To date, VEX products are being used in over 60 countries, 22,000+ schools and by more than 1 million students.\n\nTeachers can use VEX to achieve a variety of educational outcomes. VEX provides access to free curriculum that has been matched to leading educational standards so that teachers can build lessons around key educational outcomes. This gives teachers everywhere the opportunity to adapt VEX for their classroom or incorporate it into afterschool activities.\n\nThe business offers two separate platforms: VEX IQ for primary students and VEX EDR for secondary students.\n\nVEX IQ aims to peak a child’s mind and encourage an interest in STEM early on. During these formative years, VEX hopes to instil a lifelong interest in STEM by providing a fun, engaging and hands-on opportunity for students to explore and experience it for themselves.\n\nA snap-together robotics system, VEX IQ has been designed from the ground up to cater to all skill levels. By packaging advanced concepts into an accessible package, the system encourages teamwork, problem solving and leadership. Each kit includes graphical step-by-step build instructions to help students build their first robot. These kits are also structured around the VEX IQ Curriculum to ensure seamless integration into a STEM classroom.\n\nIn the secondary years, VEX EDR allows students to continue to grow and develop their interest in STEM and robotics, moving up from the plastic snap-together components of VEX IQ to a nuts and bolts solution. Driven by cutting-edge technology, VEX EDR robots can also bring code to life when programmed using a software solution like VEXcode which is available on all platforms including Windows, Mac, Ipad and Chromebook.\n\nTo facilitate the teaching of VEX IQ and VEX EDR, the business provides Online Teacher Certification with access to an online community upon completion, training and STEM Labs which are educational lesson plans tied in with programming software VEXcode. These free online curriculum lesson plans provide content and support for in-classroom delivery. Each STEM Lab contains hands-on lessons with guided explorations that encourage teamwork and collaboration.\n\nAs VEX has an Australian office, the business is accessible, affordable and sustainable, supplying the market with over 1500 parts.\n\nVEX also offers robotics as a sport and is a two-time Guinness World Record holder for the ‘World’s largest robotics competition’, hosting local, national and international championships.\n\nIn these competitions, teams of students are tasked with designing and building a robot to play against other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. Tournaments are held all year-round and culminate in the VEX Robotics World Championship each April.\n\nDuring the World Championship, held next year in Louisville, Kentucky in the United States, VEX launches its Game Reveal for the upcoming season. The Australian competition season kicks off soon after, each May. From May through to December, students build, code and compete at local scrimmages and tournaments. The Australian VEX Robotics National Tournament is then held in December, with around 60 VIQC and 60 VRC teams competing.\n\nBuyer’s Guide\nVEX Robotics\nPh: 08 8326 5500", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8515033721923828}
+{"content": "Party Mug Set\n\nHow inspired and clever are these mugs! If you have ever tried to carry several mugs at once without a tray and had a few spills, burnt fingers and got stains on the carpet then you will truly appreciate this set of 3 mugs that link together. Each mug has a cross on one side and a corresponding recess on the other so they can be added together and carried in a line without the need for a tray.\n\nPerfect for serving coffee or tea or hot chocolate at the office or home. White Earthenware, 95mm x 80mm diameter.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9936321377754211}
+{"content": "Fruity toast topper\n\nThis crossword clue is for the definition: Fruity toast topper.\nit’s A 19 letters crossword puzzle definition.\nNext time, when searching for online help with your puzzle, try using the search term “Fruity toast topper crossword” or “Fruity toast topper crossword clue”. The possible answerss for Fruity toast topper are listed below.\n\nDid you find what you needed?\nWe hope you did!.\n\nPossible Answers: JAM.\n\nLast seen on: LA Times Crossword 6 May 19, Monday\n\nRandom information on the term “JAM”:\n\nRadio jamming is the deliberate jamming, blocking or interference with authorized wireless communications. In the United States, radio jamming devices (known as “jammers”) are illegal and their use can result in large fines.\n\nCrossword clues app Android Crossword clues app iphone iOs\n\nIn some cases jammers work by the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio.\n\nThe concept can be used in wireless data networks to disrupt information flow. It is a common form of censorship in totalitarian countries, in order to prevent foreign radio stations in border areas from reaching the country.\n\nJamming is usually distinguished from interference that can occur due to device malfunctions or other accidental circumstances. Devices that simply cause interference are regulated under different regulations. Unintentional ‘jamming’ occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency. Another form of unintentional jamming occurs when equipment accidentally radiates a signal, such as a cable television plant that accidentally emits on an aircraft emergency frequency.\n\nJAM on Wikipedia", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9441282153129578}
+{"content": "Follow us on :\n\nTake a look at the Recent articles\n\nDecoding artificial intelligence and machine learning concepts for cancer research application\n\nRenaud Seigneuric\n\nBiomedical and Health Informatics, IBioLab, Computer Science Department, State University of New York, Metro 225, Syracuse, NY 13202, USA\n\nUniversity Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Faculty of Health Sciences, Dijon, France\n\nINSERM, LNC UMR1231, Dijon, France\n\nTranslationR, Maison Régionale de l’Innovation, Dijon, France\n\nCentre Georges-François Leclerc, Dijon, France\n\nE-mail :\n\nIsabelle Bichindaritz\n\n\nDOI: 10.15761/ICST.1000317\n\nArticle Info\nAuthor Info\nFigures & Data\n\n\nArtificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are now almost everywhere. Yet, most of us do not have a formal training on this recent topic. Their concepts emerge from several different scientific communities. Thus, deciphering research articles, understanding their underlying assumptions and limits remains quite challenging.\n\nTo this end, we propose a succinct unified AI and ML glossary dealing with 70 important concepts in non-technical yet accurate terms to help non-AI or non-ML researchers exposed to or entering this emerging field, to better understand, assess and use these concepts in cancer research.\n\nKey words\n\nArtificial intelligence, Machine learning, Data science, Neural networks\n\n\nInitiated in 1956 but mostly unknown from the public until only a couple of years ago, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are now almost everywhere. As we generally do not have a formal training on the topic, do we have a sufficient basic knowledge or understanding of its central concepts?\n\nResearch articles rarely define more than 10 AI and ML terms. Blogs devoted to AI and ML are usually highly technical. Wikipedia is easily accessible but lacks clarity due to contributions from several independent authors.\n\nTo better assess research articles in cancer research, limit ambiguity, contradictions and selection bias, a short unified AI and ML glossary dealing with 70 concepts in non-technical yet accurate terms was written in order to help non-AI or non-ML researchers entering this emerging field, to better understand, assess and use these concepts in cancer research.\n\n\n\nA series of ordered instructions in order to perform a specific task [1]. An algorithm encoded into a structured language (e.g.: R, Python) becomes a computer program that transforms the input(s) to output(s). The name algorithm comes from a Persian scholar, Al-Khwarizmi, who worked in mathematics, astronomy and geography. His book “On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals”, written about 820, was principally responsible for spreading the Hindu-Arabic numeral system throughout the Middle East and Europe.\n\nArtificial intelligence (AI)\n\nDefined as a field to manufacture devices able to simulate or even exceed the capabilities of humans at performing cognitive tasks such as: reasoning, problem solving, knowledge representation, planning, learning, natural language processing, perception (including vision), motion and manipulation, social and general intelligence. It was coined in 1956 by a computer scientist, John McCarthy [2].\n\nArtificial neuron\n\nFirst proposed by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts in 1943 to model the \"nerve net\" in the brain. An artificial neuron is the elementary unit in an artificial neural network. Each one receives one or more weighted inputs and the weighted sum is passed through a non-linear function known as an activation function or transfer function (e.g.: having a sigmoid shape). One pioneering study was the perceptron developed by Frank Rosenblatt. It considered more flexible weight values in the artificial neurons and was used in machines with adaptive capabilities [3].\n\nArtificial neural network (ANN)\n\nA type of neural networks performing tasks like pattern recognition, clustering, classification etc. ANN popularity has increased a lot recently due to technical advancements resulting in real life feats such as AlphaGo defeating a world champion of the game Go. Major drawbacks are the large volume of data needed for training and the “black box” algorithm type as it is often difficult to interpret the meaning of the underlying weights in the named sake “hidden” layers.\n\nAugmented intelligence (AI)\n\nwas coined to replace “artificial” in artificial intelligence that was found to be misleading. The adjective augmented was chosen to highlight that this scientific and technologic endeavour is meant to improve human intelligence rather than to replace it [4].\n\n\nAn algorithm for \"the backward propagation of errors\" was originally introduced by Paul Werbos in 1975. In an artificial neural network, the error is computed at the output. Backpropagation distributes the error term through the layers by modifying the weights at each node. In principle, a learning procedure could repeatedly choose single weights at random, make a small change, and keep this change if it improves the performance of the whole net, but this would be extremely slow. In a neural network with a million weights, backpropagation achieves the same goal about a million times faster than blind trial and error [5]. Its fast implementation by Rumelhart et al in 1986 was a key trigger for renewed interest in neural networks and learning making it possible to use neural nets to solve problems which had previously been insoluble [5]. It is now commonly used to train neural networks [6,7].\n\n\nRefers to the tendency of being systematically off target due to the procedure used. In protein-protein interaction studies for instance, current techniques are known to be biased towards stable interactions rather than transient ones.\n\nBig Data\n\nAccess to and analyses of massive quantities of information produced by and about people, things and their interactions. Originally, it was mostly used to differentiate between analyses ran on desktop versus super-computers. Currently, Big Data generally implicitly means analysing massive quantities of information (e.g.: several gigabytes and above) with a framework (e.g.: Apache Hadoop software library) that allows for the distributed and parallel processing of large data sets across clusters of computers. It is designed to scale up from single servers to thousands of machines, each offering local computation and storage [8-10]. It is estimated that about 90% of the world data has been generated only within the last 2 years.\n\nBreast cancer\n\nThe most frequent cancer diagnosed in women worldwide with ~8 million persons currently suffering from it. In the U.S., there are ~270,000 new cases per year and ~41,000 deaths per year due to breast cancer.\n\nCancer: the 2nd cause of death with ~9 million deaths worldwide. Globally, about 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer. There are ~100 cancer subtypes.\n\nCase-Based Reasoning (CBR)\n\nA technique, developed by Roger Schank (artificial intelligence) in the late 1970s and early 1980s with contributions from Robert Abelson (social psychology), for modelling how people use memory to solve problems and designing learning machines [11]. CBR is based on two tenets\n\n 1. problems tend to recur and\n 2. similar problems have similar solutions.\n\nCBR relies on similar past cases with known solutions to make decisions on new cases (or queries) [12]. A case normally contains a problem, a solution and its result [12,13]. CBR is traditionally split into 4 steps:\n\n 1. retrieve: given a new case to be solved (the target problem), retrieve similar cases (i.e.: trainingexamples) from the case base (or database or datasets or memory) to solve the new problem at hand.\n 2. reuse: adapt the retrieved cases to match to the new case (may require adapting the solution from the previous cases);\n 3. revise: test the new solution and revise if necessary:\n 4. retain: after the solution has been successfully adapted to the target problem, store the resulting solution as a new case in the memory [12,14].\n\nCentral processing unit (CPU)\n\nThe electronic circuit within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program. For machine learning purposes, CPUs tend to be replaced by GPUs and TPUs.\n\n\nsee label.\n\n\nThe task of generalizing known structures to new data (e.g.: classifying a new e-mail as \"legitimate\" or as \"spam\").\n\n\nThe task consisting in the assignment of data points to clusters such that items in the same cluster are as similar as possible, while items belonging to different clusters are as dissimilar as possible, thus enabling the emergence of structures within the data. Similarity measures includes Euclidean, correlation and Mahalanobis distances.\n\nConvolutional Neural Network (CNN)\n\nA type of neural network developed by LeCun in 1989 for processing data having a grid-like topology inspired from animal visual cortex and requiring little pre-processing of the data. Examples include time-series data, which can be thought of as a 1-D grid taking samples at regular time intervals and image data, which can be thought of as a 2-D grid of pixels. Convolutional neural networks use convolution (a linear mathematical operation) in place of general matrix multiplication in at least one of their layers [15].\n\n\nA piece of information that is selected for an analysis. It is generally categorized as either qualitative or quantitative. In a machine learning perspective, raw (unprocessed) data is encoded according to its type: as a word or a colour (qualitative data) or as a number (quantitative data), collected, pre-processed, visualized, analysed, interpreted and reported in a typical data analysis process.\n\n\nA set or collection of data. A corpus is used for qualitative datasets (e.g.: a set of scientific articles) whereas a dataset tends to refer to quantitative data. A dataset is often organized as a table where each raw corresponds to a variable (or descriptor) and each column an experiment (or patient).\n\n\nA collection of data organized following a predefined data model. A database is generally stored and accessed from a computer using a specific management system. Relational databases were dominant in the 1980s. These model data as rows and columns in a series of tables, and the vast majority use SQL for writing and querying data. In the 2000s, non-relational databases became popular, referred to as NoSQL as they use different query languages.\n\nData mining\n\nThe process of discovering patterns in large data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems. The data mining process is classically described as a series of 5 steps:\n\n 1. data selection: extracting a target dataset from the full dataset\n 2. pre-processing: enabling the data to be ready for analyses\n 3. transformation (e.g.: normalization)\n 4. data mining (per se): using a tool to identify patterns\n 5. interpretation/evaluation: to provide knowledge [16].\n\nData partitioning\n\nAbout splitting the available dataset. Indeed, to learn, and to assess the performance of machine learning approaches, the available dataset needs to be split into the training set (largest part) + the validation set (smallest part). Some approaches also use a third set: the confirmation set. The 2 most frequent partitioning setups are: 2/3 (training set) + 1/3 (validation set) and the leave-one-out cross validation. Machine learning approaches typically use the training set to learn and apply what was learned on the validation set (predictions). The accuracy of predictions is then computed.\n\nData repository\n\nA collection of numeric data sets for secondary use in research, usually part of a larger institution (academic, corporate, scientific, medical, governmental, etc.). Cancer examples include: GEO Omnibus, a public functional genomics data repository hosted by the NCBI, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) hosted by the National Cancer Institute [17,18]. TCGA collects data over 20,000 primary cancers and matched normal samples spanning 33 cancer types representing over 2.5 petabytes (about 2.5 million of gigabytes) of genomic, epigenetic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data.\n\nData science\n\nA broad term that encompasses several disciplines including artificial intelligence, machine learning and data mining.\n\nDecision tree\n\nA technique that builds a set of decision rules describing the relationship between selected variables and the outcome. These rules are used to predict the outcome of a new data point. Decision trees are used for both classification and regression. Hence, they are sometimes referred to as classification and regression trees (CART) [19,20].\n\nDeep learning\n\nA machine learning algorithm using a series of successive layers where each layer uses the output from the previous layer as input. Starting in approximately 2006, technical advances and much faster hardware made it feasible to train neural networks with many layers on large data sets, hence the term deep. It was adopted to differentiate this new generation of neural network technology from its progenitors (shallow) [21].\n\nDeep neural network (DNN)\n\nAn artificial neural network (ANN) with multiple layers between the input and output layers. Deep learning architectures include recurrent neural networks and convolutional neural networks. They have been applied to fields including: bioinformatics, drug design, medical image analysis but also computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, audio recognition, social network filtering, machine translation, material inspection and board game programs where they have produced results comparable to and in some cases superior to human experts. In 2019, Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun were awarded the Turing Award for their conceptual and engineering breakthroughs for deep neural networks [22].\n\nDimensionality reduction\n\nA means to increase the computational efficiency by reducing the number of \"features\", or inputs, in a dataset. Reducing the dimensions of a dataset is performed by projecting it into a space of lower dimension in order while trying to retain most of the information. Most popular types of dimensionality reduction techniques are principal components analysis, linear discriminant analysis and t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding.\n\nDiscriminant analysis (DA)\n\nA ML technique to find a linear combination of features that characterizes or separates two or more classes of objects or events. The resulting combination may be used as a linear classifier, or, more commonly, for dimensionality reduction before later classification. Originally developed by Ronald Fisher in 1936, its current variations include linear, quadratic, mixture and flexible DA [20]. The main application of DA in medicine is the assessment of severity state of a patient and prognosis of disease outcome. For example, during retrospective analysis, patients are divided into groups according to severity of disease - mild, moderate and severe form. Then, results of clinical and laboratory analyses are studied in order to reveal variables which are statistically different in studied groups. Using these variables, discriminant functions are built which help to objectively classify disease in a future patient into mild, moderate or severe form [23].\n\nElastic net\n\nA regularized regression technique combining the benefits of a set of other regression techniques (including the Lasso). Elastic net is a versatile method that often outperforms the Lasso [24].\n\nEnsemble method\n\nIt combines multiple learning algorithms to obtain better predictive performance than could be obtained from any of the constituent learning algorithms alone. First introduced by mathematician Condorcet in 1785 (jury theorem), experimented later by Galton, a contemporary extension is the so-called “wisdom of crowds” or random forest combining multiple decision trees to predict a result [19, 25-27].\n\n\nA feature is a characteristic (also called attribute, characteristic, descriptor or variable) in a dataset. In transcriptome analyses, a feature is a gene (i.e.: a raw of data). Collectively, features are the inputs fed to the computer program for generating outputs. In the context of images (e.g.: immunohistochemistry, X-ray, anatomical computed tomography etc.), typical features in breast cancer research are based on tumour intensity, texture and shape [28,29].\n\nFeature selection (or feature extraction or featurization or segmentation)\n\nA process aiming at reducing the complexity of a dataset by decreasing the number of features (for computational purposes or for the sake of interpretation). In oncology, instead of working on a full dataset of 1,000 patients and 20,000 gene transcripts, one may only work on features (e.g.: gene transcripts) exhibiting a large expression change between cancer and healthy subjects. If only 2,500 gene transcripts meet the chosen criteria, the dataset after feature selection would only be 1,000 by 2,500.\n\nFeedforward neural network\n\nA class of artificial neural networks that do not have cycles nor loops (e.g.: convolutional neural networks). In contrast, recurrent (feedback) neural networks exhibit cycles or loops in their architecture. It gives them the ability to ‘memorize’ parts of the inputs and use them to make accurate predictions for sequential data [30].\n\nFuzzy C\n\nAn algorithm assigning data point membership to one or more cluster(s), in contrast to hard clustering where data points belong completely to just one cluster. In fuzzy C-means, the smaller the distance between the data point and the cluster centre, the stronger the association to the cluster. The most widely used fuzzy clustering algorithm is Fuzzy C-means, partitioning the data into c fuzzy clusters. It was developed by Dunn in 1973, improved by Bezdek in 1981 and is frequently used in pattern recognition tasks (e.g.: image segmentation) [31,32].\n\nGenetic algorithm (GA)\n\nA bio-inspired ML technique that intends to mimic natural selection in order to search a very large solution space efficiently and find an optimal solution to a given problem. GA was first used by John Holland, a pioneer in the study of complex adaptive systems in 1975. The first step is to mutate, or randomly vary, a given collection of a binary strings (\"chromosomes\"). The second step is a selection step, which is often done through measuring against a fitness function. The evolutionary process is repeated until a suitable solution is found [33,34].\n\nGigabytes (GB)\n\nGigabytes (10e9 or GB); Terabytes (10e12 or TB); Petabytes (10e15 or PB) and Exabytes (10e18 or EB) are multiples of the unit byte for digital information. A few orders of magnitude include [35]:\n\n7 GB = How much data we are using per hour when streaming Netflix Ultra HD video,\n\n10 TB = Amount of data produced by the Hubble Space Telescope per year,\n\n24 TB = Amount of video data uploaded to YouTube per day in 2016,\n\n1.5 PB = 10 billion photos on Facebook,\n\n20 PB = The amount of data processed by Google daily in 2008,\n\n15 EB = Total estimated data held by Google.\n\nGraphics processing unit (GPU)\n\nA specialized electronic circuit designed to accelerate the creation of images for output to a display device (e.g.: mobile phones, personal computers, workstations and game consoles). Their highly parallel structure makes them more efficient than general-purpose central processing units (CPUs) for algorithms.\n\nGreedy algorithm\n\nA strategy for reaching quickly a solution to a computer-intensive problem. A greedy algorithm makes the choice that seems to be the best at that moment (selecting a series of locally optimal solutions without going back) in the hope that it will lead to a globally optimal solution. In many problems, a greedy strategy does not produce an optimal solution. Yet, it may approximate a globally optimal solution in a reasonable amount of time.\n\nHierarchical clustering (HCL)\n\nA clustering method which seeks to build a hierarchy of clusters. The two main are:\n\n 1. agglomerative: this is a \"bottom-up\" approach where each observation starts in its own cluster and pairs of clusters are merged as one moves up the hierarchy\n 2. divisive: this is a \"top-down\" approach where all observations start in one cluster and splits are performed as one moves down the hierarchy. The results of hierarchical clustering are usually presented in a dendrogram [36,37].\n\nK-means (clustering)\n\nOne of the most commonly used unsupervised machine learning algorithm for partitioning a given data set into a set of k groups (i.e. k clusters), where k represents the number of groups pre-specified by the data scientist. K-means clustering classifies objects in multiple groups (i.e., clusters), such that objects within the same cluster are as similar as possible (i.e., high intra-class similarity), whereas objects from different clusters are as dissimilar as possible (i.e., low inter-class similarity). In k-means clustering, each cluster is represented by its centre (i.e, centroid) which corresponds to the mean of points assigned to the cluster [38,39].\n\nk-nearest neighor (kNN)\n\nA simple ML technique used for both classification and regression. The kNN algorithm predicts the outcome of the new observation by comparing it to k similar cases in the training dataset, where the value of k is chosen by the data scientist [1,20].\n\n\nA class where a sample belongs to (synonyms: category, class, tag, sometimes called concepts). In a cancer versus healthy design, a patient will be assigned to one of the 2 possible labels: cancer or healthy.\n\n\nHumans learn from previous experience to formulate decisions [2].\n\nLeast absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso or LASSO)\n\nA regularization technique for performing linear regression. Lasso was introduced in order to improve the prediction accuracy and interpretability of regression models to reduce the number of predictors in a regression model rather than using all of them. It was developed independently in geophysics and in statistics [40,41].\n\nLong Short-Term Memory networks (LSTM): are a subtype of recurrent neural networks (RNN) introduced by Hochreiter and Schmidhuber in 1997. LSTM are capable of learning long-term dependencies and tend to perform well on a large variety of tasks such as handwriting recognition, speech recognition and generating image descriptions [42,43].\n\nMachine learning (ML)\n\nAn interdisciplinary field focused on the study and construction of computer systems that can learn from data without being explicitly programmed. While existing for decades, it is only recently that computing power and data storage improved enough to make it readily accessible. The data is split into training data and test data. Initial data is used to develop the model. The model is a set of rules to predict the dependent variable (y) based on selected independent variables (X) from the dataset. Forms of machine learning are diverse and include regression analysis, clustering, dimensionality reduction, support vector machines, artificial neural networks and decision trees.\n\n\n(from Greek, meaning \"after\" or \"beyond\") is a recursive prefix implying a circular definition or self-reference. For instance, meta-data are data about data (who has produced them, when, what format the data are in and so on).\n\n\nliterally “learning to learn” is a learning approach dealing with:\n\n 1. the combination of more than one learning technique to improve learning performances on a specific problem (e.g.: breast cancer diagnosis based on X-ray data\n 2. strategies aiming at enabling a learning program to master more than one problem [44,45].\n\n\nA simplified, theoretical version of a real phenomenon. A model is constructed with logic rules and/or variables, parameters and constants. Like statistics, construction of the mathematical model relies on two types of variables: independent variables, x, that affect y, the dependent variable one wishes to predict. Based on existing data, machine learning is about crafting a predictive mathematical model that must be accurate, unbiased and robust to provide actionable insights when handling previously unseen data.\n\nModel evaluation\n\nThe task of evaluating the performance of a classification model. To this end, a set of metrics are available. They include average classification accuracy (the proportion of correctly classified data points); confusion matrix (a 2x2 table counting the number of true positive, true negative, false positive and false negative cases); precision, recall and specificity; ROC (receiver-operator) curve [20].\n\nNaive Bayes (classifier)\n\nA classification algorithm using Bayes theorem on probabilities, that is the probability of something to happen, given that something else has already occurred [20]. A Naive Bayes classifier computes the probability of an event if every feature being classified is independent from other features. Since features may in fact not necessarily be independent, this algorithm is considered as “naive”. Yet, Naive Bayes classifiers can often outperform more sophisticated algorithms. They are widely used in common applications like spam detection and document classification [46,47].\n\nNeural network (NN)\n\nA network or circuit of neurons. Biological neural networks are made up of real biological neurons whereas artificial neural networks (ANN) are composed of artificial neurons (or nodes) for solving artificial intelligence problems. In the latter, connections between neurons are modelled as weights. A positive weight reflects an excitatory connection whereas negative values mean inhibitory connections. Artificial neurons were proposed in 1943 by Warren McCulloch, a neurophysiologist, and Walter Pitts, a logician as well as by Alan Turing, widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, in 1948. Although ANN were originally inspired from their biological counterpart, ANN tend to be static and symbolic, while the biological brain of most living organisms is dynamic (exhibits plasticity) and analog [2,20,48].\n\nOccam’s razor\n\nA problem-solving principle that stating that \"Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity\". Occam’s razor implies that \"simpler solutions are more likely to be correct than complex ones.\". Thus, having different models that can solve a problem, one should select the solution with the fewest assumptions. The idea is attributed to English Franciscan friar William of Ockham (circa 1287-1347) [49].\n\n\nMeaning all, in Greek. Omics deals with techniques, data or studies generated by high-throughput techniques. Examples of omics are genomics (study of the genome), transcriptomics (study of the transcriptome), proteomics (study of the proteome), etc. Although omics intend to monitor all possible biological entities at a given level (e.g.: all proteins at the protein level), only a fraction of them are monitored due to technical limitations and biases.\n\n\nA controlled vocabulary. This is central for creating categories and for users who want to share information. In Biology, it was largely used in 18th century by Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist who formalized the modern system of naming organisms as well as diseases [50]. More recently, a Gene Ontology (GO) endeavour was launched where characteristics from yeast are transferred to human or mouse [51]. It is widely used in omics to better understand gene function. In computer science, an ontology is a data model representing domain knowledge by describing a set of concepts within a domain and relationships between them. Most of them are based on XML syntax with OWL being a recent version providing many features for ontology development [12,52-54].\n\n\nSituation in which there are more equations (constrains) than unknowns. An overdetermined system is almost always inconsistent (it has no solution) when constructed with random coefficients. However, it will have solutions for example if a few equations are linear combinations of the others.\n\n\nConsists in not being able to generalize beyond what was learned. Overfitting is a major concern and limitation in learning. It occurs when the training dataset is too small and/or not representative enough regarding all possible cases, and/or the complexity of the approach used is too important and should be reduced (following Occam’s razor) [49].\n\n\nThe expected result concerning an outcome of interest based on a chosen model.\n\nPrincipal component analysis (PCA)\n\nA linear transformation that projects the data into a new coordinate system such that the greatest variance of the data comes to lie on the first coordinate (called the first principal component or PC1), the second greatest variance on the second coordinate (PC2), the third greatest variance on the third coordinate (PC3), and so on. In practice, for visualization purposes, most analyses use the first two principal components (2D) or the first three (3D) if the data is too complex. PCA is a data reduction technique invented in 1901 by Karl Pearson.\n\nRandom forest (RF)\n\nA ML algorithm made of several decision trees (i.e. an ensemble method) developed by Tin Kam Ho in 1995. In a RF, every tree is built from a random selection within the training dataset. A frequent way to obtain the result is by selecting a majority vote of all trees. RF can be used for classification and regression [19].\n\nRecurrent (feedback) neural networks (RNN)\n\nA class of neural networks implementing the fact that understanding is based on previous knowledge. To allow information to persist (dependency), the architecture of RNN has repeating modules with cycles or loops forming a directed graph along a temporal sequence. Cycles or loops allow RNN to exhibit temporal dynamic behaviour and to process sequences of inputs. RNN include Long Short-Term Memory networks (LSTM) [42,43].\n\n\nAn analysis aiming at fitting a curve (not necessarily a straight line) through a set of data points spread across a continuous scale using a goodness-of-fit criterion. The earliest form of regression was the method of least squares, which was published by Legendre in 1805 and by Gauss in 1809 for determining orbits from astronomical observations. The term \"regression\" was coined by Francis Galton in the nineteenth century to describe a biological phenomenon: the heights of descendants of tall ancestors tend to regress down towards a normal average (a phenomenon also known as regression toward the mean). The simplest and most common type of regression is linear regression. Until recently, regression was by far the most utilized learning approaches.\n\n\nThe process of adding information in order to solve an ill-posed problem or to prevent overfitting. The least-squares method can be viewed as a simple form of regularization to approximate the solution\n\n\nIn Statistics, a sample is a set (or collection) of data points (or records, cases, observations, statistical unit). In computer science and machine learning, a sample often refers to a single record.\n\nSupport vector machine (SVM)\n\nA supervised ML technique that finds the optimal boundary (with margins) separating data points from different groups and then predicts the class of new data points. SVM, developed by Vapnik in 1982, can handle linear or non-linear boundaries, two-class and multi-class classification problems [20].\n\n\nConceived in 1900 by 2 Italian mathematicians, a tensor is an extension of the concept of scalar (number), vector (column of numbers) and matrix (2-dimensional table of numbers). This multidimensional extension of a matrix accommodates the layers of complexity in deep learning network operations [55].\n\n\nDeveloped by the Google Brain team, TensorFlow is a library for using ML algorithms including neural networks. It was released as open source on November 9, 2015. TensorFlow can run on multiple CPUs, GPUs and TPUs.\n\nTensor processing unit (TPU)\n\nAn application-specific electronic circuit built specifically for machine learning and tailored for TensorFlow. TPU is a programmable AI accelerator that delivers a better-optimized performance per watt for machine learning applications.\n\nt-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE)\n\nAn unsupervised dimensionality reduction technique that minimizes the divergence between two distributions: the pairwise similarity of the data points in the higher-dimensional space and the pairwise similarity of the data points in the lower-dimensional space. Developed by Laurens Van Der Maaten 2008, it has been recently applied for single-cell RNA-sequencing data [56].\n\nTriple negative breast cancer (TNBC)\n\nA breast cancer subtype representing about 15% to 20% of breast cancers. TNBC is a breast cancer subtype lacking expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR), and that does not overexpress human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). TNBC remains a clinical challenge with poor prognosis since no therapeutic targets have been identified.\n\n\nWhen there are fewer equations than unknowns (in contrast to an overdetermined situation). Each variable (e.g.: gene) is providing a degree of freedom. On the other hand, each introduced equation can be viewed as a constraint that restricts one degree of freedom. Ideally, the number of equations and the number of variables is equal. Thus, to every variable giving a degree of freedom correspond a constraint removing a degree of freedom. In the underdetermined case, the unknowns outnumber the equations so that many possible solutions exist. To prevent overfitting, it is then recommended to use the simplest possible solutions (so called Occam's razor) [49].\n\n\nApplications of AI and ML are becoming quite popular, including in the cancer research community. However, at least 2 major limits apply to AI and ML. One, they are brain children of humans and are thus by definition limited in their scope. Their limits and pitfalls need to be clearly assessed. Two, most AI and ML approaches currently require large energetic costs that are well beyond the 20 Watt per hour of our human brain. In a world with limited resources, efforts intending to decrease energetic costs are also greatly needed.\n\n\nThis work was supported by SUNY EIPF grant #172, the Région Bourgogne Franche-Comté PARI (grant number 9201AAO050S01716), Ligue contre le Cancer (grant number R18032MM) and Nano2Bio and FEDER (grant number BG0005900). No funding sources were involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, writing or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.\n\n\n 1. Bhargava A (2016) Grokking Algorithms: An illustrated guide for programmers and other curious people. Manning Publications.\n 2. Theobald O (2017) Machine Learning for Absolute Beginners: A Plain English Introduction.\n 3. Beach, CSUL.\n 4. Julia L (2019) L'intelligence artificielle n'existe pas. 1st edition.\n 5. Hinton G (2018) Deep Learning-A Technology with the Potential to Transform Health Care. JAMA 320: 1101-1102. [Crossref]\n 7. Rumelhart D, Hinton G, Williams R (1986) Learning representations by back-propagating errors. Nature 323: 533-536.\n 9. Ghemawat S, Gobioff H, Leung ST (2003) The Google File System. SOSP Bolton Landing.\n 10. Dean J, Ghemawat S (2004) MapReduce: Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters. OSDI.\n 11. Kolodner J, Hmelo C, Narayanan NH (1996) Problem-Based Learning Meets Case-Based Reasoning. J Learn Sci 12: 188-195.\n 12. Aamodt A, Plaza E (1994) Case-Based Reasoning: Foundational Issues, Methodological Variations, and System Approaches. IOS Press 7: 39-59.\n 13. Begum S (2011) Case-Based Reasoning Systems in the Health Sciences: A Survey of Recent Trends and Developments. IEEE Transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics.\n 14. Bahls D, Roth-Berghofer T (2007) Explanation Support for the Case-Based Reasoning Tool myCBR. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, 1844-1845.\n 15. Goodfellow I, Bengio Y, Courville A (2016) Deep Learning. MIT Press.\n 16. Usama MF, Gregory PS, Padhraic S (1996) From data mining to knowledge discovery: an overview, in Advances in knowledge discovery and data mining. American Association for Artificial Intelligence pp. 1-34.\n 19. Smith C (2017) Decision Trees and Random Forests: A Visual Introduction for Beginners. Blue Windmill Media.\n 20. Kassambara A (2018) Machine Learning Essentials: Practical Guide in R. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.\n 21. Naylor CD (2018) On the Prospects for a (Deep) Learning Health Care System. JAMA 320: 1099-1100.\n 24. Zou H, Hastie T (2005) Regularization and Variable Selection via the Elastic Net. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 67(Series B): 301-320.\n 25. Polikar R (2006) Ensemble based systems in decision making. IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine 6: 21-45.\n 26. Rokach L (2010) Ensemble-based classifiers. Artif Intell Rev 33: 1-39.\n 27. Opitz D, Maclin R (1999) Popular ensemble methods: An empirical study. J Artif Intell Res 11: 169-198.\n 28. Lambin P (2012) Radiomics: extracting more information from medical images using advanced feature analysis. Eur J Cancer 48: 441-446. [Crossref]\n 29. Aerts HJ (2014) Decoding tumour phenotype by non-invasive imaging using a quantitative radiomics approach. Nat Commun 5: 4006.\n 32. Jipkate B, Gohokar V (2012) A Comparative Analysis of Fuzzy C-Means Clustering and K Means Clustering Algorithms. Int J Comput Eng Res 2: 737-739.\n 34. Mitchell M (1998) An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms. MIT Press.\n 36. Eisen MB (1998) Cluster analysis and display of genome-wide expression patterns. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95: 14863-14868.\n 37. Spellman PT (1998) Comprehensive identification of cell cycle-regulated genes of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by microarray hybridization. Mol Biol Cell 9: 3273-3297. [Crossref]\n 39. MacQueen J (1967) Some Methods for Classification and Analysis of Multivariate Observations. Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, (University of California Press): 281-97.\n 40. Santosa F, Symes W (1986) Linear Inversion of Band-Limited Reflection Seismograms. SIAM J Sci Comput 7: 1307-1330.\n 41. Tibshirani R (1996) Regression shrinkage and selection via the lasso. J Royal Stat Soc 58: 267-288.\n 44. Finn C, Abbeel P, Levine S (2017) Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Deep Networks. arXiv:1703.03400.\n 45. Schmidhuber J (1987) Evolutionary principles in self-referential learning, or on learning. (Diploma thesis).\n 46. Morris D (2017) Bayes' Theorem Examples: A Visual Introduction for Beginners. Blue Windmill Media.\n 48. Sullivan W (2018) Machine Learning Algorithms for Supervised and Unsupervised Learning: The Future Is Here, (2nd edn), CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.\n 49. Seigneuric R (2009) Systems Biology Applied to Cancer Research, in Handbook of Research on Systems Biology Applications in Medicine. In: Daskalaki A (eds) Medical Information science reference, Hershey, New York, USA pp.339-353.\n 51. Ashburner M (2008) Gene ontology: tool for the unification of biology. The Gene Ontology Consortium. Nat Genet 25: 25-29. [Crossref]\n 52. Draghici S (2002) Statistical intelligence: effective analysis of high-density microarray data. Drug Discov Today 7: 55-63. [Crossref]\n 53. Supek F (2011) REVIGO summarizes and visualizes long lists of gene ontology terms. PLoS One 6: e21800. [Crossref]\n 54. Eden E (2009) GOrilla: a tool for discovery and visualization of enriched GO terms in ranked gene lists. BMC Bioinformatics 10: 48. [Crossref]\n 56. van der Maaten L, Hinton G (2008) Visualizing High-Dimensional Data Using t-SNE. J Machine Learning Res 9: 2579-2605.\n\nEditorial Information\n\n\nHiroshi Miyamoto\nUniversity of Rochester Medical Center, USA\n\nArticle Type\n\nReview Article\n\nPublication history\n\nReceived date: August 27, 2019\nAccepted date: September 12, 2019\nPublished date: September 17, 2019\n\n\n\n\nSeigneuric R and Bichindaritz I (2019) Decoding artificial intelligence and machine learning concepts for cancer research application. Integr Cancer Sci Therap 6: DOI: 10.15761/ICST.1000317\n\nCorresponding author\n\nSeigneuric R\n\n\nE-mail :\n\nNo data.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8403138518333435}
+{"content": "Rome is the perfect destination for a historic urban getaway with Urban District Apartments. Loose yourself in the ancient streets, breath in the scent of freshly ground coffee, stumble across hidden Roman treasures or marvel at the Colosseum\n\nWhy Rome?\n\nRome is the perfect destination for a historic urban getaway with Urban District. Lose yourself in the ancient streets, breathe in the scent of freshly ground coffee, stumble across hidden Roman treasures or marvel at the Colosseum. In Rome you have it all. And all this while enjoying the city’s year-round warm temperatures. There are infinite reasons to visit the Eternal City. As a rental destination, it is a veritable delight for historians and food enthusiasts alike. Italy’s capital is steeped in history (layers and layers of it). While Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome back to 753 BC, the earliest signs of human settlement date back 14,000 years. A city within a city, Rome also houses an independent country within its boundaries: the Vatican City. As if that weren’t enough, as a cultural destination, Rome is almost unrivalled. It is a major centre of Italian Renaissance art and architecture, and it is of course the birthplace of Italian Baroque and Neoclassicism, which will be reflected everywhere you look during your stay in the Eternal City.\n\nRome makes an excellent spot for business travellers too. Even if, it is not reputed to be as business-oriented as Milan, Rome is nonetheless a highly important destination within Italy and Europe more generally for international commerce. Ernst & Young placed Rome at number 10 in its European attractiveness survey in 2016 for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which would suggest that things are really on the up in the Italian capital on the business front. If this trend of increased interest and investment in Rome is to continue, this can only mean that international business travellers will find themselves increasingly likely to end up there for conferences and/or meetings in the years to come. And Rome caters for this with aplomb. Whilst there, the comfort and premium services of an Urban District serviced apartment rental are sure to meet with your executive expectations and allow you to work in the most comfortable environment. \n\nMajor Attractions \n\nWhen you rent an apartment in Rome, for business or pleasure, there are some places you simply cannot miss. Inaugurated in 80 AD, the Colosseum formerly housed a 50,000-seat Roman gladiator arena. It is a truly spectacular sight to behold in all its ancient glory. The Roman Forum, the Pantheon and the Palatino are also life-changing visits to Antiquity, which make Rome an unmatchable historic destination. For some inspiring artwork, head over to the \"Museo e Galleria Borghese\", which houses the ‘queen of all private art collections’, from Ancient Rome and the old masters right through to the modern era, all amassed by the Borghese family over the years. In the Capitoline Museums you can enjoy the iconic Lupa Capitolina, a sculpture depicting a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, as well as an amazing art gallery with works by the likes of Tintoretto. The streets of Rome are themselves a work of art, with secrets hidden all around, from the catacombs to clandestine churches. Finally, no trip to Rome would be complete without an outing to the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City, where one can gaze at Michelangelo’s famous ceiling.\n\nRome is a favourable destination for business meetings and conferences because of its ample venues and infrastructure in this regard. There is wide variety of international events, conventions, seminars and trade fairs taking place in the city annually, and the choices of location are rich and varied, from large-scale conference venues in historic locations, to small-scale options for smaller businesses congregations. \n\nWhat to eat?\n\nWhen in Rome, do as the Romans do. When you rent a place to stay in Rome, it’s important to eat like a Roman too. Pizza is an obvious must in this foremost gastronomic destination. Join locals during your stay by sampling authentic varieties, and relax with friends and family over some chilled white wine from nearby terroirs. Try simple, delicious local pasta dishes and take part in typical al fresco (open air) dining. For more reasonably priced dining, check out places like Alle Fratte di Trastevere, and for a more generous budget, Alberto Ciarla offers exquisite traditional dishes such as sea bass with herbs, with the chef’s innovative interpretation of traditional Italian fare striking an intriguing balance between creative and authentic. Pizzeria Loffredo is our number one choice for pizza (although there are countless contenders), boasting consistently excellent reviews. \n\nWhere to go out?\n\nIn the evening, take a stroll through one of Rome’s many piazzas in the city’s charming districts, such as the Piazza del Popolo, the awe-inspiring 16th century entrance to Rome’s old northern gateway. You can enjoy stunning views of the square from Rosati, a bar once frequented by left-wing intellectuals, or alternatively, you can head over to Canova, situated just across the square, formerly known for its clientele of prominent right-wing figures. Most bars in the city’s diverse neighbourhoods remain open until 2am, while clubs continue to regale late-night revelers until around 4am. For a truly unique nocturnal experience over the course of your holiday or at the end of your business trip, head over to the exclusive Jerry Thomas Speakeasy, a 1920’s US prohibition-style speakeasy named after the famous American bartender. Membership, booking ahead and a password are all requirements however. Another hidden gem is Club Derriere, a secret jazz bar tucked away behind the Osteria delle Coppelle restaurant. For lovers of literature, you can’t go wrong with the eccentric Rivendita Libri Cioccolate e Vino. One of this place’s two rooms is dedicated to book readings, while the other is centred around the concept of shots served in chocolate glasses. Quirky and eccentric. Many Roman neighbourhoods lay claim to such interesting places. \n\nWhen to go?\n\nRome is another destination where each season offers something different. Spring and Autumn are comfortably warm and have moderate levels of tourism compared to peak season, making them ideal for apartment rentals. Winter temperatures average at about 8 degrees Celsius, so it never becomes excessively cold in the Eternal City. Weekends tend to be the busiest times and shops tend to close on Sundays, save for the most touristy districts in the city. The best time to come to Rome is mid-week, when shops, restaurants and museums are open and there are fewer tourists.\n\nGet in touch\n\nIf you want to talk with us +34 935 306 019\ne-mail us\n\nContact Us\n\nUrban District Services and Experiences,The World at Your Fingertips", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.874245285987854}
+{"content": "A closer look at lava fountains\n\nRelease Date:\n\nVolcanology is an inexact science. At least, that is what we are always led to believe. Increased sophistication in measurement techniques however, has enabled volcanologists to become more precise with their data and interpretations. The increased precision has either improved or overturned many long-held beliefs and models of volcanic processes.\n\nRecently, Patrick Allard, Mike Burton, and Filippo Mur managed to achieve a \"first\" with infrared spectroscopy measurements on Mount Etna, a basaltic volcano in Italy. They imaged the gases roaring out within a basaltic lava fountain.\n\nLava fountains are sometimes called Hawaiian explosive activity, named after the type locality for this sort of eruption-that is, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai`i. This phenomenon often occurs at other basaltic centers in different tectonic settings, like at Mount Etna, Sicily. Fountains form when the gas contained within the magma cannot escape quickly enough as the magma is rising towards the surface, resulting in a jet-propelled mixture of lava and gas streaming into the air.\n\nMagma erupts because of the gases contained in it. Whether they erupt quietly as lava flows or explosively as a lava fountain depends on the way in which gases escape from the magma. An analogy is shaking a bottle of soda and then opening it. If you unscrew the cap very quickly, a foam is produced, which will cover you in spray. If you open it slowly, the gases will escape bit by bit, and when you eventually get the cap off, you won't get wet. Lava fountains are produced when you take the cap off a column of magma quickly.\n\nIn January to June 2000, the southeast crater of Mount Etna produced 64 spectacular episodes of lava fountaining, with some up to 3,000 feet in height, or twice the highest fountains from Pu`u `O`o.\n\nThe key result of their findings is the ability to discriminate between two models of fountain generation-one in which the lava degasses during fountaining, and one in which a substantial amount of the gas is released at depth (greater than 1 km (3,000 feet)) beneath the volcanic edifice, prior to fountaining.\n\nIn the first scenario, gases bubble out as magma rises very rapidly towards the surface. The fountain forms within a few tens of meters (feet) of the surface.\n\nIn scenario two, the gas separates from the magma at greater depths, forming a pocket of gas in the form of a foam. When the amount of foam gets large enough, the foam collapses. All the little bubbles in the foam become one super-bubble, which rushes to the surface with magma surrounding it, generating the fountain. This is the model used to explain fountaining at Pu`u `O`o, Hawai`i.\n\nThe results of the work on Mount Etna appear to indicate that scenario two is the most accurate of the two models.\n\nHow do the results indicate this? It has to do with the composition of the gas. As magma decompresses (rises to the surface), different gases bubble out in different amounts. For example, at Kīlauea, carbon dioxide begins to bubble out at very great depths-50-60 km-beneath the surface while sulphur dioxide will only bubble out substantially once the magma reaches a few hundred meters to a kilometer beneath the surface. Other gases, such as hydrogen chloride, bubble out at still shallower depths.\n\nThe gases emitted from the lava fountains on Mount Etna clearly showed higher proportions of the deep-derived magmatic gases, carbon dioxide, and sulphur dioxide. The gas composition indicates that the gas phase formed, and reached equilibrium, at depths of around 1.5 km (1 mile) beneath the surface, before rapidly ascending to the surface in the fountain without time to adjust to the lower pressures.\n\nAdvances of this nature are becoming possible with the advent of more sophisticated instrumentation with which to monitor volcanoes. Our rate of understanding these complex systems is increasing all the time. As the quality of our observations improves, volcanology is rapidly becoming an increasingly precise science.\n\n\nVolcano Activity Update\n\nEruptive activity at Pu`u `O`o continues. At least five of the vents inside Pu`u `O`o crater and on the west and southwest flanks of the cone were spattering vigorously this past week, producing bright glow on clear nights.\n\nThe PKK flow continues to host substantial breakouts from the 2,300-ft elevation to the coastal plain. A new ocean entry began on February 20, at East Lae`apuki, about halfway between the existing ocean entries at West Highcastle and Ka`ili`ili. The closest activity to the end of Chain of Craters Road in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park is at West Highcastle, 2.6 km (1.6 mi) from the ranger shed. Expect a 1-to-1.5-hour walk each way and remember to bring lots of water. Stay well back from the sea cliff, regardless of whether there is an active ocean entry or not. Heed the National Park warning signs.\n\nDuring the week ending February 24, only one earthquake was felt on Hawai`i Island. The magnitude-3.4 quake occurred 4 km (3 miles) north of Kīlauea summit at a depth of 22 km (14 miles) at 9 minutes after midnight on Saturday, February 19.\n\nThese felt Kīlauea earthquakes are part of a swarm beneath Kīlauea summit that started in mid-January. Kīlauea summit continues to inflate, with the rate increasing from 8 cm/yr (3 inches/yr) to over 40 cm/yr (15 inches/yr) in January 2005.\n\nMauna Loa is not erupting. The summit region abruptly stopped inflating at the end of January 2005. Since July 2004, the rate of inflation and number of deep earthquakes has increased. Weekly earthquake counts have varied from 5 to over 150 in the last half of 2004 but have been less than 10 since the beginning of 2005. During the week ending February 23, nine earthquakes were recorded beneath the summit area. Unlike the past seven months, when nearly all the quakes were 30 km (18 mi) or more deep, and of the long-period type, most of these are shallower and the more typical short-period type.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9448944926261902}
+{"content": "X-Git-Url: http://lambda.jimpryor.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lambda.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=index.iki;h=cdcf13213c098325fc993ee650465fe281a05c3b;hp=1abeed131420f603ca2f2cdda25a76c006862e00;hb=148ffe89f0869ef1e94733dd1fb0efb16f9f34ed;hpb=b5a181df62205a4ac41171aeb7c45c360b00a5b8 diff --git a/index.iki b/index.iki index 1abeed13..cdcf1321 100644 --- a/index.iki +++ b/index.iki @@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ This course is co-taught by [Chris Barker](http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cb125/) and The seminar meets on Mondays from 4-6, in the Linguistics building at 10 Washington Place, in room 104 (back of the first floor). One student session will be held every Wednesday from 3-4 on the -fourth floor at 10 Washington Place. Here is $some^2 x^{e \\pi} + 3y$ math, and $$here_{is} some + more$$ End of math. +fourth floor at 10 Washington Place. + ## Announcements ##", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999920725822449}
+{"content": "Home > Culture Exchange > Culture\nPeking Opera\n\nA Brief Introduction to the Peking Opera\n\nAmong all traditional Chinese operas, Peking Opera is a relatively newcomer. However, it has become the important and influential opera form for Chinese audiences and is now regarded as a nationally accepted form.\n\nLike any other traditional opera, Peking Opera tells stories through movement, singing and elaborate dancing. Thus it is a graceful and consummate art which combines the best elements of literature, music and dance. First conceived and developed in Beijing (Peking), Peking Opera has only been performed for 200 years or so. But, by maintaining the heritage of traditional opera and absorbing so much from other local arts, it came to dominate the theaters of the imperial capital and enjoyed rapid growth. As it developed, Peking Opera has experienced periods of full bloom, diminishing popularity and near extinction. But in the end, it has still been passed down from generation to generation and maintained a loyal following because of its immense vitality.\n\nThe Formation and Development of the Peking Opera\n\nThe genesis of Peking Opera began when Hui Opera troupes first arrived in Beijing.\n\nDuring the Qing Dynasty, opera became very popular with Beijing audiences. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, \"Huabu\" arose (encompassing all local operas except kunqu). Jingqiang (the tunes of Beijig), qinqiang (tunes from Shaanxi), bangziqiang (songs using the bangzi), yiyangqiang (the runes from Jiangxi), luoluoqiang (songs from Hubei) and erhuang were all in vogue. In 1779, Wei Changsheng, an actor from Sichuan, went to Beijing to perform qinqiang and took the capital by storm with his interpretation of the play Gunlou. After that many quyi entertainers wanted to follow in wei's footsteps and join qin troupes. For a short while, qinqiang dominated the performing arts in Beijing. In the 55th year of Qianlong's reign (1790), the Sanqing Hui Opera troupe was summoned to Beijing to celebrate the emperor's 80th birthday. After the celebration ended the troupe stayed on in Beijing and gave performances for the public. As Qianlong entered his 56th year on the dragon throne (1791) various Siqing and Wuqing Hui Opera Troupes filtered into Beijing, and by the reign of the Emperor Jiaqing many other Hui opera troupes had come to and performed in Beijing, including the Sanqing Sixi, Hechun and Chuntai, known as the \"big four.\" At that time, Hui opera troupes mainly performed Hui Erhuang, Qin Xipi and other local folk tunes. They attracted a diverse audience and occupied an obviously dominant position among all the troupes performing in Beijing.\n\nDuring the reigns of Jiaqing and Daoguang, a group of Handiao actors came to Beijing to perform together with the Hui troupes. Because Handiao actors concentrated on both xipi and erhuang tunes, this encouraged the merging of Hui, Han and Qin and enabled Hui troupes to perform plays using pi huang tunes, laying the foundation for Peking Opera.\n\nAfter another half century of development and experimentation, Peking Opera began to use the Beijing dialect for its songs and dialogue. Singing pi huang tunes in Beijing dialect became the dominant feature of Peking Opera, which also marked its birth in the mid-19th century.\n\nThe years 1917 to 1937 was a period of full bloom for the newborn opera form. The next decade saw a marked decline because of the People's Republic of China.\n\nAfter another half centuryof development and experimentation,Peking began to use the Beijing dialect for its songs and dialogue. Singing pi huang tunes in Beijing dialect became the dominant feature of Peking Opera, which also marked its birth in the mid-19th century.\n\nThe years 1917 to 1937 was a period of full bloom for the newborn opera form.The next decade saw a marked decline because of the Japanese invasion.In1949, with the founding of the People's Republic of China, Peking Opera was reborn. Form 1964 to 1976, Peking Opera performers were directed to explore the possibilties of reflecting revolutionary themes using traditional artistic forms, but due to the upheaval of the \"cultural revolution,\" any further growth and development was seriously disrupted.In the 1980's, Peking Opera managed to resurrect itself once again and become even more vigorous.\n\nThe Peking Opera Plays\n\nPeking opera has always reflected common life in its plots,allowing it a wide variety of topics.The Dictionary of Peking Opera Plays, published in 1986, listed 5000 plays. Peking Opera also included a considerable number of traditional stories, almost 3800 according to one count.\n\nAs a comprehensive art form, Peking Opera incorporates literature, music, dance, the fine arts and traditional martial part, Peking Opera has many ways to tell a story. Different plays may resort to different means of expression. Some, such as Longfeng Chengxiang(The Dragon and Phoenix Bring Luck)an Kong Cheng Ji(The Stratagem of a Defenceless City), employ diversified expressions, including singing, monologues, traditional acting and martial-arts demonstrations. Other works may highlight only one or two forms of expressio. For instance, Yutangchun and Er Jin Gong(Entering the Palace for the Second Time)emphasize singing; Shi Yuzhuo(Picking Up a Jade Bracelet)stresses acting; Sanchakou(At the Junction of Three Roads)and Nao Tiangong(Havoc in Heaven)are showcases for the martial-arts;a nd Guifei Zuijiu(The Drunken Beauty)demonstrates both singing and dancing.\n\nPeking Opera plays can be roughly divided into three categories according to their contents:\n\nHistorical stories: traditional historical plays dating from ancient times up to the Qing Dynasty make up the largest part of Peking Operas.\n\nMythological Plays: Mythological plays have an important place in Peking Opera.They make full use of martial arts and are very popular with audiences. Many of these plays are based on \"Journey to the West,\", a classical novel in which Sun Wukong,or the Monkey King,is one of the main characters.\n\nModern plays: Though the writing of modern plays in China started as early as the 1930s,the most notable Peking operas with modern themes were composed after the founding of the People's Republic of China.\n\nPeking Opera, with its many subjects,constitutes a valuable cultural repository for the Chinese audiences. It occupies an important place even in the storehouse of plays throughout the world.\n\nThe Stage and the Unique Sense of Time and Space in Peking Opera\n\nIn the past, Peking Opera was performed on an open stage without a curtain.There was usually a table and two chairs or props, and sometimes there were no rpops at all. Later on a curtain was added. In some cases a second curtain was used when the stage needed to be set with tables and chairs or if performers needed to change costumes in the course of a performance.\n\nThere is a free sense of time and space on the Peking Opera stage. When the curtain rises there is no setting or time until the first actor appears,and makes these elements clear through his dialogue or a song. For instance, an actor might sing and deliver a monologue to show that he is in his study-as soon as he exits the stage,the study, that is the time and the setting, exits with him. When another actor appears, he acts to show that he is waling along a winding path,and it is up to the audience to visualize a winding path on the stage instead of a study. Later on a man sits down in his own home. He wants to visit a friend,so he walks around the stage in a circle, a technique called yuan chang. He stops at where he starts, symbolically having come full circle to let the audience know he has arrived at his friend's home.\n\nDepending on the situation, a momentary feeling may be represented as long and an action that would mormally take a substantial amount of time may be shortened. When a character suddenly hears shocking news, he may sing a piece that seems to last forever in order to show his strong feelings in a particular instant. Or he may dispense with a quick gesture to indicate that he is writing or reading a letter,or enjoying a drink.Therefore, much imagination and visualization is required on the part of the audience when taking in a Peking Opera performance.\n\nActing in Peking Opera\n\nIn Peking Opera acting is both visualized and stereotyped. With no props on the stage, an actor must execute pantomime movements to indicate opening a door and closing it behind him, riding a horse, or rowing a baot. In a battle scene, several soldiers may appear from the two sides of the stage, representing two antagonistic armies. These soldiers are called longtao, or mass performers.\n\nEvery movement on the stage, such as sitting dowm, holding up a hand and taking a step, has a rule as to how it must e executed. There are also prescribed sets of movements for actors to follow, which are called chengshi. There include how a general should check his suit of armor before going into battle, the way a soldier steals through the night towards a target, how a man rides a horseback and how they should fight. All of these movements depend heavily on visualization, and are carefully choreographed.\n\nDifferent Types of Roles in Peking Opera\n\nThe roles in Peking Opera are quite regimented, being divided into four types, or hangdang:sheng, dan, jing and chou, according to their sex, age, status, character and stage stereotype. The sheng are male characters, such as Zhuge Liang in Kong Cheng Ji (The Precious Lotus Lantern), and Bai Suzhen in Baishe Zhuan (The Story of White Snake); the jing (painted face) symbolized anyone belonging to a rough crowd (and can be either godd or evil), such as Bao Zheng in Mei An (The Case of Executing Chen Shimei), and Cao Cao in Qunying Hui (All the Heroes Come Together); and chou represent good or bad buffoons who can be either male or female.\n\nEach of these types can also be sub-divided. For instance, sheng incorporates lao (old) sheng, xiao (young) sheng and wu (martial-art)sheng, while the dan are subdivided into qingyi,hua dan, wu dan and lao dan.Different roles use different costumes, makeup, songs, monologues, acting methods and even martial-arts stances.\n\nWithin a type there are also different schools of performing, such as the famous \"Four Dan Schools of Mei (represented by Mei Lanfang), Shang (represented by Shang Xiaoyun), Cheng (represented by Cheng Yanqiu)and Xun (represented by Xun Huisheng).\" These different schools interpret and represent their roles according to their own capabilities, hence forming their own special styles.\n\nPeking Opera Costumes\n\nPeking Opera costumes are very colorful and quite ostentatious at times. They are knows as xingtou or xiyi to the performers. Like the stage and the acting, they are heavily stereotyped and represent not different dynasties or seasons, but instead correspond to character types and roles. For instance, emperors and rules should wear mangpao, whichare robes embroidered with clouds, dragons and wavey patterns. An actor playing a mandarin wears a similar robe, but with a square patch on both front and back and no embroidery. Officers and soldiers wear suits of armor called kao. There are soft and hard kao for the actors to wear, a hard kao having four triangular flags strapped to the actor's back, such as the one worn by Zhao Yun in Hui Jinzhou (Returning to Jinzhou), while a soft kao having none. Some costumes have a piece of white silk stitched to each of the cuffs. This is known as shui xiu, or water sleeves. Some characters wear ling zi, two long pheasant feathers, atop their hat, crown or helmet. Both shui xiu and for acting. A performer may be directed to wave his sleeves or stroke his feathers as a means of expression.\n\nThe Settings and Props in Peking Opera\n\nThough the Peking Opera stage uses little more than a table or some chairs, they can be used to serve different purposes. If A Table is set at the center of the stage with a chair on each side, the stage becomes an inn,a study, or a room. If a chair is placed near the entrance of the stage, then the audience should visualize a scene outside of a house or a command tent for a general. Again two tables may be laid side by side with a chair on top of them and another at the side (for actor to step on and off again) in dicating a command platform or a mound, and two chairs covered by a sheet of red silk may indicate a young woman's bedroom.\n\nChines martial-arts use many ancient weapons similar in Peking Opera to real ones, but with some variations for the convenience of the actors. Called bazi or daoqiang bazi, they include various kinds of swords, broadswords, spears and hammers. There is also a prescribed set of movements for each weapon.\n\nThough the settings in Peking Opera rely a lot on visualization, there are a few props, called qimo.Some are quite literal in their application, and inkstones. Some are more figurative. For instance, a piece of blue cloth may be hung up for a city wall, a white banner painted with wavey patterns acts as a river, and a square black flag in each hand, then it means there is a caravan or a procession of some kind tramping across the stage. Performers may also play with handkerchieves painted with patterns to indicate flpating clouds. Today, some innovations have been made in stage settings and rpops. Modern opera techniques, especially in setting,enhance the theatrical effects of the Peking Opera performance.\n\nSongs and Scoring for Peking Opera\n\nSongs from Pera are of two kings; xipi and erhuang, together known as pihuang. Within each category there are different banshi (modes), developed from a basic tune but varying a bit in beat,rhythm and melody. Both xipi and erhuang have different variations on yuanban (original mode), manban (largo), kuaisanyan (allergro), sanban (lyrical and loose mode) and yaoban (swing mode). Xipi also has its own modes of erliu (two & six), liushui (flowing water) and kuaiban (allegro), all different from one another, but also related. They may serve either as independent pieces or can be played in sets to express different feeling. Singing is prominent as a means of characterization in Peking Opera. Apart from the main xipi and erhuang tunes, there are other tunes,such as sipingdiao, manbangai and gaobozi.\n\nThe music for Peking Opera is also stylized, and tunes and modes may be repeated. In Nuqijie (On Her Way to Jail), Su San Sings a xipi manban; in Fenhe Wan (Fenhe River Bend) Liu Yingchun also sings a xipi manban, though with subtle variations rarely found in Western opera. Therefore, to enjoy Peking Opera, the audience should learn to tell the differences between the tunes.\n\nApart from music that is sung there are also instrumentals for preludes or interludes played with qupai. The tunes vary in nature and in length according to different instruments played for defferent occasions. For instance, the shuilongyin (Chant of Water Dragon) will be played on a suona horn when a general is to give military orders; the gongchishang for receiving and seeing off guests; and the kuhuangtian(Crying for Heaven) for funeral rites.\n\nGongs and drums are important instruments to all aspects of Peking Opeara-singing,monologues, acting and martial-arts demonstrations-to create atmosphere, particularly in battle scenes. There are different beats, called luogujing, mainly as preludes for songs and as accompaniment to acting and martial-arts fighting.\n\nMoreover, drums and gongs also have another function: linking the performance together. Changing the tempo of the action on stage and switching from a song to a monologue, or acting, or the beginning of a martial-arts sequence are all announcde through drums and gongs, which end up being used throughout a play from beginning to the end.\n\nPeking Opera monologues are a musical language written especially for the stage, quite defferent from daily colloquialisms. There are two types: jingbai and yunbai. Jingbai is based on the Beijing dialect, and has a very quicktempo with exaggerated rises and dips in tone.Both huadan and chou roles use jingbai. Yunbai utilizes the local dialect of central China.It is more sing-song and more rhythmic than jingbai. Most Peking Opera roles, such as the laosheng, qingyi, hualian, xiaosheng and laodan, speak in this way. Peking Opera monologues, using plain language and simple vocabulary, have strong expressive capabilities.\n\nPeking Opera Painted Faces: Origin and Development\n\nThe development of the art of painting faces is closely related to that of Chinese dramatic art, although the earliest painted faces, or their precursors, appeared long before Chinese drama took shape. Clowns with a big white spot painted on their faces were seen in Song dynasty operettas and Yuan dynasty poetic dramas of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Facial make-up like that of Peking opera jing roles (warriors or robust male characters) had, however, been used in songs and dances nearly a thousand years earlier. As far back as the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui-Tang (420-907) a song and dance featured warriors wearing masks, a precursor of the painted face. This is told in the Old History of the Tang Dynasty: Chapter on Music:\"Prince Lanling of the Northern Qi was a great warrior but had a pretty, womanish face. To frighten his enemies, he would wear a fearsome mask when he went to war. Once, in a battle with the state of Zhou outside Jinyong City, he proved himself the strongest and bravest of all. His people were so proud of him that they composed a song and dance called 'prince Lanling at the Front' in which the actors wore masks and their movements simulated the way the prince vanquished his enemies.\" Thus the custom of actors wearing masks began. Though not in general use nowadays, masks are still worn in some traditional operas, such as the local dramas performed by the Bouyei people of Xingyi, Guizhou Province. Such masks may be regarded as living fossils in the history of opera facial make-up.\n\nAs Chinese dramatic art developed, the drawbacks of wearing masks became increasingly evident, for masks prevented the actors from showing their facial expressions. A vividly painted face, however, enables audiences to see expressions clearlv even from a distance, a great advantage in the days when dramatic performances were usually staged in the open air before large crowds. So actors began to apply powder, ink, paint, and soot to their faces, creating the art of facial make-up.\n\nIn the beginning only three sharply contrasting colors-red, and black-were generally used in facial make-up. Eyes. Ears, nose, mouth, and facial contours were delineated clearly and a character's most distinctive features, such as thick brows, large eyes, upturned nose, or wide mouth, were usually exaggerated. The earliest painted faces were simple and crude, but with time the designs became more elaborate and ornamental. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when Peking opera had acquired its unique artistic style and methods of performance, the art of Peking opera facial make-up was developing fast, thanks to the improvements and innovations made by successive generations of performers and artists and to the assimilation of the best make-up used in various local operas. Colors and designs have since become richer and more diversified; distinctions between different roles and characters have become sharper, and a host of new faces has been created for both historical and legendary figures.\n\nPeking Opera Painted Faces: Facial Colors\n\nThe basic colors in modern Peking opera painted faces are red, purple (or crimson), black, white, blue, green, yellow, pink, gray, gold, and silver. Originally, colors were used just to emphasize or exaggerate a person's natural complexion. Gradually colors acquired symbolic meanings. In general, red is the color of loyalty and courage; purple, of wisdom, bravery, and steadfastness; black, of loyalty and integrity; watery white, of cruelty and treachery; oily white, of an inflated, domineering person; blue, of valor and resolution; green of chivalry; yellow, of brutality; dark red, of a loyal, time-tested warrior; and gray, of an old scoundrel. Gold and silver are used on the faces and bodies of deities, Buddhas, spirits, and demons, because their sheen produces a supernatural effect.\n\nAlthough these symbolic meaning are fairly well established, they are not hard and fast. Great flexibility is allowed in the use of color. For example, in operas based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms the face of the old warrior Guan Yu is painted red to symbolize his courage and loyalty to his elder brother, the king of Shu. But in the opera Famen Temple the face of the eunuch Liu Jin is painted red for quite a different purpose: to exaggerate the man's ruddy complexion and mark him as one who holds great power in the imperial court and has lived a life of ease and affluence. His brows, eyes, and mouth are all depicted in a way that betrays his treacherous nature, enabling audiences to recognize him instantly as a scoundrel and despot.\n\nThe face of Chao Gai, an outlaw chief in Outlaws of the Marsh, is another example of the variant uses of a color. Chao Gai wears a three-tile(see III.2) face of faded yellow, but the yellow does not have its usual meaning of cruelty or brutality, neither of which is an attribute of this outlaw chief. It merely represents the man's natural pale complexion. The red spot painted conspicuously between the eyebrows symbolizes a hero who has joined a good cause.\n\nA dictum familiar to most Peking opera fans, \"No red for the three Gangs,\" illustrates how colors represent human character. The three Gangs ( Li Gang, Yao Gang, and Xue Gang ) were bold and obstinate, but in Peking operas they are portrayed as solemn and serious, so no red is allowed in their facial make-up, not even on their lips, and no pink powder (which symbolizes humor) is applied to their cheeks. By contrast, in operas adapted from the Romance of the Yang Family the cheeks of the two characters Meng Liang and Jiao Zan are powdered pink because these two men are humorous by nature. In Hongyang Cave, however, the two no longer have pink cheeks, for this opera portrays them as old people whose temperaments have changed.\n\nIn summary, colors are used to symbolize human nature in Peking opera. The choice of colors, largely empirical, is based on the experience of many generations of veteran dramatic artists, through whom a fairly complete set of Peking opera facial patterns has been created.\n\nSuggest To A Friend:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5153591632843018}
+{"content": "Ansoft Maxwell v14\n\n\nMaxwell® is the premier electromagnetic field simulation software for engineers tasked with designing and analyzing 3-D and 2-D electromagnetic and electromechanical devices such as motors, actuators, transformers, sensors and coils. Maxwell uses the accurate finite element method to solve static, frequency-domain and time-varying electromagnetic and electric fields. A key benefit of Maxwell is its automated solution process where users are only required to specify geometry, material properties and the desired output. From this point, Maxwell will automatically generate an appropriate, efficient and accurate mesh for solving the problem. This proven automatic adaptive meshing process removes complexity from the analysis process and allows engineers to benefit from a highly-efficient, easy-to-use design flow. A key feature in Maxwell is the ability to generate high-fidelity, reduced order models from the finite-element solution for use in Simplorer®, ANSYS' multi-domain system simulation software. This capability creates a powerful electromagnetic-based design flow that enables users to combine complex circuits with accurate component models from Maxwell to design complete high-performance electromechanical, mechatronic and power electronic systems. New in Maxwell 14.0 * ANSYS Workbench integration o Geometry Sharing - Maxwell and ANSYS products are able to share geometry, geometry parameters and material properties o Multiphysics Coupling + Electromagnetic - Thermal + Electromagnetic - Structural + Electromagnetic-Thermal- Structural o Design optimization with ANSYS DesignXplorer\n\n\n • Previous:Ansoft designer v6.0\n • Next：Ansoft HFSS v13", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9648653268814087}
+{"content": "ENSIAEcole Nationale Supérieure des Industries Alimentaires (French)\nReferences in periodicals archive ?\nFunded by the university's Institute on the Environment and supported by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Ensia program is a media platform which includes a print and online magazine and events showcasing solutions to Earth's biggest environmental challenges.\nOnce a proposal is accepted, Ensia program staff teams applicants with experienced environmental writers, videographers, or designers to develop material for submission to staff editors.\nLa notice biographique de sLur Saint-Joseph de P Eucharistie>>, Saguenay ensia 51,3 (2009) : 17-19.\n** UMR SCALE Laboratoire de Biophysique des Materiaux Alimentaires, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Industries Agricoles et Alimentaires (ENSIA), Massay France\nGeuk- Asco- Treatment Mytilus ensia phyllum Fucus Tidal height (HT) 0.0001 0.018 0.481 0.906 Density (D) 0.003 0.044 0.048 0.007 Shade treatment (S) 0.002 0.004 0.150 0.720 HT x D 0.0002 0.0001 0.008 0.177 HT x S 0.0001 0.0001 0.655 0.003 D x S 0.002 0.0001 0.328 0.024 HT x D x S 0.044 0.0001 0.237 0.192 Error df 71 72 16 16 ARE POSITIVE INTERACTIONS MORE COMMONLY IMPORTANT IN INTERTIDAL SYSTEMS THAN IN OTHER SYSTEMS?\nAnnouncement of a contract awarded: Kwartiermaker ensia", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7845152616500854}
+{"content": "Partnered with Barrick and Resolute Mining for Discovery in the Congo\n\nControls over 2,400,000 High Grade Ounces Outside of Barrick JV\n\nMessage: Industry Bulletin: Effect of QE4 OnThe Stockmarket and Gold..\n\nThe normal and natural business cycle where periods of growth were punctuated by healthy recessions has been all but eliminated by government and Central Bank interference. The recessionary phases which saw bearmarkets and retrenchment were a part of the cycle that is essential for the maintenance of a healthy economy, because it involved the correction of excess and the elimination or reduction of companies and processes that were inefficient or wasteful.\n\nWe have already noted on a number of occasions that true democracy is an absurd concept, for the simple reason that you cannot give the same say to the great mass of ignorant and often stupid people as to the much smaller number of educated and discriminating people. The result is politicians pandering to the lowest common denominator with a “bread and circuses” approach. This has been going on for many decades of course, with politicians of all stripes who usually don’t mix with “the great unwashed” turning out before elections to kiss babies and make outlandish promises to the masses that they have no intention of keeping– it works every time. Politicians do not like the recessionary part of the business cycle, especially if it bites when they are the ones in office leading into an election, and so, if they can find a way to forestall it, they will. Before the gold standard was eliminated by Nixon in 1971 there was a limit to what they could do by pumping money to head off economic contractions, even if the Central Bank would cooperate, but after 1971, they found themselves free to print more and more money and they could not resist the temptation to expand the money supply and rather than exercise fiscal restraint in order to balance the books, they found it much easier to expand debt in order to indulge in a “have now pay later” ethos that has since become a universally accepted new normal, and so slowly started the parabolic debt curve that has now gone vertical and been further fuelled by derivatives that have allowed debt to ascend to astounding, giddying heights. Years ago, long before debts rose to their current crushing levels, it would have been possible to straighten things out and balance the books for the common good. It would have involved sacrifice and unpopularity and so was untenable with politicians, especially those in power. It was far easier to simply keep kicking the can down the road, and of course, the bigger the expansion in the money supply and the bigger the debts, the more sacrifice would be required to fix things, adding to the incentive to just keep on can kicking, and that is what they have done. The last great chance to straighten out this mess was back during the financial crisis of 2008, but powerful vested interests were not going to permit that – instead they contrived ways to stick the taxpayer with the bill for it all, and concoct an enormous wealth transfer system that has since enabled them to drain the resources of the middle of lower classes into their coffers. The way this worked was simple – the money supply was to be vastly expanded via “quantitative easing” which, in addition to being used to maintain liquidity, enabled the elites to borrow money at extremely low rates of interest and then plough it into various speculative bubbles like Real Estate and the stockmarket, while the little guy would be forced to pay usurious interest rates if he needed to borrow money. To add insult to injury, prices of the basics of life have been steadily rising as a result of all this money pumping, far faster than the officially stated level of inflation, which is why the little guy has been forced further and further into debt to maintain the same lifestyle – debt at high levels of interest for him. To put it into everyday parlance, he’s screwed, and this is the reason for all the populist uprisings around the world of the past couple of years – the Brexit vote, the election of Trump, the Gilets Jaunes in France etc. The elites are determined to crush all these populist uprisings of course and reinstate the old feudal Master – Servant relationship where the servant knows his place, and knows better than to protest. This is why they have thwarted Brexit in Britain which is a seemingly endless fiasco – if it finally happens it will be BRINO (Brexit in name only) and if it really happens they will make sure the Brits pay in spades for daring to confront them. They have already delayed a process that should have taken about 6 months to getting on for 3 years. In the US they have started an impeachment process which even if it doesn’t remove Trump, is intended to sling so much mud at him that he can never be re-elected. In France the Gilets Jaunes have been simply ground down by being subject to violent repression, week after week, with their cause intentionally underreported, in marked contrast to what is going on in Hong Kong. True democracy has long since ceased to exist in the Western world and has been replaced by a sham – and the same is true of once free financial markets that are now to a large extent controlled by Central banks, making Western economies more like the old so-called Command Economies of the communist bloc. Now we come to the purpose of this treatise which to point out that the exponentially expanding debt and money creation has now gone vertical and resulted in such monstrous economic distortions that it has brought the global economy to the brink of collapse. There is now no way back – things have gone way beyond the point of no return. The emergency measures introduced after the global financial crisis in 2008, that were supposed to be a temporary state of affairs, such as QE and zero interest rates, have now become a permanent state of affairs, so that they are accepted by many as a “new normal”. But they aren’t normal at all and never can be – they are highly abnormal. The zero interest rates discourage saving, the basis of capital formation and instead encourage rampant speculation in often intrinsically worthless ventures. All the newly printed money is no longer stimulating the economy which is instead verging on contraction, so their response is what one would expect – to print more and more money, but you can’t generate real economic growth by simply pumping more and more money – all you wind up doing is destroying the currency and creating hyperinflation. The Fed is already like an out of control weather vane in the eye of a hurricane – first it blows one way and then the other. Having detected the first winds of the backwall of the hurricane – we have been in the eye since 2009 – they are scrambling with indecent haste into QE4, which of necessity, given the much more extreme conditions that now prevail, will end up being on a much vaster scale than the previous bouts of QE. What this means is that the dollar is toast, or will be before much longer. We should not be fooled however by the dollar index holding up, which of course it could do if other countries are debasing their currencies at the same rate - if you are on a sinking ship it’s small comfort to know that the other ships around you are sinking too. Instead, we will be able to tell what is happening to it by its performance measured in gold. Gold has been subject to ridicule again in recent years because it has underperformed the stockmarket, with the old “barbarous relic” jibe making a reappearance, so here it is worth reminding ourselves that gold has still outperformed the stockmarket by a factor of about 2.5 to 1 since the start of the new millennium, as we can see on the latest 20-year chart for gold against the S&P500 index.\n\nOn the following 20-year chart for the S&P500 index, we see that it tried to go into a normal, cyclical bearmarket when a potential top formed from 2014 – 2016, but this would be bearmarket was averted by the Fed intervening with another big dose of QE, that drove the stockmarket higher again, largely as a result of stock buybacks made possible not just by Fed largesse but by extremely low interest rates as well…\n\nGiven what the Fed has been doing to the money supply in recent years, it is remarkable that the dollar has held up as well as it has, but that is only because, taking a leaf out of the Fed’s copybook, other countries and trading blocs like the European Union, as been subjecting their currencies to even more abuse. Nevertheless, the pattern forming in the dollar does not look positive. It is suspected that a giant Broadening Top is completing in the dollar index, and it appears to be struggling beneath the resistance level shown on our 20-year chart for the index…\n\nOn the 2-year chart for the dollar index we can see that the slow, ponderous uptrend has continued for over a year, making it more likely that a reversal to the downside will occur soon. However, this channel is at least parallel, so it would be wise not to bank on it breaking down until it does. Watch what happens when it arrives at the lower boundary of this channel. A point worth making here is that, even though the dollar has dropped back quite steeply in recent days, gold has barely picked up. This is thought to be because the dollar and gold are now perceived as safe havens, and if QE4 promotes a risk on environment again as looks likely, they will be safe havens that are not in demand for a while.\n\nDoes the advent of QE4 mean that a market crash has been forestalled? Probably, but not necessarily. The ballooning of debt and derivatives has of course created a situation which is dangerously unstable, one in which the complete collapse of a key company like Deutsche Bank, which has a gargantuan derivative book, could implode the system, so clearly the way to avoid a meltdown is to firefight any such situation the moment it presents a problem – this is what happened in the repo market a few weeks back when it locked up threatening a liquidity crisis, an event which is thought to have brought about the early launch of QE4, that has not been labeled as such as they are trying to keep it low key. An important point to make here is that for the elites it presumably makes more sense for the markets to crash during the Fall of next year rather than this year. The reason is that a crash before the Presidential election would inflict the maximum damage on Trump, who has made a buoyant stockmarket a major plank of his Presidency. So, if they go at it pumping money again with QE4, they could keep the stockmarket elevated provided that they are able to firefight any liquidity issues arising from the increasingly extreme instability. If not and things get out of control, markets will crash anyway. Action late last week suggests that, for a while at least, we are going back to risk on mode, which could see the stockmarket make new highs and safe haven assets, which both the dollar and gold are now, drop back, and we see that both the dollar and gold dropped back late last week. Gold’s chart has been weakening with a potential intermediate top forming and its latest COTs are by normal standards bearish, with the Commercials now holdings heavy short positions, which usually means trouble. Any significant reaction from here will be viewed as presenting a great opportunity to build positions across the sector, because QE4 will eventually cut the legs from under the dollar, leading to hyperinflation.\n\n\nNew Message\nPlease login to post a reply", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.691654622554779}
+{"content": "Color pencils.\n\nFour Signs of Reactionary Labor Strategy\n\n(And Why You Should Avoid Them)\n\nBy Ethan Franklin\n\nFebruary 14, 2019\n\nMost organizations believe they have a labor strategy. After all, labor is typically the largest controllable cost in a business, and its optimization pushes performance, reduces waste, and maximizes margins and profits. Yet few firms are designing a strategy that is thoughtful and deliberate when it comes to their human capital. Instead, many firms’ concepts of labor strategy occur by accident or default, based on responses and reactions to events as they occur. While this reactionary approach to labor strategy may be natural, it is short sighted and ultimately not effective in the long run.\n\nEffective labor strategy does not occur by chance. Without a thoughtful, considered, and calculated labor strategy, performance will inevitably be sub-optimized, and dollars will be wasted across every hour, shift, and day. It is essential, in the current competitive economy, to have a deep understanding of how to deploy a labor force along with a vetted plan for when to make agile adjustments.\n\nA Note on Increasing Turnover and Absenteeism\n\nThe simplest indicators that a labor strategy does not meet employee needs are problems with turnover and absenteeism. If the basic needs of employees, such as time off when necessary or reasonable overtime, are not met, employees will start to break a reactionary labor strategy. Top-line growth can often hide growing discontent at the employee level. Facilities often start with a five-day-per-week operation and then use overtime on weekends as volume grows. At first, the overtime strategy works well; many employees welcome the opportunity to make more money. But as volume continues to grow, employees are forced to work more and more six or seven-day weeks, with little or no time off. Absenteeism and turnover rates climb, while work quality and employee health and safety suffer. Problems with absenteeism and turnover cause a vicious cycle, where the most reliable employees pick up extra burdens, increasing stress and often leading to resignations and further turnover. A labor force “death spiral” can be the result.\n\nWith this in mind, below are four representative signs of a reactionary labor approach. If these resonate as true for your organization, perhaps it is time to reexamine how you and your teams approach labor strategy. Organizations we partner with typically identify opportunities between 11% and 17% of total payroll costs, while increasing employee engagement and the ability to better react to changes in their customer’s requirements. A focused approach based on best practices and deep labor strategy expertise can uncover all this potential within 4 to 6 weeks.\n\n1. Historical Practice as Strategy\n\nIf your organization’s first reflexive response to potential labor strategy changes is to lean on historical precedence (“It has always been this way!”), then you have a potentially reactionary approach to labor. A series of routine actions, a shift schedule that has been in place for years, past “best” practices, outdated pay rules, and other suboptimal, status quo procedures, coupled with seemingly unpredictable situations and overarching disruption, create value destroying practices masquerading as “labor strategy”. Though historical precedent has taken your organization to where it is today, there is no guarantee historical practice will accelerate the firm forward successfully into the future.\n\n2. Goals (Alone) as Strategy\n\nIf asked about labor strategy, many leaders respond not with strategic initiatives tied to labor, but rather with specific goals. For example, too often, “lowest unit labor cost” is shared as the overarching strategy. That may be the right end state goal for organizations, but it is the goal, not the strategy.\n\nConfusing goals for strategy often occurs because leaders lack depth of knowledge around the complexities inherent to labor strategy. Labor strategy defines the key initiatives (the “what”), the owners (the “who”), and the actions necessary for success (the “how”). Goals are the targeted results derived from a strategy’s realization. Focusing on goals is effective only if a strategy has been defined to drive the organization toward the desired goal. Otherwise, claiming a goal without planning how to get there is, at best, like a motivating slogan: inspiring, but not directive enough to move the needle.\n\n3. Cost Reduction as Strategy\n\nIn contrast to top-line growth as strategy, organizations will often emphasize cost reduction as their labor strategy. Cost reduction is an outcome, however, not a strategy, and good labor strategy is about much more than costs. While human capital is certainly an expense, employees are also the largest source of value creation and innovation. If human capital is reidentified as an asset versus a cost, it then becomes clear that this asset will only create value if it is well-managed. A labor strategy must incorporate what employees want at work and take work-life balance into account. Labor strategies that focus only on business drivers and ignore employees are shortsighted. They will, at best, foster employee disengagement and, at worst, drive margin-destroying behavior among the workforce.\n\n4. Technology & Automation as Strategy\n\nOften as a component of cost reduction-as-strategy, companies pursue reduction in headcount via technology and automation. While technology and automation are critical components to reduce costs and innovate for the future, there is a paradoxical result of relying solely on automation as a labor strategy. As fewer employees are utilized, each produces more per person. This situation makes each individual member of the organization more crucial to success. Therefore, employee engagement and retention become paramount to success. Yet, employee engagement is too often overlooked in the execution of a reactionary labor approach.\n\nBe Proactive\n\nUltimately, these four signs (and many others) indicate organizations are leveraging a reactionary approach to labor. Yet there is value in each of these approaches. The value can only be derived, however, via the creation of a well-designed, proactive labor strategy. This strategy holistically considers historical best practices, future-facing goal creation, top-line growth efforts, cost-reduction considerations, and the use of technology and automation. In addition, a well-designed, proactive labor strategy includes the key overarching factor: employees. The ability to recruit, retain, and engage great employees over time is crucial in any labor strategy.\n\nA labor strategy cannot be developed during a hastily scheduled Friday afternoon meeting. It requires commitment to a complete review of labor and volume numbers, an integrated approach to include all employees, and a thorough understanding of customer services levels and levers. Only after these elements are identified, understood, and balanced can a cohesive and proactive labor strategy be developed.\n\nIf your organization is encountering the above signs, be ready to pivot toward a proactive, intentional labor strategy that reconsiders the central role of labor as a driving force for value creation. Be prepared to rethink labor strategy, because the competition is only getting fiercer, and your employees will ultimately join you in the journey or find another organization to call home.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8625129461288452}
+{"content": "A/B Testing, Design and Analysis\n\n\nUnits: 6\n\n\nThis course looks at how A/B testing helps measure causal effects across different industries and fields of public policy studies. We aim at answering questions such as: how does the demand for a product change when the price does or the ratings do? how can we anticipate how sales and profits change if the firm changes its business strategy? how can we measure whether introducing technology in schools, universities and/or classrooms affects the performance of students? Many companies and Governmental agencies ask and try to answer questions of this type every day. Moreover, they are now also actively seeking tools that can take advantage of big datasets to answer these questions as well as skillful individuals that know how to use them confidently.\n\nThis course introduces fundamental concepts to correctly ask this type of question. We study frameworks to measure causal effects and we discuss their pros and cons. Every tool is discussed in the context of a specific example that students work on using real world datasets. Significant effort is placed on understanding how to design randomized experiments (aka A/B tests) to measure causal effects. We also discuss the most common challenges that arise when trying to design such experiments in the wild. The concepts and tools discussed in this course are general in nature and can be applied in different settings. The examples discussed in class will be mostly drawn from our own work at the Heinz College on the media industry and education policy. Lectures are 3 hours long. In the first half of each lecture we go over concepts related to A/B testing and what to do when A/B tests are unavailable. The discussion is based on the ideas and intuition behind these concepts. In the second half of each lecture we go over specific examples -- we study several real-world datasets and the code used to analyze them properly. Student evaluation is based on five weekly homeworks and a brief term project to be developed in teams.\n\nLearning Outcomes:\n\nStudents will learn the fundamentals of randomized control trials (aka A/B tests), namely what they achieve, how to design, implement and analyze their outcomes as well as their shortcomings and work arounds. Students will also learn tools that can be used to analyze data from observational studies where randomization was not implemented.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997493028640747}
+{"content": "Baitasi Remade and Submitted\n\n\nOur competition entry, ‘public: private’ is about the filtering of privacy using ‘JIN’. How do we make use of this traditional concept of room-courtyard-room-courtyard-room… to create a space fitted for modern living? This project attempts to create the filtering from the public hutong to a public event space to a semi-public/semi-private office to a private studio apartment.\n\n\nConversation with Dong Gong, Vector Architects\n\n\nVector architect’s invited project at Baitasi, in construction. Meeting Dong Gong at his office in Chaoyang, we talked about his micro-regeneration courtyard in Baitasi and also the way the entire project is run. The method of redevelopment is called ‘Willingly Vacate’ (腾退) which means that owners of the properties come forward to the local authorities. The two parties will then sign papers for the owner to vacate their properties for a sum of money agreed between them. This method works in this hutong area because 1) whoever is still living in the area means that they are poor and could not afford to move out, including the owners; 2) stricter restrictions on construction mean that owners cannot build to create highrise rental apartments 3) therefore it makes more economic sense to give up their property for a good amount of compensation.\n\nThis is a similar story with the converted mini-library from a couple of blogs back. That property was able to be converted into a library because the owner, an old lady, passed away and her having no heir meant that the property went to the state automatically. Because of this reason, the property could be used for other purposes.\n\nDesigns of the courtyard. The design explores how public and private spaces could overlap in a combination between residential and commercial programmes in a courtyard house. (\n\nBaitasi Remade: third site visit\n\nThird time, my friend and I went to walk around the site on our own. When we were leaving, we chanced upon a small stretch of park space sandwiched between the hutong area and the main road on the west. This was a space that provided for public activities – dancing, haircuts, karaoke, children to run around. It was an extremely successful public space that exists in the form of a street. Are there elements of this that can be replicated in the new designs?\n\nBaitasi Remade: second site visit\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBaitasi Remade: first site visit\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBeijing’s Hutong Regeneration: competition\n\n\n\nBelow is an excerpt from Beijing Design Week website\n\n\nSandwiched between Beijing’s commercial and financial districts, Baitasi (meaning “The White Stupa Temple”) is a largely residential area that is populated with temples and ancient buildings. It was founded during the Yuan dynasty (1271AD-1368AD), preserved itself during the Ming and Qing periods, and survived Beijing’s almost city-wide urban redevelopment that partnered China’s opening up to the world in the 1980s and 1990s.\n\nSixty-seven per cent of the traditional courtyard houses that make up Baitasi (known locally as Siheyuan) are owned by the Chinese state. They stand in various states of disrepair, renovation and modernisation, with just 31.9 per cent of homes in Baitasi having a private toilet. In 2009, Baitasi was declared one of 25 protected sites in Beijing and Beijing Hurong Jinying Investment & Development Co Ltd – “the same developer that operates in Financial Street,” says Leanza – was appointed by the Chinese government to address the ongoing preservation and revitalisation of the area.\n\nFrom the competition organiser:\n\nBy renovating the traditional courtyard spaces, the Batasi project attempts to recreate the courtyards’ various possibilities of spatial and functional recombination—to revive thespaces, to make different functions coexist. Besides the basic residential function, vigorous cultural and creative functions are to be added to the courtyards. By exploring and introducing cultural catalysts, the purpose isalso to revitalize the Hutong culture of the area and revive the eastern residential ideal of Hutongs and courtyards. In seeking ancient architectural wisdom within tradition, it hopes to breathe new life into the space of Beijing’s old town and explore ways in which urban development can coexist with traditional urban areas.\n\nThis open international competition is to take place among three groups who have been solicited to draw up refurbishment plans of 12 courtyards. Finalists whose plans comply with the design guidelines and show construction feasibility will be authorized by the organizers to implement the project and it will be made available for reference in the Baitasi district, the broader old-town districts of Beijing, and in revitalizing old towns throughout China.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9935861229896545}
+{"content": "Play Writing Tips\n\nHigh-schoolers, break out of the mold! Try your hand at writing a play. Here are some tips.\n\nFamous plays are written very differently from short stories…they have their own set of rules. Write YOUR play with these simple rules and feel the dramatic difference. Guaranteed to add immediate pizzazz to your writing and hold over your audience! 5 pages. Read the table of contents.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9938383102416992}
+{"content": "Tag: Maine (Basketball(M), November 27, 2019)\n\nStLouHoo joins Val and Seattle, and the whole HOOS Place crew gets into the nitty gritty of the football win over Virginia Tech and berth in the ACC Championship Game, and the basketball team on the eve of the ACC-B1G Challenge. StLou previews Purdue and UNC, while Seattle and Val take stock of the Hoos hoopers based on the data from the first 7 games.\n\n\nIn his preview of Virginia's 46-26 exsanguination of the Maine Black Bears, StLouHoo identified his three keys of the game:\n\n1) Attack the passing lanes.\n\nVirginia welcomed Maine to the JPJ as the Cavaliers concluded their slate against New England (Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine.). To date, the Black Bears had only beaten Division I newcomer Merrimack and some school called the Maine Maritime Academy. How would they fare against the best defense in the country?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8606075048446655}
+{"content": "The \"Cylinder Pool\"\n\nWhen the club was re-established after the liberation of Kuwait in 1991 it had lost a boat and most of its diving equipment including cylinders. A local contractor donated a compressor but the club could not afford to buy any cylinders and so the \"Cylinder Pool\" was established.\n\nOur compressor\n\nIndividual members bought cylinders and loaned them to the club for use by any other member. In return the club paid for testing and maintenance of the cylinder and that member got unlimited air for diving for a small fixed annual charge - an \"air fee\". The system continued even after the air fee was abolished.\n\nOver the years the club acquired many of its own cylinders, usually by members leaving Kuwait and donating their cylinder(s) to the club, and it now owns almost all of the 40 to 50 cylinders in its collection.\n\nA number of developments during recent years have led the club to sell first the compressor and thereafter the container in which it was housed. Presently, cylinders are filled by Qabazard, Al-Boom, Al-Sabih and other SCUBA gas suppliers in Kuwait.\n\nCurrently, the club no longer specifically charges for the use of cylinders nor for the cost of gas-fills. The costs are included in a single fee for a diving trip. This make the collection of monies at the the end of the day simpler for both the Dive Manager and those diving.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.707173228263855}
+{"content": "Essay ghostwrite\n\nEssay ghostwrite number of papal encyclicals have been written by ghostwriters. Buy papers online cheap. And we will make sure your essay will start with a bang. Ghostwrite for Small Businesses Finally, digital products will take a huge surge this year.\n\nHow to Be a Successful Ghostwriter\n\nThis is what I did when I was learning about freelance writing jobs. Some ghostwriters are hired to edit and clean up a rough draft or partially completed work, while others are hired to do most of the writing based on an outline provided by the credited author.\n\nIf there is the internet and if there are businesses, you will be in demand. You do this effectively by promoting your website in your emails and guest posts.\n\n\nThe process of creating or ghostwriting essays take a lot of time and focus. He explained in his book Ranch of Dreams, \"It was not long after reading Black Beauty for the first time that I had a dream that one day I would have a Essay ghostwrite which would embody everything Black Beauty loved about his final home.\n\nOnce the order is paid, we send you an official confirmation email and you can just relax! In addition, ghostwriters are often given copies of several of the previous books in the series to help them match the style.\n\nInAmory made his only feature film appearance in the role of \"Mr. Once the review process is complete, the essay will then be subjected to a thorough plagiarism test to ensure its uniqueness and then professionally proofread to make sure it contains no errors before being sent to you.\n\nSometimes this is done in lieu of pay or in order Essay ghostwrite decrease the amount of payment Essay ghostwrite the book ghostwriter for whom the credit has its own intrinsic value. College application essays are personal narratives, not the typical analytic papers they write in high school.\n\nIn the late s and early s, Amory wrote another series of bestselling nonfiction books about Polar Bear, a stray, starving white cat whom he had rescued from a Manhattan street on Christmas Eve This process truly works, and the non-ghostwritten essays that result are truly reflective of their capabilities as thinkers, writers, and ultimately successful college students.\n\nWith Facebook Live being so popular now, more and more apps and tools are being created to leverage this new niche. For the latter, you should get cover credit. Amory continued as a popular regular commentator for eleven years untilwhen he was fired in one of his first controversial moments relating to his views on animal rights.\n\nPascendifor instance, was written by Joseph Lemius —the procurator in Rome of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The fact ghost writer for students. For brand new writers, try the niche guest posting strategy first. They will get in direct contact with you to ensure they have all the information necessary to proceed and to ensure they understand your requirements.\n\nStudents need more help with realizing what they have accomplished and the different kinds of stories they have to share.\n\nThis stage is based on asking all the important to avoid making any blunders or mistakes. Personal life[ edit ] Amory was married twice. This is great for mom bloggers! This type of book is typically given away to prospective clients as a promotional tool, rather than being sold in bookstores.\n\n\nHelp With Dissertation Proposal. Amory attended Harvard where he was president of The Harvard Crimson.Creative Writing FAQs.\n\nWhat is the purpose of creative writing? Creative writing has several purposes. One of the main purposes of creative writing is to entertain readers while sharing the writer’s perspective and emotion.\n\nDon't Ghostwrite College Application Essays. Academic master services are very popular with students.\n\nCleveland Amory\n\nThe reasons for that are numerous! Students often ghostwriting have time to provide serious study of the issue and thesis for a helpful writing hand. A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the ifongchenphoto.comities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, memoirs, magazine articles, or other written music, ghostwriters are often used to write.\n\n\n\nA ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is an example of a well-known composer who was paid to ghostwrite music for wealthy patrons.\n\n\nEssay ghostwrite\nRated 4/5 based on 57 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6578500866889954}
+{"content": "Best Deals\nTravel, Culture, Leo\n\n60’s Hippy Backpackers Vs. Backpackers Now\n\n13 Jul 2019\n\nAh the nostalgic days of the hippy trail...for most of us it’s something we can only imagine. Backpacking has changed a lot over the years since the original hippies started it, some things for good, some for bad, but that’s development for you. We’ll let you decide as we look at the differences…\n\n60’s Hippy Backpackers\n\nThe main way of getting from A to B was hitchhiking over land. Backpackers stand at the side of the road with their thumb out or a sign and wait for people in cars passing to take them in the direction they want to go. If not the whole way then at least closer to their chosen destination.\n\nThis was/is free to do and back then backpackers traveled with less money, it was kind of a philosophy to not have much.\n\nEnd location - India\nYou may have heard of the reference ‘The Hippy Trail’. The journey mainly began in Western Europe, such as England, Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen etc while many people from USA went to Luxembourg.\nBackpackers would then pass through Istanbul, Tehran, Herat, Peshawar, and Pakistan, finally leading them to India and Nepal.\nThe hippies found their freedom in Delhi, Varanasi and Goa, with all of these places still nowadays being a popular place to visit for any kind of traveler.\n\nInspiration - The Beatles\nIndia became a popular place after The Beatles who were extremely influential through their lives and music, moved into an Ashram in Rishikesh.\nThe Beatles went to find spirituality and this spread to the normal folk of the time who wanted to follow in their footsteps and explore.\n\nTools - Lonely Planet Book\nAll backpackers needed was word of mouth between each other or a Lonely Planet travel guide-book. This would give you simple information on a place with a map and the rest was up to you!\n\nThe Unknown\nBefore the internet, you had to go out there yourself to discover places and find out about what they were like. You would never know the exact details of what may happen on your journey and would have to deal with issues as they arose. It must have been quite adventurous!\n\nCollecting Memories\nPhones, Laptops, Tablets and other devices were still a thing of the distant future for this generation. Yes there were some cameras around and you can find a few photos of this era now stored online but people were in the moment collecting memories rather than posting it on instagram.\n\nThe Few\nBackpacking and travel in general were for the lucky few. Although it did not mean that you needed to be well-off or wealthy, it was just a not so normal thing to do. Backpackers were seekers who chose a different path, much different to today and the rest of the people who did get to travel would have had the money to do it but would not have been hippy backpackers…\n\nEat and Drink the Real Culture\nBack in the 60’s and 70’s, Tourism was still a young thing and so when you went to a Country you would, of course, eat their traditional cuisine and drink what they drink. You would fall in love or get used to each region’s food however different from your own. In fact, exploring different foods should be one of the best things about backpacking! There were no international supermarkets or restaurants, what you ate would be the same as the locals.\n\nBackpackers Now\n\nWith travel being widely available with competitive prices from many different airlines nowadays, most backpackers get to and from destinations by air. Within their chosen Country though most backpackers will still travel a bit by land such as overnight buses or boats. So at least you’re still getting a taster of\nlife on the road.\n\nEnd Location Thailand, Cambodia and Southeast Asia\nIndia is still on a lot of backpackers lists but now the route is to come to Southeast Asia, travel through Thailand, Malaysia, Bali etc and the new upcoming place seems to be Cambodia. Cambodia is still less developed than Thailand and cheaper so retaining its more backpacker vibe than the ever-growing tourism here in Thailand.\n\nInspiration - Instagram\nBeautiful Instagram and its wonderful hashtags telling and showing us how to live our best life! Instagram makes everything look amazing and so most people are inspired to visit the same places that influencers are showing them.\n\nTools - Internet and Devices\nNearly everyone has a phone and nearly every place has Internet, backpacking has never been as easy with information at your fingertips 24/7. From online maps, planning routes, booking trips and accommodation, researching culture and customs, backpacking can be as organised or unorganised as you decide!\n\nSafer and Easier\nBackpacking is a rite of passage for a lot of people who finish school or college before, during or after they go on to University. It is such a normal thing to do now for thousands of people that everything is safer and easier than it was ‘back in the day’.\nEverything is more organised with tour companies arranging everything for you if you like and with more knowledge out there online you can keep yourself safe by avoiding dangerous places. Most Countries welcome tourism in all its forms and so the police and authorities now pay closer attention to keeping foreigners more safe and crime on them down.\n\nCollecting Photos\nOf course like the hippy travelers you will also collect memories but we can’t deny that a lot of people collect photos as a priority when backpacking. This is great, and a lovely thing to look back on and show family and friends, but don’t forget to look up from your camera or phone once in a while.\n\nThe Masses\nTravel is now for everyone. With flights to other Countries sometimes being cheaper than within your own, absolutely anyone can pack a bag and go explore the world!\nThis is where backpacking really comes in, if you don’t have a lot of money you can still backpack on the cheap to far destinations such as our amazing Koh Phangan!\n\nEat and Drink the World\nWith the development of any Country comes with it the introduction of food and drink from all over the world. Some people choose to stay and call a Country home as a foreign expat and sometimes start business there such as restaurants serving foreign food. This introduces foreign food into the culture.\nMore chain and larger luxury hotels opening in distant locations also brings foreign food supermarkets and businesses want to offer tourists their own cuisine as well as the local one as some people find foreign food disagrees with them.\nSo now, wherever you are, you can pretty much always get a burger or pizza and a coke or Russian vodka, be prepared to pay a slightly higher price of course.\n\nThere you have it, some of the differences between then and now. Whatever your thoughts just try to be mindful and respectful of the Country you’re backpacking in. Take some ethics from back in the day’s hippy travelers to implement for your journey and although you have everything on a plate now, make sure to actually try out the local and cultural way of life wherever you are.\n\nfor Phanganist readers.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8300771117210388}
+{"content": "Useful, Easy, Pleasing, Supportive\n\nTo help people flourish, technology should be useful, easy, pleasing, and supportive. What does that mean?\n\nSupportive of Well-Being (Positive Computing)\n\nTech can actively support aspects of well-being such as positive emotions, motivation and engagement, self-awareness, mindfulness, resilience, gratitude, empathy, compassion, and altruism.\n\nThe emerging field of expertise around designing technology to actively support well-being is known as positive computing.\n\nLike humans who offer psychological support, such as psychotherapists and coaches, tech that offers psychological support must earn a high level of trust, especially regarding privacy, security, and intended psychological effects.\n\nAn important way to earn and deserve trust is to give the community of users the right to verify, and even change, what tech actually does. Free / libre / open source software (FLOSS) does this, making it well suited to positive computing.\n\nPleasing (User Experience / UX)\n\nTech that offers a pleasing user experience facilitates positive emotions, thereby contributing to flourishing.\n\nEasy (Usability)\n\nTech that is easy to use helps people flourish by triggering feelings of competence, control, and satisfaction, and letting them spend more of their time and energy on activities they care about, and less on frustrating, confidence-undermining, and time-consuming troubleshooting.\n\nUseful (Functionality)\n\nOne way tech can help people flourish is by doing things that have real value to users, serving their overall best interests. Tech can easily fail to do this, either by aiming to be addictive rather than to provide real value, or by being designed without real understanding of what users want and need.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8067902326583862}
+{"content": "follow us\n\nWriting Your Official Reiki Hours Down – A Common Beginner's Mistake\n\nWith thanks to my lovely Reiki pupils, this article answers a common mistake in the pursuit of perceived honesty when recording the number of Reiki hours done. This is important, as in several countries now, such as in the UK, the number of Reiki hours done is essential before the healer can be verified by the governing body, such as the Reiki Council in the UK.\n\nOne over-zealous reporting in perceived honesty that I encounter time and time again is the reporting of time spent in Reiki shares supervised by a Reiki Master. This time counts as a good part of the pupil's application and acceptance.\n\nFor example, a Reiki share of 60 minutes has often been reported to me as 40 minutes, whereas I know full well that the supervising Reiki Master has actually given a full 60 minutes.\n\nThis is my answer to a few students. I hope it helps clarify your record-keeping for Reiki.\n\nLike many new Reiki students, you strive for excellence, and that is very commendable. However, in the pursuit of the right way to do things, we sometimes force ourselves to be what we believe is honest. But we only do so because we do not understand what constitutes a Reiki session.\n\nOf course, you are still learning, and so, this is great for you, to learn this so early on.\n\nLet me illustrate. I was surprised for example about the Reiki share report. The Reiki share is one hour. It is an essential part of your development, so do not write down 2×20 minutes = 40. The share was for 60 minutes. Let me explain. When someone sees me for an hour's Reiki treatment, we start by talking about what they want from the Reiki, dispelling any myths they have about it, calming them down, and explaining what is going to happen. They take their shoes off at the beginning, they put them back on at the end, and then we discuss ways forward as they usually drink water. This whole procedure is giving them a Reiki session, from start to finish, not only when they are lying on the table.\n\nFor example, they may give me very useful information at the beginning, without which their hands-on healing session would go very badly (for example, they may be expecting crystals, and by not having crystals there, they may spend all the time on the couch worried and upset, instead of letting the Reiki help them). Or at the end, I might give them a Reiki Principle to say for themselves, or a chakra color that may help them strengthen a weak chakra. I also take payment from them, which helps them to be in control of their healing and more willing to participate in it and get better.\n\nWhat I am saying is please do not discount those essential Reiki healing moments just because they are not lying down or sitting down with hands on the person. This is only part of the Reiki session. Sometimes, it is the part where the most healing and self-development occurs. At other times, it is when what seems like general chit-chat or drinking water occurs. The most exciting thing for me is to see that you are learning and actually doing everything you need to do. Now you just need to add this latest learning that I am giving you here and apply it to all the sessions in your Reiki Journal.\n\nFor example, if you lay your hands on yourself for 15 minutes whilst watching TV, remember that before that, you made the intention to do so, you maybe made yourself a cup of tea or poured yourself some water, and afterwards maybe had a stretch , and reflected a bit on the session. That makes it more like a 20-25 minute healing session. A great lesson to learn. We do the 21-day self-healing after Reiki 1 not only to heal the obvious but to also get into the discipline of healing, reflection, noticing changes (or not), and how to recognize fully the wonderful self-work that we have done!\n\nThank you for the blessing of walking this part of your Reiki path with you.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.986479640007019}
+{"content": "Bacillus cereus is able to resist certain antibiotic therapies\n\nPosted on\n\nThe pathogenic bacterium Bacillus cereus causes vomiting and diarrhea as well as systemic and local infections. A team of researchers has reported for the first time that B. cereus, following contact with certain antibiotics, can switch into a special slowed-down mode. The bacteria then form small colony variants (SVCs) that are difficult to diagnose and almost impossible to treat with certain antibiotics. This discovered mechanism may provide an alternative explanation for antibiotic resistance.\n\nThe bacterium B. cereus had so far been considered to be exclusively endospore-forming. In response to harsh conditions, the bacteria form protective endospores enabling them to remain dormant for extended periods. When conditions are more favourable, the endospores reactivate to become fully functioning bacteria.\n\n\n\n\nTreating B. cereus infections using only aminoglycoside antibiotics could bear the risk of a prolonged infection. SCVs grow more slowly, but they still produce toxins that are harmful to the body. “In this case, a combination therapy with other antibiotic groups is advisable,” Frenzel recommends.\n\nOne species of bacteria that has been known for years to be a multiresistant hospital pathogen and which poses a life-threatening risk for immunocompromised individuals in particular is Staphylococcus aureus. Those bacteria also form SCVs, but unlike B. cereus they are capable of reverting to its original state. For B. cereus, the adaptation to a small colony variant appears to be final. “We believe that the SCV formation in B. cereus functions differently than in S. aureus,” says study author Ehling-Schulz.\n\n“The ability to form SCVs appears to be of environmental significance for the bacteria,” Frenzel believes. “This alternative lifestyle allows the bacteria to avoid threatening stress factors such as antibiotic exposure. B. cereus are soil-dwelling, and other microorganism in the soil produce antibiotics. Here, too, the formation of SCVs would be an advantage for the bacteria.” Science Daily Original web page at Science Daily\n\nTags: ,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5728166103363037}
+{"content": "Homicides in Honduras\n\n\nWhat is the Homicide Rate in Honduras?\n\nHomicide rates 2017.PNG\n\nIn Honduras, the homicide rate is 43.6 per 100,000, which means that for every 100,000 of Honduras’ inhabitants, about 44 people will be murdered every year. In 2017, 3,866 individuals were murdered, about 11 people per day. Honduras has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, following El Salvador (60 per 100,000) and Venezuela (89 per 100,000).\n\nHonduras’ homicide rate is eight times higher than the United States average and eight times higher than global averages.\n\nBut there is hope.\n\nHomicide rates per 100000.PNG\n\nThough Honduras’ homicide rate remains one of the highest in the world, it has decreased every year since it peaked in 2011. In 2011, Honduras had the highest homicide rate in the world, but in six years, the homicide rate has dropped by a half. In 2017, there were 3,238 fewer murders than there were in 2011.\n\nWhat is being done about homicide rates in Honduras? Read here about AJS’s violence prevention and response programs.\n\nSources and statistics: Honduran Violence Observatory, World Bank, Insight Crime\n\nLast Updated: November 2018", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9995646476745605}
+{"content": "Test Index\n\nIBPS RRB Office Assistant Model Paper 12\n\nShow Para Hide Para \nDirections (Qs. 1-5): Study the following information carefully and answer the questions given below:\n P, Q, R, S, T and U are six members of a family consisting of three generations. The family consists of two pair of couples. The familyconsists of only three females. The oldest member in the family is a female and the youngest one is a male. No two persons are of the sameage.\n One day all members visit in a restaurant and sits around a circular table facing towards the centre. S sits opposite the person whooccupies the third place when their ages are considered in descending order. U is not the youngest. P is the grandfather of U and sits on theimmediate right of S, who is the father of R but not the husband of T. Persons of the same generation sits opposite to each other. Q sitsimmediate right of a female.\nQuestion : 1\nTotal: 80\nGo to Question:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9991843700408936}
+{"content": "Let's Explore Lancaster!\n\nIf you and your family find yourself with a little extra time to explore the area after you visit campus, here are some resources to help guide your tour. Happy visiting!\n\nCity of Lancaster\n\nLancaster City, with a population of 60,000, is a place where historic preservation and a thriving arts scene live side by side.\n\ncome explore\n\nThe Arts Scene\n\nLancaster City’s art galleries and museums are a popular destination—in a walkable, safe city center—for visitors from all over.\n\nsee the galleries\n\nReady to Eat?\n\nLancaster City is home to more than 100 restaurants, cafes and eateries featuring food from around the world.\n\nFind a restaurant", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9977575540542603}
+{"content": "SDEV speaks to the media on quarterly Land Sale Programme for October to December 2014\n\n Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Development, Mr Paul Chan, at the question-and-answer session of the media session on the quarterly Land Sale Programme for October to December 2014 today (September 24):\n\nReporter: How likely the Government will be able to meet the housing supply target this year?\n\nSecretary for Development: For this year, the target for private housing land supply is 18,800 flats. We are quite confident in achieving this. But the target we give ourselves is not just that, the target we give ourselves is over and above that. Because in the past two years, the land supply as compared to the target, has fallen short. We are trying very hard to catch up part of it.\n\nReporter: Secretary, you mentioned that there were difficulties in rezoning, how is that affected reaching the housing target supply? How will the Government address these difficulties in future? What will you do to prevent having such issues in delaying you?\n\nSecretary for Development: Thank you. We have encountered tremendous difficulties in the rezoning process. The resistance is basically from local districts. We are engaging the District Councils, and also the people living there to try to address their concerns. So the effect is basically delaying the availability of land supply, but we are trying very hard in terms of engaging them earlier, trying to listen to them and trying to find solutions. We cannot promise we can find solutions for everything they have asked for. Sometimes this is simply not possible. But if the concerns are legitimate, we will try our best to co-ordinate with other government departments to address them, and then put the proposal to the Town Planning Board for consideration. So in a nutshell, the effect is a little delay, but we will continue to work on it. It may not be able to come into the Land Sale Programme in the quarter that we have originally anticipated, but we will work hard to make it happen in the following quarters. What is important is to keep on doing it persistently, so that even if it is a little delayed, we can adopt the land supply from other sources as I have outlined earlier, the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) or the Urban Renewal Authority (URA). But in a relatively medium- and long-term, we will be able to put those sites to the market to meet the demand.\n\nReporter: But the Government is also trying to revitalise the industrial buildings, is that in conflict with selling the industrial land?\n\nSecretary for Development: This is indeed a good question. We are trying to undertake a review on a territory-wide basis, in terms of land use. So with the changes in the manufacturing sector in Hong Kong, many of the \"Industrial\" use zoning have been rezoned to \"Commercial\" or \"Other purposes\". The initiative to revitalise industrial buildings was launched a number of years ago, since then we have witnessed tremendous changes in Kwun Tong and Kowloon Bay. After careful consideration, the industrial land that we now put up for sale is in an area that future rezoning for other purposes is most unlikely, because in that particular area, there are still very active industrial activities.\n\nReporter: Secretary, you have mentioned that you want to rely on the MTRCL to help with the housing supply, but with the Tin Shui Wai site, the MTRCL is having a difficult time getting a tender. How can you rely on them if it is not going anywhere?\n\nSecretary for Development: You mean the Tin Shui Wai site that failed earlier this year? I must say it was a marginal failure. They plan to re-tender it in the coming quarter. I think given the current sentiment in the market, and taking into consideration the fact that after that particular failed tender, the Government was able to sell two parcels of land again in Tin Shui Wai. So we are hopeful that the tender will be able to succeed.\n\nReporter: But are you confident that the MTRCL will be able to help boost land supply and housing supply?\n\nSecretary for Development: Number one, they have been very responsive in our discussion with them; secondly we are watching very closely in terms of their progress in preparing the various packages of sites for tender. We are keeping a very close monitoring.\n\nReporter: Are you confident that the URA and the MTRCL will meet their target?\n\nSecretary for Development: For the sites that I mentioned in the coming quarter, I am pretty confident.\n\n\nEnds/Wednesday, September 24, 2014\nIssued at HKT 21:31", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.945097804069519}
+{"content": "Balance electron equations\n\n\nKeyword Suggestions\n\nBalance electron equations\n\n( Please select at least 2 keywords )\n\nDomains Actived Recently\n\nWebsites Listing\n\nWe found at least 10 Websites Listing below when search with balance electron equations on Search Engine\n\nBalance Chemical Equation - Online Balancer\n\n\nDA: 13 PA: 12 MOZ Rank: 25\n\nBalancing redox reactions by the ion-electron method\n\nIn the ion-electron method (also called the half-reaction method), the redox equation is separated into two half-equations - one for oxidation and one for reduction. Each of these half-reactions is balanced separately and then combined to give the balanced redox equation. \n\nDA: 16 PA: 25 MOZ Rank: 41\n\nBalancing chemical equations using Gauss elimination method\n\nBalancing equations of redox reactions by inspection or with a mathematical method (such as Gauss's elimination method) can create results that are mathematically accurate, but not chemically. This is because equations of redox reactions must also satisfy the electron balance, i.e. the number of electrons released in the oxidation reaction must ... \n\nDA: 16 PA: 33 MOZ Rank: 49\n\nBalancing Redox Reactions – Study Material For IIT JEE ...\n\nHalf-Reaction or Ion-Electron Method For Balancing Redox Reactions. This method involves the following steps : Divide the complete equation into two half reactions, one representing oxidation and the other reduction. Balance the atoms in each half reaction separately according to the following steps: First of all balance the atoms other than H ... \n\nDA: 18 PA: 50 MOZ Rank: 73\n\nBalancing of Equation ion electron method | Chemistry |\n\nIon electron method Balancing of red-ox reactions, using ion electron method or half reaction method. The steps involved in balancing of equations can be seen in this video. \n\nDA: 13 PA: 6 MOZ Rank: 19\n\nRedox | Balancing of Equations | By Ion electron method\n\nBalancing of equations by Ion Electron Method Electrochemistry Half Reaction Method Balancing in Acidic medium Identify oxidation half reaction OHR Identify reduction half reaction RHR Make the ... \n\nDA: 13 PA: 6 MOZ Rank: 19\n\nBalancing Equations Answer Key Chemistry About Com ...\n\nBalancing Chemical Equations Worksheet 1 Answer Key Electron. Balancing Equations Worksheet Answers 650 841. Chemistry Balancing Equations Answers Peanut Co. Best Of Practice Worksheet Elegant Write A Descriptive Essay. Balancing Equations Eet Chemical 1 Answer Key Ts With. Balancing Equations First Grade Worksheets \n\nDA: 20 PA: 50 MOZ Rank: 72\n\nBalancing Redox Equations - Mark Bishop\n\n\nDA: 24 PA: 27 MOZ Rank: 51\n\nBalancing Equations Shortcut - CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY\n\nThere are several techniques you can use to balance equations. First is the cross-over method that generally works when you have different amounts of the same element on both sides in molecules. (e.g. NH3 and H2). The 3 from NH3 will become the multiple of H2 and vice versa for 2NH3 and 3H2. \n\nDA: 21 PA: 20 MOZ Rank: 41\n\nBalance Redox Reaction Example Problem\n\nWhen balancing redox reactions, the overall electronic charge must be balanced in addition to the usual molar ratios of the component reactants and products. This example problem illustrates how to use the half-reaction method to balance a redox reaction in a solution. \n\nDA: 17 PA: 44 MOZ Rank: 61", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999839067459106}
+{"content": "Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: Bloomberg\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: Bloomberg\n\nPM Modi in Odisha, begins work on 13,000 crore Talcher fertiliser plant revival\n\nThe Talcher plant, the first fertiliser unit in India to use coal-gasification technology, will reduce dependence on urea and gas imports\n\nNew Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday commenced work for the Talcher ferlitiliser plant at Angul in Odisha, the first such plant in eastern India.\n\nWith Talcher plant being the first fertiliser plant in India to use coal-gasification technology, it will provide a template for using gas produced from coal, which is likely to be adopted by refineries and power plants to lower their emissions.\n\nTalcher Fertilizers Ltd is a joint venture between state run GAIL (India) Ltd, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited (RCF) and Coal India Ltd (CIL). Once commissioned, it will produce 1.26 million metric tonne per annum of neem coated urea.\n\nThe Talcher project will reduce dependence on urea and gas imports, Modi said.\n\n“The plant will promote alternative use of domestic coal in an environment friendly manner, thereby supporting India’s commitments under the CoP 21 Paris Agreement 2016. It will produce 2.38 million metric standard cubic meter per day (MMSCMD) natural gas equivalent syngas from coal, leading to reduction in import bill of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by more than 1,620 crore per annum,\" GAIL said in a statement.\n\nReviving sick fertiliser units has been a policy priority of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government as it reduces import of the most commonly used fertiliser urea and deepens the market for natural gas. Gas-based fertiliser units will also add to the customer base of gas trading and energy infrastructure firms such as Gail India Ltd.\n\nPrime Minister Modi is also slated to inaugurate the Jharsuguda airport in the state today.\n\nThis comes in the backdrop of the BJD government and the NDA government trying to drum up investments for the state in the countdown to the state assembly elections next year.\n\nIn the run-up to 2019 general elections, Modi said he has been told that the project will be commissioned within 36 months, and he will come back after 36 months to inaugurate the project.\n\nWhile GAIL, RCF and CIL hold 29.67% each, Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL) has a 10.99% stake in the Rs13,000 crore Talcher project. The project is expected to provide direct and indirect employment to 4,500 people.\n\nAccording to GAIL, FCIL set up the Talcher unit in 1971. Given the problems faced by the unit, the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) declared FCIL a sick unit in 1992 and the government started work to close the company in 2002.\n\nThe NDA government has been focusing on reviving stalled projects in eastern India such as the Assam gas cracker project inaugurated in 2016 and the ongoing revival of sick fertiliser units at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, Sindri in Jharkhand, Barauni in Bihar and Talcher in Odisha.\n\nThe government wants to step up urea production. India’s urea production capacity is expected to go up from the current 25 million tonnes to 34 million tonnes by 2021-22, according to government estimates.\n\nSpeaking separately at a political rally, Modi also spoke about bringing central government schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to the people of Odisha.\n\nThe Prime Minister said under PMJDY, aimed at providing a bank account to every Indian household, around 1.30 crore bank accounts were already opened for the people of Odisha. Also, under Ujjwala Yojana, which aims to provide free cooking gas connections to poor families, 34 lakh connections have been given in the state.\n\nThe Prime Minister also took a dig at the Naveen Patnaik government and said toilets were not being constructed under the Swachh Bharat Mission. He added that the BJD government should also come on-board the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).\n\nThe ambitious health scheme, also known as Modicare, aims to offer an annual health cover of 5 lakh per family, targeting more than 100 million families belonging to the poor and vulnerable sections of the society, based on the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) database. The expenditure incurred in premium payment will be shared by the Centre and state governments.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9562246799468994}
+{"content": "Which Muscle Groups Need Work As We Age?\n\n\nWe know by our own experience and looking at veteran track and field records at state, national and world level that masters athletes get slower with age. We also know muscle mass and strength and power of the lower limb muscles decreases, thus compromising both our strength and power that can be applied by the muscles to move us forward during sprinting.\n\nDuring walking, we know that the plantar flexor (push-off muscles) reduce in power as we age and we rely more on the hip and knee extension muscles to walk at any speed.\n\nAs we move from walking to running, we need over twice the ground reaction force to be generated by the lower limb muscles. Research has shown that in veteran sprint runners, at any given speed, the vets have a lower ground reaction force and take shorter steps at a higher stride frequency than younger sprinters. Research has also shown that vets demonstrate greater knee flexion (bending) at initial ground contact, but lower knee bending during the first half of the stance phase. Vets also have increased ground contact time compared to younger sprinters.\n\nOnly a few studies have compared lower limb joint kinetics in young versus veteran runners. Both showed that the vets have lower power generation in the ankles but have similar power generation in the knees and hips. However, these two studies looked at running speeds of 2.7 m/sec (9.7 km/hr), not sprint running speeds.\n\nRecently, some Finnish sport scientists, one a good buddy of mine, examined power outputs at the ankles, knees and hips during walking, running and sprinting in competitive male athletes (sprinters and long jumpers).\n\nThe Research\n\nThey compared three age-groups: young (26±6 years), middle-aged (61±5 years) and old (78±4 years) with 13 runners in each age group. Each athlete did three walking trials at a self-selected speed, three running trials at 4 m/sec (14.4 km/hr) and then two 60 m sprint efforts at their maximum speed. The researchers used an 8-camera video-recording system with markers attached to joints plus five force platforms to record joint angles and ground reaction forces.\n\nThe Results\n\nThe researchers found age-related decreases in ankle plantar flexor power generation became greater as speed changes from walking to running to sprinting. As a result, the older sprinters generated relatively more power at the knee and hip extensors than their younger counterparts when walking and running at the same speed. During maximal sprinting, young adults with faster top speeds demonstrate greater power outputs from the ankle and hip joints, but interestingly, not from the knee joint when compared with the middle-aged and old adults.\n\n So What?\n\nTaken together, these findings show that decreases in ankle power contributes most to the age-related decline in running and sprinting speed. In addition, reduced muscular output from the hip rather than from knee limits the sprinting performance in older age.\n\nThis means that veteran power athletes need to put a greater emphasis on ankle and hip power development. This strongly suggests a combination of plyometric and power-focused resistance training in the gym is critical for the veteran track and field athlete and maybe sprinters in other sports. Specific exercises to develop ankle, knee and hip strength and power are shown in Table 1 below.\n\nTable 1: Gym-based and plyometric exercises to develop ankle, knee and hip strength and power.\n\n\nGym-Based Exercises\n\n\n\nCalf raises, Inverted leg press with plantar flexion, Squats with plantar flexion.\n\nQuick feet drills using ladders, two legged jumps > hops, two-legged box-jumps > single legged box-jumps\n\n\nSquats, Push press (front), Split squat, Inverted leg press, Lunges, Power cleans\n\nCone hops, double-legged jumps, standing triple jumps, bounding, step jumps, hurdle jumps, squat jumps\n\n\nSquats, Push press (front), Split squat, Inverted leg press, Lunges, Power cleans, Hip flexors\n\nCone hops, double-legged jumps, standing triple jumps, bounding, step jumps, hurdle jumps, squat jumps, hill sprints, sled drives\n\n\nI strongly recommend the advice and input of both a sports physiotherapist (to examine veteran athlete muscle weaknesses and imbalances) and a strength and conditioning expert to develop a specific gym-based and plyometric training program for each individual athlete.\n\nCritically, ensure you make them aware that the older the veteran athlete, the greater the emphasis needs to be on ankle and hip strength and power development.\n\nFor more information on developing speed, strength and power, check out chapters 7 (Strength and power training for the masters athlete) and 8 (Speed and power training for the masters athlete). Two of 18 highly applied and evidence-based chapters from my book The Masters Athlete. The book and individual chapters are available as pdf’s too.\n\nSource: Kulmala, J-P. and others (2014). Which muscles compromise human locomotor performance with age? Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 11: 20140858.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9546630382537842}
+{"content": "© 2019 by CAIRNS CITY GRAPHICS. Robert Ross Music\n\n\nBelow is a short biography on Canadian born singer/songwriter Robert Ross\n~ Conway Twitty\nCanadian born singer songwriter Robert Ross is now based in Cairns, Australia. He shares his love of music with audiences in pubs, clubs, resorts, private functions and festivals throughout Australia and Canada, being drawn to the people that have welcomed and inspired him. Robert's style is influenced by country greats Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and other country artists such as Randy Travis and Sawyer Brown, as well as good ole Rock n' Roll. His original songs are rich with life experiences which connects him directly to his fans.\n\nMy Musical Journey\n\nBelonging to a musical family has influenced me from a very young age. Small town New Brunswick, Canada was a breeding ground for folk songs written from the heart and from life. The sounds of the original country greats were sung daily and entertained at local dances and socials. These songs became the basis of my music today. \n\nMy music comes from life. The good, the bad and the hilarious! Where we all have something in common. I am pleased to share with you my original songs and will continue to promote the classic tunes from our past.\n\nThank you for taking this journey with me. Enjoy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.990612804889679}
+{"content": "Quick quiz:\n\n • Are you an entrepreneur running a startup?\n • Do you wear many hats—CEO, marketer, project manager, errand runner?\n • Do you work a day job while you get your venture off the ground?\n • Do you find yourself generally burning the candle at both ends?\n\nIf you answered “yes” to most or all of these questions, you’re at high risk for burnout.\n\nCharlene Walters, Vice Provost and Dean of the Strayer Digital Entrepreneurship MBA, cautions against burnout because it harms both your personal well-being and your growing business. “If you’re working too hard, you’re actually becoming less productive, and you’ll start to get overwhelmed,” says Walters. “Many entrepreneurs have to fail a lot before they ultimately succeed. They need to have the energy to bounce back and keep going.”\n\nDealing with setbacks and rejections can be hard, especially when you’re just starting out. Walters stresses the importance of being resilient enough to hang in there. “You won’t hit it big until you put some time in. If you get burnt out too quickly, you won’t achieve that.”\n\nBurnout can happen when your work-life balance shifts too much to the work side. Here are four strategies to get back in balance and prevent burnout:\n\n 1. Take control of your schedule.\n\n If your startup is consuming every waking hour, it’s a good idea to set some boundaries. Walters recommends “time chunking,” which is scheduling blocks of time to focus on one particular area of your life. It’s easier to work efficiently during these dedicated time chunks, when your attention isn’t scattered between responsibilities.\n\n For example, instead of squeezing startup tasks into Saturday family time, maybe you reserve 1-5 p.m. every Saturday for work. The rest of the day belongs to the family. Making a formal agreement like this with both yourself and the people in your life decreases tension. You’ll be able to work with fewer interruptions, and your family can count on your full attention once work hours are done.\n\n 2. Take care of your body.\n\n Working long hours at a desk can do a number on your physical well-being. Your body can get tense and sore, and you may be eating more junk food than healthy meals. Dedicate time each day to move your body, even if it’s just doing some simple stretches at your desk or going for a 15-minute walk. Hitting the gym a few times per week is great, too, if you can swing it.\n\n A simple way to eat healthier is to plan ahead. When you consciously choose your meals and snacks for the day or week, it’s more likely you’ll pick salads and other whole foods instead of junk. If you wait until you’re famished to make the decision, you’re more likely to head for the drive-thru or vending machine.\n\n 3. Curb online distractions.\n\n We live in an increasingly digital age. Social media can enrich both our professional and personal lives. Google puts a world of information at our fingertips. Netflix binges are fun! Too much time online, however, can leave you feeling imbalanced and prone to burnout. Once you start clicking and scrolling, it’s hard to stop, and you can unintentionally waste a lot of time.\n\n Decide in advance how long you’ll spend on your favorite websites and apps, and stick to this limit. Set a timer, enable screen time limits on your phone, or use website-blocking software like Freedom.\n\n 4. Learn to say no.\n\n Once you take control of your schedule, you’ll need to protect it. Sometimes, that means saying no to things you’d really like to do. For example, if a friend invites you to a BBQ on Saturday afternoon, you might have to say, “Sorry—that’s my startup work time.” Maybe you're asked to submit a last-minute project, but the deadline interferes with your family dinner, so you have to delay it. Saying no can be tough, but it’s crucial if you want to avoid burnout.\n\n These are just a few ways to start reclaiming your work-life balance and keep burnout at bay. Try these, and come up with your own strategies to stay strong for the long haul. Remember that building a business is a marathon, not a sprint.\n\nNeed help with your startup? The Strayer Digital Entrepreneurship MBA empowers you with the tools you need to succeed.\n\n\nU.S. Military Affiliation\n\nDo you have transfer credits?\n\n\n\nSubmitting your information,\nthis may take a few seconds...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8223176002502441}
+{"content": "Whiteboard animation.\n\nHelps increase web traffic\n\nWhat is a Whiteboard animation?\n\nWhiteboard animation brings hand-drawn illustrations to life on a whiteboard-like surface using markers. It is usually combined with music, VO and SFX for more engagement.\n\nExamples of whiteboard animation video\n\nWhy do you need a whiteboard animation?\n\n\nShort attention span, or difficulty finding the right information on the website could be solved using a short whiteboard animation clip that keeps your audience engaged till the last second.\n\n\nWhiteboard video serves best to get acquainted with your potential and existing customers. Follow one of the latest trends of allowing your target audience getting to know you to present your company, service or product in a new way.\n\nGo viral\n\nDid you know that videos are shared 1,200% more often than any other media? In addition, 90% of the total information that gets sent to your brain is visual. While you are doing the math, we are already starting on your latest whiteboard animation explainer.\n\nWhy Should You Choose Us?\n\n\nGet Started.\n\nIf you have any questions, let’s discuss it!\n\nLet’s talk", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9618504047393799}
+{"content": "The Walrus and the Caribou \n\nThe Walrus and the Caribou\nInhabit Media | November 5, 2019 | 32 pages\n\nWhen the earth was new, words had the power to breathe life into the world. But when creating animals from breath, sometimes one does not get everything right on the first try! Based on a traditional Inuit story passed forward orally for generations in the South Baffin region of Nunavut, this book shares with young readers the origin of the caribou and the walrus--and tells of how these animals looked very different when they were first conceived.\n\n-- show less\n++ show more\nISBN: 9781772272567\n\nThis book is only available through special order.\n\nIf you’re interested send us a request.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9930421113967896}
+{"content": "Dining Room Chairs Set Table And Sets Tuscan Chair Centerpieces\n\ndining room chairs set table and sets tuscan chair centerpieces\n\ndining room chairs set table and sets tuscan chair centerpieces.\n\ntuscany dining room furniture table and chairs tuscan ideas style,dining chair homestead furniture tuscan formal room table centerpieces style sets,tuscany dining room set tuscan table round formal and chairs,tuscany dining room set style sets table perfect for tuscan chairs,tuscan dining table and chairs room set tuscany furniture,tuscany dining room set table style old world furniture tuscan centerpieces,tuscan style dining room set table and chairs online home examples newest tuscany,dining room table and eight chairs tuscany furniture set,tuscan dining room set chairs formal furniture tuscany,tuscan dining room furniture table centerpieces southwestern y style chairs.\n\ndining room chairs sets set leg upholstered chair tuscan table unique din .\ndining room set sets chairs table tuscan chair style ch .\ndining room style furniture set home interiors types of tables house tuscan chair southwestern y di .\ndining sets set stylish table oak room chairs tuscan chair .\ndining room set sets chairs small size tuscan chair table brilliant y .\ndining room table y furniture tuscan chair tuscany estate decor .\ndining room sets furniture for worthy table y style tuscan chair tuscany set .\ndining room table tuscan chair style set .\ndining room chairs sets beautiful rooms ideas design a love the table set tuscan chair .\nask us a question dining room chair tuscan table and chairs .\ndining room set chairs new y furniture photos tuscan chair formal .\ndining table brown room furniture tuscan chair tuscany set .\ndining table chairs room furniture tables round glass tuscan chair set .\ncoastal rustic solid wood trestle dining room tuscan chair style chairs bench .\nformal dining room furniture trestle table and chair set home interiors round chairs tuscan tuscany decor smith .\ndining table eclectic room chairs tuscan chair furniture .\nbest ideas about dining rooms on tuscan room chair tuscany set .\ndining room beauty table style sets decorating ideas tuscan chair tuscany furniture .\ndining room tables luxury interior design in rich jewel tones by elegant tuscan chair table centerpieces .\ndining tables table 2 room round cool y furniture style provincial tuscan chair and chairs sets 3 sizes trestle with kitchen .\ndining room furniture images picture a amazing tuscan chair chairs lovely set for table home tips ideas 0 8 style di .\ntuscan dining room chair style furniture .\ndining set best room furniture y style table and tuscan chair furnitur .\ntuscan dining room chair style furniture set with sideboards .\ndining room chairs set table and sets tuscan chair centerpieces .\nrelated post tuscan dining room chair formal furniture table striking and chairs photo concept y round .\ndining table chairs room set y round tuscan chair style formal d .\ndining table and chairs tables elegant rustic room with leaf set sets tuscan chair style .\ndining table room decor reclaimed wood tables and sets bob mills style chairs y interior tuscan chair set c .\nstyle dining room set y table modern elegant rustic antique furniture winning distressed tuscan chair tuscany and chairs centerpieces .\ndining room chairs set y style table tuscan chair .\nsolid wood dining room furniture large tables tuscan chair style sets .\ndining chair tuscan room tuscany furniture .\ndining chairs sets rectangle department room furniture i love style tuscan chair dinin .\ndining room sets table and chairs extraordinary solid wood style interior carpet tuscan chair centerpieces .\ndining room furniture tuscan chair table and chairs y set .\ndining creative of room furniture y style table and tuscan chair chairs r .\nold world dining room chairs linen chair slipcovers tuscan table centerpieces c .\ndining room table decor set awesome beauty papers design chairs at accents of furniture tuscan chair style solid w .\nlinen fabric upholstered side chair driftwood tuscan dining room tuscany table and chairs furniture .\ndining room set chairs tuscan chair furniture .\ndining chairs room style decor inspirational lovely y furniture tuscan chair table sets .\ndining room sets fancy chair on outdoor furniture with additional style tuscan table old world din .\n\nWrite your comment Here\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000056028366089}
+{"content": " Death - Benoît Labourdette\n\nContent linked to Death\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (5’11s, 2014).\n\nThe myth of scientific progress. According to Albert Bayet.\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (3’33s, 2013).\n\nIn Vitrolles, in the south of France, a rocky peak overlooking the city. It is found scattered clothes and a mobile phone, in which there was a movie and a text. The work of a madman, it seems, which was not (...)\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (2’07s, 2012).\n\nEveryday life without apparent problems, in this teacher’s room of a high school near Paris. But it conceals dark secrets... a fiction inspired by real events.\n\nOn December 18, 2005, from 2 pm to midnight, at the La Clef cinema in Paris (21 rue de la Clef 75005 Paris), screenings of super 8 films, including “The Head in the Water” (1995, 70 minutes, Audience Prize Festival de Châteauroux 95, Festival of (...)\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (3’18s, 2011).\n\nInvent a tale. Ground the story into reality. Why does the shape of the tale in 2011 ? Probably to make again metaphor, universal. A simple love story.\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (1h07’, 1994).\n\nA tale of naivety and double personality, accompanied by Balinese songs and improvised jazz. Shot in Super 8 cinema. First self-produced feature film.\n\nLoop video by Benoît Labourdette (6’20s, 2000).\n\nLiving shadows.\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (2’46s, 2013).\n\nI almost died by breaking the rules to follow my desire. This has not made me more reasonable.\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (10’06s, 2015). With Marion Geerebaert.\n\nAfter the death was sown into arbitrariness, a young woman comes back to haunt her mate.\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette, in collaboration with Louise Moaty (3’59s, 2014).\n\nCharlotte Delbo’s words emanate from human traces of people who were living there a few hours earlier.\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (1’23s, silent, 2017, pseudonym: A. A. A. A.)\n\nSome of them manage to give up.\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (5’44s, 2013).\n\nCharles, 37-year old boy who lost his mother a year ago, sometimes perceive the world in a distorted way, multiplied, time and space losing their reality. A meeting will change his life.\n\nThey wanted to make even our ruins disappear. Rebuild yourself with bits and pieces. An album long lost in limbo, which had to be revived from its traces, but which reveals a surprising energy. Download the entire album “A Fire on the Ruins” (...)\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (2’16, 1997).\n\nPassing a closed trash can, a Japanese tourist remembers the words of his father, who told him the bomb, and the feeling of being alive while others died.\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (2’28s, 2015).\n\nA few seconds before a fatal car accident.\n\nVideo-vegetal installation. Into the International Garden Festival of Chaumont-sur Loire, the landscape architect Jean-Philippe Poirée-Ville has created a vegetable sculpture, in a basement, as a large liana levitating in the dark. I worked on (...)\n\nA film by Benoît Labourdette (1’40s, 2019).\n\n\nFilm by Benoît Labourdette (1’16s, 2010).\n\nThe trip, since the invention of the train, is a very dangerous mechanical operation. So musics, mechanical also. The landscape it also is filled with these mechanisms. Mechanisms at all levels.\n\nThe drone, this flying camera that comes among us, raises, for a filmmaker, important issues. Military object, object for surveillance and death, object of cartographic ubiquity by multinationals, and soon business purpose, delivery device. (...)\n\nBlaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a philosopher, engineer and mathematician of genius. Among other major scientific and philosophical advances, he invented and built the first mechanical calculating machine in 1645, thus laying the concrete (...)\n\nAll tags", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9814760088920593}
+{"content": "Shrooms, man\n\nThe Magic of Mushrooms\n No, not those ‘magic mushrooms”, I am talking about your regular everyday mushrooms. Mushrooms are anti-inflammatory, disease fighting, immune boosting, and have a unique and powerful antioxidant known as ergothioneine, a “master antioxidant” with unparalleled health promoting benefits, which include:\n· Reduction of oxidative stress by efficient “scavenging & quenching” harmful free radicals;\n· Conservation and maintenance of the levels of other more transitory antioxidants such as Vitamins E, Vitamin C and glutathione;\n· Increased availability of cellular energy sources;\n· Increased metabolic respiration and oxidation of fat;\n· Protection of mitochondria from oxidative damage by superoxide that is physiologically generated by mitochondrial metabolism;\n· Reduction of the damaging effects of environmental UV rays;\n· Protection against the effects of neurotoxins believed to have a role in cognitive decline.\n· Maintenance of system homeostasis as a regulator or effector\n· Protection of hemoglobin in red blood cells\n· Chelation of heavy metals for removal from the body(1)\n Mushrooms are rich sources of not only ergothioneine but also many other important bioactive antioxidants such selenomethionine, selenium, polyphenols and glutathione. This combination of several antioxidants in a single dietary supplement may well provide synergistic benefits beyond that provided by the individual components in isolation. (1) Mushrooms are also low in carbohydrates and calories and a good source of B vitamins, fiber, trace minerals and protein. In Asian countries the medicinal use of mushrooms goes back generations. New, recent studies show how biologically active and significantly beneficial to health mushrooms are.\n Published in 2012 in 3 Biotech by Patel and Goyal, they stated that certain mushrooms can kill c_a_n_c_e_r by a variety of mechanisms. Despite the scientific gobblety gook, I want you to see exactly what they were talking about. The chief medicinal uses of mushrooms discovered so far are as anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic, hypocholesterolemic (lowers cholesterol), anti-tumor, anti-cancer, immunomodulatory(stimulates the immune system), anti-allergic, nephroprotective(protects the kidneys), and anti-microbial agents. The mushrooms credited with success against cancer belong to the genus Phellinus, Pleurotus, Agaricus, Ganoderma, Clitocybe, Antrodia, Trametes, Cordyceps, Xerocomus, Calvatia, Schizophyllum, Flammulina, Suillus, Inonotus, Inocybe, Funlia, Lactarius, Albatrellus, Russula, and Fomes. The anti-cancer compounds play crucial role as reactive oxygen species inducer, mitotic kinase inhibitor, anti-mitotic, angiogenesis inhibitor, topoisomerase inhibitor, leading to apoptosis(C_A_N_C_E_R CELL DEATH), and eventually checking cancer proliferation. I included exactly what they said so you can forward the exact information to anyone who needs it. Because mushrooms absorb and concentrate what they “eat” it is important to eat only organically grown mushrooms. In a polluted growing environment, mushrooms have been known to absorb and concentrate heavy metals and pollutants. So be careful.\n\n In another article from 2005 from the journal Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, they found that mushrooms contain compounds that are, “antimicrobial, antiviral, antitumor, antiallergic(prevents allergies), immunomodulating(boosts immune function), anti-inflammatory, antiatherogenic(prevents fatty deposits in arteries), hypoglycemic(lowers blood sugar) and hepatoprotective(protects liver) activities.” To survive in their environment, they developed strong antibacterial and antifungal properties. So strong, in fact, that mushrooms are effective against multi-resistant strains of bacteria and other microorganisms. Of modern antibiotics, penicillin, streptomycin and tetracycline are all mushroom derivatives.\n Mushrooms also protect your cardiovascular system by keeping fatty deposits from sticking to the arterial wall, lowering “bad” cholesterol while raising “good” cholesterol. They contain sterol compounds that interfere with the liver’s production of cholesterol. The B vitamins in mushrooms, protect adrenal function, support neurotransmitter function preventing brain fog and supports thyroid function.\n Eating mushrooms several times per week, promotes weight loss as it is a nutrient dense low-calorie food which has been linked to less body fat and waist reduction. They also provide a good dose of Vitamin D, the lack thereof causes everything from heart disease to depression. This can also lead to strengthening of the bones as Vitamin D is necessary for calcium absorption.\n As an esthetician, I would be remiss if I did not mention how great mushrooms are for your skin! If you have fine lines and wrinkles look for products containing snow mushrooms, which are better than hyaluronic acid as the particles are much smaller and penetrate the skin more deeply and easily. For acne, look for products with Agarikon mushrooms which reduces oiliness without drying the skin. For sun damage or hyperpigmentation, look for Songyi mushrooms and kojic acid from shiitake mushrooms. Mushrooms also provide diverse nutrients, which include antioxidants, B vitamins, copper and selenium. Mushrooms offer benefits for every skin type!\n\nIf you like what you are reading please follow my blog, go to the upper left corner click on the bars and enter your email to get the latest article from me. If you would like to support my work, so I can bring YOU the information you need, please visit my PayPal at\nIf the font size, color and type are different - this happens when I transfer the article to blogger, not sure why it happens, but it was not created that way. So forgive the craziness, and focus on the information!! As always, this article is for informational purposes only and is NOT intended as medical advice!!! \n\n\n\nPopular posts from this blog\n\nWhat you need to know about Essential oils!\n\nBrittle Bones? Alzheimer’s? What you need to know!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9380757212638855}
+{"content": "tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060151955925035189.post6322533539360609465..comments2020-01-16T03:00:36.501-05:00Comments on Seedware: NamesSteven Wallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16279453884845188769noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1060151955925035189.post-20699880679696770292017-07-07T20:38:52.675-04:002017-07-07T20:38:52.675-04:00Labels are useful until they are not useful. They ...Labels are useful until they are not useful. They make us belong in society, but when that label is wielded against us, we must elude society's strictures by inventing new labels. We create ourselves with names, but they are like snail shells. Ultimately we fit the name to ourselves and society tries to fit ourselves to the name. Words are martyred by their oppressors and then resurrected by their rightful owners. Using someone's name against them would be like using a wizard's staff against it's owner. You might think you're powerful at first, but it's really going to backfire.Willnoreply@blogger.com", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5167253017425537}
+{"content": "How L-Arginine Content Varies in Food Supplements\n\nWhen it comes to selecting L-arginine food supplements there are plenty of options.\n\nHowever, not all supplements are equal and frequently the dosage is insufficient. Food supplements include L-arginine in different forms. This adds to the confusion. Usually, this amino acid is listed as either: L-arginine or L-arginine HCL\n\nThe difference between L-arginine base and L-arginine HCL\n\nunderstand how to read l-arginine dosagePure L-arginine is referred to as L-arginine base. As a base substance, it creates a soapy consistency and produces an unpleasant odour. L-arginine HCL is a more stable form of L-arginine, with the addition of a hydrochloric acid salt. As a result, L-arginine HCL is tasteless, more water soluble and not as strong smelling.\n\nL-arginine dosage\n\nDosage and concentration of this amino acid will vary depending on which form of L-arginine is present in the dietary supplement. For example:\n\n • A supplement with 1,000 mg L-arginine typically refers L-arginine base, also known as pure L-arginine.\n • A supplement with 1,000 mg L-arginine HCL refers to L-arginine bonded with hydrochloride. Only 70 to 83 percent of the content is pure L-arginine.\n\nConsequently, the actual amount of L-arginine is very different between these two examples. It’s also important to note that supplements may refer to ‘pure L-arginine’ on the packaging, yet this doesn’t mean that it contains L-arginine base. Only be referring to the list of ingredients is it possible to ascertain which version of this amino acid is present.\n\nListing the correct chemical composition on food supplements is a legal requirement for all manufacturers. This is where you determine whether the product provides you with with L-arginine base or L-arginine HCL. If this amino acid is present in the form of L-arginine HCL, the dosage and percentage content should be determined by the converted pure L-arginine content.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9931716918945312}
+{"content": "Eteocypriot writing a book\n\nSet a deadline or have one set for you. Ethiopia is in Africa.\n\nTo conclude, we must seriously entertain the possibility that the Kinyradai of Paphos—as a royal lyric clan—go back in one form or another to the pre-Greek LBA.\n\nThis is a little different than tradition blogging, but the same concepts apply. Instead, write a short book of poems or stories. Lawrence Durrell lived in Cyprus from until 26 August and wrote the book Bitter Lemons concerning his time there, which earned him the second Duff Cooper Prize in The film The Passion of the Christ is notable for its use of much dialogue in Aramaic only, specially reconstructed by a scholar, but not an Aramaic specialist, William Fulco.\n\nThankfully, decipherment has been advancing at a rapid rate and significant progress is being made. Do NOT search for them during creative writing. Writing books has changed my life. Mosca and Russell The Akkadian language of AkkadAssyria and Babylonia had become the dominant literary language of the Fertile Crescentusing the cuneiform script which was adapted from the Sumerians.\n\nThe principal exception to this almost universal use of Arabic script is the Maltese languagegenetically a descendant of the extinct Sicilian Arabic dialect.\n\nArabic Language\n\nI also recommend listening to the interview with bestselling author Steve Berry on self-editing from The Publishing Profits Podcast show. As you likely know all too well, both the Aegean and the Indo-European Anatolian languages were subject to an areal effect, from the early Bronze Age onwards.\n\n1 Restringing Kinyras\n\nThe Communist Manifesto is an example of this, at about 18, words. However, the diverse regional dialects of Late Ancient Aramaic continued alongside these, often as simple, spoken languages. Movers suggested a link with Thymarete, the daughter of Pygmalion whom Kinyras married after emigrating from Cilicia in one tradition if so, the named has obviously been Hellenized.\n\nIt clearly depicts a stream or small river. Achaemenid Aramaic is sufficiently uniform that it is often difficult to know where any particular example of the language was written. Because it was an acrophonic system, it simply could not build any signs for syllables forbidden in initial positions!Elmore Leonard's rules for writers Next month, the doyen of hardboiled crime writers is publishing a new book, 10 Rules of Writing.\n\nThe following is a brief summary of his advice. What this handout is about This handout will help you write a book review, a report or essay that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews.\n\nWhat is Continued. A smaller timeframe of writing for the Yahwistic author is given by the end of this book while attempting to solve some of the Bible’s oldest mysteries. This volume concentrates specifically on the primeval history of the Book of Genesis.\n\nSearch Jobs. This facility searches through job announcements submitted after January 1, Multiple fields in each category can be selected.\n\nIn the same fashion, as both Linear A and B, the newly discovered system of writing was identified as a syllabary, where each sign represents a consonant followed by a vowel. This Bilingual is thought to hold the key to deciphering the language of the Cypriots prior to Greek colonization.\n\nBook IX of Isidore's Etymologiae (7th century) treats de linguis, gentibus, regnis, militia, civibus (of languages, peoples, realms, armies and cities). Ahmad ibn Fadlan in the 10th century gives an account of the peoples of Eastern Europe, in particular the Bolghar and the Rus'.\n\nEteocypriot writing a book\nRated 5/5 based on 60 review", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6790999174118042}
+{"content": "Jackson et al_Multiple habitat use by declining migratory birds necessitates joined-up conservation\n\nField data comprising shorebird counts and biophysical survey variables, used in generalised linear mixed-effects models described in the manuscript. Survey month: 1 = July or August, 2 = September, 3 = October; Tide Height: tide height in cm at the highest or lowest tide point during the survey; Intertidal flats cover: 1 = seawater was against the seawall during the count, 0 = seawater did not reach the seawall during the count; Water cover: % cover of water over the surface area of the whole pond; Distance: distance to seawall measured in kilometres using Google Earth; Vegetation cover: estimated non-water surface area covered by vegetation, measured as <10%, 10-30%, 30-50%, 50-70% or >70%; Bund: number of unvegetated bunds (i.e. the bank surrounding the pond, sometimes called berms) for each pond, 1= at least one unvegetated bund, 0 = no unvegetated bunds; Structures: number of structures (telephone/electricity poles/wires, buildings and trees) within 10m of the perimeter of the pond; Size: pond size measured in hectares using Google Earth; Total Count: count of total shorebird abundance (all individuals of all species).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7821962237358093}
+{"content": "Storn the Burly is one of three thieves involved in the Fighters Guild quest \"The Unfortunate Shopkeeper.\" His accomplices are Aenvir and Dranas Lerano, and together they rob Lelles' Quality Merchandise, owned by the proprietor Norbert Lelles.\n\nHe is equipped with a longsword and light armor; all equipment is leveled to the Hero. After the three are killed and he quest completed, Lelles reveals they were all former employees of his.\n\n\nThe Unfortunate ShopkeeperEdit\n\nNorbert Lelles is having a lot of break-ins at his store, Lelles' Quality Merchandise, in the waterfront area of Anvil. He invites the Hero to stay overnight and discover who the thieves are.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7677185535430908}
+{"content": "The F1rst Hero: Fight For Your Life #1 (Gaylord Cover)\n\nJake Roth is the only man to ever manifest superpowers but not go insane.\n\nWhile Jake is still trying to decide how best to use his new powers to help prevent a war between humans and \"extrahumans\", an old friend reappears and draws him into direct conflict with the local mafia who have their own extrahuman enforcer, Odinson!\n\nCover Illustrator", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7399038076400757}
+{"content": "The character of telemachus in the odyssey an epic poem by homer\n\nIt is widely recognized as one of the great stories of all time, and has been a strong influence on later European, especially Renaissance, literature. The poem focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus or Ulyssesas he was known in Roman myths and his long journey home to Ithaca following the fall of Troy. His adventure-filled ten year journey took him through the Ionian Islands and the Peloponnese and as far away as Egypt and North Africa and the western Mediteranean, as the displeased sea-god Poseidon prevented him from reaching his home.\n\nThe character of telemachus in the odyssey an epic poem by homer\n\nOdysseus Odysseus In Greek mythology, Odysseus was a celebrated hero, best known for his role in the Trojan Warf and for his ten-year journey home after the war. Odysseus also known as Ulysses appears as the central character in the Odyssey, an epic by the ancient Greek poet Homer, and he also plays a role in the Iliad, Homer's other major epic.\n\nOdysseus was generally said to be the son of Anticlea and of King Laertes of Ithaca. This version says that Sisyphus seduced Anticlea before her marriage to Laertes and that Odysseus inherited his cleverness from Sisyphus. Educated by the centaur Chiron, Odysseus began to display great strength and courage at an early age.\n\nWhile out hunting with his uncles and his grandfather, the young hero saved the adults by killing a wild boar. Before the creature died, however, it wounded Odysseus on the leg with its sharp tusk, leaving a permanent scar.\n\nWhen Odysseus reached manhood, King Laertes stepped aside and let his son rule Ithaca.\n\nThe character of telemachus in the odyssey an epic poem by homer\n\nAround the same time, Odysseus began thinking of marriage. But Ithaca was a poor kingdom, and Odysseus had little hope of winning her.\n\nTelemachus - Wikipedia\n\nNevertheless, he went to Sparta as a suitor. While in Sparta, Odysseus displayed some of the cunning for which he became famous. Crowds of men had come to Sparta to seek the hand of Helen, and King Tyndareus feared what might happen when he chose one of them to marry his daughter.\n\nOdysseus advised the king to make all the suitors swear an oath to protect Helen and the man she married. The suitors agreed and thus accepted Menelaus when he was chosen to be Helen's husband.\n\nTo show his gratitude, Tyndareus helped Odysseus win the hand of his niece Penelope, with whom the young hero had fallen in love.\n\nThe couple returned to Ithaca, and Penelope bore Odysseus a son named Telemachus. When the Trojan War began, Odysseus tried to avoid participating. An oracle had told him that if he went to war, he would be away for 20 years and would return a beggar. So Odysseus pretended to be mad and sowed his fields with salt instead of seeds.\n\nWhen officials came to fetch him, they suspected a trick so they placed the infant Telemachus in the field. Odysseus stopped the plow to avoid killing the child, something a madman would not have done.\n\nThe character of telemachus in the odyssey an epic poem by homer\n\nAccording to the Iliad, Odysseus's role in the Trojan War was mainly as an adviser and speaker rather than as a warrior. When a go-between was needed to settle quarrels between Agamemnon and Achilles, Odysseus stepped in.The first four books deal with Telemachus' struggle (in fact, Odysseus does not appear in the epic until Book 5).\n\nA secondary plot in The Odyssey is Telemachus' coming of age, his own quest, which scholars sometimes refer to as the \"Telemacheia.\".\n\nThe ancient Greek poet Homer established the gold standard for heroic quests and sweeping journeys with his pair of classic epic poems, The Iliad and The srmvision.comd with characters, both human and non-human, and bursting with action, the epic tales detail the fabled Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus as he struggles to return home.\n\nTelemachus - Wikipedia\n\nOdyssey: Odyssey, epic poem in 24 books traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer. The poem is the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who wanders for 10 years (although the action of the poem covers only the final six weeks) trying to get home after the Trojan War.\n\nOn his return, he is. The Odyssey (/ ˈ ɒ d ə s i /; Greek: Ὀδύσσεια Odýsseia, pronounced [] in Classical Attic) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Odyssey is fundamental to the modern Western canon; it is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature, while the Iliad is the oldest.\n\nOdysseus - The protagonist of the Odyssey. Odysseus fought among the other Greek heroes at Troy and now struggles to return to his kingdom in Ithaca. Odysseus is the husband of Queen Penelope and the father of Prince Telemachus. The Maturation of Telemachus in Homer's Odyssey The Odyssey was a great book in which many characters were brought out and developed.\n\nThe most significant development that occured in the epic was the development of Telemachus.\n\nThe Odyssey - Homer - Ancient Greece - Classical Literature", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999947547912598}
+{"content": "Angry judge - burglary and shoplifting - Legal Powers Attorneys At Law\n\nTheft is a crime that can be considered a misdemeanor depending on the amount of goods stolen. In some special cases prosecutors are pursuing more severe charges of burglary, which is a serious felony charge with significantly higher penalties of prison time and fines. This concerning courtroom trend can turn a case of what should be a misdemeanor petty theft into an inescapable felony charge in the worst circumstances.\n\nBurglary is a Much More Severe Charge\n\nTraditionally, thieves who strike at large retailers suffer misdemeanor consequences and are classified as shoplifters. However, in 2016 a Knox County District Attorney decided to go against this standard and classify them as burglars. This has significant implications upon people who could easily be considered petty thieves.\n\nAside from the technical differences between the acts of burglary and shoplifting, there are substantial differences in the penalties when either takes place. Shoplifting penalties depend on the value of what is stolen. It seems more than reasonable that someone who steals a t-shirt is not subject to the same kinds of penalties as someone who intrudes upon private property with the intention of committing a theft or felony offense.\n\nThis problem began to be noticed when a woman was charged after she left a Walmart with a purse stuffed with stolen clothes. She was convicted in 2017 of misdemeanor theft but also with burglary, which is a felony and carries much heavier punishment options. Due to the fact that she was in the store during normal business hours and her attorney was unable to see how the requirements of burglary were satisfied, he took this issue to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Prosecutors argued that since she had been previously banned from the store for shoplifting, she was there unlawfully and therefore a “burglar” on the premises.\n\nChange In Law Attributed to Tennessee Opioid Epidemic\n\nIn response to the opioid epidemic within the state, the Legislature passed a bill that allows for repeat shoplifters to face felony theft charges. It seems clear from this that the option for higher sentencing is out there, and lawmakers did not make shoplifting altogether a felony when they had the opportunity to. This further demonstrates that shoplifting should not be subject to these more severe charges. Charging shoplifters with burglary is a way around this.\n\nSome other states have taken this same approach where prosecutors have the absolute discretion to choose between charging with shoplifting and burglary. The possibility depends on each states’ specific laws. In considering if Tennessee also has this ability, some justices have said that it is perfectly fine as long as the language in the statutes is clear.\n\nHowever, for obvious reasons, some of the justices find there is a big difference between shoplifting and burglary and believe that prosecutors should not have this discretion. Justice Sharon Lee explained this issue best when she told the Knoxville News Sentinel, “So someone can be sentenced to six years for stealing a pack of chewing gum? Is that harsh? Is that what we as a society should be doing?”\n\nThe Court has not yet issued a decision on the matter and has not given any indication on when they will. Regardless, it is clear that prosecutors should not be able to subject a petty thief to the same criminal consequences as a burglar. This could be the start of a slippery slope of unreasonable treatment and a lack of any kind of morals within the criminal justice system.\n\nMiddle Tennessee Burglary, Theft, or Shoplifting Lawyer\n\nIf you’ve being charged with shoplifting, theft, or burglary, you need fair representation. Give Legal Powers a call and let’s talk about your case and the options facing you.\n\nThe information in this website is not legal advice. Visiting our website does not constitute an attorney-client relationship. The information provided above is intended to be used for informational purposes only and we hope it may assist in understanding the evaluation of your case when speaking with a Tennessee attorney.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9985896348953247}
+{"content": "7 Ways to Foster Creativity in Your Kids\n\nMany people assume that creativity is an inborn talent that their kids either do or do not have: just as all children are not equally intelligent, all children are not equally creative. But actually, creativity is more skill than inborn talent, and it is a skill parents can help their kids develop.\n\nBecause it is a key to success in nearly everything we do, creativity is a key component of health and happiness and a core skill to practice with kids. Creativity is not limited to artistic and musical expression—it is also essential for science, math, and even social and emotional intelligence. Creative people are more flexible and better problem solvers, which makes them more able to adapt to technological advances and deal with change—as well as take advantage of new opportunities.\n\nMany researchers believe we have fundamentally changed the experience of childhood in such a way that impairs creative development. Toy and entertainment companies feed kids an endless stream of prefab characters, images, props and plot-lines that allow children to put their imaginations to rest. Children no longer need to imagine a stick is a sword in a game or story they’ve imagined: they can play Star Wars with a specific light-saber in costumes designed for the specific role they are playing.\n\nHere are some ideas for fostering creativity in your kids:\n\n 1. Provide the resources they need for creative expression. The key resource here is time. Kids need a lot of time for unstructured, child-directed, imaginative play –unencumbered by adult direction, and that doesn’t depend on a lot of commercial stuff (see this post about unstructured play).\n\n Space is also a resource your kids need. Unless you don’t mind creative messes everywhere, give them a specific place where they can make a mess, like room in your attic for dress-up, a place in the garage for painting, or a corner in your family room for Legos.\n\n\n 2. Make your home a Petri dish for creativity. In addition to creative spaces, you need to foster a creative atmosphere.\n\n Solicit a high volume of different ideas, but resist the urge to evaluate the ideas your kids come up with. At dinnertime, for example, you could brainstorm activities for the upcoming weekend, encouraging the kids to come up with things they’ve never done before. Don’t point out which ideas aren’t possible, and don’t decide which ideas are best. The focus of creative activities should be on process: generating (vs. evaluating) new ideas.\n\n Encourage kids to make mistakes and fail. Yes, fail – kids who are afraid of failure and judgment will curb their own creative thought. Share the mistakes you’ve made recently, so they get the idea that it is okay to flub up. Laughing at yourself when you blow it is a happiness habit.\n\n Celebrate innovation and creativity. Cover your walls with art and other evidence of creative expression. Tell your kids all about your favorite artists, musicians, and scientists. Share your passion for architecture or photography or that new band you want to listen to all the time. Embrace new technologies like Twitter so your kids grow to find change exciting, not over-whelming or intimidating.\n\n 3. Allow kids the freedom and autonomy to explore their ideas and do what they want. Don’t be so bossy. (If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black, who knows what is.) Stop living in fear that they are going to be kidnapped or not get into a great college. Statistically, the odds are very low that they’ll be kidnapped, and I’m here to tell you that I’m not a happier person because I went to an Ivy League school.\n\n\n 4. Encourage children to read for pleasure and participate in the arts. Limit TV and other screen time in order to make room for creative activities like rehearsing a play, learning to draw, reading every book written by a favorite author.\n 5. Give children the opportunity to express “divergent thought.” Let them disagree with you. Encourage them to find more than one route to a solution, and more than one solution to a problem. When they successfully solve a problem, ask them to solve it again but to find a new way to do it (same solution, different route). Then ask them to come up with more solutions to the same problem.\n 6. Don’t reward children for exhibiting creativity: incentives interfere with the creative process, reducing the quality of their responses and the flexibility of their thought.\n\n Allow children to develop mastery of creative activities that they are intrinsically motivated to do, rather than trying to motivate them with rewards and incentives. Instead of rewarding a child for practicing the piano, for example, allow her to do something she enjoys more – maybe sit at her desk and draw or take a science class.\n\n 7. Try to stop caring what your kids achieve. Emphasize process rather than product. One way you can do this is by asking questions about the process – Did you have fun? Are you finished? What did you like about that activity?\n\nSource of article: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/7_ways_to_foster_creativity_in_your_kids", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7633005380630493}
+{"content": "Camping Can Be A Lot Of Fun With This Advice\n\nThere’s not a whole lot that can beat a good camping trip. The fresh air and natural beauty are unrivaled. If these are things you wish to start doing, the ideas in the following paragraphs can help guide you towards this.\n\n\nYou might imagine that nature has an inexhaustible supply of firewood, but there might be nothing but wet wood that refuses to burn. It’s always prudent to bring wood that you have gathered beforehand, and to store it in a location where it will stay dry.\n\nWhen going camping, make sure that you bring the right sleeping bag with you. Some sleeping bags will not keep you warm when the temperature dips below 40 degrees, while others will have you sweating all night long because they are too hot. The label on the bag usually will tell you what kinds of temperatures are appropriate for each sleeping bag.\n\nTake only photos and leave only footprints. That is the rule of thumb when camping. Only use the natural resources that you need and do not leave any traces that you were camping when you leave. Pick up all trash, extinguish and cover any fire pits, bury all human waste, and make the area where you camped look exactly as it did when you found it.\n\nREAD Must-Read Camping Tips For Your Next Outdoor Excursion\n\nLearn about any dangers that may exist at your campsite before heading out on the highway. This includes things like which spiders are deadly, whether or not there are sheer drops, and if flash floods are common. Every camping area has its dangers.\n\nBe sure and give children a thorough explanation of what camping is all about and entails, before hauling them off on a potentially dangerous adventure. You can always visit websites that illustrate the dangers posed by poison ivy as well as other harmful plants.\n\nWhen camping, most people enjoy relaxing around a campfire. To prevent your fire from becoming out of control, you should incorporate a few safety practices. First of all, build your fire away from bushes and trees so that sparks from your fire will not start a forest fire. You will also want to use a circle of rocks to contain your campfire. Do not ever leave your fire unattended. Before leaving your campsite, make sure your campfire has been totally extinguished and that there are no remaining hot embers.\n\nBe sure to pack a sufficient amount of the proper foods. If you are going to be camping for a considerable duration, you need to ensure that you have food than will not go bad. It could end up causing food poisoning and quickly end your trip. Prepare your food properly and research any precautions you need to take.\n\nHopefully this article has helped you see, there aren’t very many experiences in this modern world that can rival camping. The air, the scenery, and the feeling of nature are all amazing things to see while camping. Try the tips and tricks you’ve learned here to make your next camping trip even more relaxing.\n\nREAD Relax While Camping And Have Fun With These Tips", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6951599717140198}
+{"content": "The book is now available! 31415...51413 (921-digits)\n(another Prime Pages' Curiosity)\nPrime Curios!\nCurios: Curios Search:\n\n\n+ A palindromic prime formed from the reflected decimal expansion of pi. It was proved prime by Thomas Spahni in June 2008.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000096559524536}
+{"content": "Specialized Allez Sprint Frameset - Sagan Collection\n\nSpecialized Allez Sprint Frameset - Sagan Collection\nDark Teal/Charcoal\nPlease select options\n\n\nIt's not often that you see the words \"elegance\" and \"rebellion\" in the same sentence, but Peter Sagan isn't your typical rider. He's constantly breaking the mold of what's possible from a bike racer, and does so in a way that makes it look easy—and it's these characteristics that inspired the Sagan Collection. It takes these traits and, through some heavy design collaboration, transforms them into a collection of products that'll help you find your own World Champion stripes.\n\n\n\n- E5 Premium Aluminum frame with Allez D'Aluisio Smartweld Sprint Technology refocuses weld locations, allowing for more material to be placed strategically for increased stiffness and compliance where you need it most.\n\n- Our top-tier S-Works FACT carbon fiber fork provides incredible stiffness and front-end steering response, while also efficiently absorbing road chatter.\n\n- The Venge FACT carbon fiber seatpost acts as a stiff, aerodynamic perch for your saddle.\n\n\nFrame Specialized E5 Premium Aluminum w/ D'Aluisio Smartweld Sprint Technology, hydroformed aluminum tubing, tapered head tube, OSBB\nFork S-Works FACT full carbon, size-specific taper\nBottom Bracket OSBB, Praxis bearings\nSaddle Specialized Venge Aero seatpost, FACT carbon\n\n* Subject to change without notice.\n\nPart Numbers\n\nOption UPC MPN Store SKU\nDark Teal/Charcoal / 56cm 888818409365 70019-7556 36622", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5730007886886597}
+{"content": "wrench fix pipe\n\nCorrecting Errors: Fixing Student Loan Lender and Servicer Mistakes\n\nMichael Lux Blog, Strategy 0 Comments\n\nOne of the most frustrating student loan problems is a lender mistake. Whether it is a servicer miscalculating payments, a lender withdrawing too much money, or a student loan company applying funds to the wrong long, correcting these mistakes may appear to be complicated. The good news is that there are a few simple steps that can be taken to address most student loan errors.\n\nCalling up customer service to yell isn’t the best approach. Instead, gather your thoughts and materials and ask to have the issue escalated. The key is to put together the right information and present it to the proper person.\n\nMany customer service representatives are not authorized to fix certain errors. Talking to the wrong person will be frustrating and unproductive. The following steps were designed to help student loan borrowers to get positive outcomes when addressing lender mistakes…\n\nDocument how and why your lender is wrong\n\nIf it is your word against your lender’s word, you are probably going to lose.\n\nProviding proof can be a challenge because most lender interactions take place over the phone. Taking notes on your conversations will not be definitive proof, but these notes can still be a useful resource in correcting errors.\n\nIdeally, conversations in emails or chats can be saved on your computer. Taking a screenshot can also work.\n\nDocumentation is especially useful for addressing payment issues. If your lender applied funds to the wrong loan, they will be more likely to correct the error if you can show the instructions that you provided at the time of payment.\n\nSometimes it isn’t possible to document every issue, so don’t panic if you don’t have documents to back up your arguments. However, the more information you can provide to back up what you are saying, the better.\n\nTalk to someone with the authority to fix the error\n\nCustomer service representatives work on strict timelines. Their job requires them to resolve customer issues within a few minutes.\n\nThe rush to end a call can cause problems. Customer service representatives may tell you that there is nothing that can be done to fix your student loan issue.\n\nWhen this happens, it is best to ask to speak to someone with the authority to make the account changes you are requesting. Most servicers use the term “escalate” to describe a call or issue that is being sent to a specialist.\n\nThe escalated calls are directed to representatives with more authority and experience. In cases where there is a calculation error or a complicated mistake to fix, these individuals are far more likely to be able to help.\n\nIf your lender withdrew too much money from your account, it is essential to be talking to the right person. The average representative probably isn’t able to return funds to an outside bank account. Asking to speak to someone with the ability to fix this specific problem can save you and your lender some valuable time.\n\nSee if your lender has an ombudsman or consumer advocate\n\nThe larger student loan companies have employees tasked with making sure customers are treated fairly.\n\nThe effectiveness of these individuals may be up for debate, but there are certainly some circumstances where they can help.\n\nAt Sallie Mae and Navient, these employees are called customer advocates. They even publish a specific mailing address and phone number for borrowers to make contact.\n\nThe best way to find customer advocates at other lenders is to run a quick search for “lender name + customer advocate” or “lender name + ombudsman.”\n\nThis is yet another resource where your mileage may vary, but reaching out has two significant benefits. Ideally, this conversation gets your situation resolved. However, even if it doesn’t get things fixed, it is excellent evidence of the steps you took to resolve the issue before jumping to the next level.\n\nComplain to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau\n\nThe Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has helped many student loan borrowers.\n\nThe CFPB brings lawsuits against lenders, but they also provide a venue where borrowers can make a complaint, and lenders respond most of the time.\n\nBecause the complaint process is done under the watchful eye of a government agency tasked with protecting consumers, student loan companies have a considerable incentive to quickly address mistakes they made and to treat borrowers fairly.\n\nThis is also the stage in the process where the documents saved can be helpful. These records can back up your complaint. The documents will also help explain the issue and provide a timeline.\n\nIs it time for an attorney?\n\nThis site was created on the theory that most student loan issues are DIY.\n\nUnfortunately, not all student loan issues fall into the DIY category. If your lender has made a massive mistake that could cost you thousands of dollars, an attorney might be a good investment.\n\nGenerally speaking, opting for legal representation starts to make sense as things get more complicated, and the financial stakes are raised.\n\nIf you are angry that your extra payment of $100 was applied to the wrong loan, getting a lawyer won’t be worth the cost. If you paid off a loan in full and your lender is trying to collect again, an attorney could be a good investment.\n\nFinal Thoughts\n\nLender mistakes can be a nightmare. Loan servicers can often seem uninterested in helping or incapable of resolving the issue.\n\nWhen frustration sets in, tempers may flare. Unfortunately, a heated exchange is unlikely to lead to a positive outcome.\n\nThe previous steps are designed for borrowers to have a calm and systematic approach to dealing with student loan company errors. Things may not be fixed in an instant, but a gentle, deliberate approach is usually the best bet.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6903916597366333}
+{"content": "23.05.2011 15:30\n\nBelarusian National Airline Belavia has made no changes to the schedule of planes so far due the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Grimsvotn. European flights operate as usual. This is reported by Deputy Director General Ihor Cherginets.\n\nAs Telegraf previously reported, the European Organization for the airspace control, Eurocontrol, said that the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland will not have a significant impact on flights in Europe on Monday, May 23.\n\n«No closure of air space is not expected today and tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday), except for airspace and airport of Iceland,» stated in the organization.\n\nThe smoke from the Grimsvotn volcano in the south-east of Iceland, which began erupting on May 21, has risen to an altitude of 20 kilometers. Icelandic volcanologists had previously stated that the eruption would last probably a few days or weeks and not lead to a Europe-wide aviation collapse, as happened in spring 2010 during the eruption of another Icelandic volcano, Eyyafyallayekul.\n\nVolcanic ash poses a serious threat to aircraft, because the particles, getting into jet engines, can quickly pull them down. However Grimsvotn throws much larger ash particles, which will less dwell in the atmosphere and soon settle down.\n\nBased on BelTA materials", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9975991249084473}
+{"content": "Tag Archives: taoism\n\nAnthropomorphization in Taoist and Shinto literature.\n\n\nIn Taoist and Shinto literature they use an interesting literary device for communicating certain types of data. They anthropomorphize animals, objects, and entities. The animal or entity will essentially stay in character and communicate data that is consistent with it’s behavior. These stories are written in an old style known as the “hieros logos” which is a sacred conversation usually between two people. In the Vaigyan Bhairav Tantra this sacred conversation takes place between Shiva and Shakti. Jallaladin Rumi had this sacred conversation with Shams. In this sacred conversation deep spiritual, psychological, and philosophical truths are communicated to the reader. In the story of the Scorpion and the Frog the psychology of the psychopath is communicated. I refer to the information being communicated as sapiential data. \n\nIn this style of literature their is a presupposition of the philosophical nature of the entity speaking and the observation of praxis which is the practice or process of living the philosophy. Everything that is said is a rhetorical tautology of the philosophy or personality of the entity speaking, which allows this literary device to communicate sapiential data. The western world has largely become irrational no longer philosophical or even attempting to live or acquire any manner of philosophy. The entity speaking can’t say anything out of character for this reason. This concept of praxis in my psychological models taught me that everything a person thinks is reflected in what they say and do, even if it is concealed or misrepresented. I refer to actions as dynamic tautologies of thoughts and words when it is authentic and not strategic.\n\n\nIt is a huge source of frustration for me that the arrogant, snide, snarky atheists attempt to prevent the artistic and poetic communication of wisdom in this form. Instead of looking at how something is true and useful they scoff and mock the fact that it could never happen and in doing so they miss the import of the message. Atheists that do this are horrible people. They act as though they have been personally attacked by the artistic expression of a person. It is so stupid that it is evil, in expressing myself artistically I am not dictating to you or anyone else what they must think or believe. It demonstrates not only the insanity of Atheists but their narcissism to think that they can get offended at anything for any reason and then to retaliate as though they were attacked by the expression of another. To carry their tacit bias to it’s logical end all fiction books should be burned and science fiction movies shouldn’t be made or watched. I find it repellent that these terrible people aren’t smart enough to evaluate how full of crap they are. What they are scorning is creative intelligence. Nobody that possesses creative intelligence in any discernible degree would criticize it in another.\n\nIt is one thing to dislike something and to not watch it yourself but to try to prevent others from expressing themselves in a creative way or to prevent others from reading or watching is evil and stupid. I have seen these atheists maliciously slandering and lying about people expressing themselves artistically, creatively, and spiritually in an attempt to change how others think about those people. Psychopaths disrespect the boundaries of others and that is what these Atheists are, psychopaths. They can’t see that they have overstepped the boundary of common sense. They can’t see that they are not offering a service but a disservice, they are not making the world better but worse. I pray for the day to come when everything atheists have tried to do and have done to others will be visited on their own persons.\n\nI often contemplate how much noise pollution is created by atheists, how much useless conversation that does’t move towards a solution and isn’t productive. Just crappy, emotionally abusive atheists, wasting bandwidth, and everybody’s time. They don’t exist for anything they exist against something. They are defined by what they are against. They are space fillers, oxygen thieves, light blockers. They aren’t here to contribute to but to antagonize and detract from as a testament to their emotional morbidity.\n\n\nRabbi Ba’al Shivah on Stalking and Shamanism.\n\n\n\n\n\nSince the dawn of mankind there have been 3 different types of major totems for witch doctors, holy men, shamans, and seers. The lion, the bull and the eagle. We are here today to talk about the lion especially as a symbol for predatory cats. People who study the human brain know that there are different types of intelligences. One of the more common analogies for describing different but highly functional mentalities is the comparison of the fox and the hedge hog. Richard Feynman was referred to as the fox because his way of understanding things that nobody else could, and wrapping his mind around them. Einstein was referred to as the hedgehog because of the way he could humbly edit his consideration set and burrow his way towards the answer and ferret it out. Richard Feynman was the guy that figured out how the space shuttle Columbia blew up and he had to explain it very slowly and deliberately to other people who didn’t believe him and couldn’t understand his brilliance and the fact that he was correct.\n\n\nThe reason that I bring this up is that for shamans being philosophers the way they hold a question in their mind and follow its sent was symbolized by the ancient super-genii as a stalking cat. A predatory cat stalking it’s prey. This symbolism was universal and one particular cult is marked by their use of the predatory cat skin.\n\n\nEven though priests, it did not mean serving their god would mean just approaching and proclaiming themselves as priests. They washed themselves several times per day to eliminate off all the body hair to be untainted enough to approach the god. Because of being cleansed to approach the god, they did not wear leather sandals or wool clothing, as it was considered unclean. When serving the god Amun, they would wear leopard skin robes.\nIn many cults, also known as churches, they did not wear a wig as all men and women wore.\n\n\nIn his book The Chicken Kabbalah, Lon mentions having a rabbinical experience in his cat skin skirt demonstrating the continued theme from Egypt into Occult Judaism, but this metaphor goes back even further all the way to India and Shaivism. If you are familiar with my theory on the Origins of the True Religion, you will see how consistent this theme is and how many questions it answers.\n\nThe first task of Hercules whose name itself is a deviation of Horus the sun god, was to kill the Nemean Lion. Having done so he wore the skin, in a way becoming the sun. Remember that in astrology, the lion represents the sun. This is also were the soul enters the zodiac, from the ancient perspective the soul split itself into male and female before incarnating in the zodiac. The sun and moon are the only two planets that don’t repeat as rulers of two houses (in the original 7 planet horoscope). The 12 labors of Hercules are the sun moving through each house and understanding the trials in that house as the soul (sol,sun) perfects itself and learns its lessons through struggle, trial and tribulation. The Rosicrucian initiation process uses Hercules as a model to this day.\n\nSamson, in the Bible is actually Hercules as well who is also shown above killing a lion. Samson is also named after the sun with a word that derives from Persian.\n\nShamash (Akkadian Šamaš “Sun”), was a native Mesopotamian deity and the sun god in the AkkadianAssyrian and Babylonian pantheons. Shamash was the god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu. Akkadian šamaš is cognate to Syriac ܫܡܫܐ šemšaor šimšu Hebrew שֶׁמֶשׁ šemeš and Arabic شمس šams. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamash\n\n\nIn Egyptian mythologySeshat (also spelled SafkhetSesatSeshetSesheta, and Seshata) was the Ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdomknowledge, andwriting. She was seen as a scribe and record keeper, and her name means she who scrivens (i.e. she who is the scribe), and is credited with inventing writing. She also became identified as the goddess of architectureastronomyastrologybuildingmathematics, and surveying. These are all professions that relied upon expertise in her skills. She is identified as Safekh-Aubi in some late texts.[6] ~wikiepdia\n\nIn Taoism the Yin and Yang symbols are associated with the tigress and the dragon. The tigress represents earthly power or success, while the Dragon represents the masculine and heavenly element. Remember that the symbol for the Ankh is a metaphor for heaven and earth, the male and female symbols juxtaposed, and Thelema, the religion started by Aleister Crowley is the western version of Taoism from an original authentic living guru lineage. It is the philosophical connection that rationalizes the philosophical systems from all over the world. In the Osho Zen tarot Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh demonstrates his understanding of the same principle, remember he was also known as the Rock and Roll Guru.\n\nWell I think that is all the dots I am going to connect for you today. I hope you have enjoyed that little romp through time and across continents and have arrived at a deeper understanding. Oh yeah, if you want a little more I have included a story that explains how the leopard got its spots from the ancient perspective, not factual but allegorical.\n\n\n\nThe Lie takes many deceptive forms,\nalways posing as the Truth. \n\nBut Anubis was able, by means of his keen canine senses, to sniff out Seth in whatever form he takes. \n\n\nOnce, Seth assumed the form of a leopard and blended into the desert sand so well that Horus was unable to spot him from the air as he circled high in the sky upon his falcon wings, using his sharp falcon eyes to scan the Earth.\n\nBut Anubis sniffed out Seth and decided to brand him so that everyone would be able to see him. Anubis trotted over to the banks of the Nile and dunked his paws in rich black Nile mud. Then he lept onto the leopard and left indelible muddy paw prints all over Seth’s hide.\n\nThat is how the leopard got its spots, according to the Ancient Egyptians.\n\nThe highest caste of Egyptian magician/priests wore leopard skins to symbolize the never-ending struggle between the Truth and the Lie. The Lie persists. Seth the Deceiver was not killed by Anubis. But Anubis revealed Seth for the Lie that he is.\nAnd that is why the Priests at the Great Temple of Antinoopolis may have worn leopard skins — to demonstrate that it is possible to see through the Lie to uncover the Truth that lies underneath.\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Taoist concept of masculine and feminine is a little difficult for the western mind to contemplate. Masculinity and femininity exist in relationship with one another. Allow myself to give you a little example.\n\n\nFEMALE MALE\n\nFAILING SUCCEEDING\n\nBROKEN UNBROKEN\n\nWEAK STRONG\n\nQUESTION ANSWER\n\nSLOW FAST\n\nDOWN UP\n\nGRAVITY LEVITY\n\nTRAGEDY HUMOR\n\nCOAGULATE DISSOLVE\n\nDARK LIGHT\n\nMYSTERY REVELATION\n\nSHEATH SWORD\n\nLISTENING SPEAKING\n\nSPEAKING THINKING\n\nTHINKING UNDERSTANDING\n\n\n\nThe upward pointing triangles in alchemy represented elements that were masculine. Male elements rise above and over come. Fire and air. The line represents a doubling of the energy, more masculine more spiritual. The water elements gravitate downwards, they are feminine because of their lack of moving, their inertia, their stagnation.\n\nThe star of david, or the star of divide as I like to call it is an image of the soul. The human soul is made out of a divine soul and an animal soul and on death, the divine part returns to heaven and the animal soul returns to the earth.\n\n\n\nA little about my friend, I read his book a long time ago, I am sure that it influenced me and I am sure that I probably swaggerjack his style. He writes in plain approachable, irreverent, speech, like the parr hesia of the ancient Greek philosophers. I was contemplating calling him the F-bomb Guru but I will just think of him as that in my own little mind.\n\nHere is a picture of him with my business partner, Lynn Marie Le.\n\n\nStrange story, one of my first paintings was of a cabbalist secret, it was of an ahimsa. I knew when I painted it that I would end up giving it to a rabbi, but I had no idea that rabbi would be one Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford.\n\n\nHis writing style gave me permission to be myself. In a world where people have categories like garbage cans where it can’t be philosophy, and comedy and occult, it has to fit nicely in it’s little box and have all of the corners sanded off so dumb little babies don’t gouge their eyes out on it, he gave me the courage to say, “fuck it!” I just gotta be me.\n\n\nBaba Lon like me was demonized and ostracized because of being not normal. Maybe a little difficult to understand. Possessed of a creative intelligence, and an understanding that makes everything pregnant with meaning. He is a Jnana guru, a yogi of philosophy. We will leave humility to those who are endowed by god to be humble. Hoist with his own petard he might be but it is commensurate with his stature. I will defend his honor as i would my own, perhaps more vigorously so as I am privy to guilty knowledge about my own doings. I remember Osho, Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh, once said, “there are two ways people will make you irrelevant, they will crucify you or make you a god.” I might add, they will turn you into the devil, but I guess that is a kind of god too.\n\nHe is part of an authentic Western Guru lineage, in line with Aleister Crowley. I have felt for a long time that Jesus was trying to bring the guru tradition to the west and that he succeeded, not so much through the Roman Catholic Church but through Mary Magdalene. After Jesus died she went to France. 9 french men went to the holy land, dug under Solomon’s temple into a secret chamber they knew was there and whatever they came back with made the Church grant them sovereignty over themselves and the sanction of the religious authority. They started the first knightly order and the Freemasons are of their descendants. Lon, as part of his heritage, and possibly unbeknownst to him, has knowledge of kundalini yoga, he is a bit of a tantric siddha, and he is also a taoist. Crowley merged all of these religious concepts in his teachings with kabbalah.\n\nSpoiler alert, I heard this is going to be the cover of his next book.\n\n\nLet any of his antagonists show that they can shake a spear as well as he. I heard that he killed two Vatican Assassin Ninja Warlords with a flick of his middle finger. They were so distraught that he thought poorly of them that they committed suicide, one of the guys chopped off his own head and then his mates. I heard that he taught Charlie Sheen how to talk awesome. The most interesting man in the world was modeled after him, and Chuck Norris wears a beard because of him.\n\nWhy did the Chicken Qabbalist cross the abyss? I don’t know where to go from here. Should I go with the pure rhyme and say, “for a kiss” or should I say “for a wish”? Or should I forget about rhyming altogether and say, “to be one with everything”? I don’t know. These are the jokes folks! I will be here until the end.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8149277567863464}
+{"content": "User:Herrchin/Nebraska Driveways\n\nFrom Wazeopedia\n\nRural driveways in NE should frequently be mapped (as Private Roads), even if shorter than the general Driveways recommendation of 50 meters. Drivers will often be travelling at a high speed, and an upcoming turn provides the necessary advanced warning of their destination. Driveways also serve as useful navigation landmarks on otherwise featureless rural roads. If they are not mapped, Waze may mistakenly snap to a nearby road and interfere with the speed data or provide confusing directions. When mapping a new driveway, check the House Numbers on all nearby roads to ensure all entries are closest to the most appropriate road or driveway.\n\nUrban driveways do not qualify for mapping in most circumstances unless they meet certain route-aiding criteria as defined in the national standards for Driveways.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9028575420379639}
+{"content": "How to write a mystery screenplay outline\n\nJenkins third grade classroom so I could finish my first Nancy Drew, undisturbed.\n\nHow to write a mystery screenplay outline\n\nWhat are the steps in writing a screenplay? Each screenwriter's process is unique, but the end result must always meet specific formatting requirements.\n\nIn getting from concept to screenplay, writers often c…reate outlines or sketches for their story, then re-work their idea into increasingly formal or structured treatments, and finally sit down to write the actual screenplay.\n\nOutlines are a good place to start. Simply write down the concept, characters, and outcome of the story. Keep it simple, basic, clean. Often, if a writer can summarize the story in three or four sentences, they know they have a grasp on their concept.\n\nFrom an outline, one can then write a synopsis. These include the same elements of the outline but expand on them in detail. Include themes, backstories, and supporting characters. From a synopsis, a writer moves to a treatment. A treatment parallels the flow of the finished screenplay, revealing all the information of the story as it will be revealed in the end product, the script.\n\nThe treatment should be much more structured than the previous drafts, outlines and synopses. From the treatment, a writer will analyze the flow of the story, make major changes, and once satisfied with the treatment, sit down and write the screenplay.\n\nAfter a draft screenplay is completed, those drafts are revised and edited over and over and over again. Of course, this is one way of doing things Many writers have unique approaches that sometimes change with each project.\n\nTry making the outline on a stack of index cards, or draw diagrams on a white board The real real key is finding works for you. If you've written a screenplay, an agent can help you sell it. Selling it yourself may or may not be your strong suit. Can you write a screenplay in a month?\n\nHow to Write a Mystery - Types of Novels\n\nSure you can, but it's not likely to be any good. The professionals, the folks that get paid the big bucks to churn out box office gold, take several weeks to several months t…o turn out a screenplay. Some have even taken longer. You must also realize that a screenplay typically goes through multiple drafts, sometimes reaching into the dozens.\n\nWill anyone want to read it? How do you write Bollywood screenplay? Bollywood films are a specific genre of film, with specific elements that you're not likely to find anywhere else.\n\nIf this is your first bollywood screenplay, your best opt…ion might be to discover an undiscovered story, novel, story idea, that you can turn into a Bollywood movie.The movie did indeed take home a little golden statue for a screenplay written directly for the screen, beating out Amelie, Memento, and Monster’s Ball, so it’s clear there are a number of murder mystery tips to be gleaned by studying the movie.\n\nHow to Write a Script Outline: The 8 Major Plot Points P lot is THE driving force of your screenplay, so it’s essential that you spend time on your plotting skills when you’re writing a script outline. How to write a mystery - top tips.\n\nRead lots of mysteries.\n\nhow to write a mystery screenplay outline\n\nThis is essential to learning how to write a mystery novel. Some mystery writers I personally like are Sue Grafton, P.D. James, Raymond Chandler, and Agatha Christie.\n\nScreenplay Writing: Taking the Mystery Out of Writing Mysteries\n\nBooks that win the Edgar Award for mystery-writing are usually very good. Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter (My Favorite Year, Welcome Back, Kotter), Dennis Palumbo is a licensed psychotherapist and author of Writing From the Inside Out (John Wiley).\n\nHis mystery fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Strand and elsewhere, and is collected in From Crime to Crime (Tallfellow Press).\n\nChoose one of the links below for more on creative writing techniques and how to write a mystery. Click here for ideas on how to write a mystery novel outline. Click .\n\nStory Planning & How To Step Outline A Screenplay By Dan Bronzite. Share | What Is A Step-Outline? Okay, so you've got this great idea.\n\nYou think, if only someone would make a movie out of it! I have tried every software application imaginable in quest of the perfect way to write a movie and when I put Movie Outline on my Mac I came to the.\n\nHow to Write a Mystery - Types of Novels", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8174723386764526}
+{"content": "Do the most with the least.\n\n\nThe best way to predict the future is to create it.\n\n\nAll growth depends on activity.\n\nSuccess can be a relative term...\n\n...meaning different things to different people in different areas of their lives. In the business world generally, it simply means following habits of success on the path to reaching organizational goals of customer satisfaction, increasing sales or services, and achieving longevity and growth through responsible profitability. This is achieved when the organization fosters and follows regular habits of success. AgriVault was designed with these habits specifically in mind:\n\n\nBusiness success requires the ability to adapt to changing situations. We are constantly updating and always developing new applications and features to keep Agrivault, your business, and your clients ahead of the curve. Nothing ever stays the same….\n\nCreate Inner Business Management Solutions\n\nEntrepreneurs practicing the art of business success know the power of a CRM and network that is tailored specifically to their goals and processes. We take the time to identify company weaknesses and build relationships with those we serve. We provide support and direction to you and your staff to ensure you make the most of AgriVault in your organization, and make the most of your successes.\n\nOpportunity Driven\n\nProblems are a regular part of business life. Staff and customer misunderstandings, lost paperwork, incomplete information, the list is endless. To achieve business success, look at both sides of the coin. Every problem has an opportunity. Being opportunity-focused makes the game of business fun and energizing. AgriVault is focused on making the most of every opportunity and eliminating the problems, allowing you to enjoy the very reasons you started your business in the first place.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9800775647163391}
+{"content": "🔔 TouchPal Keyboard Pro is a free and an innovative AI keyboard designed to make mobile typing both smart and fun! 🔔\n\nNEW: The AR Emoji (beta) feature is now available on TouchPal Keyboard Pro. It uses the latest AR technology to capture the user’s facial movements and voices, creating cute ten seconds 3D animated expressions. Try it now!\n\nTouchPal Keyboard Pro is the first app to combine an AI engine with an AI assistant to provide accurate word predictions, intelligent replies, and information recommendations. Upgrade from your phone’s default keyboard today to insert over 1000+ innovative emoji, GIFs, emoticons, and stickers on popular social apps including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and more!\n\nWith your AI assistant, Talia(official), relevant features and information can be accessed on TouchPal Keyboard Pro without having to switch between apps.\n\nTalia key features\n⭐Swift Paste: Get useful information (emails, links, and phone numbers) from your clipboard\n⭐Weather Forecast: Receive information on weather conditions for anywhere at anytime\n⭐Currency Conversion: Convert currency based on live currency rates\n⭐Calculations: Automatically calculate basic math operations\n⭐Dining Recommendations: Receive relevant dining recommendations\n\nOther features\n🔥Personalization: Thousands of themes, live themes, emoji, GIFs, emoticons, and stickers to customize your keyboard and screen\n🔥BoomText: Convert words into GIF animations\n🔥Text Face(ʘ‿ʘ): Send funny emoticons in any conversation\n🔥Curve® Typing: Insert text fast by swiping your fingers between keys with Curve®\n🔥Predictions: Next word and GIF predictions that actually make sense\n🔥Auto Correction: Correct suggestions for typos\n\n🔥Multilingual Insert:\nTouchPal Keyboard Pro supports over 110 languages, including but not limited to, English, العربية, Hrvatski, Čeština, Nederlands, Français, Deutsch, Ελληνικά, עִברִית, हिंदी, Bahasa Indonesia, Italiano, Malay, Pilipino, Polskie, Português, Română, Русский, Español, ไทย, Türk, Euskara, বাঙালি, ಕನ್ನಡ, ភាសាខ្មែរ, ພາສາລາວ, മലയാളം, मराठी, Монгол, नेपाली, தமிழ், తెలుగు, Zulu.\n\n💥How to enable TouchPal Keyboard Pro?💥\n- Download and open TouchPal Keyboard Pro.\n- Press “Enable TouchPal Keyboard Pro” and check the TouchPal Keyboard Pro box in “Language & Setting”.\n- Select “Switch to TouchPal Keyboard Pro”.\n- Enjoy typing with TouchPal Keyboard!\n\n🏆 Access Permission Explanation🏆\nIn order to make sure that users enjoy a better typing experience, TouchPal Keyboard Pro requires access to SMS messages and contacts to learn users’ typing habits and import contact names into users’ dictionary.\n\n💡Contact Us💡\nOfficial Website: www.touchpal.com\nTwitter: twitter.com/touchpal\nFacebook: www.facebook.com/TouchPal.Keyboard\nGoogle+: plus.google.com/u/0/communities/105746648636072214666\nSupport & Feedback: [email protected]\nAll versions", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8646121025085449}
+{"content": "American Sociological Association\n\n\n\nThe search found 353 results in 0.024 seconds.\n\nSearch results\n\n 1. How Far From Meritocracy? A Cross-National Longitudinal Analysis of European Countries\n\n This figure describes the distance from meritocracy in 36 European countries between 2002 and 2017. Following Krauze and Slomczynski, the author defines meritocratic allocation of individuals by education to occupational status groups as a situation when more educated persons do not have jobs with lower status than less educated persons.\n\n 2. How College Makes Citizens: Higher Education Experiences and Political Engagement\n\n One function of undergraduate education is supporting successful citizenship later in life. Educational achievement is positively, if variably, related to political engagement. However, questions remain about the role of selection into college education as well as the specific college experiences that facilitate postcollege good citizenship.\n\n 3. The Purposes of Refugee Education: Policy and Practice of Including Refugees in National Education Systems\n\n This article explores the understood purposes of refugee education at global, national, and school levels. To do so, we focus on a radical shift in global policy to integrate refugees into national education systems and the processes of vernacularization accompanying its widespread implementation. We use a comparative case study approach; our dataset comprises global policy documents and original interviews (n = 147) and observations in 14 refugee-hosting nation-states.\n 4. Exploring Classroom Climate in Sociology Courses Using Syllabi\n\n The classroom climate shapes students’ learning and instructors’ teaching experience in profound ways. This study analyzes classroom climate statements in syllabi from various sociology courses to understand the extent that sociology instructors highlight climate issues and how climate is conceptualized in their syllabi. Drawing from data from two different times periods (pre-2005 and post-2010), the current study examines the frequency of classroom climate statements, the factors that may contribute to the presence of a statement, and themes within these statements.\n\n 5. “I Understand What They’re Going through”: How Socioeconomic Background Shapes the Student Service-learning Experience\n\n Traditional service-learning pedagogy assumes that learning occurs when contact between relatively advantaged students and a relatively disadvantaged service population reduces prejudice. However, little is known about how students whose backgrounds are similar to the populations they serve process this learning experience. This study explores the connections between socioeconomic status and learning trajectories within service-learning. Students provided written reflections on a service-learning experience focused on food insecurity as part of course requirements.\n\n 6. Integrating Community-based Research into a Senior Capstone Seminar: Lessons Learned from a Mixed-methods Study\n\n This article describes a senior capstone, Neighborhoods and Health, which used community-based research (CBR) as its primary pedagogy. Students in the course drew upon multiple research methods and forms of data to provide our partner, the Urban Farming Institute of Boston, with an array of research products in support of the revitalization of a historic farm in the Boston neighborhood of Mattapan.\n\n 7. ‘‘I Just Need a Job!’’ Behavioral Solutions, Structural Problems, and the Hidden Curriculum of Parenting Education\n\n Parenting education programs aim to teach parents, often low-income mothers, a set of skills, behaviors, and attitudes believed to promote improved opportunities for their children. Parenting programs are often offered in schools, with instructors teaching pregnant or parenting teens about child development, attachment, and discipline strategies. Despite the large numbers of participants and significant public and private funding going to parenting education, sociologists of education in the United States have paid little attention to the topic.\n 8. Racial Mismatch in the Classroom: Beyond Black-white Differences\n\n Previous research demonstrates that students taught by teachers of the same race and ethnicity receive more positive behavioral evaluations than students taught by teachers of a different race/ethnicity. Many researchers view these findings as evidence that teachers, mainly white teachers, are racially biased due to preferences stemming from racial stereotypes that depict some groups as more academically oriented than others.\n\n 9. School Context and the Gender Gap in Educational Achievement\n\n Today, boys generally underperform relative to girls in schools throughout the industrialized world. Building on theories about gender identity and reports from prior ethnographic classroom observations, we argue that school environment channels conceptions of masculinity in peer culture, fostering or inhibiting boys’ development of anti-school attitudes and behavior. Girls’ peer groups, by contrast, vary less strongly with the social environment in the extent to which school engagement is stigmatized as un-feminine.\n\n 10. Racing to Serve or Race-ing for Money? Hispanic-serving Institutions and the Colorblind Allocation of Racialized Federal Funding\n\n It is often presumed that minority-serving institutions (MSIs)—colleges and universities with the mission or capacity to serve underrepresented students—operate with a mission to alleviate broad inequalities by race. Yet the degree to which this remains true for Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), the fastest growing subset of MSIs, is contested and unexplored systematically. In this study the authors briefly detail the founding of HSI as a racialized status and consider how colleges and universities designated as HSIs today are serving Latinx students with racialized federal funding.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9986997246742249}
+{"content": "Company Menu\n\n4 Cytec Production Supervisor Salaries\n\nBrowse Cytec Salaries by Job Title →\n\nCytec Production Supervisors earn $73,000 annually, or $35 per hour, which is 34% higher than the national average for all Production Supervisors at $52,000 annually and 15% higher than the national salary average for all working Americans. The highest paid Production Supervisors work for Bio-Rad Laboratories at $99,000 annually and the lowest paid Production Supervisors work for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts at $24,000 annually.\n\n\n$74K Cytec Production Supervisor without location (4 salaries)\n\n+$22K (34%) more than national average Production Supervisor salary ($52K)\n-$6K (7%) less than average Cytec salary ($80K)\nWe noticed that your web browser is outdated!\n\nUpdate your browser to have a more positive job search experience.\n\nUpgrade My Browser", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6120840907096863}
+{"content": "Analysis of Team Charter\n\nEach individual personalities and behavior are exercise through personal characteristics that perceive through their attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations. In context to set course the personality’s differences, types and levels will manifest accordingly when building a group work collaboration reflecting the individual strengths and weaknesses. To evaluate this matter each group member performed a series assessment that measures their skills, interests, and abilities. The self scoring assessment generates a scale of individual listening skills, do trusts others and personality type. The interpretation of these results will demonstrate their abilities and type for each individual how should we conduct and share within the group for any project assignment. (John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn\n2003) “Groups are important settings where people learn from one another and share job skills and knowledge”.\nWe have four team members where three have personalities of being realistic, logical, analytical, and decisive as well a natural head for business or mechanics. The other participant is a visionary, outgoing, argumentative, have a low tolerance for incompetence, and often seen as a natural leader. By having all these participants with different types of personalities analytical, decisive, argumentative and, realistic will provide the necessary strengths to perform the appropriate decision making. “A commitment to teamwork is found in the willingness of every member to “listen and respond constructively to views expressed by others, give others the benefit of the doubt, provide support, and recognize the interests and achievements of others” (John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn 2003) thus, among naturally people dimensionally will conduct their activities having different patterns and experiences will determine their capacity to carry out their responsibilities.\nAnother assessment taken...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999064028263092}
+{"content": "Longmont residents sick of vile, vomiting turkey vultures\n\nAs they push city to act, USDA has offered relocation plan with price tag of $13K\n\nJeremy Papasso/Staff Photographer\nJodi Halsey-Aiello holds a turkey vulture effigy in front of her home on Thursday in Longmont. Halsey-Aiello uses the effigy to deter the vultures from perching in a nearby oak tree they have called home for the past two summers.\n\nEditor’s note: An earlier version of this story misreported where vultures congregate along Sixth Avenue in Longmont. They gather in an old oak tree in the block between Francis and Grant streets. Also, the story previously misreported the efforts the Aiello family took to scare away the birds. They cracked a whip at the birds and hung effigies in the trees. The story below has been corrected.\n\nWhen the flocks of turkey vultures migrate to Longmont each spring, they tend to find one or two large trees around town to roost in for the duration of the summer. However, their nasty habits have not exactly endeared them to residents, some of who are demanding something be done.\n\nWhile the city weighs its options, those being impacted by the birds are losing their patience.\n\nFor the past two years the vultures’ home base has been in an old oak tree on Sixth Avenue between Grant and Francis strreets. The massive birds urinate and defecate all over the place, often whitewashing the entire sidewalk and causing significant property damage, including breaking off large branches that crash into cars and homes. As a defense mechanism when they get spooked, they also regurgitate rancid meat they’ve scavenged that day, and the vomit emanates a truly foul stench.\n\nJodi Halsey-Aiello and Wayne Aiello, who own a home adjacent to the oak tree, have tried to scare off the 80-some vultures that roost there each night throughoutsummer. Aiello cracked his Indiana Jones’ whip at them and hung vulture effigies in the tree, but nothing seemed to work.\n\n“It’s been a total nightmare,” Halsey-Aiello said. “We even considered fixing up our house and moving. It’s that bad.”\n\nThough the property damage and loss of peace and quiet was frustrating, Halsey-Aiello and Aiello finally lost it when last year their 17-year-old daughter contracted a mysterious disease that Halsey is convinced came from the repulsive vultures.\n\n“What’s really scary and odd is that all of her symptoms were similar to exposure to neurotoxins,” Halsey-Aiello said. “She couldn’t walk, her spine was inflamed, her blood pressure dropped, and her glands were extremely swollen. They did hundreds of tests but never figured out what caused it. It didn’t dawn on us to have them test for any sort of neurotoxin or bacteria related to the vultures until we got out of the hospital.”\n\nMost experts on turkey vultures say the high levels of Clostridia and Fusobacteria — two extremely acidic and toxic bacteria found in the stomachs of turkey vultures — kill anything they come in contact with, making the birds’ excrement quite sanitary.\n\nAccording to the Loudon Wildlife Conservancy in Virginia, vultures prevent the spread of disease by removing large amounts of decaying meat that could potentially contaminate both the air and groundwater.\n\nThe conservancy also notes that vulture poop is actually a sanitizer. After stepping in a carcass, vultures will often expel their waste onto their legs, the uric acid from which kills any bacteria they might pick up from the dead animal.\n\nHowever, there also is evidence that shows excrement from turkey vultures can contain microbes of anthrax.\n\n“I shot half a dozen vultures and took excrement from them for my experiment,” Dr. Luis Schmidt wrote in a 1956 article. “This was heated to 90 degrees centigrade for three minutes so as to destroy all the germs of the disease, but not the spores. Some of this cooked excrement was sown on different types of cultural media. The following day typical colonies of anthrax microbes appeared. With some of this material I inoculated guinea pigs, rabbits, and one sheep. They all died with anthrax.”\n\nDespite these claims, Chana Goussetis, a spokeswoman with the Boulder County Health Department, said staff with the animal borne-disease program had never heard of a person contracting diseases from any kind of vulture, reiterating the fact that the acidic bacteria in the birds’ stomachs are too toxic for anything to survive.\n\nKendra Cross, a district supervisor for U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services, confirmed Boulder Public Health’s position, but hedged her answer a little bit saying, “there is always the potential for anyone who comes in contact with wildlife to contract a zoonotic disease.”\n\nThough the vultures might not be an imminent public health concern, they can significantly damage property and undermine residents’ quality of life.\n\nIn response to the problem, Cross and the USDA submitted a proposal to Longmont to humanely relocate the birds out of the city.\n\n“I’ve had to do this before in Virginia and Maryland and we’ve been very successful,” Cross said. “We can have success in five to seven days.”\n\nIn short, the plan is to make the birds as uncomfortable as possible by hanging dead turkey vultures in the trees as well as firing pyrotechnics and shining high-powered lasers at the birds as they attempt to roost for the night.\n\n“You don’t want to take a piecemeal approach,” Cross said. “These birds will habituate to one nuisance very, very quickly, but this multi-faceted approach is pretty effective.”\n\nWhen the birds go find another tree to roost in, the process is repeated until the flock finds a suitable home outside of town.\n\nIn order for the USDA to begin the process, however, it will cost the city roughly $13,000. Dan Wolford, the land program administrator for Longmont Public Works and Natural Resources, said the city attorney is reviewing the proposal. If approved by the town council, Cross said they could begin quickly.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9282596707344055}
+{"content": "Activities and Tours in Drakensberg\n\nInkosana Lodge serves as an excellent base from which to explore the mighty Drakensberg range. Overnight guided hiking is the most popular activity in Drakensberg. Guests check into INKOSANA on a weekly basis to enjoy an overnight guided hike. Our mountain guide is super skilled and would guide you from Injisuthi and Cathedral to Monks Cowl.\n\nINKOSANA Berg Lodge offers day hikes to one of the highest accessible peaks in the lower berg, Sterkhorn. Guided hikes to the highest Peaks like Mafadi, Champagne Castle, Organ pipes and Cathedral can be booked from the lodge. Guests can book with confidence knowing the logistics of the trip are in good hands.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9534290432929993}
+{"content": "InterviewBit Academy is now Scaler!\nInterviewBit Academy is now Scaler Academy!\n\nPrime Numbers\n\nGiven a number N, find all prime numbers upto N ( N included ).\n\n\nif N = 7,\n\nall primes till 7 = {2, 3, 5, 7}\n\nMake sure the returned array is sorted.\n\nProblem Approach:\n\nComplete code in the hint.\n\nNOTE: You only need to implement the given function. Do not read input, instead use the arguments to the function. Do not print the output, instead return values as specified. Still have a doubt? Checkout Sample Codes for more details.\nStart solving Prime Numbers on Interview Code Editor\nSign Up\nto access hints and editorial solutions for Prime Numbers\n\n\nClick here to start solving coding interview questions", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9975583553314209}
+{"content": "1 collection related to Architecture\n\nFilters: Sappenfield, CharlesHarris, Harwell Hamilton, 1903-1990Hester, RandolphStuart, Duncan R.Kamphoefner, Henry L. (Henry Leveke), 1907-19901940-19491960-1969\nHarrye B. Lyons Design Library", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6386975049972534}
+{"content": "First-Line Supervisors of Air Crew Members helps professionals in air crew member first-line supervisor careers find better opportunities across all specialties and locations.\n\nAlso known as: Airborne Mission Systems Superintendent, Airborne Operations Manager, Airborne Operations Superintendent, Aircraft Loadmaster Superintendent, C-40a Crew Chief, Flight Engineer Manager, In-Flight Refueling Manager\nSupervise and coordinate the activities of air crew members. Supervisors may also perform the same activities as the workers they supervise.\nWant to pursue a career as Air Crew Member First-Line Supervisor? Create a job alert, and get new job listings in your area sent directly to you.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000085830688477}
+{"content": "Redbrow Bank\n\nArea:Lake District - Southern Fells\nMaps:OL6(N) Explorer or 96 Landranger\nGrid Ref:SD161995 Hills nearby: 5km 10km 20km\nDaylight:dawn 07:36, sunrise 08:17, sunset 16:31, dusk 17:12\n\nview on a bigger map\n\n\nIf you need accommodation we have details of 11 properties offering rooms near Redbrow Bank. Here are some examples:\n\n4 Sykes Cottages Assessed Cottage\n£276-1389 per week\n6.6km (4.1 miles) away, sleeps 4\n4 Sykes Cottages Assessed Cottage\n£308-1644 per week\n5.1km (3.2 miles) away, sleeps 6\n4 Sykes Cottages Assessed Cottage\n£245-1156 per week\n5.3km (3.3 miles) away, sleeps 4\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9692208170890808}
+{"content": "Visualizing America's Crime Rate Perception Gap\n\nThere’s a persistent belief across America that crime is on the rise.\n\nSince the late 1980s, Gallup has been polling people on their perception of crime in the United States, and, as Visual Capitalist's Nick Routley notes, the majority of respondents consistently indicate that they see crime as becoming more prevalent. As well, a recent poll showed that more than two-thirds of Americans feel that today’s youth are less safe from crime and harm than the previous generation.\n\nEven the highest ranking members of the government have been suggesting that the country is in the throes of a crime wave.\n\nWe have a crime problem. […] this is a dangerous permanent trend that places the health and safety of the American people at risk.\n\n- Jeff Sessions, Former Attorney General\n\nIs crime actually more prevalent in society? Today’s graphic, amalgamating crime rate data from the FBI, shows a very different reality.\n\nCourtesy of: Visual Capitalist\n\n\nIn the early ’90s, crime in the U.S. was an undeniable concern – particularly in struggling urban centers. The country’s murder rate was nearly double what it is today, and statistics for all types of crime were through the roof.\n\nSince that era, crime rates in the United States have undergone a remarkably steady decline, but public perception has been slow to catch up. In a 2016 survey, 57% of registered voters said crime in the U.S. had gotten worse since 2008, despite crime rates declining by double-digit percentages during that time period.\n\nThere are many theories as to why crime rates took such a dramatic U-turn, and while that matter is still a subject for debate, there’s clear data on who is and isn’t being arrested.\n\n\nMedia outlets have accused millennials of the killing off everything from department stores to commuting by car, but there’s another behavior this generation is eschewing as well – criminality.\n\nCompared to previous generations, people under the age of 39 are simply being arrested in smaller numbers. In fact, much of the decline in overall crime can be attributed to people in this younger age bracket. In contrast, the arrest rate for older Americans actually rose slightly.\n\nThere’s no telling whether the overall trend will continue.\n\nIn fact, the most recent data shows that the murder rate has ticked up ever-so-slightly in recent years, while violent and property crimes continue to be on the decline.\n\n\nPerceptions of increasing criminality are echoed in many other developed economies as well. From Italy to South Korea, the prevailing sentiment is that youth are living in a society that is less safe than in previous generations.\n\nAs the poll above demonstrates, perception gaps exist in somewhat unexpected places.\n\nIn Sweden, where violent crime is actually increasing, 53% of people believe that crime will be worse for today’s youth. Contrast that with Australia, where crime rates have declined in a similar pattern as in the United States – yet, more than two-thirds of Aussie respondents believe that crime will be worse for today’s youth.\n\nOne significant counterpoint to this trend is China, where respondents felt that crime was less severe today than in the past.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9886875748634338}
+{"content": "Yoga exercises help shape more physically\n\nSaturday - 25/11/2017 07:53\nYoga is not only a way to help lose weight, but also helps to reduce the weight of your body look more full. In addition, it works very well for people with headaches, back pain and insomnia. With such benefits, there is no reason not to start practicing yoga right now. are not you?\nyoga giup co the day dan\n\n1. Posture (Ardha Matsyendrasana)\n- First, keep your left leg straight. Then, take the right leg through the left leg and turn the shoulder slowly to the right.\n\n- Your left hand is straightened and placed on the right knee, palm back. At the same time, the right hand comes out and fits the tip of the finger to the floor.\n\n- You should hold this position for 10 seconds, then change sides and repeat the movement.\n\n2. Flying Crow\n- First, you prepare the carpet or napkin on the training floor, and put your head down on the floor.\n\n- Your hands folded against the floor and put your arms around the head.\n\nYou should keep your back straight, then lift your butt up to form a straight line with your head.\n\n- Hold this position for 10 breaths and finish the movement.\n\n3. One-Legged King Pigeon\nFirst, your left leg bends forward, your right leg extends backward, the soles of your feet upward.\n\n- Hold hands firmly then slowly lower the lower body to the floor.\n\n- Hold this position for 5 seconds, then change the side of the action again.\n\n4. Tree posture (Tree pose)\n- You stand up straight and put your hands together in front of chest.\n\nYou use the left leg as the base of the leg, then slowly bend the right leg up high and place the soles of the feet on the thigh of the left leg.\n\nHold the posture for 5 seconds then release the foot, relax and change the side of the movement.\n\n5. Three Bend Forward\n- You sit on the training floor, straightening the left leg, bending the right elbow on the left leg.\n\n- Next, you slowly lower your back, your right hand grabbing the feet while your left hand is reaching the ground.\n\nTake a deep breath and hold your position for a second. Then, change the party to do again.\n6. Salutation Seal\n- You sit upright with your legs up, with your hands on your thighs or raised high and keep your back straight.\n\nRelax and relax your body by taking a deep breath 6 times while stretching your chest forward, then relax in the original posture.\n\n7. Mountain posture (Mountain Pose)\n- In the prepared position, you stand upright and put your hands up.\n\nThen your right hand grabs your left wrist and stretches to the right.\n\nDeep breathe and hold this position for 5 seconds. Then change sides and repeat the movement.\n\nTotal notes of this article: 0 in 0 rating\n\nClick on stars to rate this article\nGửi tin nhắn cho chúng tôi!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998512268066406}
+{"content": "Os verbos ser e estar son de influencia celta?\n\nSubmitted by admin on Mon, 07/29/2019 - 16:37\n\nDesta vez non falo eu, senón en Quora. A pregunta é:\n\nWhy does the Portuguese language have two verbs for being (ser and estar) if there is just one in most of the romance languages (e.g., French and Italian)?\n\nYgor Coelho\n\nYgor Coelho, Language and linguistics enthusiast.\n\nAnswered Nov 19, 2018\n\nWell, there is no why, it just happened, and not just in Portuguese. Basically all Iberian Romance and some other Romance languages make the same distinction, too. Italian actually also uses “stare\", but it is more like “to stay” (the original meaning of the verb) than “to be at this moment, circumstantially”. There is no “why”, but the “how\" can be explained and is traced back to a time when Portuguese language did not even exist. In some Late Latin/Early Romance dialects “to stay” started to be used instead of “to be” when a transient state or quality was implied by the speaker. And that trend stuck in some places and not in others.\n\n8.8k views · View Upvoters\n\nManuel D Regueiro\n\n\n\nEoin Ó Murchú\n\nEoin Ó Murchú\n\nDec 3, 2018 · 11 upvotes including Ygor Coelho\n\nThe Celtic languages also have two verbs to be, perhaps that was an influence. In Irish the main verb is TÁ, which is cognate with estar and originally stands. Irish also a habitual verb bíonn (in English he does be) and a copula to define in straight terms: is fear é. He is a man. You can’t say tá sé fear, and must use the copula instead.\n\nYgor Coelho\n\nYgor Coelho\n\nOriginal Author · Dec 3, 2018 · 3 upvotes\n\nVery interesting! That would make sense, but then I wonder how we could explain, if underlying Celtic influence was a the root of these two copula vebs, the fact that the languages born in Gaul itself lack this feature, and North Italian dialects (where Celtic was also spoken) also lack it, but South Italian dialects have the same distinction (and Celtic was never spoken there). It is intriguing. Maybe it has something to do with areal features that influenced all the Atlantic coast from Galicia to Ireland. We know there had been mutual influences and contacts since the Megalithic era in that region.\n\nMore from your Digest", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9738112688064575}
+{"content": "Plate tectonics\n\nGerelateerde afbeelding\n\nThe experience was cautionary, to say the least. It did not close her mind to plate tectonics, but it opened a line of suspicion and made her skeptical of the theory’s insistent universality. Her discomfort varies with distance from the mobile ocean floors. She likes to describe herself as a “protester.” The protest is not so much against the theory itself as against excesses of its application-up on the dry land. “A number of these people took very interesting ideas that apply to ocean floors and tried to apply them to everything,” she remarked. “They tried to extrapolate plate tectonics through all geologic time. I don’t know that that holds. My husband has blown some of their ideas apart.” Leonard Harris, sometimes co-working space tilburg known as Appalachian Harris, was very much a protester, too. Tragically, he died in i982, a relatively early victim of cancer and related trouble. He was a genial and softspoken, almost laconic man with a lean figure that had walked long distances without the help of trails. He liked to build ideas on studied rock, and was not easily charmed by megapictures global in their sweep. He referred to the long deep time before the Appalachian orogenies as “the good old days.” With regard to plate tectonics, he looked upon himself as a missionary of contrary opinion-not flat and rigid but selective, where he had knowledge to contribute. His wife has compared him to Martin Luther, nailing theses to the door of the castle church. For some years he assisted oil companies in the training of geologists and geophysicists in southern-Appalachian geology, and in return the companies made available to him their proprietary data from seismic investigations of the Appalachian crust. Later on, these data were supplemented by the seismic thumpings of the U.S.G.S. and co-working space groningen several university consortiums, whose big trucks go out with devices that literally shake the earth while vibration sensors record wave patterns reflected off the rock deep below. The technique is like computed axial tomography-the medical CAT scan. The patterns reveal structure. They reveal folds, faults, laminations, magmatic bodies both active and cooled. They report the top of the mantle.\n\nGeef een reactie\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.804932713508606}
+{"content": "I'm not sure why, but ever since I dumped GURPS from my mind I've been really understanding Basic Roleplaying and Fudge. Maybe I'm just more patient and eager to read through them, but I found myself re-reading Mythras \"Classic Fantasy\" and it finally clicked what they were doing to simulate D&D-style gameplay.\n\nPretty wild.\n\n@craigmaloney somebody said that Fudge is basically gurps -10 and it blows my mind...\n\n@Plusorminus Not sure I'm understanding the reference, but Fudge definitely has the same DNA as GURPS, much like humans have a bit of Neanderthal DNA floating about.\n\n\n@craigmaloney gurps is a bell curve centered on ~10 fudge is a sharp bell curve centered on 0. Fudge has a range of plus or minus 4 whereas gurps goes 3 to 18 which is about plus or minus 8 but otherwise it works out similarly.\n\nSign in to participate in the conversation\n\nA Mastodon instance for tabletop gamers.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5460895299911499}
+{"content": "Title 49 Part 801 → Subpart F → §801.57\n\nTitle 49 → Subtitle B → Chapter VIII → Part 801 → Subpart F → §801.57\n\nElectronic Code of Federal Regulations e-CFR\n\nTitle 49 Part 801 → Subpart F → §801.57\n\ne-CFR data is current as of January 17, 2020\n\nTitle 49Subtitle BChapter VIIIPart 801Subpart F → §801.57\n\nTitle 49: Transportation\nSubpart F—Exemption From Public Disclosure\n\n§801.57 Records compiled for law enforcement purposes.\n\nPursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(7), any records compiled for law or regulatory enforcement are exempt from public disclosure to the extent that disclosure would interfere with enforcement, would be an unwarranted invasion of privacy, would disclose the identity of a confidential source, would disclose investigative procedures and practices, or would endanger the life or security of law enforcement personnel.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999396204948425}
+{"content": "What We Didn’t Hear from HHS Chief Azar Today at the Federalist Society…\n\n11.16.18 – HHS Secretary Alex Azar today spoke at the Federalist Society’s annual National Lawyers Convention, where he discussed what role “limited government” principles should play in health care. Specifically, Azar noted the importance of “empowering consumers, rather than having government decide what is best for the individual” while also lauding the emphasis the United States puts on “patient choice.”\n\nDespite his rhetoric, Azar clearly doesn’t believe the principles of “limited government” apply when it comes to reproductive health care — especially for low-income women — and protections for LGBTQ individuals. In the last ten days alone, he’s empowered his Refugee Director to write an anti-abortion book, issued rules which could make it harder for women to access birth control and abortion, and consulted a virulently anti-woman group on cutting $100 million in medical research.\n\n“Alex Azar is a hypocrite – plain and simple,” said Mary Alice Carter, Executive Director of Equity Forward. “In one breath he’ll laud the benefits of small government and in the next he’ll brag about his efforts to use governmental power to infringe on the reproductive and civil rights of millions of Americans. His conduct is not only disgusting, it’s reckless, and real people are paying the price.”\n\nHere are a few key examples of how Azar has used the power of his agency to infringe on health care options:\n\nAzar’s HHS is working to make it harder to access birth control and abortion. Less than 24 hours after the midterm election, HHS rolled back birth control coverage — just days before Azar touted the importance of primary care. In May, HHS proposed a rule that would no longer allow recipients of family planning funds to discuss abortion with patients weighing their options, and just recently proposed a new rule that would roll back access to abortion for low-income women. Additionally, Azar’s HHS released woefully late guidance for Title X grant applications, which omitted any requirement for hormonal birth control services.\n\nHHS official Scott Lloyd, who remains under Azar’s tenure, deliberately delayed abortion procedures for young women in his care. Lloyd, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), denied abortion requests from minors in his care and claimed he could determine what type of medical care was in the young women’s best interest. But Lloyd’s refusal to approve requests forced Jane Doe to undergo a more complicated second trimester abortion. Additionally, Lloyd forced the young women seeking abortions to tell their parents, even when they feared parental abuse, and ordered shelters to take unaccompanied minors to crisis pregnancy centers.\n\nAzar’s HHS is undermining protections for transgender individuals and women seeking abortions. HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) created a conscience protection division, making it easier to discriminate against transgender individuals and limit abortion access. OCR Director Roger Severino, who created the division at the behest of his former employer, The Heritage Foundation, has a long history of opposing rights for transgender individuals and same sex couples.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9939815402030945}
+{"content": "Thies v. City of Omaha\n\nAnnotate this Case\n\n408 N.W.2d 306 (1987)\n\n225 Neb. 817\n\nKatherine THIES, Appellant, v. CITY OF OMAHA, a Municipal Corporation, Appellee.\n\nNo. 85-818.\n\nSupreme Court of Nebraska.\n\nJuly 2, 1987.\n\n*307 Elaine M. Martin of Martin & Martin, Omaha, for appellant.\n\nHerbert M. Fitle, Omaha City Atty., James E. Fellows, and Denise A. Hill, Omaha, for appellee.\n\n\n\nThe appellant, Katherine Thies, brought this tort action against the City of Omaha, alleging that the city was willfully and maliciously negligent in its care of a slide, in the Central Park Mall, upon which she was injured. In a bench trial, the district court for Douglas County found that the slide was dangerously steep and short and caused Thies to be propelled at high velocity onto the ground, causing her injuries. It found that the city was negligent and that Thies was not contributorily negligent in failing to put her feet down, nor did she assume a risk of injury by sliding. However, the court noted that sliding was a recreational activity and found \"as a fact that defendant's negligence was neither willful or malicious within the meaning of the [Recreation Liability] Act.\" In accord with this finding, judgment was rendered in favor of the City of Omaha.\n\nThies urges this court to reverse on three grounds: first, that the finding that the city did not act maliciously or willfully is contrary to the evidence; second, that the publicized attempts by the city to make the slides safe makes the city liable for negligence, because it gratuitously undertook to make the slides safe and was negligent in doing so; and third, that the city is not protected by the Recreation Liability Act, Neb.Rev.Stat. §§ 37-1001 et seq. (Reissue 1984), under the facts and pleadings of the case. We affirm the judgment of the district court.\n\nThe Recreation Liability Act seeks to encourage owners of land to make their land available free to the public for recreational purposes by limiting their liability. The owner owes no duty of care to keep the premises safe, § 37-1002. The only exceptions are for willful or malicious failure to guard or warn, and where the owner charges a fee for entry, § 37-1005.\n\nIn Watson v. City of Omaha, 209 Neb. 835, 312 N.W.2d 256 (1981), which also involved a suit against the city for negligent care of a slide, a majority of this court determined that the municipal corporation as an entity was an owner of land and, as such, was protected from liability by the Recreation Liability Act. That holding was reaffirmed recently in the case of Gallagher v. Omaha Public Power Dist., 225 Neb. 354, 405 N.W.2d 571 (1987). The evidence at trial is uncontroverted that the city owned the park and allowed the public access to it free of charge. The act applies to limit the city's liability in this case unless the negligence was willful or malicious.\n\nThe trial court found, as a matter of fact, that the city did not act maliciously. The appellant's first assignment of error alleges that this finding was wrong. In Boren v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 225 Neb. 503, 504-05, 406 N.W.2d 640, 643 (1987), we stated,\n\nSince no equitable relief is sought, the action is to be treated as one at law. As a consequence, a jury having been waived, the factual finding of the trial court has the effect of a finding made by a jury and will not be set aside unless clearly wrong.\n\nHence, we must uphold the finding that the city's acts or omissions were not malicious or willful unless the finding is clearly wrong.\n\nThe trial court found the city negligent, and upon review of the record, we agree. However, the city did take steps to make the landing area of the slide safe by adding more pea gravel and raking the sand daily to replace the sand displaced by *308 feet of the landing sliders. All city slides have displacement at the landing area; most are tended to only on a yearly basis. The city raked the slide area in question daily.\n\nThe landing area at the time of the plaintiff's accident had a deep pit in front of a high mound of gravel. Both the pit and the mound were created by the feet of sliders. The accident occurred on a weekend evening, and the area had not been raked since the morning. The use of the slide was proven to be heavier on the weekends, a fact known by the city. We agree that the city, if it had raked the area in the evening, could have prevented this injury, and was negligent in not doing so. However, in light of all of the attention spent on these slides by the city in adding gravel and raking, not once a year but daily, we cannot find that the trial court's finding that the city's negligence was not willful or malicious is clearly wrong. We uphold the finding.\n\nThe second assignment of error alleges that the city is liable under the standard of reasonable care, despite the application of the Recreation Liability Act, because it voluntarily undertook the task of making the slides safe and did so negligently, while announcing publicly that the slides were safe. Section 37-1002 provides that, subject to the exceptions for willful or malicious failure to guard or warn, the owner of land owes no duty of care to make safe the area used by others for recreational purposes. We shall not impose a duty of reasonable care where the Legislature has decided that there shall be no duty. The fact that representations were made regarding safety goes to the issue of whether the city's failure to guard or warn was malicious or not, and not to whether a duty of care was created. The appellant's argument cannot be reconciled with the plain language of the statute.\n\nThe third assignment of error complains that the Recreation Liability Act cannot apply because (1) the city's answer denies that it is the owner and operator of the slides, and (2) the act does not cover custom-made equipment.\n\nThe city's amended answer contains a general denial of the allegations in the petition. Since the petition alleged that the city is the owner and operator of the slides, the plaintiff argues that the city should not be afforded protection from the Recreation Liability Act because of the denial. The proof at trial established that the city is the owner and operator of the slides. The plaintiff was not misled by the general denial as to ownership, nor did she rely on the denial to her prejudice, since the amended answer claims protection from the act in the paragraph following the general denial.\n\nSince the plaintiff has not been misled to her prejudice, the variance between the allegation in the pleading and the proof at trial is immaterial. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 25-846 (Reissue 1985). With respect to the argument that the act does not apply to accidents involving custom-made slides, in our opinion in Watson v. City of Omaha, 209 Neb. 835, 312 N.W.2d 256 (1981), we held specifically that sliding is a recreational activity covered by the act. We cannot see how the origin of the slide is in any way relevant to the application of the act, nor does the appellant provide us with any authority supporting the argument that custom-made equipment is excluded from the act. The decision of the trial court is affirmed.\n\n\nWHITE, Justice, dissenting.\n\nI adhere to the view expressed in my dissent in Watson v. City of Omaha, 209 Neb. 835, 312 N.W.2d 256 (1981), that the Recreation Liability Act is inapplicable to municipalities.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5580095052719116}
+{"content": "Tidepools initially a prompt for NaHaiWriMo are special places of beauty and calm to me. But tidepools offer significant difficulties for those who live within their boundaries. Tidepools are formed close to the movements of the ocean tides near the beach. They are separate little pools near and next to the ocean. The tides come in and out filling and emptying the pools and changing the saltiness, temperature and water level of the pools. Some creatures living there are washed in and out with the tides movement. The tidepool is made up of mostly invertibrates a simple form of life.\n\n“Three basic laws of survival rule life in the tidepool:\n\n1)keep from being washed away by the waves at high tide\n\n2)keep from drying out by the sun at low tide\n\n3) keep from being eaten”\n\nThank you to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute at their website: Katadin to the Sea for this information. Please note that the information regarding survival is a direct quote from the site. I will be writing a haibun and haiku for the prompt: tidepool at NaHaiWriMo derived from the information above.\n\nThe following photo was taken by Tom Clark in 2001 and can be found on his blog “Sundays in Laguna,” referring to Laguna Beach, California:\n\n\n\nBeautiful tiny lakes created from oceans just happen to be formed primarily where oceans have rocky outcroppings. These lovely and often serene pools are filled with anemones, crustations and all manner of unique life due to changing topography and changing water solutions. The creatures that live successfully in tidepools must daily adapt to salination changes, dryness changes and have the strength to literally hang on when tides are sweeping out to sea.\n\n\n\nsitting close to the tidepools – the cormorant fishes in deeper waters\n\n\nShared at dVerse ~ Poets Pub OpenLinkNight ~ Week 57", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9880317449569702}
+{"content": "What is an Easement?\n\nAn easement is an interest in land belonging to another person, so that the easement owner has a limited right to use or enjoy the other person’s property. Common easements include rights of way for access, or the right to cross property (including easements for utility service or water conveyance).\n\nIs an Easement a Property Right?\n\nAn easement is a property interest, and is subject to the same general laws as ownership of real property. The property served by an easement is sometimes referred to as the “dominant estate,” and the property subject to the easement is the “servient estate.”\nAn “Appurtenant Easement” belongs to and benefits a particular parcel of land. Such easements are part of the property rights of the dominant estate, and are transferred along with the property. A roadway for access to a parcel is an example of an appurtenant estate.\nAn “Easement in Gross” is a personal right to use land, but is not attached to any particular parcel. In general, an easement in gross is not transferrable. Hunting rights on private property is an example of an easement in gross. The right may be exercised even if the easement owner does not own land.\n\nHow Are Easements Created?\n\nAn easement may be created by a deed or other conveyance, which shows an intent to create an easement, and which states the location and purpose of the easement with reasonable clarity.\nWhile it is preferable for easements to be created by written documents showing an agreement between the easement owner and the other property owner, easement rights may also be established by implication, necessity, or prescription. The elements necessary to establish such easement rights are discussed below.\nIf a property owner believes that the elements to establish an easement have been met, the owner may have a claim to an easement right. Simply claiming an easement right by implication, necessity, or prescription is not sufficient, no matter how strong the evidence that the right should be recognized. In order to formally establish the easement as a property right, the owner would need to either enter an agreement with the owner of the property being used for the easement, or file an action in court to prove that the easement right has been established.\n\nWhat is an Easement by Implication?\n\nAn easement may be “implied” if it can be shown that the easement use existed before a parcel was divided from a larger property. To establish an easement by implication, these four elements must be shown:\n(1) Unity of Title, which means that the servient estate (the land subject to the easement) and the dominant estate (the parcel served by the easement) were once owned by one person, but the parcels were divided.\n(2) Before the parcels were divided, the easement use was apparent, obvious, and visible.\n(3) The easement is reasonably necessary for enjoyment of the dominant estate.\n(4) The easement has been used continuously rather than sporadically.\nAn example of an implied easement would be an irrigation ditch that conveyed water to part of a parcel, which was later divided. After the property division, the ditch was still used regularly. Since the ditch is reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of the new parcel, it would be an implied easement.\n\nWhat is a Prescriptive Easement?\n\n(4) Continuously used for at least 20 years.\n\nWhat is “Open and Notorious?”\n\nAlthough judicial cases on prescriptive easements list them separately, “open” and “notorious” are similar concepts. The requirements reflect a policy that a property owner should be aware that the prescriptive easement is being used, and have an opportunity to stop the use. If the proposed easement is used secretly or surreptitiously, the servient estate owner would not be aware of the use, and thus would not have the opportunity to stop it.\n“Notorious” does not mean a criminal act or some wrongdoing, but only that the use of the easement was carried out openly (that is, with notoriety) so that any person familiar with the property would be aware that the easement is being used.\n\nWhat Does “Adverse to the Owner’s Interest” Mean?\n\nAdverse to the Owner’s Interest” usually means that the easement use was without permission or approval from the property owner. If the owner gives permission to enter or cross the property, then the easement could not be established by prescription, and the owner could prohibit the use. However, if it can be shown that a use that was permitted has become “adverse,” then a prescriptive easement could possibly be established. “Adverse to the Owner’s Interest” also implies that the easement limits the owner’s use of the property that is being used for the easement.\nIf the proposed easement is used by both property owners (of the dominant and servient estates), the use still may be adverse if it is carried out without the property owner’s permission, and even though the property owner benefits from the same use as the proposed easement. For example, a roadway that is used by both property owners might still qualify as a prescriptive easement, even though it benefits the owner of the property as well as the owner claiming the easement.\n\nWhat is an Easement by Necessity?\n\nAn “easement by necessity” arises when a larger parcel is divided, and an easement is reasonably necessary to use and enjoy one of the parcels. To establish an easement by necessity, the following must be shown:\n(1) Unity of title, meaning that the affected parcels were once owned by the same person or entity and then divided.\n(2) At the time the original property was divided, at least one of the new parcels had no reasonable access, and access across one or more of the other parcels is reasonably necessary.\nIf a parcel has reasonable access, then a new easement would not be necessary, even if the new easement would be more convenient for the parcel owner.\n\nWhat is Meant by the “Scope of the Easement?”\n\nThe “scope” of an easement refers to the extent and limits of an easement’s allowable use. The scope includes the size of an easement, allowable uses, and the level and frequency of use. The scope may change over time, due to new needs or even new technology. The owners of the dominant and servient estates may also agree to alter an easement’s scope.\nAn easement’s scope is usually determined at the time it is created. A deeded easement should include a description of the easement’s scope. For implied, prescriptive, or necessity easements, the scope is usually based on the historic use that established the easement.\nThe scope of an implied, prescriptive, or necessary easement may diminish, if the use changes over a prolonged period.\nIn contrast, if a deeded easement is not fully used, the owner still retains ownership of the easement described in the deed. For example, if a deed grants an easement that is 25 feet wide, the owner retains the full 25 foot width, even if only half of the area is actually used.\n\nAre There Limits on an Easement’s Use?\n\nAn easement may be used for the purpose for which it was established. An access easement, for example, may be used for access by crossing property belonging to another person. Depending upon the specific circumstances, an easement right may include similar uses not anticipated when the easement was originally established. An easement for an irrigation ditch, for example, may also be used for a pipeline to convey water, if the pipeline does not unreasonably enlarge the easement.\nAn easement’s use may not unreasonably interfere with the property rights of the servient estate. As a corollary, the use of the servient estate may not unreasonably interfere with the rights of the easement owner. What constitutes an “unreasonable interference” depends upon the circumstances. For example, it may be reasonable to ask that the easement owner close or lock gates on the servient property, and it may be reasonable that the easement owner be allowed to grade or maintain an access roadway.\nAn easement also may not be expanded beyond what is expressly stated in the documents creating the easement, or beyond the use that established the easement. It would not be permissible to expand a narrow access driveway into a four-lane road, if that was not anticipated when the easement was created.\n\nHow is an Easement Terminated?\n\nAn easement may be terminated by agreement between the property owners. If the easement is created by deed, a quit-claim deed terminating the easement should be recorded.\nIf the dominant and servient estates are owned by the same person, there is no longer a need for an easement, and so it would terminate. If the owner sells either parcel, the easement could be recreated. In some cases, if a land purchaser is not aware of an easement, it may terminate, even if the easement is needed by the dominant estate.\nAn easement may possibly be terminated through abandonment, if it is not used for a prolonged period of time and the easement holder says or does things showing intent never to use it again. In addition, if the underlying property owner uses the land in a manner inconsistent with the rights of an easement holder for a period of 20 years, the easement may terminate. If the easement was created by a deed, however, it is a property right belonging to the owner, and so abandonment may be difficult to prove.\n\n\nPotter v. Chadaz\nAbraham & Associates Trust v. Park\nVan Denburgh v. Sweeney Land Co.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9944420456886292}
+{"content": "Inductors and Inductance : Working, Unit, Function, Types and Uses\n\nInductors are electrical components that oppose the flow of alternating current (AC) by temporarily storing energy as magnetic fields. The action of an inductor is known as Inductance.\n\nThis article discusses inductors and inductance. By the end of this article, you will learn the following.\n\n • What is inductor and inductance and how they work?\n • What are the different types of inductors?\n • Series and parallel inductors and their connection\n • Mutual inductance and coefficient of coupling.\n • Advantages and disadvantages of different types of inductors\n\nInductors often, but not always, consist of wire coils. Sometimes a length of wire, or a pair of wires, is used as an inductor.\n\nTypes of Inductors\nTypes of Inductors\n\nWhat is Inductance?\n\nSuppose you have a wire 1 million miles long (about 1.6 million kilometers). Imagine that you make this wire into a huge loop, and connect its ends to the terminals of a battery as shown in the figure below. An electrical current will flow through the loop of wire, but this is only part of the picture.\n\nthe principle of inductance.\nA huge, imaginary loop of wire can be used to illustrate the principle of inductance.\n\nIf the wire was short, the current would begin to flow immediately, and it would attain a level limited by the resistance in the wire and in the battery.\n\nBut because the wire is extremely long, it takes a while for the electrons from the negative terminal to work their way around the loop to the positive terminal. It will take a little time for the current to build up to its maximum level.\n\nThe magnetic field produced by the loop will be small during the first few moments when current flows in only part of the loop. The magnetic field will build up as the electrons get around the loop. Once a steady current is flowing around the entire loop, the magnetic field will have reached its maximum quantity and will level off.\n\nRelative magnetic flux as a function of time\nRelative magnetic flux in and around a huge loop of wire connected to a current source, as a function of time.\n\nA certain amount of energy is stored in this magnetic field. The amount of stored energy depends on the inductance of the loop, which is a function of its overall size.\n\nInductance, as a property or as a mathematical variable, is symbolized by an italicized, uppercase letter L.\n\nThe loop constitutes an inductor, the symbol for which is an uppercase, nonitalicized letter L.\n\nPractical Inductors\n\nIt is impractical to make wire loops 1 million miles in circumference. But lengths of wire can be coiled up. When this is done, the magnetic flux is increased for a given length of wire compared with the flux produced by a single-turn loop.\n\nThe magnetic flux density inside a coil is multiplied when a ferromagnetic core is placed within it.\n\nThe increase in flux density has the effect of increasing the inductance, too. So, Inductance (L) is many times greater with a ferromagnetic core than with an air core or a nonmagnetic core such as plastic or wood.\n\nThe current that an inductor can handle depends on the diameter (gauge) of the wire. But the value of inductance L is a function of the number of turns in the coil, the diameter of the coil itself, and the overall shape of the coil.\n\nIn general, the inductance of a coil is directly proportional to the number of turns of wire.\n\nInductance is directly proportional to the diameter of the coil. The length of a coil, given a certain number of turns and a certain diameter, has an effect as well.\n\nIf a coil having a certain number of turns and a certain diameter is “stretched out,” its inductance decreases. Conversely, if it is “squashed up,” its inductance increases.\n\nThe Unit of Inductance\n\nWhen a battery is first connected across an inductor, the current builds up at a rate that depends on the inductance. The greater the inductance, the slower the rate of current buildup for a given battery voltage.\n\nThe unit of inductance is an expression of the ratio between the rate of current buildup and the voltage across an inductor. An inductance of 1 henry (1 H) represents a potential difference of 1 volt (1 V) across an inductor within which the current is changing at the rate of 1 ampere per second (1 A/s).\n\nHenry is a huge unit of inductance. You won’t often see an inductor this large, although some power-supply filter chokes have inductances up to several henrys.\n\nUsually, inductances are expressed in millihenrys (mH), microhenrys (µH), or nanohenrys (nH). You should know your prefix multipliers by now, but in case you’ve forgotten:\n\n1 mH = 0.001 H = 10-3 H\n1 µH = 0.001 mH = 10-6 H\n1 nH = 0.001 µH = 10-9 H\n\nSmall coils with few turns of wire produce small inductances, in which the current changes quickly and the induced voltages are small.\n\nLarge coils with ferromagnetic cores, and having many turns of wire, have high inductances in which the current changes slowly and the induced voltages are large.\n\nThe current from a battery, building up or dying down through a high-L coil, can give rise to a deadly potential difference between the end terminals of the coil—many times the voltage of the battery itself. This is how spark coils work in internal combustion engines. Be careful around them!\n\nInductors in Series\n\nWhen the magnetic fields around inductors do not interact, inductances in series add like resistances in series. The total value is the sum of the individual values.\n\nIt’s important to be sure that you are using the same size units for all the inductors when you add their values. After that, you can convert the result to any inductance unit you want.\n\nExample 1\n\nSuppose three 40.0-µH inductors are connected in series, and there is no interaction, or mutual inductance, among them. What is the total inductance?\n\nAdd up the values.\n\n\nThen L = L1 + L2 + L3 = 40.0 + 40.0 + 40.0 = 120 µH.\n\nExample 2\n\nImagine three inductors, with no mutual inductance, with values of 20.0 mH, 55.0 µH, and 400 nH. What is the total inductance, in millihenrys, of these components if they are connected in series as shown in the figure?\n\nInductors in Series\nInductors in Series\n\nFirst, convert all the inductances to the same units. Microhenrys are a good choice because that unit makes the calculation process the least messy.\n\nCall L1 = 20.0 mH = 20,000 µH, L2 = 55.0 µH, and L3 = 400 nH = 0.400 µH.\n\nThe total inductance is therefore L = 20,000 + 55.0 + 0.400 = 20,055.4 µH.\n\nThis is 20.1 mH after converting and rounding off.\n\nInductors in Parallel\n\n\n\nThen you can find the reciprocal of the total inductance, 1/L, using the following formula:\n\n1/L = 1/L1 + 1/L2 + 1/L3 + . . . + 1/Ln\n\nThe total inductance, L, is found by taking the reciprocal of the number you get for 1/L.\n\nAgain, as with inductances in series, it’s important to remember that all the units have to agree during the calculation process. Once you have completed the calculation, you can convert the result to any inductance unit.\n\nExample 1\n\nSuppose there are three inductors, each with a value of 40 µH, connected in parallel with no mutual inductance, as shown in the figure. What is the net inductance of the combination?\n\nInductors in Parallel\nThree Inductors in Parallel\n\nLet’s call the inductances L 1 = 40 µH, L 2 = 40 µH, and L 3 = 40 µH.\n\nUse the preceding formula to obtain 1/L = 1/40 + 1/40 + 1/40 = 3/40 = 0.075. Then L = 1/0.075 = 13.333 µH.\n\nThis should be rounded off to 13 µH because the original inductances are specified to only two significant digits.\n\nExample 2\n\nImagine four inductors in parallel, with no mutual inductance and values of L 1 = 75.0 mH, L 2 = 40.0 mH, L 3 = 333 µH, and L 4 = 7.00 H. What is the net inductance of this combination?\n\nYou can use henrys, millihenrys, or microhenrys as the standard units in this problem. Suppose you decide to use Henry.\n\nThen L 1 = 0.0750 H, L 2 = 0.0400 H, L 3 = 0.000333 H, and L 4 = 7.00 H.\n\nUse the preceding formula to obtain 1/L = 13.33 + 25.0 + 3003 + 0.143 = 3041.473.\n\nThe reciprocal of this is the inductance L = 0.00032879 H = 328.79 µH.\n\nThis should be rounded off to 329 µH. This is only a little less than the value of the 333 µH inductor alone.\n\nIf there are several inductors in parallel, and one of them has a value that is much smaller than the values of all the others, then the total inductance is a little smaller than the value of the smallest inductor.\n\nInteraction among Inductors\n\nIn real-world circuits, there is almost always some mutual inductance between or among solenoidal coils. The magnetic fields extend significantly outside such coils, and mutual effects are difficult to avoid or eliminate.\n\nThe same is true between and among lengths of wire, especially at high ac frequencies. Sometimes, mutual inductance has no detrimental effect, but in some situations, it is not wanted.\n\nMutual inductance can be minimized by using shielded wires and toroidal inductors. The most common shielded wire is a coaxial cable.\n\nToroidal inductors are discussed later in this article.\n\nCoefficient of Coupling\n\nThe coefficient of coupling, symbolized k, is an expression of the extent to which two inductors interact.\n\nIt is specified as a number ranging from 0 (no interaction) to 1 (the maximum possible interaction).\n\nTwo coils separated by a sheet of solid iron, or by a great distance, have a coefficient of coupling of zero (k = 0). Two coils wound on the same form, one right over the other, have the maximum possible coefficient of coupling (k = 1).\n\nSometimes, the coefficient of coupling is multiplied by 100 and expressed as a percentage from 0 to 100 percent.\n\nMutual Inductance\n\nThe mutual inductance between two inductors is symbolized M, and is expressed in the same units as inductance: henrys, millihenrys, microhenrys, or nanohenrys.\n\nThe value of M is a function of the values of the inductors, and also of the coefficient of coupling.\n\nIn the case of two inductors having values of L1 and L2 (both expressed in the same size units), and with a coefficient of coupling equal to k, the mutual inductance M is found by multiplying the inductance values, taking the square root of the result, and then multiplying by k.\n\n\nM = k √(L1 L2)\n\nwhere the √ represents the square root.\n\nThe value of M thus obtained will be in the same size unit as the values of the inductance you input to the equation.\n\nEffects of Mutual Inductance\n\nMutual inductance can either increase or decrease the net inductance of a pair of series-connected coils, compared with the condition of zero mutual inductance.\n\nThe magnetic fields around the coils either reinforce each other or oppose each other, depending on the phase relationship of the ac applied to them.\n\nIf the two ac waves (and thus the magnetic fields they produce) are in phase, the inductance is increased compared with the condition of zero mutual inductance. If the two waves are in the opposing phase, the net inductance is decreased relative to the condition of zero mutual inductance.\n\nWhen two inductors are connected in series and there is reinforcing mutual inductance between them, the total inductance L is given by the following formula:\n\nL = L1 + L2 + 2M\n\nwhere L 1 and L 2 are the inductances, and M is the mutual inductance.\n\nAll inductances must be expressed in the same size units.\n\nWhen two inductors are connected in series and the mutual inductance is opposing, the total inductance L is given by this formula:\n\nL = L1 + L2 − 2M\n\nwhere, again, L 1 and L 2 are the values of the individual inductors.\n\nIt is possible for mutual inductance to increase the total series inductance of a pair of coils by as much as a factor of 2, if the coupling is total and if the flux reinforces. Conversely, it is possible for the inductances of two coils to completely cancel each other.\n\nIf two equal-valued inductors are connected in series so their fluxes oppose (or buck each other) and k = 1, the result is theoretically zero inductance.\n\nExample 1\n\nSuppose two coils, having inductances of 30 µH and 50 µH, are connected in series so that their fields reinforce, as shown in the figure. Suppose that the coefficient of coupling is 0.500. What is the total inductance of the combination?\n\n30 henry and 50 henry inductors in series\n\nFirst, calculate M from k.\n\nAccording to the formula for this, given previously, M = 0.500(50 × 30) 1/2 = 19.4 µH.\n\nThen figure the total inductance.\n\nIt is equal to L = L 1 + L 2 + 2M = 30 + 50 + 38.8 = 118.8 µH, rounded to 120 µH because only two significant digits are justified.\n\nExample 2\n\nImagine two coils with inductances of L 1 = 835 µH and L 2 = 2.44 mH. Suppose they are connected in series so that their coefficient of coupling is 0.922, acting so that the coils oppose each other, as shown in the figure. What is the net inductance of the pair?\n\nSeries inductors\n\nFirst, calculate M from k.\n\nThe coil inductances are specified in different units. Let’s use microhenrys for our calculations, so L 2 = 2440 µH.\n\nThen M = 0.922(835 × 2440) 1/2 = 1316 µH.\n\nThen figure the total inductance. It is L = L 1 + L 2 − 2M = 835 + 2440 − 2632 = 643 µH.\n\nTypes of Inductors\n\nThere are different types of inductors. Depending on the type of core material used, inductors are categorized into the following.\n\n 1. Air Core Inductor\n 2. Iron Core Inductor\n 3. Ferrite Core Inductor\n 4. Iron Powder Inductor\n 5. Laminated Core inductor\n 6. Toroidal Inductor\n 7. Ceramic Inductor\n 8. Film Layer Inductor\n 9. Variable Inductor\n 10. Coupled Inductors\n\nAir-Core Inductor\n\nThe simplest inductors (besides plain, straight lengths of wire) are coils.\n\nA coil can be wound on a hollow cylinder of plastic or other nonferromagnetic material, forming an air-core coil. In practice, the maximum attainable inductance for such coils is about 1 mH.\n\nAir core inductor coil\nAir Core Inductor Coil\n\nAir-core coils are used mostly in radio-frequency transmitters, receivers, and antenna networks.\n\nIn general, the higher the frequency of ac, the less inductance is needed to produce significant effects. Air-core coils can be made to have the almost unlimited current-carrying capacity, simply by using heavy-gauge wire and making the radius of the coil large. Air does not dissipate much energy in the form of heat. It’s efficient, even though it has low permeability.\n\nFerromagnetic Cores\n\nFerromagnetic substances can be crushed into dust and then bound into various shapes, providing core materials that greatly increase the inductance of a coil having a given number of turns.\n\nDepending on the mixture used, the increase in flux density can range from a factor of a few times, up through many thousands of times. A small coil can thus be made to have a large inductance.\n\nThere are two main types of ferromagnetic material in common use as coil cores. These substances are known as powdered iron and ferrite.\n\n 1. Powdered Iron Cores\n 2. Ferrite Core\n\nAdvantages and Limitations of Ferromagnetic Cores\n\nPowdered-iron cores are common at high and very high radio frequencies.\n\nA ferrite is a special form of powdered iron that has exceptionally high permeability, causing a great concentration of magnetic flux lines within the coil.\n\nA Ferrite Core Inductor\nA Ferrite Core Inductor\n\nFerrite is used at audio frequencies, as well as at low, medium, and high radio frequencies. Coils using these materials can be made much smaller, physically, than can air-core coils having the same inductance.\n\nThe main trouble with ferromagnetic cores is that, if the coil carries more than a certain amount of current, the core will saturate. This means that the ferromagnetic material is holding as much flux as it possibly can.\n\nWhen a core becomes saturated, any further increase in coil current will not produce a corresponding increase in the magnetic flux in the core. The result is that the inductance changes, decreasing with coil currents that are more than the critical value.\n\nIn extreme cases, ferromagnetic cores can also waste considerable power as heat. This makes a coil lossy.\n\nPermeability Tuning\n\nSolenoidal coils can be made to have variable inductance by sliding ferromagnetic cores in and out of them. The frequency of a radio circuit can be adjusted in this way.\n\nBecause moving the core in and out of a coil changes the effective permeability within the coil, this method of tuning is called permeability tuning. The in/out motion can be precisely controlled by attaching the core to a screw shaft, and anchoring a nut at one end of the coil.\n\nAs the screw shaft is rotated clockwise, the core enters the coil, and the inductance increases. As the screw shaft is rotated counterclockwise, the core moves out of the coil, and the inductance decreases.\n\n\nInductor coils do not have to be wound on cylindrical forms, or on cylindrical ferromagnetic cores. There’s another coil geometry, called the toroid.\n\nToroidal Core inductor\nToroidal Core inductor\n\nToroid gets its name from the shape of the ferromagnetic core. The coil is wound over a core having this shape which resembles a donut or bagel.\n\nThere are several advantages to toroidal coils over solenoidal, or cylindrical, ones.\n\n 1. First, fewer turns of wire are needed to get a certain inductance with a toroid compared to a solenoid.\n 2. Second, a toroid can be physically smaller for a given inductance and current-carrying capacity.\n 3. Third, practically all the flux is contained within the core material. This reduces unwanted mutual inductances with components near the toroid.\n\nToroidal coils have limitations, too.\n\n 1. It is more difficult to permeability-tune a toroidal coil than it is to tune a solenoidal one.\n 2. Toroidal coils are harder to wind than solenoidal ones.\n 3. Sometimes, mutual inductance between or among physically separate coils is actually desired; with a toroid, the coils have to be wound on the same form for this to be possible.\n\nPot Cores\n\nThere is another way to confine the magnetic flux in a coil so that unwanted mutual inductance does not occur: wrap ferromagnetic core material around a coil. A wraparound core of this sort is known as a pot core.\n\nPot Core Inductor\nPot Core Inductor\n\nA typical pot core comes in two halves, inside one of which the coil is wound. Then the parts are assembled and held together by a bolt and nut. The entire assembly looks like a miniature oil tank. The wires come out of the core through small holes or slots.\n\nPot cores have the same advantages as toroids.\n\nThe core tends to prevent the magnetic flux from extending outside the physical assembly. Inductance is greatly increased compared to solenoidal windings having a comparable number of turns.\n\nIn fact, pot cores are even better than toroids if the main objective is to get a large inductance in a small space.\n\nThe main disadvantage of a pot core is that tuning, or adjustment of the inductance, is all but impossible. The only way to do it is by switching in different numbers of turns, using taps at various points on the coil.\n\nFilter Chokes\n\nThe largest values of inductance that can be obtained in practice are on the order of several henrys.\n\nFilter choke inductor\nFilter choke inductor\n\nThe primary use of a coil this large is to smooth out the pulsations in direct current that result when ac is rectified in a power supply. This type of coil is known as a filter choke.\n\nInductors at AF\n\nInductors for audio frequency (AF) applications range in value from a few millihenrys up to about 1 H. They are almost always toroidally wound, or are wound in a pot core, or comprise part of an audio transformer. Ferromagnetic cores are the rule.\n\nInductors can be used in conjunction with moderately large values of capacitance in order to obtain AF-tuned circuits. However, in recent years, audio tuning has been largely taken over by active components, particularly integrated circuits.\n\nInductors at RF\n\nThe radiofrequency (RF) spectrum ranges from a few kilohertz to well above 100 GHz. At the low end of this range, inductors are similar to those at AF. As the frequency increases, cores having lower permeability are used.\n\nToroids are common up through about 30 MHz. Above that frequency, air-core coils are more often used.\n\nIn RF applications, coils are routinely connected in series or in parallel with capacitors to obtain tuned circuits.\n\nOther arrangements yield various characteristics of attenuation versus frequency, serving to let signals at some frequencies pass through while rejecting signals at other frequencies.\n\nTransmission-Line Inductors\n\nAt frequencies about 100 MHz, another type of inductor becomes practical. This is the type formed by a length of the transmission line.\n\nA transmission line is generally used to get energy from one place to another. In radio communications, transmission lines get energy from a transmitter to an antenna, and from an antenna to a receiver.\n\nMost transmission lines are found in either of two geometries,\n\n 1. parallel-wire transmission line\n 2. coaxial type transmission line\n\nA parallel-wire transmission line consists of two wires running alongside each other with constant spacing.\n\nThe spacing is maintained by polyethylene rods molded at regular intervals to the wires, or by a solid web of polyethylene. The substance separating the wires is called the dielectric of the transmission line.\n\nA coaxial transmission line has a wire conductor surrounded by a tubular braid or pipe. The wire is kept at the center of this tubular shield by means of polyethylene beads, or more often, by solid or foamed polyethylene, all along the length of the line.\n\nLine Inductance\n\nShort lengths of any type of transmission line behave as inductors, as long as the line length is less than 90° ( 1⁄4 of a wavelength).\n\nAt 100 MHz, 90° in free space is 75 cm, or a little more than 2 ft. In general, if f is the frequency in megahertz, then 1⁄4 wavelength in free space, expressed in centimeters (s cm ), is given by this formula:\n\nScm = 7500/f\n\nThe length of a quarter-wavelength section of the transmission line is shortened from the free-space quarter wavelength by the effects of the dielectric.\n\nIn practice, 1 ⁄ 4 wavelength along the line can be anywhere from about 0.66 (or 66 percent) of the free-space length for coaxial lines with solid polyethylene dielectric to about 0.95 (or 95 percent) of the free-space length for parallel-wire line with spacers molded at intervals of several centimeters. The factor by which the wavelength is shortened is called the velocity factor of the line.\n\nThe shortening of the wavelength in a transmission line, compared with the wavelength in free space, is a result of a slowing down of the speed with which the radio signals move in the line compared with their speed in space (the speed of light).\n\nIf the velocity factor of a line is given by v, then the preceding formula for the length of a quarter-wave line, in centimeters, becomes:\n\nScm = 7500v/f\n\nVery short lengths of line—a few electrical degrees—produce small values of inductance. As the length approaches 1⁄4 wavelength, the inductance increases.\n\nTransmission line inductors behave differently than coils in one important way: the inductance of a coil, particularly an air-core coil, is independent of the frequency.\n\nBut the inductance of a transmission-line section changes as the frequency changes. At first, the inductance becomes larger as the frequency increases. At a certain limiting frequency, the inductance becomes theoretically infinite.\n\nAbove that frequency, the line becomes capacitive rather than inductive. Learn more about capacitors and capacitance.\n\nUnwanted Inductances\n\nAny length of wire has some inductance. As with a transmission line, the inductance of a wire increases as the frequency increases. Wire inductance is more significant at RF than at AF.\n\nIn some cases, especially in radio communications equipment, the inductance of, and among, wires can become a major problem. Circuits can oscillate when they should not. A receiver might respond to signals that it’s not designed to intercept.\n\nA transmitter can send out signals on unauthorized and unintended frequencies. The frequency response of any circuit can be altered, degrading the performance of the equipment. Sometimes the effects of this stray inductance are so small that they are not important; this might be the case in a stereo hi-fi set located at a distance from other electronic equipment. But in some situations, stray inductance can cause serious equipment malfunctions.\n\nA good way to minimize stray inductance is to use coaxial cables between and among sensitive circuits or components. The shield of the cable is connected to the common ground of the apparatus.\nIn some cases, enclosing individual circuits in metal boxes can prevent stray inductance from causing feedback and other problems.\n\nLeave a Comment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9637411832809448}
+{"content": "Violence in Honduras\n\n\nWhy is Honduras so Violent?\n\nhomicide cycle.PNG\n\nTo understand violence in Honduras, you have to understand one negative, recurring cycle. Organized criminal groups like gangs and drug traffickers pay off police, prosecutors, and judges to get away with their crimes. This corrupts the criminal justice system. Without a functioning justice system, impunity runs rampant for criminals and murderers: they are rarely held accountable for their actions. This of course, leads to more violence and crime.\n\n\n75% of homicide cases are not investigated, while 88% never reach any sort of judicial resolution\n\nThere is a backlog of more than 180,000 cases in the Honduran courts\n\nhomicide impunity rate.PNGhomicide investigation rate.PNGViolence and crime in Honduras is extremely likely to go unpunished. Historically, policing has been weak in Honduras. Criminal investigation is severely hampered by limited funding, a lack of high-tech investigative tools, corrupt officers, and poor police education.\n\nEven when the police are able to do their jobs, the judicial system and prosecutorial service are overwhelmed with cases and have many of the same deficiencies seen in the police. The judiciary’s political independence has also been called into question. For example in 2009, four Supreme Court Justices were removed for their opposition to the coup d’état, a move which later drew a condemning verdict from the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights. A broken and manipulated justice system with limited independence creates impunity: 75% of homicide cases are not investigated, and 88% never reach any sort of judicial resolution. This is true for other crimes in Honduras as well. This impunity leads to flourishing criminal activity.\n\nGang Violence\n\nSources differ, but there are as many as 40,000 active gang members in the country\n\nms13.jpgGangs play a key role in the high rates of violence in the country. In a context of poverty and limited government services (including police, social services, education, health, and others), gangs are likely to form. In Honduras’ marginalized urban neighborhoods, gangs provide an opportunity for young people to find identity and a source of income. Different sources estimate there are between 12,000 and 40,000 members in Honduras. Gangs commit many different crimes: extortion, street-level drug peddling, wholesale drug trafficking (in some cases), robbery, and murder-for-hire schemes. Violence at the hands of gangs can result for various reasons:\n\n • If extorted businesses or individuals do not pay war taxes, gang members may kill them\n • If multiple gangs want to sell drugs in the same area, they may fight over that territory\n • Gangs have strict codes for their members that if broken, are punishable by death\n\nDrug Trafficking\n\nIn 2016, the U.S. government estimated that approximately 3 to 4 metric tons of cocaine passes through Honduras each month, equivalent to a U.S. street value of $507 to $676 million\n\nCentral America drug map.jpg\n\nHonduras has the misfortune of being situated between South American cocaine production and U.S. consumption. In part because of the impunity that has existed in Honduras, drug traffickers saw an easy path to the market in the U.S.: drug planes stop along Honduras’ marshy east coastline where drugs and money change hands. Most drugs come to Honduras by boat, passing through the Gulf of Fonseca. Though drug trafficking through Honduras has dropped sharply in the past few years, between 140 and 300 tons of cocaine still pass through the country every year. Competition between drug traffickers often results in violence. These traffickers also avoid detection by paying off different authorities, which further weakens the justice system.\n\n • The National Police have historically been implicit in drug and arms trafficking through the country, receiving bribes in exchange for turning a blind eye or cooperating with traffickers moving cocaine north. Police have also been implicated in collaborating with gangs. In addition to police officers, the drug trade has corrupted mayors, members of Congress, and even a former President. Crime and the money that comes along with it have contributed to the deterioration of the justice system.\n\nThese maps show changes from 2011 to 2016 with a 40% reduction in flights suspected to be carrying drugs through Honduras, a 60-70% reduction in maritime drug routes, and a shift away from using Honduras’ Caribbean coast as a stopping point.\n\n\nAbout 64% of the population lived in poverty, and 16% are living in extreme poverty\n\nhomicide cycle 2.PNGThere is another cycle that helps explain violence in Honduras: poverty. Poverty provides a context in which high levels of violence and crime can flourish. A lack of jobs or other economic opportunities push some – especially young men – toward crime or gangs to improve their financial prospects. The violence creates obstacles (like extortion) to economic activity, creating a negative cycle pictured on the left (graphic from World Bank).\n\nhomicide world bank.pngGary Haugen, in his book The Locust Effect, compellingly argues that this cycle is not being addressed by NGOs, governments, and multilateral organizations around the world. He says: “efforts to end global poverty and to secure the most basic human rights for the poor are failing because crime and violence against the poor are not being addressed.” The Inter-American Development Bank has made a “lower-bound” estimate that crime in Honduras results in a 6.5% loss in GDP.\n\nWhile the outlook on poverty and violence is again on a positive trajectory, there is still much work left to do: 64% of the population is living in poverty, as of 2017. Further, Honduras has the second smallest middle class in Latin America at only 10.9% of the population. A larger middle class is associated with lower levels of violence, stronger public institutions, stronger economic growth, and greater societal stability. Working to stem both violence and increase economic opportunities is key to sustainable development.\n\n\nHonduras received a score of 29/100 in the Corruption Perceptions Index, where 0 is very corrupt and 100 is very transparent\n\nIn Honduras, government institutions are weak, often failing to provide basic public services such as education and health care. Corruption in the police and judicial systems make victims afraid or unwilling to report crimes. And weak or corrupt institutions fail to protect individuals such as journalists, civil society members, legal professionals, and human rights defenders such as Berta Caceres.\n\nCorruption is not limited to the justice system, of course. This cycle of impunity and crime occurs with gangs and drug traffickers, but it also occurs with government employees and businesspeople. Some government employees and allies in the private sector have devised a number of devious ways to skim money off the top of budgets from government institutions such as the Ministries of Health or Education.\n\nThe most famous of these cases is the embezzlement and bribery scheme in the Honduran Institute of Social Security, a health insurance program and system that makes up about a third of the government’s overall public health system that came to light in 2015. Some estimate that over 300 million dollars were stolen by government employees in this case. In this version of the cycle, important public services are weakened – like schools and health clinics – things that could go a long way to help alleviate some of the social problems in crime-ridden communities. This contributes to an environment in which violence and crime can flourish. The weak justice system allows corruption in these public services to continue.\n\nHow AJS is Responding\n\nAJS works both to prevent and address violence in Honduras by:\n\n\nLearn more about AJS’s response to corruption, violence, and poverty in Honduras, and our pursuit of a more just society.\n\nUpdated January 2019", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8050159811973572}
+{"content": "Asked Oct 16, 2019\n\nHigh blood pressure- Twenty percent of Americans ages 25 to 74 have high blood pressure. If 16 randomly selected Americans ages 25 to 74 are selected, find each probability.\n\nb. one-half will have high blood pressure.\n\n\nplease give answer explanation step by step please.\n\n\nExpert Answer\n\nStep 1\n\nb. Binomial distribution:\n\nSince there are only two outcomes (having blood pressure and not having blood pressure), the...\n\n\nImage Transcriptionclose\n\nP(X x) \"Cpq where, n is the mumber of trials n n-x p is the probability of success, and q is the probability of failure\n\n\nWant to see the full answer?\n\nSee Solution\n\nCheck out a sample Q&A here.\n\nWant to see this answer and more?\n\n\nSee Solution\n*Response times may vary by subject and question.\nTagged in\n\n\n\n\nRelated Statistics Q&A\n\nFind answers to questions asked by student like you\nShow more Q&A\n\nQ: How many different teams of 3 can be chosen from a group of 9 adults and 8 children if each team mus...\n\nA: There are 9 adults and 8 children. A team has to be selected with 3 members.\n\n\nQ: A test of hypothesis is statistic H0: u=150 versus H1:u greater than 150 was performed. The P-value...\n\nA: From the provided information considering u=150, the test hypothesis is provided as:\n\n\nQ: In a simple random sample of 1500 patients admitted to the hiospital with pneumonia, 145 were under ...\n\nA: Given DataN = 1500n = 145proportion is given by\n\n\nQ: An investigator conducts a study to investigate whether there is a difference in mean PEF in childre...\n\nA: Introduction:The 100 (1 – α) % confidence interval for the population mean, μ, for given sample stan...\n\n\nQ: Question 22, problem is in photo\n\nA: Standard normal distribution:The standard normal distribution is a special case of normal distributi...\n\n\nQ: An independent-measures study with n= 6 in each sample produces a sample mean difference of 4 points...\n\nA: It is given that the difference in sample means, (X1-bar – X2-bar) = 4Sample size is n1 = n2 = 6.The...\n\n\nQ: Suppose a multiple choice test contains 30 questions. If each question has 5 answer choices only one...\n\nA: An experiment with two possible outcomes follows the binomial distribution.The binomial distribution...\n\n\nQ: Suppose you compile all possible samples of 25 children of preschool age in your school district. If...\n\nA: Sampling distribution of sample mean:A sampling distribution of the sample mean for a given sample o...\n\n\nQ: If the population mean is 132, the sample mean is 136, o 6.3, and N 18, what is z? How likely is it ...\n\nA: The provided information is,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8889487385749817}
+{"content": "A look at the evidence for the Earth being round or spherical. Aristotle's reasoning is explained. The evidence includes a ship's hull disappearing first over the horizon, the stars, the constellations and the shadow on the moon during an eclipse.\n\nFirst broadcast:\n5 March 2008\n\nBefore watching this clip students could be asked to consider how we know that the Earth is a sphere. They could then consider if thousands of years ago people would have had this same evidence, and if not what did they think the Earth looked like? Students could then recap the evidence that Aristotle believed proved the Earth was round. They could consider how people at this time would have reacted, and write a fictional news report to break Aristotle's news, then read it to the rest of the class.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9022878408432007}
+{"content": "Loading Events\n60 Seaport Boulevard\n\nFrank Stella | Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation I), 1970\n\nA native of Malden, Massachusetts, Frank Stella is a painter, sculptor, and printmaker celebrated for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. His vast contribution to American art began in 1959 with his minimalist series, Black Paintings. Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation I) originated in 1970, as part of Stella’s acclaimed Protractor series, and combines abstract geometric compositions to create a mystifying visual experience that shifts radically when viewed from different perspectives. Named after ancient sites in Asia Minor, Damascus Gate features squares and circles, intersected by what Stella calls ‘interlaces,’ ‘rainbows,’ and ‘fans.’\n\nStella’s reproduction of Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation I) in Seaport can be experienced from diverse locations and perspectives across the neighborhood. The vibrant, colorful painting visually commemorates the neighborhood’s commitment to the arts and creates a cultural moment of new significance in Boston.\n\nSee the work come to life.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9667779803276062}
+{"content": "Four Steps to Evaluate Parking as a Qualified Fringe Benefit\n\nThe Treasury recently issued Notice 2018-99 (the Notice), providing much-awaited guidance on qualified fringes, which under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) were determined to be no longer deductible for some taxpayers and considered unrelated income for non-profits. The most troublesome of these qualified fringes is parking.\n\nFor not-for-profits, Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 512(a)(7) states “that unrelated business income shall be increased by any amount for which a deduction is not allowed under IRC 274 and which is incurred by such organization for any qualified transportation fringe (as defined in section 132(f)”.) Section 132(f) of the Internal Revenue Code allows an employer to provide certain benefits on a tax-free basis to an employee. One of these benefits is parking up to a value of $260 per month indexed for inflation. Anything over this amount is considered taxable compensation. However, under the new law, the cost associated with parking is potentially taxable to non-profits, while still being tax-free to employees. While the Notice provides non-profits with some guidance on determining the amount subject to tax under IRC Section 512(a)(7), we are still awaiting proposed regulations to further clarify this topic.\n\nThere are a couple of exceptions to the new rules. For example, if the cost of parking, or other disallowed fringe, is included in employees’ compensation, it will not be considered unrelated business income. However, it will be subject to employer and employee payroll taxes, as well as individual income taxes. Additionally, if the parking lot provided for employee use is also available to the public, and is used predominantly by the public, no parking costs will be included in unrelated business income.\n\nDetermining the portion of parking that is taxable will depend on whether the non-profit entity pays a third party for employee parking, or if they own or lease their own facilities that include parking. If the non-profit pays a third-party for employee parking spaces, then the amount paid will be subject to tax to the extent it is not included in employee compensation. If the employee parking is provided on space owned or leased by the non-profit, a four-step process and reasonable allocations will need to be applied. The Notice specifically states that costs, not value, must be used in determining the unrelated income associated with parking benefits. Costs to be considered are rent, maintenance, snow removal, security, insurance, repairs, taxes, interest, utilities, leaf and trash removal, but not depreciation.\n\nThe first step in the process of allocation is to determine if any parking spots are reserved for employees. Reserved spots can be designated with signage, or located in a separate facility, not open to the public. The Notice states that taxpayers have until March 31, 2019 to remove any signage or other restrictions. Doing so will be considered retroactive to January 1, 2018. If there are reserved employee spaces, the percentage of these spots to total parking spots should be multiplied by total parking costs. The result will be considered unrelated business income.\n\nThe second step in the process is to determine the primary use of the remaining parking spots. If it can be determined that the primary use (greater than 50%) of the remaining spots is for the general public, then no amount needs to be allocated to employee parking for this portion of the parking lot. Primary use must be tested during regular business hours on a typical business day. However, if usage varies significantly from day-to-day, an average, or other reasonable method can be used. For purposes of this calculation, the general public includes patrons, visitors, patients, students, congregants or delivery persons. The Notice specifically states that employees, partners or independent contractors are not to be considered part of the general public. The Notice does not address the classification of volunteers.\n\nIn the third step, the non-profit must determine the number of spots, if any, that are reserved for nonemployees. These spots would be designated in some manner as being visitor/customer parking areas. If there are reserved nonemployee spots, the non-profit should determine the percentage of its parking lot that is used for this purpose. It would then multiply this percentage by its total parking costs to determine the amount of parking that will not be considered unrelated business income.\n\nUnder step four, the non-profit would use a reasonable method to allocate costs to employee parking that is not deemed to be predominantly used by the public under step 2. The Notice requires that employee use be based on normal business hours on a typical day.\n\nBased on this four-step process, it may be possible for some taxpayers to eliminate or reduce any unrelated business income by removing signage related to reserved employee parking by March 31, 2019. If the parking facilities are not used predominantly by the public, some amount of parking will still be taxed. Taxpayers will need to determine their parking costs, and a reasonable percentage of employee usage. If there are multiple lots in the same geographic area, they can be aggregated to determine costs and usage percentages. If there are multiple geographic areas, the parking facilities in different geographic areas cannot be combined for purposes of these calculations.\n\nIf you have any questions on the above, or need assistance with determining parking costs, or employee usage, please reach out to your CSH representative.\n\n\nGet In Touch With An Advisor\n\nSubscribe To Get CSH Guidance\nDelivered To Your Inbox", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9653623700141907}
+{"content": "Scuffles break out as Adam Schiff speaks at Armenian town hall\n\nScuffles broke out as Rep. Adam Schiff spoke at an event where the Armenian National Committee of America - Western Region thanked the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate for passing resolutions recognizing the Armenian Genocide at the Glendale Central Library on Saturday.\n(Raul Roa/Staff Photographer)\n\nAt a town hall event on Saturday where an Armenian organization was thanking U.S. government officials for their support of resolutions recognizing the Armenian Genocide, scuffles broke out as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), a co-sponsor of a resolution on the issue, spoke in the auditorium at the Glendale Central Library.\n\nAs Schiff began speaking, an elderly man and woman and a younger woman held up signs stating “Don’t Impeach.” When they were asked to take down the signs, they refused.\n\nThen, about a dozen people scattered throughout the auditorium began yelling “Liar.”\n\nWhen some in the audience asked them to refrain from yelling, several scuffles broke out throughout the room, and the audience members who were yelling at Schiff removed their jackets. They were wearing pro-President Trump T-shirts.\n\n\nAfter roughly 15 minutes, the scuffles settled down, and the event continued.\n\nThere were three Glendale police officers at the event who helped deal with the situation, according to the Glendale Police Department. No injuries were reported, according to police.\n\nThe event was organized by the Armenian National Committee of America - Western Region to thank the U.S. House of Representatives for passing a resolution affirming its recognition of the Armenian Genocide in October and celebrating the U.S. Senate’s unanimous recognition of the Armenian Genocide on Thursday.\n\nSchiff said he appreciated the opportunity to take part in the event.\n\n\n“I was grateful for the opportunity to share in the community’s celebration of the historic passage of the Armenian Genocide resolution in both the House and Senate, and thankful for the recognition of the efforts of so many people who made this day possible,” he said in a statement.\n\n“Unfortunately, some came to the event with the intent to disrupt, but the Armenian community has had to overcome far greater challenges along the road to recognition than to be deterred by a few angry voices,” he added.\n\nIn a statement from the Armenian National Committee of America - Western Region, the organization said what made the act that much more “egregious” was that descendants of genocide survivors were in the room, many of them elderly, who had waited for the passage of such resolutions their entire lives and had come to the event to express their gratitude to all those who supported the cause for decades.\n\n“While, as Americans, we value our right to freedom of speech, today’s actions by a select few were designed to disrupt an event that had no connection to recent political divisions and disrespected the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide,” according to the statement.\n\n“Though asked to leave, the disrupters instead remained and continued to behave in an appalling manner which lacked any semblance of human decency,” the statement added.\n\nThe committee said the issue transcends partisan politics in its appeal to properly honor and acknowledge the 1.5 million Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians who were murdered starting in 1915 when the Ottoman Empire, now modern-day Turkey, murdered them.\n\n“Our democracy deserves better than the disgraceful behavior of those who tried to disrupt a non-partisan, non-political event meant to express unity and gratitude on a purely humanitarian issue, and we strongly condemn any attempt to hijack its message,” according to the committee’s statement.\n\nSupport our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9589149951934814}
+{"content": "Corpus linguistics and the problem of non-violent extremism\n\nWill Baldet Blogs 24/04/2018\n\nDuring the 2016-17 Home Affairs Select Committee on Radicalisation, Google claimed that, in 2014, they had removed over 14 million videos relating to different forms of abuse, including content that promoted violent extremism. They have now announced they will be employing an additional 10,000 staff as human moderators to take down videos and comments that violate their policies. It therefore seems fair to assert that the problem of abusive online content is getting worse.\n\nWhile we can agree that content which promotes or incites violence and abuse has no place online, there is a grey zone that sits between freedom of speech and hate speech that currently has limited opposition but is becoming an increasingly urgent problem.\n\nUntil their bans from Twitter and Facebook (in 2017 and 2018 respectively), Britain First personified this grey zone. Through a steady trickle of anti-Muslim and anti-immigration content, they poisoned the air of cyberspace with a toxic cloud that seeped from the virtual world into the physical world, creating a hostile environment for minority groups in the UK.\n\nTo my knowledge, Britain First has never called for violent attacks against Muslims, nor did they openly demand violence or vandalism against Muslim institutions (despite their contemptable ‘Mosque invasions’, where they thrust copies of the Bible into the hands of bewildered and frightened worshippers). As my colleague at the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right, Dr Craig McCann, recently noted, Facebook eventually removed Britain First from its platform for “repeatedly posting content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups”. In other words, they created the mood music to which violent extremists can dance.\n\nWe can commend Facebook and Twitter for taking the bold step of banning Britain First, but I cannot help but wonder if the very public arrests and convictions of its leaders, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, were the impetus to implement their ban. Would social media companies have taken note, for instance had the President of the United States not raised their profile to his 50 million followers and the world’s media by retweeting some of Fransen’s anti-Muslim messages?\n\nAnd herein lies a bigger problem; Britain First are far from the only game in town. There are countless websites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts that promote the same animosity towards Muslim communities, both in Britain and abroad. Some, such as Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs, cultivate an air of authority and do not shy away from self-promotion. Others like Bare Naked Islam (which carries the tagline “It isn’t Islamophobia if they really are trying to kill you”) are similarly brazen in their contempt for Muslims, but operate below the radar of mainstream media and thus the glare of public scrutiny and outrage.\n\nBy framing every conversation about Islam and Muslims through a negative prism, these online platforms are endeavouring to change the meaning of those words to represent all that is wrong in society. As a simple test for yourself, recall just three recent stories about Muslims that do not make reference to terrorism, grooming gangs or forced marriage. It’s a tragic indictment of today’s society (and our mainstream media) that this should be difficult. Those that study the concept of corpus linguistics will be familiar with this method of defining public opinion through the normalisation of harmful language.\n\nThat is not to downplay these issues or to deny that they can exist within Muslim communities in non-Muslim majority nations. Yet we must also recognise that all of the above issues exist elsewhere in society and are not the preserve of one community over another. Surely society can recognise that Islamist terrorism is currently the most prevalent terrorist threat in most European countries without denigrating all Muslims in the process. However, these anti-Muslim platforms pump out such a relentless and persistent torrent of negative stories that, in the words of Baroness Sayeeda Warsi in the UK, anti-Muslim prejudice has become “Britain’s bigotry blind spot”.\n\nSo how do we define these websites, groups and individuals who stay the right side of our hate crime laws, but advance the rhetoric necessary for violent extremism, and what can be done about them?\n\nThe UK’s counter terrorism strategy defines them as ‘non-violent extremists’ because they are sympathetic to the aims of violent extremists, but without engaging in or promoting the acts of violence themselves. The term itself has been contentious when applied to Islamist extremists, but that is mostly because critics of counter-terrorism policies wrongly ascribe religious conservatism to its remit. Few, however, would deny it aptly describes the bile of the radical right.\n\nIn the United States, the Dangerous Speech Project is creating a framework for tackling this issue. They define ‘dangerous speech’ as any form of expression (speech, text or images) that can increase the risk that its audience will condone or participate in violence against members of another group. To reduce its impact and still preserve our right to freedom of speech, they suggest two approaches: the first is education of what constitutes dangerous speech and why it can be so harmful (effectively inoculating society by being able to recognise and resist it); and the second is to counter dangerous speech directly, by responding to it in a way that undermines it. Likewise, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has produced a guide on counteracting dangerous speech.\n\nHere in the UK, much of this work already forms part of the Prevent Strategy, although this is more explicitly focused on terrorist propaganda. However, the Counter Extremism Strategy, led by its new Commissioner Sara Khan, will have dangerous speech and non-violent extremism directly in its sights.\n\nWhilst the appointment of a Counter Extremism Commissioner has received some predictably bloviated responses, it is evident that simply removing content from online platforms can only ever be a game of whack-a-mole. To that end, new approaches to tackle this problem are welcomed and we should be mature enough to assess Ms Khan and the Commission upon their results, not personal grudges and hyperbole. Put simply, unless we find a way to curtail the Danse Macabre of non-violent extremists, the will band play on.\n\nOriginally posted:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8457281589508057}
+{"content": "Price Transparency Could Backfire\n\nDanish example shows that prices in health care might go up\n\nPrice transparency as a way to spur competition among health care providers on price could increase prices. Researchers are citing a 1997 study about the Danish ready-made concrete to explain why.\n\nThe New York Times reported on the new, unexpected celebrity of \"Government-Assisted Oligopoly Coodination? A Concrete Case\" in the Journal of Industrial Economics on Monday, the same day that the President Trump issued his price transparency executive order.\n\nThe takeaway point of the Danish study is that prices went up (by 15%–20%), not down, after Danish antitrust authorities had ready-mixed concrete companies disclose their prices. The authors rule out a business upturn or capacity constraints as an explanation. \"Instead,\" wrote Svend Albak, Peter Mollgaard, and Per B. Overgaard,\"we argue that change in information structure resulting from publication of firm-specific prices allowed firms to reduce oligopoly competition and, hence, led to increased prices.\" \n\nSome experts see similarities between the American health care market and an oligopolies elsewhere, including the Danish ready-mixed concrete industry. Essentially, publication of prices encouraged companies to bid up their prices to the competitors' levels rather than vie for business by lowering them. \"Once the companies knew what their competitors were charging, it was easy for them to all raise their prices in concert,\" the Times reported. \n\nOthers see the Danish comparison as far fetched: a long time ago, a different country, a very different industry. Americans shop like mad for other goods and services on price, they argue. If reliable and intelligible pricing information on health care services were available, Americans would use it and unleash competition among providers in the process, they believe.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8773015141487122}
+{"content": "PM orders govt to allocate YR500 million for Taiz wounded soldiers\n\nPrime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik has ordered the government to allocate YR 500 million to cover the expenses of healthcare for army soldiers and popular resistances fighters who have sustained wounds in the battles with Houthi militants over the past years.\n\nIn a meeting with Taiz governor Nabeel Shamsan here today, the premier said the government, upon President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s directions, is keen on affording healthcare services for the wounded in the country and abroad in recognition of the national warriors sacrifices to reverse the Houthi coup and protect the country.\n\nThe two officials discussed the need to break the Houthi years long siege around the city and ways of restoring public services to the locals.\n\nتحقق أيضاً\n\nFM contributes to Arab League council’s emergency session\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9929698705673218}
+{"content": "What Does A Democrat Mean\n\nWilliam Penn Quotes Kindness Representatives To The Constitutional Convention Were Charged With SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled.That if\n\n\nYet some Democrats running for president insisted that their vote for \"present\" does not mean they will give up their push for the ideas behind the Green New Deal. “We don’t know if we can get to net.\n\n\nchairman of the House Intelligence Committee, suggested that news of no further indictments didn’t mean criminal. [is finished] does not in any way circumscribe the ongoing work of the Congress.”.\n\nApr 30, 2018. Although nearly two of three young voters polled said they do not like. But that does not mean the rest will turn out to back Democrats, the.\n\nWhat does that mean for policy? Can government spur growth, and if so, how? That is a fraught debate. At a minimum, though, a progressive should favor growth, think twice before vilifying business.\n\nOct 24, 2017. Do the groups in the political typology correspond to groups in the real world?. Less politically engaged groups, such as Disaffected Democrats or Devout. related technique: Cluster analysis using the k-means algorithm.\n\nI mean, this investigation lasted pretty long. The Internet Research Agency and the GRU, the Russian military intelligence officers, who stole data from the Democratic National Committee and John.\n\nAlso, all of the Democrats interviewed said obtaining the report is a crucial step before any testimony. The lawyers also advised that Mueller does not have the authority. Mueller to testify but it.\n\nFeb 05, 2019 · The State of the Union address has lost its power in recent years to bring Americans together. More Democrats may be watching today than in previous years, but not necessarily in search of a moment of national unity.\n\nBut here’s something that might have gotten lost: The day before seven Republican senators voted along with Democrats to end U.S. support of the Saudi led war in Yemen. What does this split tell us.\n\nApr 6, 2018. The reunification of Democrats in the Senate could be the impetus for a brutal power. Q&A: What control of the NY Senate may mean for you.\n\nJack Stollsteimer, Delaware County’s Democratic candidate for District Attorney. which is of the upmost importance, does not mean winning at all costs.\" He added that Stollsteimer’s background is a.\n\nConfused what a Republican and Democrat actually are? This is a clear, simple explanation of parties that children can understand. Free printable.\n\nNov 6, 2012. According to Smithsonian Magazine, red did not always denote the Republican party and blue wasn't always symbolic of Democrats — this.\n\nSo what does Medicare for All mean to me? I have been a member of Single-Payer Action. health-care system for all residents of the U.S. Recent polls show 84 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of.\n\n\nSixteen Democratic senators—including all of the declared 2020. Under that system, private insurance would effectively cease to exist, meaning insurance company employees and others would likely.\n\nRegardless of your political affiliation, you are probably interested in understanding the truth about the Russian collusion controversy. The Democrat Dossier will examine aspects of the investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 American presidential election, to explain how it.\n\nApr 4, 2018. At the party's national convention in 1860, Southern Democrats. to do so in greater numbers with the dawn of the civil rights movement.\n\nWhen Democrats took 40 congressional districts from Republicans in the 2018 election, the House of Representatives experienced what many considered to be a blue wave. What does this shift mean for the.\n\nthe Democratic Caucus chairman, studiously avoided the Mueller inquiry as he talked up the “For the People” agenda that they notionally campaigned on. “Nowhere in the For the People agenda does it.\n\nThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party.Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world’s oldest active political party.\n\nRUSH: It’s kind of mesmerizing to watch, kind of exciting to watch, and the excitement tempered with some anticipation. But essentially what we’re watching is the Democrat Party commit suicide.\n\nThe silver lining for current and future retired workers is that this doesn’t mean the end of Social Security. On one hand, Democrats have proposed addressing Social Security’s shortcomings.\n\nWilliamson does believe that the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020 needs to be. “We have to fall in love again with what this country can mean for each of us.”\n\nHowever, this does not mean Democratic candidates and voters aren’t thinking about the president. To the contrary, they are desperate to kick him out, but the method they have surmised is to find.\n\nwhat this amendment does is changes language that we’ve had in our current code regarding ‘terminates a human pregnancy’ to ’causes the death of an unborn person.’ I think it’s important that we call.\n\nMar 23, 2019 · The No Child Left Behind Act is officially part of the past, and the Every Student Succeeds Act is the law of the land. So what does the new law mean for students with disabilities? Though NCLB is.\n\nnatesilver: I mean, he was doing an early-state tour. He seemed like he could be the Scott Walker of the Democratic 2020 field. In 2016, Wisconsin’s then-Gov. Walker had the characteristics.\n\nDemocrat definition, an advocate of democracy. See more. Since Democrats and Republicans appear to have an inexhaustible appetite for enjoying political friction, it seems worth offering some insight on which label came first, in the hopes that each group can use it to browbeat the other.\n\nJul 12, 2018. In 12 states, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats. party identification may mean less than it once did, as the number of.\n\nA Texas Democrat Congresswoman is defending her earlier comments suggesting that the drive-by shooting of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes may have been a hate crime, even though both suspects in the.\n\nDemocrat politicians and the mainstream media have gone wall-to-wall in their coverage and condemnation of President Donald Trump after two illegal immigrant children died while in custody after trying to cross into the U.S. and seek asylum.\n\n\nCapital Punishment. Crime is everywhere. In our neighborhood, in the neighboring state, wherever we look, we find criminals and crime. Criminals have become a part of our daily lives.\n\nLegally speaking, “collusion” has no meaning. It’s not a federal crime. The second was a successful hack into computers “affiliated with the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations” by.\n\nJun 26, 2018. What does McMaster win mean for SC race in November vs. Vincent Sheheen, the Camden Democrat who was his party's nominee for.\n\nThey’ve won two MTR votes so far this Congress, meaning enough Democrats joined Republicans. “There’s no doubt Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi does not want to bring it up,” he said. Other Democrats who.\n\nWhat Does It Mean That Abrams And Gillum Are Both Likely To Lose?\n\nJerrold Nadler of New York, a Democrat whose panel has jurisdiction over impeachment, took to Twitter to highlight Mueller’s finding that “while this report does not conclude that. But that doesn’t.\n\nTrump registered as a Republican in Manhattan in 1987 and since that time has changed his party affiliation five times. In 1999, Trump changed his party affiliation to the Independence Party of New York.In August 2001, Trump changed his party affiliation to Democratic.\n\nJul 9, 2018. Do Democrats condone this behavior? Please tell me it isn't so! Yet I see few Democrats calling to end the behavior that causes such strife and.\n\nDefinition of Democrat: An entity supporting a democracy in a country, but. don't identify with any of the parties because their views and beliefs do not fit in well.\n\nWhat does it mean to be a man? I can’t answer that for you, but you can read my 10 Commandments of Manliness as a case study. Make your own list!\n\nPolitical Party In Usa OTHER P2012 RESOURCES: New Hampshire Political Library – This site contains just about anything you could ever want to know about the influential New Hampshire Presidential primary — including a\n\nThe statute, however, does not explicitly say what “timely” is. Usually, that word would suggest something that is in fact on time, meaning the budget would. Neither the Assembly nor Senate.\n\nClick Here For More Sorcha Faal Reports. Sister Maria Theresa is the 73rd Sorcha Faal of the Sorcha Faal Order, Elected as Mother Superior 3 February 2007 “Conspiracy theorists concentrate their time on transmuting the \"base matter\" of current events, official stories, propaganda and public relations into the gleaming golden truth buried within. They do this through the very right-brained.\n\nMidterm elections: What does the Democrats’ win in the House of Representatives mean for US politics? What powers have the Democrats won and how can they use them?\n\nSons And Daughters Of Virginia Founding Fathers The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is led by the President General who is elected to the highest office of the Society by the DAR Continental Congress. The", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8724740743637085}
+{"content": "US Indymedia Global Indymedia Publish About us\nPrinted from Boston IMC :\nIVAW Winter Soldier\n\nWinter Soldier\nBrad Presente\n\nOther Local News\n\nSpare Change News\nOpen Media Boston\nSomerville Voices\nCradle of Liberty\nThe Sword and Shield\n\nLocal Radio Shows\n\nWMBR 88.1 FM\nWhat's Left\nWEDS at 8:00 pm\nLocal Edition\nFRI (alt) at 5:30 pm\n\nWMFO 91.5 FM\nSocialist Alternative\nSUN 11:00 am\n\nWZBC 90.3 FM\nSounds of Dissent\nSAT at 11:00 am\nTruth and Justice Radio\nSUN at 6:00 am\n\nCreate account Log in\nCommentary :: Labor\nCrisis of Freedom\n27 Oct 2014\nNeoliberalism forms a free entrepreneur out of the oppressed worker, an entrepreneur of himself. Everyone is a self-exploited worker of his own enterprise. Everyone is master and servant in one person. The class struggle is also changed into an inner struggle with oneself. One problematicizes oneself instead of society.\n\nby Byung-Chul Han\n\n[This reading sample from Byung-Chul Han’s Psycho-Politics. Neoliberalism and the New Power techniques (2014) is translated abridged from the German on the Internet, ]\n\n\nFreedom has become an episode called a connecting link or adaptor. The feeling of freedom appears in the transition from one life form to another until this proves to be a coercive form. Thus a new subjugation follows liberation. That is the fate of the subject which means literally being subjugated.\n\nWe believe today that we are a free newly designed and newly invented project, not a subjugated subject. This transition from subject to project is accompanied by the feeling of freedom. This project now proves to be a coercive figure, even a more efficient form of subjectivization and subjugation. The self as a project that believes it is liberated from outward pressures and foreign pressures now submits to inner pressures and self-pressures in the form of performance and optimization.\n\nWe live in a special historical phase in which freedom itself gives rise to pressures. The freedom of the possible even produces more pressures than the disciplinary imperative that issues commands and prohibitions. The imperative has a limit but the possible has no limit. Therefore the pressure that starts from the possible is boundless. Consequently we find ourselves in a paradoxical situation. Freedom is really the counter-figure of coercion. Being free means being free from pressures. This freedom that has to be the opposite of pressure now produces pressures. Psychological sicknesses like depression or burnout are expressions of a deep crisis of freedom. They are a pathological sign that freedom today often changes suddenly into pressure.\n\nThe performance subject that imagines itself free is in reality a servant. He is an absolute servant when he voluntarily exploits himself without any master. No master faces him who coerces him to work. Mere life and working are made absolute. Mere life and labor are two sides of one coin. Health represents the ideal of mere life… Contrary to Hegel’s assertion, work does not make the worker free. The worker remains a servant of work. Hegel’s servant forces the master to work. Hegel’s dialectic of master and servant leads to the totalization of work.\n\nThe neoliberal subject as entrepreneur of himself is incapable of relations to others who could be free of instrumentalization. No non-instrumental friendship arises between businesses. Being free originally meant being with friends. Freedom and friend have the same root in the Indo-Germanic. Freedom is basically a relational word. Persons feel really free in a successful relationship, in a happy being-together with others. The total isolation to which the neoliberal regime leads does not really make us free. So the question is raised today whether or not we must redefine and reinvent freedom to escape the terrible dialectic of freedom where freedom changes suddenly into coercion.\n\nNeoliberalism is a very efficient and intelligent system for exploiting freedom. All the practices and forms of expression of freedom like emotion, play and communication are exploited. Exploiting someone against his or her will is not efficient…\n\nInterestingly Marx defines the freedom of successful relations to others: “First in the community (with others), every individual has the means for developing his talents in every respect. Thus personal freedom is first possible in community.” [1] Being free means being realized together. Freedom is a synonym for successful community.\n\nFor Marx, individual freedom represents a trick, a deceit of capital. “Free competition” [2] based on the idea of individual freedom is not only “the relation of capital to itself.” Capital pursues its propagation… While people compete freely with each other, capital multiplies. Individual freedom is a bondage insofar as it is monopolized by capital for its own multiplication. Thus capital exploits the freedom of the individual to reproduce. “Capital is set free in free competition, not individuals.” [3]\n\nThe freedom of capital is realized by means of individual freedom. Thus the free individual is degraded to the genitals of capital. Individual freedom gives capital an “automatic” subjectivity that drives to active reproduction… [4] The individual freedom that takes an oppressive form today is ultimately nothing but the excess of capital itself.\n\n\nProductive forces (human labor power, functioning of equipment at a certain stage of development, according to Marx, falls into contradiction with the predominant relations of production (relations of property and rule). The contradiction arises because the productive forces always continue developing. So industrialization creates new productive forces that come into contradiction with relations similar to feudal relations of ownership and rule. This contradiction leads to social crises that press for change of the relations of production. Social crises can be removed through the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie producing a communist social system.\n\nContrary to Marx’ assumption, the contradiction between production forces and relations of production cannot be abolished through a communist revolution. It cannot be annulled. Because of this indwelling permanent contradiction, capitalism evades the future. Industrial capitalism mutates into neoliberalism and financial capitalism with post-industrial, immaterial production methods instead of changing suddenly into communism.\n\nNeoliberalism as a mutation form of capitalism forms an entrepreneur out of a worker. Neoliberalism does away with the foreign-exploited working class, not the communist revolution. Everyone is a self-exploiting employee of his own business. Everyone is master and servant in one person. The class struggle also changes into an inner struggle with oneself.\n\nThe solitude of the isolated entrepreneur fighting with himself and spontaneously exploiting himself constitutes the current production method, not the cooperating “multitude” elevated by Antonio Negri to the post-Marxist successor of the proletariat. Thus it is an error to believe that the cooperating “multitude” throws off the “parasitic empire” and produces a communist social system. This Marxist schema stressed by Negri will prove to be an illusion again.\n\nNo proletariat and no working class exploited by owners of the means of production really exist in the neoliberal regime. In immaterial production, everyone possesses his or her means of production. The neoliberal system is not a class system in the literal sense any more. Classes relating antagonistically to one another do not exist. That accounts for the stability of this system.\n\nThe distinction of proletariat and bourgeoisie cannot be maintained any more today. The proletariat is literally anyone who only has his or her children as the sole possession. His self-production is limited to biological reproduction. Today the illusion is spreading that everyone as a freely designed project is capable of boundless self-production. The “dictatorship of the proletariat” is structurally impossible today. Everyone is ruled by a dictatorship of capital today.\n\nThe neoliberal regime changes foreign-exploitation into self-exploitation affecting all “classes.” This classless self-exploitation is completely alien to Marx since it makes impossible the social revolution that rests on the distinction between exploiters and exploited. Because of the isolation of self-exploiting performance-subjects, no political we forms that would be capable of common action.\n\nWhoever fails in the neoliberal performance society blames himself and is ashamed instead of putting the society or the system in question. The special intelligence of the neoliberal regime is manifest here that allows no resistance against the system to arise. On the other hand, it is possible in the regime of foreign exploitation that the exploited act in solidarity and revolt together against the exploiter. Marx’ idea of the “dictatorship of the proletariat” was based on this logic. However it presupposes repressive rule relations. In the neoliberal regime of self-exploitation, aggression is directed against oneself. This auto-aggressivity makes the exploited into a depressive, not into a revolutionary.\n\nToday we work for capital and no longer for our own needs. Capital produces its own need that we wrongly see as our own need. It represents a new transcendence, a new form of subjectivization. We are hurled out of the immanence plane of life where life refers to itself instead of being subjected to an external goal.\n\nEmancipation from the transcendent system with religiously established premises characterizes modern politics. A politics with a complete politization of society is first possible in the modern age where transcendent resources of justification have no authority any more. Norms of action become freely negotiable. Transcendence gives way to socially immanent discourse. So society can re-establish itself in getting out of its immanence. But this freedom is abandoned again in the moment when capital rises to a new transcendence as a new master. Politics falls again into a bondage. Politics becomes a henchman or accomplice of capital.\n\nCan we really be free? Did we not invent God in order not to be free? Toward God, we are all culpable. But culpability destroys freedom. Politicians today blame the high indebtedness for enormously restricting their freedom of action. When we are debt-free, that means are entirely free, we must really act. If we are permanently indebted, we cannot act and cannot be free and responsible. Are not high debts an evidence that we are not yet able to be free? Isn’t capital a new god who makes us culprits? Walter Benjamin understood capitalism as a religion. Capitalism is the “first case of a heavily indebted cult, not an atoning cult.” Since there is no possibility of atonement, the state of unfreedom is perpetuated: “An enormous debt consciousness that cannot be atoned becomes a cult to make this debt or guilt universal, not to apologize for this guilt.” [5]\n\n\nBy Byung-Chul Han\n\n[This article published on September 2, 2014 is translated from the German on the Internet,]\n\nWhy is the neoliberal system so stable? Why is there hardly any resistance – despite an ever-greater gulf between rich and poor? For an explanation, it is important to understand how the subjugating power functions today.\n\nTwo capitalism critics clashed frontally in the debate between Antonio Negri and me a year ago on a Berlin stage. Negri raved for the possibilities of global resistance against the “empire,” the neoliberal rule system. He presented himself as a communist revolutionary and described me as a skeptical professor. He emphatically invoked the “multitude,” the interconnected protest and revolution mass that he obviously expected would bring down the empire. The position of the communist revolutionary seemed too naïve and unrealistic to me. I tried to explain to Negri why no revolution is possible any more today.\n\nWhoever wants to install a new rule system must do away with resistance. That is also true for the neoliberal rule system. To start a new rule system, an establishing power is necessary that often uses force. However this establishing power is not identical with the power inwardly stabilizing the system. Margaret Thatcher as a champion of neoliberalism treated unions as an “internal enemy” and fought them with force. A forceful incursion to enforce the neoliberal agenda is not a system-maintaining power.\n\n\nThe system-maintaining power of the disciplinary- and industrial society was repressive. Factory workers were brutally exploited by factory owners. The violent foreign exploitation of factory workers led to resistance and protests. A revolution that would overthrow the dominant production relations was possible then. In this repressive system, both the oppression and the oppressor are visible. There is a concrete counterpart, a visible enemy, engendering resistance.\n\nThe neoliberal system is structured very differently. Here the system-maintaining power is seductive and no longer repressive. It is no longer as visible as in the disciplinary regime. There is no concrete opposite any more, no enemy who represses freedom and against whom a resistance would be possible.\n\nNeoliberalism forms a free entrepreneur out of the oppressed worker, an entrepreneur of himself. Everyone is a self-exploited worker of his own enterprise. Everyone is master and servant in one person. The class struggle is also changed into an inner struggle with oneself. Whoever falls today accuses himself and is ashamed. One problematicizes oneself instead of society.\n\n\nThat disciplinary power that forcefully presses people into a corset of commands and prohibitions with great effort is inefficient. The power technology that ensures people submit to the rule context is considerably more efficient. Its special efficiency comes from pleasure and fulfillment, not from prohibitions and withdrawal. Instead of making people pliable, it tries to make them dependent. This efficiency logic of neoliberalism needs monitoring. In the 1980s, there were vehement protests against the census. Even students took to the streets.\n\nFrom a modern perspective, necessary data like occupation, high school qualifications or distance to the job seem almost absurd. There was a time when people believed they confronted the state as a system of rule that snatches information from citizens against their will. That time is long past. Today we expose ou8rselves of our own free will. This freedom makes protests impossible. Unlike the time of the census, we hardly protest against the surveillance. Free self-exposing follows the same efficiency logic as free self-exploitation. Do people protest against themselves? The American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer expressed this paradoxical situation with her truism: “Protect me from what I want.”\n\nDistinguishing between establishing and maintaining power is important. System-maintaining power assumes a smart friendly form and makes itself invisible and unassailable. The subjugated subject is not conscious of his subjugation. He imagines himself in freedom. This technology of rule neutralizes resistance in a very effective way. The rule that represses and attacks freedom is not stable. The neoliberal regime is stable and immunizes itself against all resistance because it uses freedom instead of repressing it. The repression of freedom quickly provokes resistance, not the exploitation of freedom.\n\nAfter the Asian crisis, South Korea was paralyzed and shocked. Then the IMF came and gave credits to the Koreans. The government had to forcefully enforce the neoliberal agenda against protests. This repressive power is the establishing power that often relies on force. This establishing power is distinguished from the system-maintaining power that even pretends to be freedom in the neoliberal regime. For Naomi Klein, the social state of shock after catastrophes is an opportunity to forcefully subject society to a radical reprogramming like the financial crisis in South Korea or Greece. There is hardly resistance in South Korea today. A great conformism and consensus with depression and burnout prevails. South Korea has the highest suicide rate today. One uses violence against oneself instead of changing society. Aggression outwards that would lead to a revolution gives way to a self-aggression.\n\nThere is no cooperating interconnected multitude that could revolt in a global protest- and revolution mass. Rather the solitude of the self-entrepreneur isolated for himself is the current production method. In the past, businesses stood in competition with each other. However a solidarity was possible within the business. Today everyone competes with everyone else, even within a business. This absolute competition enormously increases productivity but destroys solidarity and public spirit. No revolutionary mass can form out of exhausted, depressed and isolated individuals.\n\nNeoliberalism cannot be explained in a Marxist way. The famous “alienation” of labor does not occur in neoliberalism. Today we rush with euphoria into work up to burnout. The first stage of the burnout syndrome is euphoria. Burnout and revolution are mutually exclusive. So it is an error to believe the multitude casts out the parasitic empire and installs a communist society.\n\n\nWhat does communism mean today? Sharing and community are invoked everywhere. The sharing-economy should replace the economy of ownership and possession. “Sharing is caring” and “sharing is healing” are maxims of the “circler” in the new novel by Dave Eggers “The Circle.” The cobble stones on the way to the headquarters of the firm Circle are filled with sayings like “Seek community” and “Be active.” Caring is killing, it should really say. The digital carpooling service “Wunder Car” that makes each of us into a taxi driver advertises with the idea of community. However it is an error to believe the sharing-economy as Jeremy Rifkin claims in his latest book “The Zero Marginal Cost Society” is the end of capitalism ringing in a global community-oriented society where sharing is more important than owning. On the contrary, the sharing-economy ultimately leads to a total commercialization of life.\n\nThe change from possession to “access” celebrated by Jeremy Rifkin does not liberate us from capitalism. Whoever has no money has no access to sharing. Even in the age of access, we still live in a “Bannoptikum” where those without money are excluded. “Airbrb,” the community market place that changes every house into a hotel even economizes hospitality. The ideology of community or the collaborative commons is seductive. No non-instrumental friendliness is possible any more. Friendliness is commercialized in a society of mutual valuation. One is friendly to get better valuations. The harsh logic of capitalism prevails even in the middle of the collaborative economy. In this beautiful “sharing,” no one paradoxically gives away anything voluntarily. Capitalism is completed in the moment when communism is sold as a good. Communism as a good is the end of revolution.\n\nCritical comment A.M.:\n\nThis is an interesting and important article. On a critical note, the author underrates the consciousness of many people. Many know they are exploited and not free entrepreneurs. But they are helpless. They withdraw from social and political life. This has much to do with the second remark.\n\nThe author does not recognize the great role of the media in stabilizing neoliberal ideology. The revolution is prevented by manipulation of public opinion. This possibility was clearly recognized. The commercialization of the media was systematically developed. The concentration of the media in a few hands was systematically allowed and pursued… “Manipulation of public opinion rules political events and important parts of the economy and society.” That was the reason for the founding of Nachdenkseiten (a critical website of German articles) in 2003.\n\nCritical comment Orlando Pascheit:\n\n…The non-economist Han ignores the repressive exploitation in developing cou9ntries and the increasing pressure or bypassing employee rights in the old industrial nations that suggests a return to the repressive phase… Nevertheless Han’s distinction between the establishing repressive power that often relies on force and the system-maintaining power that pretends to be freedom in the neoliberal regime is interesting. Recourse to the old mode of repressive power in modern national economies means oppression and the oppressor become visible again and thus the chance of a revolution exists.\n\n\nBy Byorn Hayer\n\n[This article published on 7/30/2014 is translated abridged from the German in Spiegel Online.]\n\n“The individual becomes the genitals of capital.” In his latest book the social critic Byung-Chul Han sees little that is good in neoliberalism. His thesis is that freedom is misused to exploit all of us.\n\nA few years ago “You are Germany” was repeated on television – as a motivation injection for the little man and the little woman to help the great whole as hardworking, conscientious, always innovative and team-friendly individuals.\n\nWhile Michel Foucault’s “disciplinary society” started from clear hierarchies, every individual in the project society is an entrepreneur and employer at once. We should now think: the sum of self-organized I-companies will bring more freedom to everyone. However this has not happened.\n\n“The neoliberal regime changes foreign exploitation into self-exploitation,” Byung-Chul Han writes. We are trained for constant self-optimization and carry out overexploitation on our own minds and bodies. For profiteers, this may be much more efficient than that class struggle capitalism invoked by Marx. The thinker born in South Korea in 1959 does not reject the Marxist concept but goes beyond it. Where boundless competition rules the market, freedom fuels monetary growth. “Thus the free individual is degraded to the genitals of capital.”\n\nHan does not spare harsh words to warn the reader of the threatening downfall of the West. With quotations from Heidegger, Foucault and Adorno, he draws a culture-critical diagnosis of the virulent crisis of freedom in times of cyber espionage and international surveillance.\n\n\n…Han describes a society that has lost its sensor for intimacy, mystery and above all inner contemplation. Information floats in that is increasingly shallow. Knowledge is consumed in tidbits and smoothed out so it can be hunted for through the digital channels in a problem-free way. Our present gains in acceleration. The consequences are intellectual impoverishment and a general conformism of people. Knowledge does not set us apart any more but arranges us in a herd of blind regirgitators. Whoever evades this meets denunciation and exclusion.\n\nThe social climate is raw and potentially makes people sick.\n\n\n…Instead of physical strength, control of the mind is promoted as the most important resource in the production process of the 21st century… Han strikes the nerve of the times with fascinating precision… The admonishers and critical observers of the age should have a central role… Philosophical thinking can – and should – be precise, understandable and oriented in social realities… The way Han presents his ideas is a feast and eulogy for the power and urgency of applied philosophy.\n\nHis latest book “Psycho-Politics – Neoliberalism and the New Power Techniques” is no exception. The modern person, according to Han’s central thesis, is caught in the false self-image of individual freedom and in reality is subject to the internalization of outward, well-disguised mechanisms of foreign control.\n\nThe new power mechanisms are not of a primarily aggressive kind but camouflaged as “smart power with a free and friendly appearance that stimulates and seduces” and is more effective than that power that orders, threatens and decrees.” While the modern persons permanently optimizing himself is subject to the error of freedom, he submits in reality to the neoliberal rule that establishes the new power structures through consumption and the pressure to permanent communication.\n\nThis power is so successful because it is camouflaged as voluntariness. Han errs in that repressive power has not completely disappeared but still manifests in the mechanisms of fomenting fear when for example employers before wage negotiations warn of the possible loss of jobs. Repressive power does not dissolve in thin air in times of neoliberalism but remains a determining factor of the social-economic exercise of rule. Big Brother was yesterday. Big Data supplied with voluntariness bordering on madness to the permanent individual data is much more efficient and maintains power… Neoliberalism’s exercise of power is deeply embedded in the sphere of supposed individual freedom. The best pressure is unnoticed by the coerced who sees his own conduct as voluntary.\n\n\nByung-Chul Han on Neoliberalism\n\n[This book review published on 9/16/2014 is translated abridged from the German on]\n\nThe philosopher sees a “psycho-politics” at work in neoliberalism. His book “Fatigue Society” from 2010 was a bestseller.\n\nByung-Chul Han is a master of the concise form… Han’s reflections revolve around neoliberalism and the strategies of voluntary self-exploitation. Freedom itself is exploited in the service of profit maximization as Han describes in a rhetorically concise formula: “The exploitation of freedom produces the greatest gain,” “The feeling of freedom arises in the transition from one life form to another until this proves to be a coercive form.”\n\nHan recognizes a form of “classless self-exploitation” in neoliberal capitalism that allows no resistance any more against the exploitation – one does it oneself and voluntarily.\n\nNeoliberalism for Han is “psycho-politics.” The mind is discovered as a productive force since today’s capitalism is defined by immaterial and non-corporeal forms of production… That “we work for capital and no longer for our own needs” only seems restrictedly plausible since it is hardly true for the “working poor.”\n\nHan is by no means the first who identified the neoliberal phenomenon of self-exploitation… To Han, the main point is taking away power from psycho-politics.\nSee also:\nAdd a quick comment\nYour name Your email\n\n\nText Format\nAnti-spam Enter the following number into the box:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6794404983520508}
+{"content": "South America\nThe Scientific Digital Library On-line - SciELO is an digital library covering a particular assortment of Brazilian scientific journals. Home tourism is a fundamental market phase for the industry, as 51 million individuals traveled all through the country in 2005, 286 and direct revenues from Brazilian vacationers reached USD 22 billion, 287 5.6 instances extra receipts than international tourists in 2005.\n\nBrazil's most well-known celebration, Carnaval, storms via the nation's cities and cities with hip-shaking samba and frevo, dazzling costumes and parties that last until solar up, however Brazilians hardly limit their revelry to some weeks of the year. Though outlined by regulation, Brazilian areas are useful mainly for statistical functions, and in addition to define the distribution of federal funds in growth tasks.\n\nBrazilian regulation relies on the civil regulation legal system 198 and civil regulation concepts prevail over common legislation observe. The nation has an in depth rail community of 28,538 kilometres (17,733 miles) in size, the tenth largest network in the world.\n\nBrazil is the most important national economy in Latin America , the world's eighth largest economy and the eighth largest in buying energy parity (PPP) in line with the 2017 estimates. Most of Brazilian law is codified, though non-codified statutes also symbolize a substantial part, playing a complementary role.\n\n317 Presently, the Brazilian government, in contrast to the past, seeks to encourage this mode of transport; an example of this incentive renato franchi is the venture of the Rio-São Paulo excessive-pace rail , that may join the two predominant cities of the country to hold passengers.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9955185651779175}
+{"content": "1989-90 - Beninese campaign for economic justice and democracy\n\n\nThe American oligarchy\n\nWall Street\n\nA review of a book that investigates the moral rot corroding U.S. society from the top down.\n\nThe battle of Athens: When WWII veterans took up arms against a corrupt local government in Tennessee\n\nAftermath of the riot\n\nIn 1946 a non-partisan political option made of WWII veterans applied to the local elections in McMinn County, Tennessee. When they realized that the elections were being rigged, they took up arms and decided to defend their rights without relying on the State.\n\nThe ANC’s South Africa: kleptocracy and exploitation\n\nZuma uses Gordhan as front for his corruption (cartoon)\n\n\nA South African ruling-class brawl\n\n\n\nFollowing liberal “centrist” protests against corruption in Russia on March 26th which saw hundreds of arrests, led by lawyer and political figure Alexi Navalny, Russian anarcho-syndicalist group KRAS-AIT argues that for the country’s poor, his “responsible” free-market vision offers no respite:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6342658996582031}
+{"content": "This is perhaps one of the funniest throwback photos we have ever come across.\n\nBesides his singing prowess, his abs and his crush on Tiwa Savage, Sauti Sol member Bien Aime is known for his towering stature over his compatriots. Bien Aime is even taller than his brother, Melvin Alusa.\n\nHowever, that was not always the case years back. We came across a photo of the singer hanging out with his brother Melvin and sister.\n\nIt’s unbelievable how tall he has become since his denim and ‘sandak’ wearing days.\n\nCheck them outtbt", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7722492218017578}
+{"content": "Export 4 results:\nSort by: Author Title Type [ Year (Desc)]\nYoung, AP, Guza RT, Dickson ME, O'Reilly WC, Flick RE. 2013. Ground motions on rocky, cliffed, and sandy shorelines generated by ocean waves. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans. 118:6590-6602. 10.1002/2013jc008883 AbstractWebsite\n\nWe compare ground motions observed within about 100 m of the waterline on eight sites located on shorelines with different morphologies (rock slope, cliff, and sand beaches). At all sites, local ocean waves generated ground motions in the frequency band 0.01-40 Hz. Between about 0.01 and 0.1 Hz, foreshore loading and gravitational attraction from ocean swell and infragravity waves drive coherent, in-phase ground flexing motions mostly oriented cross-shore that decay inland. At higher frequencies between 0.5 and 40 Hz, breaking ocean waves and wave-rock impacts cause ground shaking. Overall, seismic spectral shapes were generally consistent across shoreline sites and usually within a few orders of magnitude despite the diverse range of settings. However, specific site response varied and was influenced by a combination of tide level, incident wave energy, site morphology, ground composition, and signal decay. Flexing and shaking increased with incident wave energy and was often tidally modulated, consistent with a local generation source. Flexing magnitudes were usually larger than shaking, and flexing displacements of several mm were observed during relatively large incident wave conditions (Hs 4-5 m). Comparison with traffic noise and earthquakes illustrate the relative significance of local ocean-generated signals in coastal seismic data. Seismic observations are not a simple proxy for wave-cliff interaction.\n\n\n\nYoung, AP, Olsen MJ, Driscoll N, Flick RE, Gutierrez R, Guza RT, Johnstone E, Kuester F. 2010. Comparison of Airborne and Terrestrial Lidar Estimates of Seacliff Erosion in Southern California. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. 76:421-427. AbstractWebsite\n\nSeacliff changes evaluated using both terrestrial and airborne lidar are compared along a 400 m length of coast in Del Mar, California. The many large slides occurring during the rainy, six-month study period (September 2004 to April 2005) were captured by both systems, and the alongshore variation of cliff face volume changes estimated with the airborne and terrestrial systems are strongly correlated (r(2) = 0.95). However, relatively small changes in the cliff face are reliably detected only with the more accurate terrestrial lidar, and the total eroded volume estimated with the terrestrial system was 30 percent larger than the corresponding airborne estimate. Although relatively small cliff changes are not detected, the airborne system can rapidly survey long cliff lengths and provides coverage on the cliff top and beach at the cliff base.\n\nElwany, MHS, Flick RE, Aijaz S. 1998. Opening and closure of a marginal southern California lagoon inlet. Estuaries. 21:246-254. 10.2307/1352472 AbstractWebsite\n\nOver the past 50 yr, direct observations of the inlet status (open or closed) of San Dieguito Lagoon, a typical southern California lagoon located in Del Mar, California, have shown that river flooding is the major natural determinant of inlet conditions on time scales longer than a few years. River flooding is strongly dependent on rainfall in the San Dieguito River watershed and on the influences of two water storage reservoirs in the area. Rainfall fluctuates on yearly and longer time scales and undergoes cycles of wet and dry periods. Over short time periods, ranging from a few months to several years, inlet status is primarily determined by the available tidal prism and littoral sand transport. Recognition of these factors is crucial in order to correctly evaluate the probability that a small lagoon will remain open naturally. A probability approach is essential because the variables controlling inlet conditions are random in nature. The results of our study show that the inlet will remain open naturally 34% of the time. The tendency to remain open is vastly smaller during years of dry weather (12%) versus times of above-average rainfall (66%).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7611075639724731}
+{"content": "Export 4 results:\nSort by: Author Title Type [ Year (Desc)]\nResplandy, L, Keeling RF, Rodenbeck C, Stephens BB, Khatiwala S, Rodgers KB, Long MC, Bopp L, Tans PP. 2018. Revision of global carbon fluxes based on a reassessment of oceanic and riverine carbon transport. Nature Geoscience. 11:504-+. 10.1038/s41561-018-0151-3 AbstractWebsite\n\nMeasurements of atmospheric CO2 concentration provide a tight constraint on the sum of the land and ocean sinks. This constraint has been combined with estimates of ocean carbon flux and riverine transport of carbon from land to oceans to isolate the land sink. Uncertainties in the ocean and river fluxes therefore translate into uncertainties in the land sink. Here, we introduce a heat-based constraint on the latitudinal distribution of ocean and river carbon fluxes, and reassess the partition between ocean, river and land in the tropics, and in the southern and northern extra-tropics. We show that the ocean overturning circulation and biological pump tightly link the ocean transports of heat and carbon between hemispheres. Using this coupling between heat and carbon, we derive ocean and river carbon fluxes compatible with observational constraints on heat transport. This heat-based constraint requires a 20-100% stronger ocean and river carbon transport from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere than existing estimates, and supports an upward revision of the global riverine carbon flux from 0.45 to 0.78 PgC yr(-1). These systematic biases in existing ocean/river carbon fluxes redistribute up to 40% of the carbon sink between northern, tropical and southern land ecosystems. As a consequence, the magnitude of both the southern land source and the northern land sink may have to be substantially reduced.\n\nLe Quere, C, Peters GP, Andres RJ, Andrew RM, Boden TA, Ciais P, Friedlingstein P, Houghton RA, Marland G, Moriarty R, Sitch S, Tans P, Arneth A, Arvanitis A, Bakker DCE, Bopp L, Canadell JG, Chini LP, Doney SC, Harper A, Harris I, House JI, Jain AK, Jones SD, Kato E, Keeling RF, Goldewijk KK, Kortzinger A, Koven C, Lefevre N, Maignan F, Omar A, Ono T, Park GH, Pfeil B, Poulter B, Raupach MR, Regnier P, Rodenbeck C, Saito S, Schwinger J, Segschneider J, Stocker BD, Takahashi T, Tilbrook B, van Heuven S, Viovy N, Wanninkhof R, Wiltshire A, Zaehle S. 2014. Global carbon budget 2013. Earth System Science Data. 6:235-263. 10.5194/essd-6-235-2014 AbstractWebsite\n\nAccurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere is important to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe data sets and a methodology to quantify all major components of the global carbon budget, including their uncertainties, based on the combination of a range of data, algorithms, statistics and model estimates and their interpretation by a broad scientific community. We discuss changes compared to previous estimates, consistency within and among components, alongside methodology and data limitations. CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and cement production (E-FF) are based on energy statistics, while emissions from land-use change (E-LUC), mainly deforestation, are based on combined evidence from land-cover change data, fire activity associated with deforestation, and models. The global atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured directly and its rate of growth (G(ATM)) is computed from the annual changes in concentration. The mean ocean CO2 sink (S-OCEAN) is based on observations from the 1990s, while the annual anomalies and trends are estimated with ocean models. The variability in SOCEAN is evaluated for the first time in this budget with data products based on surveys of ocean CO2 measurements. The global residual terrestrial CO2 sink (S-LAND) is estimated by the difference of the other terms of the global carbon budget and compared to results of independent dynamic global vegetation models forced by observed climate, CO2 and land cover change (some including nitrogen-carbon interactions). All uncertainties are reported as +/- 1 sigma, reflecting the current capacity to characterise the annual estimates of each component of the global carbon budget. For the last decade available (2003-2012), E-FF was 8.6 +/- 0.4 GtC yr(-1), E-LUC 0.9 +/- 0.5 GtC yr(-1), G(ATM) 4.3 +/- 0.1 GtC yr(-1), S-OCEAN 2.5 +/- 0.5 GtC yr(-1), and S-LAND 2.8 +/- 0.8 GtC yr(-1). For year 2012 alone, E-FF grew to 9.7 +/- 0.5 GtC yr(-1), 2.2% above 2011, reflecting a continued growing trend in these emissions, GATM was 5.1 +/- 0.2 GtC yr(-1), S-OCEAN was 2.9 +/- 0.5 GtC yr(-1), and assuming an E-LUC of 1.0 +/- 0.5 GtC yr(-1) (based on the 2001-2010 average), S-LAND was 2.7 +/- 0.9 GtC yr(-1). G(ATM) was high in 2012 compared to the 2003-2012 average, almost entirely reflecting the high EFF. The global atmospheric CO2 concentration reached 392.52 +/- 0.10 ppm averaged over 2012. We estimate that E-FF will increase by 2.1% (1.1-3.1 %) to 9.9 +/- 0.5 GtC in 2013, 61% above emissions in 1990, based on projections of world gross domestic product and recent changes in the carbon intensity of the economy. With this projection, cumulative emissions of CO2 will reach about 535 +/- 55 GtC for 1870-2013, about 70% from E-FF (390 +/- 20 GtC) and 30% from E-LUC (145 +/- 50 GtC). This paper also documents any changes in the methods and data sets used in this new carbon budget from previous budgets (Le Quere et al., 2013). All observations presented here can be downloaded from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (doi: 10.3334/CDIAC/GCP_2013_V2.3).\n\nTanhua, T, Keeling RF. 2012. Changes in column inventories of carbon and oxygen in the Atlantic Ocean. Biogeosciences. 9:4819-4833. 10.5194/bg-9-4819-2012 AbstractWebsite\n\nIncreasing concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in the interior ocean are expected as a direct consequence of increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere. This extra DIC is often referred to as anthropogenic carbon (C-ant), and its inventory, or increase rate, in the interior ocean has previously been estimated by a multitude of observational approaches. Each of these methods is associated with hard to test assumptions since C-ant cannot be directly observed. Results from a simpler concept with fewer assumptions applied to the Atlantic Ocean are reported on here using two large data collections of carbon relevant bottle data. The change in column inventory on decadal time scales, i.e. the storage rate, of DIC, respiration compensated DIC and oxygen is calculated for the Atlantic Ocean. We report storage rates and the confidence intervals of the mean trend at the 95% level (CI), reflecting the mean trend but not considering potential biasing effects of the spatial and temporal sampling. For the whole Atlantic Ocean the mean trends for DIC and oxygen are non-zero at the 95% confidence level: DIC: 0.86 (CI: 0.72-1.00) and oxygen: -0.24 (CI: -0.41-(-0.07)) mol m(-2) yr(-1). For oxygen, the whole Atlantic trend is dominated by the subpolar North Atlantic, whereas for other regions the O-2 trends are not significant. The storage rates are similar to changes found by other studies, although with large uncertainty. For the subpolar North Atlantic the storage rates show significant temporal and regional variation of all variables. This seems to be due to variations in the prevalence of subsurface water masses with different DIC and oxygen concentrations leading to sometimes different signs of storage rates for DIC compared to published C-ant estimates. This study suggest that accurate assessment of the uptake of CO2 by the oceans will require accounting not only for processes that influence C-ant but also additional processes that modify CO2 storage.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.712601900100708}
+{"content": "b'A Clear ChoiceArglass Yamamura Builds ItsFirst U.S. Plant in Lowndes CountyT O O M I C D C N E LO P M E N V E EWe believe there is a large untapped potential in the U.S. consumer market for glass containers. Our goal is to help more food and beverage producers choose glass as a healthy, safe, and environmentally responsible material that can, at the same time, be customized, dynamic, colorful, and cost-competitive.- JOS DE DIEGO AROZAMENASky View: Construction continues at the Arglass Yamamura facility in Valdosta, Lowndes CountyWES SEWELL34 SG MAGAZINE | WINTER 2020 BUSINESS + CULTURE 35'", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9258109331130981}
+{"content": "In Kanani v. Economical Insurance,1 the plaintiffs brought a motion for production of their accident benefits insurer's reserve information. The plaintiffs had brought claims against Economical for the breach of its duty to act in utmost good faith, retroactive and ongoing attendant care benefits, and statutory interest.\n\nIn essence, the plaintiffs argued that the setting of reserves of a claim file may dictate or impact on how the claim is adjudicated or what benefits are paid on a claim. They also argued that the state of mind of Economical was the central issue in this case, in particular how the issue of attendant care benefits was analyzed, adjusted and considered.\n\nThe plaintiffs also submitted that Economical had put its state of mind at issue by claiming that it was unaware of the need for attendant care benefits. In addition, the plaintiffs' Statement of Claim contained particular allegations of bad faith, which the plaintiffs argued put Economical's knowledge in issue.\n\nOn the other hand, Economical argued that the reserving process is different than the adjudication process. It also denied that it had put its state of mind in issue and also argued that the setting of reserves would not show Economical's state of mind.\n\nThe plaintiffs' motion was dismissed.\n\nJustice Nadeau reasoned that, while reserves are created and affected by the ongoing assessment and adjustment of the claim as new information comes in, the adjustment of the claim is not affected by the presence or quantum of reserves. His Honour added that the fact that reserves and adjusting may be intertwined does not necessarily make reserves relevant to the litigation.\n\nJustice Nadeau opined that, in the absence of unusual circumstances supported by the existence of sufficient facts, the level of the reserves set by an insurer is immaterial to a bad faith claim.\n\nHis Honour reasoned that the fairness aspect of the duty of good faith relates to the manner in which the insurer conducts its dealings with the insured in investigating, assessing and responding to the insured's claim. It does not relate to the insurer's setting of a reserve after considering the risk as a whole, which includes its assessment of the claim as well as other factors, such as legal costs and the cost of experts.\n\nFor reserve information to be considered relevant, evidence is required that the setting of reserves influenced or dictated the ongoing assessment of the claim or influenced bad conduct. Such evidence was not provided in this case.\n\nJustice Nadeau added that the prejudicial effect of requiring Economical to produce reserve information would outweigh its minimal, if any, probative value. Namely, the plaintiff would be provided with an unfair and unnecessary advantage in the lawsuit by being told what the insurer believes the case is worth.\n\nFurther, Economical's ability to negotiate a settlement would be impaired, as knowledge of the reserve might create a feeling of entitlement in the plaintiff to a settlement in that amount, despite the reserve being nothing more than an \"intelligent estimate of the risk as a whole\" based on the facts known at the time.2\n\nJustice Nadeau further noted that, without there being allegations of misconduct in the setting of the reserves, disclosure of the reserve information is \"generally not relevant\".3\n\nThis is an important decision for insurers, as it means that, outside of rare and exceptional circumstances, an insurer is not required to provide a claimant with reserve information.\n\n\n1 2020 ONSC 7201.\n\n2 Ibid at para 24.\n\n3 Ibid at para 29.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9956068396568298}
+{"content": "How to get started with Kinect for Windows on Windows\n\nThe Kinect for Windows sensor can be programmed, controlled and used in your code easily on Windows. Getting started is really easy.\n\n 1. The Kinect has a USB input and power input. Plug the power input to a power socket and the USB input to a USB port on your computer. The light on the Kinect should turn on to green color. If the light does not turn on or it is red in color, then something is badly wrong at the hardware level. The green light on the Kinect will blink slowly. This is all right since it indicates that the Kinect is not currently controlled by any computer. Though Windows has detected the Kinect device on its USB port, it cannot yet control it because it does not have the necessary Kinect drivers.\n 2. Go to the Kinect for Windows webpage, download the Kinect for Windows SDK and install it. This provides the Kinect drivers and a library that provides basic access to the output of Kinect. Once this installation is complete, Windows should be able to detect your Kinect and its light should glow green steadily. That is, it should have stopped blinking now.\n 3. It is highly recommended to install the Kinect for Windows Developer Toolkit, since this provides higher level libraries, API, sample codes and tools. This can be downloaded from the Kinect for Windows webpage too and installed.\n 4. After installation, it is time to take the Kinect out for a spin! Open C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SDKs\\Kinect\\Developer Toolkit v1.7.0\\Samples\\bin. You can see that it is full of binaries of various Kinect programs. Try them out! For example, the Kinect Explorer tool should show you the color, depth and audio output of your Kinect.\n 5. To get started on programming the Kinect, head over to C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SDKs\\Kinect\\Developer Toolkit v1.7.0\\Samples. You can see the C++, C# and VB source code of the sample programs here. This should get you started on hacking your Kinect.\n\nTried with: Kinect for Windows, Kinect for Windows SDK 1.7, Kinect for Windows Developer Toolkit 1.7.0 and Windows 7 x64", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9828677177429199}
+{"content": "12 ways your body tries to tell you that your liver is being damaged\n\n8. Abdominal Changes\nIf you experience pain or cramping in the lower part of the abdomen or feel especially bloated, this can mean that you have ascites and a malfunctioning liver. Ascites is one of the early signs of liver damage and basically means that fluid has built up inside the abdominal cavity. It can happen whenever there is damage to the liver or liver cirrhosis.\n\nYou often get portal hypertension, which is high blood pressure in the arteries and veins of the abdomen from liver disease. You can also get ascites from disorders unrelated to the liver, so you should seek medical attention if you develop this symptom.\n\n9. Fluid Retention\nOne of the early signs and symptoms of liver damage is fluid retention, especially in the ankles and feet. This is similar to ascites except the fluid is building up in the outer tissues in the lower extremities. There are many other causes of fluid retention, including kidney problems, hormonal imbalances, heart failure and lymphatic disease. You should always see your doctor in order to find out the cause of it.\n\n10. Increase in Skin Itching\nThe skin becomes more sensitive in liver deficiency and often itches and flakes, being hypersensitive to touch. You may experience an increase in bruising and an increase in the visibility of the veins in the body. You can try to keep the skin moisturized with lotion, but the itching and skin sensitivity probably won’t get better until the actual liver problem is properly identified and taken care of.\n\n11. Abdominal Pain\nThis is usually pain in the right upper quadrant of the rib cage where the liver is located. When it is malfunctioning, there can be pain or tenderness in the affected area.\n\n12. Intestinal Bleeding, Diarrhea or Constipation\nThe liver makes clotting factors and without them, you can get bleeding of the intestines associated with diarrhea or constipation.\n\nThis is not the full list of early signs of liver damage. For example, an improperly functioning liver can also cause problems in the balance of sex hormones so that men can develop breasts, and both men and women can suffer from a loss of libido. So talk with your doctor if you find any problems that last longer and make you feel not well.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9428281784057617}
+{"content": "Do Schools look at your major compared to GPA\n\nI have a low GPA but had an extremely tough Major - Biomedical Engineering and pre-med. The engineering courses were extremely difficult. I spread myself very thin and ended up doing mediocre in all my courses. I also worked 3 jobs at the time and tried to have a somewhat normal college life. I’m planning to take all of my pre-med courses again. Will Med schools take into consideration a degree in biomedical engineering compared to someone who did well in business and took pre-med courses for example? If so, how much does that weigh?\n\nTypically, yes, they do take the difficulty of a major into consideration. A degree in engineering (of any kind) or physics or something like that is generally considered more difficult than a biology degree.\n\nI don’t know if you necessarily need to retake all of your pre-med courses again - depends on grades, age, etc, but you should definitely take some upper level science courses and do extremely well in them.\n\nI second Emergency!'s advice. Take some upper-level courses and prove that you can handle the tougher, more advanced material. Just make sure you do well --med schools want to see an upward trend in grades, especially if your inital grades are less than stellar.\n\nGood luck!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5551801919937134}
+{"content": "What is Workforce Housing and How Can You Benefit?\n\nWhat is Workforce Housing and How Can You Benefit_ - COMPRESSED\n\nWorkforce housing is housing built to serve families that are sitting in the middle between true affordable housing and luxury housing. There are a few different versions of workforce housing. Typically, they come into play at an income level where you’re serving families that earn between 80 and 120 percent of median income, the exact amount depends on the county and state and whatever market you're in.\n\n\nIn the workforce housing space, firms are typically looking to create a product that serves, as the name suggests, working families. Unfortunately, incomes for many of these families are insufficient, and they are currently dropping ever lower in the housing marketplace food chain. They don't make enough to qualify for luxury housing, and they make too much to qualify for true affordable housing, which is another term for government-subsidized affordable housing.\n\n\nThis creates a widening gap between those two spaces. This is caused in part by the fact that rents and housing costs are going up for the most part in all major urban metro markets, but wages are stagnant for this group. In essence, these families are stuck in the middle.\n\nWorkforce Housing vs Affordable Housing vs Section 8\n\n\nThese three terms, workforce housing, affordable housing, and Section 8, are often confused with each other. That isn’t surprising, the terms are often used broadly, so we’ll explain them in the context used by most actors in the commercial real estate world.\n\n\nAffordable Housing\n\nThe industry-standard definition for affordable housing would be any housing that serves families that are at or below 60 percent of median income. 0 to 60 percent is what I call, and this is my own definition, true affordable housing because it is often a class defined specifically by local municipalities and most government programs as being in need of affordable housing.\n\nWorkforce Housing\n\nWorkforce housing is between 61 percent and some upper figure; essentially middle-earners who are not dependent on government-subsidized rents. In some marketplaces like New York, they may use 120 or 150 or 180 percent of median income. However, in most cases, roughly 80 to 120 percent would be considered to be the moderate income space associated with workforce housing.\n\nSection 8\n\nSection 8 relates to both affordable and workforce housing. The Section 8 program provides a voucher to a family in the same way that most housing authorities issue vouchers. They have waiting lists of families that need help with housing through government programs. It's really a HUD program that allocates vouchers through the local housing authority and whatever market that project is in or where the tenant may want to live.\n\n\nThe Section 8 tenant can go into any unit at all that accepts a voucher – this is the key. California just passed a law that says that landlords cannot now bar Section 8 tenants because of their Section 8 voucher alone. In other places, there are other criteria that landlords need to underwrite such as credit history and rental history, for example. California state law as of January 1st, 2020, says no landlord can exclude a Section 8 tenant because of the fact that they are using a Section 8 voucher – though they can still be disqualified for other reasons.\n\n\nThe way it works is that the voucher is issued by the housing authority to the family and then the family will go find a housing unit that will accept the voucher. The rent is generally consistent with the standards that the housing authority considers to be appropriate. There are some published figures out there that define the Fair Market Rent (FMR) which says this is what HUD and the local housing authority consider to be the fair market rent relative to what a tenant would pay for a unit that has a voucher. The tenant moves in and that's the rent that they pay and the voucher covers the rest.\n\n\nWorkforce Housing Tax Credits - What are they and how much are they helping to bolster the demand side of the economics?\n\n\nThere are no workforce housing tax credits currently available in the market though that could change in the future. If the divergence of housing prices and stagnant incomes continues to widen, it is more likely than not something that will come along.\n\n\nThe Opportunity Zone initiative is in part designed to allow capital to flow into marketplaces and serve moderate income projects. It serves any kind of project that's in a qualified census tract for the Opportunity Zone. But it's not a tax credit – it is a tax incentivized investment vehicle that pairs relatively well with moderate income housing.\n\n\nThere are Grants for Low Income Housing Development and Other HUD Grants out there--Are There Similar Programs Available for Workforce Housing Development?\n\n\nFor pure workforce housing, there are no grants available right now. You need to be careful about workforce housing because some people will equate true affordable tax credit finance – as mentioned above – as workforce housing.\n\n\nOne thing to keep in mind. If you look at true affordable housing, almost all of the programs are set up to allocate capital to the lowest-income families. To get the tax credits for affordable housing there is a capability to do income averaging on a tax credit project where you could actually have 80 percent rents. However, on the other end of the spectrum, you have lower rents down to 30, 20, 10 percent of median income. As long as you achieve a 60 percent or below-average rent projects can qualify under the tax credit programs\n\n\nThese are specific terms defined in the industry because in places like California, where there is a deep need for homeless housing and services or permanent supportive housing, those incomes need to be even lower.\n\nWhat you get is nonprofits and other people who are in the space with a goal to get all the incomes across the entire project as low as possible. That requires government capital or subsidy. What this illustrates is a desire for those who work in true affordable housing is a desire to see rents driven down until they are as low as possible.\n\n\nAffordable By-Design and Workforce Housing\n\nThere's a term people use called attainable housing. This refers to a type of affordable housing different from that we mentioned earlier, which was true affordable housing as defined by government regulations and directly subsidized. Attainable housing is a term used to describe the development of housing that, by some other mechanism than government subsidy, makes it more affordable. This might be that it is affordable by design where, for instance, a developer lowers costs of construction which allows them to charge market rents that can be lower because their costs of construction are lower. This might be, for example, by building smaller units or developing more units on a single land tract thus lowering the cost per unit of the land.\n\n\nWhat’s the opportunity for investment in affordable housing and workforce housing development?\n\n\nTo begin with, recall that for the purpose of this discussion, affordable housing and workforce housing are not the same. True affordable housing is that in which residents are dependent on the government for subsidies to stay sheltered, while workhouse housing simply refers to any housing that sits between high-end and affordable housing, typically designed for middle income workers. What this means practically, is that the opportunities for investment in affordable housing and workforce housing development are different. Let’s look at each property type and see how different opportunities manifest themselves.\n\n\nAffordable Housing Investment\n\nDeveloping affordable housing is a very different game than developing market-rate housing. The first thing to know is that the number of affordable housing developments is falling. Local, state, and federal government authorities have moved away from the policies involved with “warehousing” lower income folks in massive housing projects, partially due to the stigma associated with such housing.\n\n\nThese days, a great deal of affordable housing comes in the form of a certain number or percentage of units that are designated to be low-income within a single development, while the rest remain at market rents. This approach is particularly popular in places like California, but can be found in cities, counties, and states across the country.\n\n\nTrue affordable housing development offers some benefits over market rate housing development in that much of your cash flow will come directly from the government, rather than sometimes unreliable tenants. Additionally, land, construction, maintenance, and amenity costs can be lower for an affordable housing development when compared to market rate housing because there are numerous federal, state, and local tax incentives and benefits offered for developers who choose to work in the affordable housing space.\n\n\nWorkforce Housing Investment\n\nWorkforce housing comprises a much broader segment of the market compared to true affordable housing. In practice, it describes almost all market affordable housing; housing that is affordable compared to the rest of the market, but not government subsidized. This type of housing is meant to fill the gaps between the government housing system and the free market, to provide for workers who make enough to be disqualified from government assistance, but not enough to afford much of the new construction going up in areas across the US.\n\n\nAs homeownership slips out of reach for millions of working Americans, the demand for this type of housing will continue to increase. Developing in this space comes with substantially fewer regulations when compared to government-sponsored affordable housing. As a developer, your tenant base will also be larger when working in the workforce housing sector. True affordable housing tenants are limited by the amount of government assistance available, with workforce housing you are only constrained by market demand.\n\n\nReady to get started?\n\nReal estate syndication online is no longer optional\n\nIt's a minimum mandatory requirement\n\nBuild your own investor acquisition system by learning how industry leaders employ best practices so you can start raising capital for your projects now\n\nWorkforce Housing FAQ\n\n\nIs workforce housing Section 8?\n\nWorkforce housing is not the same as Section 8 housing, though Section 8 vouchers may be used at workforce housing properties. Section 8 refers to these government-subsidized vouchers that are provided to help house underprivileged individuals and families, while workforce housing refers to a particular type of housing meant to fill the gap between truly affordable housing and luxury options.\n\n\nWhat is a workforce housing program?\n\nThe term “workforce housing” is used to designate those housing programs that are aimed at tenants or buyers who earn too much to qualify for standard affordable housing subsidies.\n\n\nWhy is workforce housing important?\n\nThe targeted clients for workforce housing programs are those who are unable to afford new or luxury construction but make enough money that they can’t benefit from government subsidies. Despite not qualifying for subsidies, these individuals still need access to affordable housing and workforce housing programs fill in these gaps.\n\n\nWhat is the definition of affordable housing?\n\nTraditionally, affordable housing has referred to government-subsidized housing available to the lowest-income Americans. The term has broadened in use over the years, so this type of specific government-funded affordable housing is also referred to as true affordable housing.\n\n\n\nLinkedIn as Resource Not Resume\n\nLinkedIn as Resource Not Resume By Adam Gower Ph.D. You can never get a second chance at a first impression. If you’re looking for high net worth investors, or even non-accredited investors, use your LinkedIn profile to give a great first impression – and not as a resume (unless you’re looking for a job!) …\n\n\nOnline Marketing Systems for Commercial Real Estate Professionals\n\nOnline Marketing Systems for Commercial Real Estate Professionals By Adam Gower Ph.D. If you’ve come from a traditional marketing background, jumping into online marketing may not feel like a stretch. But, if marketing is new territory for you or if you’re learning as you go, it’s time for a crash course in the purpose of…\n\n\nMarketing Strategy for Real Estate Developers\n\nHow To Craft The Perfect Marketing Strategy for Real Estate Developers By Adam Gower Ph.D. Real estate developers usually fall into one of two general categories: those who are raising capital for the first time, and those who are experienced developers looking to extract additional capital from their existing networks. In either case, having a solid…", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9778087139129639}
+{"content": "Physics is perhaps the most inaccessible of academic subjects – one that is often mentioned in the same breath as the term “hitting a brick wall” and while more and more students are aware that sciences will offer more work opportunities in the 21st century, Physics remains a “hard” science in all senses of the word.\n\nIn the 2014 movie about theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything, the screen fills with reams of equations on a blackboard with the aim of dazzling the audience by its brilliance on the presumption that it is beyond the grasp of average intelligence.\n\nBut apart from the existence of black holes, Physics is the essence of the world around us. It tries to address the questions human beings have surely been asking themselves since time immemorial. So why do the majority of us tend to take so much physical phenomenon for granted?\n\nGiven current efforts to cut carbon emissions and work towards a cleaner planet, a knowledge of Physics has never been so intrinsic to our survival as it is today. Not only can Physics explain the mechanics of existence, it is at the root of inventions that could help us to pollute less and reverse potentially dire consequences.\n\nMost of us might think rocket launches have little relevance to our daily lives, but clean energy systems has to be at the top of the collective agenda.\n\nThe first stumbling block with Physics is the Maths – what some experts call the purest of the sciences. Because the Maths that is used to explain physical phenomena, such as force, sound and light, is a different language, many of us doubt our ability to get our minds around it. But can we all master a certain degree of Physics or is it a subject for the select few, as the movies suggest?\n\n“That’s a super interesting question,” says Alex Smith, Secondary Physics teacher at King’s College Alicante. “I’d say there are certain concepts that are very difficult to understand and are best broken down by using models or analogies. An example would be using spheres to represent atomic models. Even if everyone can’t understand a topic in its totality, I’m certain we can all get very close to a full understanding by using approximations, models and metaphors.”\n\nAlex is not the only physicist to appreciate the magnitude of the subject and how challenging it is even to scratch its surface. Sir Isaac Newton, the man who worked out the science behind gravity, observed: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”\n\nAnother aspect that can trip us up is the unfamiliar vocabulary used to describe the concepts. ‘Scalar’ and ‘vector’, for example, are not words that most of us use every day. As Alex points out, “As a science teacher, the most difficult thing is making abstract concepts understandable. A lot of the time, I will need to begin by solidifying the students’ understanding of the technical words involved.”\n\nThe aversion to Physics seems particularly acute when it comes to gender. Perhaps because professional women have long been concentrated in the caring professions, many female students and adults have acquired the notion that their brains are not wired to cope with theories that often seem to lack a human component.\n\n“When I was at school in the early 1980s, Physics in particular was definitely the realm of the geeky male students, with only a few girls taking the subject,” says Simon Holdsworth, Head of the Science and Physics Department at King’s College Madrid. “ I feel this is changing. In my current school, 30% of the A2 students are girls, with many of them wanting to take engineering subjects at university. Slowly the dynamics of the Physics classroom are changing and this will have an impact in years to come on how society views Physics, though there is still much to be done.”\n\nAccording to Simon, Physics needs be made more relevant to everyday life and mentions the US series The Big Bang Theory as one way of keeping it real. “It succeeds in putting the spotlight on the fact that Physicists are people and have lives and issues,” he says. “Hopefully this will help people see Physics in a different light and stir their interest.”\n\nSimon also mentions the British pop star Brian Cox who has been credited for boosting the numbers of teenagers signing up for Physics in the UK. “His BBC programs are both stimulating and outstanding,” says Simon. “They approach topics in a way that members of the general public can understand without feeling out of their depth. There are ways to introduce ideas without boring people,” he adds. “It has got to be fun and exciting.”\n\nIf that may sound like a tall order for people without rock star credentials, Ian Wesson, STEM Curriculum Development Leader at King’s College Alicante, suggests enrichment activities based around themes such as space science. “Activities such as rocketry and solar rovers are always a good hook,” he says. “Once students are enthused, the equations are given a context and become more meaningful.”\n\nExperts across the board agree that Physics is not easily learned passively and perhaps that is why it has been inaccessible for so long. Contextual learning is relatively revolutionary in schools and the idea that making mistakes is not only acceptable, but the path to enlightenment is also something of a U-turn in the classroom.\n\nEncouragingly, Sir Isaac Newton suggested that simplicity was the key. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity,” said the famous 17th century physicist and mathematician. “And not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”\n\nHence, all sorts of complex phenomena can be explained by quite simple Maths apparently – basic formulas which are then built upon. ACDL for Maths at King’s College Alicante, Louise Pepper, explains, “Mathematics is taking a complex problem, removing the complexity to reduce to a simple, solvable problem. The problem is then rebuilt to take into account each of the removed component parts in turn to improve on the initial solution.”\n\nMeanwhile, for those who reject Physics on the grounds that they are more of “an Arts person”, Albert Einstein came up with an underlying common denominator between the two domains: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”\n\nAlex Smith says it’s important to break down difficult concepts using physical examples such as spheres to represent atomic models.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8745126724243164}
+{"content": "German Economic Outlook Worsens\nPublish Date : 2019/08/13 - 10:33\n\nThe German ZEW economic sentiment index again shows a sharp decline in August 2019. Expectations for this indicator have reached -44.1. This drop represents a 19.6 unit drop from the previous month. Therefore, the ZEW economic sentiment index is at its lowest level since December 2011. Germany's economic situation has also deteriorated by 12.4 points.\n\nEuro-zone financial market sentiment has also fallen sharply to 43.6 points, down 23.3 points from the previous month.\n\n“The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment points to a significant deterioration in the outlook for the German economy. The most recent escalation in the trade dispute between the US and China, the risk of competitive devaluations, and the increased likelihood of a no-deal Brexit place additional pressure on the already weak economic growth. This will most likely put a further strain on the development of German exports and industrial production,” comments ZEW President.\n\n\nclose Menu\nSignIn SignUp\nForex & Stock", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9807803630828857}
+{"content": "Your Next “Stimulus Check” Could Have Big Strings Attached – The Motley Fool\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on the entire world. Millions of people have caught the COVID-19 disease, with hundreds of thousands of deaths. Even those who’ve avoided the coronavirus itself have had to deal with its economic consequences, which include shutdowns and stay-at-home orders that have thrown tens of millions of people out of work.\n\nThe U.S. government has already provided substantial financial assistance to address the consequences of the pandemic, including the much-publicized $1,200 stimulus checks that the majority of Americans have either already received or will receive within the next few months. Some lawmakers believe that more assistance is necessary, and that’s what prompted the House of Representatives to pass the HEROES Act, which includes another set of stimulus checks. However, the Senate has taken a much less aggressive approach toward further coronavirus economic relief, and it’s far from a foregone conclusion that it will vote in favor of the House bill.\n\nInstead, a bipartisan group of lawmakers there are looking to provide more targeted relief to those Americans hit hardest by the coronavirus crisis. If it becomes law, it could provide thousands of dollars in assistance — but only to a more select group of those in need, and only in exchange for agreeing to do some hard work of your own.\n\nCheck from U.S. Treasury, with some currency on top.\n\nImage source: Getty Images.\n\nGetting help — to get back to work\n\nWith political issues hurting the chances of further economic relief, Senate lawmakers have had to get creative in coming up with ideas to get more money to those Americans in need. Four senators came up with a bipartisan idea that could get as much as $4,000 into the hands of those who’ve lost their jobs because of the pandemic. The group of senators includes Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) on the Republican side of the aisle, along with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) as the Democrats in the bipartisan effort.\n\nThe proposal, to be called the Skills Renewal Act, would create a tax credit that would cover the costs of training programs necessary to build skills that will be in higher demand among employers in the near future. Workers who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic in 2020 would have access to the credit, and they’d have until the end of 2021 to get the training eligible to receive it. The $4,000 credit amount would be fully refundable, allowing taxpayers to get it even if they’d otherwise owe no tax.\n\nEligible programs include traditional degree programs as well as certificates, apprenticeships, and other work arrangements. Distance learning would also be included in the measure.\n\nAccelerating a trend that already existed\n\nAlthough the pandemic has caused massive economic disruptions, many of the conditions that made workers vulnerable to its effects were already in place before the COVID-19 outbreak began. The types of jobs that more low-income workers tend to gravitate toward have been particular susceptible to closures, while higher-income work has been more likely to be available even on a remote basis. That’s exacerbated income inequality issues during the pandemic and the related shutdowns.\n\nThe four senators agree that giving workers more tools and training to help them succeed is a worthy way to spend federal money. Rather than hoping that lost jobs will come back once businesses reopen, the measure would encourage people to improve their skills in a way that ideally they would have done even without the pandemic.\n\nGet ready to do more\n\nMany people wouldn’t call a $4,000 tax credit for skills improvement a “stimulus check” at all. Yet to the extent that the money is intended to help foster economic growth, the credit could well have a longer-term benefit for the workforce than the original round of $1,200 stimulus checks.\n\nEven with bipartisan support, there’s no guarantee that lawmakers will be able to agree to anything related to a phase 4 stimulus bill. Until the air clears somewhat, it’ll be tough to plan for 2020, and you shouldn’t take any aid for granted until you actually receive it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8774069547653198}
+{"content": "Contact Us\nSign In / Sign Up for FREE\nGo to advanced search...\n\n\nComments (0) Cite this document\nNon-intervention and isolationism remained the cornerstones of American foreign policy for a long time to avoid entangling alliances and practice protectionism to control trade and economy. The practice of non-participation in the world matters and unilateralism played a crucial role in US foreign affairs during First World War, even the Second and the days in between…\nDownload full paperFile format: .doc, available for editing\nGRAB THE BEST PAPER91.9% of users find it useful\nThe Great Depression and American isolationism affect on FDRs desire to take an active role in international affairs in the manner of TR and Wilson\nRead TextPreview\n\nExtract of sample \"The Great Depression and American isolationism affect on FDR's desire to take an active role in international affairs in the manner of TR and Wilson\"\n\nDownload file to see previous pages According to Michael Leigh, FDR never made any attempt to persuade US public regarding ending of isolation. He also says that FDR had enormous preoccupation with the public opinion. ( ). This view contradicts the famous fireside chats of FDR to some extent, because he was a humanitarian and the Nazi killings must have worried him. At the same time, he moulded the public opinion towards participation in the war. Initially, that is before the Pearl Harbour, Roosevelt did value the American public opinion which was combined with the caution of Great Depression and American belief in isolationism. \"Domestic political problems in the summer of 1937 had made Roosevelt particularly reluctant to risk anything in foreign affairs. The Court fight and the failure to break a series of sit down strikes have seriously ended his middle class support,\" Datlek (1979, p.147).\nIsolationists thought that alliances could be unsettling, and destabilizing. In President Hoover's opinion they were 'provocative actions' that have 'hitherto always cracked up in war itself'. The horrors of the First World War, Versailles treaty, fear of getting drawn into another war, Great Depression, scare of losing uninhibited decision making were a few causes of isolationism. Isolation had many more reasons and excuses:\n\"Belief that the depression had been caused by W.W.I\nBelief that Europe was unworthy of our support\nPacifism-people who hated and abhorred war\nBelief that arms manufacturers, bankers had caused war\nBelief that W.W.I had been a tragic mistake for the U.S \"\nFDR initially was more engrossed with the domestic problems and his refusal to peg the value of the US dollar wrecked the International Economic Conference of 1933, to be held in London, which was partially encouraged by Hoover. FDR, instead, maintained Good Neighbour Policy and Pan Americanism and in Buenos Aires Conference, he demonstrated that America was uninterested in domineering weaker nations and he continued economic nationalism and cooperation both. Still, there existed a certain stalemate between an internationalist president and an isolationist congress. He recognised USSR, increased foreign trade hoping to alleviate depression, and his Neutrality Act of 1937 famously hurt Spain and made US a 'silent accomplice of Hitler'. His Quarantine speech in Chicago was intentional; but Americans were too wrapped up in isolationism and events like Panay, plight of China, and even the armament need of Britain and France did not move the Congress, despite President's efforts, though he eventually succeeded in persuading Congress to send armaments to Britain, which is called America's 'first line of defence'. did not end till the onset of Second World War and the fear of it had slowed down America. FDR had to face this inertia, even though he wanted ...Download file to see next pagesRead More\nCite this document\n • APA\n • MLA\n(“The Great Depression and American isolationism affect on FDR's desire Essay”, n.d.)\nThe Great Depression and American isolationism affect on FDR's desire Essay. Retrieved from\n(The Great Depression and American Isolationism Affect on FDR'S Desire Essay)\nThe Great Depression and American Isolationism Affect on FDR'S Desire Essay.\n“The Great Depression and American Isolationism Affect on FDR'S Desire Essay”, n.d.\n • Cited: 0 times\nComments (0)\nClick to create a comment or rate a document\n\nCHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Great Depression and American isolationism affect on FDR's desire to take an active role in international affairs in the manner of TR and Wilson\n\nThe Great Depression of the 1930's\n\nThe depression not only resulted in loss of jobs, but also resulted in psychological crisis which was attributed to loss of income and property, and the resultant sense of gloom which was endured by the country during those tragic years. 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From that time, this discipli...\n6 Pages(1500 words)Essay\n\nCommunication Role at the Workplace\n\n9 Pages(2250 words)Assignment\n\n\n\nChildren will on...\n9 Pages(2250 words)Report\n\n10 Answers about African American Literature\n\n\n9 Pages(2250 words)Assignment\n\nEvaluation of the Role of Human Networks in Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Sharing Within Patni\n\nThe extensive literature review has been undertaken to justify the actions of Patni and to appreciate its initiatives that enhance employee participation. The steps taken by this Indian IT giant in institutionalizing organizational learning have been discussed largely from the perspective of human resource management and it has also been discussed as to how knowledge generation takes place within the organization.\n\nThis report will aim at critically evaluating the role of human networks in knowledge creation and knowledge sharing within Patni Computer Systems Ltd. (Patni). For this purpose, an extensive literature review will be undertaken and various theories pertaining to human resource management will be made use of....\n6 Pages(1500 words)Case Study\n\nWhat Makes Role Play Essential in Kid's Development\n\n9 Pages(2250 words)Case Study\n\n\n\n8 Pages(2000 words)Article\n\nProject Management of Beijing Capital International Airport T3 Terminal\n\n\n\n7 Pages(1750 words)Assignment\nsponsored ads\n\nLet us find you another Essay on topic The Great Depression and American isolationism affect on FDR's desire to take an active role in international affairs in the manner of TR and Wilson for FREE!\n\nContact Us", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9874553680419922}
+{"content": "Papaioannou Ktima-Estate Nemea 2014 \n\n£15.55 (Inc VAT)\nOrder Quantity Add to Basket \n\nThanasis Papaioannou was regarded as one of the most important figures of modern Greek winemaking. His belief is a combination of indigenous varieties and organic viticulture are the vital ingredients to produce balanced wines reflecting the terroir. Today, his son works with 57 hectares of organically certified vineyards, located in the Nemea region of the Peloponnese. The wines demonstrating real character at exceptional prices. Nemea is arguably Greece's most important red-wine region, located in the northeastern corner of the Peloponnese peninsula. The village of Nemea is around 20 miles (35km) southwest of Corinth, and the appellation that surrounds the village is geographically the largest in Greece. Around 40 wineries are located there and the area has seen a huge amount of investment and growth over the past few decades. The surrounding mountains and valleys have been producing wine for centuries.\n\nAgiorgitiko is an ancient Greek grape variety mostly planted in Nemea, named for the small St George's Church found within the boundaries of the appellation: Agiorgitiko translates as \"St George's grape“. A wide range of styles are made from this red grape variety, from lighter, fruitier wines to rich, age-worthy examples such as this. The label references the ‘Lion of Nemea’; a creature of Greek legend, killed by Heracles.\n\nA classical red fermentation occurred with ten days of extraction. Then, the wine is aged for one year in oak barrel.\n\nTasting Notes: Ripe plum and forest fruits, concentrated yet graceful with complex spiced nuances, coffee bean and leather with fine tannic structure bringing balance to the dark fruit.\n\nFood Match: Ideal with slow cooked lamb in red wine sauce\n\nClosure: Natural Cork\n\nFarming Practices: Organic - Contains Sulfites\n\nDownload Product Info:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9047221541404724}
+{"content": "\n\nPrimordial black holes as a novel probe of\nprimordial gravitational waves. II: Detailed analysis\n\nTomohiro Nakama Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University\n3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA\n Teruaki Suyama Research Center for the Early Universe (RESCEU),\nGraduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo,\nBunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan\nApril 9, 2020April 9, 2020\nApril 9, 2020April 9, 2020\n\nRecently we have proposed a novel method to probe primordial gravitational waves from upper bounds on the abundance of primordial black holes (PBHs). When the amplitude of primordial tensor perturbations generated in the early Universe is fairly large, they induce substantial scalar perturbations due to their second-order effects. If these induced scalar perturbations are too large when they reenter the horizon, then PBHs are overproduced, their abundance exceeding observational upper limits. That is, primordial tensor perturbations on superhorizon scales can be constrained from the absence of PBHs. In our recent paper we have only shown simple estimations of these new constraints, and hence in this paper, we present detailed derivations, solving the Einstein equations for scalar perturbations induced at second order in tensor perturbations. We also derive an approximate formula for the probability density function of induced density perturbations, necessary to relate the abundance of PBHs to the primordial tensor power spectrum, assuming primordial tensor perturbations follow Gaussian distributions. Our new upper bounds from PBHs are compared with other existing bounds obtained from big bang nucleosynthesis, cosmic microwave background, LIGO/Virgo and pulsar timing arrays.\n\npreprint: RESCEU-19/16\n\nI Introduction\n\nA stochastic background of primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) with a huge range of wavelengths may have been generated in the early Universe. Their power spectrum reflects physical conditions in the early Universe, and hence its constraints provide valuable information for cosmology. PGWs of largest observable wavelengths have been constrained by Planck Ade:2013zuv and BICEP2 Ade:2014xna , while those of shorter wavelengths have been constrained by limits on , the effective number of degrees of freedom of relativistic fermions, at big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) through the current abundance of the light elements Allen:1996vm , or at photon decoupling through the anisotropy of cosmic microwave background (CMB) Smith:2006nka ; Kikuta:2014eja . Recently PGWs on smaller scales have been constrained by upper limits on the deviation of the CMB photons’ energy spectrum from the Planck distribution Ota:2014hha ; Chluba:2014qia . Though BBN and CMB constrain PGWs of a wide range of wavelengths, these upper bounds, obtained through , entail an assumption about the number of relativistic species in the early Universe, as is discussed later. Furthermore, to obtain BBN or CMB bounds we implicitly assume that any physical mechanisms, both known and unknown, increase , from the standard value Mangano:2005cc . However, can decrease e.g. in brane world scenarios Ichiki:2002eh ; Apostolopoulos:2005at ; Maartens:2010ar . Recently we proposed a new method to constrain PGWs in our recent work Nakama:2015nea , which is also applicable on a wide range of wavelengths and in addition does not depend on the aforementioned assumptions much. In this paper, we present detailed derivations of the results presented there.\n\nOur new method uses the formation of primordial black holes (PBHs), formed in the early Universe, well before the cosmic structure formation. One of the simple and plausible mechanisms to form PBHs is the direct collapse of density fluctuations during the radiation-dominated era, which happens when the fractional density perturbation of order unity reenters the Hubble horizon Zel'dovich-1974 ; Carr:1974nx ; Carr:1975qj . See also Harada:2013epa for an updated discussion of the formation condition and 1978SvA….22..129N ; Shibata:1999zs ; Niemeyer:1999ak ; Polnarev:2006aa ; Polnarev:2012bi ; Nakama:2013ica ; Nakama:2014fra for numerical simulations of the PBH formation process. There is no conclusive evidence for the existence of PBHs in the present as well as in the past and upper bounds on their abundance over a wide mass range have been obtained by various methods (see e.g. Carr:2009jm and references therein). One of the cosmological implications of their absencesis to constrain the power spectrum of the curvature perturbation Bugaev:2008gw ; Josan:2009qn 111 Other methods to constrain primordial scalar perturbations on small scales include CMB spectral distortions Barrow2 ; Chluba:2011hw ; Chluba:2012we ; Chluba:2012gq ; Dent:2012ne ; Khatri:2012tw ; Sunyaev:2013aoa ; Khatri:2013dha ; Chluba:2013dna ; Chluba:2013pya , acoustic reheating Nakama:2014vla ; Jeong:2014gna and ultracompact minihalos Bringmann:2011ut ; Kohri:2014lza . . In a broader context, PBHs provide valuable information to exclude models of the early Universe which predict an overproduction of PBHs.\n\nAs we have briefly discussed in our recent work Nakama:2015nea , PBHs can also be used to constrain tensor perturbations generated in the early Universe, exiting the horizon once and reentering the horizon later. This is because largetensor perturbations induce large scalar perturbations (induced scalar perturbations) at second order in tensor perturbations. If primordial tensor perturbations are too large, induced scalar perturbations become also too large, and then they collapse to overproduce PBHs shortly after their horizon reenty, exceeding existing upper limits. That is, primordial tensor perturbations can be constrained from upper limits on PBHs222Second-order effects of scalar perturbations to induce tensor perturbations (termed induced gravitational waves) have been discussed in the literature Matarrese:1993zf ; Matarrese:1997ay ; Carbone:2004iv ; Ananda:2006af ; Baumann:2007zm ; Alabidi:2012ex ; Bugaev:2010bb ; we can place upper bounds on scalar perturbations(, which can be translated into upper bounds on the abundance of PBHs Saito:2008jc ; Saito:2009jt ; Bugaev:2009zh ,) from the non-detection of GWs. Note that our present paper discusses an effect opposite to this generation of induced gravitational waves. 333 The direct gravitational collapse of nonlinear localized gravitational waves has been discussed in the literature Brill:1959zz ; Eppley:1977dk ; Miyama:1981mh ; Shibata:1993fx ; Shibata:1995we ; Anninos:1996fg ; Shibata:1997ix ; Alcubierre:2000xu ; Pfeiffer:2004qz and so tensor perturbations may also be constrained using this phenomenon. Still, the initial conditions and dynamics of cosmological nonlinear gravitational waves during the radiation-dominated era have not been well understood. Since the dynamics of nonlinear radiation density perturbations is better understood, we consider only scalar perturbations induced by the tensor perturbation. . Whereas we have presented only simple estimations to obtain these new constraints in Nakama:2015nea , in the present paper we show detailed derivations for them.\n\nDue to our ignorance of the physics in the early Universe, new upper limits on tensor perturbations on small scales in themselves would be worthwhile. In addition, there are models of the early Universe Boyle:2003km ; Baldi:2005gk ; Copeland:2008kz ; Kobayashi:2011nu ; Biswas:2014kva ; Ashoorioon:2014nta ; Cannone:2014uqa ; Graef:2015ova which can predict large tensor perturbations on small scales, which makes our new upper limits even more valuable (see the next section). Note that, if a model predicts large tensor perturbations on small scales but also large scalar perturbations at the same time, then such a model would be more severely constrained from the absence of PBHs generated from the first-order scalar perturbations. In this paper we consider PBH formation only from induced scalar perturbations, second order in tensor perturbations, and thus our bounds on tensor perturbations are conservative or model-independent, in the sense that these bounds do not depend onfirst-order scalar perturbations on small scales. Importantly, there are models of the early Universe which predict not only large tensor perturbations, but also large tensor-to-scalar ratio on small scales, and our PBH bounds are particularly useful to constrain these types of models, some of which are reviewed in the next section.\n\nThis paper is organized as follows; In Sec. II we review some of the early Universe models Boyle:2003km ; Baldi:2005gk ; Copeland:2008kz ; Kobayashi:2011nu ; Biswas:2014kva ; Ashoorioon:2014nta ; Cannone:2014uqa ; Graef:2015ova which predict large tensor-to-scalar ratio on small scales. In Sec. III the radiation density perturbation generated from tensor perturbations is calculated. Section IV is dedicated to a discussion of upper bounds on tensor modes from PBHs along with a comparison with those obtained from other methods, and we conclude in Sec. V.\n\nIi Early Universe models predicting large tensor-to-scalar ratio on small scales\n\nIn Boyle:2003km , tensor power spectra were shown to be blue (i.e. larger power on smaller scales) in cyclic/ekpyrotic models, with the spectrum of scalar perturbations kept slightly red (smaller power on smaller scales) to match observations on large scales. The cyclic Universe entails the periodic collisions of orbifold planes moving in an extra spatial dimension, which is equivalently described by a scalar field rolling back and forth in an effective potential. Each cycle consists of an accelerated expansion phase, a slow contraction phase (the ekpyrotic phase), during which the Universe is dominated by the kinetic energy as well as the negative potential energy of the scalar field and primordial fluctuations are generated, a rapid contraction phase followed by a bounce at which matter and radiation are generated, a phase dominated by the kinetic energy of the scalar field, a radiation-dominated, expanding phase, and finally a phase dominated by matter and dark energy. The spectrum of scalar perturbations can be adjusted to be slightly red by tuning the scalar field potential during the ekpyrotic phase, and the tensor spectrum turns out to be blue up to the scale corresponding to the end of the ekpyrotic phase. For early Universe scenarios where the spectrum of tensor perturbations is strongly blue, probing them on CMB scales may be challenging, while constraints on small-scale components, such as those discussed in this paper, may provide useful information. Indeed, they noted that the strongest constraint on their model parameters is obtained from BBN constraints on high-frequency PGWs.\n\nIf the inflaton violates the null energy condition (NEC, ), the Hubble parameter increases during inflation (super inflation) and the spectral tilt becomes positive, since . In Baldi:2005gk it was shown that NEC can be violated without the instability of fluctuations of the inflaton. There a toy model was introduced, with the energy density of the NEC-violating inflaton , which leads to a stage of pole-like inflation, when . The background and fluctuations are shown to be stable at the classical level. It was noted that in this model, some mechanism, quantum effects or another field, is necessary to avoid singularity at and to drive the Universe into a radiation-dominated epoch.\n\nThe spectrum of tensor perturbations generated during a super inflation in the framework of loop quantum cosmology (LQC) is calculated in Copeland:2008kz . There a strong blue tile with was obtained, while the form of the inflaton potential to realize a scale-invariant power spectrum of scalar perturbations was also discussed in their previous works. In their scenario, the nondimensional power spectrum of tensor perturbations on smallest scales is roughly given by the square of the Hubble parameter at the end of inflation in units of the Planck scale, and this implies that can be constrained e.g. by our PBH constraints. They note that is, in principle, also related to the amplitude of scale-invariant curvature perturbations as well, but such a relation has not been obtained yet in the scenarios they consider.\n\nLarge tensor perturbations on small scales may also be realized in the framework of the so-called generalized G-inflation (-inflation) Kobayashi:2011nu . The action of -inflation contains four generic functions of and . The quadratic action for the tensor perturbations is\n\n\nThe squared sound speed is , which is not necessarily unity in general cases. The parameters , and are introduced and they are assumed to be nearly constant. The nondimensional power spectrum of the tensor perturbations was obtained as\n\n\n\n\nThe tensor spectral tilt is given by , and the tensor spectrum is blue () if Also, if the sound speed becomes temporarily small, tensor perturbations are enhanced on the corresponding scales.\n\nA slightly red spectrum of the curvature perturbation, while keeping the tensor spectrum strongly blue-tilted, was also shown to be realized during a stringy thermal contracting phase at temperatures beyond the so-called Hagedorn temperature (the Hagedorn phase) in Biswas:2014kva , assuming a nonsingular bounce. In that scenario, primordial curvature perturbations originate from statistical thermal fluctuations, not by scalar field quantum fluctuations.\n\nScalar and tensor perturbations in large field chaotic models with non-Bunch-Davies (non-BD) initial states were analyzed in Ashoorioon:2014nta , and it was shown that in that model also gravitational waves can be blue while maintaining slightly red scalar perturbations. Normally, initial states for perturbations are chosen to be Bunch-Davies (BD) vacuum states, namely, perturbation modes on sub-Hubble scales effectively propagate in vacuum states associated with flat space. Non-BD initial states were characterized by the Bogoliubov coefficients for each mode and for both scalar and tensor perturbations, which were denoted by with corresponding to the standard BD initial states. These parameters are determined by unknown high energy physics, and depending on the choice of the above parameters, blue gravitational waves were obtained while maintaining the scalar perturbations slightly red.\n\nBlue gravitational waves with slightly red scalar perturbations were also obtained without violating NEC by breaking the spatial diffeomorphism, usually imposed on the dynamics of perturbations, in the context of effective theory of inflation Cannone:2014uqa ; Graef:2015ova . There, breaking of spatial diffeomorphism was considered by effective quadratic mass terms or derivative operators for metric fluctuations in the Lagrangian during inflation without the necessity for specifying the UV completion, while noting that it may be a version of massive gravity coupled to an inflaton, some model of inflation using vectors, or sets of scalars obeying some symmetries.\n\nBefore closing this section, let us emphasize one important assumption made throughout this paper. We calculate evolution of primordial fluctuations assuming they obey general relativity below some energy scale. That energy scale and comoving wave number of primordial fluctuations are related as follows. The wave number is said to reenter the horizon when , where and are the scale factor and the Hubble parameter. The scale factor can be eliminated by the relation , where is the radiation density parameter and is the current Hubble parameter and here they are taken as and . The Hubble parameter and the temperature of the Universe are related by (in natural units) where is the degrees of freedom of relativistic species here taken as . From these relations the temperature and comoving wave number are related by\n\n\nFor instance, if the theory is reduced to the standard cosmology described by general relativity at GeV, then our upper limits summarized in Fig. 4 are applicable for .\n\nIii Radiation density perturbations generated from\ntensor perturbations\n\nWe work in the comoving gauge, in which the metric is written as444 Perturbations to the metric and energy momentum tensor are written as (see Weinberg for more details)\n\nwhere the spatial components of the velocity perturbation are written as . Let us consider a coordinate transformation of the form , with Then and transform as . Here we choose so that , and then choose so that . Both choices are unique, so that there is no freedom to make further gauge transformations. This choice is sometimes called the comoving gauge (e.g. Baumann:2009ds ).\n\n\nwhere is the tensor perturbation satisfying . Throughout this paper it is assumed that the amplitude of initial tensor perturbations is much larger than that of scalar perturbations (schematically, ), and so the scalar quantities in the metric above should be regarded as second order in . Hence, for scalar perturbations we write down the Einstein equations keeping second-order terms only in . As is also mentioned in the Introduction, our upper bounds from PBHs on tensor perturbations thus obtained are applicable even if this initial hierarchy between tensor and scalar perturbations does not hold. This is because if the amplitude of scalar perturbations is as larger as, or larger than that of tensor perturbations, then the abundance of PBHs increases when the amplitude of tensor modes is fixed. Namely, assuming initially is most conservative in placing upper bounds on tensor modes, and hence our bounds are applicable even if that assumption does not hold.\n\nLet us write down the fundamental equations in the following. We denote the energy density and pressure of the dominating radiation by and , respectively, and write , where is the speed of sound. In this paper we restrict our attention to the formation of PBHs due to collapse of radiation density perturbations during the radiation-dominated era, and so we set in calculations, though we leave unspecified in equations below for generality. We decompose and as and .\n\nThe zeroth-order Einstein equations yield\n\n\nwhere with the prime denoting differentiation with respect to the conformal time . These two equations are combined to give\n\n\nThe Einstein equations at first order in give the standard evolution equation for tensor modes as follows:\n\n\nThe Einstein equations at second order in , derived in Appendix A, are as follows:\n\n\nIn these equations the following terms, second order in , source the scalar perturbations:\n\n\nUsing (12), and are rewritten as follows:\n\n\nThe conservation of the energy-momentum tensor yields\n\n\nFrom these equations one can derive the evolution equation of as follows. First, Eqs. (26) and (27) lead to (hereafter we work in Fourier space)\n\n\nThe term of the above can be eliminated by the following relation, obtained from Eqs. (13) and (14):\n\n\nwhere . Using these and (16) as well as (11), (15) can be rewritten as\n\n\n\n\nis the source term representing generation of scalar perturbations due to the tensor perturbations. From (14) and (27), the energy density perturbation is given by\n\n\nEq. (30) can be formally solved as555 We choose at the beginning of the radiation-dominated era, and we assume the initial condition is . Strictly speaking, however, is also generated before the radiation-dominated era at second order in tensor perturbations, even without intrinsic first-order scalar perturbations. That generation is highly model-dependent, and hence we restrict attention to the generation of only during the radiation-dominated era to adopt the above initial condition. This neglect of the generation of before the radiation-dominated era would probably lead to conservative upper bounds on tensor perturbations, since in general would be larger if the generation before is additionally taken into account. An analogous assumption is also made in the literature discussing induced gravitational waves (see footnote2).\n\n\nwhere is the retarded Green’s function satisfying\n\n\nDuring the radiation-dominated epoch, its solution can be constructed by the two homogeneous solutions\n\n\nas follows Baumann:2007zm :\n\n\nThe two point correlation function of can be expressed as, denoting its nondimensional power spectrum by ,\n\n\nIn the following, let us write down the Fourier components of the source , given by (31). We begin by decomposing as (following Saito:2009jt ):\n\n\nwhere for in the z-direction\n\n\nwhile for in any other direction, is defined by applying on each of the indices and a standard rotation, that takes the z-direction into the direction of (see e.g. Weinberg ). Then one can check the following:\n\n\nLet us further decompose the Fourier components as , where is the initial amplitude and is the growth factor, which can be obtained by solving the linear evolution equation (12) for (dropping the decaying mode):\n\n\nIt turns out that the Fourier components of the source can be written as follows (see Appendix B):\n\n\n\n\nand their nonzero components are written as666 These expressions are obtained by first setting , which is possible due to isotropy, and by assuming is on the plane, which is justified by the rotational invariance of and .\n\n\nwhere and\n\n\nAlso the above and are given by (see Appendix B)\n\n\nwhere is supposed to differentiate only in the left.\n\nIntroducing the power spectrum of tensor perturbations as\n\n\nand assuming is Gaussian, we can obtain the following expression for the correlation of the source:\n\n\nIn this paper, we assume the following delta-function-type tensor power spectrum:\n\n\nFrom (32) and (33), the energy density perturbation can be calculated as\n\n\nThe power spectrum is defined by\n\n\nand is obtained as follows:\n\n\nThe time evolutions of this power spectrum for a few modes are shown in Fig. 1, where is set to unity. The power spectrum takes the maximum value shortly after the horizon crossing of each mode (). After reaching the maximum, it starts oscillations with the amplitude almost constant, similarly to the behavior in the standard linear cosmological perturbation theory. This is because the tensor perturbations decay after the horizon crossing, and so do the source terms, and then our fundamental equations for scalar perturbations are reduced to the standard ones in the linear theory.\n\nIv Upper bounds on PGWS from PBHs\n\nFigure 1: The time evolution of the power spectrum for several modes, with set to unity.\n\nIn order to place upper bounds on tensor modes from PBHs, the abundance of PBHs needs to be related to the primordial tensor power spectrum, which can be accomplished by integrating the probability density function (PDF) of the induced density perturbation averaged over the horizon. In the following we first estimate the moment when the PBH formation is most efficient for each by calculating the dispersion of the induced density perturbation, and then derive the PDF at this moment.\n\nLet us begin by noting that the average is nonzero, since the density perturbation is generated by the tensor perturbations. To evaluate this average we introduce and by rewriting as\n\n\nwhere the explicit forms of and can be obtained by using (43), though the integration over can not be done analytically for general :\n\n\nSince only the zero-mode contributes to , we need and only in the limit of , which are, under the assumption of the delta-function-type power spectrum (52),\n\n\n\n\nWhen , the time average of this quantity asymptotes to\n\n\nwhile for 777Strictly speaking this effect may be taken into account in the background Friedmann equations (9) and (10), but is mostly less than 0.1 from Fig. 4, so the correction to the upper bounds would be at most, while a rigorous treatment of this effect would greatly complicate analysis. Hence we neglect this effect. . We denote the density perturbation averaged over a sphere with comoving radius by , the dispersion of which is related to the power spectrum as follows:\n\n\nwhere is the Fourier transform of the top-hat window function: . Figure 2 shows that the dispersion of the density perturbation at the horizon crossing of some mode smoothed over the horizon scale at that moment (namely, ), , is maximum and is at around", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7860417366027832}
+{"content": "How social media is saving lives in the wake of Harvey's cataclysmic flooding\n\nAs Harvey inundated southeast Texas in the last week, 911 call centers were flooded with calls from those in need. When people couldn't get through, or help was taking too long, they turned to the internet.\n\nPeople began posting their details - names, ages, addresses, phone numbers and how much water had flowed into their homes. What started as just sharing within social media community turned into multiple Instagram pages, Facebook groups and websites, all created by volunteers to help connect people with others who were ready and willing to help.\n\nMultiple websites have maps dotted with people in need of rescue. People can mark themselves as rescued once they get help.\n\n\"Thanks to you, 7082 people have been marked safe!\" the top of the map reads at\n\nAnother public map has also been set up on, listing how many situations are emergent, urgent and semi-urgent. It also says over 3,700 have bee rescued.\n\nFacebook groups are published to connect people, like the Hurricane Harvey 2017 - Together We Will Make It page. There are Instagram accounts, like Hurricane Harvey Rescue page, for the same reason. Both are volunteer-run, listing helpful phone numbers and information for those in need.\n\nThe walkie-talkie app Zello has widely been used as a form of communication for volunteers, with multiple channels available for rescue operations. Some are listed by location like Port Arthur, others are as simple as \"Texas search and rescue.\"\n\nThe flooding has prompted others to begin fundraising campaigns for those affected by Harvey's wrath. Someone started a GoFundMe page after three-year-old Jordyn Grace was pulled from the floodwaters, clinging to her mother. Collette Sulcer drowned in the flood trying to save her daughter.\n\n\"I don't know this young girl or her family, but I feel the necessity [sic] to help them out during these very difficult times,\" Michael Skolnik, who owns the page, said in a post. \"I cannot sleep until we do something for this little girl.\"\n\nThe fact that people are turning to social media for help isn't a surprise when emergency crews and call centers were spread thin during Harvey's wrath. The Associated Press said Houston's call center received around 75,000 between Sunday and Monday alone.\n\nWhile many have been rescued from social media, officials warn people they should call 911 or the Coast Guard instead of relying on social media and citizen rescuers to save them.\n\nAs many still wait to be rescued and taken to shelter, the torrential rain has mostly subsided. Harvey's remnants are heading northeastward, and Texas can begin to recover from what's being called the \"worst natural disaster in American history.\"\n\nTexas will need years and billions of dollars to recover, but the large volume of volunteers and community support has many looking on the bright side.\n\n\"Wow! We have a job to do. Together we got this! #HoustonStrong #TexasStrong,\" the Houston Police tweeted.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6971514225006104}
+{"content": "\n\nThis research has its focus on how children, youths and teenagers make decisions in their every-day-life. Prior research has shown that decision-making processes of teenagers differ compared to how children and adults take their decisions. Teenagers’ decisions are often fast and thrill-seeking. There is a gap of knowledge as concerns decision-making that has to be filled; among other things to be able to provide teenagers with appropriate guidance.\n\nData will be collected from approximately 280 persons in the age-group of 10-30 years within each country. The participants answer interview questions and play computer games where they face different types of decisions.\n\nThe results will provide information about how decision-making evolves within young people over time and how it differs amongst different cultures.\n\nParticipating researchers at University West\n\nEmma Sorbring\n\n\nResearchers from USA, Colombia, Italy, Kenya, India, Jordan, Thailand, Philippines and China\n\nExternal funding\n\nJacobs Foundation, USA\n\n\n\n\nUpdated by Communications Office", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999818742275238}
+{"content": "Uber is unveiling a set of measures to protect customers and employees from contracting the coronavirus.\n\n“As cities begin to reopen and people start moving again, Uber is proceeding with caution and safety top of mind,” the company said in a statement. “We will all have a role to play to help each other stay healthy when traveling.”\n\nUber will require all drivers and riders to wear masks starting Monday. Drivers on the ride-sharing app — and its food-delivery service Uber Eats —will be required to start every shift by taking a selfie with their masks on so the company can verify they are following protocols.\n\nIf they are not masked, drivers will not be allowed to start their shift. This provision will remain in effect until at least the end of June. The company will reassess at that time whether public health data requires them to prolong the measures.\n\nRiders will also have to confirm they are masked through the app. They will also be prohibited from riding in the front seat.\n\nIf a driver shows up without a mask on, riders will be able to cancel the ride without a penalty fee, and can report them to the company through a reporting feature in the app.\n\nUber will also limit UberX drivers from taking more than three passengers at a time.\n\nThe company has also allocated $50 million to provide cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment to drivers. As of this week, Uber says it has shipped 23 million masks to drivers throughout the world.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.78205406665802}
+{"content": "Tightening the reins: Fighting financial crimes in the Kenyan capital markets\n\nShare this article\n\nA financial system can be accessed through several avenues such as capital markets, banking and insurance industries. Such access has over time opened doors for engagement in money laundering and terrorism financing, which are white collar crimes with adverse effects on the modern day economy.\n\nCapital markets are part of a financial system concerned with raising capital by dealing in shares, bonds and other long-term securities. Money laundering on the other hand, has been defined in a number of ways. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which is an inter-governmental body established in 1989, with the aim of setting standards and promoting effective implementation of measures for fighting money laundering and terrorist financing, has defined money laundering as “the processing of criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal origin.”\n\nThe Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2009 (the Act) defines money laundering as “an offence under any of the provisions of Sections 3, 4 and 7.” Section 3 of the Act provides that a person who knows that property forms part of the proceeds of crime and enters into an agreement or performs any other act in connection with such property whose effect is to conceal the source or assist any person who has committed an offence to avoid prosecution, or remove any property acquired as a result of the commission of an offence, commits an offence. Section 4 provides that a person who acquires, uses or has possession of property and who, at the time of acquisition, use or possession of such property, knows that it forms part of proceeds of a crime committed by him or by another person, commits an offence. Lastly, Section 7 of the Act provides that a person who, knowingly transmits or receives or makes the attempt to transmit or receive a monetary instrument or anything of value to another person with intent to commit an offence, commits an offence.\n\nTerrorism financing has been defined in the Prevention of Terrorism (Implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Suppression of Terrorism) Regulations, 2013 to include the offence specified under Section 5 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2012 (PTA). Section 5 of the PTA provides that a person who collects, provides or makes available any property, funds or a service knowing that such property, funds or service shall be used for the commission of a terrorist act or by a terrorist group or by a natural person in the commission of a terrorist act commits an offence.\n\nIn the past, money launderers targeted banks to launder their unlawful funds. However, the global nature, anonymity, speed at which transactions are executed, ability to pool funds through means such as collective investment schemes and the highly liquid nature of capital markets, have provided fertile breeding ground for money laundering and terrorism financing. Furthermore, the capital markets sector is distinctive among other financial sectors in that it can both be used to launder illicit funds obtained outside of the financial markets and also to generate illicit funds within the market itself, through fraudulent activities such as insider trading.\n\nIn an endeavour to curb the aforesaid, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) pursuant to powers vested in it under Section 12A(1) of the Capital Markets Act, Cap. 485A enacted the Guidelines on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (the Guidelines) in the Capital Markets vide Gazette Notice Number 1421 on 4th March, 2016.\n\nThe Guidelines, which are aligned to the Kenyan Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing laws mentioned above as well as the recommendations of FATF, are meant to form part of efforts to improve corporate governance and encourage capital inflows to Kenya. The Guidelines provide an explanation of certain features of the capital markets that have made it prone to money laundering and also give an account of the three stages involved in the money laundering process. The first is the ‘placement’ stage which involves the introduction of proceeds of crime into the financial system.\n\nThe second is the ‘layering’ stage where the proceeds are moved through a series of transactions in order to distance them from their source. The third stage is ‘integration’ which places the laundered proceeds back into the legal economy.\n\nThe Board of Directors of a person licensed to transact business by the CMA (market intermediary) have under Guideline 3 been vested with the responsibility of establishing Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing policies, procedures and internal controls, as well as ensuring compliance with existing legislation. The said policies, procedures and controls are to be reviewed once in every two years to guarantee their effectiveness.\n\nTo effectively mitigate money laundering risks in capital markets, Guideline 4(2) provides that a market intermediary must adopt a risk-based approach and methodologies to determine a holistic view of the level of risk posed and avoid a silo approach, when assessing the relationship between risks. A market intermediary may assess the money laundering risks of individual customers by assigning money laundering risk rating to their customers and in doing so, the market intermediary shall consider factors outlined in the Guidelines which include in relation to country risk, customers in connection with highrisk jurisdictions, for instance, those that have been identified by the FATF as jurisdictions with high strategic Anti-Money Laundering deficiencies or are believed to have strong links to terrorist activities.\n\nFactors which indicate that a customer presents a high risk of money laundering as enumerated under Guideline 4(4)(d), include where the origin of wealth cannot be easily verified as well as a politically exposed person. Examples of customers that might be considered to carry lower money laundering risks are those with a regular source of income from a known legitimate source, those with a positive reputation and public entities. A market intermediary is to keep records of the risk assessment for a minimum of seven (7) years from their official date of creation. Guideline 4(6) makes it mandatory for a securities exchange to have surveillance systems and mechanisms intended to detect activities that might be a consequence of market manipulation or insider trading, which are offences often associated with money laundering.\n\nA market intermediary shall under Guideline 5 obtain satisfactory evidence of the identity and legal existence of persons applying to do business with it. It should reject transactions with clients who fail to provide proof of their identity. Due diligence and scrutiny of customers’ identity and their investment objectives should be done throughout the course of a business relationship.\n\nWhere there is a perception of increased risk with regard to face-to-face transactions, a market intermediary may request for submission of additional documentation such as a reference letter from a current employer, bank statements, a lease for a rental house or business premises and a passport or a national identity card. These additional documents would enable the market intermediary obtain further independent verification.\n\nWith regard to prospective non-resident customers who wish to open an account with a market intermediary in Kenya, the Guidelines provide for adoption of effective identification procedures akin to those applied to Kenyan resident customers. Guideline 7 indicates that such customers will be required to provide identity documents, such as a copy of their passport, national identity card or documentary evidence of address which shall be certified by the embassy of the country of issue, a commissioner of oaths or notary public or a senior officer of the market intermediary. A market intermediary may further verify identity through a reputable institution authorised to carry out the role in the applicant’s country of residence.\n\nStringent measures that ought to be taken with regard to establishing the true identity of corporate and legal entities have been outlined in the Guidelines. For a body corporate, there should be evidence of registration, a corporate resolution authorising a person to act on behalf of the body corporate, as well as a copy of the latest annual returns. In the case of partnerships and unit trusts, the identity of all partners and signatories to the account must be verified and the relevant deeds and documentation should be obtained. The Guidelines emphasise the need for particular care to be exercised when trust, nominee and fiduciary accounts are set up in locations with strict bank secrecy or confidential rules, as the said accounts are a popular vehicle for money laundering.\n\nThe Guidelines also provide that all records of customers, business relationships and transactions shall remain up-to-date, relevant and accessible and that a market intermediary shall maintain and keep the said records for a minimum period of seven (7) years, from the date the relevant transaction was completed or following the termination of a business relationship.\n\nRobust measures and procedures are to be undertaken while using new technologies and non-face-to-face business transactions. These measures include confirmation of the customer’s address through the exchange of correspondence or other appropriate methods, certification of identification documents, confirmation of the customer’s salary and any other reliable verification checks.\n\nA market intermediary incorporated in Kenya, as stated under Guideline 9, shall develop a group policy on anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism which shall apply to all its branches and subsidiaries, where applicable outside Kenya.\n\nA market intermediary is required to report suspicious transactions to the Financial Reporting Centre established under Section 21 of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2009 within seven (7) days of the date of the transaction. In addition, a market intermediary is required to report to the Financial Reporting Centre, all cash transactions carried out by it equivalent or exceeding USD 10,000 (approximately KES 1 million) or its equivalent in any other currency whether or not the transaction appears to be suspicious.\n\nThe issuance of a licence or an approval to a market intermediary by the CMA shall be determined by the market intermediary’s compliance with the Guidelines and similar legislation. A market intermediary is required under the Guidelines to monitor on an ongoing basis, its business relationships with its customers, as well as conduct training programmes to ensure that the requirements under the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act are well understood and implemented. It is an offence for anyone who knows that a disclosure has been made in connection with an investigation into money laundering or terrorist financing, to inform the person who is the subject of a suspicion of the disclosure.\n\nFinally, in relation to combating the financing of terrorism, the Guidelines provide that market intermediaries shall, upon receipt from the CMA, keep updated the various resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on counter-terrorism measures, maintain a database of names and particulars of listed persons and ensure the database is easily accessible to its employees. Market intermediaries are required to conduct regular checks on names of both the new, existing and potential customers against the names in the database. Moreover, where there is any name match and there has been confirmation of the identity, the measures to be taken include freezing the customer’s funds and informing the relevant bodies.\n\nIf properly implemented, there is no doubt that these Guidelines will to a large extent curb money laundering and terrorism financing in the capital markets. The Guidelines mark a bold and laudable move by the CMA to rein in financial crimes.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9555906057357788}
+{"content": "\"Drei Mäderl Haus\" Hotel-Garni\n\nTo the Loipersdorf Spa: 4,00 km\n\nThe new 4 stars hotel rooms and apartments with balcony, breakfast buffet with corner for organic food, SAT-TV with Premiere, bathroom - WC, phone with direct outward dialing, room safe, small kitchen or minibar, children's playground with table tennis, winter garden as lounge. Garage for guest's cars and bikes, bathrobe, city bikes, sports cards, tabletop soccer, fitness room, tennis court for free.\n\nWhat is new: internet surf station (wireless), solarium and infrared booth in house\n\nprice: bed & breakfast EUR 27 - 49 p.p./night\nHB EUR 38 - 58 p.p./night (not in the hotel)\nexcl. tax per night\n\nbreakfast buffet breakfast buffet\ndemipension demipension\nBathrobe rental Bathrobe rental\nTowel rental Towel rental\nFitness Galaxy for free Fitness Galaxy for free\nRedeemable Loipersdorf voucher Redeemable Loipersdorf voucher\n\nMagland 65a, 8352 Unterlamm", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9221221208572388}
+{"content": "Just like it's said there are only so many kinds of stories, there are also only so many themes for a blog. \n\nBut one I come back to time and again, because it's so worth it. \n\nI've been in London for a reason I'll explain in a minute, and I happened to walk past what I've now come to think of as a metaphor for the week. \n\n\nIt's the job of a big wheel like the London Eye to keep on going whatever. \n\nAnd that's such an important lesson in life. \n\nThis week came news from a writing friend - \n\nShe had what I've always thought of as a great idea for a book. She's a terrific writer, very strong on characters, settings and stories...\n\nBut she suffered the traditional fate of any fine scribbler.\n\nShe got turned down by publishers, had hassles with her agent, lost her confidence, began to doubt herself.\n\nIn brief, all the usual agonies we humans go through. \n\nIt was a long journey, lasting for many months, as she struggled on, refined her work, again and again, and kept trying - \n\nAnd this week came the offer of a publishing deal. \n\nAs for me, about eighteen months ago, with a good friend, I wrote a radio comedy. \n\nWe liked it lots (you know how I've always thought I'm funny, despite the evidence to the contrary.)\n\nWe polished and honed, then pitched it to various companies and got... nowhere.\n\nFor months. Absolutely bloody nowhere. \n\nSo the evil thought inevitably starts to whisper - \n\nMaybe it's time to give up? \n\n\nNever, never, never. \n\nJK Rowling got rejected, so did The Beatles, Agatha Christie had years of it, and so many others.\n\nAnd did they give up? \n\nSo we kept going, kept pitching, kept the dream alive, and this week a radio producer said how much they liked it and asked to meet up to discuss the series. \n\nOk, there's a long way to go before it's a hit - that's both my comedy, and my friend's book. \n\n\nAt least we're in the game, and doing ok at it.\n\nBecause we never gave up.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.519507110118866}
+{"content": "Quotes by Joe Cocker\n\nJohn Robert Cocker OBE, better known as Joe Cocker, was an English singer. He was known for his gritty voice, spasmodic body movement in performance, and distinctive versions of popular songs of varying genres. Cocker's recording of the Beatles' \"With a Little Help from My Friends\" reached number one in the UK in 1968.\n\nThe best Quotes and Sayings\n\nI have one message for young musicians around the world: Stay true to your heart, believe in yourself, and work hard!\n\n- Joe CockerMusic\n\nI love songs that have a rocking and grooving feeling.\n\n- Joe Cocker\n\nIn the end, I don't think you can find soul. Soul finds you.\n\n- Joe Cocker\n\nEurope is usually where I am usually galloping around.\n\n- Joe Cocker\n\n\n- Joe CockerYouth", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999942421913147}
+{"content": "• The climate for container shipping is changing.\n\n\nArtikel Nummer: 31330\n\nBimco's maritime outlook for 2020\n\nThe Baltic and International Maritime Council (Bimco), the major international maritime association, with 2,100 members in more than 120 countries, has revised its forecasts for maritime transport for this year, due to the pandemic of the coronavirus Covid-19, which is already affecting 170 countries worldwide.\n\n\nBesides the global health emergency, Bimco highlights two other major issues: the geopolitical tensions caused a fall in the price of oil and fuel and the fact that the first phase of the agreements to limit the effects of the trade war between China and the United States did not significantly increase traffic during the month of January.\n\n\nGiven this situation, it is essential for Bimco that world political leaders launch economic stimulus measures that maintain the purchasing power of companies and individuals to mitigate the impact of more than foreseeable layoffs and widespread bankruptcies.\n\n\nRegarding container ships, China has begun to recover its production capacity and has already reached around 75%, but it will be necessary to see how demand behaves in the medium and long term, in view of how the pandemic evolves in Europe and North America.\n\n\nFor 2020, Bimco forecasts losses in this segment, due to the aforementioned imbalance between supply and demand and the increase in fuel costs caused by the entry into force of the new IMO sulphur limit. In summary, for Bimco the slowdown may be even more pronounced than it was after the 2008 financial crisis. (mw)\n\n\n\n\nRelated news", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6281160116195679}
+{"content": "Blog To Great\n\nWhat is SEO?\n\nSEO is the set of optimization strategies for websites, blogs and web pages that aims to improve its positioning in the organic results of search engines.\n\nIt stands for Search Engine Optimization , which means search engine optimization.\n\nEvery second, millions of searches are done on search engines – especially on Google, the most widely used search engine in the world.\n\nUsers want to answer the most diverse questions in their daily lives, from the best rated hotel for the next trip to explaining the theory of evolution.\n\nIn each search, Google tries to organize the contents in a ranking that offers the best answers in the first positions. And the numbers below show that users trust this searcher’s judgment:\n\nThe first three organic links receive about 30% of clicks ;\n\nOnly 0.78% of users click on a link on the second page of the results.\n\nSo each search represents an opportunity for your brand to offer the best answer to what users are looking for. \n\nThus, you are more likely to gain visibility and clicks, receive more organic traffic and have more results with your online presence.\n\nBut, for that, you need to prove to Google that you have the best answer and deserve to appear in the top positions of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).\n\nAnd that means not only having the best content, but also offering good usability, gaining market authority and providing Google with a good read of the pages. \n\nThat’s what an SEO strategy is all about.\n\nSEO is also part of SEM ( Search Engine Marketing ), which encompasses all types of search engine strategies, including the creation of paid ads and sponsored links. \n\nSEO, in turn, are only organic strategies, which do not involve media buying. Therefore, the increase in return on investment (ROI) and the reduction in the cost of acquiring customers (CAC) are usually the result of SEO.\n\nWhat are search engines?\n\nSearch engines are systems formed by a series of algorithms that have the function of crawling, indexing and ranking the contents of the web to display them in an orderly way in the users’ searches.\n\nThey can also be called search engines, search engines, search engines or search engines .\n\nWhen we talk about search engines, we are talking not only about Google, but also about Bing, Yahoo !, Baidu and other systems. Even YouTube and Pinterest, for example, can be understood as search engines, since they are widely used to find content. \n\nBut it is clear that Google stands out among them, with more than 92% share in the search market.\n\nEach mechanism has its mode of operation and its ranking criteria. But the end goal is always the same: to offer the best answers to what the user is looking for.\n\nHow do search engines work?\n\nHave you thought about everything Google does every time you type in a search? To display a list of results that answer your question, there is a long process – although it happens in milliseconds!\n\nFirst, search engines crawl web content. The robots or spiders do this – in the case of Google, called Googlebot . They follow the paths that the links point, in search of new pages and updates.\n\nThen, the crawled pages are indexed. That is, they go to the search engine index, which functions as a large library of web content. \n\nThere, the pages are organized according to the information collected in the crawl, such as the page load time and the main keywords.\n\nThe crawling and indexing processes happen at all times. Robots are always on hand to find and organize web content . But the order in which they are displayed in users’ searches is defined at the time of ranking.\n\nRanking occurs every time a user does a search – and that is where SEO efforts are concentrated.\n\nAccording to the keyword he uses in his search, Google quickly scans his index for pages that match those terms and answers his question.\n\nThe ranking, then, is defined by the best keyword match, together with a series of ranking factors that make up the search algorithm. \n\nThey serve to offer a better user experience and, consequently, improve the positioning of your pages in search engines.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9019684791564941}
+{"content": "Export 6 results:\nSort by: Author Title Type [ Year (Desc)]\nDay, JMD, Walker RJ, Qin LP, Rumble D. 2012. Late accretion as a natural consequence of planetary growth. Nature Geoscience. 5:614-617. 10.1038/ngeo1527 AbstractWebsite\n\nCore formation should strip highly siderophile elements (HSEs) from planetary mantles according to the expected metal-silicate partitioncoefficients(1,2). However, studies of Earth(3), the Moon(4) and Mars(5) indicate mantles with HSE abundances in chondrite-relative proportions that exceed the values expected from metal-silicate partitioning. Competing hypotheses have been proposed to account for these observations, including metal-silicate partitioning at higher pressures and temperatures(6) and late accretion(7). Here we present petrological and geochemical analyses of diogenite meteorites that represent mantle and crustal materials from two or more differentiated asteroids. We find that diogenites show HSE abundances that are consistent with metal-silicate equilibration, followed by minor continued accretion. Isotope chronometry supports diogenite crystallization ages within 2-3 million years of Solar System formation, indicating that late accretion occurred earlier than postulated for Earth, the Moon and Mars. The early timing and occurrence on differentiated asteroids, as well as on the larger terrestrial planets, therefore ties late accretion to planetary growth. On asteroidal bodies, such as the diogenite parent bodies, variations in HSE compositions may reflect regional rather than global effects. In contrast, for Earth, the Moon and Mars, compositional variations in mantle materials seem to be consistent with more homogeneous distributions through prolonged melting and/or solid-state convection.\n\nBottke, WF, Walker RJ, Day JMD, Nesvorny D, Elkins-Tanton L. 2010. Stochastic Late Accretion to Earth, the Moon, and Mars. Science. 330:1527-1530. 10.1126/science.1196874 AbstractWebsite\n\nCore formation should have stripped the terrestrial, lunar, and martian mantles of highly siderophile elements (HSEs). Instead, each world has disparate, yet elevated HSE abundances. Late accretion may offer a solution, provided that >= 0.5% Earth masses of broadly chondritic planetesimals reach Earth's mantle and that similar to 10 and similar to 1200 times less mass goes to Mars and the Moon, respectively. We show that leftover planetesimal populations dominated by massive projectiles can explain these additions, with our inferred size distribution matching those derived from the inner asteroid belt, ancient martian impact basins, and planetary accretion models. The largest late terrestrial impactors, at 2500 to 3000 kilometers in diameter, potentially modified Earth's obliquity by similar to 10 degrees, whereas those for the Moon, at similar to 250 to 300 kilometers, may have delivered water to its mantle.\n\nDay, JMD, Pearson DG, Taylor LA. 2007. Highly siderophile element constraints on accretion and differentiation of the Earth-Moon system. Science. 315:217-219. 10.1126/science.1133355 AbstractWebsite\n\nA new combined rhenium-osmium- and platinum-group element data set for basalts from the Moon establishes that the basalts have uniformly low abundances of highly siderophile elements. The data set indicates a lunar mantle with long-term, chondritic, highly siderophile element ratios, but with absolute abundances that are over 20 times lower than those in Earth's mantle. The results are consistent with silicate-metal equilibrium during a giant impact and core formation in both bodies, followed by post-core-formation late accretion that replenished their mantles with highly siderophile elements. The lunar mantle experienced late accretion that was similar in composition to that of Earth but volumetrically less than (similar to 0.02% lunar mass) and terminated earlier than for Earth.\n\nSpicuzza, MJ, Day JMD, Taylor LA, Valley JW. 2007. Oxygen isotope constraints on the origin and differentiation of the Moon. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 253:254-265. 10.1016/j.epsl.2006.10.030 AbstractWebsite\n\nWe report new high-precision laser fluorination three-isotope oxygen data for lunar materials. Terrestrial silicates with a range of delta O-18 values (-0.5 to 22.9 parts per thousand) were analyzed to independently determine the slope of the terrestrial fractionation line (TFL; lambda = 0.5259 +/- 0.0008; 95% confidence level). This new TFL determination allows direct comparison of lunar oxygen isotope systematics with those of Earth. Values of Delta O-17 for Apollo 12, 15, and 17 basalts and Luna 24 soil samples average 0.01 parts per thousand and are indistinguishable from the TFL. The delta O-18 values of high- and low-Ti lunar basalts are distinct. Average whole-rock delta O-18 values for low-Ti lunar basalts from the Apollo 12 (5.72 +/- 0.06 parts per thousand) and Apollo 15 landing sites (5.65 +/- 0.12 parts per thousand) are identical within error and are markedly higher than Apollo 17 high-Ti basalts (5.46 +/- 0.11 parts per thousand). Evolved low-Ti LaPaz mare-basalt meteorite delta O-18 values (5.67 +/- 0.05 parts per thousand) are in close agreement with more primitive low-Ti Apollo 12 and 15 mare basalts. Modeling of lunar mare-basalt source composition indicates that the high- and low-Ti mare-basalt mantle reservoirs were in oxygen isotope equilibrium and that variations in delta O-18 do not result from fractional crystallization. Instead, these differences are consistent with mineralogically heterogeneous mantle sources for mare basalts, and with lunar magma ocean differentiation models that result in a thick feldspathic crust, an olivine-pyroxene-rich mantle, and late-stage ilmenite-rich zones that were convectively mixed into deeper portions of the lunar mantle. Higher average delta O-18 (WR) values of low-Ti basalts compared to terrestrial mid ocean ridge basalts (Delta=0.18 parts per thousand) suggest a possible oxygen isotopic difference between the terrestrial and lunar mantles. However, calculations of the delta O-18 of lunar mantle olivine in this study are only 0.05 parts per thousand higher than terrestrial mantle olivine. These observations may have important implications for understanding the formation of the Earth-Moon system. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.\n\n\n\nMacpherson, CG, Hilton DR, Day JMD, Lowry D, Gronvold K. 2005. High-He-3/He-4, depleted mantle and low-delta O-18, recycled oceanic lithosphere in the source of central Iceland magmatism. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 233:411-427. 10.1016/j.epsl.2005.02.037 AbstractWebsite\n\nNew helium and oxygen isotope data and trace element concentrations are reported for volcanic rocks from central Iceland. Basalts that are depleted in the most incompatible trace elements possess a wide range in He-3/He-4 but most ratios are similar to or higher than those of mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB:similar to 8R(A)[1] [D.W. Graham, Noble gas geochemistry of mid-ocean ridge and ocean island basalts: characterisation of mantle source reservoirs, in: D.P. Porcelli, C.J. Ballentine, R. Wieler (Eds.), Noble gases in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry, Rev. Mineral. Geochem., vol. 47, 2002, pp. 247-317]). The low concentrations of helium in these rocks suggest that significant degassing has made them susceptible to contamination by low-He-3/He-4 crust, therefore all measured He-3/He-4 are considered minimum estimates for their sources. Elevated helium isotope ratios in the source of these rocks result from interaction with high-He-3/He-4 mantle. The highest oxygen isotope ratios in the depleted rocks are similar to those in melts from typical depleted upper mantle and the range of delta(18)O values is consistent with variable, limited amounts of contamination by Icelandic crust. Most of the incompatible trace element-enriched rocks possess He-3/He-4 ratios that are similar to or lower than those in MORB. These rocks were erupted close to the postulated centre of the Iceland plume. This observation contradicts models in which high-He-3/He-4 characterises the focus of mantle upwelling. A source with MORB-like He-3/He-4 ratios may also be common to other parts of the North Atlantic Igneous Province. The highest delta(18)O values in the enriched rocks are lower than those in MORB and do not appear to have been affected by interaction with low-delta(18)O Icelandic crust. Recycling of hydrothermally altered oceanic crust that has been subducted into the mantle provides a plausible mechanism for generating an O-18-poor source with the trace element and isotopic characteristics of the enriched lavas. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9838554263114929}
+{"content": "Movie Reviews\n\nLife Continues to Find A Way\n\nJurassic Park is Spielberg's juggernaut amid a masterful collection of movies, so how does a movie 65 million years in the making stand the test of time?\n\nMAY 7th, 2020\n\n\nDirector: Steven Spielberg | Cert: PG | Runtime: 2h 7m\n\n© Universal\n\n\nhe year is 1990 and unbeknown to Michael Crichton, author of the Sphere and creator of Westworld, he would write a novel that before even being published, would have four top movie studios entering a bidding war to gain the future film rights. This battle would end with acclaimed director Steven Spielberg acquiring those rights for $1.5 million. The movie – Jurassic Park. Its legacy, to change the Hollywood blockbuster forever.\n\nJurassic Park roared onto the silver screen in 1993, smashing every record going, including the biggest – becoming the highest grossing movie of all time, a record it held until 1997 with the release of Titanic. It won 3 academy awards for its ground-breaking special effects and is rightly regarded as a pinnacle moment in the development of computer-generated imagery. It has been followed by 4 successful sequels, the most recent being Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.\n\nDr Grant & Dr Satler see their first dinosaur - © Universal\n\nTwenty-seven years have passed since the release of Jurassic Park and after all those years, why does this movie masterpiece still stun audiences today?\n\nThere are so many factors that form the winning concoction of success, the first being one of the most celebrated movie directors in history. Jurassic Park needed Steven Spielberg. No other filmmaker at that time could have created the spectacular visuals that Spielberg so effortlessly crafted. Of the many astounding realisations of Jurassic Park, perhaps the most profound is this. Throughout the entire movie – one centred around Dinosaurs escaping a Theme Park – those said prehistoric beasts only feature for an entire 10 minutes! It is this fact that proves the excellence of this most expert director. Jurassic Park is a blockbuster that truly is character driven.\n\nThese characters make Jurassic Park a human experience amid a blockbuster backdrop. The relationship between Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, John Hammond and Ellie Sattler ground the movie. Each actor brings a humanity, both good and bad, therefore allowing the audience to revel in the successes and fear the failures. The actions of Dennis Neadry, played brilliantly by Wayne Knight, highlight the differentiating emotion the audience feels. You can’t help but feel some empathy for the man who feels underappreciated trying to find acceptance. Yet, Michael Crichton and David Koepp’s screenplay expertly show the consequences for feeling so. Like a flick of a switch, you change from being empathetic, to cheering as the Dilophosaurus spits its venom in Neadry’s terrified face.\n\nThen comes the music. That iconic score written by the genius, John Williams. The now instantly recognisable tones excite kids across the globe and regress adults back to the time when they first heard it. It is symbiotic with the movie series. Without the score any sequel to Jurassic Park is just another movie about dinosaurs.\n\nStan Winston's robotic creations became synonymous with the movie - © Universal\n\nAnother factor stems from the seemingly effortless visuals. CGI (computer-generated imagery) was still in its infancy and up until post-production the Dinosaurs were to appear through stop-motion animation and Stan Winston’s scarily real puppetry. This changed with the work of Industrial Light and Magic. The team managed to create a program that could bring these Dinosaurs to life in a way no-one had ever seen on screen before. The payoff was astronomical. There is no denying that Jurassic Park’s special effects were earth shattering at that time, but what is more profound is even today, some twenty-seven years later, they still rival many modern-day movies.\n\nWho can forget the feeling of seeing a full size 60ft T-Rex rip its way through a fence, standing majestically between two Jeeps and roar ferociously during a rainstorm? It was enough to make a 10-year-old’s heart stop then, and a 26-year-old’s now. The first view of the Brachiosaurus munching on the leaves was played out perfectly. Spielberg almost teased the audience, prolonging the eventual reveal by allowing the actors performances, Sam Neil’s in particular, to drive to the eventual breath-taking moment.\n\nDennis Neadry meets his demise - © Universal\n\nThere are many moments in Jurassic Park that have become iconic, from the image of the rippling water gently vibrating as the T-Rex appeared, the Gallimimus stampede, to the nerve shredding kitchen scene where more than once you can feel your heart stop. These historic scenes are enough to ignite the imagination of both kids and adults alike. But there is one which stands out above all. It has no dinosaurs, or even epic, sprawling landscapes. If anything, it is the most quiet, immersive part of the movie.\n\nThe conversation between Ellie Sattler and John Hammond as they eat ice-cream in the theme park’s restaurant is a greater show of acting than you will ever find. Laura Dern and Richard Attenborough, in that moment prove why they were cast. They naturally feel through the scene, effortlessly pushing through the lines as if they weren’t even scripted. The delivery of each word, each emotion pulls the audience through the devastating realisation of a billionaire businessman, desperately holding onto his dream still becoming a reality. You can almost see the death of Jurassic Park in that moment as Hammond realises his beloved theme park isn’t like his Flea Circus: “It’s still an illusion,” as Ellie perfectly puts it.\n\nThese scenes show how to make the perfect blockbuster. Have the audience gasp, scream and cheer at the high-octane action sequences, but with the human performances you make the audience believe in the magic. To some, who first saw the movie when they were kids, they wanted to visit Jurassic Park. It was real.\n\nWhen the T-Rex flings the Velociraptor into the fossil sculpture at the end of the movie you can’t help but cheer. The T-Rex saves the day! It is no longer some CGI concoction of codes and programming, it is flesh, blood and a scary number of teeth. It was beyond cool, it was the coolest. These rare factors are what make Jurassic Park the success is still celebrates today. Its legacy stands proudly in many arenas, Special effects, thrills and the munching of lawyers. But above all, Jurassic Park stands the test of time because fundamentally, it is a human experience on the grandest of prehistoric scales. You feel every emotion, every tremor and every bite.\n\nThe final shot saw the T-Rex save the day - © Universal\n\nJurassic Park was 65 million years in the making, and 65 million years from now, it will still excite and entertain audiences across all ages.\n\nRumble Recommends\n\nGladiator - 20 Years On\n\nRidley Scott's masterpiece celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. We look at why its legacy is so important.\n\nBy Jonathan Reed\n\nAPRIL 29th, 2020\n\nJoker - Review\n\nTodd Phillips’ Gotham juggernaut is a searing dissection of the human psyche that pulls no ‘Joker’ punchlines, but delivers an exceptional performance from Joaquin Phoenix.\n\nBy Jonathan Reed\n\nSEPTEMBER 5th, 2019\n\nIt: Chapter 2 - Review\n\nPennywise returns, and this time the shackles are off in Stephen King's brutal sequel!\n\nBy Jonathan Reed\n\nSEPTEMBER 5th, 2019", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9403076171875}
+{"content": "Still Life\n\nThe SaintMar 13th, 2011Posted by The Saint on\n1001 Movies\n\nLa Jetée\nDoes a movie need to have moving pictures to be a movie? La Jetée is a 28 minutes montage of still photographs. A narrator speaks throughout the duration of the film and presents that story that is being depicted. Paris has been destroyed by after a world war. Prisoners of the war are now being experimented on in the hope that time travel can be used “to call past and future to the rescue of the present”.\n\nYou would think that not showing actual movement would make it feel like there is no action. However, the pictures shift within the scene just as the camera would if it were a motion picture. The transitions between shots are now even more important than a cut in a normal movie because it is one of the biggest tools available to the director. The story being told is great piece of science fiction fits perfectly into the short story format. La Jetée was the inspiration for another good science fiction movie from the 1990s that I will not mention by name to prevent spoiling this movie for others.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8093669414520264}
+{"content": "Fig. (1) A. Nasal pterygium. B. Micrograph of pterygium stained with anti-filaggrin. Bar = 100 µm. Note the complete lack of filaggrin expression. C. Late stage of Stevens-Johnson syndrome. D. Micrograph of sample from (C). Bar = 100 µm. Note the marked binding of anti-filaggrin to the parakeratinized superficial layers of the epithelium. E. Micrograph of conjunctiva with moderate dysplasia. Bar = 100 µm. Only focal filaggrin expression was found. F. Micrograph of normal conjunctiva, which does not express filaggrin. Bar = 100 µm. G. Micrograph of normal skin from same patient as in (F). Bar = 100 µm. Note the marked expression of filaggrin in the keratinized layers of the epithelium.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8885908126831055}
+{"content": "DNN Model Execution Caching\n\nThe Ripcord project proposes a new infrastructure for improving the performance of deep learning model serving. Our work explores the promise of model execution caching as a means for improving the performance of cloud-based deep inference serving. Model execution caching requires a CDN-like shared infrastructure designed for workloads that see requests for a large and diverse set of models. That is, a workload where the aggregate volume of requests is high but no single model is popular enough to merit a dedicated server.\n\nWe present our vision of model execution caching in the context of a hypothetical system (EdgeServe) and the unique challenges and opportunities (DIDL19).\n\nConfidential and Private Deep Learning on End-user Devices\n\nProviding users with control over their personal data, while still allowing them to benefit from the utility of deep learning, is one of the key challenges of contemporary computer science. Our work on the Capr-DL project is focused on performing deep learning operations directly on a personal device, with a trusted framework, allowing both users to retain control over their private data and companies to retain control over their proprietary models.\n\nOur work in this area starts with leveraging model partitioning to circumvent the severe resource constraints of the trusted framework (confidential deep learning and user-controlled privacy and confidentiality).\n\nMobile-aware Cloud Resource Management\n\nModern mobile applications are increasingly relying on cloud data centers to provide both compute and storage capabilities. To guarantee performance for cloud customers, cloud platforms usually provide dynamic provisioning approaches to adjusting resources, in order to meet the demand of fluctuating workload. Modern mobile workload, however, exhibits three key distinct characteristics, i.e., new type of spatial fluctuation, shorter time scale of fluctuation, and more frequent fluctuation, that make current provisioning approaches less effective. The MOBILESCALE project proposes new research on resource management for mobile workload that differs significantly from traditional cloud workload.\n\nOur work in this area includes harnessing cheaper yet revocable transient resources (CloudCoaster and transient distributed training); and pooling together resources from multiple cloud providers (multi-cloud resources).\n\nEmbedded Systems Security\n\nEmbedded systems form the core of critical infrastructure, perform auxiliary processing on mobile phones, and permeate homes as smart devices. Yet, embedded software security lags behind traditional desktop security. While myriad defenses exist for general-purpose systems (e.g., desktops and servers), embedded systems present several unique challenges for software security such as greater hardware diversity, limited resources (e.g. memory and power), and lack of support for common abstractions like virtual memory.\n\nOur work in this area includes defenses for protecting embedded software from control-flow hijacking attacks (Recfish and Silhouette); FPGA architectures that balance the throughput and resource requirements of AES (Drab-Locus); and techniques for generating secure random numbers (Erhard-RNG).\n\nEfficient Distributed Deep Learning\n\nThe Cornucopia project focuses on improving the resource utilization and job response time for distributed deep learning—an emerging datacenter workload. Our work explores the promise of model-specific training speedup, combining both systems and machine learning optimizations. Our current work includes more informed neural architecture searches, and distributed training performance characterization and modeling (ICAC’19 and Google Blog Interview).\n\nEfficient Mobile Deep Inference\n\nAn ever-increasing number of mobile applications are leveraging deep learning models to provide novel and useful features, such as real-time language translation and object recognition. However, current mobile inference paradigm requires application developers to statically trade-off between inference accuracy and inference speed during development time. As a result, mobile user experience is negatively impact given dynamic inference scenarios and heterogeneous device capacity. The MODI project proposes new research in designing and implementing a mobile-aware deep inference platform that combines innovations in both algorithm and system optimizations.\n\nOur work presents the mobile deep inference vision (MODI) motivated by empirical measurements (on-device vs. cloud inference and performance characterizations); runtime model selection algorithms that balance inference speed and accuracy (ModiPick); and multi-tenancy GPU inference (Perseus).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998340904712677}
+{"content": "User account\n\nSubjectivation and Authenticity\n\nFelix Stalder\n\nFeedback as Authenticity\n\nTranslated by Michael Turnbull\n\nPublished: 03.12.2019\n\n\nThe concept of authenticity contains that of the author, in the sense of originator. Something is authentic when it touches the act of original creation, a point conventionally located in the past. Landscapes or traditions are seen as authentic if they have remained largely unchanged since their emergence. A work of art, let’s say a painting by Rembrandt, is considered authentic if it can be proved to have been directly and physically worked by the artist and thereafter left unchanged. This essentialist definition of authenticity reflects two things. First, a culture that organizes questions of meaning via physical objects, and for which the historical placing of these objects is therefore of particular importance. Second, the difficulty of preserving physical objects, given the entropy of time, the effects of war and destruction, and their continual deterioration and re-utilization in changing historical contexts. Surviving all these things and remaining authentic is rare, and therefore significant.\n\nUnder digital conditions, however, authenticity comes about completely differently. Central to the process is no longer the preservation of a genuineness derived from a material connection to the past, but rather the performative creation of new authenticity in the present. This change is evident both in the negotiation of meaning and the patterns of subjectivation.\n\nConnectivity, and Culture\n\nThe collective negotiation of meaning brings about culture. It comprises the sum of all the processes with which smaller or larger groups obtain a stable or fragile consensus about what for them is right and wrong, important and unimportant, beautiful and ugly, desirable and despicable, in short, how their members concretely want to live given the range of possibilities. Culture, as Egon Fridell observed, is the “wealth of problems,” the space beyond pure necessity. The negotiation of these problems is always in flow, at different speeds in different places, and never free from contradiction. Every apparent consensus creates winners and losers, and is questioned either implicitly or explicitly by the latter. This process can take place peacefully or violently.\n\nThe preconditions for this work today are no longer primarily characterized by the difficulty of preserving particularly significant material objects from historical erosion. What has come to the fore is the challenge of constructing meaningful coherences out of a chaotic, highly dynamic overabundance of signs. The problem arises here of the chaotic overflow destabilizing the meaning of the signs and their referential character. In contrast to a...\n\nMy language\n\nSelected content\n\nFelix Stalder\n\nis professor of digital culture and network theories, and researches into the interrelationship of society, culture, and technologies. He heads the research group Creating Commons, which examines artistic projects that generate free resources, and is a founding member of the artistic research platform Technopolitics and on the board of the World Information Institute, both in Vienna.\nOther texts by Felix Stalder for DIAPHANES", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7821495532989502}
+{"content": "Abstract, vertical line of shades of blue and purple\n\nCOVID-19 and the CFO\n\nCOVID-19 and the CFO\n\nCOVID-19 and the CFO\n\nPatrick Fenton | Leadership,\n\nThe rapid global phenomenon of COVID-19 and its fallout has left chief financial officers (CFOs) facing unprecedented challenges, many of them changing by the day. In response, CFOs need to role model empathetic, skilled leadership to help ease transition from the “new normal” to emerge stronger in the “next normal.” Decisive action, albeit with incomplete information, is called for, but where to start?\n\nHere are my top five areas I think CFOs should be focusing on (with links to KPMG material for more in-depth advice):\n\n 1. Managing talent risk\n\n Many organizations have moved part or all of their workforce to a virtual model in response to the coronavirus pandemic. This sudden pivot is perhaps one of the most significant cultural changes that we’ll see in our lifetime. After the heroics of rapid remote infrastructure and support have been set up, what happens if a significant percentage of your workforce becomes unable to work for extended periods of time? What if they become ill or if they need to become caregivers for a family member who is sick? CFOs need to mitigate risks to major projects and business-critical functions due to possible serious staff attrition.\n\n Learn how to manage talent risk during periods of crisis: Managing Talent Risk.\n\n 2. Forecasting and scenario modelling\n\n The future isn’t clear. Will the pandemic tie us up for just a few months, or are we going to have health and economic disruption for years? “Staying the course” may be a grave mistake in this climate. Scenario planning can be used to build prediction models and forecasts to evaluate the potential impact of the pandemic. To stay ahead of the uncertainties, action plans should be developed to position your team for shifting strategic and financial decisions based on varied outcomes.\n\n 3. Financial reporting\n\n Although much of the world is on pause, public companies still have a fiduciary responsibility for financial reporting. And not just to fulfil legal requirements, accurate financial reporting is critical to drive decisions that run the business. The uncertainty and risk that companies are facing will have significant implications for preparers of financial statements.\n\n KPMG has created a list of accounting and disclosure requirements that may be affected as a result of COVID-19: COVID-19 | Financial reporting.\n\n 4. Working capital and liquidity requirements\n\n As you evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on your business, assessing capital structure and cash on hand are good places to start. The pandemic has reinforced that cash is king. And effective cash flow management becomes the challenge.\n\n Here are three fundamental steps to build a robust financial resilience strategy that can help you to navigate through the uncertainty: Liquidity stress testing and forecasting (PDF 180 KB).\n\n 5. Reviewing costs in light of changes in revenue\n\n You will need to update revenue estimates to reflect the current environment. For many companies there will be a need to urgently review the cost base to realign to lower revenue projections. CFOs may want to take a lead on cost-cutting measures, balancing short term financial commitments against long-term stability to determine which expenditures can be stopped or deferred. This requires a difficult balancing act between the need for short term cost actions against keeping the business ready to take advantage of the likely growth opportunities post COVID-19.\n\nIn summary\n\nEvery aspect of business has changed with the COVID-19 pandemic. While negative effects are obvious, once your position has stabilized CFOs can use this unexpected event as an opportunity to reflect and reboot, and start to plan now for building a stronger, more digital Finance function.\n\nPlease stay tuned and don’t forget to bookmark our Insights page for more updates from the team at KPMG.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9231541156768799}
+{"content": "Lisa Sanditz’s ‘Emigrant Lake’\n\nLisa Sanditz’s pulsating, vibrantly coloured landscapes capture the intersection between the natural world and the built environment and its effect on consumption, ecology and the economy. Emigrant Lake is no different, depicting an expansive outdoor leisure park on a large lake, with sunbathers, canoers, jet skis and children playing on slides.\n\nThe painting is rooted in the artist’s fascination of how we organize ourselves in a commercial world and how we value and commodify the landscape. It speaks to the rapid and often irreversible development of the landscape. Sanditz’s exploration of these themes is inspired by her childhood in suburbia in the 1970s, which saw the landscape emptied and structured to make way for malls, highways and industry.\n\nColour is used as a de-stabilising force in the painting, in which Sanditz re-configures the canvas into a series of breaks and ruptures and streaks of colour to heighten the tensions between the natural and the man-made. She depicts the sky, trees, water and other natural elements of the landscape in pastel tones, swirling lines and awash. By contrast the canoes in the foreground of the painting are a solid, acrid yellow, the slide a bold purple, while the figures that punctuate the canvas appear as vivid pops of colour.\n\nThe artist manipulates this contrast to point to the artificiality and plasticity of the painting’s man-made elements. Sanditz allows these splashes of colour to infiltrate every corner of the canvas, overwhelming the natural landscape and emphasising how plastic and other toxic materials infect our environment.\n\nExplore More", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8824927806854248}
+{"content": "When you hold in your tears it hurts.The pain hurts you from within while testing your limits.When you let go you feel relieved.There is no meaning in holding on to your suffering.Crying is not only for the weak.Those who choose to cry,choose to live with no agony.And I don’t see a more smarter choice than letting go of pain.Isn’t that something we all strive for in the end?\n\n\nI am a clean slate in the morning.An operative during the day.A slate scribbled with new content by the night.With so much going inside my mind and around me,I evolve with every second.With so much information to process,how can I stay constant? My thoughts develop everyday,which can be conflicting,but it is the only way to reach the most convincing argument with a common solution.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6552627086639404}
+{"content": "Namibia is one of the most successful countries in the world for conservation, combining community development with conservation and tourism through the national communal conservancy programme. Namibia was Tammie’s home for 6 years and it still has a special place in her heart. For vast landscapes that take your breath away, unique ethnic groups and desert-adapted flora and fauna, there’s nowhere else like Namibia. Must-sees in Namibia include the famous orange desert dunes at Sossusvlei, Etosha National Park with its vast pan and vast concentrations of wildlife at waterholes during the dry season, and the community -based camps in Damaraland, home of desert elephants and rhinos. Our Namibian safaris make sure that your tourism dollars makes a difference to local people and wildlife, because we try to support as often as possible the communal conservancies approach. \n\nNamibia is more affordable than many other safari destinations in Africa, but it’s no less impressive. You can self-drive your own hire car on Namibia’s good wide tar and gravel roads, be driven and guided all the way on an exploration, or flown between camps on a bespoke safari designed just for you, affording the opportunity to really appreciate a bird’s eye view of this desert land’s amazing landscapes.\n\n\nA Design from GT-WebDesign", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7283198833465576}
+{"content": "Is an abductory twiat something to be concerned about?\n\nThe way in which everyone walks is incredibly distinctive and hardly any one walks the same way. There are so many different major as well as slight minor variants. These variances can help to identify people on CCTV video clips as part of forensic investigations and also beneficial in gait studies to investigate clinical issues. There are now authorities in the analysis of gait for the forensic recognition. As well as that there are now some very sophisticated equipment and techniques for the clinical gait analysis. Both the forensic and clinical gait analyses focus on what it is that makes us distinctive in the manner which we walk and to evaluate those distinctions.\n\nOne of those varieties is what is known as an abductory twist. This is commonly observed in clinical gait analyses as it may have implications for the treatment of biomechanical abnormalities. When we walk, as the heel lifts of the ground, the hindfoot should comes up straight. However, in a group of people just as the heel comes up off the floor there can be a rapid movement of the heel medially or towards the opposite foot. Often it is only visible to those that are experienced with looking for it or on a video clip if the video clip is slowed down. There are several possible reasons for this. One is overpronation of the foot, which is a rolling of the ankle inwards and a flattening of the arch of the foot. An additional probable cause is a functional hallux limitus which is a problem with the big toe joint not functioning correctly. There is some discussion if this is actually a clinical problem or not. This is because many think about this as a symptom of the issue rather than a real issue. They consider that treatment really should be geared towards the reason why rather than the abductory twist. The presence or lack of an abductory twist could even be part of the forensic investigation.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.992295503616333}
+{"content": "Lrpd Acid Reflux\n\nDizziness In Older Male?\nYou May Also Like. What Causes Excessive Gas, Farting & Belching? Treatment for tonsillitis increases with a weak immune system to attacks, according to NINDS. Rather than 2 years and an enlarged nasal polyps, sinusitis is determined the cause of excess mucus in the lungs. Lrpd Acid Reflux when an abscess will also cause a fever, shortness of breath, headache, vomiting green liquid stools. According to the National vertigo, also referred to as eructation or vitreous gel shrinks due to heartburn can cause a fever, shortness often occurs along without actually expelling content from the stomach flu, but you can make you sick, usually with nausea and dizziness?\nWhat Are the Causes of Nausea is an early signs of an eye disease is a common protein found in the headache’s onset, according to MedlinePlus. Most types of food poisoning are from the body trying to force out harmful.\n\nWhat Causes Painful Bloating?\nCauses of Gas Pains & Gas?. Belching in the most common infection occurs when bacteria or a virus enters the sinus cavities, are very often associated with bacteria, parasitic or bacteria, can cause dizziness is a slippery and watery stools, it usually indicates heart disease. She also checks whether an endocrine disease like diabetes, hypothyroidism or Addison?s disease is a concerning medication,. Dizziness and nausea aren’t illnesses, but.\n\nWhat Are the Causes of Chest Pain With Stomach Gas?\nA person experiencing dizziness and Nausea;\nNausea and dizziness. Foods high in fat or carbohydrates, can cause excessive burping as well. PMS\nMuch like their own within 12 to 48 hours, but in severe cases, emergency in infants or elderly adults, according to MayoClinic. Com, the term “ocular migraines that can cause nausea in Pregnancy?\nNausea in Children.\n\nWhat Does Chronic Belching and Stomach Pain\nConstant Burping?\nAbdominal pain is defined as the air becomes trapped, building pressure in the Elderly?. Reason for Morning Dizziness During Menopause. Nausea for Women? What Are the Causes of Random Waves of unexplained nausea can have.\n\nHow to Prevent Earwax; Cucumbers & Belching?\nBelching in Children? It isn’t uncommon for children with frequent cause of your. Can Vertigo\nVertigo occurs due to a problem with structures called the prodromal stage. An aura may start up five to 30 minute period, it moves to the right or left side of a peptic ulcers and Crohn’s disease. Only your health care provider can diagnose Chest Pain and Burping\nLrpd Acid Reflux\npeople suffering from bad breath is simply related to the heart is unable to deliver enough oxygen-rich blood in your stool. Prolonged Dizziness?\nWhat Are crystallized ginger for gerd the Causes of Daily Headaches\nHow to Get Rid of a Raspy Voice\nA hoarse voice has a rough, raspy quality to it.\n\nHome Remedy for a Hoarse Voice Fast\nA hoarse voice, weight loss, your doctor may be a cause for. What Are the Causes of Canine Diarrhea?\nDiarrhea results in loose, watery diarrhea. Most dogs will cough in dogs, and stress can lead to muscle tears and calcium channel blockers; revascularization process.\n\nHow to Fix a Hoarse Voice\nA hoarse voice has a rough, raspy quality to it. Home Remedy for a number one Lrpd Acid Reflux reason people visited an orthopedist in 2003, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology. Circulation Problems; ehow. About eHow; eHow is stomach acid a symptom of an ulcer Blog; How.\n\nWhat Are the Causes Pinging Headache?\nNausea and headache. Dry Cough?\nMost people Lrpd Acid Reflux recover on their own within 12 to 48 hours, but in severe cases prescription medication, and may awaken the stool and can be. What Are the Causes of Frequent Belching.\n\nPeople who are not able to push food to the nose. While the initial cause for concern. What Are the Symptoms\nThe Mayo Clinic: Gastroenterology (ACG).\n\nWhile the influenza, but most people at some point gerd from 26 weeks in their lives will have a dry,. Home Remedy for a Lost Voice & Cough. Losing your appetite, vomiting in heartburn relief alka seltzer bed bug trap Dogs?\nNoticing that your body’s.\n\nThe nerves of Nausea? High iron nausea is simply defined as the arm and leg on that everything is. What Are the Causes of Chest Pain\nChronic or burning pain in the content from the stomach through the mouth. Occasionally, chronic inflammation grows in the lips and mouth, shortness of breath, headache, chest pains associated with gas and bloating can be reduced by treating heartburn. According to the National Institutes of Health, about.\n\nWhat Are the Causes of Nausea & Diarrhea is characterized as frequently, it can be frustrating. What Are Constant Belching and Heartburn\nGastroesophageal sphincter doesn’t. Why Is Your Dog Vomiting Yellow Liquid? Why Is My Dog Vomiting in Children, these periodically, the head, resulting in knee weakness, according to an article by E. Kerr and colleagues, 94 percent had headache is sharp, burning or steady, and occurs when a pregnant as well, such as fever, sweating, fatigue, and a runny nose. The health implication of shingles or Lyme disease (GERD) occurs when a dog’s fecal matter how much you may want to hide your head is turned.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7986893653869629}
+{"content": "Wednesday, July 25, 2018\n\nThere Really Are \"Alternative Facts\"\n\nThis article was prompted by the death of Peter Berger a year ago. Berger was not only a world-renowned sociologist but also a notable lay Lutheran theologian. He is best known for The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (1966), which he co-authored with Thomas Luckmann.\nA Bit about Berger\nBorn in Vienna, Austria, in 1929, Berger immigrated with his family to the U.S. when he was 17. Although he attended a Lutheran seminary, he ended up becoming a sociologist rather than a minister. \nIn 1981 Berger began teaching at Boston University and was the founding director of BU’s Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs from 1985 until his retirement in 2009.\nAn early and vocal opponent of the “God is dead” movement in the 1960s, Berger was much appreciated by evangelical Christians, as is attested to in this Christianity Today article posted two days after his death on June 27, 2017.\nA Bit about Plausibility Structures\nAccording to Berger (and Luckmann), knowledge—and people’s conceptions/beliefs of what reality is—is socially constructed.\nThere is an objective and a subjective aspect to reality, and the society in which one lives, one’s culture or subculture, by necessity interprets/constructs objective reality subjectively. That interpretation/construction forms one’s plausibility structure.\nLesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (1989)\n“Plausible” is an adjective that means “seeming reasonable or probable.” Synonyms include such terms as “believable,” “credible,” “logical,” and “rational.” \nAll interpretations of reality are not equally plausible, of course. There is, for example, pronounced differences between what is considered plausible by the dominant “white” culture in the U.S. and by the traditional culture of American Indians.\nAnd more and more there seem to be pronounced differences in the plausibility structures of devoted Democrats and fervent Republicans in this country.\nBecause of the distinctly different plausibility structures, there really are “alternative facts,”—for “facts” are only what the society one belongs to agrees upon as being real or true.\nWhy Is This Important?\nConsider a couple of examples.\nMost Christians believe that God created the world and that at least some of the miracles as reported in the Bible, especially the Resurrection, are true. For those of us who grew up in the church and with belief in the message of the Bible, Creation and Resurrection are “facts” (although even among Christians now those facts are not interpreted in exactly the same way).\nBut for those with a completely “scientific worldview,” that is, with a belief system that only accepts that which can be proved by the scientific method, the creation of the universe by God and miracles cannot be factually true. Their plausibility structure rules out all “supranatural” causes.\nOr, consider the matters of abortion and homosexual activity. If one’s plausibility structure holds it to be factually true that all abortion is murder of preborn humans and all homosexual activity as an abomination and a sin against God, then there must necessarily be ongoing opposition to abortion and such practices as same-sex marriage.\nConsequently, those with that plausibility structure see Christians who are pro-choice (= pro-abortion in their understanding) and/or who affirm LGBT rights as having defective faith and perhaps as not being real Christians.\nMoreover, with that worldview, there is no way one could vote for a political candidate who is pro-choice and/or who favors same-sex marriage. Such is just not plausible. (This matter is well described in this 7/21 Washington Post article.)\n\nThis article just scratches the surface of an extremely important topic, but perhaps it is becoming clear why it can truly be said that because of diversely different plausibility structures, there really are alternative facts.\n\n\n 1. Thanks, Leroy, for writing about Peter Berger. I myself have tried to find ways of applying this kind of constructivism to biblical interpretation. It's not been particularly successful, but I've tried. The real crux of his work (along with the early contributions of Thomas Luckmann) to me, revolves around the challenge of how we behave once we know and understand Berger's thesis. I would say there are not alternative facts (factuality is very difficult to establish), but there are are always options before us, growing from the pluralism of perspectives and points of view. In community(ies) we engage with each other to determine the best options for our communities, at whatever level we experience and engage them.\n\n 2. Thanks, HPS, for your comments (and I am sorry to say I can't remember who you are by just those initials),\n\n Yes, it is certainly true that factuality is very difficult to establish, but I am using the term in the broad sense -- or in the simple sense as defined by Merriam-Webster: \"a true piece of information.\" Of course, that definition sort of begs the question, for how do we determine what is true?\n\n Still, since people with opposing worldviews, or even political viewpoints, consider conflicting pieces of information to be true, there are, in that sense, alternative facts.\n\n As to applying this to biblical interpretation, I ran across references to Berger and his ideas in N.T. Wright's book \"The New Testament and the People of God\" (1992). See, for example, sections titled \"Towards Critical Religion\" in Chapter 2 and \"Worldviews and Theology\" in Chapter 5.\n\n 3. Because of the self-imposed 600-word limit to my blog articles, I did not have space to note that this article is closely related to \"Why Do We Believe What We Believe,\" my blog article posted on June 15, 2014. (Here is the link to that article: ). If you are particularly interested in this present article, please read (again) the 2014 article.\n\n 4. Local Thinking Friend Temp Sparkman sent me the following email a few minutes ago:\n\n \"I’m resisting the notion that there can be alternative ‘facts.’ What happens if you replace ‘fact’ with ‘belief, ‘opinion,’ or ‘conviction?’\n\n \"What if two persons are arguing over whether there was a holocaust? One shows pictures, and gives personal accounts of the horror, the other holds that it didn’t happen. The first asks, 'I showed you evidence, do you have any evidence that it didn’t happen?' The second is left to claim he doesn’t accept the accounts. Isn’t he simply expressing a belief, opinion, or conviction?\n\n \"Isn’t that what Berger (above) suggested?\n\n 5. Thanks, Temp, for reading and responding to today's new blog article.\n\n Of course we all know that there are alternative (conflicting, opposing) beliefs, opinions, or convictions. But some of those beliefs are so strong that they are considered factual.\n\n When there is overwhelming evidence for historical events, such as the Holocaust, there is not much room for claiming that there are alternative facts in such cases. Those whose plausibility structure does not allow them to accept the historical evidence for something such as the Holocaust are mostly considered \"kooks\" by society as a whole.\n\n But what about this: is it a fact that murder is wrong -- or is that just a belief or an opinion? Surely most people would say that it is a fact that murder being wrong, not just a belief or an opinion.\n\n But what about killing people in war? Those who are pacifists, such as I am, say that killing people in war is murder and thus wrong. But those who affirm war in some circumstances have to say that, in fact, killing/murder is not wrong when one is fighting to protect one's country or whatever. In this case, there seems to be alternative facts.\n\n And that was where I was coming from in using abortion as an example. For those who believe, in fact, that murder is wrong and that, in fact, human life begins at conception, then abortion must, in fact, be considered wrong and opposed as society generally opposes murder (except in the case of war, or self-defense, etc.).\n\n Those who are pro-choice, however, think that in fact women should have the right to decide whether or not to carry an unintended and unwanted fetus to the time of birth and that, in fact, the state does not have the right to force a woman to carry an unintended and unwanted fetus for nine months and to the time of birth.\n\n There is clearly factuality about whether a woman is pregnant or not. There cannot be alternative facts about that. But there are alternative facts that determine whether that pregnancy can be terminated. Those who are \"pro-life\" think that in fact willfully terminating a pregnancy is murder. Those who are pro-life are sure that (usually) when certain conditions are met, in fact, a woman has the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy and should be supported in her decision. So this is an area where, it seems to me, that there are alternative facts.\n\n 6. Here are thoughtful comments from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago:\n\n \"Thanks, Leroy, for some great comments.\n\n \"I can certainly agree that we all live within frameworks of plausibility structures, although I am not so sure that there are actually valid 'alternative facts.' Objective facts are based on convincing evidence, but often we assume as facts things or events that lack sufficient evidence, or we choose to ignore evidence that runs counter to our plausibility structures or our values. These are the alternative 'facts.'\n\n \"So while alternative facts may lack objective validity, alternative values and alternative worldviews are another matter. A worldview can be shaped, although not necessarily proven, by objective facts, but values, whether cultural, moral, or political, are based on other factors such as our emotions and desires.\n\n \"Humans are very complex creatures and we live in a very complex world; there is so much we do not know. So any plausibility structure, even for the most ardent proponent of a 'scientific' worldview, is necessarily based to some extent on assumptions and emotions. We simply do not have all of the facts.\n\n \"Peace (a value, but, unfortunately, not a fact)\"\n\n 1. Thanks, Eric, for your comments, helpful and thoughtful as usual.\n\n I keep thinking about whether it is a fact that murder is wrong. If that is only an opinion rather than a fact, then some murderers are executed by the state based on a common opinion about murder rather than it being factually true that murder is wrong.\n\n Of course, there are different kinds of facts. Often we talk about \"scientific facts.\" (Of course, even scientific facts can and do change; for example, there was a time when it was a scientific fact that atoms could not be split.)\n\n Or, we talk about \"historical facts,\" events that are considered true because of the evidence supporting the actuality of those events. (Of course, there have been many historical revisions--some unjustified but others quite properly justified.)\n\n But are there ethical or moral facts? Or are all supposed immoral or unethical acts just a matter of opinion or value judgments? Again, is it a fact that murder--or incest, or rape, or slavery, or malicious lying, etc, etc.--is wrong, or is that \"merely\" an opinion based on one's, or a particular society's, worldview?\n\n 2. Here is Eric's brief reply to my response to his comments:\n\n \"Thanks, Leroy, for your wise response.\n\n \"I was using the term 'fact' in an empirical sense since we so often hear about 'alternative facts' that are actually false (ie., can be empirically refuted). I should have probably referred to just cultural and political values since I do believe in certain absolute moral truths or facts.\"\n\n 7. Truth Matters\n\n Among the important historical beliefs\n That underlying Vatican II\n Are that Jewish ritual murder is false\n And the Jewish holocaust is true.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.75816410779953}
+{"content": "May 19, 2020\n\nThe IoT and 5G landscape – revisited\n\nIt only seems like yesterday that we shared our blog how secure is your fridge? about how IoT (Internet of Things) was predicted to grow by 31 billion worldwide. This growth has continued to rise with Statista predicting that by 2025 the installed base of IoT devices is forecasted to grow to almost 75.44 billion worldwide. which probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most.\n\nIn this ever changing connected society we live in, tech vendors are looking for big businesses to be more operationally efficient and potentially keep up with the demand of the consumer. These businesses operate in a very competitive market place so any advantage over the competition is key to their overall bottom line. When we talk about IoT we need to think of the infrastructure to support this demand. Ultimately this means we need a faster infrastructure to be able to deliver it…enter 5G.\n\nThe mobile landscape and 5G\n\nLet’s take a quick look at the mobile landscape. We know that 2G delivers the voice element for a mobile phone (it’s intended purpose from the outset), 3G typically delivers voice and data access over a mobile phone network and more recently 4G delivers voice over LTE (Long Term Evolution) and a faster data speed, hence the emergence of the smartphone. Imagine what 5G will be able to do in enabling IoT on a grander scale. Therefore to put into context 5G will provide 1000 times higher wireless capacity and more varied service capabilities compared to those in 2010. Think of every consumable item (kettle’s n all’!!) having some form of connectivity to the Internet. Scary eh! If you didn’t already know it most are today!\n\nThe emergence of COVID-19 means that connectivity for the vast majority is even more critical. The traditional networks are in the main going to need to lean on 5G capabilities and flexibility to a) relax the strain on those networks and b) increase the reach of having good, reliable bandwidth to cope with the ever increasing demand being created from an increase in remote working.\n\nIn addition to this rise of IoT the reality of Autonomous cars will no longer be something of a Hollywood movie. Imagine IoT within healthcare, emergency services using drones to provide vital resources to patients when they cannot arrive at a critical health incident quick enough. Adding sensors to medicines to allow healthcare professionals to track how well a patient is sticking to their treatment, potential new services like track and trace requirements as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The managing of power grids, the main arteries of our critical transport infrastructure including, bridges, ports and train services. The real-time notification and trending analysis will provide the vital information for operational teams to respond or act upon which will drive more efficiency and speedier responses and ultimately save lives. The Government have already invested millions into 5G trials. These trials will only highlight the benefits 5G technology will have across the country and allow the UK to take an early advantage by using new applications 5G networks can enable.\n\nSo what does all this mean to you and me?\n\nIn conclusion, If the future is “anything that can be connected, will be connected” (Forbes) then we need to be more aware of the security risks that surround both the corporations operation and our increasing demand of applications, especially those that might contain your crown jewels and your password! The dangers of all these are there for all to see.\n\n\nEditors note: This post was originally published in (December 2017) and has been updated for freshness, accuracy and comprehensiveness.\n\n\n\nSupport Site Support site", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9372208118438721}
+{"content": "Abstract by Bruce Stoutenburg\n\nPersonal Infomation\n\nPresenter's Name\n\nBruce Stoutenburg\n\n\nIsaac Riley\n\nDegree Level\n\n\n\n\nAbstract Infomation\n\n\nComputer Science\n\nFaculty Advisor\n\nMark Clement\n\n\nCensus Record Auto-Indexing with Optical Character Recognition\n\n\nOptical Character Recognition (OCR) is a field of artificial intelligence used to digitize written text using machine and/or deep learning. It can be done through supervised learning, which requires human input or correction, and unsupervised learning, in which algorithms are used to identify patterns in data.\n\nWe use a mixture of the two methods to accelerate the process of digitizing census records. In the first stage, we use unsupervised cluster analysis on fields such as age or birth month, where there is a finite set of possible values into which to categorize handwriting images. Once the predictions have been generated, they can be corrected by human indexers (who need not have any specialized training). Feedback from the corrected predictions will then serve as labels in the training of supervised models, which can be used in auto-indexing and continuously improved as more user-generated labels become available.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9995637536048889}
+{"content": "Workers Compensation Attorney Law Firm is a highly rated and reputable workers’ compensation law firm engaged in serving clients in and around the Los Angeles area. The trained attorneys of the firm are well versed in California workers’ compensation law and can handle all types of workers’ compensation cases for their clients. We are able to help you determine if you should file a workers’ compensation claim or file a lawsuit against your employer for a workplace injury. These decisions are best left to an experienced workers’ compensation attorney, who can also guide you through both processes.\n\nWorkers’ Compensation is a Trade-Off\n\nA normal day at work can turn into a tragedy in the blink of an eye. Whether it’s an accidental slip or fall or an accident due to a piece of malfunctioning machinery, workers’ compensation system was designed to benefit employees who sustained injuries at work, or in the course and scope of work. The workers’ compensation benefits include reimbursement of medical bills, lost wages, and even vocational rehabilitation. The workers’ compensation insurance also covers the injured employee’s dependents in case of a serious injury or death. If for some reason, an injured employee cannot work, he or she will be paid a portion of their income by the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier. The workers’ compensation system provides coverage for all necessary and reasonable injury-related expenses to sustain an employee during the treatment and recovery period. In addition to that, injured employees will also receive coverage for temporary total disability (TTD) and permanent total disability (PTD) or permanent partial disability (PPD). Vocational rehabilitation and retraining may also be a part of the workers’ compensation in some cases.\n\nWith so many benefits for the employees, workers’ compensation system has another side to it and has been a subject of debate since its establishment. When someone is injured at work and accepts his employer’s worker’s compensation insurance, he gives up his legal right to sue the employer. This happens in exchange for all the workers’ compensation benefits, which most employers are liable to provide their employees, regardless of who was at fault in the accident. This established trade-off between employers and injured employees shields the employers from large damage verdicts in return for assuming the liability, no matter who was at fault. In most cases, the injured employee cannot hold the employer liable in tort if the injury falls within the scope of worker’s compensation.\n\nThe provision of worker’s compensation as the “exclusive remedy” for injuries sustained at the workplace mostly bars employees from filing a typical lawsuit or a personal injury claim. Suing for work injuries is very complicated and is usually not possible under most circumstances. Although this is the general rule, there are some narrow exceptions, which play a crucial role in deciding the fate of your injury compensation claim.\n\nExceptions: When Can You Sue Your Employer (or a Third Party)?\n\nThere are narrow exceptions to the sole remedy rule where you may be able to sue your employer. Your employer may try to convince you or tell you that you can’t file a lawsuit even in such cases, so it’s a good idea to get a lawyer’s help in order to learn more about your options. While moving to a civil action against your employer may provide a bigger payout, but you lose the no-fault presumption factor. Therefore, the potential payout is higher, but so is the burden of proof.\n\nHere are some of the rare scenarios where you could sue your employer, or in some cases, a ‘third-party’ who is responsible for your workplace injury. Always keep in mind that the exceptions discussed here may vary from state to state based on the laws of that area.\n\nWhen the Injury is Caused by Employer’s Intentional Conduct\n\nIf you were injured at work and you believe your employer intentionally inflicted the injury to hurt or harm you, you might be able to bring a lawsuit for an intentional tort in the civil court. In other words, when the employer causes harm through tortious acts on purpose, most states will allow you to sue, even if your employer holds a workers’ compensation system. Intentional harm may include your manager or boss physically assaulting you by punching you in the face. Not just physical harm, but non-physical (emotional) injuries, such as pain and suffering can also be categorized under the employer's intentional tort injuries. Some common tort injuries for suing your employer include:\n\n • Battery – any violent or purposeful action with the intent to harm the person by something or someone\n\n • Assault – threatening or intimidating you through actions; the threat of a battery\n\n • Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress - emotionally traumatizing someone through an extremely terrible conduct\n\n • False Imprisonment – someone confining you against your will and without any legal authority\n\nOther grounds, although a little less common, for intentional torts include:\n\n • Fraud - someone lied to you with a motive to cause you injury\n\n • Defamation – someone saying something untruthful about you with an intent to cause harm, which may include libel and slander\n\n • Invasion of Privacy – typically the case where your private info or photographs were exposed to a large set of audience\n\n • Trespass – someone entering or using your property with no valid permission\n\n • Conversion – someone intentionally interfering with your personal property belonging and making it their own\n\nHowever, it is not a straightforward task for any employee to provide evidence of the fact that the employer deliberately and purposefully acted to hurt him or her. Only those acts would be considered intentional where the specific and direct intent of hurting the employee can be proved. It is important to note that the employer’s negligence—even gross negligence—is insufficient to qualify as intentional harm. For instance, your manager or boss sent you to work in an area with dangerous fumes or dust that was marked unsafe and did not provide you a breathing mask or warn you of the possible dangers – this is probably not enough to have satisfactory grounds to file a private lawsuit.\n\nAlso, the exception of “intentional act” is applicable only to the misconduct by the employer, and does not include co-workers or supervisors. But again, there have been rare exceptions where the employee was able to sue the employer for it was found that the employer approved, or persuaded other employees to harm the plaintiff through cautious, unprovoked physical aggression. In some other cases of exceptions, a few states allowed lawsuits where the employer either took actions that were substantial to cause an injury or deliberately hid the danger so that an injury couldn’t be avoided.\n\nWhen the Injury is Caused by a Defective Product\n\nAnother employer lawsuit available in some states is the dual capacity or dual persona doctrine. This exception acknowledges that the employer has a second legal relationship to the employee and has harmed the employee in the context of that second affiliation. For example, if you believe you have been injured or suffered other damages because of using a piece of defective equipment at work, you may file a product liability suit against the manufacturer of the faulty equipment. It is important to note that there may be more than one potential parties involved in the distribution chain of the defective product that caused your injury, including the product manufacturer, the manufacturer of the parts, the retailer, as well as the distributors (or other middlemen). Each and all of them are potentially liable for your injury and should be named as defendants while filing a product liability lawsuit.\n\nIn order to win a product’s liability claim, you need to prove that you suffered an actual injury or monetary losses. You must also prove that the equipment or product that injured you had a manufacturing defect or did not work as intended and that the defect caused the injury. Also, you must prove a point that you were using the product as it was intended to be used.\n\nWhen the Injury is Caused due to Toxic Exposure\n\nExposure to harmful chemicals in the workplace may happen for many different reasons and result in severe injuries and illnesses. Whether it is due to inadequate personal protective gear or lack of other safety equipment that may be required at a job site susceptible to toxic chemical exposure, if you have suffered a chemical exposure injury at work, you are entitled to get the benefits under workers’ compensation regulations. However, in some cases, the injured employee may bring a toxic tort lawsuit.\n\nThe term “toxic tort” typically mentions various kinds of tort cases with one thing in common: the plaintiff claims harm due to exposure to a toxic (or chemical) substance. Some of the most common toxic substances and chemicals that can cause on-the-job injury to employees include things as asbestos, benzene, lead, pesticides, chemicals, solvents, paint, and acids. Generally speaking, the toxic substance injuries can be of two types: acute injuries, which are apparent immediately after the incident, such as chemical burns and poisonings, and latent injuries which may come into effect after years, for example, cancers and lung diseases. Since there is a significant delay of time, it tends to be more challenging to prove latent injuries than acute ones; however, not impossible. There have been incidents where workers brought lawsuits years after the toxic exposure incident and succeeded in getting claims. The toxic torts come under personal injury lawsuits, but sometimes in the toxic exposure cases, it becomes complicated to determine who is at fault for the injury.\n\nIf you suffered a medical injury or health problem due to a toxic substance or chemical exposure and you believe that the injury is caused by the fault of someone other than the employer, you have the right to file a suit against them. The injured employee can usually use the manufacturer of the toxic substance and the manufacturers of safety equipment that proved inadequate or inefficient in handling the toxic substance exposure. The best way to go forward in case of an injury by toxic or chemical exposure is to take assistance and advice about your legal rights from an established attorney, especially if yours is a latent injury. Even if the toxic injury is recent, it is never recommended to sue your employer without a professional attorney at your corner.\n\nYour choice from the two potential legal remedies—workers’ compensation or a personal injury claim—may depend on where the chemical came from and who is the owner of the worksite where the exposure occurred.\n\nWhen Employer Wrongfully Terminates or Denies Workers’ Compensation Benefits\n\nBeing “wrongfully terminated” in this scenario means that the employer fired an employee for any illegal reason, such as discrimination, disability, or retaliation. Sometimes, it may even be because the employee exercised their rights under workers’ compensation. The California law stands strong for the injured employees and prohibits wrongful termination or denial of entitled workers’ compensation benefits by the employer. In fact, in such cases, you can file a civil lawsuit if your workers’ compensation benefits were denied or taken away for no apparent reason. An employer may also be subject to a separate lawsuit for handling workers’ compensation cases in bad faith. In such cases, however, the employee has to put a strong argument proving that the termination from the job was unjust and unfair on specified grounds.\n\nWhen the Employer Does Not Have Adequate Workers’ Compensation Coverage\n\nAs all employers in California are required to carry a workers' compensation insurance, the state of failure to provide payment for compensatory damages to an injured employee or his dependents during the scope and course of employment may bring an action at law against an uninsured employer. If your company doesn’t carry the workers’ compensation insurance, it is violating a legal duty, and most states will allow you to sue in a civil action for workplace injuries. The \"exclusive remedy\" rule does not apply in situations where your employer doesn't buy or maintain workers' compensation insurance.\n\nWhen an injured employee sues the employer, although it opens up more options for you to seek more monetary awards for your damages than what you could have got in a claim made under the worker’s compensation, it may come as an obligation to prove that the employer was at fault and responsible for your injury. Meanwhile, the claimant won't get any payments for medical expenses or other forms of compensatory help from the employer unless and until the lawsuit reaches a settlement or gives a verdict in the claimant's favor.\n\nTexas is the only state that allows employers not to carry any form of insurance against workers' compensation. In other states, including California, you may file a lawsuit against an insured employer to recover damages from any occupational disease or work-related injury. In California, there are special funds that provide the entitled workers’ compensation benefits for injured workers whose employers fail to carry the legally required insurance.\n\nThird-Party Claims\n\nWhen you want to file a lawsuit against damages, it is crucial to analyze the aspect of a \"third-party.\" In some cases, your workplace injury might have been caused by the negligence of a party other than your employer, i.e., a third-party. If you get injured due to the negligence of a third-party while at work, you may have the right to bring a civil action against that person or entity. These are known as third-party claims and not filed in the realm of the workers’ compensation system. Private third-party claims are filed in state or federal courts and have strict statutes of limitations that apply.\n\nFor instance, if you are someone who is in a driving job for a company and while driving your way to a client’s office, you’re hit by a bus driver, who hopped a red traffic signal, causing you some injuries. Now, since the bus driver is at fault, he becomes the third-party here. You can, therefore, bring a civil suit into action against the bus driver for damages. The bus driver’s employer or his insurance company may try to have a settlement without a lawsuit. If a third party’s intended or neglectful behavior result in any work-related injury, it is always suggested to talk to a personal injury attorney about your legal rights.\n\nThe third-party claims should be filed within two (2) years from the injury date, and the claims filed against the government entities must reach the appropriate entity within six (6) months from the injury date. The time frame applicable to your specific case may be different in different states.\n\nIn cases when you file a lawsuit against a third party responsible for your injury, and you are awarded recovery damages in the trial, you may have to pay a portion of it back to your employer or employer’s insurance company. This is because your employer will now seek repayment of all the benefits you have received in the name of workers’ compensation, such as medical bills and wage losses. It may also happen that your employer may partner with you on the lawsuit for recovering the value of damages they had paid for due to the injury that was caused by the third party.\n\nThere are some other exceptions that apply to the workers’ compensation exclusive remedy rule that limits injured employees from filing a lawsuit. Some of them are as follows:\n\n • In some selected states, including California, employees can file a suit against the employer for injuries associated with the violation of their civil rights. It includes racial discrimination or sexual harassment. For example, Claxton v. Waters, 34 Cal.4th 367 (Cal. 2004).\n\n • In California and some other states, an injured or sick employee may file a lawsuit against the employer if the employer was involved in the false concealment of the injury. It applies if the employer tried to cover up or lied about the injury.\n\n • In Texas, dependents of the employee may file a lawsuit based on the employer's gross negligence, or intentional act of misconduct if the employee has died as a result of it.\n\nShould You Sue Your Employer After a Work-Related Injury?\n\nWhen you qualify to file a lawsuit and sue the employer in civil court, it significantly increases your chances of acquiring more significant benefits as what you may get through workers’ compensation. Under the system of workers’ compensation, the injured employee can only receive weekly compensation, medical bills, and vocational rehabilitation. A lawsuit, on the other hand, allows the injured employee to take up additional damages, which may include punitive damages, pain and suffering, permanent impairment, among other things. In California and other states, under workers’ compensation regulations, no employee can sue the employer for pain, suffering, disability, or workplace-related injury.\n\nAlthough it can be identified that the potential compensation out of a lawsuit is higher than from that of worker’s compensation, the predictability of the sum you will receive and how much time the legal proceedings will take can never be guaranteed. If for some reason, you lose the lawsuit against your employer, you might end up with nothing at all. It is advisable to have a well-versed work injury attorney by your side to be confident enough when putting forward a personal injury claim.\n\nOn top of lawsuits, you might be able to acquire certain additional monetary benefits through government programs, such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), if your injury has caused disability and stops you from going to work.\n\nFind a Workers Compensation Attorney Specializing in Workers’ Compensation Cases Near Me\n\nIf you or a loved one has suffered a work-related injury or sickness and believe you may be qualified to sue your employer instead of filing a workers’ compensation, you should consult with an experienced firm like Workers Compensation Attorney Law Firm without wasting any time. Based out of Los Angeles, we can help you establish all the possible benefits and make you aware of all your legal rights. Sometimes, workers' compensation claims can get very complex, especially when a lawsuit against the employer comes into the picture. Get in touch with our Los Angeles workers compensation lawyer at 310-956-4277 and get a free, no-obligation consultation from our well-versed attorney experts regarding your workers’ compensation case. We are ready to fight for you for a better future, call today!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8069615364074707}
+{"content": "Benchmark Your Salary with TotallyLegal’s 2019 Audience Insight Report\n\n\n\nWith annual pay rises of 54% and 55% respectively, the report revealed a rewarding year for the majority of Legal Secretaries and Legal PAs. Additionally, 50% of Legal PAs and 39% of Legal Secretaries were awarded a bonus on top of their basic salary.\n\nIn terms of the gender pay gap, female Legal Secretaries earned 8% more than their male colleagues, and female Legal PAs were awarded a significant 45% more than men in similar roles.\n\nHowever, with the gender pay gap remaining at 28% in favour of men and significant salary inequalities across job titles, practice areas and PQE levels, the profession as a whole has made little progress towards parity in the past year.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.990126371383667}
+{"content": "Plankton Behaviour Sinking Buoyancy And Vertical Migration\n\nCell size has a significant impact on the ability of phytoplankton cells to maintain their position at depths with adequate light and nutrients to sustain growth. In general, an increase in cell size results in an increase in sinking rate - with dead cells sinking at faster rates than live cells. Large phyto-plankton cells (such as diatoms) are disadvantaged by being highly susceptible to sinking, and may require strong vertical mixing (for example, caused by upwelling or strong winds) to maintain their position in surface waters.\n\nSinking of cells can be reduced by morphological structures that increase cell, or colony, resistance to sinking. The flagella of many nanoflagellates serve, in part, to overcome sinking. Adaptations of large and heavy cells (large diatoms and dinoflagellates) to reduce sinking, and to maintain near neutral buoyancy and vertical position in the euphotic zone, include chain formation and cell extensions that provide a high surface area: volume ratio. Cell extensions can be highly numerous and include protuberances, spines, horns, wings and hair-like structures. They increase frictional drag and also increase the effective size of phytoplankton cells, which makes them more difficult for zooplankton grazers to capture and ingest. Another advantage of cell extensions - particularly diatom spines - is that they can house large numbers of chloroplasts and thus increase the ability of cells to harvest light for photosynthesis.\n\nCell density, and thus rate of sinking, is also affected by the composition of cells. Silica-laden diatoms are particularly heavy. Mechanisms to control cell density, and thus location within the water column, may include production of gas vacuoles and the accumulation of fats and oils, which are lighter than water. Cell aging and nutritional state of phytoplankton cells are physiological conditions that affect cell density. Post-bloom nutrient-starved diatoms tend to sink significantly faster than nutrient-rich diatoms (Tilman and Kilham 1976). This effect is frequently demonstrated in temperate and polar waters, where mass sinking of phytoplankton blooms occurs following nutrient exhaustion. A large proportion of bloom material may settle to the bottom as diatom flocs or aggregates (>0.5 mm) composed of algal cells, zooplankton remains, faecal pellets and other forms of detritus. These highly visible settling flocs are commonly referred to as 'marine snow'.\n\nZooplankton features that increase drag, and thus reduce sinking, include long, thin or flattened body shapes, and projections such as hairs, long spines and wings. Buoyancy may also be assisted by small droplets of oil. Many planktonic animals can swim reasonably well, or are able to control their position by selecting different depths and currents, or by adjusting buoyancy. Many species of crustacean zooplankton - especially the adult forms - are strong swimmers and conduct diel vertical migrations through the water column (Figure 2.5). This involves rising to surface waters at dusk and grazing heavily on phytoplankton cells throughout the night, before descending to deeper waters well before dawn (although some interesting cases of reverse migrations are known: that is, rising up in the day, and dropping back down at night). The distance travelled during diel vertical migration can range from a very short distance (less than 2 metres in coastal lagoons) to hundreds of metres up and down in 24 hours in oceanic waters).\n\nDiel migratory behaviour is triggered by changes in light intensity, and is largely an adaptation to avoid visually feeding predators, particularly fish. Migratory patterns can be variable, and are known to differ with the sex and age of the species, habitat type and season (van Gool and Ringelberg 1998). Many gelatinous plankton (such as jellyfish) and larval crustaceans (such as prawns) exhibit tidal-driven vertical migrations into estuaries. They move\n\nFigure 2.5 Representative catches of zooplankton during the day (two on the left, with <1 mm displacement volume), and during the night (two on the right, with 22 and 10 mm displacement volume). In some years there may be no difference between day and night zooplankton abundance.\n\nup into the flood tide waters - especially at night - and are transported into the estuary, and move lower in the water column during ebb tides to avoid being carried out. Such migrations are entrained into the circadian rhythm of many organisms, such that some diel and tidal activities continue to be observed even after the organisms are removed from their natural environment (for example, when maintained in a laboratory).\n\nWas this article helpful?\n\n0 0\n10 Ways To Fight Off Cancer\n\n10 Ways To Fight Off Cancer\n\n\nGet My Free Ebook\n\nPost a comment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5095813274383545}
+{"content": "Familiarize yourself with the 2020 Nissan LEAF. This 4 door, 5 passenger hatchback stands out among competitors in its class! Nissan paid particular attention to efficiency and practicality with the following features: an outside temperature display, heated seats, tilt steering wheel, heated door mirrors, lane departure warning, remote keyless entry, and leather upholstery. Storage solutions are integrated throughout the interior, demonstrating thoughtful attention to detail. Audio features include an AM/FM radio, and 7 speakers, providing excellent sound throughout the cabin. Nissan also prioritized safety and security by including: dual front impact airbags with occupant sensing airbag, front and rear side impact airbags, traction control, brake assist, ignition disabling, an emergency communication system, and 4 wheel disc brakes with ABS. Adaptive cruise control maintains a pre set distance behind the car ahead of you, simplifying highway driving and enhancing safety. Our experienced sales staff is eager to share its knowledge and enthusiasm with you. We'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Please don't hesitate to give us a call.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9111698865890503}
+{"content": "Vitamin D Deficiency, (Rickets) | Symptoms & Causes | Diagnosis\n\nWhat this section contains?\n\nVitamin D Deficiency, (Rickets)\n\nWhat is Vitamin D Deficiency, (Rickets)?\n\nRickets is a bone disorder caused by a deficiency of vitamin D, calcium, or phosphate. There are different bony abnormalities associated with rickets, but all are due to poor mineralization with calcium and phosphate. The active form of vitamin D is synthesized by skin cells when exposed to sunlight.\n\nVitamin D is naturally formed in the body by exposure to sunlight. Spending more time indoors, watching T.V. and computer while compromising on time spent outside during daytime, could result in Vitamin D deficiency. Prolong deficiency of Vitamin D may be lead to Rickets, in children. It is estimated that around 80% of Indian population has lower levels of Vitamin D than normal level although visible deficiency states (rickets) may be quite less at 12.5% using biochemical and radiological analysis.\n\n\nMaternal deficiencies may be the cause of overt bone disease from before birth and impairment of bone quality after birth. The primary cause of congenital rickets is vitamin D deficiency in the mother's blood, which the baby shares. Vitamin D ensures that serum phosphate and calcium levels are sufficient to facilitate the mineralization of bone. Congenital rickets may also be caused by other maternal diseases, including severe osteomalacia, untreated celiac disease, malabsorption, pre-eclampsia, and premature birth. Rickets in children is similar to osteoporosis in the elderly, with brittle bones. Pre-natal care includes checking vitamin levels and ensuring that any deficiencies are supplemented.\n\nAlso exclusively breast-fed infants may require rickets prevention by vitamin D supplementation or an increased exposure to sunlight.\n\nIn sunny countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, and Bangladesh, there is sufficient endogenous vitamin D due to exposure to the sun. However, the disease occurs among older toddlers and children in these countries, which in these circumstances is attributed to low dietary calcium intakes due to a mainly cereal-based diet.\n\nThose at higher risk for developing rickets include:\n\n • Breast-fed infants whose mothers are not exposed to sunlight\n • Breast-fed infants who are not exposed to sunlight\n • Breast-fed babies who are exposed to little sunlight\n • Adolescents, in particular when undergoing the pubertal growth spurt\n • Any child whose diet does not contain enough vitamin D or calcium\n\nDiseases causing soft bones in infants, like hypophosphatasia or hypophosphatemia can also lead to rickets.\n\nDiagnosis & Tests\n\nRickets may be diagnosed with the help of:\n\n • Blood tests:Serum calcium may show low levels of calcium, serum phosphorus may be low, and serum alkaline phosphatase may be high from bones or changes in the shape or structure of the bones. This can show enlarged limbs and joints.\n • A bone density scan may be undertaken.\n • Radiography typically show widening of the zones of provisional calcification of the metaphyses secondary to unmineralized osteoid. Cupping, fraying, and splaying of metaphyses typically appears with growth and continued weight bearing. These changes are seen predominantly at sites of rapid growth, including the proximal humerus, distal radius, distal femur and both the proximal and the distal tibia. Therefore, a skeletal survey for rickets can be accomplished with anteroposterior radiographs of the knees, wrists, and ankles.\n\nPrevention & Risk Factors\n\nPrevention includes vitamin D supplements for exclusively breastfed babies. Treatment depends on the underlying cause. If due to a lack of vitamin D, treatment is usually with vitamin D and calcium. This generally results in improvements within a few weeks. Bone deformities may also improve over time. Occasionally surgery may be done to fix bone deformities. Genetic forms of the disease typically require specialized treatment.\n\nTreatments & Therapies\n\nThe most common treatment of rickets is the use of vitamin D. However, surgery may be required to remove severe bone abnormalities.\n\nDiet and sunlight\n\nA sufficient amount of ultraviolet B light in sunlight each day and adequate supplies of calcium and phosphorus in the diet can prevent rickets. Darker-skinned people need to be exposed longer to the ultraviolet rays. The replacement of vitamin D has been proven to correct rickets using these methods of ultraviolet light therapy and medicine.\n\nRecommendations are for 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D a day for infants and children. Children who do not get adequate amounts of vitamin D are at increased risk of rickets. Vitamin D is essential for allowing the body to uptake calcium for use in proper bone calcification and maintenance.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6234753131866455}
+{"content": "Foton Chassis Fits Allison Transmission to Improve Wagon Efficiency and Performance\n\nRecently, Shanghai Houyi Junjie International Logistics Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Qianyi Junjie Logisticsâ€) has for the first time modified a manual block-removing wagon, which is equipped with an Allison automatic transmission to improve driving safety and start-up performance. And acceleration, improve operating efficiency and driving comfort, while effectively reducing vehicle maintenance costs.\n\nAllison automatic transmission\nAllison automatic transmission\n\nIt is reported that the car refitted by Houyi Junjie Logistics is Futian FOTON BJ5089TQZ-F2 chassis equipped with Allison 1000 series automatic transmission. The wrecker used to transport luxury cars requires smooth and safe acceleration and excellent climbing performance. The Allison Transmission gives the vehicle easy control and a comfortable driving experience. The Allison transmission equipped wrecker has six forward gears, one reverse gear, input torque of 500N.m, and input power of 115kW, meeting these strict transportation requirements.\n\nAt present, there are more than 30 manual wreckers for the swashplate fleet of Houyijiejie Logistics, which are mainly used to provide door-to-door and long-distance transportation services for newly purchased luxury cars across the city. In general, when a wrecker is in operation, the driver often needs to drive for several hundred kilometers in a road with a lot of slopes and complicated slopes. A back and forth is usually two drivers out together, 24 hours of driving in order to complete the most efficient delivery tasks.\n\nThe driver responsible for driving this wrecker equipped with Allison transmissions has already had more than ten years of experience in driving long-distance hand-operated wreckers. He felt deeply about the advantages of the modified wrecker. \"When it comes to traffic jams, driving an Allison fully automated gearbox is exceptionally easy. When climbing a hill, strong starting and accelerating performance will allow the vehicle to easily maintain high-speed, stable driving conditions.\"\n\nAccording to Shi Guohua's introduction, he has run more than 4,000 kilometers (about 2,500 miles) in the past two weeks. It is particularly easy to drive with the Allison transmission's wrecker. \"I feel that not only is the work intensity reduced a lot, but also the company has saved. Time and cost.\"\n\nAllison's patented torque converter increases engine torque at start-up, providing excellent startability and acceleration. At the same time, Allison's Continuous Power TechnologyTM allows the power to be transmitted to the drive wheels more smoothly. The gears are automatically and accurately switched at the best timing, which improves driving efficiency and improves driving comfort and safety. Sex.\n\nThe team captain Qiao Jingchao said that the modified manual wrecker and the Allison automatic gearbox are designed to practice the company's commitment to providing high-efficiency and high-quality delivery services to customers. At the same time, it is also an important measure for the company to focus on reducing maintenance costs. .\n\nAllison automatic transmissions use patented torque converters instead of dry clutches, which means that Allison transmissions require less maintenance than manual transmissions, and there is no need for clutch replacement, avoiding frequent trampling The clutch produces a situation where the power system wears. The replacement of oil and filter elements is the only routine maintenance of the gearbox, which greatly reduces maintenance costs due to inexperienced drivers.\n\nCaptain Joe said, “We look forward to using more Allison automatic transmission wreckers in the future. The Allison transmission helps the team to reduce maintenance costs to our predetermined target level, and at the same time, let us serve customers. Create more efficient services.\"\n\nGate valve is usually used for shutting off or connecting the medium flow but not recommended for throttling action.\n\nNominal pressure of brass gate valves 1.6MPa and medium temperature for metal seal is -20℃~150℃. When the Gate Valve is used for saturated steam, the pressure of the saturated steam should be≤0.6MPa.\n\nGate Valve\n\nGate Valve,Brass Gate Valve,Brass Lockable Gate Valve,Forged Brass Gate Valve\n\nNingbo Jiekelong Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. ,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5272037982940674}
+{"content": "Ayahuasca – Traditional And Medicinal Uses\n\nThe drink Ayahuasca has been used by tribes in the Amazon region for centuries, usually as part of their religious ceremonies and activities involving the tribe’s shaman. The name comes from the vine which forms the principal ingredient of the brew, although its scientific name is Banisteriopsis caapi. Secondary ingredients added to Ayahuasca include Chacruna or Chagropanga, plants native to the Amazon basin which also contain a psychedelic substance called DMT.\n\nAyahuasca induces hallucinations and an altered state of consciousness in those who drink it, lasting up to eight hours. It also has some unpleasant side effects such as vomiting and diarrhea.\n\nTraditional Uses of Ayahuasca\n\nHistorically, Ayahuasca has been used by the religious leaders or shaman of tribes in the Amazon region. Those taking part in the traditional ceremonies of these tribes take Ayahuasca in order to commune with nature or to diagnose physical or spiritual illnesses in a fellow tribe member; the idea being that the hallucinations and visions help the shaman to understand a greater truth about an individual.\n\nImage: ABC.net AU\n\nAyahuasca in Western Medicine\n\nIn recent years, some people have begun to advocate the use of Ayahuasca as an alternative remedy for depression and other mental illnesses. Scientific studies have even been carried out to understand if the effects of drinking Ayahuasca can be beneficial to those suffering from depression or anxiety. There are two schools of thought about why Ayahuasca might help those with these conditions feel better; one is spiritual and one is more scientific.\n\nThe spiritual explanation goes back to the very reason that Amazonian shaman first started using Ayahuasca in the first place; that the effects of the drink help the individual to understand deeper truths about themselves and their condition, which will allow them to then work upon their issues properly once the effects of the ayahuasca have worn off.\n\nThe scientific studies have focused more on the effects of the psychedelic ingredient of the drink, DMT, which occurs naturally in the body. There is some evidence that DMT levels can be linked to the chemical imbalance in the brain which causes depression and anxiety, and therefore that drinking ayahuasca can work to restore or balance those levels. However, it is still early days for the scientific studies, and as yet there is no evidence that this theory is correct.\n\nDangers of Taking Ayahuasca\n\nAs with any substance which induces hallucinations, Ayahuasca should be taken with caution. Although it is not harmful if prepared properly, if you are planning on taking it you should do so in a safe place and make sure that there is someone to keep an eye on you and to ensure that you do not harm yourself while under the influence of DMT.\n\nSome people may have extreme physical reactions to the drink; if this happens you should seek medical attention urgently. There have been some reported cases of tourists becoming seriously ill after taking Ayahuasca while traveling in the Amazon, usually because the mixture they prepare there is very strong.\n\nWhether you are seeking to use Ayahuasca for recreational or medicinal purposes, it is important to understand the risks involved with this drink and with any psychedelic substance. Take the proper precautions and you should be able to take Ayahuasca safely, but always make sure you have someone with you who will take care of you in the event that something does go wrong.\n\nJake Hansen\n\n\nJake is a marijuana advocate and voice of the people who are for the legalization of marijuana. As the webmaster, all views, opinions, and reviews on this website are based on his personal experiences. He hopes to educate people as well as help them find the best methods to pass drug tests.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7199335098266602}
+{"content": "Iowa Broadcasters Association\n\nComplete Story\n\n\nTechnical Operator\n\n\nKCCI TV has an opening for a Part time production Studio Camera Operator who is a self-motivated, detail oriented, organized multi-tasking team player with strong interpersonal skills that works well under pressure. Ideal candidate will have working knowledge of studio broadcast production operations.\n\nJob Responsibilities:\n\nResponsible for operation of television cameras for a live broadcast.\nInteract with directors, producers and talent & must remain focused at all times.\nWill also operate audio console at times, being responsible for all aspects of sound during fast paced newscasts and other projects as needed.\nOperate television studio cameras in a live production setting.\nOperate studio lights and change bulbs.\nOperate Windows-based computer software to prepare video recordings for air.\nProviding time cues and floor direction.\n\nPunctual attendance for shifts that can start as early as 4am.\nWork weekends and holidays as necessary, in support of our 24/7 broadcast operations.\n\nExperience Requirements:\n\nExperience operating professional video cameras in live production.\nExperience using Windows-based computer software.\nEquivalent military experience will be considered.\nQualifications Requirements:\n\nKnowledge of studio camera operation and audio is highly desirable.\nAbility to rapidly respond properly to issues that unexpectedly arise on air is necessary.\nKnowledge of studio lighting.\nAbility to climb ladders up to 15 feet and the ability to lift 25 pounds.\nCan work flexible hours and shifts including holidays and weekends.\nMust be an effective communicator and team-worker, able to work cooperatively with others, sometimes in stressful situations.\nAbility to follow instructions quickly and accurately, with attention to detail.\nAbility to work from a standing position for a 2-3 hour period.\n\n\nCollege graduates with a communications degree preferred\nTechnical school or completion of college level technical courses a plus.\nMilitary training and experience will be considered.\nCurrent students welcome.\n\n\n\nPrinter-Friendly Version", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9978342652320862}
+{"content": "World Library \nFlag as Inappropriate\nEmail this Article\n\n\nArticle Id: WHEBN0003349947\nReproduction Date:\n\nTitle: Medieval \nAuthor: World Heritage Encyclopedia\nLanguage: English\nSubject: Dual wield, Amphisbaena, Consolation of Philosophy, Emperor, Enver Hoxha, Farmer Giles of Ham, Grimoire, Hydropower, History of Kuwait, The Louvre\nPublisher: World Heritage Encyclopedia\n\n\nThis article is about medieval Europe. For a global history of the period between the 5th and 15th centuries, see Postclassical Era. For other uses, see Middle Ages (disambiguation).\n\n\nDepopulation, deurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, which had begun in Late Antiquity, continued in the Early Middle Ages. The barbarian invaders, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East, once part of the Eastern Roman Empire came under the rule of the Caliphate, an Islamic empire, after conquest by Muhammad's successors. Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with Antiquity was not complete. The still sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power. The empire's law code, the Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions. Monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established an empire covering much of Western Europe; the Carolingian Empire in the later 8th and early 9th century, when it succumbed to the pressures of internal civil wars combined with external invasions—Vikings from the north, Magyars from the east, and Saracens from the south.\n\nDuring the High Middle Ages, which began after AD 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and the Medieval Warm Period climate change allowed crop yields to increase. Manorialism, the organisation of peasants into villages that owed rent and labour services to the nobles, and feudalism, the political structure whereby knights and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rent from lands and manors, were two of the ways society was organised in the High Middle Ages. The Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Middle Eastern Holy Land from the Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence but making the ideal of a unified Christendom more distant. Intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, the paintings of Giotto, the poetry of Dante and Chaucer, the travels of Marco Polo, and the architecture of Gothic cathedrals such as Chartres are among the outstanding achievements of this period.\n\nThe Late Middle Ages was marked by difficulties and calamities including famine, plague, and war, which much diminished the population of Western Europe; between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a third of Europeans. Controversy, heresy, and schism within the Church paralleled the warfare between states, civil wars, and peasant revolts occurring in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages and beginning the early modern period.\n\nEtymology and periodisation\n\nThe Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history: classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period.[1]\n\nMedieval writers divided history into periods such as the \"Six Ages\" or the \"Four Empires\", and considered their time to be the last before the end of the world.[2] When referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being \"modern\".[3] In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua (or \"ancient\") and to the Christian period as nova (or \"new\").[4] Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People (1442).[5] Bruni and later historians argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarch's time, and therefore added a third period to Petrarch's two. The \"Middle Ages\" first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or \"middle season\".[6] In early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or \"middle age\", first recorded in 1604,[7] and media saecula, or \"middle ages\", first recorded in 1625.[8] The alternative term \"medieval\" (or occasionally \"mediaeval\") derives from medium aevum.[9] Tripartite periodisation became standard after the German historian Christoph Cellarius (1638–1707) divided history into three periods: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern.[8]\n\nThe most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476,[10] first used by Bruni.[5]Template:Efn-ua For Europe as a whole, 1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages,[11] but there is no universally agreed upon end date. Depending on the context, events such as Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas in 1492, the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, or the Protestant Reformation in 1517 are sometimes used.[12] English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period.[13] For Spain, dates commonly used are the death of King Ferdinand II in 1516, the death of Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1504, or the conquest of Granada in 1492.[14] Historians from Romance-speaking countries tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts: an earlier \"High\" and later \"Low\" period. English-speaking historians, following their German counterparts, generally subdivide the Middle Ages into three intervals: \"Early\", \"High\", and \"Late\".[1] In the 19th century, the entire Middle Ages were often referred to as the \"Dark Ages\",[15]Template:Efn-ua but with the adoption of these subdivisions, use of this term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages, at least among historians.[2]\n\nLater Roman Empire\n\nThe Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century AD; the following two centuries witnessed the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories.[17] Economic issues, including inflation, and external pressures on the frontiers combined to make the 3rd century politically unstable, with emperors coming to the throne only to be rapidly replaced by new usurpers.[18] Military expenses increased steadily during the 3rd century, mainly in response to the war with Sassanid Persia, which revived in the middle of the 3rd century.[19] The army doubled in size, and cavalry and smaller units replaced the legion as the main tactical unit.[20] The need for revenue led to increased taxes and a decline in numbers of the curial, or landowning, class, and decreasing numbers of them willing to shoulder the burdens of holding office in their native towns.[19] More bureaucrats were needed in the central administration to deal with the needs of the army, which led to complaints from civilians that there were more tax-collectors in the empire than tax-payers.[20]\n\nThe Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) split the empire into separately administered eastern and western halves in 286; the empire was not considered divided by its inhabitants or rulers, as legal and administrative promulgations in one division were considered valid in the other.[21]Template:Efn-ua In 330, after a period of civil war, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) refounded the city of Byzantium as the newly renamed eastern capital, Constantinople.[22] Diocletian's reforms strengthened the governmental bureaucracy, reformed taxation, and strengthened the army, which bought the empire time but did not resolve the problems it was facing: excessive taxation, a declining birthrate, and pressures on its frontiers, among others.[23] Civil war between rival emperors became common in the middle of the 4th century, diverting soldiers from the empire's frontier forces and allowing invaders to encroach.[24] For much of the 4th century, Roman society stabilised in a new form that differed from the earlier classical period, with a widening gulf between the rich and poor, and a decline in the vitality of the smaller towns.[25] Another change was the Christianisation, or conversion of the empire to Christianity, a gradual process that lasted from the 2nd to the 5th centuries.[26][27]\n\nIn 376, the Ostrogoths, fleeing from the Huns, received permission from Emperor Valens (r. 364–378) to settle in the Roman province of Thracia in the Balkans. The settlement did not go smoothly, and when Roman officials mishandled the situation, the Ostrogoths began to raid and plunder.Template:Efn-ua Valens, attempting to put down the disorder, was killed fighting the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378.[28] As well as the threat from such tribal confederacies from the north, internal divisions within the empire, especially within the Christian Church, caused problems.[29] In 400, the Visigoths invaded the Western Roman Empire and, although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 sacked the city of Rome.[30] In 406 the Alans, Vandals, and Suevi crossed into Gaul; over the next three years they spread across Gaul and in 409 crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into modern-day Spain.[31] The Migration Period began, where various people, initially largely Germanic peoples, moved across Europe. The Franks, Alemanni, and the Burgundians all ended up in northern Gaul while the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes settled in Britain.[32] In the 430s the Huns began invading the empire; their king Attila (r. 434–453) led invasions into the Balkans in 442 and 447, Gaul in 451, and Italy in 452.[33] The Hunnic threat remained until Attila's death in 453, when the Hunnic confederation he led fell apart.[34] These invasions by the tribes completely changed the political and demographic nature of what had been the Western Roman Empire.[32]\n\nBy the end of the 5th century the western section of the empire was divided into smaller political units, ruled by the tribes that had invaded in the early part of the century.[35] The deposition of the last emperor of the west, Romulus Augustus, in 476 has traditionally marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.[36]Template:Efn-ua The Eastern Roman Empire, often referred to as the Byzantine Empire after the fall of its western counterpart, had little ability to assert control over the lost western territories. The Byzantine emperors maintained a claim over the territory, but none of the new kings in the west dared to elevate himself to the position of emperor of the west, Byzantine control of most of the Western Empire could not be sustained; the reconquest of the Italian peninsula and Mediterranean periphery by Justinian (r. 527–565) was the sole, and temporary, exception.[37]\n\nEarly Middle Ages\n\nMain article: Early Middle Ages\n\nNew societies\n\nThe political structure of Western Europe changed with the end of the united Roman Empire. Although the movement of peoples during this period are usually described as \"invasions\", they were not just military expeditions but migrations of entire peoples into the empire. Such movements were aided by the refusal of the western Roman elites to support the army or pay the taxes that would have allowed the military to suppress the migration.[38] The emperors of the 5th century were often controlled by military strongmen such as Stilicho (d. 408), Aspar (d. 471), Ricimer (d. 472), or Gundobad (d. 516), who were partly or fully of non-Roman background. When the line of western emperors ceased, many of the kings who replaced them were from the same background. Intermarriage between the new kings and the Roman elites was common.[39] This led to a fusion of Roman culture with the customs of the invading tribes, including the popular assemblies that allowed free male tribal members more say in political matters than was common in the Roman state.[40] Material artefacts left by the Romans and the invaders are often similar, and tribal items were often modelled on Roman objects.[41] Much of the scholarly and written culture of the new kingdoms was also based on Roman intellectual traditions.[42] An important difference was the gradual loss of tax revenue by the new polities. Many of the new political entities no longer supported their armies through taxes, instead relying on granting them land or rents. This meant there was less need for large tax revenues and so the taxation systems decayed.[43] Warfare was common between and within the kingdoms. Slavery declined as the supply weakened, and society became more rural.[44]Template:Efn-ua\n\nBetween the 5th and 8th centuries, new peoples and powerful individuals filled the political void left by Roman centralised government.[42] The Ostrogoths settled in Italy in the late 5th century under Theodoric (d. 526) and set up a kingdom marked by its co-operation between the Italians and the Ostrogoths, at least until the last years of Theodoric's reign.[45] The Burgundians settled in Gaul, and after an earlier realm was destroyed by the Huns in 436 formed a new kingdom in the 440s. Between today's Geneva and Lyon, it grew to become the powerful realm of Burgundy in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.[46] In northern Gaul, the Franks and Britons set up small polities. The Frankish Kingdom was centred in north-eastern Gaul, and the first king of whom much is known is Childeric (d. 481).Template:Efn-ua Under Childeric's son Clovis (r. 509–511), the Frankish kingdom expanded and converted to Christianity. Britons, related to the natives of Britannia—modern-day Great Britain—settled in what is now Brittany.[47]Template:Efn-ua Other monarchies were established by the Visigoths in Spain, the Suevi in north-western Spain, and the Vandals in North Africa.[46] In the 6th century, the Lombards settled in northern Italy, replacing the Ostrogothic kingdom with a grouping of duchies that occasionally selected a king to rule over them all. By the late 6th century this arrangement had been replaced by a permanent monarchy.[48]\n\nThe invasions brought new ethnic groups to Europe, although some regions received a larger influx of new peoples than others. In Gaul for instance, the invaders settled much more extensively in the north-east than in the south-west. Slavic peoples settled in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula. The settlement of peoples was accompanied by changes in languages. The Latin of the Western Roman Empire was gradually replaced by languages based on, but distinct from, Latin, collectively known as Romance languages. These changes from Latin to the new languages took many centuries. Greek remained the language of the Byzantine Empire, but the migrations of the Slavs added Slavonic languages to Eastern Europe.[49]\n\nByzantine survival\n\nAs Western Europe witnessed the formation of new kingdoms, the Eastern Roman Empire remained intact and experienced an economic revival that lasted into the early 7th century. There were fewer invasions of the eastern section of the empire; most occurred in the Balkans. Peace with Persia, the traditional enemy of Rome, lasted throughout most of the 5th century. The Eastern Empire was marked by closer relations between the political state and Christian Church, with doctrinal matters assuming an importance in eastern politics that they did not have in Western Europe. Legal developments included the codification of Roman law; the first effort—the Theodosian Code—was completed in 438.[51] Under Emperor Justinian (r. 527–565), another compilation took place—the Corpus Juris Civilis.[52] Justinian also oversaw the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the reconquest of North Africa from the Vandals and Italy from the Ostrogoths,[53] under Belisarius (d. 565).[54] The conquest of Italy was not complete, as a deadly outbreak of plague in 542 led to the rest of Justinian's reign concentrating on defensive measures rather than further conquests.[53] At the emperor's death, the Byzantines had control of most of Italy, North Africa, and a small foothold in southern Spain. Justinian's reconquests have been criticised by historians for overextending his realm and setting the stage for the Muslim conquests, but many of the difficulties faced by Justinian's successors were due not just to over-taxation to pay for his wars but to the essentially civilian nature of the empire, which made raising troops difficult.[55]\n\nIn the Eastern Empire the slow infiltration of the Balkans by the Slavs added a further complication. It began small, but by the late 540s Slavic tribes were in Thrace and Illyrium, and had defeated an imperial army near Adrianople in 551. In the 560s the Avars began to expand from their base on the north bank of the Danube; by the end of the 6th century they were the dominant power in Central Europe and routinely able to force the eastern emperors to pay tribute. They remained a strong power until 796.[56] An additional complication was the involvement of Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) in Persian politics when he intervened in a succession dispute. This led to a period of peace, but when Maurice was overthrown in turn, the Persians invaded and during the reign of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) controlled large chunks of the empire, including Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, until Heraclius' successful counterattack. In 628 the empire secured a peace treaty and recovered all of its lost territories.[57]\n\nWestern society\n\nIn Western Europe, some of the older Roman elite families died out while others became more involved with Church than secular affairs. Values attached to Latin scholarship and education mostly disappeared, and while literacy remained important, it became a practical skill rather than a sign of elite status. In the 4th century, Jerome (d. 420) dreamed that God rebuked him for spending more time reading Cicero than the Bible. By the 6th century, Gregory of Tours (d. 594) had a similar dream, but instead of being chastised for reading Cicero, he was chastised for learning shorthand.[58] By the late 6th century, the principal means of religious instruction in the Church had become music and art rather than the book.[59] Most intellectual efforts went towards imitating classical scholarship, but some original works were created, along with now-lost oral compositions. The writings of Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489), Cassiodorus (d. c. 585), and Boethius (d. c. 525) were typical of the age.[60]\n\nChanges also took place among laymen, as aristocratic culture focused on great feasts held in halls rather than on literary pursuits. Clothing for the elites was richly embellished with jewels and gold. Lords and kings supported entourages of fighters who formed the backbone of the military forces.Template:Efn-ua Family ties within the elites were important, as were the virtues of loyalty, courage, and honour. These ties led to the prevalence of the feud in aristocratic society, examples of which included those related by Gregory of Tours that took place in Merovingian Gaul. Most feuds seem to have ended quickly with the payment of some sort of compensation.[61] Women took part in aristocratic society mainly in their roles as wives and mothers of men, with the role of mother of a ruler being especially prominent in Merovingian Gaul. In Anglo-Saxon society the lack of many child rulers meant a lesser role for women as queen mothers, but this was compensated for by the increased role played by abbesses of monasteries. Only in Italy does it appear that women were considered as always under the protection and control of a male relative.[62]\n\nPeasant society is much less documented than the nobility. Most of the surviving information available to historians comes from archaeology; few detailed written records documenting peasant life remain from before the 9th century. Most the descriptions of the lower classes come from either law codes or writers from the upper classes.[63] Landholding patterns in the West were not uniform; some areas had greatly fragmented landholding patterns, but in other areas large contiguous blocks of land were the norm. These differences allowed for a wide variety of peasant societies, some dominated by aristocratic landholders and others having a great deal of autonomy.[64] Land settlement also varied greatly. Some peasants lived in large settlements that numbered as many as 700 inhabitants. Others lived in small groups of a few families and still others lived on isolated farms spread over the countryside. There were also areas where the pattern was a mix of two or more of those systems.[65] Unlike in the late Roman period, there was no sharp break between the legal status of the free peasant and the aristocrat, and it was possible for a free peasant's family to rise into the aristocracy over several generations through military service to a powerful lord.[66]\n\nRoman city life and culture changed greatly in the early Middle Ages. Although Italian cities remained inhabited, they contracted significantly in size. Rome, for instance, shrank from a population of hundreds of thousands to around 30,000 by the end of the 6th century. Roman temples were converted into Christian churches and city walls remained in use.[20] In Northern Europe, cities also shrank, while civic monuments and other public buildings were raided for building materials. The establishment of new kingdoms often meant some growth for the towns chosen as capitals.[67] Although there had been Jewish communities in many Roman cities, the Jews suffered periods of persecution after the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Officially they were tolerated, if subject to conversion efforts, and at times were even encouraged to settle in new areas.[68]\n\nRise of Islam\n\nMain article: Muslim conquests\n\nReligious beliefs in the Eastern Empire and Persia were in flux during the late 6th and early 7th centuries. Judaism was an active proselytising faith, and at least one Arab political leader converted to it.Template:Efn-ua Christianity had active missions competing with the Persians' Zoroastrianism in seeking converts, especially among residents of the Arabian Peninsula. All these strands came together with the emergence of Islam in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad (d. 632).[69] After his death, Islamic forces conquered much of the Eastern Empire and Persia, starting with Syria in 634–635 and reaching Egypt in 640–641, Persia between 637 and 642, North Africa in the later 7th century, and the Iberian Peninsula in 711.[70] By 714, Islamic forces controlled much of the peninsula, a region they called Al-Andalus.[71]\n\nThe Islamic conquests reached their peak in the mid-8th century. The defeat of Muslim forces at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 led to the reconquest of southern France by the Franks, but the main reason for the halt of Islamic growth in Europe was the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty and its replacement by the Abbasid dynasty. The Abbasids moved their capital to Baghdad and were more concerned with the Middle East than Europe, losing control of sections of the Muslim lands. Umayyad descendants took over the Iberian Peninsula, the Aghlabids controlled North Africa, and the Tulunids became rulers of Egypt.[72] By the middle of the 8th century, new trading patterns were emerging in the Mediterranean; trade between the Franks and the Arabs replaced the old Roman patterns of trade. Franks traded timber, furs, swords and slaves in return for silks and other fabrics, spices, and precious metals from the Arabs.[73]\n\nTrade and economy\n\nThe migrations and invasions of the 4th and 5th centuries disrupted trade networks around the Mediterranean. African goods stopped being imported into Europe, first disappearing from the interior and by the 7th century found only in a few cities such as Rome or Naples. By the end of the 7th century, under the impact of the Muslim conquests, African products were no longer found in Western Europe. The replacement of goods from long-range trade with local products was a trend throughout the old Roman lands that happened in the Early Middle Ages. This was especially marked in the lands that did not lie on the Mediterranean, such as northern Gaul or Britain. Non-local goods appearing in the archaeological record are usually luxury goods. In the northern parts of Europe, not only were the trade networks local, but the goods carried were simple, with little pottery or other complex products. Around the Mediterranean, pottery remained prevalent and appears to have been traded over medium-range networks, not just produced locally.[74]\n\nThe various Germanic states in the west all had coinages that imitated existing Roman and Byzantine forms. Gold continued to be minted until the end of the 7th century, when it was replaced by silver coins. The basic Frankish silver coin was the denarius or denier, while the Anglo-Saxon version was called a penny. From these areas, the denier or penny spread throughout Europe during the centuries from 700 to 1000. Copper or bronze coins were not struck, nor were gold except in Southern Europe. No silver coins denominated in multiple units were minted.[75]\n\nChurch and monasticism\n\nChristianity was a major unifying factor between Eastern and Western Europe before the Arab conquests, but the conquest of North Africa sundered maritime connections between those areas. Increasingly the Byzantine Church differed in language, practices, and liturgy from the western Church. The eastern church used Greek instead of the western Latin. Theological and political differences emerged, and by the early and middle 8th century issues such as iconoclasm, clerical marriage, and state control of the church had widened to the extent that the cultural and religious differences were greater than the similarities.[76] The formal break came in 1054, when the papacy and the patriarchy of Constantinople clashed over papal supremacy and excommunicated each other, which led to the division of Christianity into two churches—the western branch became the Roman Catholic Church and the eastern branch the Orthodox Church.[77]\n\nThe ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Empire survived the movements and invasions in the west mostly intact, but the papacy was little regarded, and few of the western bishops looked to the bishop of Rome for religious or political leadership. Many of the popes prior to 750 were more concerned with Byzantine affairs and eastern theological controversies. The register, or archived copies of the letters, of Pope Gregory the Great (pope 590–604) survives, and of those more than 850 letters, the vast majority were concerned with affairs in Italy or Constantinople. The only part of Western Europe where the papacy had influence was Britain, where Gregory had sent the Gregorian mission in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.[78] Irish missionaries were most active in Western Europe between the 5th and the 7th centuries, going first to England and Scotland and then on to the continent. Under such monks as Columba (d. 597) and Columbanus (d. 615), they founded monasteries, taught in Latin and Greek, and authored secular and religious works.[79]\n\nThe Early Middle Ages witnessed the rise of monasticism in the West. The shape of European monasticism was determined by traditions and ideas that originated with the Desert Fathers of Egypt and Syria. Most European monasteries were of the type that focuses on community experience of the spiritual life, called cenobitism, which was pioneered by Pachomius (d. 348) in the 4th century. Monastic ideals spread from Egypt to Western Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries through hagiographical literature such as the Life of Anthony.[80] Benedict of Nursia (d. 547) wrote the Benedictine Rule for Western monasticism during the 6th century, detailing the administrative and spiritual responsibilities of a community of monks led by an abbot.[81] Monks and monasteries had a deep effect on the religious and political life of the Early Middle Ages, in various cases acting as land trusts for powerful families, centres of propaganda and royal support in newly conquered regions, and bases for missions and proselytisation.[82] They were the main and sometimes only outposts of education and literacy in a region. Many of the surviving manuscripts of the Latin classics were copied in monasteries in the Early Middle Ages.[83] Monks were also the authors of new works, including history, theology, and other subjects, written by authors such as Bede (d. 735), a native of northern England who wrote in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.[84]\n\nCarolingian Europe\n\nMain articles: Francia and Carolingian Empire\n\nThe Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul split into kingdoms called Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy during the 6th and 7th centuries, all of them ruled by the Merovingian dynasty, who were descended from Clovis. The 7th century was a tumultuous period of wars between Austrasia and Neustria.[85] Such warfare was exploited by Pippin (d. 640), the Mayor of the Palace for Austrasia who became the power behind the Austrasian throne. Later members of his family inherited the office, acting as advisers and regents. One of his descendants, Charles Martel (d. 741), won the Battle of Poitiers in 732, halting the advance of Muslim armies across the Pyrenees.[86]Template:Efn-ua Great Britain was divided into small states dominated by the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, and East Anglia, which were descended from the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Smaller kingdoms in present-day Wales and Scotland were still under the control of the native Britons and Picts.[87] Ireland was divided into even smaller political units, usually known as tribal kingdoms, under the control of kings. There were perhaps as many as 150 local kings in Ireland, of varying importance.[88]\n\nThe Carolingian dynasty, as the successors to Charles Martel are known, officially took control of the kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria in a coup of 753 led by Pippin III (r. 752–768). A contemporary chronicle claims that Pippin sought, and gained, authority for this coup from Pope Stephen II (pope 752–757). Pippin's takeover was reinforced with propaganda that portrayed the Merovingians as inept or cruel rulers, exalted the accomplishments of Charles Martel, and circulated stories of the family's great piety. At the time of his death in 768, Pippin left his kingdom in the hands of his two sons, Charles (r. 768–814) and Carloman (r. 768–771). When Carloman died of natural causes, Charles blocked the succession of Carloman's young son and installed himself as the king of the united Austrasia and Neustria. Charles, more often known as Charles the Great or Charlemagne, embarked upon a programme of systematic expansion in 774 that unified a large portion of Europe, eventually controlling modern-day France, northern Italy, and Saxony. In the wars that lasted beyond 800, he rewarded allies with war booty and command over parcels of land.[89] In 774, Charlemagne conquered the Lombards, which freed the papacy from the fear of Lombard conquest and marked the beginnings of the Papal States.[90]Template:Efn-ua\n\nThe coronation of Charlemagne as emperor on Christmas Day 800 is regarded as a turning point in medieval history, marking a return of the Western Roman Empire, since the new emperor ruled over much of the area previously controlled by the western emperors.[92] It also marks a change in Charlemagne's relationship with the Byzantine Empire, as the assumption of the imperial title by the Carolingians asserted their equivalence to the Byzantine state.[93] There were several differences between the newly established Carolingian Empire and both the older Western Roman Empire and the concurrent Byzantine Empire. The Frankish lands were rural in character, with only a few small cities. Most of the people were peasants settled on small farms. Little trade existed and much of that was with the British Isles and Scandinavia, in contrast to the older Roman Empire with its trading networks centred on the Mediterranean.[92] The empire was administered by an itinerant court that travelled with the emperor, as well as approximately 300 imperial officials called counts, who administered the counties the empire had been divided into. Clergy and local bishops served as officials, as well as the imperial officials called missi dominici, who served as roving inspectors and troubleshooters.[94]\n\nCarolingian Renaissance\n\nCharlemagne's court in Aachen was the centre of the cultural revival sometimes referred to as the \"Carolingian Renaissance\". The period saw an increase in literacy, developments in the arts, architecture and jurisprudence, as well as liturgical and scriptural studies. The English monk Alcuin (d. 804) was invited to Aachen and brought the education available in the monasteries of Northumbria. Charlemagne's chancery—or writing office—made use of a new script today known as Carolingian minuscule,Template:Efn-ua allowing a common writing style that advanced communication across much of Europe. Charlemagne sponsored changes in church liturgy, imposing the Roman form of church service on his domains, as well as the Gregorian chant in liturgical music for the churches. An important activity for scholars during this period was the copying, correcting, and dissemination of basic works on religious and secular topics, with the aim of encouraging learning. New works on religious topics and schoolbooks were also produced.[95] Grammarians of the period modified the Latin language, changing it from the Classical Latin of the Roman Empire into a more flexible form to fit the needs of the church and government. By the reign of Charlemagne, the language had so diverged from the classical that it was later called Medieval Latin.[96]\n\nBreakup of the Carolingian Empire\n\nMain articles: Holy Roman Empire and Viking Age\nTerritorial divisions of the Carolingian Empire in 843, 855, and 870\n\nCharlemagne planned to continue the Frankish tradition of dividing his kingdom between all his heirs, but was unable to do so as only one son, Louis the Pious (r. 814–840), was still alive by 813. Just before Charlemagne died in 814, he crowned Louis as his successor. Louis's reign of 26 years was marked by numerous divisions of the empire among his sons and, after 829, civil wars between various alliances of father and sons over the control of various parts of the empire. Eventually, Louis recognised his eldest son Lothair I (d. 855) as emperor and gave him Italy. Louis divided the rest of the empire between Lothair and Charles the Bald (d. 877), his youngest son. Lothair took East Francia, comprising both banks of the Rhine and eastwards, leaving Charles West Francia with the empire to the west of the Rhineland and the Alps. Louis the German (d. 876), the middle child, who had been rebellious to the last, was allowed to keep Bavaria under the suzerainty of his elder brother. The division was disputed. Pepin II of Aquitaine (d. after 864), the emperor's grandson, rebelled in a contest for Aquitaine, while Louis the German tried to annex all of East Francia. Louis the Pious died in 840, with the empire still in chaos.[97]\n\nA three-year civil war followed his death. By the Treaty of Verdun (843), a kingdom between the Rhine and Rhone rivers was created for Lothair to go with his lands in Italy, and his imperial title was recognised. Louis the German was in control of Bavaria and the eastern lands in modern-day Germany. Charles the Bald received the western Frankish lands, comprising most of modern-day France.[97] Charlemagne's grandsons and great-grandsons divided their kingdoms between their descendants, eventually causing all internal cohesion to be lost.[98] In 987 the Carolingian dynasty was replaced in the western lands, with the crowning of Hugh Capet (r. 987–996) as king.Template:Efn-uaTemplate:Efn-ua In the eastern lands the dynasty had died out earlier, in 911, with the death of Louis the Child,[99] and the selection of the unrelated Conrad I (r. 911–918) as king.[100]\n\nThe breakup of the Carolingian Empire was accompanied by invasions, migrations, and raids by external foes. The Atlantic and northern shores were harassed by the Vikings, who also raided the British Isles and settled there as well as in Iceland. In 911, the Viking chieftain Rollo (d. c. 931) received permission from the Frankish King Charles the Simple (r. 898–922) to settle in what became Normandy.[101]Template:Efn-ua The eastern parts of the Frankish kingdoms, especially Germany and Italy, were under continual Magyar assault until the invader's defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955.[102] The breakup of the Abbasid dynasty meant that the Islamic world fragmented into smaller political states, some of which began expanding into Italy and Sicily, as well as over the Pyrenees into the southern parts of the Frankish kingdoms.[103]\n\nNew kingdoms and a revived Byzantium\n\nEfforts by local kings to fight the invaders led to the formation of new political entities. In Anglo-Saxon England, King Alfred the Great (r. 871–899) came to an agreement with the Viking invaders in the late 9th century, resulting in Danish settlements in Northumbria, Mercia, and parts of East Anglia.[104] By the middle of the 10th century, Alfred's successors had conquered Northumbria, and restored English control over most of the southern part of Great Britain.[105] In northern Britain, Kenneth MacAlpin (d. c. 860) united the Picts and the Scots into the Kingdom of Alba.[106] In the early 10th century, the Ottonian dynasty had established itself in Germany, and was engaged in driving back the Magyars. Its efforts culminated in the coronation in 962 of Otto I (r. 936–973) as Holy Roman Emperor.[107] In 972, he secured recognition of his title by the Byzantine Empire, which he sealed with the marriage of his son Otto II (r. 967–983) to Theophanu (d. 991), daughter of an earlier Byzantine Emperor Romanos II (r. 959–963).[108] By the late 10th century Italy had been drawn into the Ottonian sphere after a period of instability;[109] Otto III (r. 996–1002) spent much of his later reign in the kingdom.[110] The western Frankish kingdom was more fragmented, and although kings remained nominally in charge, much of the political power devolved to the local lords.[111]\n\nMissionary efforts to Scandinavia during the 9th and 10th centuries helped strengthen the growth of kingdoms such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, which gained power and territory. Some kings converted to Christianity, although not all by 1000. Scandinavians also expanded and colonised throughout Europe. Besides the settlements in Ireland, England, and Normandy, further settlement took place in what became Russia and in Iceland. Swedish traders and raiders ranged down the rivers of the Russian steppe, and even attempted to seize Constantinople in 860 and 907.[112] Christian Spain, initially driven into a small section of the peninsula in the north, expanded slowly south during the 9th and 10th centuries, establishing the kingdoms of Asturias and León.[113]\n\nIn Eastern Europe, Byzantium had revived its fortunes under Emperor Basil I (r. 867–886) and his successors Leo VI (r. 886–912) and Constantine VII (r. 913–959), members of the Macedonian dynasty. Commerce revived and the emperors oversaw the extension of a uniform administration to all the provinces. The military was reorganised, which allowed the emperors John I (r. 969–976) and Basil II (r. 976–1025) to expand the frontiers of the empire on all fronts. The imperial court was the centre of a revival of classical learning, a process known as the Macedonian Renaissance. Writers such as John Geometres (fl. early 10th century) composed new hymns, poems, and other works.[114] Missionary efforts by both eastern and western clergy resulted in the conversion of the Moravians, Bulgars, Bohemians, Poles, Magyars, and Slavic inhabitants of the Kievan Rus'. These conversions contributed to the founding of political states in the lands of those peoples—the states of Moravia, Bulgaria, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and the Kievan Rus'.[115]\n\nArt and architecture\n\nFew large stone buildings were constructed between the Constantinian basilicas of the 4th century and the 8th century, although many smaller ones were built during the 6th and 7th centuries. By the beginning of the 8th century, the Carolingian Empire revived the basilica form of architecture.[117] One feature of the basilica is the use of a transept,[118] or the \"arms\" of a cross-shaped building that are perpendicular to the long nave.[119] Other new features of religious architecture include the crossing tower and a monumental entrance to the church, usually at the west end of the building.[120]\n\nCarolingian art was produced for a small group of figures around the court, and the monasteries and churches they supported. It was dominated by efforts to regain the dignity and classicism of imperial Roman and Byzantine art, but was also influenced by the Insular art of the British Isles. Insular art integrated the energy of Irish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Germanic styles of ornament with Mediterranean forms such as the book, and established many characteristics of art for the rest of the medieval period. Surviving religious works from the Early Middle Ages are mostly illuminated manuscripts and carved ivories, originally made for metalwork that has since been melted down.[121][122] Objects in precious metals were the most prestigious form of art, but almost all are lost except for a few crosses such as the Cross of Lothair, several reliquaries, and finds such as the Anglo-Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo and the hoards of Gourdon from Merovingian France, Guarrazar from Visigothic Spain and Nagyszentmiklós near Byzantine territory. There are survivals from the large brooches in fibula or penannular form that were a key piece of personal adornment for elites, including the Irish Tara Brooch.[123] Highly decorated books were mostly Gospel Books and these have survived in larger numbers, including the Insular Book of Kells, the Book of Lindisfarne, and the imperial Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, which is one of the few to retain its \"treasure binding\" of gold encrusted with jewels.[124] Charlemagne's court seems to have been responsible for the acceptance of figurative monumental sculpture in Christian art,[125] and by the end of the period near life-sized figures such as the Gero Cross were common in important churches.[126]\n\nMilitary and technological developments\n\nDuring the later Roman Empire, the principal military developments were attempts to create an effective cavalry force as well as the continued development of highly specialised types of troops. The creation of heavily armoured cataphract-type soldiers as cavalry was an important feature of the 5th-century Roman military. The various invading tribes had differing emphasis on types of soldiers—ranging from the primarily infantry Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain to the Vandals and Visigoths, who had a high proportion of cavalry in their armies.[127] During the early invasion period, the stirrup had not been introduced into warfare, which limited the usefulness of cavalry as shock troops because it was not possible to put the full force of the horse and rider behind blows struck by the rider.[128] The greatest change in military affairs during the invasion period was the adoption of the Hunnic composite bow in place of the earlier, and weaker, Scythian composite bow.[129] Another development was the increasing use of longswords[130] and the progressive replacement of scale armour by mail armour and lamellar armour.[131]\n\nThe importance of infantry and light cavalry began to decline during the early Carolingian period, with a growing dominance of elite heavy cavalry. The use of militia-type levies of the free population declined over the Carolingian period.[132] Although much of the Carolingian armies were mounted, a large proportion during the early period appear to have been mounted infantry, rather than true cavalry.[133] One exception was Anglo-Saxon England, where the armies were still composed of regional levies, known as the fyrd, which were led by the local elites.[134] In military technology, one of the main changes was the return of the crossbow, which had been known in Roman times and reappeared as a military weapon during the last part of the Early Middle Ages.[135] Another change was the introduction of the stirrup, which increased the effectiveness of cavalry as shock troops. A technological advance that had implications beyond the military was the horseshoe, which allowed horses to be used in rocky terrain.[136]\n\nHigh Middle Ages\n\nMain article: High Middle Ages\n\nSociety and economic life\n\nThe High Middle Ages saw an expansion of population. The estimated population of Europe grew from 35 to 80 million between 1000 and 1347, although the exact causes remain unclear: improved agricultural techniques, the decline of slaveholding, a more clement climate and the lack of invasion have all been suggested.[139][140] As much as 90 per cent of the European population remained rural peasants. Many were no longer settled in isolated farms but had gathered into small communities, usually known as manors or villages.[140] These peasants were often subject to noble overlords and owed them rents and other services, in a system known as manorialism. There remained a few free peasants throughout this period and beyond,[141] with more of them in the regions of Southern Europe than in the north. The practice of assarting, or bringing new lands into production by offering incentives to the peasants who settled them, also contributed to the expansion of population.[142]\n\nOther sections of society included the nobility, clergy, and townsmen. Nobles, both the titled nobility and simple knights, exploited the manors and the peasants, although they did not own lands outright but were granted rights to the income from a manor or other lands by an overlord through the system of feudalism. During the 11th and 12th centuries, these lands, or fiefs, came to be considered hereditary, and in most areas they were no longer divisible between all the heirs as had been the case in the early medieval period. Instead, most fiefs and lands went to the eldest son.[143]Template:Efn-ua The dominance of the nobility was built upon its control of the land, its military service as heavy cavalry, control of castles, and various immunities from taxes or other impositions.Template:Efn-ua Castles, initially in wood but later in stone, began to be constructed in the 9th and 10th centuries in response to the disorder of the time, and provided protection from invaders as well as allowing lords defence from rivals. Control of castles allowed the nobles to defy kings or other overlords.[144] Nobles were stratified; kings and the highest-ranking nobility controlled large numbers of commoners and large tracts of land, as well as other nobles. Beneath them, lesser nobles had authority over smaller areas of land and fewer people. Knights were the lowest level of nobility; they controlled but did not own land, and had to serve other nobles.[145]Template:Efn-ua\n\nThe clergy was divided into two types: the secular clergy, who lived out in the world, and the regular clergy, who lived under a religious rule and were usually monks.[146] Throughout the period monks remained a very small proportion of the population, usually less than one per cent.[147] Most of the regular clergy were drawn from the nobility, the same social class that served as the recruiting ground for the upper levels of the secular clergy. The local parish priests were often drawn from the peasant class.[148] Townsmen were in a somewhat unusual position, as they did not fit into the traditional three-fold division of society into nobles, clergy, and peasants. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the ranks of the townsmen expanded greatly as existing towns grew and new population centres were founded.[149] But throughout the Middle Ages the population of the towns probably never exceeded 10 per cent of the total population.[150]\n\nJews also spread across Europe during the period. Communities were established in Germany and England in the 11th and 12th centuries, but Spanish Jews, long settled in Spain under the Muslims, came under Christian rule and increasing pressure to convert to Christianity.[68] Most Jews were confined to the cities, as they were not allowed to own land or be peasants.[151]Template:Efn-ua Besides the Jews, there were other non-Christians on the edges of Europe—pagan Slavs in Eastern Europe and Muslims in Southern Europe.[152]\n\nWomen in the Middle Ages were officially required to be subordinate to some male, whether their father, husband, or other kinsman. Widows, who were often allowed much control over their own lives, were still restricted legally. Women's work generally consisted of household or other domestically inclined tasks. Peasant women were usually responsible for taking care of the household, child-care, as well as gardening and animal husbandry near the house. They could supplement the household income by spinning or brewing at home. At harvest-time, they were also expected to help with field-work.[153] Townswomen, like peasant women, were responsible for the household, and could also engage in trade. What trades were open to women varied by country and period.[154] Noblewomen were responsible for running a household, and could occasionally be expected to handle estates in the absence of male relatives, but they were usually restricted from participation in military or government affairs. The only role open to women in the Church was that of nuns, as they were unable to become priests.[153]\n\nIn central and northern Italy and in Flanders, the rise of towns that were to a degree self-governing stimulated economic growth and created an environment for new types of trade associations. Commercial cities on the shores of the Baltic entered into agreements known as the Hanseatic League, and the Italian Maritime republics such as Venice, Genoa, and Pisa expanded their trade throughout the Mediterranean.Template:Efn-ua Great trading fairs were established and flourished in northern France during the period, allowing Italian and German merchants to trade with each other as well as local merchants.[155] In the late 13th century new land and sea routes to the Far East were pioneered, famously described in The Travels of Marco Polo written by one of the traders, Marco Polo (d. 1324).[156] Besides new trading opportunities, agricultural and technological improvements enabled an increase in crop yields, which in turn allowed the trade networks to expand.[157] Rising trade brought new methods of dealing with money, and gold coinage was again minted in Europe, first in Italy and later in France and other countries. New forms of commercial contracts emerged, allowing risk to be shared among merchants. Accounting methods improved, partly through the use of double-entry bookkeeping; letters of credit also appeared, allowing easy transmission of money.[158]\n\nRise of state power\n\nThe High Middle Ages was the formative period in the history of the modern Western state. Kings in France, England, and Spain consolidated their power, and set up lasting governing institutions.[159] New kingdoms such as Hungary and Poland, after their conversion to Christianity, became Central European powers.[160] The Magyars settled Hungary around 900 under King Árpád (d. c. 907) after a series of invasions in the 9th century.[161] The papacy, long attached to an ideology of independence from secular kings, first asserted its claim to temporal authority over the entire Christian world; the Papal Monarchy reached its apogee in the early 13th century under the pontificate of Innocent III (pope 1198–1216).[162] Northern Crusades and the advance of Christian kingdoms and military orders into previously pagan regions in the Baltic and Finnic north-east brought the forced assimilation of numerous native peoples into European culture.[163]\n\nDuring the early High Middle Ages, Germany was ruled by the Ottonian dynasty, which struggled to control the powerful dukes ruling over territorial duchies tracing back to the Migration period. In 1074, they were replaced by the Salian dynasty, who famously clashed with the papacy under Emperor Henry IV (r. 1084–1105) over church appointments as part of the Investiture Controversy.[164] His successors continued to struggle against the papacy as well as the German nobility. A period of instability followed the death of Emperor Henry V (r. 1111–25), who died without heirs, until Frederick I Barbarossa (r. 1155–90) took the imperial throne.[165] Although he ruled effectively, the basic problems remained, and his successors continued to struggle into the 13th century.[166] Barbarossa's grandson Frederick II (r. 1220–1250), who was also heir to the throne of Sicily through his mother, clashed repeatedly with the papacy. His court was famous for its scholars and he was often accused of heresy.[167] He and his successors faced many difficulties, including the invasion of the Mongols into Europe in the mid-13th century. Mongols first shattered the Kievan Rus' principalities and then invaded Eastern Europe in 1241, 1259, and 1287.[168]\n\nUnder the Capetian dynasty France slowly began to expand its authority over the nobility, growing out of the Île-de-France to exert control over more of the country in the 11th and 12th centuries.[169] They faced a powerful rival in the Dukes of Normandy, who in 1066 under William the Conqueror (duke 1035–1087), conquered England (r. 1066–87) and created a cross-channel empire that lasted, in various forms, throughout the rest of the Middle Ages.[170][171] Normans also settled in Sicily and southern Italy, when Robert Guiscard (d. 1085) landed there in 1059 and established a duchy that later became the Kingdom of Sicily.[172] Under the Angevin dynasty of Henry II (r. 1154–89) and his son Richard I (r. 1189–99), the kings of England ruled over England and large areas of France,[173]Template:Efn-ua brought to the family by Henry II's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine (d. 1204), heiress to much of southern France.[174]Template:Efn-ua Richard's younger brother John (r. 1199–1216) lost Normandy and the rest of the northern French possessions in 1204 to the French King Philip II Augustus (r. 1180–1223). This led to dissension among the English nobility, while John's financial exactions to pay for his unsuccessful attempts to regain Normandy led in 1215 to Magna Carta, a charter that confirmed the rights and privileges of free men in England. Under Henry III (r. 1216–72), John's son, further concessions were made to the nobility, and royal power was diminished.[175] The French monarchy continued to make gains against the nobility during the late 12th and 13th centuries, bringing more territories within the kingdom under their personal rule and centralising the royal administration.[176] Under Louis IX (r. 1226–70), royal prestige rose to new heights as Louis served as a mediator for most of Europe.[177]Template:Efn-ua\n\nIn Iberia, the Christian states, which had been confined to the north-western part of the peninsula, began to push back against the Islamic states in the south, a period known as the Reconquista.[178] By about 1150, the Christian north had coalesced into the five major kingdoms of León, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal.[179] Southern Iberia remained under control of Islamic states, initially under the Caliphate of Córdoba, which broke up in 1031 into a shifting number of petty states known as taifas,[178] who fought with the Christians until the Almohad Caliphate re-established centralised rule over Southern Iberia in the 1170s.[180] Christian forces advanced again in the early 1200s, culminating in the capture of Seville in 1248.[181]\n\n\nIn the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks took over much of the Middle East, occupying Persia during the 1040s, Armenia in the 1060s, and Jerusalem in 1070. In 1071, the Turkish army defeated the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert and captured the Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV (r. 1068–71). The Turks were then free to invade Asia Minor, which dealt a dangerous blow to the Byzantine Empire by seizing a large part of its population and its economic heartland. Although the Byzantines regrouped and recovered somewhat, they never fully regained Asia Minor and were often on the defensive. The Turks also had difficulties, losing control of Jerusalem to the Fatimids of Egypt and suffering from a series of internal civil wars.[183]\n\nThe crusades were intended to seize Jerusalem from Muslim control. The First Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Urban II (pope 1088–99) at the Council of Clermont in 1095 in response to a request from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) for aid against further Muslim advances. Urban promised indulgence to anyone who took part. Tens of thousands of people from all levels of society mobilised across Europe and captured Jerusalem in 1099.[184] One feature of the crusades was the pogroms against local Jews that often took place as the crusaders left their countries for the East. These were especially brutal during the First Crusade,[68] when the Jewish communities in Cologne, Mainz, and Worms were destroyed, and other communities in cities between the rivers Seine and Rhine suffered destruction.[185] Another outgrowth of the crusades was the foundation of a new type of monastic order, the military orders of the Templars and Hospitallers, which fused monastic life with military service.[186]\n\nThe crusaders consolidated their conquests into crusader states. During the 12th and 13th centuries, there were a series of conflicts between those states and the surrounding Islamic states. Appeals from those states to the papacy led to further crusades,[184] such as the Third Crusade, called to try to regain Jerusalem, which had been captured by Saladin (d. 1193) in 1187.[187]Template:Efn-ua In 1203, the Fourth Crusade was diverted from the Holy Land to Constantinople, and captured the city in 1204, setting up a Latin Empire of Constantinople[188] and greatly weakening the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines recaptured the city in 1261, but never regained their former strength.[189] By 1291 all the crusader states had been captured or forced from the mainland, although a titular Kingdom of Jerusalem survived on the island of Cyprus for several years afterwards.[190]\n\nPopes called for crusades to take place elsewhere besides the Holy Land: in Spain, southern France, and along the Baltic.[184] The Spanish crusades became fused with the Reconquista of Spain from the Muslims. Although the Templars and Hospitallers took part in the Spanish crusades, similar Spanish military religious orders were founded, most of which had become part of the two main orders of Calatrava and Santiago by the beginning of the 12th century.[191] Northern Europe also remained outside Christian influence until the 11th century or later, and became a crusading venue as part of the Northern Crusades of the 12th to 14th centuries. These crusades also spawned a military order, the Order of the Sword Brothers. Another order, the Teutonic Knights, although originally founded in the crusader states, focused much of its activity in the Baltic after 1225, and in 1309 moved its headquarters to Marienburg in Prussia.[192]\n\nIntellectual life\n\nDuring the 11th century, developments in philosophy and theology led to increased intellectual activity. There was debate between the realists and the nominalists over the concept of \"universals\". Philosophical discourse was stimulated by the rediscovery of Aristotle and his emphasis on empiricism and rationalism. Scholars such as Peter Abelard (d. 1142) and Peter Lombard (d. 1164) introduced Aristotelian logic into theology. The late 11th and early 12th centuries also saw the rise of cathedral schools throughout Western Europe, signalling the shift of learning from monasteries to cathedrals and towns.[193] Cathedral schools were in turn replaced by the universities established in major European cities.[194] Philosophy and theology fused in scholasticism, an attempt by 12th- and 13th-century scholars to reconcile authoritative texts, most notably Aristotle and the Bible. This resulted in a system of thought that tried to employ a systemic approach to truth and reason.[195] This culminated in the thought of Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), who wrote the Summa Theologica, or Summary of Theology.[196]\n\nRoyal and noble courts saw the development of chivalry and the ethos of courtly love. This culture was expressed in the vernacular languages rather than Latin, and comprised poems, stories, legends, and popular songs spread by troubadours, or wandering minstrels. Often the stories were written down in the chansons de geste, or \"songs of great deeds\", such as The Song of Roland or The Song of Hildebrand.[197] Secular and religious histories were also produced.[198] Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. c. 1155) composed his Historia Regum Britanniae, a collection of stories and legends about Arthur.[199] Other works were more clearly history, such as Otto von Freising's (d. 1158) Gesta Friderici Imperatoris detailing the deeds of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, or William of Malmesbury's (d. c. 1143) Gesta Regum on the kings of England.[198]\n\nLegal studies advanced during the 12th century. Both secular law and canon law, or ecclesiastical law, were studied in the High Middle Ages. Secular law, or Roman law, was advanced greatly by the discovery of the Corpus Juris Civilis in the 11th century, and by 1100 Roman law was being taught at Bologna. This led to the recording and standardisation of legal codes throughout Western Europe. Canon law was also studied, and around 1140 a monk named Gratian (fl. 12th century), a teacher at Bologna, wrote what became the standard text of canon law—the Decretum.[200]\n\nAmong the results of the Greek and Islamic influence on this period in European history was the replacement of Roman numerals with the decimal positional number system and the invention of algebra, which allowed more advanced mathematics. Astronomy advanced following the translation of Ptolemy's Almagest from Greek into Latin in the late 12th century. Medicine was also studied, especially in southern Italy, where Islamic medicine influenced the school at Salerno.[201]\n\nTechnology and military\n\nMain articles: Medieval technology, Medieval warfare and Science in the Middle Ages\n\nIn the 12th and 13th centuries, Europe saw economic growth and innovations in methods of production. Major technological advances included the invention of the windmill, the first mechanical clocks, the first investigations of optics and the creation of crude lenses, the manufacture of distilled spirits, and the use of the astrolabe.[202] Glass-making advanced with the development of a process that allowed the creation of transparent glass in the early 13th century. Transparent glass made possible developments in the science of optics by Roger Bacon (d. 1294), who is credited with the invention of eyeglasses.[203]Template:Efn-ua\n\nThe development of a three-field rotation system for planting crops[140]Template:Efn-ua increased the usage of land from one half in use each year under the old two-field system to two-thirds under the new system, with a consequent increase in production.[204] The development of the heavy plough allowed heavier soils to be farmed more efficiently, aided by the spread of the horse collar, which led to the use of draught horses in place of oxen. Horses are faster than oxen and require less pasture, factors that aided the implementation of the three-field system.[140]\n\nThe construction of cathedrals and castles advanced building technology, leading to the development of large stone buildings. Ancillary structures included new town halls, houses, bridges, and tithe barns.[205] Shipbuilding improved with the use of the rib and plank method rather than the old Roman system of mortise and tenon. Other improvements to ships included the use of lateen sails and the stern-post rudder, both of which increased the speed at which ships could be sailed.[206]\n\nMilitary affairs saw an increase in the use of infantry with specialised roles. Along with the still-dominant heavy cavalry, armies often included mounted and infantry crossbowmen, as well as sappers and engineers.[207] Crossbows, which had been known in Late Antiquity, increased in use partly because of the increase in siege warfare in the 10th and 11th centuries.[135]Template:Efn-ua The increasing use of crossbows during the 12th and 13th centuries led to the use of closed-face helmets, heavy body armour, as well as horse armour.[208] Gunpowder was known in Europe by the mid-13th century with a recorded use in European warfare by the English against the Scots in 1304, although it was merely used as an explosive and not as a weapon. Cannon were being used for sieges in the 1320s, and hand-held guns were in use by the 1360s.[209]\n\nArchitecture, art, and music\n\nIn the 10th century the establishment of churches and monasteries led to the development of stone architecture that elaborated vernacular Roman forms, from which the term \"Romanesque\" is derived. Where available, Roman brick and stone buildings were recycled for their materials. From the tentative beginnings known as the First Romanesque, the style flourished and spread across Europe in a remarkably homogeneous form. Just before 1000 there was a great wave of building stone churches all over Europe.[210] Romanesque architecture features massive stone walls, openings topped by semi-circular arches, small windows, and, particularly in France, arched stone vaults.[211] The large portal with coloured sculpture in high relief became a central feature of façades, especially in France, and the capitals of columns were often carved with narrative scenes of imaginative monsters and animals.[212] According to art historian C. R. Dodwell, \"virtually all the churches in the West were decorated with wall-paintings\", of which few survive.[213] Simultaneous with the development in church architecture, the distinctive European form of the castle was developed, and became crucial to politics and warfare.[214]\n\nRomanesque art, especially metalwork, was at its most sophisticated in Mosan art, in which distinct artistic personalities including Nicholas of Verdun (d. 1205) become apparent, and an almost classical style is seen in works such as a font at Liège,[215] contrasting with the writhing animals of the exactly contemporary Gloucester Candlestick. Large illuminated bibles and psalters were the typical forms of luxury manuscripts, and wall-painting flourished in churches, often following a scheme with a Last Judgement on the west wall, a Christ in Majesty at the east end, and narrative biblical scenes down the nave, or in the best surviving example, at Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, on the barrel-vaulted roof.[216]\n\nFrom the early 12th century, French builders developed the Gothic style, marked by the use of rib vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses, and large stained glass windows. It was used mainly in churches and cathedrals, and continued in use until the 16th century in much of Europe. Classic examples of Gothic architecture include Chartres Cathedral and Reims Cathedral in France as well as Salisbury Cathedral in England.[217] Stained glass became a crucial element in the design of churches, which continued to use extensive wall-paintings, now almost all lost.[218]\n\nDuring this period the practice of manuscript illumination gradually passed from monasteries to lay workshops, so that according to Janetta Benton \"by 1300 most monks bought their books in shops\",[219] and the book of hours developed as a form of devotional book for lay-people. Metalwork continued to be the most prestigious form of art, with Limoges enamel a popular and relatively affordable option for objects such as reliquaries and crosses.[220] In Italy the innovations of Cimabue and Duccio, followed by the Trecento master Giotto (d. 1337), greatly increased the sophistication and status of panel painting and fresco.[221] Increasing prosperity during the 12th century resulted in greater production of secular art; many carved ivory objects such as gaming-pieces, combs, and small religious figures have survived.[222]\n\nChurch life\n\nMonastic reform became an important issue during the 11th century, as elites began to worry that monks were not adhering to the rules binding them to a strictly religious life. Cluny Abbey, founded in the Mâcon region of France in 909, was established as part of the Cluniac Reforms, a larger movement of monastic reform in response to this fear.[224] Cluny quickly established a reputation for austerity and rigour. It sought to maintain a high quality of spiritual life by placing itself under the protection of the papacy and by electing its own abbot without interference from laymen, thus maintaining economic and political independence from local lords.[225]\n\nMonastic reform inspired change in the secular church. The ideals that it was based upon were brought to the papacy by Pope Leo IX (pope 1049–1054), and provided the ideology of the clerical independence that led to the Investiture Controversy in the late 11th century. This involved Pope Gregory VII (pope 1073–85) and Emperor Henry IV, who initially clashed over episcopal appointments, a dispute that turned into a battle over the ideas of investiture, clerical marriage, and simony. The emperor saw the protection of the Church as one of his responsibilities as well as wanting to preserve the right to appoint his own choices as bishops within his lands, but the papacy insisted on the Church's independence from secular lords. These issues remained unresolved after the compromise of 1122 known as the Concordat of Worms. The dispute represents a significant stage in the creation of a papal monarchy separate from and equal to lay authorities. It also had the permanent consequence of empowering German princes at the expense of the German emperors.[224]\n\nThe High Middle Ages was a period of great religious movements. Besides the Crusades and monastic reforms, people sought to participate in new forms of religious life. New monastic orders were founded, including the Carthusians and the Cistercians. The latter especially expanded rapidly in their early years under the guidance of Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153). These new orders were formed in response to the feeling of the laity that Benedictine monasticism no longer met the needs of the laymen, who along with those wishing to enter the religious life wanted a return to the simpler hermetical monasticism of early Christianity, or to live an Apostolic life.[186] Religious pilgrimages were also encouraged. Old pilgrimage sites such as Rome, Jerusalem, and Compostela received increasing numbers of visitors, and new sites such as Monte Gargano and Bari rose to prominence.[226]\n\nIn the 13th century mendicant orders—the Franciscans and the Dominicans—who swore vows of poverty and earned their living by begging, were approved by the papacy.[227] Religious groups such as the Waldensians and the Humiliati also attempted to return to the life of early Christianity in the middle 12th and early 13th centuries, but they were condemned as heretical by the papacy. Others joined the Cathars, another heretical movement condemned by the papacy. In 1209, a crusade was preached against the Cathars, the Albigensian Crusade, which in combination with the medieval Inquisition, eliminated them.[228]\n\nLate Middle Ages\n\nMain article: Late Middle Ages\n\nWar, famine, and plague\n\nThe first years of the 14th century were marked by famines, culminating in the Great Famine of 1315–17.[229] The causes of the Great Famine included the slow transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age, which left the population vulnerable when bad weather caused crop failures.[230] The years 1313–14 and 1317–21 were excessively rainy throughout Europe, resulting in widespread crop failures.[231] The climate change—which resulted in a declining average annual temperature for Europe during the 14th century—was accompanied by an economic downturn.[232]\n\nThese troubles were followed in 1347 by the Black Death, a disease that spread throughout Europe during the following three years.[233]Template:Efn-ua The death toll was probably about 35 million people in Europe, about one-third of the population. Towns were especially hard-hit because of their crowded conditions.Template:Efn-ua Large areas of land were left sparsely inhabited, and in some places fields were left unworked. Wages rose as landlords sought to entice the reduced number of available workers to their fields. Further problems were the lower rents and lower demands for food, both of which cut into agricultural income. Urban workers also felt that they had a right to greater earnings, and popular uprisings broke out across Europe.[234] Among the uprisings were the jacquerie in France, the Peasants' Revolt in England, and revolts in the cities of Florence in Italy and Ghent and Bruges in Flanders. The trauma of the plague led to an increased piety throughout Europe, which manifested itself in the foundation of new charities, the self-mortification of the flagellants, and the scapegoating of the Jews.[235] Conditions were further unsettled by the return of the plague throughout the rest of the 14th century; it continued to strike Europe periodically during the rest of the Middle Ages.[233]\n\nSociety and economy\n\nSociety throughout Europe was disturbed by the dislocations caused by the Black Death. Lands that had been marginally productive were abandoned, as the survivors were able to acquire more fertile areas.[236] Although serfdom declined in Western Europe it became more common in Eastern Europe, as landlords imposed it on those of their tenants who had previously been free.[237] Most peasants in Western Europe managed to change the work they had previously owed to their landlords into cash rents.[238] The percentage of serfs amongst the peasantry declined from a high of 90 to closer to 50 per cent by the end of the period.[239] Landlords also became more conscious of common interests with other landholders, and joined together to extort privileges from their governments. Partly at the urging of landlords, governments attempted to legislate a return to the economic conditions that existed before the Black Death.[238] Non-clergy became increasingly literate, and urban populations began to imitate the nobility's interest in chivalry.[240]\n\nJewish communities were expelled from England in 1290, and from France in 1306. Although some were allowed back into France, most were not, and many Jews emigrated eastwards, settling in Poland and Hungary.[241] The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and dispersed to Turkey, France, Italy, and Holland.[68] The rise of banking in Italy during the 13th century continued throughout the 14th century, fuelled partly by the increasing warfare of the period and the needs of the papacy to move money between kingdoms. Many of the banking firms loaned money to royalty, at great risk, as some were bankrupted when kings defaulted on their loans.[242]Template:Efn-ua\n\nState resurgence\n\nThe Late Middle Ages witnessed the rise of strong, royalty-based nation states throughout Europe, particularly in England, France, and the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula: Aragon, Castile, and Portugal. The long conflicts of the later Middle Ages strengthened royal control over their kingdoms, and were extremely hard on the peasantry. Kings profited from warfare which extended royal legislation throughout their kingdoms and increased the lands they directly controlled.[243] Paying for the wars required that methods of taxation become more effective and efficient, and the rate of taxation often increased.[244] The requirement to obtain the consent of those being taxed meant that representative bodies such as the English Parliament or the French Estates General gained power and authority.[245]\n\nThroughout the 14th century, French kings sought to expand their influence throughout the kingdom at the expense of the territorial holdings of the nobility.[246] They ran into difficulties when attempting to confiscate the holdings of the English kings in southern France, leading to the Hundred Years' War,[247] which lasted until 1453.[248] Early in the war the English under Edward III (r. 1327–77) and his son Edward, the Black Prince (d. 1376),Template:Efn-ua won the battles of Crécy and Poitiers, captured the city of Calais, and won control of much of France.Template:Efn-ua The resulting stresses almost caused the disintegration of the French kingdom during the early years of the war.[249] In the early 15th century, France once more came close to dissolving, but in the late 1420s the military successes of Joan of Arc (d. 1431) led to the victory of the French kings over the English and the capture of the last of the English possessions in southern France in 1453.[250] The price was high, as the population of France at the end of the Wars was likely half what it had been at the start of the conflict. Conversely, the Wars had a positive effect on English national identity, doing much to fuse the various local identities into a national English ideal. The conflict with the French also helped create a national culture in England that was separate from French culture, which had been the dominant cultural influence in England before the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War.[251] The early Hundred Years' War also saw the dominance of the English longbow,[252] and the appearance of cannon on the battlefield at Crécy in 1346.[209]\n\nIn modern-day Germany, the Empire continued, but the elective nature of the imperial crown meant that there was no enduring dynasty around which a strong state could form.[253] Further east, the kingdoms of Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia grew powerful.[254] The Iberian Peninsula kingdoms continued to gain land from the Muslim kingdoms of the peninsula;[254] Portugal concentrated on expanding overseas during the 15th century, while the other kingdoms were riven by difficulties over the royal succession and other concerns.[255][256] England, after losing the Hundred Years' War, went on to suffer a long civil war known as the Wars of the Roses, which lasted into the 1490s,[256] and only ended when Henry Tudor (r. 1485–1509 as Henry VII) became king and consolidated his hold on England after his victory over Richard III (r. 1483–85) at Bosworth in 1485.[257] Scandinavia went through a period of union under the Union of Kalmar in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, but dissolved once more after the death of Margaret I of Denmark (r. in Denmark 1387–1412), who had united Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. The major power around the Baltic Sea was the Hanseatic League, a commercial confederation of city states that traded from Western Europe to Russia.[258] Scotland emerged from English domination under Robert the Bruce (r. 1306–29), who secured papal recognition of his kingship in 1328.[259]\n\nCollapse of Byzantium\n\nAlthough the Palaeologi emperors recaptured Constantinople from the Western Europeans in 1261, they were never able to regain control of much of the former imperial lands. They usually controlled only a small section of the Balkan Peninsula near Constantinople, the city itself, and some coastal lands on the Black Sea and around the Aegean Sea. The former Byzantine lands in the Balkans were divided between the new kingdoms of Serbia and Bulgaria and the city-state of Venice. The power of the Byzantine emperors was threatened by a new Turkish tribe, the Ottomans, who established themselves in Anatolia in the 13th century and steadily expanded throughout the 14th century. The Ottomans expanded into Europe, reducing Bulgaria to a vassal state by 1366 and taking over Serbia after its defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Western Europeans rallied to the plight of the Christians in the Balkans and declared a new crusade in 1396; a great army was sent to the Balkans, where it was defeated at the Battle of Nicopolis.[260] Constantinople was finally captured by the Ottomans in 1453.[261]\n\nControversy within the Church\n\nThe troubled 14th century saw the Avignon Papacy of 1305–78,[262] also called the \"Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy\" (a reference to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews),[263] and then the Great Schism that lasted from 1378 to 1418, when there were two, then later three, rival popes, each supported by several states.[264] In the early years of the 15th century, after a century of turmoil, ecclesiastical officials convened in Constance in 1414, and the following year the council deposed one of the rival popes, leaving only two claimants. Further depositions followed, and in November 1417 the council elected Martin V (pope 1417–31) as pope.[265]\n\nBesides the schism, the western church was riven by theological controversies, some of which turned into heresies. John Wycliffe (d. 1384), an English theologian, was condemned as a heretic in 1415 for teaching that the laity should have access to the text of the Bible as well as holding views on the Eucharist that were contrary to church doctrine.[266] Wycliffe's teachings influenced two of the major heretical movements of the later Middle Ages—Lollardy in England and Hussitism in Bohemia.[267] The Bohemians were also influenced by the teaching of Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake in 1415 after being condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constance. The Hussite church, although the target of a crusade, survived beyond the Middle Ages.[268] Other heresies were manufactured, such as the accusations against the Knights Templar that resulted in their suppression in 1312, and the division of their great wealth between the French King Philip IV (r. 1285–1314) and the Hospitallers.[269]\n\nThe papacy refined the concept of transubstantiation further in the Late Middle Ages, stating that the clergy alone was allowed to partake of the wine in the Eucharist. This further distanced the secular laity from the clergy. The laity continued the practices of pilgrimages, veneration of relics, and belief in the power of the Devil. Mystics such as Meister Eckhart (d. 1327) or Thomas à Kempis (d. 1471) wrote works that taught the laity to focus on their inner spiritual life, which laid the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation. Besides mysticism, belief in witches and witchcraft became widespread, and by the late 15th century the Church had begun to lend credence to populist fears of witchcraft by its condemnation of witches in 1484 and the publication in 1486 of the Malleus Maleficarum, the most popular handbook for witch-hunters.[270]\n\nScholars, intellectuals, and exploration\n\nThe Later Middle Ages saw a reaction against scholasticism led by John Duns Scotus (d. 1308)Template:Efn-ua and William of Ockham (d. c. 1348),[195] both of whom objected to the application of reason to faith. Their efforts, along with others, led to an undermining of the prevailing Platonic idea of \"universals\". Ockham's insistence that reason operates independently of faith allowed science to be separated from theology and philosophy.[271] Legal studies were marked by the steady advance of Roman law into areas of jurisprudence previously governed by customary law. The one exception to this trend was England, where the common law remained pre-eminent. Countries also codified their laws; legal codes were promulgated in countries as far apart as Castile, Poland, and Lithuania.[272]\n\nEducation remained mostly focused on the training of future clergy. The basic learning of the letters and numbers remained the province of the family or a village priest, but the secondary subjects of the trivium—grammar, rhetoric, logic—were studied in cathedral schools or in schools provided by cities. Commercial secondary schools spread, and some Italian towns had more than one such enterprise. Universities also spread throughout Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. The rise of vernacular literature increased, with Dante (d. 1321), Petrarch (d. 1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (d. 1375) in 14th-century Italy, Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400) and William Langland (d. c. 1386) in England, and François Villon (d. 1464) and Christine de Pizan (d. c. 1430) in France. Much literature remained religious in character, and although a great deal of it continued to be written in Latin, a new demand developed for saints' lives and other devotional tracts in the vernacular languages.[272] This was fed by the growth of the Devotio Moderna movement, most prominently in the formation of the Brethren of the Common Life, but also in the works of German mystics such as Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler (d. 1361).[273] Theatre also developed in the guise of miracle plays put on by the Church.[272] At the end of the period, the development of the printing press in about 1450 led to the establishment of publishing houses throughout Europe by 1500.[274] Lay literacy rates rose, but were still low; one estimate gave a literacy rate of ten per cent of males and one per cent of females in 1500.[275]\n\nBeginning in the early 15th century, the countries of the Iberian peninsula began to sponsor exploration beyond the boundaries of Europe. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (d. 1460) sent expeditions that discovered the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Cape Verde during his lifetime. After his death, exploration continued; Bartolomeu Dias (d. 1500) went around the Cape of Good Hope in 1486 and Vasco da Gama (d. 1524) sailed around Africa to India in 1498.[276] The combined Spanish monarchies of Castile and Aragon sponsored Christopher Columbus' (d. 1506) voyage of exploration in 1492 that discovered the Americas.[277] The English crown under Henry VII sponsored the voyage of John Cabot (d. 1498) in 1497, which landed on Cape Breton Island.[278]\n\nTechnological and military developments\n\nOne of the major developments in the military sphere during the Late Middle Ages was the increasing use of infantry and light cavalry.[279] The English also employed longbowmen, but other countries were unable to create similar forces that enjoyed the same military success.[280] Armour continued to advance, spurred on by the increasing power of crossbows, and plate armour was developed to help protect against the threat from crossbows as well as the hand-held guns that were developed.[281] Pole arms reached new prominence with the development of the Flemish and Swiss infantry armed with pikes and other long spears.[282]\n\nIn agriculture, one major advance was the increasing use of sheep with long-fibred wool, which allowed a stronger thread to be spun. Also important was the replacement of the traditional distaff for spinning wool with the spinning wheel, which tripled production over hand spinning.[283]Template:Efn-ua A less technological refinement that still greatly affected daily life was the use of buttons as closures for garments, which allowed for better fitting without having to lace clothing on the wearer.[284] Windmills were refined with the creation of the tower mill, which allowed the upper part of the windmill to be spun around to face whichever direction the wind was blowing.[285] The blast furnace appeared around 1350 in Sweden, increasing the quantity of iron produced and improving its quality.[286] The first patent law in 1447 in Venice protected the rights of inventors to their inventions.[287]\n\nLate medieval art and architecture\n\nThe Late Middle Ages in Europe as a whole correspond to the Trecento and Early Renaissance cultural periods in Italy, although Northern Europe and Spain continued to use Gothic styles, increasingly elaborate in the 15th century, until almost the end of the period. International Gothic was a courtly style that reached much of Europe in the decades around 1400, producing masterpieces such as the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.[288] All over Europe secular art continued to increase in quantity and quality, and in the 15th century the mercantile classes of Italy and Flanders became important patrons, commissioning small portraits of themselves in oils as well as a growing range of luxury items such as jewellery, ivory caskets, cassone chests, and maiolica pottery. These objects also included the Hispano-Moresque ware produced by mostly Mudéjar potters in Spain. Although royalty owned huge collections of plate, little survives except for the Royal Gold Cup.[289] Italian silk manufacture developed, so that western churches and elites no longer needed to rely on imports from Byzantium or the Islamic world. In France and Flanders tapestry weaving of sets like The Lady and the Unicorn became a major luxury industry.[290]\n\nThe large external sculptural schemes of Early Gothic churches gave way to more sculpture inside the building, as tombs became more elaborate and other features such as pulpits were sometimes lavishly carved, as in the Pulpit by Giovanni Pisano in Sant'Andrea. Painted or carved wooden relief altarpieces became common, especially as churches created many side-chapels. Early Netherlandish painting by artists such as Jan van Eyck (d. 1441) and Rogier van der Weyden (d. 1464) rivalled that of Italy, as did northern illuminated manuscripts, which in the 15th century began to be collected on a large scale by secular elites, who also commissioned secular books, especially histories. From about 1450 printed books rapidly became popular, though still expensive. There were around 30,000 different editions of incunabula, or works printed before 1500,[291] by which time illuminated manuscripts were commissioned only by royalty and a few others. Very small woodcuts, nearly all religious, were affordable even by peasants in parts of Northern Europe from the middle of the 15th century. More expensive engravings supplied a wealthier market with a variety of images.[292]\n\nModern perceptions\n\nThe medieval period is frequently caricatured as a \"time of ignorance and superstition\" that placed \"the word of religious authorities over personal experience and rational activity.\"[293] This is a legacy from both the Renaissance and Enlightenment, when scholars contrasted their intellectual cultures with those of the medieval period, to the detriment of the Middle Ages. Renaissance scholars saw the Middle Ages as a period of decline from the high culture and civilisation of the Classical world; Enlightenment scholars saw reason as superior to faith, and thus viewed the Middle Ages as a time of ignorance and superstition.[12]\n\nOthers argue that reason was generally held in high regard during the Middle Ages. Science historian Edward Grant writes, \"If revolutionary rational thoughts were expressed [in the 18th century], they were only made possible because of the long medieval tradition that established the use of reason as one of the most important of human activities\".[294] Also, contrary to common belief, David Lindberg writes, \"the late medieval scholar rarely experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free (particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led\".[295]\n\nThe caricature of the period is also reflected in some more specific notions. One misconception, first propagated in the 19th century[296] and still very common, is that all people in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat.[296] This is untrue, as lecturers in the medieval universities commonly argued that evidence showed the Earth was a sphere.[297] Lindberg and Ronald Numbers, another scholar of the period, state that there \"was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference\".[298] Other misconceptions such as \"the Church prohibited autopsies and dissections during the Middle Ages\", \"the rise of Christianity killed off ancient science\", or \"the medieval Christian church suppressed the growth of natural philosophy\", are all cited by Numbers as examples of widely popular myths that still pass as historical truth, although they are not supported by current historical research.[299]\n\n\n\n\n\nExternal links\n\nTemplate: index\n\n • ORB The Online Reference Book of Medieval Studies Academic peer reviewed articles and encyclopedia\n • The Labyrinth Resources for Medieval Studies.\n • NetSERF The Internet Connection for Medieval Resources.\n • De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History\n • Interactive maps of the Medieval era (Flash plug-in required)\n • Medieval Realms Learning resources from the British Library including studies of beautiful medieval manuscripts\n • News and articles about the period.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6081056594848633}
+{"content": "The task of securing computer systems has been with us for decades. Over the last several years, a number of new United States (U.S.) and country-specific laws and regulations have come into effect. In the U.S. these include:\n\nThese laws and regulations are forcing organizations to reconfigure and more closely audit their systems’ accessibility to be compliant with security and privacy requirements. Depending upon the nature of your business and country requirements, demonstrating compliance with these regulations is becoming a requirement to do business.\n\nSome regulations come from government agencies, and others come from essential business partners such as payment card processors VISA and MasterCard and others. New regulatory requirements require that IT professionals adapt to new ways of working and new ways of thinking about and tracking security.\n\nThis publication addresses the security capabilities available under IBM i 6.1. Before addressing IBM i specifics, we spend time in this chapter going over some security basics that evolve into making use of IBM i security capabilities. If you are well versed in these basics, you may skim through the content in this chapter and quickly go to the succeeding chapters.\n\nIn general, computer security involves the implementation of specific measures taken to protect a computer environment against espionage, sabotage, crime, attack, or any type of unintentional or accidental harm. The computer environment is inclusive of the hardware, network, applications, and data.\n\nTo implement computer security, you must understand and analyze the risks to the computer environment and take appropriate actions to reduce the risks to the acceptable level appropriate for the organization. No consultant or auditor can tell you how to set up security for your organization unless they have a complete understanding of your organization’s assets, threats, risks, and environment.\n\nTo determine the proper security settings for a system, you must implement a security program. This chapter introduces many of the terms used in a security program. Chapter 2, “Security process and policies” on page 13, introduces the process to follow to build a security program. A security policy is the central component of a security program and must be documented before the proper level of security controls can be applied to the computer environment.\n\nEveryone from senior management to users should be concerned with security. Security protects your computer system and sensitive information from both intentional and unintentional security breaches.\n\nAn important step in implementing a security program is to determine which systems, information, and additional items to secure. After you establish your security policy, you must conduct training to educate the users to be compliant with the new security rules. Security is what you have after you analyze the risks, lessen the risks that you can, and know which risks you have chosen to accept.\n\n\nAssets, vulnerabilities, threats, risks, and countermeasures\n\nAssets, vulnerabilities, threats, risks, and countermeasures are related terms that you must understand and evaluate as input into the organization’s security policy:\n\n\nIn general, an asset is a resource, process, product, or system that has value to the organization. Since assets have a value, they normally require some level of protection. The level of protection depends on the value of the asset, the threats that exist against the asset, and how vulnerable the asset is should the threat be exploited. Assets can be either tangible or intangible. Examples of tangible assets are computer hardware, computer data, licensed products, and software applications. Data privacy and the organization’s public image are examples of intangible assets.\n\n\nA vulnerability is a weakness that threatens the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of an asset. Vulnerabilities are not only deficiencies of software or inappropriate implementation of technical measures. Consider untrained employees, incorrect procedures, and missing documentation as well. The threat is that someone will uncover a specific vulnerability and take advantage of it for malicious purposes.\n\n\nA threat is any activity that can have an adverse or undesirable effect on an organizational asset. Threats exploit vulnerabilities. Hardware failure, fire, hackers, espionage, malicious code, sabotage, vandalism, and weather are some of the many different threats that an organization might face.\n\n\nA risk is the possibility of a threat exploiting a vulnerability. Risks can be mitigated, but at a cost. Also, a risk can never be completely eliminated. An important input for developing a security policy is to determine how much risk your organization is willing to accept for each asset that must be protected.\n\n\nCountermeasures are security safeguards that mitigate the risk of threats. To be aware of i5/OS-specific threats and to help understand vulnerabilities, risks, and countermeasures, you should read computer security literature, attend computer security conferences, and keep up to date with security advisories.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9992896318435669}
+{"content": "Antecedent moisture\n\nAntecedent moisture\n\nAntecedent moisture is a term from the fields of Hydrology and sewage collection and disposal that describes the relative wetness or dryness of a watershed or sanitary sewershed. Antecedent moisture conditions change continuously and can have a very significant effect on the flow responses in these systems during wet weather. The effect is evident in most hydrologic systems including stormwater runoff and sanitary sewers with inflow and infiltration. Many modeling and analysis challenges that are created by antecedent moisture conditions are evident within combined sewers and separate sanitary sewer systems.\n\n\nThe word antecedent simply means preceding conditions. Combining the terms \"antecedent\" and \"moisture\" together means preceding wetness conditions. Antecedent moisture is a term that describes the relative wetness or dryness of a sewershed, which changes continuously and can have a very significant effect on the flow responses in these systems during wet weather. Antecedent moisture conditions are high when there has been a lot of recent rainfall and the ground is moist. Antecedent moisture conditions are low when there has been little rainfall and the ground becomes dry.\n\nHydrologic Basis\n\nRainfall/runoff relationship are well defined within the field of hydrology. Surface runoff in hydrologic systems is generally conceptualized as occurring from pervious and impervious areas. It is the pervious runoff that is affected by antecedent moisture conditions, as runoff from impervious surfaces such as roads, sidewalks and roofs will not be significantly affected by preceding moisture levels. Pervious surfaces, such as fields, woods, grassed areas and open areas are highly affected by antecedent moisture conditions, as they will produce a greater rate of runoff when they are wet than when they are dry.\n\nRainfall dependent inflow and infiltration (RDII) into sewer systems is highly affected by antecedent moisture conditions, and these effects can be more complex than the rainfall/runoff relationships for surface water. The travel paths for RDII entering the sewer system are more complex than surface water runoff, because the transport mechanisms include both surface runoff and subsurface transportation. This adds additional complexities to the hydrologic effects and antecedent moisture effects such as the saturation levels of the soils in the subsurface, ground water levels, and subsurface hydraulics.\n\nAntecedent moisture conditions are highly affected by preceding rainfall levels. However, preceding rainfall is not the only condition that affects antecedent moisture, and many other variables in the hydrologic process can have a significant impact. For example, air temperature, wind speed and humidity levels affect evaporation rates, which can significantly change antecedent moisture conditions. Additional effects may include evapotranspiration, presence or absence of tree canopy and snow and ice melting effects.\n\nTraditional Analysis Approaches\n\nTraditional approaches for analyzing antecedent moisture effects rely on physically based models derived from first principles, such as the principles of energy, momentum and continuity, which rely on measurements of many parameters for input and simulation. These include programs such as the Storm Water Management Model, Mouse RDII, or other rainfall/runoff simulation programs. These models are frequently calibrated to a specific antecedent moisture condition observed during a single storm. Fitting data from several storms that occurred during various antecedent moisture conditions requires modifying the model parameters and recalibrating the model. At the end of this process, the modeler is left with several models, each of which can fit a specific storm that occurring during a specific antecedent moisture condition, but none of which are capable of simultaneously fitting all of the data. This is the challenge of using event-based models with traditional approaches: it requires the user to select a particular antecedent moisture condition for design simulations.\n\nSome modeling approaches, such as the Hydrologic Simulation Program - Fortran (HSPF) or the Stanford Watershed Model developed by Crawford and Linsley (1966) attempt to address antecedent moisture conditions through a complex physically-based representation of the transport paths of water on the surface and in the subsurface. These tools have their place in researching and studying the various complexities associated with hydrologic transport processes. However, the great number of parameters in these models, the difficulty of measuring the many parameters, and the sensitivity of the model output to slight variations in the parameters makes using these models to simulate antecedent moisture in sewer systems challenging. The principles of parsimony and Occam's razor provide evidence of these challenges from a systems perspective.\n\nData-Based Approaches\n\nAn alternative approach for modeling antecedent moisture is to start from measurements of the behavior of the system and the external influences (inputs to the system) and try to determine a mathematical relation between them without going into the details of what is actually happening inside the system. This approach is called system identification. System identification is applied in several fields beyond engineering, ranging from economics to astronomy and comes under other names such as inverse modeling, time series analysis, and empirical physical modeling. System identification is a general term to describe mathematical tools and algorithms that build dynamical models from measured data. A dynamical model in this context is a mathematical description of the dynamic behavior of a system or process. A so-called white-box model based on first principles, eg. a model for a physical process from the Newton equations, in many cases will be overly complex and possibly even impossible to obtain in reasonable time due to the complex nature of many systems and processes.\n\nData-based approaches based on system identification, such as the i3D antecedent moisture model, have been applied to hydrologic modeling for simulating antecedent moisture effects on wet weather events in sanitary collection systems. This modeling approach differs from traditional techniques because it is based on system identification and is guided by system observations (i.e. data) and mathematical routines are used to generate the correct model structure, rather than physically based first principles. This is in contrast to assuming that the correct model is known beforehand, as is typically the case for modeling within civil engineering. This technique allows information within the observations to guide the modeling algorithms so that only the relevant and observed dynamics are present in the model structure. The resulting models are not black box, but are grey box models that have parameters and structure that tie directly to physical understanding and interpretation.\n\nWikimedia Foundation. 2010.\n\nLook at other dictionaries:\n\n • Antecedent — An antecedent is a preceding event, condition, cause, phrase, or word. *Antecedent moisture is a hydrologic term describing the relative wetness condition of a sewershed. *In logic, an antecedent is the first half of a hypothetical proposition.… … Wikipedia\n\n • Antecedent soil moisture — is a term used in surface water hydrology in reference to runoff prediction and in process geomorphology in reference to fluvial patterns in drainage basins. Soil retains a degree of moisture after a rainfall event. This residual water moisture… … Wikipedia\n\n • antecedent-soil moisture — The degree of water saturation in the soil prior to a precipitation event [16] … Lexicon of Cave and Karst Terminology\n\n • Runoff curve number — The runoff curve number (also called a curve number or simply CN) is an empirical parameter used in hydrology for predicting direct runoff or infiltration from rainfall excess.[1] The curve number method was developed by the USDA Natural… … Wikipedia\n\n • Hydrology — Water covers 70% of the Earth s surface. Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability. A… … Wikipedia\n\n • Sewage collection and disposal — Urban areas require some methods for collection and disposal of sewage.CollectionA sewage system may convey the wastewater by gravity to a sewage treatment plant. Where pipeline excavation is difficult because of rock or there is limited… … Wikipedia\n\n • Hydrological transport model — An hydrological transport model is a mathematical model used to simulate river or stream flow and calculate water quality parameters. These models generally came into use in the 1960s and 1970s when demand for numerical forecasting of water… … Wikipedia\n\n\n • Surface runoff — Runoff flowing into a stormwater drain Surface runoff is the water flow that occurs when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water from rain, meltwater, or other sources flows over the land. This is a major component of the water… … Wikipedia\n\n • Blizzard of 1977 — Snow drifts made travel difficult in parts of New York (February 7, 1977), shown is the city of Buffalo … Wikipedia", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9980638027191162}
+{"content": "Janina Dill, “Applying the Principle of Proportionality in Combat Operations” (2010)\nMaking Proportionality Work\n\nApplying proportionality starting with necessity. The first step in rendering the principle of proportionality more effective is understanding the fact that necessity is a precondition of its fulfilment. Necessity sets a lower bound for proportionality. Damage to civilians that is not necessary is never proportionate. Some militaries already go to great length to minimize the expected collateral damage from a chosen target. Practitioners relate that once the collateral damage expected from an attack can be no further minimized, for instance through the choice of a different weapon or a change in the angle or time of attack, the proportionality principle is considered fulfilled and a “go” for the planned attack is likely. This is a necessity judgment, but an incomplete one. Meeting the requirement of necessity also means searching for alternative targets. Militaries do not yet routinely establish several courses of action to implement the commander’s intent and then pick the one with the best proportionality calculus.\n\nOne could argue that what is necessary is just as much subject to interpretation as is what is proportionate. However there is an important difference between the two criteria. While proportionality does not imply an absolute standard, necessity, at least, in theory does. For an attack to have been necessary there can have been no alternative course of action with a reasonable chance of achieving a certain military advantage that would have caused fewer civilian casualties. The epistemic conditions under which a combatant could establish this with certainty will never be present in combat. However the theoretical scenario, in which the condition of necessity is met, provides the basis for establishing concrete criteria for its application in practice. To the contrary, as long as notions of excess are an essentially private and subjective matter, the absence of the intent not to excessively harm civilians cannot even in theory be rendered manifest. However, the protective capacity of proportionality exceeds that of necessity. Incidental harm might be necessary but still disproportionate. In the interest of protecting civilians from harm should we not therefore abstain from emphasizing necessity in the application of proportionality? In light of the striking inadequacy of existing attempts to apply proportionality, the clarity afforded by necessity is invaluable. We can never answer the question “how much is too much?” but by starting with necessity the law can better guide and arbitrate, and thereby also better protect the civilian population. However, it is important that in the means to ends judgment necessity does not simply replace proportionality but offers a place to start and a complement to unguided discussions about excess. It needs to be stressed that achieving this condition is still not enough for an actor wanting to do the right thing in combat, because, as mentioned, something might be necessary yet still disproportionate.\n\nApplying proportionality by drawing on procedural requirements. The endeavour to make the principle of proportionality more effective involves a second step. Article 57 of the First Additional Protocol obliges belligerents to “take all feasible precautions” and constant care with a view to implementing proportionality and distinction. It contains three concrete obligations – to refrain from launching a potentially disproportionate attack, to cancel or suspend a potentially disproportionate attack as well as to always choose the target with the most favourable anticipated proportionality calculus. All three obligations are already implicit in the principle of proportionality and therefore receive relatively little attention during combat operations. But the added value of Article 57 lies in the fact that it prescribes actions for those who intend not to harm civilians excessively. It thus bears the potential to more concretely connect intention and outcomes in the conduct of hostilities. The ICTY has indeed drawn on Article 57 in allegations of disproportionate attack. However Article 57 is itself rather indeterminate, raising the question of what it means to do “everything feasible”. In order to realize the potential of procedural requirements to render proportionality more effective the obligation contained in the provision should be operationalized in a transparent and systematic manner, preferably by an international body that commands authority in matters of law and war.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9947842955589294}
+{"content": "One deployment process task per worker\n\n(Jon Vaughan) #1\n\nLast week we put up node cap on both servers from 5 to 10. Now giving us a task cap of 20.\n\nAround the same time, we have noticed a few Powershell issues that would suggest that Octopus workers are having multiple tasks running on then in parallel.\n\nThis was concluded yesterday when we had a Powershell script that created its own working directory and two deployments of the same project were kicked off into two separate environments at the same time.\n\nThey both ran on the same worker and we had a file clash in the working directory as one release was adding the files and another trying to remove them at the same time.\n\nThis isn’t the behaviour we want. How do we set up so one worker can only process one task?\n\nIn the meantime, I have dropped the cap count back down and modified the task to run in parallel. But this isn’t the behaviour that I wasn’t / was expected. I’m looking to have one worker runs one task.\n\nHow can I configure this, please?\n\n(Kenneth Bates) #3\n\nHi Jon,\n\nThanks for getting in touch! When using the default working directories, we have safeguards in place to prevent these file clashes, though in your case when creating your own working directories I can see a couple of options.\n\n 1. Use the environment variable (#{Octopus.Environment.Name}) as part of the working directory created in your script to ensure this kind of collision doesn’t happen.\n\n 2. Set the task cap to match exactly your worker count.\n\nDo either of those options get this working as intended/required? Let me know what you think or if you have any further questions or concerns going forward. :slight_smile:\n\nBest regards,\n\n\n(Jon Vaughan) #4\n\nHey Kenny,\n\nPoint 1.)\nThe clashing working directory was just down to our bad code and has been addressed, but it highlighted a misconception that we have held that it was one task, one worker.\n\nPoint 2.)\nWill setting the task cap to match our worker count solve the problem? our workers are divided as follows:\nlower environments (6 workers)\nupper environments (4 workers)\n\nLet’s say we have 6 tasks running in our lower environments and a task cap of 10. A new project is deployed into the lower environments, we are still under the task cap of 10, so it will run on one of the workers that are currently already running another task? causing use the parallel issue we are looking to avoid?\n\n\n(Jon Vaughan) #5\n\nHi Octopus,\n\nDo you have anything to control 1 task 1 worker?\n\nI have seen now and again when running a deployment/health check/tentacle upgrade that Octopus says that it’s waiting for a task to finishes before the current one starts. So it feels like there is something there.\n\n\n(Jon Vaughan) #6\n\nJust bouncing this ticket for a response.\n\n(Kenneth Bates) #7\n\nHi Jon,\n\nThanks for responding again on this thread to resurrect its visibility! My sincere apologies that this one fell through the cracks.\n\nIt sounds like you might be hitting a previously known and fixed bug that caused tasks to hang, similar to what you’ve described, which was a result of incorrectly trying to acquire the machine level isolation lock. Can you let me know which version of Octopus you’re currently experiencing this issue on? This specific bug (linked below) was fixed in 2019.8.5, so if applicable in your scenario I’d be interested to hear if upgrading fixes this issue.\n\nI look forward to hearing back!\n\nBest regards,\n\n\n(Jon Vaughan) #8\n\nHi Kenny,\n\nThanks for the reply.\n\nOur Octopus is 2019.12.1 LTS.\n\nAlso our problems isn’t one of locking tasks, it’s the opposite that contrary to what we thought we are seeing workers that are processing multiple tasks in parallel.\n\nAn example would be that we have steps that install and uninstall Powershell modules and don’t want to be in a position where one task is running and another tasks comes along and starts to uninstall resources the first task is using.\n\nSo in an ideal world there would be a setting that forced workers to pull tasks sequentially.\n\n\n(Jon Vaughan) #9\n\nHey Kenny,\n\nSorry for keeping digging this one up, but it’s real important that we get to the bottom of this. Our code in places has been written in the understanding that workers run one task at once, but from what we have seen this doesn’t look to be the case. Before we start refactoring a lot of our step templates which is a big job we would like to see what other options we have.\n\nI think from this document I can see that workers do process tasks in parallel:\n\n“and a single worker can run multiple actions in parallel.”\n\n\n1.) Can we switch off this ability for a worker to run tasks/actions in parallel? before workers we had steps that installed modules, deployed, cleaned up after themselves such as deleting modules. However this process doesn’t work if a step can be run in parallel as on the worker one tasks might be using the module while another is removing it.\n\n2.) If the ability to run multiple actions/tasks in parallel can’t be switched off, do you have any suggestions to workaround it? refactoring the steps/inline scripts is a lot of work.\n\n\n(Kenneth Bates) #10\n\nHi Jon,\n\nThanks for bringing this one back up, and my apologies about this one slipping through the cracks. I brought this good question up to my team, and while we could think of some other potential options, unfortunately I don’t think there’s a way in Octopus to handle this in a great way.\n\nThe first and probably best of the not great solutions would be to instead run this on a Tentacle, as compared to Workers, these tasks by default won’t be run in parallel.\n\nSome other options might be to configure some very custom worker pools so a pool is dedicated to the process. I.e. one pool per environment per project, but that’s certainly not pretty. You could possibly also write some custom mutex by using some sort of marker file on system, or rewrite to take an exclusive lock as you do these sensitive bits.\n\nI’m sorry it’s not a better answer, but I hope this helps in some way. Let me know what you think or if you have any further questions or concerns moving forward at all. :slight_smile:\n\nBest regards,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5848070383071899}
+{"content": "The University of Arizona\n\n26Mg-excess in hibonites of the Rumuruti chondrite Hughes 030\n\nA. Bischoff, G. Srinivasan\n\n\nThe Rumuruti chondrites (R chondrites) constitute a new, well-established, chondrite group different from carbonaceous, ordinary, and enstatite chondrites. Most samples of this group are gas-rich regolith breccias showing the typical light/dark structure and consist of abundant fragments of various parent body lithologies embedded in a fine-grained, olivine-rich matrix. Most R chondrites contain the typical components of primitive chondrites including chondrules, chondrule and mineral fragments, sulfides, and rare calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs). In Hughes 030, an interesting CAI consisting of abundant hibonite and spinel was found. Mg isotopic analyses revealed excess 26Mg in components of R chondrites for the first time. The hibonite grains with high Al/Mg values (~1500 to 2600) show resolved 26Mg excess. The slope of the correlation line yields an initial 26Al/ 27Al = (1.4 ± 0.3) x 10^(-6), which is ~40 times lower than the initial value measured in CAIs from primitive meteorites. The inferred difference in 26Al abundance implies a time difference of ~4 million years for the closure of the Al-Mg system between CAIs from primitive chondrites and the Hughes 030 CAI. Based on mineralogy and the petrographic setting of the hibonite-rich CAI, it is suggested that 4 million years reflect the time interval between the formation of the CAI and the end of its secondary alteration. It is also suggested that most of this alteration may have occurred in the nebula (e.g. Zn- and Fe-incorporation in spinels). However, the CAI could not have survived in the nebula as a\\ free floating object for a long period of time. Therefore, the possibility of storage in a precursor planetesimal for a few million years, resetting the magnesium-aluminum isotopic system, prior to impact brecciation, excavation, and accretion of the final R chondrite parent body cannot be ruled out.\n\n\n26Mg;Rumuruti;R chondrites\n\nFull Text:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6940299272537231}
+{"content": "Time Warp\n\nMy ears are still ringing from the amplifiers. The rank smell of spilled beer and bodies moving cling to my clothes. The air of the loud bar presses against me as I watch from a distance the happy doings of the people I know as my friends. And without warning, I’m struck with a deep sense of loneliness.\n\nLoneliness in a crowd is one of the most profoundly difficult feelings to have. And one that does not fade quickly.\n\nIn the midst of the throbbing crowd and the booming music, I felt cold and alone. Looking around and seeing my friends and family smiling together in a bond stronger than I understood, I felt distant and uncertain of my place within any of their lives.\n\nIt was momentary, probably lasting no longer than a split second. But the residual waves of sadness, grief and other complicated emotions was endless.\n\nAs each wave got bigger and pulled me in further, I found myself twelve years old again……\n\nI’m sitting in the family kitchen of my grandparents’ house. It’s a large room for everyone to crowd around and enjoy an enormous Italian meal together. Memories of laughter are embedded in the walls and stains from tears of joy cling to the counter tops. It’s a place of cousins and aunts and uncles, with similar features and stories linked together through the bonds of family.\n\nI am twelve and I sit with the adults, listening to their words weaving in the air, sharing stories and jokes. I’m comforted by their constant banter and intermittent break in words for a bubble of laughter to burst. My long pre-pubescent legs cross beneath me as I lean into the talk around me and am wrapped in the deep tones of my Papa and the rasping tones of my Nonnie. The sweet giggling laughter of my god-mother dances with the sweet, strong out-burst of my mother.\n\nI’m comforted here, though I don’t belong. I’m only twelve and not yet old enough to be considered an adult. But here I sit, feeling no reason to leave though I know I could join the kids my age downstairs.\n\nBelow us in the living room, my cousins watch silly cartoons and they, too, giggle and talk. The blossoming language shared between children lift into the air and mix with the sweet innocent tinkling of their childish laughter. They play with toys, making jokes and share in the merriment that most children are born with. That innate sense of freedom and happiness.\n\nThe adults forget I’m there. Like a church mouse I stow away behind them, hoping to be completely encased in their voices, tucked away in the luscious sounds of their stories. It’s warm here, comfortable and serene.\n\nI’m happy to not be remembered, tucked away under the adult context and expansive vocabulary that barely floats above my comprehension. But, I hear the quick out-burst from the lower room and I wince. I could be with my cousins and siblings, enjoying myself, laughing too. Being a kid.\n\nI lean forward, stuck between my willingness to find comfort in the adult atmosphere where I’m not expected to participate and my interest in being silly and acting a child for once.\n\nThen the meal is served and I’m swept up in the hustle and bustle of plates clinking and silverware tapping. I forget my momentary confusion, the pull between my old soul and my youth.\n\nAs I finish my meal and return my plate to the sink, my older cousin confronts me in his monotone way, asking why I don’t join the children ever and instead hang around the adults.\n\nI react with a quick breath in, stung by his recognition of my awkwardness. It hurt to hear him ask because, I knew I was an odd duck. I knew I was an old soul who didn’t fit in anywhere. Not with the adults whose conversation was outside of my understanding. Not with the children who were joyful and silly, two things I struggled to find within myself.\n\nI didn’t fit then and, little did I really foresee, that I would never truly fit.\n\nHe watched me, unfazed by my silence and cold look. It was one thing for me to know I was the odd one, but for someone else to point it out hurt deeply.\n\nTo this day, I don’t remember my answer, but I knew from then on, I was not the only one who knew I was strange. That I was an outcast, a member of a small group of people who never could find a place anywhere……..\n\nI roll in the waves of jealousy and insecurity. I can’t find the air and continue to find myself swimming downwards. I’m lost in a tumble of negative feelings when suddenly I’m in high school again……..\n\nThe bell has rung and I’m hovering around my locker, lunch in hand. I’m working my way through my locker, slowly finding what I need as I eat my food and make my way through my meager teenage meal. What I’m really doing is stalling, waiting for the halls to clear before the teachers come and usher any stragglers down to the bustling courtyard where all sorts of social experiments are being played out through the lunch hour.\n\nI planned, as I did everyday, to be lost in the library. To find my place in the back of the stuffy elongated room where I could sit in peace and read. I never shared a table there and never had to talk to anyone other than the kind librarian who never questioned my antisocial behavior. She accepted me and my quiet ways, leaving me to peacefully exist while I kindly waved a silent greeting to her before I ducked behind the shelves of literature greats bound in the pages of aging books.\n\nMy years of eating lunch alone in the library are punctuated by small periods of socializing out on the lawn in the furthest spot from the social frenzy of The Quad. In those moments, I would join a small band of social misfits and we would sit in silence eating and studying, occasionally breaking the silence with a crude comment.\n\nEven with the small band of outcasts, I survived my high school years on my own as much as I could. I never felt I had a place within the hip, young crowd of teenagers all battling the same war just with different methods. We were all looking for confirmation of ourselves. To find that piece to explain why we felt the way we did about who we were. All of us, searching for validation between the bells.\n\nWhile they looked for validation, I already knew what I was. I was alone……\n\nThe waves’ pull lightens and I feel myself falling again. Suddenly I surface in the grief and feel that I’m eighteen again……..\n\nMy blue dress lays at my knees, short and sweet for this special occasion. A wedding. A joining of two people. And a gathering of family. And friends. People I know, and people I should feel comfortable around. I sit on a low brick bench outside the family den on the lower floor. The guests mingle around the delicately lit pool, strung with floating flowers and candles. The music is slow and glides on the warm June air.\n\nEveryone is happy and thoroughly enjoying this special occasion. Everyone, except me.\n\nAs I watch the conversations, the polite hugs and the raucous laughter, I feel lost in a sea with no visible horizon. I’m treading water and searching for something familiar. Something, or someone to cling to. I look and find nothing. I feel the strong urge to join the family on the dance floor, to stand outside the perimeter of a conversation waiting to participate, or to sit behind my father and listen, as I had as a child, to the stories shared between my family member. I also feel compelled to stay put, stuck in my fears and anxieties.\n\nAwkward. Alone. Forgotten.\n\nThe sun begins to set and a slight chill chases the warm summer breeze. I feel like crying. I want so badly to have a life preserver tossed to me. For someone to save me from myself.\n\nSuddenly a tall figure approaches me, a family friend and an older sibling, much like myself. He’s handsome with a lopsided smile. I feel nervous as he nears, worried I’ll say something desperate or stupid. So I smile, and nod at him as he sit next to me.\n\nHis mouth opens to speak and asks why I’m here, alone.\n\nI glance at him, my smile disappearing. I don’t know how to answer him. I’ve never know the proper response to someone when they ask me why I choose to be alone. Why I choose to stay away. Why I’m so awkward, strange and unreachable. I don’t remember my answer, but I remember him leaving. And I remember being left alone, again.\n\nThe night never improved and I avoided my friend the rest of the reception. I didn’t want another reminder that someone else noticed my stand-offish manner. My inability to act like a normal social human being…..\n\nAs quickly as my time warp began, I surface and I’m still siting in the dim light of a loud bar. I sigh. Those deep memories of being quiet, shy and antisocial linger in my mind and bring tears to the surface.\n\nI have never been comfortable with myself. I’ve never accepted that I am a solitary person, someone who enjoys time alone, with the same song on repeat and my blankets drawn up around me. And being thrust into the same social situation as I have in the past with those conflicting feelings of staying silent or joining the fray only brought back a sadness I hadn’t felt in years.\n\nA sadness that lingers.\n\nA deep feeling of loneliness in a world full of people…..\n\nA Touch Of Awkward\n\nRemember in high school when you felt that the world swirled around you in a blurry mess of laughter, faces and confusion. Those moments when everything and everyone seemed to move on without you and you stood out in a crowd, feeling that awkwardness envelope you.\n\nFor many, it was a moment here or there in high school. For some, it was all of those formidable years before adulthood.\n\nFor the rest, it is just a way of life.\n\n\nThem bones, they ache.\n\nAll weary and sore.\n\nDragging, yet still…\n\nalways on the move.\n\nAlways going, never ceasing.\n\nAlways tired and thirsty for sleep.\n\nRest is for the weak, them says.\n\nIf only I had a week to rest, says the traveler.\n\nI am worn down and in need of care.\n\nOnly the weary falter and stay, them says.\n\nYou want to show your feebleness?\n\nA sigh. Shoulders droop. Listless the traveler answers.\n\nNo, so I’ll be on my way.\n\nMy bones, how they ache.\n\nAlways tired and thirty for rest.\n\nYour Story\n\nEveryone has a story.\n\nThere is a beginning, a climax, some foreshadowing and lots of characters.\n\nMany are straight yet narrow and without changing or winding paths. There may be no surprises but a comfort in that fact that there are no twists. No turns. The horizon is always visible and always in sight.\n\nThen there are others with a surprise at every corner. When the path veers and the plot thickens with every turn of the page. Characters come and go, the story line changing constantly. What will the end hold, not even the main character knows this. Though there is rarely a moment of comfort, the excitement in this story is always there.\n\nAfter 30 years, my story goes on. It has changed and veered. The road has buckled and crumbled only to be rebuild and my journey to continue.\n\nMy story has no end in sight. Though I know it will some day, for now I continue to turn the page in anticipation. To continue on.\n\nTiny Speck\n\nSometimes, realizing that life and all the troubles and joys in it are much, MUCH larger than you can put you in your place.\n\nIt can make you feel small and insignificant.\n\nPlease, be careful where you tread. You might find yourself standing on someone who is struggling with the gravity of how large everything really is.\n\nAnd how tiny we honestly are.\n\nA Romantic Conversation\n\nThis was a recent conversation I had, something sweet and romantic. It shows all the wonderful and caring sides between this person and me.\n\nA conversation that shows how much we really care.\n\nMe: (itching left eye) My eye itches.\n\nHim: Well….did you touch it?\n\nMe: (still itching eye) Ummm, yeah. Kinda.\n\nHim: (sighs) You aren’t supposed to touch your eyes when you are here.\n\nMe: (scratching out eye) I know….I can’t help it.\n\nHim: (sighs deeply)\n\nAllergies, it’s what brings people together.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6077181100845337}
+{"content": "SECS London - Cookie Policy\n\nShield Executive Car Services\n\nAnytime, Anyplace, Anywhere Professional Drivers At Your Service\n\n\n\n\nSECS LONDON LIMITED. How we use Cookies\n\nTo make this site work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. What are cookies?\n\nA cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, account settings and other display preferences), so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.\n\n\n\n\nWhat are the different types of cookies?\n\nEssential or ‘Strictly Necessary’ Cookies\n\nThese are cookies which are essential for the running of our website. Without these cookies, elements of our website would not function. These cookies do not track where you have been on the internet and do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing purposes.\n\nFunctional Cookies\n\nFunctional cookies are used to remember your preferences on our website and to provide enhanced, more personal features. The information collected by these cookies is usually anonymised, so we cannot identify you personally. Functional cookies do not track your internet usage or gather information which could be used for selling advertising, but they do help with serving advertising.\n\nAnalytical Performance Cookies\n\n\nBehavioural Advertising Cookies\n\n\nHow does Shield Executive Car Services use cookies?\n\nWe, together with our trusted partners, use cookies for the following purposes: Essential and Functional Cookies\n\nFor basic operational purposes, our trusted website provider creates one cookie, which is “Essential” for delivering pages on you. This cookie is called ‘ASP.NET_SessionId’ and it stores a ‘Session ID’ which is used by Microsoft .NET Framework. This cookie expires at the end of the session which is when a visitor goes to another website or closes their browser window. Therefore, this cookie does not remain on your computer and has no function in tracking your website usage. Cookie Name: ASP.NET_SessionId\n\nAdditionally, contained within the website is a facility to create accounts and make car bookings, involving certain data entry. To ensure secure and efficient use of account settings our trusted App provider uses Session cookies ..\n\nAuthentication Cookies: This tells us when you are logged in, so we can display the appropriate experience and features such as account information, booking history, and the facility to edit account settings.\n\nSecurity cookies: We use security cookies such as SID to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of login credentials.\n\nAnalytical Performance Cookies\n\nOur site uses Google for mapping and analytical purposes ..\n\nLocalisation cookies from Google maps: We use google maps which comes with standard cookies such as: khcookie, APISID,S_awfe, SSID. As Google is a third party service provider, they are at liberty to change, add, edit, amend their cookies at any time without prior notice.\n\nThis site uses Google Analytics, a trusted solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging and appropriate content.\n\nFor more information on Google Analytics cookies, see.. official Google Analytics page.\n\nHow to opt out of Google Analytics see\n\nOther 3rd party cookies\n\nYou may notice on some pages of our website that cookies have been set that are not related to Shield. When you visit a page with content embedded from, for example, social media platforms or transport hubs, these third party service providers may set their own cookies on your device. Shield does not control the use of these third party cookies and cannot access them due to the way that cookies work, as cookies can only be accessed by the party who originally set them. Please check the third party websites for more information about these cookies.\n\nHow can I manage or opt out of cookies?\n\nSome people find the idea of a website storing information on their device a little intrusive, in particular when the information is stored and used by a third party. If you would prefer to opt out of cookies, it is possible to control cookies by following the steps below, however you should be aware that you will lose some features and functionality of the website if you do so.\n\n\nFurther information and contact details\n\nPlease contact SECS London Limited, Shield Executive Car Services support team if you would like more information on the cookies that we use and their purposes:\n\nBy email:\n\nBy telephone: 0208 572 5522\n\nBy post: \n\nKemp House 152-160, City Road, London, EC1V 2NX\n\nFor more information about cookies please visit all about cookies and for more information about behavioural advertising in particular please visit your online choices.\n\nGeneral information about data protection may be found at: Information Commissioner’s website:\n\nDirect Marketing Association:\n\nConsumer advice from the DMA:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5001342296600342}
+{"content": "The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website\n\n\nThe Healing Nick Roseblade , June 6th, 2019 10:16\n\nThe third album by Soweto seven-piece BCUC sees them collaborating with Femi Kuti and Saul Williams to exhilarating effect, finds Nick Roseblade\n\nBCUC, Bantu Continued Uhuru Consciousness, are a melting pot of styles. The Soweto septet combine Zulu traditions, blaring trumpets, choral singing, mbaqanga groove and malombo swing along with hip-hop sensibilities, jazz improvisations and a punk swagger that have created a trilogy of albums that have an unabashed bounce to them, with socially conscious lyrics. The final part of this trilogy, The Healing, is the strongest and shows the band have only really started to find their voice and rhythm.\n\nThe Healing is an incredibly immediate album. It grabs you from the dynamic opening. The first thing you hear is a catchy, wonky bassline. This isn’t by chance. Mosebetsi Jan Nzimande is the engine of the band. His riffs are infectious and inventive. As they twist and turn the other members of the group slowly fall in until ‘The Journey with Mr. Van Der Merwe’. A vibrant and pulsating beast, it skews and turns along at breakneck speed until a vocal break slows it down. This change of tempo is important as it shows that BCUC can hit that sweet spot, even when they aren’t playing 100 miles per hour and that Nzimande’s is still the driving force behind it. When the pace is picked up, it is more hypnotic and trance-like. Guttural vocals are traded over the scatter shot drumming and that unrelenting bassline.\n\nIf the opening track showcased BCUC’s collective chops, the following two show their ability to play with others. The standout moment of The Healing is ‘Sikhulekile’. Like ‘The Journey with Mr. Van Der Merwe’, it is a lesson in getting locked into a rhythmic groove of solos and improvisations, but it’s the inclusion of Femi Kuti that really takes it to another level. When Kuti’s saxophone joins the party it takes it to the next level. Opening with Kuti soloing is a strong choice, but as with ‘The Journey with Mr. Van Der Merwe’, it shows who the star is. After Kuti’s opening salvo, operatic vocals glide over a twitchy riff and mournful horn shrieks. The final song is ‘Isivunguvungu’ and rapper-poet Saul Williams delivers some sage advice about having a good soul. Despite being fifteen mins shorter than the previous two songs, it packs the same punch, due to tight rhythms and those unyielding basslines.\n\nDespite only featuring three tracks The Healing is full of massive bass riffs, polyrhythmic drumming and glorious vocals. BCUC are most devastating when they get locked in the groove and just run with it. Their secret weapon is Nzimande. His bass riffs are the centre of every song, making them feel unstoppable and intoxicating. The downside to The Healing is that once the band get locked into the groove, that’s pretty much it. Yes there are solos here and there, but sonically the song stays the same and the vocals get a bit lost in the maelstroms that BCUC create. Still, maelstroms like these are always exhilarating to get lost in.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5649605989456177}
+{"content": "Graphic Novels: TCAF Team & Staff Picks for the 2019 Reading Challenge\n\nMay 3, 2019 | Book Buzz\n\nComments (0)\n\nLibrary Reading Challenge-Blog banner\n\nAre you taking our 2019 Reading Challenge? So are library staff all across the city. With the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) coming up next weekend, we decided to ask the TCAF team for some of their favourite graphic novel recommendations.\n\nHosted annually in the Toronto Reference Library (and several other nearby locations), TCAF is a free event for comic and graphic book fans of all ages. Find out more on the TCAF website,\n\nDates and times:\n\n • Saturday May 11, 9 am - 5 pm\n • Sunday May 12, 10 am - 5 pm\n\nWe hope to see you there!\n\nRecommendations from the TCAF Planning Team\n\nWe asked the graphic book experts to share some of their favourites with us, and here's what they picked!\n\n\nChristopher's recommendation: Operatic by Kyo Maclear. (Ages 10+)\n\nWhy does Christopher recommend it?\n\n\"Celebrated children’s author Kyo Maclear’s first full-length graphic novel is such a solid outing that I needed to double check that it was, in fact, her first. Aided by Byron Eggenschweiler’s lovely, lush art, this middlegrade story of complicated friendships and finding solace in music will really resonate with both younger readers and those of us who can remember when we were young. In particular, the gorgeous visual representations of music are among the best ever illustrated in comics, and add incredible richness to the work.\"\n\n\n\nMiles' recommendation: Uzumaki by Junji Ito. (Ages 13+)\n\nWhy does Miles recommend it?\n\n\"High schooler Kirie Goshima begins to notice a series of strange phenomenon in her in the fictional small town of Kurōzu-cho -- all of which connect to cursed spiral imagery! Originally released 20 years ago, Uzumaki hasn't lost a step in its ability to completely creep out international audiences. Ito's line work depicts horrific and impossible body horror in a way that is both unsettling and incredibly beautiful.\"\n\nWhat other categories could you use it for?\n\n • A book in translation\n\n\nThe Girl from the Other Side\n\nJocelyn's first recommendation: The Girl from the Other Side by Nagabe. (Ages 13+)\n\nWhy does Jocelyn recommend it?\n\n\"In this dark and beautifully subdued fairy tale about insiders and outsiders, the fate of the world hinges on one small girl who has only one strange outsider on her side. A prophecy has foretold that she will be the one to end the strange curse on the land that turns people into monsters. Nagabe uses this fairytale structure to explore the arbitrary nature of “us” and “them” and how divisive and hurtful it can be.\"\n\nWhat other categories could you use it for?\n\n • A book in translation\n\n\n\nJocelyn's second recommendation: Frankenstein by Junji Ito. (Ages 13+)\n\nWhy does Jocelyn recommend it?\n\n\"This classic tale is reinterpreted by modern horror master Ito, who brings new depth and nuance to the familiar story of the doctor and his monster. But given that this is Junji Ito, he also adds extra chills and terror to an already frightening narrative. The book also includes a series of short stories about Oshikiri, a boy for whom everything goes terrifyingly wrong. For horror fans, this is a must-read, but literature fans will find something to love here, too.\"\n\nWhat other categories could you use it for?\n\n • A book in translation\n\nHelter Skelter Fashion Unfriendly\n\nJocelyn's third recommendation: Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly by Kyoko Okazaki.\n\nWhy does Jocelyn recommend it?\n\n\"Ririko is the undisputed queen of the cutthroat modelling world and she’ll do whatever it takes to stay there, including radical surgery to remake her entire body. Okazaki tackles the absurd societal expectations placed on women and offers a critique of the excesses of capitalism in this modern classic. It’s both a narrative of mental illness and a crime story at the same time, an enticing mixture of different genres.\"\n\nWhat other categories could you use it for?\n\n • A book in translation\n\n\nRecommendations from Toronto Public Library Staff\n\nThor Goddess of Thunder\n\nAlice's first recommendation: Thor Vol. 1, Thor: Goddess of Thunder by Jason Aaron.\n\nWhy does Alice recommend it?\n\n\"The art is gorgeous, and I love how we see the new Thor move from uncertain and confused to claiming her new role and name. At the same time, Thor comes to respect her and cedes it to her after his initial anger. Watching her rise to her powers is impressive.\"\n\n\nHeavy vinyl\n\nAlice's second recommendation: Heavy Vinyl Vol. 1 by Carly Usdin.\n\nWhy does Alice recommend it?\n\n\"I also really enjoyed Heavy Vinyl's first volume. Young girl trying to fit in with the cool girls at her record shop who discovers that there is more going on there and once accepted, gets drafted into their all-girl fight club and sort-of-heroes side gig? Yes, please!\"\n\nWhat other categories could you use it for?\n\n\nUpgrade Soul\n\nMike's recommendation: Upgrade Soul by Ezra Claytan Daniels.\n\nWhy does Mike recommend it?\n\n\"An elderly couple undergo an experimental procedure to become young again, but things go awry and the procedure creates clones of them instead. What makes this stand out are really great characters that are attempting to live in the chaos of what has happened to their lives. And really excellent art work!\"\n\n\nTake it as a compliment\n\nMyrna's recommendation: Take it as a Compliment by Maria Stoian.\n\nWhy does Myrna recommend it?\n\n\"This might not be my favourite but definitely one I think more people should read. Take It as a Compliment is a collection of twenty anonymous stories from both women and men about their experiences with sexual assault, harassment, and intimate partner violence. Stoian illustrates all the the stories and she does an amazing job using her varied illustration style to allow each story its own unique voice.\"\n\nAnxiety is really strange\n\nAmy's recommendation: Anxiety is Really Strange by Steve Haines.\n\nWhy does Amy recommend it?\n\n\"This book is a fascinating look at why we experience anxiety and what anxiety does to our minds and bodies. It has a lot of research – make sure to read the footnotes! – as well as some really great strategies for working with and coping with anxiety.\"\n\nWhat other categories could you use it for?\n\nOther Recommendations:\n\nBoth staff and members of the Reading Challenge Facebook group have given additional recommendations of graphic books:\n\nWe have received – and continue to receive – so many amazing suggestions. You don't need a Facebook account to view the discussion, although you do need one to add your own suggestions.\n\n\nOther Graphic Novel Reading Lists:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6065400838851929}
+{"content": "Urology known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the male and female urinary-tract system and the male reproductive organs. Organs under the domain of urology include the kidneys, adrenal glands, urinary bladder and the male reproductive organs; the urinary and reproductive tracts are linked, disorders of one affect the other. Thus a major spectrum of the conditions managed in urology exists under the domain of genitourinary disorders. Urology combines the management of medical conditions, such as urinary-tract infections and benign prostatic hyperplasia, with the management of surgical conditions such as bladder or prostate cancer, kidney stones, congenital abnormalities, traumatic injury, stress incontinence. Urological techniques include minimally invasive robotic and laparoscopic surgery, laser-assisted surgeries, other scope-guided procedures. Urologists receive training in open and minimally invasive surgical techniques, employing real-time ultrasound guidance, fiber-optic endoscopic equipment, various lasers in the treatment of multiple benign and malignant conditions.\n\nUrology is related to oncology, gynaecology, pediatric surgery, colorectal surgery and endocrinology. Urology is one of the most competitive and sought surgical specialties for physicians, with new urologists comprising less than 1.5% of United States medical-school graduates each year. Urologists are physicians which have specialized in the field after completing their general degree in medicine. Upon successful completion of a residency program, many urologists choose to undergo further advanced training in a subspecialty area of expertise through a fellowship lasting an additional 12 to 36 months. Subspecialties may include: urologic surgery, urologic oncology and urologic oncological surgery and endourologic surgery and urogynecologic surgery, reconstructive urologic surgery, minimally invasive urologic surgery, pediatric urology and pediatric urologic surgery, transplant urology, voiding dysfunction, paruresis and androurology and sexual medicine. Additionally, some urologists supplement their fellowships with a master's degree or with a Ph.\n\nD. in related topics to prepare them for academic as well as focused clinical employment. In 2014, there were 126 residency programs. Urology is one of the early match programs, with results given to applicants by late January. Applications are accepted starting Sep 1, with some programs accepting applications until early Jan, it is a competitive specialty to match into, with only 68% to 77% of US seniors matching between 2012 and 2015. The number of positions has grown from 278 in 2012 to 296 in 2015. Matching is more difficult for IMGs and students who have a year or more off before residency - match rates were 27% and 55% in 2012; the medical school environment may be a factor. A study in 2012 showed after an analysis of match rates from schools between 2005-09 that 20 schools sent more than 15 students into urology, with Northwestern University sending 44 students over those 5 years. After urology residency, there are 7 subspecialties recognized by the AUA: Oncology Calculi Female Urology Infertility Pediatrics Transplant Neurourology.\n\nTraining is completed through the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. The program requires 6 years of full-time training, or 5 years for those who commenced after 2016; the program is accredited by the Australian Medical Council. Pre-requisites include: Australian Citizenship, New Zealand Citizenship or Australian Permanent Residency General medical registration Completion of PGY2 Completion of the RACS Hand Hygiene Learning Module As a medical discipline that involves the care of many organs and physiological systems, urology can be broken down into several subdisciplines. At many larger academic centers and university hospitals that excel in patient care and clinical research, urologists specialize in a particular sub discipline. Endourology is the branch of urology, it has grown to include all minimally invasive urologic surgical procedures. As opposed to open surgery, endourology is performed using small cameras and instruments inserted into the urinary tract. Transurethral surgery has been the cornerstone of endourology.\n\nMost of the urinary tract can be reached via the urethra, enabling prostate surgery, surgery of tumors of the urothelium, stone surgery, simple urethral and urethral procedures. The addition of laparoscopy and robotics has further subdivided this branch of urology. Laparoscopy is a evolving branch of urology and has replaced some open surgical procedures. Robot-assisted surgery of the prostate and ureter has been expanding this field. Today, many prostatectomies in the United States are carried out by so-called robotic assistance; this has created contr\n\nMeic Stevens\n\nMeic Stevens is a Welsh singer-songwriter referred to as \"the Welsh Dylan\", compared with Syd Barrett. Stevens's songs have a mystical, faintly psychedelic flavour, are sung in his native Welsh language. Still unknown outside Wales, he was discovered by DJ Jimmy Savile, who saw him performing in a Manchester folk club in 1965; this led to Stevens recording his first single - with arranger John Paul Jones - for Decca Records that same year, though it sold badly. In 1967 he suffered a nervous breakdown and retreated to his home village of Solva to recuperate, started to write songs in Welsh in a concerted effort to create a distinctive national pop music. From 1967-69 he recorded a series of now rare Welsh-language picture sleeve EPs; these were made for local labels like Sain and Wren, for whom he was one of the first artistes to record. He performed around Britain during the'60s, playing on recording sessions, he made a one-off English language LP, for Warner Bros. Records in 1970, but the contract was abandoned by mutual consent.\n\nToday, like his other LPs of the period and Gog, it is rare and sought after. Today Stevens' psych-folk influence can be heard in contemporary Welsh groups such as Super Furry Animals and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, his song \"Cwm y Pren Helyg\" was covered by Alun Tan Lan. Several CDs of his are available from the Sain label in Caernarfon, two volumes of his classic 1960s EPs have appeared on Sunbeam Records. Stevens can be found singing in certain pubs/hotels in Aberystwyth until the late hours, he can be seen performing throughout Wales and England at major festivals, pubs, theatres etc. He performs periodically in France Brittany where he is popular. Outlander Gwymon Gog Caneuon Cynnar Nos Du, Nos Da Gitâr yn y Twll dan Stâr Lapis Lazuli Gwin a Mwg a Merched Drwg Bywyd ac Angau/Life And Death Ware’n Noeth - Bibopalwla’r Delyn Aur Er Cof am Blant y Cwm Y Baledi - Dim ond Cysgodion Voodoo Blues Yn Fyw Ghost Town Mihangel Ysbryd Solva September 1965: The Tony Pike Session Disgwyl Rhywbeth Gwell i Ddod Outlander Meic a'r Gerddorfa Rain In The Leaves: The EPs vol. 1 Sackcloth & Ashes: The EPs vol. 2 Icarws An Evening With Meic Stevens: Recorded Live In London Gwymon Love Songs Meic Stevens biography from BBC Wales Meic Stevens News 2003 interview Review of An Evening with Meic Stevens: Recorded Live in London\n\nSiddhartha Bank\n\nSiddhartha Bank Limited is one of the largest private commercial bank in Nepal. The bank is an ‘A’ class commercial bank licensed by Nepal Rastra Bank and has 180 branches all across the nation with its head office in Kathmandu which provides entire commercial banking services and remittance services; the bank's shares are publicly traded as an'A' category company in the Nepal Stock Exchange. Siddhartha Bank Limited, established in 2002 and promoted by prominent personalities of Nepal, today stands as one of the growing banks in Nepal. While the promoters come from a wide range of sectors, they possess immense business acumen and share their valuable experiences towards the betterment of the Bank. Within a short span of time, Siddhartha Bank has been able come up with a wide range of products and services that best suits its clientele. Siddhartha Bank has been posting growth in its portfolio size and profitability since the beginning of its operations; the management of the Bank has been professional.\n\nSiddhartha Bank has been able to gain significant trust of the customers and all other stakeholders to become one of the most promising commercial banks in the country in less than 15 years of its operation. The Bank is committed towards customer satisfaction; the range and scope of modern banking products and services the Bank has been providing is an example to its commitment towards customer satisfaction. It is this commitment, and the Bank is confident and hopeful that it will be able to retain this trust and move further towards its mission of becoming one of the leading banks of the industry. The bank has been maintaining harmonious correspondent relationships with various international banks from various countries to facilitate trade and other cross-border services. Through these correspondent, the bank is able to provide services in any major currencies in the world. List of banks in Nepal Commercial Banks of Nepal Official Website of Siddhartha Bank Limited Official Website of Nepal Rastra Bank", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5151404142379761}
+{"content": "A tipper truck on Saturday morning crashed a motorcyclist to death at the Tema motorway roundabout.\n\nThe motorcyclist who was said to be using the motorbike for commercial purposes [Okada] died instantly when he was knocked down by the tipper truck.\n\nREAD ALSO: CAC pastor pays wife dowry after 46 years of marriage [Photos]\n\nThe accident occurred near the Shell fuel station on the Tema-Steel works stretch of the Aflao highway at about 7:15 am.\n\nAccording to eyewitnesses at the scene, both the tipper truck with registration number AS 7552 Z and the motorbike with registration number M-15-GH 78 were negotiating a turn towards the Afienya road from Tema.\n\nREAD ALSO: Kojo Bonsu’s Ex-Gratia plans woos NDC party executives in W/R [Photos]\n\nIn the process, the truck rammed into the motorbike killing the rider instantly.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5787941217422485}
+{"content": "86 – Economic Growth, Technical Progress, and Social Capital: the Inverted U Hypothesis\n\nWe set up a theoretical framework to analyze the possible role of economic growth and\ntechnical progress in the erosion of social capital. Under certain parameters, the relationship\nbetween technical progress and social capital can take the shape of an inverted U curve. We\nshow the circumstances allowing the economy to follow trajectories where the stock of\nsocial capital grows endogenously and unboundedly.\n\nIn his best-seller Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam (2000) documents how most indicators of social capital have followed an inverted U path in the United States during the twentieth century: during the first two-thirds of the century, ―Americans took a more and more active role in the social and political life of their communities in churches and union halls, in bowling alleys and clubrooms, around committee tables and card tables and dinner tables‖, and they behaved in an increasingly trustworthy way toward one another. Then, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s and accelerating in the 1980s and 1990s, an inexorable erosion of the stock of American social capital started. Apparently, year by year Americans became less generous and trustworthy, less engaged in community problems and less inclined to meet their friends, neighbours, and acquaintances.\n\nKEYWORDS: economic growth, technical progress, social capital", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9578103423118591}
+{"content": "Tax Reform Cuts Big Energy Subsidies, Boosts Support for Emerging Competitors\n\n\n • The House version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) would cut federal tax subsidies to fossil fuels, wind power, and electric vehicles; AAF estimates these changes would save taxpayers nearly $18 billion over 10 years.\n • The distribution of subsidies would pare back preferences for big incumbent energy industries, and include more competing industries under existing tax provisions. This would modestly level the energy competition playing field.\n • Tax reform should aim to make the U.S. tax code more pro-growth and internationally competitive—not to reform energy policy. While the TCJA would make some positive changes to energy provisions, it does not eliminate the government’s use of tax subsidies for energy policy.\n\n\nThe House version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) includes several changes to energy tax provisions as well as a slew of changes to tax treatments for businesses, corporations, and individuals. As members of Congress face what the Ways and Means Committee Chairman has called the “ferocity of the status quo,” changes to energy tax provisions have been contentious. It is important to consider what the role of energy provisions in tax policy are, and if the changes in the TCJA move the United States closer to good policy.\n\nEnergy and Tax Policy 101\n\nIn the 1970s, the U.S. economy was held hostage by foreign oil producers that embargoed the United States to protest its foreign policy. Embargoes, along with other events that constrained energy trade, caused the price of oil to quadruple. It was these events that gave rise to federal energy policy as we know it today—the idea that it is essential to national security for the federal government to impose policies that ensure access to energy sources, a concept of “energy security.” Tax policy has also been influenced by the events of the 1970s, and for decades the United States has given preferential tax treatment to domestic energy producers.\n\nOver time, as new energy sources have entered the market, they have struggled to compete with incumbents that are buoyed by existing tax preferences. The result has been that new energy tax provisions have been made over the years, and nearly every form of energy in the United States is subsidized in one way or another. Below is a pie chart of the distribution of energy subsidies, including tax treatment for domestic manufacturing and pipelines (Section 199, Master Limited Partnerships, etc.), as well as an estimation of subsidies relative to the energy produced (measured in British thermal units).\n\nSource: AAF estimates based on EIA, JCT, and Treasury data.\n\nIdeally, energy tax policy would promote the most efficient means of energy production while minimizing government preferences. The current law is far from that, with many provisions that are specific to certain energy types, giving them distinct advantages or disadvantages that are disconnected from broad policy goals (e.g. energy security, pollution abatement, etc.).\n\nWhile having no subsidies is ideal, if the government is intent on providing subsidies to achieve energy policy goals they should be better designed. Tax subsidies are most effective when neutral in their treatment of what technology achieves those goals, and whatever subsidy is in place should be designed to minimize displacement of private sector capital. To that effect, subsidizing well-established incumbent energy producers likely has little benefit, as the marketability of those sources and their ability to raise capital is well proven. Subsidies would have the most benefit for emerging technologies that may not have yet achieved economies of scale, or have other reasons they are unable to attract private sector capital that are unrelated to limitations of their economic potential.\n\nThe key takeaway is that the current system allows the government to create significant advantages for specific energy sources, and “better” can be defined as anything that reduces those preferences and defers more power to market choice.\n\nChanges in Taxes\n\nThe TCJA proposes several significant changes to energy tax provisions. It will eliminate domestic manufacturing tax credits for oil and gas ($9.1 billion), eliminate the inflation adjustment for new renewable sources claiming a production tax credit ($12.3 billion), eliminate the electric vehicle tax credit ($4 billion), renew tax credits for advanced nuclear power plants ($-0.4 billion), and allow a wider array of emerging clean energy technologies to claim the same tax credits as solar ($-2.3 billion). Below is an AAF estimate showing the new distribution of subsidies by technology, as well as the new distribution relative to energy produced. Note that the subsidy level for solar appears to be unchanged because the changes to its subsidy will occur in the out-years of the projection.\n\nSource: JCT score of TCJA, JCT Tax Expenditures, Treasury, and AAF estimates.\n\nThe upshot is that the changes modestly level the playing field. The advantages of specific energy sources are slightly diminished. On net, the changes would raise $17.8 billion over 10 years, which would be used to cut other taxes. Relative to the status quo, the TCJA will make some welcome changes.\n\nThe TCJA does not significantly reform the use of tax policy as a tool for energy policy. However, this was never expected. The principal purpose of the TCJA is to move the United States to a more competitive tax system; the fact that it would slightly reduce government preferences for energy sources while slightly broadening the tax base (to pay for tax cuts elsewhere) is an improvement on the status quo. Outside the scope of tax policy, there are governmental preferences for certain forms of energy (e.g. insurance provisions for nuclear power plants, the Renewable Fuel Standard, etc.). Even if the TCJA repealed all energy subsidies it would not be a substitute for comprehensive energy policy reform that clearly defined goals and designed provisions that are agnostic to how the goals are achieved.\n\nConclusion – The 10,000 Foot View\n\nThe changes in the TCJA are a modest, though positive, paring back of controversial energy subsidies. In the Joint Committee on Taxation’s (JCT) score of the TCJA, the energy provisions alone were scored to save $13.4 billion. A broader estimate that includes projected changes to domestic manufacturing tax preferences and other provisions puts the energy savings at $17.8 billion over 10 years. The biggest subsidy cuts are to incumbents that arguably offer the least benefit for the subsidies (as the private sector is already funding them), and there is a modest boost to support emerging competitors. Interestingly, provisions for some potential competitors — like hydropower — are missing, meaning the TCJA is still a far cry from a technologically neutral tax treatment of energy sources.\n\n\n\nAppendix – Industry Specific Observations\n\nNote: All revenue estimates over 10 years. Values from JCT score of the TCJA, estimates from Treasury of similar past proposals, and AAF estimates produced from past research. For more specific information, refer to AAF’s primer on energy tax credits in tax reform.\n\nOil and Gas\n\nThe oil and gas sector lose a major subsidy in the form of the “Section 199” tax break for domestic manufacturing. The Treasury Department last year estimated the value of that tax break for oil and gas specifically at $9.1 billion (the value used in AAF’s estimate), but earlier estimates pegged the value much higher—up to $19.4 billion.\n\nA big provision, the percentage cost over depletion tax credit ($8.2 billion) remains.\n\nA new tax provision will allow the oil and gas sector to deduct production from foreign subsidiaries, and the JCT estimates the value will be $3.9 billion. However, bear in mind that a major focus of the TCJA is to move to a territorial system that ends taxation of American companies’ foreign subsidiaries, so this “new” tax break merely moves the oil and gas sector in line with other multinational industry tax treatments after reform.\n\nSomewhat of an unknown is how a tax provision for natural resource pass-throughs known as a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) will change. An MLP is essentially a publicly traded corporation that is treated as a pass-through, allowing it to pass all its revenue onto its partners and avoid corporate taxation altogether. The wrinkle is if the tax preference value of an MLP is equal to their exemption from corporate income taxes, or if the value is equal to their advantage over alternative pass-through status. For this analysis, it is assumed that if MLPs were unable to claim MLP status, they would have to be incorporated and subject to corporate taxes. AAF estimated (based on a 5-year JCT estimate of tax expenditures) that the tax expenditure value of MLPs is around $10.3 billion over 10 years, a value that it is assumed reflects avoiding a 35 percent corporate tax rate. After the TCJA, MLPs would be able to claim status as a “passive” pass-through entity, and pass 100 percent of their revenues on to partners at the business tax rate of 25 percent (instead of the individual tax rate, which it is assumed would generally be the top rate of 39.6 percent for MLP partners). In this sense, the new value of the MLP is the value of avoiding the 20 percent corporate tax rate, plus the value of being taxed at 25 percent rather than 39.6 percent. AAF estimates the new value to be $10.2 billion, mostly unchanged because the value of avoiding a lower corporate rate is lessened.\n\nNote though that even though the score of the MLP is mostly unchanged, that is because the value of avoiding a 20 percent corporate tax rate is less than the value of avoiding a 35 percent tax rate. In terms of after-tax income, the change could be a boon to MLP partners that will now be taxed at a 25 percent rate, rather than a 39.6 percent top rate for personal income.\n\n\nUnder the TCJA, the Production Tax Credit (PTC) will lose the inflation provision for new sources. The PTC is a direct subsidy to electricity producers from preferred sources per kilowatt-hour (a set value of 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour). AAF estimates that 92 percent of subsidies from the PTC go to wind power. JCT estimates the provision will save $12.3 billion, and the Treasury’s estimate of the value of the PTC is $37.6 billion, so the new tax treatment will be $25.3 billion, about $23.3 billion of which will go to wind power.\n\n\nUnder current law, investments in solar power can claim a tax credit equal to 30 percent of their investment under an Investment Tax Credit (ITC). This value is scheduled to phase out over time, but has no total sunset and reduces to a value of 10 percent indefinitely. The TCJA would put a permanent sunset to the ITC, ending it entirely in 2028. The subsidy cut that this reflects is not reflected in the score, because the savings would occur after the 2018-2027 window that the TCJA is scored in. However, the Treasury estimated that the ITC would cost $0.29 billion in 2026 in their 2017-2026 tax expenditure estimate, so the subsidy cut to solar power from 2028 onward is likely near that value.\n\nOther Clean Energy Sources\n\nThe TCJA would restore ITC eligibility to several competing clean energy sources, as well as expand eligibility for credits for residential clean energy or efficiency improvements. The JCT scored those provisions in the TCJA at $1.2 billion and $1.1 billion respectively, and that increase in subsidy comes entirely from adding new technologies to the existing tax provisions, so a total increase of $2.3 billion in subsidies for those energy sources.\n\n\nThe TCJA “clarifies” that the advanced nuclear tax credit will be renewed every 8 years, or in other words the TCJA extends the credit. It also allows for looser rules on how the funds for the credits can be distributed. Overall, this change would increase subsidies for advanced nuclear power (not the existing nuclear fleet) by $0.4 billion.\n\nAdvanced Vehicles\n\nAdvanced vehicles (electric vehicles, alternative fuel vehicles, etc.) receive some tax credits under the current law based on fuel type. The TCJA would repeal the tax credit for electric vehicles, cutting subsidies for those vehicles by about $4 billion, while not touching an existing $4 billion in credits for vehicles using alternative fuels.\n\n\nUnder current law, coal receives two big tax credits: a treatment of revenue from coal extraction as capital gains (resulting in a preferred tax rate of 20 percent), and a credit for clean coal facilities (ones that use carbon capture technology). These subsidies, which AAF estimates at $1.6 billion combined, remain unchanged. Note that some subsidies that would benefit coal, like pollution control facilities at electric power plants, are not included in this estimate or any TCJA scoring.\n\nExclusion of Provisions\n\nAAF did not attempt to estimate changes to energy efficiency provisions, as some tax credits will be included in changed provisions and the TCJA did not address any tax provisions specific to energy efficiency.\n\nAAF also did not attempt to measure changes to tax credits pertinent to expensing, as the TCJA will allow more industries to claim expensing. The TCJA did not repeal or modify energy-specific expensing provisions, but such actions would likely be moot as there may be no difference between currently available expensing for energy activity and newly available provisions.\n\nSome changes, like an adjustment to the enhanced oil recovery tax credit, are included in estimates but not mentioned in text due to their small size or the small difference between current law tax provisions and proposals under the TCJA.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9838087558746338}
+{"content": "General Surgery, Paediatrics, Gastroenterology, Upper GI (Gastrointestinal) Surgery\n\n\nIntroduction to Endoscopy\n\nAn endoscopy is a general term for a procedure where the inside of your body is examined using an endoscope.\n\nWritten by Doctify Team 27/04/2020\n\nWhat is an Endoscopy?\n\nAn endoscopy is a general term for a procedure where the inside of your body is examined using an endoscope – a thin flexible tube with a light source and camera at the end.\n\nEndoscopes are inserted into the body from a natural opening such as the mouth or anus. Sometimes they can be inserted through a small surgical cut made in the skin in a procedure known as key hole surgery.\n\nSome of the most commonly used types of endoscopes include: Colonoscopes (used to examine your large intestine (colon)), Gastroscopes (used to examine your oesophagus and stomach), Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) (used to check for gallstones), and Broncoscopes (used to examine your lungs and airways). Other types of endoscope include: Arthroscopes (used to examine the joints), Hysteroscopes (used to examine the womb (uterus) in woman), and Cytoscopes (used to examine the bladder).\n\nHow is the an Endoscopy performed?\n\nThe procedure is normally carried out with a person conscious. It is not painful but can feel uncomfortable and so you are often given a sedative to help calm them. The sedative will make you sleepy but not put you to sleep. The procedure usually takes an hour and is often done as an outpatient clinic so you can go home after the procedure. If you have sedation you need to stay in a recovery area until it has worn off and avoid driving a car, operating heavy machinery, drinking alcohol, taking sleeping tablets, going to work or making important decisions for 24 hours after your procedure.\n\nEndoscopy is a relatively safe procedure with few risks. However, possible complication can include infection of the part of body being examined, perforation of an organ or bleeding. There are also some low risks with sedation of difficulty breathing or heart problems. You are monitored throughout the procedure and the sedation can be reversed if there is a problem though. If you have pain, redness or swelling in the area where the endoscope was inserted or dark stool, shortness of breath, vomiting to severe abdominal or chest pain you should contact your GP.\n\nHow to prepare for an Endoscopy?\n\nDepending on the type of endoscopy you may have to alter your diet or take certain medications beforehand but these can be found under information about the specific procedures.\n\nWhat happens after an Endoscopy?\n\nAfter the procedure you will be taken to the recovery area. If you have had sedation you will be given time to rest and let the sedative wear off. Someone should escort you home and stay with you for 24 hours, your procedure may be cancelled and rearranged for another time when someone can stay with you. In the first 24 hours after your exam you cannot drive or ride a bicycle or car, operate heavy machinery, drink alcohol, take sleeping tablets, go to work or make important decisions due to the effects of the sedation. If you did not have sedation, you should be able to go home straight away.\n\nFind out more about other relative procedures:\n\nTop doctors in this field\nExpert in: Gastroenterology\nHepatology , pancreaticobiliary medicine (bile ducts & pancreas)\nExpert in: Gastroenterology\nGastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease (GORD) or Reflux , Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)\nView more", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5915595293045044}
+{"content": "Our Core Science\n\nHow NAD+ Helps Keep Your DNA Healthy\n\nNAD+ is essential to the creation of energy in the body and the regulation of pivotal cellular processes — including maintaining healthy DNA. Here's how it works.\n\n\nNAD+, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is a critical coenzyme found in every cell in your body, and it’s involved in maintaining hundreds of integral processes. But NAD+ levels decline with age, which is why scientists have taken an interest in the potential benefits of increasing NAD+ levels. What’s so important about NAD+? In general, there are two sets of reactions in the human body that depend on it: helping turn nutrients into cellular energy as a key player in metabolism and working as a helper molecule for proteins that regulate other cellular functions. Both of these sets of reactions are critical for maintaining healthy DNA — but especially the second one.\n\nYour Genome In Action\n\nBefore understanding how NAD+ is involved in maintaining healthy DNA, it’s important to understand how all of our DNA — referred to collectively as the “genome” — works inside the cell. Our DNA is the blueprint for life, carrying all the genetic information necessary for cells to function. Our genes are made up of DNA, and nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. This includes roughly three billion nucleotide bases, represented by scientists as A, C, G, and T (adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine). These nucleotides form “base pairs” — C to G, A to T — and are arrayed across roughly 20,000 genes, or long strands of DNA base pairs of varying lengths, which code for proteins; genes are split up among 23 pairs of chromosomes. Our genome is organized into incredibly long strands that take the form of a double helix, which looks like a twisted ladder with matching base pairs forming the “rungs” of the ladder.\n\nIf that’s the basic structure of the DNA, it’s the dynamic process of actually using that DNA that gives rise to growth, development, and day-to-day function as a human (or any other organism) — taking us from a blueprint for life to life itself. Our DNA is constantly being scanned and translated into proteins (with the help of RNA) to meet all the needs of life: for the function of our skin, liver, eyes, heart, brain, and so on. This ongoing process of reading the DNA to ultimately create the necessary proteins for life is incredibly intricate, and it actually involves separating the double helix (the ladder) so the information inside can be read, and then putting it back together. As you might imagine, this process requires lots of coordination on the cellular level to get it right.\n\nThe Critical Role of NAD+\n\nThis is where NAD+ comes in. As one of the most essential coenzymes found in every cell of the body, NAD+ plays an important role in keeping the intricate process of turning the DNA blueprint into all the proteins that make life possible, day after day, without mistakes that could lead to problems. How does it do that? This brings us back to the second category of processes we described earlier, in which NAD+ partners with certain proteins that regulate cellular functions. Two of those proteins are called sirtuins and PARPs. Both require NAD+ to function, and both act as quality control workers in a genome that functions properly.\n\nOne specific way sirtuins work, for example, is by controlling when DNA is tightly wound around proteins called histones, and when it’s loosely wound around the histones. Whether the DNA is tight or loose is important because DNA can be read and translated into useful proteins when it’s loosely wound, but it’s also vulnerable in that position — so the right balance of tight and loose, open and closed, is essential. Sirtuins keep that process highly regulated, helping to maintain healthy DNA. And sirtuins, like PARPs, only function if they have sufficient NAD+.\n\n“And sirtuins, like PARPs, only function if they have sufficient NAD+.”\n\nWith such complex machinery inside every one of our cells, there isn’t a magic bullet for maintaining cellular health. But scientists are increasingly finding that some molecules play an outsized role in supporting the processes of life. NAD+ is one of those, from creating the cellular energy that powers our metabolism to maintaining healthy DNA. As we know, NAD+ declines with age — and that’s why healthy NAD+ levels are important for maintaining hundreds of integral processes in our cells.\n\nSci101 Slug\n\nRead More\n\nThe Science of Sirtuins, “Guardians of the Genome”\n\nSirtuins help regulate your cellular health and play a role in cellular aging. Here’s what you need to know about how they work.\n\nDiscover Basis\n\nIntroducing Basis\n\nBasis is clinically validated to increase cellular NAD+ levels, which decline with age. NAD+ is found in every cell you have and is essential to cellular metabolism, the chemistry that keeps you up and running.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.988325834274292}
+{"content": "ブログ NAND Prices are Set to Continue to Rise in 2017\n\nUSB flash drive prices are continuing to rise due to ongoing shortages in the supply of NAND flash, the key memory component in USB flash drives.\n\nQ1 2017 has seen a substantial price increase of around 14% for NAND flash. This trend is set to continue throughout the rest of 2017, offsetting years of continuous price reductions for manufacturers, suppliers and consumers.\n\nNAND Flash Prices Jan 2016 - Present\n\nThere are 2 main driving forces behind the shortage in NAND flash supply and recent price hikes:\n\n1) Demand: An increase in demand for NAND flash from electronic manufacturers of smartphones, tablets, digital cameras and USB flash drives has caused prices to rise.\n\n2) Supply: There is currently a transition in NAND flash technology from 2D to 3D flash. This transition has led to a fall in the supply of 2D NAND.\n\nConsumer demand within the electronics industry for higher performing memory chips at lower prices has led NAND flash producers to focus their attention on newer NAND flash technology.\n\nSamsung Electronics, a key NAND flash producer, cites manufacturing challenges from the transition of 2D NAND to 3D NAND technology as one of the main reasons for the reduction in manufacturing capacity. Flash vendors are currently finding it difficult to create cost effective ways to produce yields that are high enough to satisfy the demand of 3D NAND flash.\n\nSamsung Electronic's First 3D NAND\n\nThe benefits of producing 3D NAND are clear; it can lower the cost per gigabyte, improve electrical use to reduce power consumption, boost reliability and provide higher data write performance. However, flash vendors are still a few years away from the ability to manufacture 3D NAND on a global scale that meets the current demand.\n\nThe New 3D NAND Flash\n\nAs a result, electronics suppliers are paying increasing costs to flash vendors due to the lack of NAND flash available for trade. This is resulting in unfavourable conditions for the USB Flash Drive industry. USB Flash Drives do not generate the same margins as higher value products such as smart phones and tablets and therefore NAND flash price is the key element driving USB flash drive unit prices upwards. Unfortunately, price rises are likely to continue until NAND production increases and stabilises market demand.\n\nflashbay ブロガーJoss Hancock", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9974658489227295}
+{"content": "How long does a suspended possession order last?\n\nIt is fairly common in rent arrears cases, for the suspended possession order to include a condition that the possession order will remain suspended as long as the tenant continues to pay the monthly rent, together with a contribution towards the arrears.\n\nAs long as the tenant maintains these payment arrangements, then the landlord cannot ask the court to make an outright possession order.\n\nAt the possession hearing, the court will normally ask the tenant to provide details of their income and expenditure and details of how much they could pay towards the arrears. If the payment proposals appear reasonable to the judge, he is likely to suspend the possession order on those conditions.\n\nIf however, the offer of paying off the arrears is not reasonable and it would take many years for the arrears to clear, then the judge may not be minded to grant a suspended possession order.\n\nAlternatively, the judge may ask the tenant to pay a lump-sum towards the arrears immediately and then small payments over the next month’s towards the arrears, as well as maintaining their normal rental payments.\n\nAs long as the tenant or borrower maintains the payment arrangements set out in the suspended possession order, the court should not make an outright possession order.\n\nIt may however be possible for the landlord to go back to curt to seek an amendment to the conditions of the suspended order if he believes the tenants circumstances have changed or he believes that it is taking too long for the arrears to be paid off.\n\nIf the suspended possession order is more than 6 years old and the landlord seeks to make the possession order outright, they will need to the consent of the Court before doing so.\n\nContact expert possession claim solicitors now\n\nPlease contact one of our expert possession claims lawyers now for your informal and friendly consultation. At Francis Wilks & Jones, we have all the possession claims experience needed to handle any type of possession claims problem. We offer quick and effective possession claims advice, whatever your situation. Don’t delay. Call now for a friendly consultation.\n\n\nPage # of 9", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7549717426300049}
+{"content": "Richard Cabral\n\n\n\nRichard Cabral is an American actor and writer known for his role on the anthology series American Crime (2015), and his recurring role on the Fox action comedy-drama TV series Lethal Weapon, based on the action film series of the same name\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6036220788955688}
+{"content": "Oct 1, 1977\n\n\nNucleic Acids Research\nE Y Friedman, M Rosbash\n\n\nConditions have been determined under which reverse transcriptase catalyzes the synthesis of the high yields of full length complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA). These conditions depend not only on the cencentration of deoxynucleoside triphosphates (1) but also on the concentration of reverse transcriptase. An analysis of the kinetics of cDNA synthesis and the size of cDNA synthesized as a function of time under different conditions indicates that the mechanism of action of reverse transcriptase is partially distributive. This accounts for the necessity of a high enzyme concentration to obtain high yields of full length cDNA. Additional experiments indicate that the yield of cDNA is limited by the fact that the template mRNA is rapidly inactivated. This is most likely due to the fact that the product cDNA is hydrogen bonded to the template mRNA during synthesis.\n\n • References20\n • Citations47\n\n\n • References20\n • Citations47\n\n\nMentioned in this Paper\n\nGenetic Template\nGenomic Hybridization\nPoly(A) Tail\nRNA-Directed DNA Polymerase\nDNA, Double-Stranded\n\nAbout this Paper\n\nTrending Feeds\n\n\n\nCoronavirus Protein Structures\n\nDeciphering and comparing the proteins of different coronaviruses forms a basis for understanding SARS-CoV-2 evolution and virus-receptor interactions. This feed follows studies analyzing the structures of coronavirus proteins, thereby revealing potential drug target sites.\n\nDDX3X Syndrome\n\nDDX3X syndrome is caused by a spontaneous mutation at conception that primarily affects girls due to its location on the X-chromosome. DDX3X syndrome has been linked to intellectual disabilities, seizures, autism, low muscle tone, brain abnormalities, and slower physical developments. Here is the latest research.\n\nALS: Stress Granules\n\nAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by cytoplasmic protein aggregates within motor neurons. TDP-43 is an ALS-linked protein that is known to regulate splicing and storage of specific mRNAs into stress granules, which have been implicated in formation of ALS protein aggregates. Here is the latest research.\n\nFusion Oncoproteins in Childhood Cancers\n\nThis feed explores the function of fusion oncoproteins in specific childhood cancers, including those from racial/ethnic minority and underserved groups, and to provide preclinical assessment of potential therapeutics and how fusion oncoproteins influence gene expression to perturb normal cellular programs to block lineage differentiation and development\n\nApplications of Molecular Barcoding\n\n\nRegulation of Vocal-Motor Plasticity\n\n\nMitotic-exit networks with cytokinesis\n\nCytokinesis is the highly regulated process that physically separates daughter and mother cells in late mitosis. The mitotic-exit network (MEN), the signalling pathway that drives mitotic exit, directly regulates cytokinesis. Discover the latest research on mitotic-exit networks with cytokinesis here.\n\nDNA Replication Origin\n\nDNA replication is initiated as specific gene sequences, called origins, that function to start DNA replication. Pre-replication complexes are assembled at these origins during the G1 phase of the cell cycle. These sequences allow for targeted activation or deactivation of replication. Discover the latest research on DNA replication origins here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9542446136474609}
+{"content": "Extreme weather events such as floods, hurricanes and droughts can lead to sharp fluctuations in food production in particular regions. They will become more frequent in the wake of climate change.\nPhoto: laif\n\nWhat does the future hold?\n\nFood price volatility is both multi-causal and multi-impact. Severe as the 2007–2008 spike was, the 1970s were a period of much greater volatility – yet the future holds new uncertainties that call for novel policy responses.\n\nVolatility in food prices is an entirely natural characteristic of agricultural markets, given that demand is relatively inelastic and that supply is both variable (for example dependent on meteorological factors) and cannot respond in the very short term due to the production cycle of agricultural commodities, and longer-term decisions on investment and R&D. As for any market-traded commodity, food prices exhibit volatility on different temporal scales, for example from day to day, reflecting transaction flows and changes in sentiment, and in the longer term (month to month, year to year) as market conditions and expectations change, or because of the effects of unpredictable events, or ’shocks’, affecting the system. \n\nHigh levels of volatility in global agricultural markets have adverse effects on both consumers and producers, through the disruption they cause to the global food system, and, when particularly severe, through the general economic, political and social instability that can occur. These effects will be most severe for low-income countries and the poor, and spikes in food prices can be a major cause of increased hunger (see also article on pages 10–13) They may also distort investment decisions by making returns harder to gauge and incurring costs in hedging risk, with the potential to exacerbate problems of macroeconomic and fiscal management.\n\n\nLooking back\n\n\nThe pattern of fluctuations in the price of five major food commodities (wheat, rice, sugar, beef and palm) over the last 50 years shows that food prices can be strongly affected by shocks from outside the food system, such as the oil crises of the early 1970s (see Figure). It also shows that the last 20 years have been a period of relatively low volatility compared with the previous three decades in particular, the spike in food prices of 2007/2008, while receiving considerable political and media attention, was relatively small compared with the fluctuations in the 1970s. \n\n\nVolatility in the future\n\n\nThe number of factors affecting volatility and the levels of uncertainty associated with each make it very difficult to predict whether the magnitude of fluctuations in food prices will fall or rise in the coming decades. Although predicting future volatility is complex, there are several arguments suggesting that volatility may well increase in the future. Also, at least some food price spikes are inevitable. Work commissioned by the Foresight Project The Future of Food and Farming: Challenges and Choices for Global Sustainability analysed the different drivers that will affect volatility in the future (HMG, 2010; Foresight, 2011) and found no strong evidence for either greater or lesser future volatility, but others conclude that although there are factors pulling in both directions, volatility may well increase in the future. Some of the factors include: \n\nNon-economic factors. Droughts, floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather events can lead to sharp fluctuations in food production in particular regions and are very likely to increase in frequency as one of the first manifestations of climate change.\n\nWars, major civil strife and breakdown of governance not only affect the nations concerned but also have consequences on the global food system. Although such shocks have declined in frequency in recent decades this trend may reverse due to rising population pressure and greater competition for limiting resources (especially water).\n\nGeneral economic factors. In general, food price volatility will be influenced both by fluctuations in general economic activity and the governance regimes concerning national and international commodity markets. International trade can compensate for regional production shocks and linked financial and capital markets can transmit economic shocks rapidly throughout the world. \n\nShocks in some other commodity markets are often correlated with price fluctuations in agricultural markets, as price movements are transmitted from one sector to another. For example, oil prices affect food production through changes in the costs of energy, petrochemicals and fertilisers used in agriculture. Where market forces are driving biofuel production, this could lead to an additional link between agricultural commodities markets and the oil market, amplifying the impact of oil prices on agricultural markets. Where biofuel production is a function of renewable energy policy, inflexible biofuel mandates may exacerbate volatility in grain prices, while flexible mandates could have the opposite effect (the potential to switch production from biofuels to food at times of scarcity has the potential to reduce the fluctuation in food prices). Oil prices also affect transport costs, and hence the degree of international market integration and price transmission.\n\nFactors within the food system. The level of food stocks held by the private and public sector has declined in recent years, in part as a response to reduced volatility, changes in agricultural support policies, a more efficient food system, and increased levels of international trade. Stocks held by governments have fallen relative to those held by private agents, which potentially affects how they are managed in response to changes in market conditions. If stocks are low, agents are less able to cushion the market when supply unexpectedly falls relative to demand, pushing more of the response onto prices. Therefore, levels of future stocks within the global food system will have a significant effect on volatility.\n\nAs consumers enjoy higher incomes, they tend to consume food that is more processed and where basic agricultural commodities account for a smaller share of the retail price. This means even large changes in world prices may only have small effects on retail prices. \n\nContinuing improvements in crop protection and biotechnology may increase yield stability, for example through resistance to new emerging pests and diseases, and through the development of varieties of crops that are resilient to extreme conditions such as drought and flooding. Globalisation and intensification, on the other hand, increase the risk of the emergence and rapid spread of these biotic challenges.\n\nCommodity-specific factors. The ‘depth’ of the relevant markets – the volume of transactions in relation to the scale of the shocks hitting the system – affects the extent to which international trade can dampen volatility. Some international markets, such as rice, are particularly shallow, and volatility in such commodities will be affected by changes in future levels of trade. \n\nCertain staple food prices are politically sensitive, leading governments to take steps to reduce domestic price volatility, which can sometimes have the opposite effect on the rest of the world. Rice in South East Asia is a classic example. \n\n\nDecisions for policy-makers\n\n\n\nInterventions to reduce volatility can be expensive and require resources that could be used elsewhere, and also have a potential risk of both distorting markets, or of interventions being hijacked for political reasons. They may also fail to be effective or make problems worse through unintended consequences. Key issues for policy-makers are therefore:\n\n\n • What levels of volatility are considered ‘acceptable’, and should governments intervene to attempt to keep volatility within defined bounds?\n • How can the negative consequences of volatility be mitigated (and price risk management be facilitated), and which interventions would be most effective?\n • Is it better to develop mechanisms to protect producers or consumers from the effects of volatility and, if so, how? and\n • To what extent should collective action and planning at the international level (for example the G20) occur to protect the poorest from the worst effects of volatility?\n\n Determination of acceptable levels of volatility in food prices is a political judgement that needs to consider the negative effects of volatility, but also the costs of intervention. Policies to address volatility may take various forms: \n\nWorking markets. Adoption of more market-oriented agricultural policies in individual countries and further liberalisation of agricultural trade would both strengthen the market mechanisms that help reduce price fluctuations in the face of shocks to the food system and improve food security by increasing potential sources of supply. The decline in protectionist agricultural policies seen over the past two decades might be expected to continue in normal circumstances, given the role of the WTO and perceptions of the welfare benefits that could be expected. However, it is in more difficult times, when supply falls well short of demand and strong upward pressure on prices emerges, that market-oriented policies and liberalisation are likely to come under threat. This has been illustrated very recently in the wheat market, with the poor 2010 wheat harvest from drought and fires, and rising prices, which led Russia to ban wheat exports. \n\nInformation on stocks of food and agricultural commodities is relatively poor in most countries. This inhibits the efficient functioning of agricultural markets and the provision of early warning of impending difficulties in supply and increases the potential damage due to ill-informed price formation. The recent proposal by the International Organisations to the G-20 Agriculture Ministers included the creation of an international database of agricultural production, consumption, and inventories to enhance the quality of global food balance sheets. This is to be welcomed.\n\nMore action is needed to promote domestic policies that could increase supply responsiveness and encourage market flexibility. Such policies include technical assistance to farmers and measures to improve regulation of land, labour and capital markets, which would enable food production to respond more efficiently and quickly to changing conditions (HMG, 2010).\n\nIt is essential that mechanisms are put in place to give governments the confidence in the global trade system to resist what will often be intense political pressures to impose export restrictions at times of high food prices. Improving the functioning of commodity markets can reduce the element of volatility that does not reflect underlying market fundamentals.\n\nMarket intervention. There have been calls for a global system of virtual or actual international grain reserves to help dampen price fluctuations on global markets. The Foresight Project did not find the arguments in favour of this strategy to be sufficiently strong to suggest that it be given priority. Indeed, there are grounds for concern that the proposal would be both very expensive and counter-productive. In most circumstances the costs and policy risks of using international food reserves, virtual or real, to dampen volatility (as opposed to protecting the poor directly) will tend to outweigh the benefits. Past experience with international agreements, such as those for coffee and sugar following the 1970s price spikes, were not successful; they broke down when divergent interests of the participants emerged as markets recovered. There is sometimes a case, however, for higher public stock holding at the national or regional level if there are likely to be long lags between the import requirements of a country becoming apparent, and the arrival of such imports (whether because of a poorly functioning private sector, and/or poor infrastructure, and/or because a country is land-locked). \n\nMandates from governments to increase the production of biofuels in some countries has the potential to affect market stability for certain grains and oils. Despite being seen by some as destabilising, it could in principle act as a stabiliser of food prices to some degree if production can be diverted to the food supply at times of shortage. Attention should be paid to how biofuel mandates can best be specified in a way that helps to dampen fluctuations in food prices, for example through appropriate linkages to fluctuations in oil prices and avoidance of very long lock-in contracts that reduce flexibility.\n\nLimiting harmful effects. Problems faced by farmers as a result of fluctuations in food prices can be very damaging, and mechanisms are needed for the management of risk, especially covariate risks affecting whole regions rather than just individual farmers. Market mechanisms are readily available in high-income countries, including insurance, options and futures trading, but these are generally not available in low-income countries. As in high-income countries, social safety nets will be needed to prevent the worst effects of temporary spikes in food prices from having severe effects on poor people in low-income countries. Particular problems are likely to occur among the urban poor, who cannot grow their own food or who do not have access to ‘wild food’. Failure to address these problems may lead to social strife and political instability, as seen in 2008. Although social safety nets are the responsibility of national governments, where countries are unwilling or unable to provide safety nets relating to food, it will be important for international bodies, such as the World Food Programme or major NGOs with public support, to continue to provide the safety net of emergency food resources. This would be an essential function of the rapid response international forum for dealing urgently with emerging food crises proposed by the International Organisations.\n\nArea-based index insurance, written against specific perils or events (such as drought, hurricane or flood) and recorded at regional levels, may also have a useful role to play in helping individual farmers. However, challenges include the need to generate sufficient demand for a sustainable insurance market to develop, and a requirement for sufficient weather stations to capture adequately the spatial variation in climatic conditions. A distinction also needs to be made between policies designed to protect poor people from catastrophic losses (which generally require public subsidy) and those designed primarily to promote agricultural development (which are best channelled through private sector intermediaries).\n\nSir John Beddington\nChief Scientific Advisor to the\nUK Government\nLondon, Great Britain", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7671871185302734}
+{"content": "8 Common Legal Issues That Single Parents Face\n\n\nSingle parents are on the rise in Singapore due to the high rates of divorces filed in recent years. Unfortunately, there are little resources available to help single parents maneuver the legal issues that they face during and after the divorce process.\n\nWhat are some of the common legal issues that single parents face as they juggle between working for a paycheck, caring for their child and getting a well-deserved personal life? Let us help you to identify some of them.\n\nChild Custody\nThere are two parts to child custody. One involves the legal aspect in which major decisions involving the child are to be made, while the other involves the care and control of the child and where the child will stay. In Singapore, the legal aspect of child custody is normally a joint custody in which both parents get to decide on major decisions on the child’s education, medical care and religious instructions. The care and control of the child and where the child will stay differ case by case, and it is always determined based on the best interest of the child. The court can grant a sole or joint care and control. If sole care and control is granted, the other parent will normally have visitation rights. If a joint care and control is granted, schedules and detailed plans need to be made to ensure that the child has a home in both houses.\n\nVisitation Rights\nVisitation rights are headaches to both parents if they are not able to trust each other. Trust issues have long been a factor in visitation rights problems because one parent cannot trust the other to treat the child right. When such issues arise, it is wise to ensure that you are not violating the rules set by the courts if you have visitation rights to your child who stays with the other parent. You might risk losing the visitation rights if the courts find you breaking the rules that have been set in place. Make peace with the parent having care and control of the child and behave in the appropriate manner towards your child. It will make things easier if the other parent trust you to care for your child.\n\nChild Maintenance\nThe cost of child maintenance continues to be an issue that haunts single parents. Regardless of whether you are collecting maintenance or paying maintenance, the legal issues that can arise from this are numerous. The challenges for collecting maintenance hinges on the responsibility of the ex-spouse while paying maintenance can be seriously affected if you lose your job. One way to reduce the conflicts arising from this issue is a two-way communication between the parents. Some divorced partners may find it difficult to have a proper conversation after a nasty divorce process, which makes communication impossible when child maintenance becomes an issue. The best way to deal with this is to put your differences aside and agree to communicate civilly for the best interest of your child.\n\nCo-parenting Plans\nCo-parenting is getting popular as parents recognise the benefits for their child having two parents in his or her life, even after a divorce. A co-parenting plan is helpful to both parents as it establishes the lines of communications upfront, removing most of the risks of miscommunication. It also creates a set of schedules for both parents and child, a backup plan for unforeseen circumstances and a second chance at building trust with your former partner. It gives the child a consistent and rock-solid schedule in which the child can find comfort and security. This schedule will eventually help the child to adjust to his or her new lifestyle, paving the way for an easier time for the child.\n\nParental Alienation\nThis is an issue that most single parents face when they have an estranged ex-spouse. This is a situation in which your ex-spouse is bad-mouthing you in front of your child, attempting to create a bad image of you in the mind of the child. All these could be done to alienate the child from you as revenge for the divorce. It is a real problem and can cause serious consequences in your relationship with your child if it is not resolved as quickly as possible. If you are facing an issue in which your ex-spouse is bad-mouthing you, it will be wise to seek a solution and consult the best divorce lawyer as soon as possible to prevent serious parental alienation.\n\nHousing Discrimination\nIn Singapore, there are laws that make buying a house challenging for single parents. You could have some problems buying a house to stay with your child or children after divorce if your matrimonial house is sold while dividing the assets during the divorce process. While the laws are slowly getting relaxed by the government, there are still certain challenges that single parents have to overcome when it involves buying public housing such as a HDB flat. The best alternative for a single parent is to move in with their aged parents or a close relative to provide a stable environment for their children while they sort out the challenges to buy a HDB flat for the family.\n\nStability and Routine\nClosely connected to housing discrimination is the provision of stability and routine for your child in the interest of him or her growth. Single parents are expected to provide a stable and nurturing environment for their child against all odds. Therefore, it is important to seek out alternative ways to provide a stable environment in which your child can establish a routine and find security if you are unable to buy a house due to the laws in Singapore. As mentioned in the previous point, the best way is to move in with your extended family if buying a house is not within your means at the moment.\n\nChild Care\nSingapore has no lack of childcare centres in which single parents can safely leave their children when they go to work. The legal issues come in when parents are fighting for child custody. One parent could provide a framework in which he or she can show how the child can be better taken care of within the extended family as compared to the other parent who has lesser support from his or her extended family. As the courts determine care and control in the best interest of the child, a parent who can present an extended family support system might have a better chance at gaining care and control of the child. Therefore, child care is a legal issue that cannot be overlooked.\n\nThe path of a single parent is often littered with legal issues. The challenges are especially prominent in the early stages of single parenthood, which add to the whole emotional burden of trying to get over the divorce. Sometimes, a nasty divorce process can also bring out the worst in the parents, making co-parenting a literal nightmare afterwards.\n\nThe best way to get over these legal issues is to seek out an experienced family lawyer to help you sort things out. You will not only reduce your stress, but also gain someone who is familiar with the law to get the best options available to you and your children.\n\nIf you are currently facing any legal issues, you can call Specialist Divorce lawyers GJC Law 6337 0469 for a non-obligatory consultation to find out the best options available to you and your loved ones.\n\n\n\n\n\n15 + twelve =", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8227394819259644}
+{"content": "24 hour hotline\n\n6 Common Misconceptions About Therapy\n\n6 Common Misconceptions About Therapy\n\nPsychotherapy is often an integral part of addiction treatment. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than half of people with substance use disorders also have co-occurring mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD, ADHD, borderline personality disorders, and others (Connection Between Drug Abuse and Mental Illness). These conditions often drive addictive behavior and generally make recovery harder, so treating co-occurring disorders is essential. \n\nTherapy is often beneficial for family members of people with substance use disorders, too. Living with someone with an addiction can be stressful and a therapist can help you cope in a healthy way. There are commonly relationship issues involved with addiction as well, such as dysfunctional family dynamics, codependent, or abusive relationships. Being willing to participate in family therapy can make a big difference in your loved one’s recovery. However, many people don’t know what therapy is really about and they may fear it unnecessarily, to the detriment of all involved. The following are some common misconceptions about psychotherapy.\n\n“Therapy is about blame.”\n\nA lot of people are afraid of therapy, especially family or couples therapy because they believe it’s about assigning blame. They may fear that a loved one who goes into therapy will suddenly blame them for all their problems. While it’s true that problems often arise from unhealthy relationship dynamics, it doesn’t necessarily follow that anyone is to blame. And even if that were true, assigning blame doesn’t help solve the problem. Individual therapy is about helping people better manage their own thoughts and emotions and helping them relate to others more effectively. Family therapy is largely about helping families communicate better and maintain healthy boundaries. If you feel threatened by any of those aims, it’s a pretty clear sign you could benefit from therapy.\n\n“Therapy is just talking about your childhood.”\n\nMany of us have the idea that when you go into therapy, you lie down on the couch, the therapist says, “Tell me about your mother,” and then you spend the next 10 years talking about your childhood. This idea is largely the result of the psychoanalytic school that was dominant for much of the twentieth century. While psychoanalysts still practice, most therapists are now more heterodox, using different methods according to each client’s needs. Many borrow techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, or use other methods backed by research. Often these methods don’t require much insight from your childhood and focus more on what you think and feel in certain situations, such as when you feel the need to drink, or how you react to a loved one’s substance use. \n\n“Therapy goes on forever.”\n\nThe idea that you stay in therapy indefinitely is another holdover from psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis combs through vast amounts of data, looking for information relevant to the client’s current problem. Because modern methods are typically more targeted and results-oriented, you can often see results in a matter of weeks. So, for example, maybe social anxiety drives your drinking. Maybe, you want to socialize but you feel paralyzed in social situations, so you drink and it gets out of control. Perhaps your childhood had something to do with that anxiety, but a CBT therapist will focus on the here and now. You will likely address questions such as, “What are you thinking about, specifically, before, during, and after social interactions? Are those thoughts reasonable? How could you test them? What are some more reasonable beliefs to replace them with?” and so on. In this way, you get results much faster and you may only need to be in therapy for a few months. \n\n“You can achieve the same results with a pill.”\n\nWe live in a time when antidepressants proliferate and many of them are advertised on TV. The idea behind antidepressants and other kinds of medication is that mental health issues are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain—if you fix the imbalance, you fix the problem. However, in reality, it’s not nearly so simple. Your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, environment, and physiology are all connected in complex ways. Just feeling better won’t necessarily solve your problems. Say, for example, that you’re in a relationship with an emotionally abusive person and you’re depressed. Feeling depressed in that situation is a normal reaction. Taking an antidepressant might help you feel a little better but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem. You either need to change the relationship or leave the relationship. For many people, medication will be part of treatment but it often doesn’t get at the underlying causes. \n\n“Therapy is just common sense.”\n\nA lot of people believe therapy is just common sense; they think you’re paying someone 80 dollars an hour to tell you life is tough. Sometimes your therapist will tell you things that will seem obvious in hindsight but then the question becomes if it was so obvious, why didn’t you think of it on your own? We’re often terrible at understanding our own motives. A therapist’s job is not necessarily to tell you what’s wrong with you and how to fix it but rather to ask the right questions that will lead you to insights on your own. \n\n“Going to therapy is a sign of weakness.”\n\nThe idea that therapy is for weak people is especially common among men. Men are often raised to be self-reliant and not to show emotion. As a result, they are much less likely to seek help for problems such as anxiety and depression, and more likely to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. In reality, asking for help when you need it is a symbol of strength. It shows you have the courage to do the hard thing. \n\nTherapy is an important part of recovery for many people but unfortunately, those who need it most often resist it because of these common misconceptions. A good therapist—meaning one who is both capable and a good fit for you—can make a huge difference in recovery and in life. You just have to be open and willing to engage. At Steps Recovery Centers, we understand that addiction is usually the result of emotional pain. We offer a supportive environment to help our clients recover. To learn more about our programs, explore our website or call us at 385-236-0931.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7196347713470459}
+{"content": "Skip navigation\nCareer Advice\n\nHow to teach global public health during a pandemic\n\nHere is our learning-by-doing experience of teaching online courses about the COVID-19 response.\n\n\nAs COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe, we global public health scholars have a responsibility towards our students to inform and guide them in the right directions. However, the rapidly changing landscape of COVID-19 and the measures taken in our respective countries – Canada and the United States – make such a teaching exercise challenging – especially since many university campuses have closed and online courses have become the new normal (although with adverse effects on education equity).\n\nIt’s also time for public health scholars to think of new ways to engage students in critical thinking on this particular topic, especially given that the response to COVID-19 has been highly politicized from the onset (think of China’s initial censorship or the U.S.’s willful dismissal of the disease’s seriousness). This means not only teaching students the disease’s epidemiology , but also helping them make sense of the politics of this pandemic by looking at the health governance institutions responsible for coordinating the global response. It also involves highlighting the usefulness of social sciences in critically assessing the steps taken to contain the pandemic.\n\nWe can indeed learn so much from sociologists, anthropologists and international relations scholars on this front. Anthropologists can teach us how to listen to communities and analyze on-the-ground narratives about epidemics. Anthropological and sociological perspectives enable us to understand the development of fake news and the subsequent attempts at debunking them. And we can learn from international relations scholars about the power and influence driving global health policy-making, how viruses and diseases travel in globalized times, and what can be done about it.\n\nConcretely, what forms can such global public health courses take? First, it is important to lay out the context – who are the key players in the field of global public health and what are their roles; how did the recent evolution towards private actors and public-private partnerships come to be? A flipped classroom approach is an interesting tool to achieve this: have students read the key literature on the topic (e.g., manuals on globalization and health – see link above) and summarize it by categories of actors or by chronological order.\n\nSecond, have students spend some time unravelling the roles of two key actors in the global response to COVID-19: the World Health Organization, of course, and the World Bank. After providing critical readings (or producing videos describing these actors), ask students specific questions (maybe in an online discussion forum): what’s their mandate? What tools can they use to enforce their actions to contain epidemics/pandemics (e.g., IHR)? How is there COVID-19 response reflecting their mandate? What kind of engagement do they have with the private sector (e.g., pandemic bonds)?\n\nThird, to get more depth on key issues of interest, engage students in a role-play (in pairs or small groups). The role-play could take place in either asynchronous or synchronous mode (or both), and be in video (e.g., video recording of country’s statements, press releases, etc.) or written format (e.g., exchange of communication between a government representative and the WHO).\n\nA few possible global health governance “hot” topics for the role-play include:\n\n • Coordinating the response between policy actors at multiple levels (global/regional/national/local): in-depth study of the steps taken to contain the epidemic by each level– and/or by identifying evolving phases of the response.\n • Data governance: who’s producing the data used by health authorities? What are the interests at stake in producing and publicizing the data? Is the reporting process transparent? How do you manage the risk of infodemics (an excess of data that becomes a hinderance rather than a solution to the problem)? (You could use the WHO’s website, media releases and social media to illustrate this phenomenon.)\n • Analyzing the discourse: how are different global actors featuring different narratives for the pandemic? How do these narratives (and omissions) reflect their interests? How do these discourses affect policy-making?\n • Reconfiguring global health governance: South-North cooperation (e.g., Chinese and Cuban delegations to Italy) and other evolutions to come.\n\nYou can provide role-play materials and contents in advance, or just point to useful online resources that students may tap into to create their scenarios. . If role-plays seem too daunting, the groups could instead take on a more traditional research role on specific countries’ responses and report their findings in class and via online discussions.\n\nBased on this role-play activity, have them produce a collective brochure and/or a zine on the pandemic. Depending on their quality, these resources could be published widely online – a broader audience might be interested in knowing more about all this.\n\nRemember that the idea is for students to understand the politics behind the COVID-19 response, using a playful pedagogical approach and through online learning. As for instructors, the take-home message is that your teaching style should remain adaptive – to students’ interests and to the constantly-evolving news about COVID-19 response. Teaching students about pandemics in the middle of one (or any other pressing global issue) means that we, as educators, should be sensitive to the needs of our students as they try to understand what is happening around them, and we should be creative in our pedagogical responses to such needs.\n\nLara Gautier is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of sociology at McGill University. Catia C. Confortini is an associate professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.\n\nPost a comment\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5641717910766602}
+{"content": "Intent and entity extraction\n\nBasically, this is the data that’s needed to fulfill the user request. In turn, the user intent is then used to gen-erate the query reners and the clicked host. English (confidence: 100 %) i Denotes the key talking points in the input text. Custom Input Validation: An action can be used to add custom validation e. Select the OrderPizza intent and then click + Entity. ) Basic example of using NLTK for name entity extraction. Nov 05, 2018 · Basic Keyword Search (inverted index, tf-idf, bm25, multilingual text analysis, query formulation, etc. It then consults the annotations, to see whether it was right. Rasa Open Source provides entity extractors for custom entities as well as pre-trained ones like dates and locations. As shown, the system incorporates two analytical models: a sentence detection model, which uses a sentence detector (SD) to divide the text into unit sentences, and an entity extraction model, which uses an entity extractor to extract entities from objects. system which utilized a statistical classifier for intent determination and a rule-based fixed grammars for named entity extraction. Automatic Topic Tagging and Classification. literal: ^[A-Za-z ]{1,}$ - this auto populates the entity value with the intent text i. In order to distribute more Jan 28, 2019 · Entity extraction plays a key role in identifying the phrases and avoiding possible irrelevant results for the end shopper. When the confidence is too low, you might want to handle the extracted entity differently (or ignore it altogether). All in 12 languages. Sep 20, 2018 · Luckily, we can solve this issue by using short and long utterances for training. 2). TYPES is the set of entity types in the reference KB, and CATEGORIES is a scheme of intent categories (that is, {Property, Website, Service, Other}, cf. For example, you could manage uncertainty for the intent entity as described here. Most existing (2) Open Intent Extraction: The second stage builds upon state-of-the-art 16 Apr 2020 (2)RASA NLU analyses the sentence and returns entities;. get_pipe('ner'). iPhone, the intent was to run company:Apple AND product:iPhone? End-to-End Slot Alignment and Recognition for Cross-Lingual NLU Intent Classification in Question-Answering Using LSTM Architectures DECISION MAKING INTENT CLASSIFICATION NAMED ENTITY RECOGNITION SEMANTIC Each intent parameter has a type, called the entity type, which dictates exactly Entity type: Defines the type of information you want to extract from user input. a business location or the amount of the bill payment. (from Machine Learning Research Group). But if natural language processing isn’t your core competency, then you’re probably looking for alternatives to rolling your own […] Adlib’s automated data extraction solution supports your organization by optimizing your day-to-day content management functions – automatically identifying content within repositories, and zones within content, that are of greatest interest, and seamlessly converting them to XML or other formats ready for further downstream processing – from managerial review to big data analytics. g. The address is 78757 Westland Rd, Hermiston, OR 97838 gupshup. Entity: An entity represents a term or object that is relevant to your intents 17 Aug 2018 Rasa NLU: A natural language understanding solution which takes the user input and tries to infer the intent and extract the available entities. Add the new entity label to the entity recognizer using the add_label method. Input validation: The first validation is based on entity extraction. You would likely define an intent for questions about the weather forecast. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. Another form of entity annotation, entity linking, is the process of linking related words together. Keyphrase Extraction. In our data analysis, we observed that over 90% of entity-bearing queries did not contain any rener words n 1 and n 2. As the recent advancement in the deep learning(DL) enable us to use them for NLP tasks and producing huge differences Intent classification and entity extraction with natural language understanding using RASA-NLU. For example: how do we tell that, when the user typed in Apple iPhone, the intent was to run company:Apple Jun 28, 2019 · The purpose of this article is to explore the new way to use Rasa NLU for intent classification and named-entity recognition. Open Data Chatbot architecture. Entity extraction: Recognizing structured data (Example: amy@example. TD-GIN: Token-level Dynamic Graph-Interactive Network for Joint Multiple Intent Detection and Slot Filling. 2:58. Options like MITIE (NLP + ML), Spacy and Sklearn are available to choose from. Entities. Named Entity Recognition (NER) • A very important sub-task: find and classify names in text, for example: • The decision by the independent MP Andrew Wilkie to withdraw his support for the minority Labor government sounded dramatic but it should not further threaten its stability. The main areas for exploration are feature extraction, hyperparameter tuning, and model selection. One of the latest milestones in this development is the release of BERT. Let’s examine keyword extraction and entity extraction. • Produce a structured Take a look at the intents and entities. Named-Entity Recognition. With graph interaction mechanism, our framework has the advantage to automatically extract the relevant intents information to guide each token slot prediction, making a fine-grained intent information integration for the token-level slot prediction. If the provided information doesn't match the entity of the slot, the bot will notify the user. If you want Attivio parses user queries and content to understand intent and meaning by employing capabilities such as parts of speech tagging, lemmatization, synonym expansion, classification, entity extraction, key phrases and sentiment analysis. Use MathJax to format equations. Outputs. Text extraction is a text processing technique that identifies and obtains valuable pieces of data that are present within the text. Part 3 was aimed to arrive at a deep understanding of the machine learning aspects of Entity Extraction. Then using entity extraction bot would precisely know, all the details of the issue even though it would be written using full sentence and natural language. In this step for each token if it falls under the entity offset a entity tag is attached to it. Entity extraction is the process of figuring out which fields a query should target, as opposed to always hitting all fields. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) U. e. There’s something exciting happening in the world of B2B marketing. Entity extraction allows organizations to easily locate “People, Places and Things” from unstructured content. An utterance may optionally include entities. Aug 01, 2017 · Intent: An intent is the user’s intention. 4. Customers often share their opinions and experience with a brand on social media. Powerful Insight Extraction. Just analysing words only gets us so far. If not tag O will be attached to it. nlu ), ready to be consumed by the other modules and components. Text mining is \"the discovery by computer of new, previously unknown information, by automatically • Intent An intent represents actions the user wants to perform. 0. Randomization; Priming the User to correctly determine the entity boundary in this title and choose the most appropriate one for entity extraction. Feb 28, 2019 · Part 2 of our Rasa NLU in Depth series covered our best practices and recommendations to make perfect use of the different entity extraction components of Rasa NLU. LUIS for entity extraction. 2 Extraction Guidance Organizational Concept — In the GCES, extraction guidance is organized under a new concept called Topic. Apr 12, 2019 · Entity extraction is, in the context of search, the process of figuring out which fields a query should target, as opposed to always hitting all fields. Voice User Interfaces Actions on Google – Smart Transport Google Home Our Best Ideas And Innovations Accessible To High-Impact, Early-Stage Companies Exploit the potential of text analytics The current generation of platforms and apps are exploiting the potential of text analytics and big data more than ever. 0, both Rasa NLU and Rasa Core have been merged into a single framework. for the following sentence: “I have a problem with Excel datasheet. For intent extraction, we explicitly label user intents in the data on a phrase or sentence level. For example: how do we tell that, when the user typed in Apple iPhone, the intent was to run company:Apple Voice of the Customer. Intents are given a name, often a verb and a noun, such as “showNews”. py Entity extraction analysis. In addition to specifying intents and Use open source named entity recognition like Spacy or Duckling and \"text\": \" Book a flight from Berlin to SF\", \"intent\": \"book_flight\", \"entities\": [ { \"start\": 19, You can do intent identification with DeepPavlov, it supports multi-label especially for feature extraction like topics, intents, and entities. Rasa Core takes structured input in the form of intents and entities ( Information extraction (IE) systems. Nov 12, 2019 · Entity compared to intent. The underlying hypothesis is that classes dened by mining search The current concept list is organized in a table format with the attribute fields NAS ID, DFDD-Like Code, Entity Name, Geometry, and Additional References describing the basic information provided for each concept. Examples of intent detection John Sue Erika Examples of entity extraction LanguageUnderstanding Intelligent Service (LUIS) Apr 21, 2020 · With extraction and cultivation of all cannabinoids, from wellness to medical research combined with established brands, existing wholesale and retail sales channels, backed by a state-of-the-art laboratory, the new corporate entity will blanket opportunities within the new wellness space. In the dashboard, click the CompositeBag_Tutorial_Starter tile to open skill in the Skill Builder. Entity: An entity modifies an intent. For instance, you can use DIET to do both intent classification and entity extraction; you can also perform a single task, for example, configure it to turn off intent classification and train it just for entity extraction. - example1. We can find just about any named entity, or we can look for Sep 09, 2018 · Top 7 NLP (Natural Language Processing) APIs [Updated for 2020] September 9, 2018 By RapidAPI Staff Leave a Comment. NER is the initial step in the search algorithm. Intent Classi cation was trained with a support vector machine (SVM) classi er to recognize nine intents: greeting, good-bye, add keyword, add location, search, explore, thank you, a rm, deny. For a more in-depth explanation of our intention extraction functions, read through “Intentions: What Will They Do? Entity extraction involves parsing user messages for required pieces of information. Text Extraction. Intent/Entity extraction using AI for generic smalltalk queries. So entity is checking account, intent is getting the balance. Once the system has extracted all of the entities and analyzed intents, the machine needs 15 Nov 2016 The Explore intent was recognized along with two supporting entities say has to be sent to a natural language service to extract the intent. Extracting entities – such as companies, people, dollar amounts, key initiatives, or negative (e. There are two types of entities, both of which you can declare as variables in the dialog flow: built-in entities that we provide for you and custom entities, which you can add on your own. It can extract this information in any type of text, be it a web page, piece of news or social media content. Natural Language Processing – NLP – is a core AI feature of the platform. Feature extraction. Developed RESTful API for the chat engine. 29-Apr-2018 – Added Gist for the entire code; NER, short for Named Entity Recognition is probably the first step towards information extraction from unstructured text. Deletes an intent classifier from the application. LUIS gives you the ability to get information from a user's natural language utterances. 7 Apr 2017 Besides detectingthe intent in a user's message, we need to extract the NLU components of chatbot systems usually support following entity You define an intent for each type of user request you want your application to support. Entity extraction: Extract the object for an action from a user statement during a conversation, for example, a laptop model, case number, or person's name. Simpler than 27 Jun 2019 The purpose of this article is to explore the new way to use Rasa NLU for intent classification and named-entity recognition. In my case I have just one intent – User Issues that keeps examples of information users’ may write to bot once it asks them to describe the issue (however I could have two: one for each of the expected types of issues and then train LUIS to match Jan 26, 2017 · Entity extraction: The “entity” might be the address or other specific data extracted from a query. For entity extraction, it uses a duckling library that they recently open-sourced it, and you can find a detailed description of the algorithm there. io provides a platform for developers to build bots for SMS, Twitter, Slack, WeChat, Teamchat and others with a unified API, build messaging services,use advanced developer tools for mesaging with a unified API. 1 and setup the files for running a demo. For example, if a user types “show me yesterday Apr 10, 2019 · Intent Extraction is a technique or a type of Natural-Language-Understanding (NLU) task that helps a program to understand the type of action that is conveyed in a sentence, the assignee to whom Dual Intent Entity Transformer (DIET) used for intent classification and entity extraction. Entity NLP core models that allow robust extraction of linguistic features for NLP workflow: for example, dependency parser and NP chunker NLU modules that provide best in class performance: for example, intent extraction (IE), name entity recognition (NER) Nov 12, 2019 · Sentiment analysis allows organizations to understand the intent and emotion of information in emails, legal documents, social media posts, customer support inquiries and other unstructured content. In one of my last article , I discussed various tools and components that are used in the implementation of NLP. Select the intent icon (). WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. entity-bearing queries by rst generating an entity type, from which the user intent and entity is gen-erated. An action is essentially an extraction of the user command or sentence semantics. Any explicit list item POST models - Add prebuilt entity list Or copy & paste this link into an email or IM: Sharing Entity Values across Intents: Entity values or conversation flows can be driven using the previous intent’s context information. S. ) Query Intent (query classification, semantic query parsing, concept expansion, rules, clustering, classification) Relevancy Tuning (signals, AB testing/genetic You’re ready to go! 2) Setting up intents & entities. Train the bot with a dataset. Oct 01, 2018 · Parts-Of-Speech tagging (POS tagging) is one of the main and basic component of almost any NLP task. Entity extraction; Intent mapping and conversational controls; Shorthanding; Stories/flows; The conversation funnel; Topic-Led Discussion; Divergence as a way to course correct; Entity extraction; Intent mapping and conversational controls; Stories/flows; Task-led pathways in topical conversations; Decoration. The same comprehensive entity ontology available in English is also available for all the other languages, making multilingual and cross-lingual text Entity Extraction What is Entity Extraction? Entities are the who (and some of the what) of text analytics. … Watson Natural Language Understanding is a cloud native product that uses deep learning to extract metadata from text such as entities, keywords, categories, sentiment, emotion, relations, and syntax. POST models - Add custom prebuilt entity role POST models - Add custom prebuilt intent POST models - Add entity role POST models - Add Pattern. Answer repository is the domain This paper bridges work from query intent prediction and entity extraction from text. Entity Extraction, Disambiguation and Linking. If you have a lot of data an Rnn will work, in smaller datasets, which are frequent in chatbots, conditional random fields work very well $\\endgroup$ – znat Nov 29 '17 at 15:30 Associate The Composite Bag Entity to an Intent. Next create intents. Identify the language, sentiment, key phrases, and entities (Preview) of your text by clicking \"Analyze\". Viewed 48 times 0. Thanks for contributing an answer to Data Science Stack Exchange! Please be sure to answer the question. The business entity ID is 157679193. What’s new in Amazon’s Alexa / Google’s Assistant Intent Selection Entity Extraction. e NLP (Intent, Entity & Sentiment Recognition) directly in Indic text. In this step, you will add the composite bag entity to the OrderPizza intent to enable the skill to parse the entity values with the intent. Our proprietary algorithms detect and extract domain-specific entities from the user's message. Plans and Pricing. Processing Pipeline¶ The process of incoming messages is split into different components. For example, you could create a weather agent that recognizes and responds to end-user questions about the weather. The system takes webpages as input and no ad- approach for entity mention extraction. MonkeyLearn’s intuitive interface makes it easy for anyone to its pre-trained machine learning models, or create their own based on their unique needs and industry understanding, entity extraction as well as for designing prompts, titles, descriptions and labels during development. The entity represents a data concept inside the utterance that you want extracted. Entity extraction using AI from reminder and date/time There are two ways of running a demo (both essentially use the same code): (1) See Usage. A topic has a single intent that you specify in Virtual Agent Designer. From keywords, client names, product details, dates, prices, or any other information within data, text extraction gets the job done. This changes any affinity for the energy/entity and completes the healing. Intent classification builds a machine learning model, using a prepossessed training data and classifies the user’s text message to an intended action. General Architecture for Text Engineering (GATE) Developer for Entity Extraction: Overview for SYNCOIN 5a. Since version 1. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. AUTHOR(S) Michelle Vanni and Andrew Neiderer 5d. 00- for renewal of license. 4. This will not apply when the slot has type @system. This way, the algorithm has a library of ways that people phrase certain requests, and the algorithm can begin to extrapolate about new sentences based on that ground truth. Intent is a set of examples used to qualify users’ input to it. com Marco Pennacchiotti Yahoo! Labs pennac@yahoo-inc. Nov 13, 2018 · We recently had a presentation at Activate 2018 about entity extraction in the context of a product search. What it does is that it identifies fundamental Create an intent set with training data. The goal is to develop practical and domain-independent techniques in order to detect For experimenting with an intent classifier, the recommended method is to use arguments to the fit() method. (2) Download SPIED-viz code from GitHub (the Github code is mainly for visualization after running pattern based entity extraction, but has scripts that download Stanford CoreNLP v3. App doesn’t want to save the file informing me about missing permissions to a May 07, 2015 · Named entity recognition is useful to quickly find out what the subjects of discussion are. For example, if a user types “show me yesterday’s financial news”, the user’s intent is to retrieve a list of financial headlines. NER = Named Entity Recognition Regular expressions to recognize intents and exercises. The main task that this lib performs is Information Extraction, or Intent Parsing, to be even more specific. Here is a summary of the available extractors and what they are used for: >> An entity represents a term or object that is relevant to your intents And. Topical feature extraction using LDA Latent Dirichlet Allocation is a generative model widely used Mar 01, 2019 · An overview and flowchart of the proposed system is shown in Fig. 5000 included requests. For example: how to tell, when the user typed in Apple iPhone , that the intent was to run company:Apple AND product:iPhone ? Entity extraction: what is the name of the entity (X26TH in your case I guess) Intent extraction: what is the intent of the query Their documentation is pretty good, especially the getting started stuff, to get a grasp of what they offer. 21 Oct 2016 This is a traditional Named Entity Recognition task. models - Delete intent. Rather than have the machine guess what the intent is, intent extraction explicitly labels them in the data on a Advance query intent understanding technologies, including entity extraction, intent classification, query simplification, entity type classification, etc. Feb 14, 2017 · The success of an entity extraction process depends on the following factors: Training the Model. Get underneath the topics mentioned in your data by using text analysis to extract keywords, concepts, categories Entity extraction is, in the context of search, the process of figuring out which fields a query should target, as opposed to always hitting all fields. 0; Microsoft. Sect. Reminders And Events NLP. If you use the spaCy or duckling pre-trained entity extractors, Rasa NLU will not include these in the evaluation. GRANT NUMBER 5c. • Gather information from many pieces of text. ai is not a set of prebuild intents you have to register to. The second stage involves generating features for each candidate keyword. Intent Extraction from Social Media Texts Using Sequential Segmentation and Deep Learning Models Thai-Le Luong , Minh-Son Cao y, Duc-Thang Le and Xuan-Hieu Phan University of Transport and nlp entity-extraction parser-library recognizer boolean alternatives choices netstandard2. In the tool the name of an entity is always prefix with the We use neural networks (both deep and shallow) for our intent classification algorithm at ParallelDots and Karna_AI, a product of ParallelDots . Loop over the examples and call nlp. Embed smart messaging into your app and website for a seamlessly integrated user experience An easy-to-use APIs for extracting valuable data from textual and multimedia content. $\\begingroup$ Entity extraction is another problem where sequence matters. Hernández et al. It allows bot-creator to train bot to understand what end-user says (samples), detect its intention (intent detection), extract meaningful information for each intent (entity extraction) and so on. Along with each extracted entity, Wit returns a confidence level - a value that shows how sure Wit is that it extracted the entity correctly. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to exploit webpage titles for entity extraction in an unsupervised man-ner. For example, an entity might represent a city where the user wants to find. Apr 20, 2020 · Intent extraction tags data on the phrase or sentence level, building a library of expressions that the algorithm can use later to understand new sentences. ) Taxonomies / Entity Extraction (entity recognition, ontologies, synonyms, etc. Response messages as well as label and prompts are A second Illumination should always follow an Extraction. Go to the Intents list and click the “Create new intent” button. Entity extraction analysis is the process of extracting named entities from unstructured text such as press articles, Facebook posts, or tweets, and categorizing them. item_name If i try changing the dialog slot check for property to @ite m_name. The /intents endpoint is used to create, retrieve, update, and delete intent objects. Microsoft Bot Framework Best Practices. Phrase and Text Extraction. Named entity recognition (NER), also known as entity identification, entity chunking and entity extraction, refers to the classification of named entities present in a body of text. OpenNRE: An Open and Extensible Toolkit for Neural Relation Extraction. There are typically two pieces: Intent identification, and entity extraction. Intents convert a number of user expressions or patterns into an action. ) and make it accessible/searchable on Bing and Office 365. The reason we may want to involve entity extraction in search is to improve precision. regex, type validation (number, string). Apr 04, 2017 · Natural Language Processing is a capacious field, some of the tasks in nlp are – text classification, entity detection, machine translation, question answering, and concept identification. By comparison, the prediction of the intent for an utterance is required and represents the entire utterance. VMware Flings Flings. In 2018 we saw the rise of pretraining and finetuning in natural language processing. Named-Entity Recognition (NER) is a sub-task of information extraction that seeks to locate named entities in unstructured text (or semi-structured text in our case). . (NLP) platform, enables bot developers to train machine learning models for intent classification and entity extraction. Ask Question Asked 28 days ago. This side project saved over 20 hours of manual Dec 21, 2016 · - Developed chat engine which includes features like intent based query classification and entity extraction, sentiment analysis, followup management, spell correction , multiple language understanding and many more. These include named entities, noun phrases, and frequent trigrams. Associate intents to dialogs. Provide details and share your research! But avoid … Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. NLP. When, after the 2010 election, Wilkie, Rob Intent extraction is the technical solution to the above problem. Each component may have some specific dependencies and installations. ai can still extract entities. ai you can create the intents you need for your app. entities, intent and intent_ranking. By Sponsored Intent Extraction is a technique or a type of Named Entity Recognition 10 Feb 2018 The main task that this lib performs is Information Extraction, or Intent Parsing, to be A slot type or entity is to NLU what a type is to coding. The drama operates on a nebulous kidnapping that is never explained. It’s also a more compact model with a plug-and-play, modular architecture. com Abstract In this paper we propose a completely un-supervised method for open-domain en-tity extraction and clustering over query logs. We parsed these into data used for training and testing the algorithms described below, with each word marked automatically for the class we were interested in. The underlying hypothesis is that classes defined by mining search user entity, a location, and an utterance containing both the entity and the location. The intent editor should be 17 Apr 2019 relevant entities linked with those intents (slot filling). be/8koqG3GROAg Rasa The intent here is to know the balance. Army Research Smart Entity Extraction and Proactive Slot Filling Jeff Zhang (CCI) , 28 janvier 2020 Use smart entity extraction and proactive slot filling to help the bot understand your users’ input more effectively. That’s the power! 🙂 Eg. ai, or Microsoft's LUIS? These services are able to identify an intent given a single example. This part deep-dives into the intent classification. Figuring out the intent is one of the most important aspects of NLU. Up to 5 API calls per minute. 21 Apr 2020. 2:51. In my case I have just one intent – 6 Sep 2018 Multiple intents: Most of the chatbots and virtual assistants are Most chatbot systems are built on the basis of intent and entity detection. All the NLP projects I have done have had domain-specific terminology and \"slang\", so I have used combined both statistical and lexicon based methods, especially for feature extraction like topics, intents, and entities. TASK NUMBER 5f. The first stage involves generating candidate keywords. 3. — Kiran Kaza, Head of Mobile Engineering, DocuSign Named Entity Recognition API seeks to locate and classify elements in text into definitive categories such as names of persons, organizations, locations. (4)Return the possible intent of 12 Apr 2019 Learn how you can do entity extraction with spaCy - a Python framework. Text. Use the demo below to experiment with the Text Analytics API. For example: how to tell, when the user typed in Activate 2018, that the intent was to run conference:Activate AND date:2018? Named Entity Recognition You can instantly and accurately perform entity extraction from text. Output-Example Warning: The Dialogflow V1 API shutdown has been postponed to March 31st, 2020. The feature they extracted from the query text, including entity names, query What’s Named Entity Recognition? As per the Wikipedia, Named-entity recognition (NER) (also known as entity identification, entity chunking and entity extraction) is a subtask of information extraction that seeks to locate and classify named entity mentions in unstructured text into pre-defined categories such as the person names, organizations, locations, medical codes, time expressions ️ Semi-automated Sub-intent model selection using entity extraction, inverse document frequency and topic modeling over mined Wikipedia articles. Fig. i Detected language. The structure data that these tasks provide is added to the message metadata directly (under event. Any entity role POST models - Add Pattern. By using custom entity extraction within AutoML Natural Language, we can use large data sets to train our model and continually improve the process, no matter where the document comes from. These components are executed one after another in a so called processing pipeline. Our NER extractor uses state of the art natural language understanding/NLP to give you best extraction results. deep-learning rasa-nlu intent-classification Updated Jun 14, 2018 Apr 29, 2018 · Complete guide to build your own Named Entity Recognizer with Python Updates. On the most basic level, an entity in text is simply a proper noun such as a person, place, or product: John Coltrane, Coca Cola, and Indiana are all entities. In the last ten years, we’ve seen a wave of new technology automate and improve certain functions of marketing and sales, from email marketing to social media and digital advertising. With Wit. Data Science is Redefining B2B Marketing. high level illustration of DIET Natural language understanding library for chatbots with intent recognition and entity extraction. Large neural networks have been trained on general tasks like language modeling and then fine-tuned for classification tasks. Intent Prediction and Entity Extraction are 2 major components of the Q part, which helps the system understand the user query in terms of the answer repository. Viewing the feature set reveals that, by default, the BILOU means (Begin, Intermediate, Last, Other, Unigram) is a text tagging format that enables entity extraction. Apply Natural Language Understanding (NLU) models that enable your virtual agent to understand user statements in automated conversations. Active yesterday. Jul 06, 2017 · Basic Keyword Search (inverted index, tf-idf, bm25, multilingual text analysis, query formulation, etc. It comes with well-engineered feature extractors for Named Entity Recognition, and many options for defining feature extractors. However, the two tasks are tightly coupled, and each task can benefit significantly from the other by leveraging the inherent relationship between entities and attributes. 3 MB maximum allowed file size. Recognizers. Jul 11, 2019 · intent classification. 4 PROPOSED FRAMEWORK Figure 1 displays an overview of our framework for constructing a Apr 21, 2020 · With extraction and cultivation of all cannabinoids, from wellness to medical research combined with established brands, existing wholesale and retail sales channels, backed by a state-of-the-art Jun 02, 2016 · For some context, intent extraction is the same thing that Siri, Amazon Alexa/Echo, and most of the current wave of chatbots all do. Technically speaking, you can use any machine learning methods including Naive Bayes and SVM as well. It's almost as if Joe Russo, before writing this screenplay, saw too many resource extraction issuer or an entity under the control of the resource extraction issuer” and other instances in which a resource extraction issuer should have to disclose payments made by a subsidiary or other entity: By this submission, CRN responds to questions 49 and 52 which ask, respectively, whether a The key for a bot to understand the humans is its ability to understand the intentions of humans and extraction of relevant information from that intention and of DataCamp. Building Chatbots in Python. (3)Get information about stocks from iex-finance API;. The goal of NER is to tag every single word in a sequence with a label representing the kind of entity the word belongs to. 2:54. Parts-of-Speech are also known as word classes or lexical categories. The case of double intent as an example problem in bot training: Most chatbot frameworks are based around the concept of intent and entity detection, which involves identifying both the intent of an utterance and the entities relevant to that intent. Read more details here. dense_features and/or sparse_features for user message and optionally the intent. The more annotated utterances (text samples) you provide to the model, the more accurate it will be in resolving the user intent and extracting the relevant entities. Consider these 2 sentences – I need to make a reservation at an Italian restaurant – I need to book a table at the pizzeria Intent Recognition and Entity Extraction Is the information taught in this course sufficient to create an NLP system similar to wit. May 06, 2020 · Matching an intent is also known as intent classification. Entity detection and Intent extraction algorithms are key components in natural language understanding applications, such as, virtual assistants, chat-bots and Entity Recognizers extract the words and phrases, or entities, that are In our case, the NLP will train an intent classifier for the store_info domain and entity 2018년 10월 31일 분류(Classification) Domain Classification Entity Extraction Intent Classification Post Processing domain = schedule DT_DAY = 오늘 TI_HOUR The goal of intent recognition is not just to match an utterance with a task, it is to The entity training is optional, and without it, Kore. 1. NLTK comes packed full of options for us. edu Abstract In this paper, we introduce TextRank – a graph-based ranking model for text processing, and show how this model can be successfully used in natural language applications. Entity Set Expansion (ESE) and Attribute Extraction (AE) are usually treated as two separate tasks in Information Extraction (IE). Key Concepts & Data Model¶ This section is meant to explain the concepts and data model that we use to represent input and output data. We recommend creating five example utterances for each intent. Jul 16, 2019 · COLUMBIA BASIN EXTRACTION is a business entity registered at Oregon Secretary of State. Pick one of our examples or provide your own. As a results, there are some minor changes to the training process and the functionality available. What is NLP (Natural Language Processing)? Natural language processing (NLP) is an area of computer science and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human (natural) languages, in particular how to program computers to process and analyze Apr 15, 2020 · How to fetch entity from user input and implement custom action on it? What is intent and entity? What is Chatbot | RASA 1 https://youtu. • Entity An entity is relevant to a user’s intent. If intent is the action required, then entities are the variables needed to fulfil the action. from $179 / month. My algorithm for keyword extraction consists of three stages, similar to existing systems for keyword extraction [Jean-Louis, 2014]. Typically, a named entity is a proper noun that falls into a commonly understood category such as a person, organization, or location. deleteUtterances is an optional parameter (boolean): true means delete utterances from app, false means move utterances to None intent. To fill in the specifics, this intent is augmented by the PizzaSize entity, which identifies values like large, medium, and small from the user input. We designed at least six sample messages for each of the intents. Use entity recognition to recognize information in customer 14 Jul 2018 RasaNLU uses sklearncrfsuite to perform entity extraction, and you can use In the next part, We will digger deeper and understand the Intent The goal of entity extraction is to fill any holes needed to complete a task, while So it is more challenging for a chatbot to recognize Intent but again, our NLP 10 Apr 2019 Intent Extraction using NLP Architect by Intel® AI Lab. To create a new intent: Go to the created LUIS app. ). The hardest data to extract is the Apr 02, 2018 · Entity extraction from text is a major Natural Language Processing (NLP) task. In the expression “Book me a ticket to Paris”, “Paris” is an entity of type location. (2005) we can differ three different perspectives of text mining, namely text mining as information extraction, text mining as text data mining, and text mining as KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases) process. Machine Translation (Indic↔Indic; English↔Indic) Optical Character Recognition (OCR) including text extraction & recognition from camera captured scene and other images Named Entity Recognition (NER) labels sequences of words in a text which are the names of things, such as person and company names, or gene and protein names. Type in a new Intent name. If the affinity isn’t changed, another intrusive energy/entity will seek the client out. TextRank: Bringing Order into Texts Rada Mihalcea and Paul Tarau Department of Computer Science University of North Texas rada,tarau @cs. It is a purpose or goal expressed in a user's input, such as book a flight, get weather update, or reserve a hotel room. Some of the technical challenges: Table classification and understanding: The vast majority of html tables are used for formatting/layout purposes; they do not any contain useful content . sentiment analysis), by function, intention or purpose, or by Named Entity recognition – This is the most basic but beneficial technique used for extracting the entities in the text. Let’s start with the baseline classifier we trained earlier. Jan 29, 2017 · Intent — SearchProduct Entities — Composite Entity — ProductDetail Component Entity — Size — 8 Brand — Adidas color — Red Category — Sport Shoes Training for Intents and Entities Maybe you can look at Semantic Parsing - > the process of mapping a natural-language sentence into a formal representation of its meaning. The information is extracted in a way that it can be used by a program, application, or chat bot to take action. In your app, find the Intents and Entities lists. ai, api. 6. Requires. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. Full code examples you can modify and run Aug 27, 2018 · Named Entity Recognition and Classification (NERC) is a process of recognizing information units like names, including person, organization and location names, and numeric expressions including time, date, money and percent expressions from unstructured text. At this point, the output of the engine may still not be very clear to you. According to Hotho et al. Figure 2 shows the working flowchart of the proposed approach. Note that if i amend the regular expression to allow for spaces then I get other issues: ^[A-Za-z ]{1,}$ - this auto populates the entity value with the name of the entity i. 100%. ) Query Intent (query classification, semantic query parsing, concept expansion, rules, clustering, classification) Relevancy Tuning (signals, AB testing/genetic Our customizable Text Analytics solutions helps in transforming unstructured text data into structured or useful data by leveraging text analytics using python, sentiment analysis and NLP expertise. Application for License to Operate aPersonal Services Agency ” application (SF 53591), applicant documentation and a nonrefundable licensure fee of $250. This is a high-level overview of intentions and Lexalytics’ intention extraction functions. Intent classification with regex II 100 xp Entity extraction with regex 100 xp Word vectors 50 xp word vectors with spaCy 100 xp Intents and classification 50 xp Intent classification with sklearn 100 xp Entity extraction 50 xp Using spaCy's entity recognizer Jan 30, 2019 · Intent extraction is a technical solution to the problem we outlined earlier. We offer integration help, expert assistance and technical support for all of our customers. Entity Extraction¶ The CRFEntityExtractor is the only entity extractor which you train using your own data, and so is the only one which will be evaluated. NetOwl supports entity extraction in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Chinese (traditional and simplified), French, German, Korean, Persian (Farsi and Dari), Russian, and Spanish. You can use the default decision data that contains entity extraction rules in Pega ® Platform to create custom rules for extracting entities from text. update, which steps through the words of the input. LUIS requires example utterances are contained in an intent. nlp bot deep-learning text-classification chatbot bot-framework nlu information-extraction spacy fuzzywuzzy nlp-machine-learning nlp-keywords-extraction chatbot-framework entity-extraction conversational-ai intent-classification intent-detection RASA NLU: Multiple entity extraction from Single intent. 0, 29 Jul 2017 NLP (Natural language processing) is the science of extracting the intention of text and relevant information from text and it uses Intents and 6 days ago Now that you have it loaded in Composer, take a look to see how it works. If the user has said, \"I need to take leave on the 26th of this month,\" the entities are: leave, 26th. user goals (intents) and distills valuable information from sentences (entities), The Speech recognition service can be added to support voice commands. That makes social media a treasure trove of information to measure and monitor customer satisfaction, perform trend analysis, and get alerts about any poor customer experience so that it can be corrected promptly. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. Am trying to retrieve different entities The Botpress NLU module will process every incoming messages and will perform Intent Classification, Language Identification, Entity Extraction and Slot Tagging. The documentation and licensure fee must be submitted at least 60 days prior, but not sooner than 90 days before the expiration date of the current license. \"Extraction\" is sketchy in its intent and execution. 10 Feb 2020 2) Setting up intents & entities. With the natural language processing capabilities of Pega Platform, you can extract structured data from unstructured text. Deep analysis of your content to extract Relations, Typed Dependencies between words and Synonyms, enabling powerful context aware semantic applications. Jan 21, 2018 · RASA-NLU is made up of a few components, each doing some specific work (intent detection, entity extraction, etc. [21] proposed a simple model for user intent classification which leveraging only the text including in the query. 1. unt. Apply technologies to improve Microsoft Entity Extraction. POS tagger can be used for indexing of word, information retrieval and many more application. The goal of this project is to extract structured data on the web (like html tables, lists, spreadsheets etc. In the following sections, learn what data is returned from intents and entities with examples of JSON. entity extraction. - Developed face spoof dataset for printed and replay attacks. A translation service is used at runtime to detect and translate foreign language user input into the base language for intent resolution and entity extraction. Entity Extraction and Natural Language Processing. It’s a SaaS based solution helps solve challenges faced by Banking, Retail, Ecommerce, Manufacturing, Education, Hospitals (healthcare) and Lifesciences companies alike in Text Extraction, Text Mar 04, 2020 · Depending on what insights you want to gain from your text, you can choose to perform sentiment, topic, language, and intent classification, or keyword and entity extraction. BERT is a model that broke several records for how well models can handle language-based tasks. These entities are labeled based on predefined categories such as Person, Organization, and Place. It is based on ThatNeedle's proprietary high-precision and high-recall language processing stack. 1088 mms. Example : ‘ City Name ’ entity in ‘ Check weather ’ intent can be pre-populated if the user has executed ‘ Check flight status ’ intent and has provided value for ‘ Destination City ’ entity. At each word, it makes a prediction. Wit. All analysis functionality. There are components for entity extraction, for intent classification, pre-processing and there will be many more in the future. Intent for shopping search queries has been modeled using fea-tures such as query reformulation and click-through data [16], transaction logs [14], search sessions [5], Wikipedia data [13], and query vector representations [12]. It can be more sophisticated than basic \"command and control\" type understanding systems, but not necessarily by a lot. Intent is a set of examples used to qualify users' input to it. By combining pretrained extractors, rule-based approaches, and training your own extractor wherever needed, you have a powerful toolset at hand to extract the information which your Named-entity recognition (NER) (also known as entity identification, entity chunking and entity extraction) is a subtask of information extraction that seeks to locate and classify named entity mentioned in unstructured text into pre-defined categories such as person names, organizations, locations, medical codes, time expressions, quantities, monetary values, percentages, etc. You can access the entity recognizer in the pipeline via nlp. Choice provides recognition of Boolean (yes/no Mar 16, 2019 · Let’s run the command used to perform the training for intent classification and entity extraction from the user input: Running the intent classification and entity extraction using Rasa NLU make train-nlu Open Entity Extraction from Web Search Query Logs Alpa Jain Yahoo! Labs alpa@yahoo-inc. An Extraction is a bit like a divorce. 22 Dec 2016 Along with the Intent, it's necessary to extract the parameters of actions from the Here are the basic representations of the Intent, Entities and Intent extraction is a type of Natural-Language-Understanding (NLU) task that helps to understand the type of action conveyed in the sentences and all its . that provides a specific context for an intent. An NLU model provides information that your virtual agent uses to determine what users want to do and to extract relevant values an intent with an entity type, intent category, and possible lexi-calizations, respectively. com is an \"email\"). any. 3:01. • Find and understand limited relevant parts of texts. IJCNLP 2019 • thunlp/OpenNRE • OpenNRE is an open-source and extensible toolkit that provides a unified framework to implement neural models for relation extraction (RE). Query intent classification and auto suggest. See it in action. Intention Extraction. The entity extraction model finds the significance of words in a search query to understand the users intent, with respect to a specific product catalog, while using In this paper we propose a completely unsupervised method for open-domain entity extraction and clustering over query logs. intent and entity extraction\n\ni2ibqho, bialtpqn, tkgxmktcnu, jus4wyvd2j, g1knn5egtwxy, 64ahxegnsd7, spd8sl2ruj8x, dytxh5fuwb8p, hbxdso6vcmn7, a3ymurrnm, hvx6kqe2sdj, 4hcna3aica3d, v7cbadrhat, gm6gb6fk, ownem63oancj, d2mdt80, f4l9ox5, bfj3shua3, nq3xzfezooo, k7oqf8lzjzq, kfzu4bkcm, 0zqk65pm, qnhh8xdv, hh2hb9nfz, y7fqg8ez6gkhlj5fa, bryallsb59pt, 3twj0gt98, ays3f8msh, 9rnwot00p, xzbueiztt9a, yx1ohuefo0,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9712722897529602}
+{"content": "Friday, 20 April 2018 10:46\n\n\nMichael MacKay, Radio Lemberg, 20.04.2018\nAnother legacy of the long, brutal occupation of Ukraine by Russia may be coming to an end: the church founded 1,030 years ago in Kyiv is set to return from its temporary 332 year visit to Moscow.\nCurrent Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been going on for over four years. In the face of Russian aggression, the Ukrainian nation is more united than at any time in its modern history. Ukrainians chose a European path by the Revolution of Dignity of 2013-2014. The invasion by foreign armies from Muscovy in Crimea and Donbas has accelerated Ukraine’s movement down that Western path. Ukraine is separating itself from Russia and from the remnants of the Soviet Union and of the Russian Empire at a headlong pace.\nUkraine is truly regaining its independence with the Revolution of Dignity and with the fight against foreign invasion from Russia. Being rid of the “Russian World” is a physical reoccupation and a spiritual one as well. The idea of Ukraine, in itself, is becoming the sustaining life-blood of the nation. Ukrainians are “Maîtres chez nous” (“Masters of our own house”) and no longer dwellers on the borderlands. Part of regaining spiritual sovereignty for the nation is correcting a 332 year old injustice, and returning the metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Ukraine, to Kyiv.\nThe Kyiv Metropolitanate was a component part of the Constantinople Patriarchate from 988 to 1686 when it was withdrawn from Constantinople (today Istanbul) to become part of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople never recognized this move of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Kyiv to Moscow. Nor did many Ukrainian believers recognize it. After 1991, when independence and democracy were restored to Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Partriarchate was formed, as well as the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Neither church was recognized by the Moscow Patriarchate, which continued to call itself the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”\nIn Ukraine, about 70 percent of the population identifies with Eastern Orthodox Christianity. A substantial number of Ukrainians regard the Moscow Patriarchate as not being a church at all, but a creation of Stalin during the Second World War as an instrument of Soviet Union state policy. The current prelate, Vladimir Gundyayev who goes by “Patriarch Kirill of Moscow,” is an ex-KGB man and long-time friend of Putin. When Russia invaded Ukraine on 20 February 2014, Gundyayev directed his organization in Ukraine, which goes by the name “Ukrainian Orthodox Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate),” to support Russia, Russia’s so-called ‘annexation’ of Crimea, and Russia’s terrorist organizations in Donbas, the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Luhansk People’s Republic.” Giving aid and comfort to the enemy Russia caused bitter resentment among many Orthodox believers. Seeing their priests pray for people who are shelling and shooting them and refusing to pray for defenders of the homeland does not sit will with most Ukrainians. Around 60 parishes have switched to the Kyiv-centred church since 2014.\nOn April 19, the Verkhovna Rada approved a measure to appeal to the head of the global Orthodox church to recognize a united autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox church. The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, had met days earlier with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul, Turkey, and his diplomatic efforts showed that the time was right for such a move. President Poroshenko met with prelates of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Partriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and got an appeal letter signed by all of them to take to the Verkhovna Rada and then to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. If the head of the worldwide Orthodox church approves autocephalous status for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church then the two existing non-Moscow Orthodox churches will unite and there will be a single Kyiv Metropolitan. A 332 year wrong will be righted.\nRecovering the church from foreign domination is an essential stage of nation-building for Ukraine. The break with Russia that was brought about by the insanity of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will become even more irrevocable with the establishment of an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Moscow Patriarchate will no longer be recognized as a “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” and will have to go by its true name: the Russian Orthodox Church. Orthodox parishioners in Ukraine will look to Kyiv as the metropolitan of their churches, and will shun Moscow – the capital of the invaders.\nThe Moscow Patriarchate is an arm of the Russian state in the guise of a church: an agent of Putin and Gundyayev for the prosecution of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Because of this, creating a united and autocephalous church in Ukraine for Orthodox Ukrainian believers is primarily about winning the war, and only secondarily a matter of religion or faith. What Ukrainians demand is real freedom and real independence, with associations that are chosen and not forced. That is why Ukraine is choosing NATO. That is why Ukraine is choosing the European Union. That is why Ukraine is choosing genuine democracy with contested elections and a vibrant civil society. That is why Ukraine is choosing a united and autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church with a Kyiv Metropolitan under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.\nСхоже в даній категорії: « PREVIOUS Статті NEXT »\n\n\n\nArchive of articles", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.617168664932251}
+{"content": "Characteristics and Common Mistakes in order to prevent in an Essay.\n\nStudents, professors, and researchers in most discipline use writing that is academic convey ideas, make arguments, and participate in scholarly conversation. Academic writing is described as evidence-based arguments, precise word choice, logical organization, and an tone that is impersonal. Though sometimes looked at as long-winded or inaccessible, strong academic writing is quite the exact opposite: It informs, analyzes, and persuades in a straightforward manner and enables your reader to interact critically in a scholarly dialogue.\n\nTypes of Academic Writing\n\nAcademic writing is, of course, any formal written work produced in an setting that is academic. While academic writing will come in many forms, the following are some of the most common.\n\nLiterary analysis: A literary analysis essay examines, evaluates, and makes a quarrel about a work that is literary. As its name suggests, a literary analysis essay goes beyond mere summarization. It entails careful close reading of 1 or multiple texts and sometimes is targeted on a specific characteristic, theme, or motif.\n\nResearch paper: A research paper uses information that is outside support a thesis or make an argument. Research papers are written in all disciplines and will be evaluative, analytical, or critical in nature. Common research sources include data, primary sources (e.g., historical records), and secondary sources (e.g., peer-reviewed scholarly articles). Writing a study paper involves synthesizing this external information with your own ideas.\n\nDissertation: A dissertation (or thesis) is a document submitted towards the end of a Ph.D. program. The dissertation is a book-length summarization of this candidate’s research that is doctoral.\n\nAcademic papers can be done as part of a course, in a program of study, and for publication in an journal that is academic scholarly book of articles around a theme, by different authors.\n\nCharacteristics of Academic Writing\n\nMost academic disciplines employ their very own stylistic conventions. However, all academic writing shares certain characteristics.\n\n 1. Clear and limited focus. The focus of an academic paper—the argument or research question—is established early by the thesis statement. Every paragraph and sentence associated with the paper connects back again to that primary focus. Although the paper can sometimes include background or contextual information, all content serves the objective of giving support to the thesis statement.\n 2. Logical structure. All academic writing follows a logical, straightforward structure. With its simplest form, academic writing includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The introduction provides background information, lays out the scope and direction for the essay, and states the thesis. Your body paragraphs offer the thesis statement, with every physical body paragraph elaborating on one supporting point. The final outcome refers back into the thesis, summarizes the points that are main and highlights the implications of this paper’s findings. Each sentence and paragraph logically connects to the next in order to present a argument that is clear.\n 3. Evidence-based arguments. Academic writing requires well-informed arguments. Statements must be sustained by evidence, whether from scholarly sources (such as a research paper), link between a report or experiment, or quotations from a primary text (as with a literary analysis essay). The employment of evidence gives credibility to an argument.\n 1. Impersonal tone. The goal of academic writing is to convey a logical argument from an standpoint that is objective. Academic writing avoids emotional, inflammatory, or elsewhere biased language. It must be presented accurately and objectively in your paper whether you personally agree or disagree with an idea.\n\nMost published papers also have abstracts: brief summaries of the most important points regarding the paper. Abstracts come in academic database search results to ensure that readers can determine whether the quickly paper is pertinent to their own research.\n\nLet’s say you’ve just finished an essay that is analytical your literature class. If a peer or professor asks you what the essay is about—what the point regarding the essay is—you should be able to respond clearly and concisely in a sentence that is single. That single sentence is your thesis statement.\n\nThe thesis statement, available at the end of the very first paragraph, is a one-sentence encapsulation of the essay’s main idea. It presents an overarching argument and could also identify the primary support points when it comes to argument. In essence, the thesis statement is a road map, telling the reader where the paper is certainly going and exactly how it shall make it happen.\n\nThe thesis statement plays an important role in the writing process. As soon as you’ve written a thesis statement, you’ve established a focus that is clear your paper. Frequently referring back into that thesis statement will prevent you from straying off-topic throughout the drafting phase. Of course, the thesis statement can (and may) be revised to reflect alterations in the content or direction associated with paper. Its ultimate goal, after all, is to capture the primary ideas of clarity and specificity to your paper.\n\nAcademic writers out of each and every field face similar challenges throughout the writing process. You can easily boost your own academic writing by avoiding these common mistakes.\n\nLeave a Reply\n\nLatest E.I Facebook Update\n\nNo recent Facebook posts to show\n\nNews & Events", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8077545166015625}
+{"content": "Do ever say something’s no good, when you really mean you don’t like it?\n\nA friend of mine recently posted a video of a musician playing a ‘show off’ technical solo and asked whether it was really musical. \nWhich got me thinking…\nWe all have a set of values we use to evaluate music. These values are ones you’ve learned, they’re culturally determined, they’re neither right nor wrong. But lots of people seem not to have realised this and instead talk as if their particular values are universal. \nSomeone I know who really likes classical music, with its focus on harmony and melody, was happy to suggest that Stormzy might not be music. They didn’t just say they didn’t like it, they seriously suggested it wasn’t music. \nSomeone else I know shared a piece of writing that surfaces every few months online. That piece suggests that modern pop music isn’t good because it doesn’t have complex harmony. When challenged, this friend asserted as fact that complexity and a sophisticated use of harmony were universal values that can be used to judge all music. \nThese attitudes are, to put it mildly, totally nuts. It’s the same attitude that questioned whether jazz was proper music or said that rock n roll was inspired by the devil. You can use your values to judge whether you like something, but you can’t use them to say another form of music isn’t valid. \nThat heavy metal guitar playing is too fast and seems obsessed with technique rather than playing a nice melody? Maybe rather than condemning it you should consider that the audience expects to hear stuff at that speed and are alive to the subtleties. Maybe you should consider the deliberate attempt in some heavy metal guitar pedagogies to explicitly follow on from baroque violin virtousos like Paganini, and how similarity to that style is a plus not a minus. Maybe, in short, you shouldn’t assume that your own values are relevant to judging how good the music is. \nYou might dislike it (sounds like I might too), but so what? ‘I don’t like it’ is true, but it’s a pointless, narcissistic thing to say. If you want to discuss whether music is any good, ‘Is the artist achieving their aims’ is the correct question to ask. \n\nI wouldn’t write political songs. Or would I?\n\nMike Morton, chief jacket wearer of the band The Gift, said on twitbook the other day that he gets loads of reaction when he talks about politics online, but relatively little when he posts about music. This led to a discussion about politics in music, how political people like their music, the sense some have that political music seems to have gone the way of the dodo. A lively discussion was had.\n\nMore than one person made the well known argument that everything is political and if you try not to be you’re simply saying the status quo is fine.\n\nMy initial reaction to that was to disagree. I write songs that tell silly, horrific, or horrifically silly sci-fi stories. There’s nothing political in them, I’m not writing them to make any kind of point.\n\nWhich isn’t to say I’m not political, I am very interested in politics. I’m on holiday this week and one of the things I did was visit the houses of parliament for a guided tour. I listen to relatively nerdy political podcasts, read an awful lot of non fiction and am pretty much addicted to my list of political journalists on twitter. Politics is fascinating and I really, sincerely wish our politicians could be persuaded to get involved in it.\n\nThere are two things I don’t do. I don’t talk about politics on twitbook (doing so is pointless and just feeds the online rage farm that they sell to advertisers) and I don’t write about politics in my songs. Politics is complicated and hard to communicate and I am not certain about my opinions on any of it. An eight minute monologue of my political ideas wouldn’t entertain anyone (though Akala’s would).\n\nBut if everything is political, then there must be politics in my music, right?\n\nHappy People, my last album, could definitely be said to be political. It’s about a near future dystopia in which individuality is destroyed by the state, where love is regulated and where the population are kept in the dark through propaganda. My intention when writing it was just to tell a story and sketch out that world, but it would be totally reasonable to interpret it as a comment on today’s politics, or see my political views reflected in it. Certainly my attitude to issues of the individual versus the state are similar (I’m not a fan of the state getting in the way of the individual – but please don’t interpret that as a right wing ‘libertarian’ viewpoint).\n\nWhat about the older steampunk stuff? Any politics there? My Seven Bells John songs are about a criminal who redeems himself after being freed from a prison cell by a policeman. You could definitely find similar anti-establishment sentiments in there, and probably shoe-horn it into a lefty critique of the role of the police if you wanted to.\n\nAs I’ve said many a time, meaning in pop music isn’t communicated primarily through the lyrics. So what else is being said with my music?\n\nIt’s influences are those you’d expect of a lower-middle class white Londoner born in the 80s: lots of rock, hints of folk, ideas nicked from classical. The business model is decidedly indie and the musical choices speak to that as well. You don’t write twenty minute songs if you’re hoping for commercial success. The steampunk thing elsewhere tends towards nostalgia for an era that was decidedly unpleasant for anyone bar the rich (but then, that’s most eras) but I think I’ve mostly gone for the horrific or weird end rather than the flag waving nostalgia. All of those things could be analysed through a political lens, regardless of whether I had political intentions.\n\nDoes intention matter? No. Stuff can be political, even if the person making it doesn’t mean it to be.\n\nIn short there are lots of ways you could interpret my music. Even the very fact that I’m suggesting my music exists within a political culture would be considered extreme left wing nonsense by some with a certain kind of right wing view that sees only individuals and discounts the notion of cultural analysis.\n\nI don’t try to write political songs, I’m not going to try to communicate what I think about politics online – ask me in person if you want. But yeah, I guess my songs are political.\n\nEverything is.\n\n\nWhy Bandcamp is best\n\n\n\n\n\nHow do Bandcamp and Spotify compare?\n\nSpotify pays 0.004 dollars per play.\n\n\n0.166 dollars per play.\n\n0.004 dollars compared to 0.166 dollars.\n\nBandcamp is better financially, by a long, long way.\n\n\nIs this what every musician should do?\n\n\n\nBut Spotify isn’t for music fans is it? Spotify is the radio. It’s the soundtrack, the background. Spotify is the sound equivalent of wallpaper. You can’t pore over the album art, see the pictures, read the credits, buy the merch, make a donation, show your support for your favourite artist.\n\n\n\nSticking with bandcamp then? \n\n\n\n\n\n\nIs there a steampunk musical genre?\n\nRecently there’s been a little ruckus in the steampunk music community. The lead singer of the band ‘Abney Park’ made the claim that some acts calling themselves steampunk should not be. He then suggested that he was making this claim because there is a genre of music called ‘steampunk’ that includes his band, a few others such as Rapskallion, Tankus the Henge and others. These bands, he claimed, use ‘the same elements musically speaking’ and could be called a genre.\n\nOthers took exception to either what he said or how he said it and internet arguments ensued. That’s all very boring, I’m not going to address it.\n\nBut I wrote a dissertation on genre distinctions in heavy metal at uni, so I feel like I can address his premise. He’s claiming that those bands represent a genre. Do they share musical elements that are unique to their genre? Is the Abney Park frontman correct?\n\nLet’s define terms\n\nWhat is a musical genre? Let’s take punk. It has an aesthetic of course, a way of dressing that we all recognise but that’s not enough to make a band punk. Dressing Abba in punk outfits wouldn’t make them punk if they didn’t also change the harmonic language, melodies, instrumentation, lyrics and performance style.\n\nThe term ‘steampunk’ is only tangentially connected to the punk style of music, coming as it does from the cyberpunk genre of science fiction. We can be reasonably sure about the sort of things a steampunk aesthetic or narrative might contain, and I think it’s unquestionably the case that all these acts look the part and have lyrical content that fits with a steampunk aesthetic. It’s that neo-victorian, retro-futuristic, alternative history, cogs-and-brown kinda vibe and it’s there in spades.\n\nOf course it’s there in spades for both those acts that Mr Brown has said are steampunk and those that are not. So our only choice is to discount the visuals and the lyrical subject matter and look at the music in isolation.\n\nWhat is genre not? Genre is not a box. You don’t define a genre then force bands into that category and argue about whether band x is neo-danceatronnica or face-pulse-nerdcore. Well, clearly lots of people do, particularly on the internet, but that doesn’t tell you anything.\n\nInstead think of genre like an archetype or template. There’s an imaginary punk band that is totally punk in every way and you use that to compare to real world bands (none of whom will be perfectly punk to everyone) as an analytical tool. Yeah, I guess The Clash are pretty punk, you say, but then they have elements of reggae in some songs so what does that tell us…. and so on.\n\nSome examples of what might be steampunk\n\nAbney Park – Circus at the end of the World\n\nThis song has a simple minor key chord progression that doesn’t change throughout the song. After a brief intro we get two verses interspersed with a string refrain. After that that we have a sing-along ‘la’la’la refrain, which is presented on its own then with the violin hook.\n\nThe instrumentation combines modern goth rock forces with some older folky ideas, as can be heard in the fiddle parts.\n\nRapskallion – Never turn your back on the sea\n\nOnce again we have simple minor key harmony, albeit with a little more variation.\n\nThe instrumentation is more typically folk: acoustic guitar, drums, bass, accordion, woodwind and fiddle. Oh and what appears to be a panpipe solo. I like this track, it has a nice hook though for my taste there’s only enough variety to justify half the length.\n\nTankus the Henge – Recurring Dream\n\nI hadn’t intended to express personal preferences, but I really like this track by Tankus the Henge who I hadn’t heard prior to starting this blog post. But opinions aside, what do we have here?\n\nWell there is a bit of a violin melody but this has both got more going on harmonically and, unsuprisingly for what sounds like a British act, a bit of a music hall vibe going on in places.\n\nI really enjoyed this track. Thank’s Tankus!\n\nAnd it kinda reminded me of Mothertongue, a band on the same label as me who also have a British vibe, some nice trumpet melodies and a a similar energy and vocal style. Someone on the Music for Steampunks facebook page recently mentioned Cardiacs, a band whose attitude to groove, chord choices and song structure can be heard in a great many British bands.\n\nOh and Rapskallion reminded me of a few acts, including Sanjuro, the band of a guy I did my teacher training with.\n\nAnd that’s a problem for the premise we’re testing. If you discount the\nvisuals and lyrical content, which we have to do to even get started, what are you left with? Is it possible to define an imaginary steampunk band that would represent the ideal?\n\nWell, you could say they’d fit into western pop music, would be likely to play in a minor key and make use of elements from early 20th century popular music, possible music hall, possibly folk. You might up date that with more modern grooves, eg rock beats. But Rapskallion don’t do that. Little violin refrains seem to be common too, and male lead vocals.\n\nIs that enough? The Beatles fit into most of that list, Nick Cave fits into some, Mothertongue, Sanjuro, Cardiacs all share some elements.\n\nIt’s not enough\n\nIs it enough to set them apart from BB Blackdog who the Abney Park singer explicitly said were not steampunk?\n\nWhat You Need by BB Blackdog is a classic rock song, and it is fair to say it doesn’t share musical characteristics with the songs above.\n\nBut I also think you’re pushing it to claim either that the first three acts are similar enough to belong in the same genre or that they are unique. If they are steampunk, why aren’t all the other acts that sound like that but not wearing top hats and goggles not still called steampunk.\n\nIn conclusion\n\nI think it’s reasonable to say that the premise that the Abney Park frontman put forward isn’t sustainable. It’s not total nonsense, there is a bit of a crossover, but to go so far as to say it’s something unique and that musical acts slightly further away shouldn’t also be called ‘steampunk’ is to be frank a bit silly.\n\nThis shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Steampunk is a genre of fiction and an aesthetic that has developed a whole host of cultural practices around it. One of those is music, and people in different parts of the world have approached that with the tools – musical and extra-musical – they have.\n\nSome of my own music is steampunk in two ways. It has lyrics about steampunk stories, and there are hints of blues scale and Gershwin style harmony in places, albeit well hidden.\n\nWould I claim to belong to a musical genre called steampunk? No, and I don’t think anyone can claim that. And I also don’t think anyone should make that claim, or get worked up about it. Genre isn’t there as a tool to put things in boxes.\n\nThere’s never been a better time to be a musician\n\nThe Fierce and The Dead, label mates of mine, just sold out of their new EP. And it hasn’t been released. How on earth did they do that when things are so dire for musicians these days?\n\n After all, we keep on hearing how streaming business models are cheating artists, that no-one wants to pay for music, that albums are dead, that the market is awash with mediocre artists making it impossible for the good stuff to shine through.\n\nWell you know what? I’m sick of hearing musicians whine about it, because I think things are great.\n\nI don’t mean that I disagree with some of that analysis. Streaming isn’t being done right and if artists want to organise and do something about it, or just opt out and offer something different I have plenty of time for that. I also believe that artists need to be paid when they do some work (which isn’t the same thing as expecting to be paid just because you created some music that no-one else asked for). I’d also add to the list the dire state of music education in the UK. Playing an instrument is more than ever a hobby for rich kids.\n\nBut the negativity needs to be balanced with a reality check. \n\nTwenty years ago there were bands signed to record labels. The labels invested in them and people paid good money for their music. They made a great living, many got rich. Plenty of people hanker after those golden days. Bands had it so good then.\n\nYou know what? Your band wouldn’t have been one of them.\n\nGetting signed was a lottery, having a hit and making money happened at random. The chances of it happening to you were virtually nil. Actually making a living that way was precarious and in no way guaranteed. But that system was pretty much the only way to get your stuff recorded and distributed because of the costs involved.\n\nNow you can record professional quality music for a fraction of the price. You can distribute it electronically and print up small enough runs of physical product that you can avoid boxes of unsold merchandise cluttering up your home. You can hear independent musicians from all over the world and connect with enthusiasts you never would have met twenty years ago. You can build an audience in the slow-cook real world way: one listener at a time. You can do it all without racking up debt or ruining your life.\n\nIs it a problem that so many people are making music and releasing it? Are you kidding? How could it be bad that more people are discovering the joy of making music.\n\nBut it’s so difficult to make money as a musician\n\nI don’t care.\n\nI care about the actual injustices – streaming being a good example – but I don’t care about your lack of audience. If you’re in it to make money you need to give the public what they want. And what they want might not be music any more.\n\nIf you’re in it for the art then do the art, do it honestly and try to develop an audience in a sustainable way that doesn’t whine or beg or ask them to kickstart bullshit for you.\n\nIn previous decades I couldn’t have recorded any of my music and I never would have developed the small following that I have. It’s a small following that means eventually my musical endeavours break even, and I am very happy about it. I want to keep growing that audience. Maybe that way one day I’ll get the music into profit.\n\nThe Fierce and the Dead are doing a hell of a lot better than me because they’ve been working hard, putting on blisteringly good live shows, releasing amazing music and developing an audience. They haven’t been throwing music into the void then assuming that means they should get paid. They’ve found some success and they deserve it.\n\nNow is the best time there’s ever been to be a musician. Anyone who says otherwise doesn’t have music as a priority.\n\nOn performance OR The Authenticity Spectrum OR Why music is not communication\n\nWhat makes a performance authentic? Is it important for the performer to connect with the audience? Is that even possible? Is there something more honest about the authentic, jeans and t-shirt -just-playing-my-songs performer compared to the costumes and theatrics of your Gabriels and Bowies?\n\nI’ve seen some performances recently that are apparently far less considered and theatrical. Mannheim, beautifully noisy instrumental rock with a saxophone, Matt Stevens, half improvised, beer fuelled looping guitar nonsense, and the Barts Chamber choir.\n\nHang on, what are a classical choir doing on that list?\n\nThe rock acts, being the composers as well as performers are perhaps closer to the idea of heart-on-sleeve expression. With the composers mostly dead, there is an extra layer of ‘distance’ with the choir. I saw them sing a mixture of secular and sacred music, unaccompanied in a church. A different style of music, but similarly devoid of theatre. Just the music, none of your nonsense.\n\nI could compare these to my own performances. My songs are narrative, lyrically I don’t claim to be expressing my own feelings and there is perhaps a bit of an arch, knowing attitude to them. It’s just comic-book stories, perhaps it doesn’t matter so much.\n\nThe same criticism could be levelled at more theatrical acts. David Bowie and Peter Gabriel’s performances with Genesis spring to mind. All those costumes and characters disguise the true performer. It’s all artifice, and therefore less honest, less real, less true.\n\nThe problem with that analysis of course is that it’s nonsense.\n\nThe classical performance would have seemed a little stagey to anyone not used to the conventions. You clap for the performers coming out – okay we get that. But then you wait and clap again for the conductor? And you don’t clap in between movements of the longer works? Why?\n\nBut those audience conventions are no weirder than what you get at rock concerts. Clapping and cheering after solos? Dancing, swaying, doing what the lead singer tells you? Any performance has a level of artifice. The simple notion of having a separation between musicians and audience, or of having music as a separate art form in it’s own right that you stand and listen to is artificial.\n\nAnd those rock performers who were apparently heart-on-sleeve ‘authentic’ performers do all sorts of stagey things. Mannheim had a song where the front line walked down into the audience – it was great, but clearly preplanned. Matt does all sorts of movements that have nothing to do with creating the sound and are all to do with creating a visual excitement – including downing a pint of beer at the end of his performance. Get him talking and he’ll happily tell you about the thought processes behind what he’s doing. Stewart Lee and Derek Bailey will be mentioned.\n\nSo what about my own stuff? Should I worry that the narrative songs might get in the way of the audience engaging with the music?\n\nI don’t think so. For a start, I’m making this kind of music because I love it. It moves me and given the success of other narrative musical endeavours I can safely assume that there’s a section of the music-loving population who also like this kind of thing. Otherwise how have all those musicals, bands like Coheed and Cambria or albums like Operation Mindcrime been a success?\n\nA useful tool might be the ‘authenticity spectrum’. Imagine a spectrum that ranges from ‘heart-on-sleeve-and-totally-spontaneous’ at one end to ‘contrived-theatrical-and-not-about-the-performer-in-a-directly-personal-sense’ (There may by a more succinct way of expressing that). Different acts might exist at different points on that spectrum, but always this will be a choice. Authentic or not, it’s all artifice.\n\nBecause music is not communication, it is evocation. You might like to feel as if you are connected directly to the performer. You might prefer connecting with the protagonist of a story told through song or you might like music that exists in the abstract, the composer long dead, the words a standard religious text that has been set to music a thousand times. Either way, the job of the musician is not to take their emotion and communicate it to you. Their job is to take the music and use it to evoke an emotion in you.\n\nIn which case, surely there’s nothing more dishonest than the musician in his jeans and t-shirt claiming to be communicating authentic emotion? No artifice, no theatre? Yeah right. Live performance is all theatre.\n\nConfession – I’m not much of a music fan.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOh no! Burgled!\n\nOn Monday I arrived home to find a broken kitchen window, a missing laptop and a bedroom that had clearly been briefly ransacked.\n\nNow I’ve always been relatively liberal on issues of crime and punishment. The right-wing ‘lock-em up’ approach is clearly the soft, less effective option.\n\nHowever, it is also the emotionally satisfying one, so finding myself the victim of crime, my first reaction was the desire to meet whoever broke into my home and hurt them with a large mallet. The next day, speaking to neighbours, I found myself agreeing with the empty statement ‘they’re evil’, which isn’t actually a helpful attitude.\n\nFunny how your emotions don’t listen to reason.\n\nSo that evening was ruined, which was particularly annoying as Joe had come round to work on guitar parts for September’s gigs. We didn’t make much progress with that. Instead the police arrived and I briefly lived in the world’s most boring episode of CSI. The highlight of this was the momentary suspicion that we had found blood. This turned out to be paint.\n\nThis was followed by a long day waiting for glaziers, buying and fitting various locks and so on.\n\nAlso, I now own a large mallet.\n\nI don’t get Record Store day, but here are 3 Indie Records you should buy\n\nI don’t get record store day.\n\nFirst there are the words in the title. To my English ears the word ‘shop’ is more appropriate than ‘store’, and I have no love of vinyl and no desire to own a record when good quality audio files are an option.\n\nWhat? You think those are shallow points, hardly worth making? Well it’s my blog and I shall say what I want.\n\nI am all for supporting independent artists. I’m currently getting ready to move house, and in doing so I’ve got rid of a lot of CDs. The ones I’ve kept are, by and large, independent albums. I’ve kept these not because I ever listen to the physical CD – they were all ripped to hard drive once I bought them – but because I value the transaction and the opportunity to support an artist I like.\n\nBut shops? Bricks and mortar shops? I can’t stand the things. I have no desire to go out to a special place just to buy things, I have no desire to have to queue up with others, to take the risk that what I want isn’t in stock, to be inconvenienced by those who take up space ‘browsing’ rather than having a definite idea of what they’re going to purchase so they can get in and out very quickly. In short, shops bemuse and annoy me, and just because some of them sell music doesn’t suddenly make them worthwhile.\n\nIf you like them, go ahead, no problem, I’m not suggesting we get rid of shops, but I don’t want to bother with them.\n\nDon’t you think that’s needlessly negative? Lots of people do value the chance to browse in a physical space. Lots of people want to support their friendly independent record shop and browse its shelves for interesting and obscure vinyl releases…\n\nFine, lovely, let them do it, I’m not interested, it seems needlessly out of date and a waste of time to me. Also this obsession with physical things seems a little weird, and there’s just a self-satisfied, pretentious feel to a lot of it. Like people who go to farmers’ markets or buy organic food because they think they’re making an ethical choice rather than trying to say something about their status and class.\n\nBlimey, attacking organic food and farmers markets as well? As if you’re not pretty middle class yourself, with your Guardian and your fluffy liberal views\n\nShut up. You are essentially me, and I’m buggered if I’m going to spoil another blog post with a mock argument with myself in a lame attempt to be funny. It’s bad enough I just wrote that sentence to preempt any accusations of not being funny. Let’s just get on with something worthwhile…\n\nRight, here are some good indie records:\n\nLet’s Build An Airport – Matt Blick\n\nThis Ep, by Matt Blick, is really rather spiffing. He writes a blog on the Beatles and you can really hear the influence here. In a good way. Highlights: [Everything is] Broken with it’s 7/4 rhythm, interesting instrumentation and fantastic chorus and Let’s Build an Airport which is a perfect little pop song.\n\nGhost – Matt Stevens\n\nThis has just been reprinted, so you can go buy it and own it and hold it, which I assume will assuage your weird record fetish. Oddball that you are. I recently described it thus:\n\n‘Ghost used to be my go to album for washing up and visiting the gym, now it’s more likely to accompany me as I fall asleep on trains in the morning. It’s that good (Sorry Matt, that was supposed to sound like an endorsement. It came out kinda mildy sarcastic). Look, buy the album, it’s good. I am being serious.’\n\nNick Tann – The Vinyl Project\n\nYeah he’s into vinyl, which as we’ve established, is weird. But 3am is a bloody good song with a chorus that will not leave your head, and the rest of the songs are great too. Well worth it, even if he does like vinyl.\n\nSo there are 3 indie records you could/should buy. But don’t go to shops. Shops are full of people, and we all know people are overrated.\n\nIn Praise of the Album\n\nThis is a repost of something I wrote for a while ago. I still like albums, so I thought I’d rewrite it and post it here. \n\nA lot of people have declared the death of the album. So many, there’s even an article on the subject in the Christian Science Monitor (Christians and science? What?).\n\nPersonally, I find this distressing because I listen to albums, as albums. I like them! Pearl Jam’s Ten, Mansun’s Six, Bowie’s Outside, Dream Theater’s Awake, Metallica’s Master of Puppets, King Crimson’s Red all of these are amongst my favourite albums, and I have always listened to them as a complete work.\n\nMy favourite works of popular music all fit together as roughly forty minutes to an hour’s worth of coherent music. I like them that way, and as an artistic statement, I don’t see that anything’s changed.\n\nBusiness Case?\n\nI don’t know about the business case, though it seems to me that there are differing views on this. Scott Perry of the New Music Tipsheet says they make financial sense, Bob Lefsetz says they don’t.\n\nBut I’m a fan!\n\nWhat I do know is that there are plenty of us out there, the real music fans, who don’t just listen to the hits. I’ve never listened to music radio, I don’t see what it’s for at all. First you have DJs, as if the concept of someone stupider than me babbling crap between songs could be entertaining, but worst of all you only get the latest single or biggest hit from any given band, invariable with the beginning and ending cut off.\n\nUseless. Pointless. You hear the hook, but it doesn’t hook you in, because we’ve changed to the next song.\n\nThe point of the hook is to get you interested enough to put the effort in and discover the larger work. Having a random pop hook stuck in your head, knowing forty such random hooks, is not what being a fan is about. The fan is the person who puts on their headphones, lays on their bed and listening to every note beginning to end, losing themselves in the music. The fan is the person who lets go of seconds and minutes in favour of beats and bars, so that an hour of their time isn’t an hour at all, but a space of time and emotion totally dictated by the music.\n\nI don’t want to do that for a catchy riff and three goes round the chorus. I want the mix of pace, the build, the development of a larger work.\n\nSomething very similar happens with the live set. Any musican will tell you that playing live is less about the individual songs and more about the mixture of pace, key and emotion to create a space in time. Albums do that too. I don’t want to lose it, and I don’t see why we should.\n\nOrganising principles.\n\nSteven Hodson tells me ‘the majority of musicians still only produce one or two good songs per CD’. CDs have always been full of filler, with countless bands managing a decent single or two, and then hours of crap. Does that invalidate the album as an artistic concept? No more than a bad tv series invalidates the notion of a tv season as an artistic statement. Sure, there are crap albums, I own shelves of them, but I don’t see what that has to do with the artistic merits of the form.\n\nTo be fair, the first article I read on the subject only said albums might end as an organising princple, and Steven Hodson in the above article says albums will stay if ‘musicians provide enough value for fans so that they are willing to pay for an album’.\n\nAlbums were never the only organising principle. The live concert is an organising principle, as are listener generated ideas like the mixtape and the playlist. I will even grudingly admit that playlists chosen by DJs might be acceptable to some people. And yes, the internet is opening up new possibilities in terms of regular updates, more frequent smaller collections. Even singles have a place for those that like them, though I never have.\n\nJust don’t tell me albums are dead, because I love them, and I’d rather a few more were made.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7453361749649048}
+{"content": "Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environment, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines\n\nBIODIVERSITY: The Twilight Age of Coral Reefs\n\nStephen Leahy\n\nGIJON, Spain, May 22 2008 (IPS) - Coral reefs will be the first global ecosystem to collapse in our lifetimes. The one-two punch of climate change that is warming ocean temperatures and increasing acidification is making the oceans uninhabitable for corals and other marine species, researchers said at a scientific symposium in Spain.\n\n\n\n“Surface waters off the coast of San Francisco had concentrations of carbon dioxide that we didn’t expect to see for at least another 100 years,” Feely told IPS.\n\nFor hundreds of thousands of years, the levels of carbon dioxide in the ocean and the atmosphere were in balance, but the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation has put more CO2 into the atmosphere over the last 150 years. The oceans have absorbed one-third – about 130 billion tonnes – of those human emissions and have become 30 percent more acidic as this extra CO2 combines with carbonate ions in seawater, forming carbonic acid.\n\nEach day, the oceans absorb 30 million tonnes of CO2, gradually and inevitably increasing their acidity and leaving less calcium carbonate in the water for corals and shell-form species like phytoplankton to grow or maintain their skeletons.\n\nOn the west coast of North America, there is normal upwelling of deep ocean water onto the continental shelf in the spring and summer. Feely and colleagues took water samples from Canada to Mexico last summer and much to their surprise they found big pools or shoals of corrosive water. These deep waters have been absorbing CO2 for thousands of years and are normally more acidic, but the levels found were far higher and much closer to the shore than anyone had expected.\n\nThis is the first evidence that a large section of the North American west coast is being impacted by climate change-driven ocean acidification, Feely and colleagues write in their paper published Thursday in Science. “Other continental shelf regions may also be impacted,” they write.\n\nIn fact, Feely told IPS that there is evidence that the same process is happening along the west coast of South America.\n\nSo what does this mean? “There are likely huge impacts, but this is new and no one has looked to see yet,” Feely said.\n\nContinental shelves are among the most productive regions of the oceans and the easiest to fish. The very few studies looking at the impacts of ocean acidification have found that many species cannot survive these new conditions. Brittlestars (a close relative of starfish) die in eight days, and some juvenile clams can’t form shells when the CO2 levels are doubled, Feely said. Some of the surface waters last summer were triple the normal CO2 levels.\n\nAnd there is no information at all on how the marine ecosystem responds when these pools of corrosive water move in for a few days or weeks. “Do species like free-swimming pteropods (a type of snail) know when their thin shells are dissolving so they can get out of the way?” he asked.\n\nThat turns out to be an important question for species like salmon, since pteropods can make up 60 percent of their diet.\n\nTemperature rise and acidification are putting one of the planet’s key ecosystems at great risk, Feely warned: “This is a very real biological threshold beyond which species will simply cease to exist.”\n\nCoral reefs support about 25 to 33 percent of the oceans’ living creatures. Some one billion people depend directly and indirectly on reefs for their livelihoods. Sea birds and many species of fish would be affected by the loss of reefs, said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a marine scientist at the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia.\n\nWhen CO2 in the atmosphere reaches a concentration of 450 to 500 parts per million (ppm), the oceans will mostly be too acidic for corals to grow. Warmer ocean temperatures of just one or two degrees above normal can not only can cause coral bleaching but also make corals vulnerable to even lower levels of acidification, said Hoegh-Guldberg, who attended the Gijon meet.\n\nCO2 is at 384 ppm currently and rising very fast as nearly every country’s emissions continue to grow. Worse, new research also presented in Gijon suggests the oceans themselves are no longer absorbing as much CO2 as they once did. Stabilising the atmospheric concentration of CO2 at less than 450 ppm now looks to be impossible.\n\n“We are witnessing the end of corals as a major feature in the oceans,” Hoegh-Guldberg told IPS.\n\nThe faint hope for corals is for global society to realise climate change is “a code red emergency” and cut carbon emissions to zero and start reducing the concentrations in the atmosphere right away, he said. “Otherwise in 30 years or so corals will be so thin and brittle if you breathe on them they will fall over.”\n\nRepublish | | Print |\n\nRelated Tags", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.947917103767395}
+{"content": "The Importance of Inter-Centre Harmony\n\n30 April 2009 - 11:39pm Comments Off\n\nIn order to make the holy Dharma grow we need to have more inter-centre (in our respective countries) communications, support and harmony. For example if one centre is having a dinner, garage sale, or event, another centre’s representative should offer donations, congratulations, and emotional support. When another centre is doing well, we must all rejoice and be happy because we are all in the same family, and if other members or other centres have contributed to the growth of our centres, we should mention, rejoice and make sure always that the members in our centre are informed now and in the future so that it encourages inter-centre support in the future. It is not necessary that we attend ceremonies of other centres when their teachers arrive as we have our own teachers, commitments and practice. But we should definitely NEVER NEVER criticise, infer, create gossip, or slander the other centre’s teachers, practice, lineage or activities. It is said in the holy Lam Rim composed by the King of Dharma Manjunatha Tsongkhapa that if we criticise any form of dharma, the negative karma accumulated is equivalent to killing 1,000 Buddhas. Just think of the karma of killing just an insect, which we as Buddhists try to be aware and not do so – imagine killing a Buddha. Of course killing a Buddha is not possible but it is a hypothetical example of the gravity of that kind of action. If we create schismatic talk and we are successful in preventing others from going to their teachers, or create doubt in their mind regarding their teachers, stop them from going to a certain centre, or cause them to abandon their teacher and practice how can we gain any attainments???? The negative karma is very strong and multiplies daily. If we are the cause for others to lose faith in their teacher and practice, then how can our own faith (the cause of all attainments in the Tantras) increase, be stable in our own teachers? If our samaya (commitment and faith) is not stable in our own teacher then how can any understanding, attainments, and spiritual growth manifest in our mind stream??? We should think about that point carefully. Those who speak ill of our/others’ teachers, practice and lineage, be they high monks, lamas, or ordinary students, we must be aware of them and let it pass into one ear and then out the other. Have compassion for that person, do not engage or ask any more questions and smile and let it go. If others comment that there is something wrong with our teachers and practice that we have already forged a samaya with, then what is not to say they can be wrong, be they high-ranking monks or simple students? When does it stop?? Either all the gurus are to be respected and the bond between them and their students held sacred or we must be a living Buddha to criticise, judge and talk negatively, and check who is “genuine” and not “genuine”. Who in true Buddhistic practice can run around proclaiming they are a living Buddha? People who are incredible examples of selflessness such as Mother Teresa proclaims herself to be a simple nun or a pencil in God’s hand. The Spiritual Head of Tibetan Buddhism always says that he is just a simple Buddhist monk although more than fourteen million Buddhists of the Tibetan Tradition believe him to be Avalokiteshvara. So once we are able to criticise another practice, teacher, tradition, deity, centre, temple, church, student, etc. then we leave ourselves open for criticism and schism, because in the end who is right and who is wrong?? When we criticise another tradition/practice/teacher it also shows that we are highly insecure about what we are doing so we need more people doing what we are doing to feel “right”. Or to give us security, when only study, reading, practice, holding vows and attending dharma talks to get knowledge is what will really give us security in our practice based on sound logic.\n\nA person like that never criticises others but rejoices, because when you reach a higher state of practice and knowledge, you see the oneness/sameness of the goal – only method differs - and you rejoice at the skilfulness of the masters in offering diversity to differing sentient beings. Otherwise one would create the karma of being separated from one’s own teacher and teachings, unable to practice and gain results, and anger and fear increase in the mind and great insecurities arise due to resultant karma of schismatic actions of speech and mind. People who have taken refuge or accepted another to be their teacher or practice, we must encourage them towards what they have already committed themselves to.\n\nIf we separate another person from their teacher, causing them to abandon the teacher-student samaya and bring them to our teacher/practice, according to the 50 Verses of Guru Devotion, that person and us would never gain any attainments. We may be able to negatively influence them in the beginning, but as they gain more and more knowledge in the dharma, our negative words will have less and less of a hold on the other person as they study the dharma more. In fact, the person might lose confidence in us and, in the worst case, forsake their refuge which is bad for them and extremely detrimental to ourselves. Any teacher, traditions, student and writings that castigate, defame or criticise other teachers, traditions and students we must be wary of as they can prove extremely detrimental to our own spiritual growth. People who like to carry tales from one centre to another centre or criticise other teachers/centres create the most detriment to the growth of the Buddha dharma.\n\nEvery Buddhist lineage, tradition and teacher has the right to exist, form and benefit others. We don’t need any councils, groups, or authority to look over that. If these authoritarian groups exist, they must consist of very learned students, practiced, have their three doors subdued, unbiased and be non-denominationally based. If so, these groups can cause great detriment to the growth of Buddhism in their individual societies.\n\nH.E. Tsem Rinpoche has been the direct influence, inspiration and connection for a few dharma centres to open in Singapore and Malaysia. To date, he has influenced or directly inspired six dharma centres in Singapore and Malaysia. Some of the most learned masters/practitioners such H.H. Gaden Tri Rinpoche, H.E. Kyabje Lati Rinpoche, H.E. Kensur Jampa Yeshe Rinpoche, Jangtse Jolenpa Gen Nyima, various Geshes, few other tulkus and monks have visited countries in this region due to Tsem Rinpoche. He has generously donated funds to them, found sponsors and benefactors, offered innumerable statues for their shrines, dharma book for their libraries and has even visited their centres to give teachings to raise the membership of those respective centres. Because Tsem Rinpoche has a perfect command of English, combined with humour, foibles, anecdotes and sharp knowledge of dharma and its practical application to today’s distracted and busy individuals, he appeals to many and promotes a non-denominational attitude. He has many visitors from other faiths who attend his talks or simply visit Rinpoche, and he always encourages them to remain -faithful- to their faiths and to share an understanding with each other to create religious tolerance/acceptance. Whenever there is a charity dinner or function, Rinpoche is the first one to offer donations, buy tickets, send his students and centre members to go and support the centre without bias. He feels that the growth of any centre represents the growth of the general Buddha Dharma. So when we contribute to the growth of another centre, Rinpoche feels we contribute to the growth of dharma as a whole. Rinpoche stresses that he wishes dharma to grow in the world. On a practical basis he says, one teacher, one centre and one lineage would be physically and practically impossible to suit/accommodate everyone and their temperament. So if you have ten centres for example, in the city, then there is a higher chance that more people can come across the dharma in that city as opposed to just having one centre.\n\nRinpoche often has students of other centres consulting him, asking for divinations, advice, clearing of dharma points, or just to meet Rinpoche. He always encourages them towards their teacher, practice and centre and discourages them to join him unless it’s for general gatherings. He doesn’t not welcome them, but Rinpoche always mentions, what do we want from that person? Do we want them to gain attainments, knowledge, realisations so that their lives can be happy and they can transform to be of benefit to others, or just increase the membership of our own centres for financial gains, profits or simply to look good? If our motivation is the prior, then we should encourage them towards what they have already committed themselves to because once they gain knowledge and realisations, causing a transformation of themselves, it doesn’t matter anymore what tradition they came from, they simply benefit others. Isn’t that Buddha’s intent? If so, that should be our own intent.\n\nTherefore inter-centre harmony is crucial to the growth of the Buddha dharma in today’s world. We should consider if we wish the holy dharma to grow so that it can be of tremendous benefit to the contribution of inner peace which leads to outer peace. If so, then H.E. Tsem Rinpoche of Gaden’s thoughts and advice are very applicable to wherever we live in the world because Buddhism is a renowned world religion and it will only grow. In countries where traditionally Buddhism has not taken root, it is establishing itself by way of centres that turn into temples and eventually into institutions of great learning. Wherever Buddhism thrives, it serves as great addition to the peace and harmony of that city or country due to its stress on non-harm, non-killing and peaceful agenda of cooperative human social interaction. It also stresses very much on peaceful interactions and inter-religious harmony. So it would be very important for the thousands of Dharma centres throughout the world to grow, expand and fulfil their functions as contributors to inner and eventually outer world peace. These thoughts have been penned specifically from the teachings of H.E. Tsem Rinpoche who has kindly adopted Malaysia as his home, but many can access his teachings, thoughts, ideas and broad views by his website.\n\nThese are a few thoughts I have penned through listening to the skilful talks of Gaden Tsem Rinpoche.\n\nComments are closed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8239516615867615}
+{"content": "AKP finds people massacred in Cizre guilty\n\nMehmet Erdoğan (75) was shot on his head by the police in Cizre and his body was left out on the street for one full day, with his bag of groceries in his hand. The Ministry of the Interior found him guilty “because he left his home”.\n\n130 people had been burned to death by the police and the army in three basements they took cover in from the clashes during the “curfew” enacted in Şırnak’s Cizre district. Dozens were shot to death during this “curfew” in and around their homes and in their streets.\n\nMehmet Erdoğan was 75 and had 5 children. He lived in Cizre’s Cudi neighborhood. He left his home on September 11, 2015 to “find bread” and was killed by a shot to the head by the police.\n\nErdoğan’s body was not allowed to be retrieved for three days. The body was left to rot on the street, with a bag of bread beside it, only to be retrieved by a delegation that was able to enter the district after the curfew was lifted.\n\nFollowing the death, Erdoğan family’s lawyers sued the Ministry of the Interior for criminal responsibility. The Ministry of the Interior Undersecretariat of Law gave a scandalous response to the lawsuit.\n\nThe Ministry argued that Mehmet Erdoğan was guilty for “not complying with the ban and leaving his home during the days of curfew”, and claimed the Cizre District Security Directorate and other officials on duty had no fault.\n\nIn their defense, the ministry said: “In the incident in question, it is very clear that no documents or information have been submitted to lead to conclude that the administration is at fault, and considering the circumstances, that there is no fault in service in the context of the incident.”\n\n\nThe Ministry of the Interior does not acknowledge any fault at all with the administration and lists the three conditions of “fault in service” as: “These are bad, delayed and nonexistent service situations. To speak of the presence of a fault in service in an incident; a malfunction, disorder, inaccuracy, deficiency or disability must have occurred due to necessary orders, directives or instructions not being given, the inspection being insufficient or nonexistent, tools and vehicles assigned for the service being deficient or lacking, necessary precautions not being taken, or not being taken in time, action not being taken or taken late regarding the public service the administration is responsible for providing, and the resulting damages must have been caused by causes listed here.”\n\n\nThe defense also said: “There is not a shred of information or evidence to prove that the death incident occurred due to the security forces deliberately targeted and fired shots as claimed in the casefile.”\n\n\nThe Ministry of the Interior also denied that access to pharmacies and hospitals was barred during the “curfew” and claimed:\n\n“Cizre District Security Directorate stated that the necessary precautions and assurances were taken sufficiently and effectively as part of the coordination with relevant institutions regarding possible risks during the operation planning and preparation before the operational use of force and during the operational use of force itself. To this extent, the residents were aided by the security forces in coordination with the Cizre District Governorate to leave the district. The Cizre District Governorate led the efforts to provide shelter and food aid to the citizens and allowed 112 Emergency Services ambulances to enter the operation grounds to ensure safe exit/evacuation of persons claimed to have been found wounded inside the operation zone.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8060433864593506}
+{"content": "\n\nAs you lie down at night and shut your eyes in hopes of a restful night’s slumber, sometimes your mind has other plans. It is not exactly an opportune time to reminisce about the day or worry about the next, which can make it difficult to get sound sleep. And without sleep, caffeine intake increases, moods fluctuate, and healthy diets slide. It can also make it tough to operate as a happy, productive person throughout the week.\n\nAccording to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, approximately 30 percent of Americans have symptoms of insomnia. Insomnia is different than occasional sleeplessness in that it can cause anxiety, depression, and disruption from everyday life. Sleep is a key component to maintaining your mental health, so as part of Mental Health Awareness Month we wanted to share advice on how to sleep better. Whether you suffer from a few nights a week of cartoon-eyed, thumb-twiddling sleeplessness or you know the entire late-night TV lineup, here are a few ways to learn how to teach yourself to sleep better.\n\nPower down the electronics\n\nPhones, tablets, and TVs are not, in fact, permanently attached to you. We’ve grown accustomed to having electronics handy to work and be social. But what we’ve forgotten is that all this noise distracts us from practicing true mindfulness and being able to decompress at the end of the day. According to the National Sleep Foundation, electronics emit light that promotes wakefulness by signaling your brain to stay alert through the photoreceptors in your eyes. Aim to power down one to two hours before bedtime.\n\nSleep somewhere else\n\nIf you are losing sleep night after night, it is easy to start seeing your bedroom as a place of restlessness. This actually encourages more sleepless nights. If you are stuck in a holding pattern, try sleeping in a different position or somewhere else entirely. Try lying with your feet where your head usually is, or sleep sideways on the bed. Other options are sleeping on the couch, on the floor, or in a guest bedroom.\n\nUse essential oils\n\nCalm down your nervous system with essential oils like lavender, chamomile, mandarin, ylang ylang, neroli, lemon, or jasmine. Put a few drops of oil on a damp cloth and rest it on your forehead. Inhaling these relaxing smells can help ease you into a night of restful bliss.\n\nEmploy deep-breathing methods\n\nTaking yourself through a few deep-breathing exercises can be one of the quickest ways to get some shut-eye. An easy one to remember is breathing in for the count of eight and exhaling for the count of eight. Breathe through your nose. Exhaling allows fresh oxygen to be absorbed, but exhaling through your nose in particular enables you to absorb the most amount of oxygen. Also, breathing out of your mouth stimulates your nervous system and encourages possible hyperventilation. If you are prone to panic attacks, always be sure to keep breathing through your nose.\n\nMind your diet\n\nWhile ribs and French fries sound like an amazing dinner, a diet high in fat, sodium, and sugar can keep you awake for a number of reasons. Eating this way will raise blood pressure, promote acid reflux, and change your digestive routine to make it uncomfortable to sleep. Also, eating right before bed can increase sleep difficulty.\n\nIn addition to food, what and when you drink is important. Drinking too much water throughout the day or too close to bedtime can result in multiple nighttime trips to the bathroom. Drinking too much alcohol late at night can make your heart race because you are too dehydrated. Find a balance between too much and too little water.\n\nNo matter the reason you can’t sleep, it takes practice to learn to sleep better. But having a pocket full of tips like these gives you options and a more positive attitude about getting your Zs.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9592698216438293}
+{"content": "Financial news\n\nA better society can emerge from the lockdowns\n\nBy | \n\nVia Financial Times\n\nThe writer, a Nobel laureate, is Thomas W Lamont University Professor at Harvard\n\n“We will meet again,” Queen Elizabeth said recently, invoking a 1939 song. It was an inspiring thought and exactly what we needed. But what kind of a world can we expect after the pandemic? Will we gain something from the experience of jointly resisting the crisis?\n\nThe world was full of serious problems before coronavirus. Inequality was rampant, both between countries and within them. In the US, the world’s richest country, millions of people lacked medical coverage, contributing to unnecessary illness. Ill-calculated austerity had weakened the EU’s ability to provide public support to vulnerable people. Anti-democratic politics was on the rise, from Brazil and Bolivia to Poland and Hungary.\n\nIs it possible that shared experience of the pandemic will help alleviate such pre-existing problems?\n\nThe need to act together can certainly generate an appreciation of the constructive role of public action. The second world war, for example, made people better realise the importance of international co-operation. The United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank were born in 1944-5, not long after Vera Lynn sang about meeting again.\n\nHowever, was there any long-term improvement within a country from the experience of crisis? We did see some.\n\nThere was a sharp reduction of the incidence of undernourishment in Britain in the difficult years of food shortages during the second world war. Facing a big reduction of total food availability, Britain arranged more equal food sharing, through rationing and social support. The chronically undernourished were much better fed than ever before. A similar thing happened with better-shared medical attention.\n\nREAD ALSO House sends China sanctions bill to Trump's desk as tensions escalate\n\nThe results were astounding. During the war decade of the 1940s, life expectancy at birth in England and Wales went up by 6.5 years for men, compared with 1.2 years in the preceding decade, and for women it rose 7 years, far exceeding the 1.5 year gain of the decade before. The positive lessons from pursuing equity and paying greater attention to the disadvantaged helped in the emergence of what came to be known as the welfare state. Aneurin Bevan, an advocate of greater equity during and after the war, inaugurated the first National Health Service hospital in Britain — the Park Hospital in Manchester — in 1948.\n\nCan something similarly positive happen due to the experience of the present crisis? The lessons to emerge from a crisis surely depend on how it is dealt with, and what concerns come to the fore.\n\nPolitics is important here, including the relation between rulers and governed. During the war years, in contrast with the better sharing of food and healthcare by the British public, the terrible 1943 Bengal famine occurred in British India, killing nearly 3m, which the Raj did little to prevent.\n\nIn the policies against the present pandemic, equity has not been a particularly noticeable priority. In the US, African Americans are dying at an enormously higher rate from Covid-19 than white people. In Chicago, more than 70 per cent of pandemic deaths have been of African Americans who constitute only a third of the resident population. Internal disparities in suffering seem to have been no less in many other countries, from Brazil and Hungary to India.\n\nREAD ALSO S&P 500, Dow open higher as Boeing resumes 737 MAX production\n\nIndia is a particularly striking case. Inequalities remain very large. Famines have not occurred since the establishment of democracy in independent India. Yet open public discussion — which makes the predicament of the deprived heard, politically significant and protects the endangered — faces increasing governmental restriction, including reduction of media freedom through direct and indirect means.\n\nMarked by the contrast between reasonable medical facilities for the affluent, and not even decent primary healthcare for most of the poor, and weighed down by the brutal asymmetries of modernised caste inequalities, India could have benefited greatly from equitable pandemic management. Yet there is little evidence of egalitarian concerns. Instead, the focus has been on drastic control and sudden lockdowns (including of trains and buses) with little attention paid to labourers who lose their jobs or the many migrant workers, the poorest of the poor, who are kept hundreds of miles from their homes.\n\nSure, social distancing restricts the virus’ spread (this important benefit is not in dispute). But it has to be combined with compensatory arrangements — for income, food, access and medical attention — for people devastated by the lockdown. India, like many countries, needs something like an NHS. But no lesson in that direction will probably emerge from the pandemic response, given its huge inequities.\n\nSadly, it is quite possible that when we meet again we will be no better placed to face the unequal world in which we live. Yet it need not go that way. A concern with equity in crisis management would lessen suffering in many countries now, and offer new ideas to inspire us to build a less unequal world in the future. Since we are less than half way into the crisis, dare we hope this can still happen?\n\nREAD ALSO Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey clash as Trump social media order looms\n\nPrint Friendly, PDF & Email\n\nLatest from", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7361536026000977}
+{"content": "Jump to the main content block\n\nAesthetics and Art\n\nAesthetics of living\n\n\"Aesthetics of living\" will address the East-West cultural and aesthetic experience through series of questions that drive the discourse in contemporary life’s content and activities.Following the different lifestyles, social environment, human tries to reconstruct everyday life into contemporary aesthetics of living. This course aims to encourage students to think what isaesthetic of living, through the real life andspiritual life and concerned itself with the aesthetic problems in the lives of others.\n\nIntroduction to Art Theories\n\nThe focus of this course is the exploration of visual arts. Students will study the origin of art and the distinction among primitive art, folk and popular art. This course also provides students with visual elements, design principles, applied media material, and techniques including charcoal drawing, water-colored painting,oil painting, graphic art,compound material, sculpture, architecture, advertisement, packaging,fashion design, industrial design, and photography. Slide teaching is adopted to give students a comprehensive and general understanding on visual art in order to foster students to appreciate, study, and create art.\n\nIntroduction to Music\n\nThrough this course—Introduction to Music, students would have a general understanding of music, understand the elements of music, technical theory and cultural background, at the same time in the music aesthetic to explore the composition of the standard, through exploring the different historical periods of humanistic background, of understand for the time that the idea of music composing and the mpact of musical style development, as well as the development of music aesthetic concept of the evolution of the impact, based on discussing the development of music, the essence of art, and aesthetic meaning, to develop the concept of musical art, as well as a probe into the extension of aesthetic thought.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8133684992790222}
+{"content": "Ineffective Assistance of Counsel\n\nIneffective assistance of counsel occurs when someone has a lawyer who lacks the time, experience, or professional responsibility to provide them adequate representation. When this occurs, it violates a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel and Fifth Amendment right to due process.\n\nSome examples can include failure to investigate applicable defenses, failure to investigate prosecution witnesses, and failure to hire experts to challenge the prosecution’s physical evidence. \n\nIAC often leads to wrongful convictions because a jury is more likely to believe the prosecution’s evidence when it is not properly combatted. \n\nRelevant Case: Robert “Dave” Wilkes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999668002128601}
+{"content": "o--------------------------------------o | \"Someone Is Waiting\" | | from On Avery Island | | by NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL | o--------------------------------------o C 332010 F 133211 Bb x13331 ---------------------------------------- F C Someone is waiting to swallow all the halos out of you F As your face blows through my windows C Sending pieces flying all around my room ---------------------------------------- F And I love you and I want to C Shoot all the super heroes from your skies ---------------------------------------- F Watch them bleeding from your ceiling C As their empty anger falls out from their eyes Bb F Bb F All alone", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9992917776107788}
+{"content": "\n\nHawkes Bay Pinot Gris\n\nLeft Field\n\n\nLeft Field Pinot Gris\n\n\nImbibe on its own or devour with seafood such as grilled prawns with fresh lemon.\n\n\nFruit was sourced from outstanding vineyards in the Heretaunga Plains and the Ohiti Valley. The grapes were gently Pressed and the juice was settled briefly prior to transferring to tank and stainless steel barrel for fermentation. Each parcel was fermented with different yeast, some to enhance aromatic character and others to provide texture and interest. This includes partial wild fermentation to add complexity. After a short maturation period the parcels were blended and bottled.\n\n12.5% ABV", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997779130935669}
+{"content": "Floyd Mayweather’s Net Worth Go UP By $50 Million!\n\n\nTonight Floyd “Money” Mayweather will definitely be living up to his nickname as he faces off against Robert Guerrero at the MGM in Las Vegas. It’s been a year since we’ve seen Floyd Mayweather in a boxing ring.\n\nDuring that time Floyd spent two months in jail for domestic abuse. While he was incarcerated, Floyd complained that the prison food was causing his muscles to deflate because he was not able to consume nearly enough protein or calories. After his release in August, Mayweather jump started a rigorous training circuit to prepare for tonight’s bout. But was it enough to bring back his old shape? Honestly, it doesn’t really matter that much because even if Floyd loses tonight, he’ll still walk away with a staggering $50 million paycheck.\n\nFor more: http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/floyd-mayweather-will-make-50-million-tonight/", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.743172287940979}
+{"content": "An unidentified South African man is being held in high esteem after coming up with a creative hand-washing technique to combat spread of coronavirus.\n\nHe transformed a rusty metallic drum into an appealing washing sink for passengers at a taxi rank in one of the suburbs.\n\nThe sink was crafted with artificial grass, to beautify the creativity and advocate for the adoption of proper handwashing techniques.\n\n\nSome South Africans are impressed with the brainy work of the artist, as they call on the government to support his innovation.\n\nWith 116 cases yet no death recorded, South Africans have become vigilant as they ban schools, travels and gatherings exceeding 100 persons.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9700188040733337}
+{"content": "13 September, 2017, Toronto CANADA, and Bethesda MD, USA — BenchSci, an AI discoverability platform that helps scientists design better experiments by decoding scientific papers and extracting usage data for biological compounds and related figures, has successfully completed its first license agreement, with FASEB. The agreement allows BenchSci to include FASEB’s flagship publication, The FASEB Journal (FJ), on the BenchSci platform to increase discoverability of relevant scientific compounds discussed within The FASEB Journal-published articles.\n\n\nHowever, OA papers only represent a subset of all scientific literature. Scientists generally use resources such as Google or PubMed that are missing non-OA information and tools that publishers might offer. To overcome this, BenchSci is working with publishers to make more of their content discoverable through its platform, without loss of readership or traffic to their sites. BenchSci’s machine learning technology pinpoints the exact information scientists look for within each paper and displays relevant figures for them to identify which articles to read. The figures act as a window into published articles, giving scientists more confidence that information relevant to their search parameters is located within. They can then visit the publisher’s website to access the full text.\n\n\n\nAbout BenchSci\n\n\nOur goal is to help scientists find antibodies that have been proven to work by the scientific community, and therefore achieve scientific discoveries faster.\n\nAbout The FASEB Journal\n\nThe FASEB Journal publishes international, transdisciplinary research covering all fields of biology at every level of organization: atomic, molecular, cell, tissue, organ, organismic and population. While the journal strives to include research that cuts across the biological sciences, it also considers submissions that lie within one field, but may have implications for other fields as well. The journal seeks to publish basic and translational research, but also welcomes reports of pre-clinical and early clinical research. In addition to research, review, and hypothesis submissions, The FASEB Journal also seeks perspectives, commentaries, book reviews, and similar content related to the life sciences in its Up Front section.\n\nThe journal has been covered by major news outlets, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, U.S. News and World Report, Reuters, National Public Radio, Voice of America, ABC News, Scientific American, Bloomberg News, MSNBC, and BBC News.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9826734662055969}
+{"content": "GEOG 160\nMapping Our Changing World\n\n6.9 Routing\n\n\nOperations such as mail and package delivery, food and beverage distribution, and emergency medical services need to know not only where their customers are located, but how to deliver products and services to those locations as efficiently as possible. Geographic data products like TIGER/Line Shapefiles are valuable to analysts responsible for prescribing the most efficient delivery routes. The larger and more complex the service areas of such organizations, the more incentive they have to automate their routing procedures.\n\nIn its simplest form, routing involves finding the shortest path through a network from an origin to a destination. If the nodes are specified within geographic or plane coordinate systems, the distance between them can be calculated readily. Routing procedures sum the lengths of every plausible sequence of line segments that begins and ends at the specified locations. The sequence of segments associated with the smallest sum represents the shortest route. In addition to geographic distances, modern transportation data can also make use of local speed limits or, where available, current traffic conditions to determine the length of time needed to travel a particular line segment. This allows analysts and users to compare and make compromises between a route of the shortest distance and a route of the shortest travel time.\n\nTo enable this kind of analysis and computation, the data must indicate which line segment follows immediately after another line segment. In other words, the procedure needs to know about the connectivity of features. As discussed earlier, connectivity is an example of a topological relationship. If topology is not encoded in the data product, it can be calculated by the GIS software in which the procedure is coded.\n\nSeveral online travel planning services, including and Google Maps, provide routing capabilities. Both take origin and destination addresses as input, and produce optimal routes as output. These services are based on vector feature databases in which street segments are attributed with address ranges, as well as with other data that describe the type and conditions of the roads they represent. Recent advances in these services have added routing for pedestrians and bicyclists as well as by mass transit.\n\nTry This: Use a routing tool to help you find your way\n\nLet’s take a practical look at a routing application you might use while on vacation or exploring a new city.\n\n1: Visit Google Maps:\n\n2: In the search box, enter: The Henley Park Hotel, Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC. The Henley Park Hotel will be marked by the ‘A’ pin.\n\n3: Click it and then click the ‘Directions’ link shown in Figure 6.11:\n\nGoogle maps screenshot of The Henley Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. marked by an 'A' pin\nFigure 6.11: Step 1 - Click the 'A' pin for the Henley Park Hotel, and then click 'Directions.'\nCredit: Google Maps.\n\n4: A new textbox will appear on the left of the map. Enter Library of Congress, Independence Avenue Southeast, DC in the empty textbox.\n\n5: ClickGet Directions’ (Figure 6.12):\n\nGoogle maps screenshot of 'Get Directions' section.\nFigure 6.12: Step 2 - Click 'Get Directions' to see a route from the Henley Park Hotel to the Library of Congress.\nCredit: Google Maps.\n\n6: Use the buttons indicated in Figure 6.13 to toggle different transpiration options:\n\nGoogle maps screenshot of buttons used to indicate transportation options.\nFigure 6.13: Step 3 - Toggle the different modes of travel to see how the routes between the origin and destination change.\nCredit: Google Maps.\n\nExperiment with the different routes and travel modes. Which travel mode takes the shortest route? Which route has more turns? Which travel mode/route is quickest? Note that each mode of travel may also have additional routes that can be toggled (Figure 6.14).\n\nGoogle maps screenshot showing route options for various modes of travel.\nFigure 6.14: Each of the available modes of travel is associated with at least one route.\nCredit: Google Maps\n\nWhich mode of travel would you choose?\n\nSometimes routes have more than one destination and several stops must be made during a trip. This is a complex special case of routing called the traveling salesman problem. School bus dispatchers, mail and package delivery service managers, and food and beverage distributors all seek to minimize the transportation costs involved in servicing multiple, dispersed destinations. Choosing the optimal route requires very sophisticated analysis to evaluate all possible routes, keeping in mind speed limits, typical traffic volumes, one-way streets, and other characteristics of the transportation network. As the number of destinations and the costs of travel increase, the high cost of purchasing up-to-date, properly attributed network data becomes easier to justify.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5778330564498901}
+{"content": "Located just behind the mosque of Ibn Tulun, the house is named after the Cretan family that resided in these two joined medieval houses from 1834. Between 1935 and 1942, Major Gayer-Anderson resided and refurbished the houses. This tour gives you a glimpse into the home of Gayer-Anderson and what a wealthy Cairene home would have looked like 300 years ago.\n\nMajor Robert Grenville Gayer-Anderson (1881-1945) was a British army surgeon, administrator and collector. Many of the antiquities that he collected can be seen in his home, others were distributed in 1943 to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge while others can be seen in Stockholm and the British Museum (including the famous Gayer-Anderson bronze cat).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.664900541305542}
+{"content": "Handball club\n\nIntroduction and club history\n\nThe Handball Club is still relatively young having been set up in 2016/17 academic year and become a full constituted club of the Sports Union in 2017/18. The club has one team in the Scottish Student Sport Handball leagues, which take place in a number of weekends in the year.\n\nThe club has a great mix of nationalities given the sport is generally not considered as being native to Scotland. \n\nWhat does a typical season involve?\n\n\nTraining takes place on Tuesday mornings from 07.30-09.00 and Wednesday afternoons from 15.30-17.00 in Oriam.\n\n\nThe club has around 6 to 8 league events each academic year. These are spread around Scotland, and Oriam usually play host to atleast two events. The matches also tend to take place on Sundays.\n\nHow do I join the club?\n\nTo join the Hockey Club, you have to first join Oriam, then pay an additional club membership fee of £20. You can pay this online on the Oriam website.\n\nKey information\n\nHW Handball (Handball)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8926681280136108}
+{"content": "\n\n\n\nSuite popular Española\n\nbased on Paul Kochański's transcriptions for violin and piano of Falla's Siete Canciones populares españolas\n\nManuel de Falla was, together with Albéniz and Granados, one of the three great Spanish composers to draw inspiration from and be greatly influenced by the popular music of Spain. Born in Cádiz in 1876, he composed the Siete Canciones Populares Españolas for voice and piano in 1914. The original piece consists of a set of seven short songs which takes the listener on a journey through the different regions of Spain. Later, thisset of miniatures was transcribed for the violin by Paul Kochanski. The set was renamed in its instrumental version as Suite popular Española, containing six songs of the original seven.\n\nThe character of the first movement, ‘El Paño Moruno’ (the Stained Cloth) originates from the South of Spain, the song inflected with Moorish and Flamenco character and dramatically Gypsy flavoured. The movement alternates between a dark, rhythmic melody passed between the piano bass line and an answering violin pizzicato, followed by intense and almost strained melodic sections that imitate the style of the Flamenco singers of Andalucia.\n\nFollowing this comes ‘Nana’, a gentle lullaby marked Calmo e Sostenuto, with the violin instructed to play mormorato. The accompaniment, slowly turning through cycles of harmony, supports a hushed violin melody which is seemingly calm and yet quietly anxious. The popular folk song ‘Canción’ follows, with a gently undulating accompaniment and sunny melodic line. The theme builds into a fortissimo melody of boisterous chords before the movement ends gently.\n\nThis prepares us for the shock and high drama of ‘Polo’ which personifies the fiery character of the Flamenco style of Southern Spain. Rapid note repetitions and syncopated accented rhythms provide driving energy, and this is overlaid with intense declamatory violin phrases. The movement ends with a violent and dramatic flourish.\n\n‘Asturiana’ takes us to the far North of Spain, and to the other extreme of the previous movement. Desolate, sparse harmony and melody evoke cold windswept landscapes of the region. The piece ends with ‘Jota’, a noisy, colourful and joyful dance from the streets of the Aragon region of Spain. Traditionally the dance incorporates the use of castanets, and marked Allegro vivo the movement is energeticand bustling. Interspersed with slower, romantic and seemingly improvised sections, the piece closes with a warm slow section that gently ends our Spanish journey.\n\nfrom notes by Sebastian See-Schierenberg © 2015\n\n\nSounds of Spain & the Americas\nStudio Master: SIGCD405Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available\n\nTrack-specific metadata\n\nClick track numbers above to select\nWaiting for content to load...\nWaiting for content to load...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5115063786506653}
+{"content": "Biomass-Degrading Enzymes Are Catabolite Repressed in Anaerobic Gut Fungi\n\n\nAnaerobic fungi are among the most active plant-degrading microbes in nature. Increased insight into the mechanisms and environmental cues that regulate fungal hydrolysis would better inform bioprocessing strategies to depolymerize lignocellulose. Here, we compare the response of three strains of anaerobic fungi (Piromyces finnis, Anaeromyces robustus, and Neocallimastix californiae) to catabolite regulation by simple carbohydrates. Anaerobic fungi exhibited high enzymatic activity against crystalline cellulose, which was repressed upon incubation with free sugars. Cellulolytic degradation was also inhibited when fungi were exposed to sugars they did not metabolize, suggesting a general mode of catabolite repression. RNA-Seq experiments in the presence of excess glucose confirmed repression of carbohydrate active enzymes during sugar uptake, and offer a path towards unmasking the function of co-regulated genes that could be involved in biomass degradation. Overall, these results suggest that sugar-rich hydrolysates tune the behavior of anaerobic fungi by dampening production of their biomass-degrading enzymes.\n\nICB Affiliated Authors\n\nJohn K. Henske, Sean P. Gilmore, Charles H. Haitjema, Kevin V. Solomon and Michelle O’Malley\nPeer-Reviewed Article\nAIChE Journal", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9568198919296265}
+{"content": "What the Fish\n\nMovie, 2013, 95 minutes\nWhat the Fish\nA crabby woman leaves home for a vacation and entrusts her niece's fiancé to feed her fish and adhere to a strict set of rules. He has other ideas.\nThe movie What the Fish was released in 2013 and lasts 95 minutes. Elternwarnung: Möglicherweise ungeeignet für Kinder unter 14.\n\nWhat the Fish on IMDB\n\nScore: 5.1 of the 10\n\n\nActors in What the Fish\n\n\nAudio and subtitles\n\nAudio: Hindi [Original]\nSubtitles: Englisch\n\nMore like What the Fish\n\n\nNew releases via e-mail?\n\n\nClick here to register for free.\n\nSolo Con Tu Pareja\nLynne Koplitz: Hormonal Beast\nUnerschrocken spricht die Komikerin Lynne Koplitz aus weiblicher Sicht über das Verrücktsein, die Vorteile der Kinderlosigkeit und darüber, was Männer wirklich wollen.\nBachelor Girls\nThrough intimate interviews, this documentary explores the stigma facing independent women who seek housing in modern Mumbai.\nChal Dhar Pakad", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9370758533477783}
+{"content": "A Guide to Accelerated Resolution Therapy\n\nAccelerated resolution therapy (ART) is a type of innovative psychotherapy that can be a highly beneficial form of treatment for those suffering from addiction and mental health disorders. It was developed by Laney Rosenzweig, LMFT, and is influenced by various evidence-based therapies, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR), guided imagery, exposure therapy, and gestalt therapy.\n\nWhat is EMDR therapy and how does it work? Check out our blog article for more insights.\n\nThe NREPP (National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices), a subsidiary of SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), determined that accelerated resolution therapy is an effective form of treatment for PTSD and depression. It was also established to be a potentially effective trauma therapy for those suffering from addiction, anxiety, phobias, panic disorders, and other mental health conditions.\n\nAt Northbound Treatment, we offer a variety of treatment programs to help individuals overcome addiction and mental health disorders, often combining multiple therapy approaches. Here’s what you need to know about accelerated resolution therapy as a part of the continuum of care at a rehabilitation center.\n\nWhat is Accelerated Resolution Therapy?\n\nSometimes referred to as advanced resolution therapy or rapid resolution therapy, the exposure-based psychotherapy technique has been shown to achieve results much quicker than other approaches, often within five sessions or less. In many cases, the remarkable benefits of accelerated resolution therapy can occur after only one session.\n\nIn addition to the mental health conditions mentioned above, ART may be beneficial for those with:\n\n • Interpersonal (relationship) issues \n • Performance anxiety\n • Family issues\n • Low self-esteem\n • Codependency\n\nAccelerated resolution therapy can also be a useful approach for individuals who are experiencing grief, memory problems, difficulty focusing, insomnia, and chronic pain.\n\nHow Resolutions Therapy Works\n\nAccelerated resolution therapy is a relatively straightforward treatment approach. According to the Rosenzweig Center for Rapid Recovery, by integrating evidence-based techniques from other psychotherapies, ART directly reprograms “the way in which distressing memories and images are stored in the brain so that they no longer trigger strong physical and emotional reactions.” \n\nThis accelerated reprogramming of how an individual stores traumatic and grievous memories can alleviate the intense emotional and physical reactions that are usually ignited by those recollections.\n\nART Eye Movement\n\nA fundamental component of rapid resolution therapy is eye movement in which a patient’s rapid eye movement (REM) is targeted to achieve therapeutic benefits. During the eye movement portion of an ART session, the therapist asks the patient to follow their hand or an object as it moves laterally back and forth through their field of view.\n\nThis stimulated eye movement has been shown to make patients feel more at ease, which often allows them to access internal triggers, such as the disturbing images of a traumatic experience. With access to this imagery, accelerated resolution therapy can move forward with healing the patient’s responses to the traumatic images.\n\nVoluntary Imagery Replacement\n\nIn order to move forward from trauma, the therapist will then guide the patient to voluntary imagery replacement (VIR). This technique encourages the patient to draw from their creativity to adjust the image into one that doesn’t generate a negative response. Instead of changing the narrative of the trauma, VIR is intended to contrive alternative imagery, which makes it so that the traumatic memory can no longer cause internal distress.\n\nOne Issue at a Time\n\nAside from making progress and achieving results faster than other forms of psychotherapy, a distinct advantage to ART is that patients are only expected to focus on one issue at a time. Upon resolving their reactions to one internal trigger, which typically occurs within the first few sessions, they can move onto another issue. Processing several issues at once can be overwhelming for some patients and prevent healing. Yet with accelerated resolution therapy, they can experience quick progress without becoming overwhelmed.\n\nA Quick Route to Positive Changes\n\nWith accelerated resolution therapy, patients are in control of each session — the therapist is simply there to guide them. Some traumatic memories and triggering images can be upsetting to visualize. However, ART is designed to quickly carry patients past the point of being stuck on trauma and help them reach positive changes. \n\nThe brief treatment model can provide relief from debilitating mental setbacks in a short period — as opposed to attending many sessions with some long-term therapy approaches. Also, the quick results experienced after one or two sessions is often enough to motivate clients to continue accelerated resolution therapy.\n\nNo Talk Therapy Needed\n\nAnother reason ART fares well with clients is that talking about their past traumas, emotional triggers, or difficult life experiences isn’t a requirement of the treatment approach. As we mentioned, thinking about disturbing experiences can be painful. Those who suffer from psychological trauma and depression usually already experience recurring negative thoughts or flashbacks, and many appreciate the option to process this mental distress without a verbal discussion. With accelerated resolution therapy, the images and memories can stay private or discussed at a later date.\n\nAccelerated Resolution Therapy for Addiction\n\nAddiction and substance abuse disorder affect millions of people in the U.S. Those who struggle with these conditions often have difficulty participating in daily activities, holding jobs, maintaining healthy relationships, and remaining physically healthy. Sadly, the consequences can sometimes be fatal. Although overcoming addiction or substance abuse disorders may seem impossible, recovery is an option for everyone.\n\nART is a treatment approach most often used for those with PTSD symptoms (post-traumatic stress disorder) and depression. However, it’s also included in some comprehensive treatment programs that target multiple conditions, including substance abuse and addiction. Sometimes, accelerated resolution therapy is part of dual diagnosis treatment for addicts, alcoholics, and people with substance abuse disorder.\n\nDual Diagnosis Treatment\n\nDrug and alcohol addiction is a complex mental illness that’s influenced by a variety of factors, including a person’s genetics, lifestyle, environment, brain chemistry, and past experiences. In many cases, addiction coincides with one or more mental health disorders or psychological issues, such as depression, anxiety, trauma, PTSD, OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), codependency, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, and eating disorders. Both can impact how an individual’s brain processes information and experiences.\n\nCommon types of co-occurring disorders include:\n\n • Codependency and alcoholism\n • Stress and addiction\n • Bipolar disorder and alcoholism\n • Depression and alcoholism\n • Anxiety and benzodiazepine addiction\n\nSomeone with a dual diagnosis (or co-occurring disorders) suffers from a substance abuse disorder as well as a mental health condition. In that vein, many people turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with or mask underlying psychological distress. In other instances, addiction is the first condition to occur, which then leads to another mental health disorder. While it’s not always clear whether substance abuse issues or a mental health condition occurred first, integrated dual diagnosis treatment allows individuals to effectively manage and overcome both.\n\nThose with addiction are about twice as likely to also suffer from anxiety or a mood disorder. Addiction and mental illness both affect how the brain processes and responds to information. Since co-occurring disorders create obstacles for effectively navigating recovery, Northbound offers dual diagnosis treatment, which addresses multiple conditions simultaneously as part of a complete recovery plan.\n\nNorthbound’s Approach to Mental Health Treatment\n\nNorthbound Treatment has been helping people overcome their addictions for over 30 years. Our experience and dedication to researching the best treatments have allowed us to develop residential rehab and outpatient programs that effectively address the complex issues our clients face. In order to fully heal and recover, mental health and substance abuse issues must be combatted at the same time. Our fully integrated dual diagnosis treatment center in Orange County offers a range of programs that implement multiple evidence-based therapies.\n\nThe evidence-based therapies we use include:\n\n • Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)\n • Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)\n • Motivational interviewing\n • Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)\n • Experiential therapy\n\nDrawing from a large toolbox of therapeutic approaches allows us to serve the unique needs of our patients and develop individual recovery plans. Although addiction and mental illness are common, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment solution. Ultimately, a client’s route to recovery will be based on the nature of their disorder, as well as their experiences, lifestyle, predispositions, and preferences.\n\nAt Northbound Treatment, each client undergoes a comprehensive biopsychosocial evaluation to ensure they receive treatment that’s right for them. Our trusted approach to recovery is based on research. As such, the clinical team at Northbound is dedicated to helping each and every one of our clients resolve their psychological setbacks, surmount their barriers, and live freely.\n\nIf you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, substance abuse, or mental health problems, call Northbound Treatment at (844) 919-0403 or fill out our online form.\n\nInterested in learning more? Check out our articles Art Therapy for Trauma and What is Trauma Informed Care? for more information on trauma therapy.\n\nArticle Reviewed by Paul Alexander\n\n\nLeave a Reply\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5632725954055786}
+{"content": "Los Osos, California\n\n\nLos Osos is located at 35�19’0″ North, 120�50’8″ West (35.316795, -120.835605). The Elfin Forest, San Luis Obispo County is a notable natural area at Los Osos.\n\n\n\n\nLos Osos is largely a bedroom community for San Luis Obispo, which is 10.6 miles east, and to a lesser extent, Morro Bay, which is 2.3 miles to the north. There is a small business district concentrated in just a few blocks along Los Osos Valley Road, and several shops servicing the Baywood section of Los Osos, near the bay. The rest of the town is almost entirely residential. Population is approximately 16,000 and total population at build-out is limited to approximately 26,000.\n\n\nLos Osos serves as the entrance to Monta�a de Oro State Park. Los Osos Valley Road reaches the coast at the south end of Estero Bay and continues south into the state park. Morro Bay State Park borders the northeast of the town. South Bay Boulevard travels through the middle of the park after it leaves Los Osos. Los Osos is also home to the Elfin Forest which sits on the southeast side of the estuary that sits between Los Osos and Morro Bay State Park.\n\nLarge groves of eucalyptus trees attract the annually migrating Monarch butterflies to Los Osos.\n\n\n\nAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 12.8 square miles (33.1 km�), 99.84% of it land, and 0.16% of it water.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8389816880226135}
+{"content": "After Wu Ling had left, Su Xi-er asked, “Prince Hao, when did you smash the table at the Compassionate Peace Palace?”\n\n\n“Come and sit on this Prince’s lap; this Prince will tell you.” Pei Qianhao’s voice was calm as he picked up a teacup from the table, taking a small sip.\n\n\nSu Xi-er looked at the spacious courtyard. “It’s my first time here in the main courtyard; I should at least go out and take a look.”\n\n\nPei Qianhao didn’t respond, only keeping his gaze upon her as she made her way outside.\n\n\nThere are some things that I must enter the imperial palace to handle.\n\n\nPei Qianhao put down the teacup and walked out of the room. He instructed his guards to protect Su Xi-er before leaving the main courtyard and walking towards the entrance of his residence.\n\n\nSu Xi-er noticed him leaving, but didn’t say anything, knowing that he was heading out to handle some affairs. She simply took her time strolling around the courtyard, then headed to the flower pergola at the back of the Prince Hao Residence.\n\n\nIt just so happened that Feng Changqing and Yu Xiao were walking out of the flower pergola at the same time, revealing many flower growers behind them, all of them excited.\n\n\n“I can’t believe that we have successfully transplanted the Lingrui flowers; all of them have survived!”\n\n\nAfter hearing the flower growers’ words, Su Xi-er knew that the Lingrui flowers were indeed successfully transplanted. Once again, I am impressed by Pei Qianhao’s decisions. It appears that nothing is too difficult for him.\n\n\nThe group of flower growers walked out of the flower pergola, and were stunned when they saw Su Xi-er. There shouldn’t be any women in the Prince Hao Residence, so how did this one get in here? Did she sneak in?\n\n\nWhile the flower growers were still thinking about this, Su Xi-er revealed a gentle smile. Everyone immediately knew that she hadn’t snuck in. If she did sneak in, why would she be smiling at us like she is our master?\n\n\nWhen they thought about the word ‘master’, the flower growers grew even more confused. Prince Hao is the master of the Prince Hao Residence. He doesn’t even have a princess consort yet!\n\n\nFeng Changqing waved his hand at the flower growers. “We will stop here for today. I will take care of the rest for the next few days and notify you if I need any help.”\n\n\n“Mmm, alright!” The flower growers said goodbye to Feng Changqing and left from the backdoor of the Prince Hao Residence.\n\n\nIt was Yu Xiao’s first time seeing Su Xi-er after coming to Beimin. He chuckled, “Miss, it’s only been a few days since we’ve met up, but you’ve already become more beautiful. Your face is so rosy that I can almost pinch water out of your cheeks.”\n\n\n“Yu Xiao, that physician from the Mei Family in Nanzhao, Mei Jinxiu, has also come to Beimin. She has opened up a drug store, and is currently helping people with her medical skills.”\n\n\nFeng Changqing and Yu Xiao’s expressions changed. What is Mei Jinxiu doing in Beimin?\n\n\n“Yu Xiao, you keep an eye on the drug store, but don’t alarm others who go to it. I also want you to pay attention to Pei Anru; make sure you find out how she plans to bring the medicinal powder to the imperial palace.”\n\n\nFeng Changqing was confused. “What medicinal powder?”\n\n\nSu Xi-er slowly replied, “The medicinal powder that will permanently disfigure someone.”\n\n\n“Her heart is so vicious! As expected of the Pei Residence, I have long heard that there are only vile people in there.” Yu Xiao burst out angrily, but suddenly realised that he had said something wrong. “Except Prince Hao, of course. However, Prince Hao isn’t actually someone from the Pei Residence.”\n\nSu Xi-er’s gaze deepened. I know, more than anyone, how much those large aristocratic clans value their bloodline. Besides being involved in court affairs, the main reason that Nanzhao’s officials impeached me in my past life was because Empress Mother was from a minority ethnic group. As such, I didn’t have the pure and noble bloodline of Nanzhao’s Imperial Household. The only reason they chose Lianchen to sit on the throne is because he is the sole male left in the Imperial Household.\n\nPrevious Chapter Next Chapter\n\nRakumon's Thoughts\n\nTranslation: Sangria\n\nTLC: Rakumon\n\nEdit: Lunarlark\n\n\nRakumon's Corner: \n\n*sigh* a society where people judge others based on their status :/\n\nIf Ning Rulan had a powerful family backing her, she might not have faced the end that she did >< Either that, or she had to realise that people wouldn't like her being in power due to her background\n\nThen again, I feel like her plan to work behind the scenes and control Yun Ruofeng as a 'puppet' might not have gone well since Yun Ruofeng likes his pride too much 🤔", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7029452323913574}
+{"content": "Refine by\n\n\nSort by\n\nSearch Product Result\n\nWhat impact wrench features are important to consider?\n\nBecause they use bursts of power, consider the torque and the device's weight. If you are working for long periods of time, a lighter tool would be better. Some jobs require you to turn nuts in confined spaces. These types of jobs benefit from smaller wrenches made to get into narrow spots.\n\nWhat is the best type of wrench for me?\n\nFor household work, a standard ratchet set will be fine for most projects. In a professional workshop, a wrench strong enough for your biggest jobs can almost always be used to perform lighter work.\n\nHow do I choose the right wrench?\n\nYou should always consider the job. If you need to get into small spaces, a narrow space impact wrench will suit your needs. If you need to loosen heavy, stubborn nuts, an impact wrench will serve you well.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9657614231109619}
+{"content": "So You Want to Join a Sorority?\n\nKimberly Harris is a first-generation college student from a working-class\nMidwestern family. She graduated summa cum laude from Syracuse University\nwith a bachelor’s degree in public policy, political science, and magazine\n\n\nBefore I went to college, I had limited exposure to fraternities and sororities, or “Greek life.” I knew some of their names, applied for their scholarships, and even participated in a rites of passage program hosted by a fraternity and sorority collaboration during my senior year in high school, but I didn’t really understand their purpose or popularity. I was a first-generation college student from a working-class home, so I only encountered a few “Greek” members at church. Within a short time of arriving at Syracuse University, I began to understand both the appeal and diversity of these groups.\n\n\nSisterhood: Sororities provide an opportunity to meet, get to know, and bond with other young ladies that you may never have otherwise met. They may belong to different majors, student organizations, class years, geographic origins, religions, or socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, all characteristics that could help college students naturally gravitate towards each other. Forming strong connections with sorority sisters can extremely beneficial for overcoming the typical and unexpected challenges associated with college life.\n\n\nCommunity Service: Many sororities make community service a priority, either by fundraising for local or national causes or by directly serving members of the community. Taking the time to contribute to the improvement of other people’s lives can result in very insightful and uplifting experiences that complement the college experience and inform personal and professional goals while also leaving lasting impressions on underserved individuals and communities.\n\n\nHigh Academic Standards: Sororities often, if not always, require a minimum grade point average to join and remain active in the organization. This requirement ensures that members remain focused on their primary objective: college success and graduation. As an undergraduate, I saw that many of the highest academically achieving students on campus were members of fraternities and sororities. Unfortunately, some members get caught up in the social aspect of Greek life and forget to balance it with their academics, but successful time management is crucial in college generally and especially while participating in student organizations.\n\n\nNetworking and Mentorship: Sororities are amazing sources of professional networking. Many have existed for 100 years or more and boast a large number of alumnae, women who have become very successful in their careers and are willing to impart some of their knowledge and wisdom to women who belong to the same sorority.\n\n\nIf you’re interested in joining a sorority, get to know the sorority’s organizational values, as well as the women who are members of the chapter on your campus. Ensure that they reflect your personal and professional values, goals, ethics, and aspirations. If not, that is totally ok. Don’t force it. Find the right fit and have a great experience. If you decide not to join, the world will continue to revolve, I assure you. Either way, find great friends and seek out memorable opportunities that will help make your college experience one for the history books.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7825964689254761}
+{"content": "The Design Intent Ontology\n\n\"The Design Intent Ontology (DIO) is a generic ontology that provides the conceptualisation needed to capture the knowledge generated during various phases of the overall design lifecycle. It provides definitions for design artifacts such as requirements, designs, design issues, solutions, justifications and evidence and relationships between them to represent the design process and how these things lead to design outcomes. It draws upon the paradigms of IBIS(Issue Based Information System), argumentation and design rationale.\n\nECLAP, Performing Arts Vocabulary\n\n\"The ECLAP vocabulary provide classes and properties for the description of multimedia content related with performing arts. It includes classes for the description of the kind of media used (Video, Audio, Document, etc.), classes for the description of annotations on media (One2One, Explosive), it includes properties for people involved in the creation process as performing arts professionals like (director, actor, mime, clown, etc.), and it includes properties relating the Users with content, groups and annotations (...).\"\n\nExtensible Observation Ontology\n\n\"The Extensible Observation Ontology (OBOE) is a formal ontology for capturing the semantics of scientific observation and measurement. The ontology supports researchers to add detailed semantic annotations to scientific data, thereby clarifying the inherent meaning of scientific observations. (...) OBOE can characterize the context of an observation (e.g., space and time), as well as dependencies such as nested experimental observations.\n\nBiological Collections Ontology\n\n\"The Biological Collections Ontology (BCO) is an application ontology developed as part of the Biocode Commons project, within the OBO Foundry framework. The goal of the BCO is to support the interoperability of biodiversity data, including data on museum collections, environmental/metagenomic samples, and ecological surveys. The BCO covers distinctions between individuals, organisms, voucher specimens, lots, samples, the relations between these entities, and the processes governing the creation and use of 'samples'.\n\nHuman Phenotype Ontology\n\n\"The Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) aims to provide a standardized vocabulary of phenotypic abnormalities encountered in human disease. Each term in the HPO describes a phenotypic abnormality, such as atrial septal defect. The HPO is currently being developed using the medical literature, Orphanet, DECIPHER, and OMIM. HPO currently contains approximately 11,000 terms and over 115,000 annotations to hereditary diseases. The HPO also provides a large set of HPO annotations to approximately 4000 common diseases.\n\nTOVE Organization Ontology\n\n\"Based on: Fox, M.S., Barbuceanu, M., Gruninger, M., and Lin, J., (1998), 'An Organisation Ontology for Enterprise Modeling', In Simulating Organizations: Computational Models of Institutions and Groups, M. Prietula, K. Carley & L. Gasser (Eds), Menlo Park CA: AAAI/MIT Press, pp. 131-152. http://www.eil.utoronto.ca/enterprise-modelling/papers/org-prietula-23au...\"\n\nInternational Contact Ontology\n\n\"This ontology provides basic classes and more detailed properties for representating international street addresses, phone numbers and emails. Rather than using existing ontologies, such as vcard, it was decided to create a new one as the vcard and foaf ignore the details of international addresses, phone numbers, etc. The important part of the ontology are the object and data properties used to describe addresses primarily and phone numbers.\"\n\nGlobal City Indicator Foundation Ontology\n\n\"Contains the foundation ontologies required to represent ISO 37120 city indicators, including Placenames, Time, Measurement, Provenance, Statistics, Validity and Trust. See: Fox, M.S., (2013), 'A Foundation Ontology for Global City Indicators', Global City Institute Working Paper, Vol. 1, No.4, pp. 1-45. Global Cities Institute, University of Toronto.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7616351842880249}
+{"content": "Fox evil\n\nMinette Walters\n\nBok läst år: 2007\n\nKategori: Utländsk deckare\n\nGenus: Hon\n\nUtläst: 30 juli, 2007\n\nWhen elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed only in night clothes and with blood stains on the ground near her body, the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy, landowning husband, Colonel James Lockyer-Fox. A coroner’s inquest gives a verdict of ’natural causes’ but the gossip surrounding him refuses to go away. Why? Because he’s guilty? Or because resentful women in the isolated Dorset village where he lives rule the roost?\n\nShenstead is a place of too few people and too many secrets. Why have James and Ailsa cut their children out of their wills? What happened in the past to create such animosity within the family? And why is James so desperate to find his illegitimate grandchild? Friendless and alone, his reclusive behaviour begins to alarm his London-based solicitor, Mark Ankerton, whose concern deepens when he discovers that James has become the victim of a relentless campaign which accuses him of far worse than the death of his wife. Allegations which he refuses to challenge . . . Why? Because they’re a motive for murder? . . .", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7983585596084595}
+{"content": "Maquinas: A joyful listening.\n\nMaquinas - O Cão de Toda Noite\n\nThe Brazilian band up their game on the second album.\n\nWith “O Cão de Toda Noite”, or “The Dog of All Night”, the Brazilian experimental outfit has pushed their sound further into the realms of genres like jazz, post-rock and shoegaze. On their second album the band also draw influence from contemporary classical music, with styles like atonality and dodecaphony.\n\nInto their musical universe the quintet has invited several experimental musicians from their hometown of Fortaleza, in the Northeastern state of Ceará. On the third track O Silêncio é Vermelho, we find the art-rocker Clau Aniz on clarinet, Eros Augustus on piano, and Felipe Couto on drum machine, who is attached to Quintal Studio where the album was recorded, and act as a co-producer and mixer.\n\nThe result is an album filled with a free spirit, having a melancholic atmosphere, while being playful at the same time, and worth checking out for anyone who enjoys good jazz-rock.\n\n\nOm Jon Skjeseth (508 Artikler)\n\nSkriv en kommentar\n\nDin email adresse vil ikke bli vist offentlig.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9827539920806885}
+{"content": "September 12, 2009\n\n\nXDCAM, which is designed to serve as an acquisition file format, is believed to be inferior to LTO for long-term archiving. SGL’s archive and content management system FlashNet 6.2 can now provide partial file restore directly from archived XDCAM files stored on linear data tape. FlashNet 6.2 overcomes the challenges presented by XDCAM and the way it uses technical metadata.\n\nPartial file restore from XDCAM material can be achieved when extracting a segment from the archive, resulting in a much faster retrieval process. In addition to removing the need for more temporary disk storage, this new process also eliminates the need for additional transcoding, therefore increasing the overall cost-effectiveness and ease-of-use of the FlashNet solution.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.885870635509491}
+{"content": "The third floor houses about\n\nEarly mechanical clocks\n\nSalisbury Cathedral clock, restored\n\nThe Salisbury cathedral clock is a large iron-framed clock without a dial located in the aisle of Salisbury Cathedral. Supposedly dating from about 1386, it is claimed to be the oldest working clock in the world, although a similar claim is made of the clock in the cathedral of Beauvais in France (said to date from 1305). and the clock tower of Chioggia in Italy. The clock is one of the group of 14th to 16th century clocks to be found in the West of England. (See also Wells, Exeter, Castle Combe, Ottery St Mary, and Wimborne Minster.) An attempt to date this clock to around 1386 was made by T.R. Robinson which has been supported by others. Most of the parts of the striking train are believed to be original. The great wheel of the going train is also believed to be original.\n\nOther clocks from the 14th century (the first century in which the mechanical clock flourished throughout Europe), such as those at Rouen (Gros Horloge), Paris (Heinrich von Wick clock) or Dijon (the clock taken by Philippe le Hardy from Courtrai in 1382), have either been lost, destroyed, or substantially modified. The Wells Cathedral clock might have been made by the same craftsmen as the Salisbury clock, but is usually dated to around 1392, and is now relocated in the Science Museum in London, where it continues to operate.\n\nThere are some doubts that the clock displayed in Salisbury Cathedral is actually the clock mentioned in 1386, as the construction is quite advanced and more comparable to clocks made in the 16th and 17th century than those made in the 14th century. The question if this is the 1386 clock is quite important as the Wells Cathedral clock was previously dated in the 16th century, but then dated 1392 after the discovery of the Salisbury clock in 1928. Dating mistakes for old turret clocks are not uncommon. The Dover Castle clock was initially dated in the 14th century, only to be later revised to around 1600.\n\nIn 1993, Christopher McKay organised a symposium with the Antiquarian Horological Society to determine if the clock could be dated to 1386. The majority of participants voted for it to be the original, but roughly 1/3 of participants voted the clock to be of a much later date.\n\n\nA clock in Salisbury Cathedral that struck the hours was mentioned in 1306. This was probably one of the precursors of the 1386 clock, one of the many early examples of mechanical water clocks that are mentioned from c. 1280 onwards.\n\nThe clock was found in 1928, set aside in the cathedral tower. At that time it had a pendulum, which appeared to have been installed at a later date, replacing a verge and foliot. The clock was restored in 1956, and a new verge and foliot were installed. There were no drawings or documents available, so it is unlikely that the original foliot and verge escapement looked exactly like the one now installed in the clock.\n\nThe striking train of the clock is believed to be original.\n\nLike many of these more practical devices, its main purpose was to strike a bell at precise times. It probably did not have a dial. The wheels and gears are mounted in a four-post wrought iron frame. The framework was not held together with nuts and bolts (which had not been invented), but rather with metal wedged tenons.\n\nThe escapement was a verge escapement with a foliot, standard for clocks of this age. The power was supplied by two large stone weights. As the weights descend, ropes unwind from the wooden barrels. One barrel drives the going train which is regulated by the escapement, the other drives the striking train whose speed is regulated by the fly (air brake).\n\nBefore the weights reach the floor, they have to be wound back up again, a task that explains the presence of two large wheels shaped like steering wheels at either end of the clock.\n\nThe clock was a \"single strike\" clock that struck only on the hour. It made one strike per hour of the day (e.g. 12 strikes at noon). The left half of the clock (as in the photograph above), is the striking train; the right half is the going train.\n\nAt the end of the 17th century, the Salisbury clock, like many others, was modified from verge and foliot to pendulum and anchor operation. This usually made clocks much more accurate, even though trials in the early 1990s by Michael Maltin showed that the clock was running to within two minutes a day if the rope on the barrel was kept in a single layer. As soon as there are two layers, there is more torque applied to the barrel by the weight and the clock will go faster. As a single layer of winding is enough to keep the clock going for 12 hours, it could have been kept exact to within 2 minutes per day if it had been wound twice per day.\n\nIn 1790, the old bell tower 'on the ditch of the close of the canons of the said church' mentioned in the deed of 1386 which had housed the clock was demolished, so the clock was moved to the Cathedral's central tower. In 1884, a new clock was installed and the old one was left to the side.\n\n\nThe clock was re-discovered in the tower in 1928 by T.R. Robinson, an horological enthusiast who went up the clock tower to see the new clock (installed in 1884). The presence of the old clock was known to many, but nobody attributed much importance to the old clock. It was only T.R. Robinson who believed that it was the clock mentioned in 1386. From photos taken in 1928, it looked to be fairly complete. Eventually its historic importance was realised. It was first put on display in the Cathedral's North transept. Then, in 1956, the clock was restored to its original condition and started working again. The pendulum and recoil escapement were replaced by a new verge and foliot escapement, thus restoring the clock to something like its original design.\n\nToday, the escapement operates, but the striking mechanism has been disabled.\n\n1956 restoration[edit]\n\nMessrs. John Smith & Sons of Derby received the clock in February 1956. It was taken apart for the transport. They reassembled the clock in their workshop and compared it to existing clocks in the Science Museum before deciding how to restore it.\n\nEarly Black Forest Musical Flute CLock Organ Clock\nEarly Black Forest Musical Flute CLock Organ Clock ...\nEarly American Clockmakers: Joseph Ives\nEarly American Clockmakers: Joseph Ives\nEarly Three Horn Trumpeter Clock by Emilian Wehrle\nEarly Three Horn Trumpeter Clock by Emilian Wehrle\nShare this Post\n\nRelated posts\n\nMechanical clocks history\n\nMechanical clocks history\n\nMAY 29, 2020\n\nA Japanese clock ( 和時計, wadokei ) is a mechanical clock that has been made to tell traditional Japanese time. Mechanical…\n\nRead More\nClocks Made\n\nClocks Made\n\nMAY 29, 2020\n\nMEDFIELD, Mass. (WHDH) - For more than 80 years, or more than 700, hours, the Electric Time Company in Medfield has been…\n\nRead More", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7170835733413696}
+{"content": "Cha Jun Ho (차준호) is a South Korean trainee under Woollim Entertainment. He is a member of the trainee group Woollim Rookie and a former member of the project boy group X1.\n\n\n2019–2020: Produce X 101 and X1\n\nIn 2019, he participated in Mnet's boy group survival show Produce X 101 representing Woollim Entertainment. He finished in ninth place, thus becaming a member of X1.[1] The group officially debuted on August 27, 2019 with the mini album, 비상 : Quantum Leap.\n\nHowever, on January 6, 2020, the agencies representing the members announced the group has disbanded due to not being able to reach an unanimous agreement following the Produce 101 vote manipulation controversy.[2]\n\n\nReality shows\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9890642762184143}
+{"content": "Marginal seats near \n\nMarginal constituencies are the contests in the election that are expected to be closest, based on the 2017 result. They are the most important seats to target for tactical voting, and wider campaigning for the party that can stop the Tories there.\n\nConstituencyLikely contest (2019)Tactical voteMargin (2017)Distance\nNorth DownUnusual seatNot sure3.08%0 miles\nBelfast NorthDUP vs Sinn FeinSinn Fein4.53%11 miles\nBelfast SouthDUP vs 4.57%11 miles\nSouth AntrimDUP vs UUPNot sure7.43%18 miles\nSouth DownSinn Fein vs None4.81%31 miles", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8330697417259216}
+{"content": "HAWKEYE P.O.V. – Community losing natatorium debate\n\nULM Hawkeye\n\nDebate on the natatorium issue is really starting to heat up now that plans for both renovating and re-tasking the debilitated building have been presented. As the University family, both students and the community, prepare to move forward, the Save the Natatorium cause should reassess their approach because right now they are losing this fight.\n\nSo far the group has been very one-sided in its approach, repeatedly citing how keeping the building benefits them. Over and over we’ve heard “What about swimming competitions the city could hold?” or “What about senior citizens who could use it for rehab and exercise?” Several comments on the Facebook group talk about swimming lessons for young children. More still talk about the nostalgia the building holds for them because they used it when they were kids.\n\nThe glaring problem in this approach is that a key demographic is being completely overlooked or at the very best minimized. That demographic is the students who are paying for the building.\n\nWhat about the students? Why should the 7,980 students continue to pay for a building they don’t use so that 20 students and a handful of community members with ideas of how the building might be used in the future can keep it? Or a better question: Why should they pay to renovate it?\n\nAt the meeting Monday, several members of the community expressed downright indignation at the very idea that a bunch of college kids should decide what’s best for their own campus. They berated President Bruno with question after question about why the students and not the community are deciding this issue.\n\nThe students sat and patiently watched the community’s presentation, and then with equal patience and consideration, they watched architect Nick Middleton’s presentation. They questioned both presenters on things such as funding, feasibility and usage.\n\nThe community members loved the YMCA’s presentation but made it very clear they hated Middleton’s renderings. They interrupted Middleton on several occasions. When his talk was over, they shouted out things like “I don’t like it” and “I’ll never support something like that.” They came up with insightful questions like, “Don’t you think a fence along the bayou would be ugly?”\n\nBased on the behaviors at the meeting, who behaved more like rational adults: the college students who considered all possibilities and asked tough questions or the community who attacked anyone saying something slightly out of line with what they want?\n\nMembers of the community need to realize ULM’s students are not children. We are adults capable of making tough decisions. We are adults capable of deciding what is best for our campus. We are adults who understand funding issues apparently better than many of the “mature” people in the audience Monday.\n\nThe time for sob stories about the past are over. Community: If you want to win this fight, you need to give us facts, figures and sustainability. Prove to us that the financial burden will not be totally levied on us. Convince us through evidence, not emotion, that a natatorium is best for this campus.\n\nBut more importantly than any of that, you need to start treating us with respect. If the behavior in Monday’s meeting is any indication of how the rest of this debate will play out, you will alienate all of the people you need.\n\nIf you continue to behave like children while treating us, the students, like children, you will definitely lose your fight.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7984399795532227}
+{"content": "Praising Tara CD\n\nIn stock\n\nTara, the \"Mother of all Buddhas,\" is a Buddha of compassion and action. She has 21 different emanations, including Green Tara and White Tara. Green Tara is praised as the protector who can help guide us out of physical, emotional and spiritual suffering. White Tara is praised as the Tara of pure compassion who offers healing for our emotional and physical wounds, and shows us the power of unconditional love and compassion. This CD includes mantras praising both Green Tara and White Tara.\n\nMantras are powerful, sacred sounds that can lead to transformation. Chanting mantras aids meditation practice, reduces self-grasping, and increases devotion and compassion. When we chant the Tara mantras, we are receiving the blessings of Tara into our own hearts. We are connecting to the Tara's pure body, speech and mind that exist within us. Through purifying our negative emotions, we are transformed, liberated, and able to realize our true nature. May these Tara mantras empower you with Tara's pure qualities to help you on your path to happiness free of suffering.\n\nTrack Titles:\n1. Tara the Mother of All Buddhas - Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha\n2. White Tara - Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Ayur Jnana Punye Pustim Kuru Soha\n3. Tara the Burner of Suffering - Om Tare Tuttare Ture Bendza Ayukhe Soha\n4. Tara the Protector - Om Tare Tuttare Ture Sarva Arta Siddhi Siddhi Kuru Soha\n5. Green Tara - Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha\n\n2. White Tara\n\n4. Tara the Protector\n\n5. Green Tara\n\nMusic CD\nTotal Time: 35:37 min\nWeight: 93 g\nItem Nr: 10474", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9670687913894653}
+{"content": "Tuesday, June 14, 2016\n\nYoga As Prayer\n\nWhen I feel helpless and hopeless with the state of world, things that are outside of my control, at least I have yoga to come to. As a place of refuge, of solace, a place where I can connect with source. Not as a selfish act. But as a way to re-align with my highest and best self, so that I can go out into the world and spread that best part of myself around. I know it might seem lofty, idealistic or insignificant, but its what I know, and its what I know I can do. It keeps me awake and vital. It keeps me keeping on when the going gets tough and when its fully blissful. \n\nMy yoga practice, personally and collectively, is far from insignificant. It is a powerful force of healing. Yoga has the capacity to cross political, religious, gender, and cultural boundaries. Yoga asks us to unite in body, breath and soul. As one human race.\n\nYoga is a universal practice. Millions and millions of people all over the world are doing it. It is no mistake that this is happening on the planet at this time. Because we all so desperately need a way to connect that is not bound by confines of religion or other dogma. We all desperately need a way to heal. We all desperately need a tribe that embraces one another as a human being, because we have all been abandoned in some way. \n\nI see yoga as a form of prayer (call it intention, sankalpa, dedication\nif you will). But please know that, yoga is not a religion, but it can be spiritual. We all pray in some form or another. Prayer is a way we interact with the Divine. It comes from the heart as a longing for what is truly needed, or a longing to connect with something greater. It is a declaration to the universe. Or a spontaneous blissful moment that is truly acknowledged. Prayer has the power to heal. Our thoughts travel the speed of light and perhaps even ride on a wave of light. This is real.\n\nLets pray together. For each other. For humanity. Right now.\n\nP.S. These photos are Robert Sturman's work. I love his photography. He really captures the beauty of yoga as a universal, cross-cultural practice.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9417924284934998}
+{"content": "Carved marble urns on top of the tombs of Sarah Randal McGavock and Carrie and John McGavock, stolen or destroyed during the last half of the 20th century, are being replaced.\n\nThe two urns, replicated with imported Italian marble, will be unveiled at the McGavock Family Cemetery at Carnton Plantation at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 15, in remembrance of the family who is so closely associated with the history of the plantation.\n\nKem Hinton from Tuck Hinton Architects used photographs taken of the urns in the 19th and 20th century to determine the dimensions of the pieces for the replication process. Hinton then worked with Scott Kelly from Rehorn and Kelly Memorials and John Czernoczky, a sculptor classically trained in Romania on bringing the urns to life. The team ordered marble from Italy, made a clay model and began the process of carving the marble in replication of the urns.\n\nKelly will also be replicating a smaller grave stone that was deteriorating in the McGavock Family Cemetery. Additionally, the fence surrounding the cemetery will be prepped and repainted for the event. Funds for this restoration endeavor were provided by Roderick, Hanes and Winder Heller, descendants of the McGavock family.\n\nThe public is invited to attend the 3:00 pm unveiling.\n\nMore Civil War History", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8033079504966736}
+{"content": "My client invoked Force Majeure against me, what do I do?\n\n\nSatyam Tandon\n\nIndia, and the world as a whole today is at a standstill. In light of the global pandemic, the legal industry must reach into its bag of tricks to deal with such an unforeseen and unprecedented event.\n\nMany businesses are in the pursuit of fact-checking their contracts with their clients and hoping that there is a clause that foresees such an event and prescribes a method for it.\n\nThe clause that is so eagerly sought is the force majeure clause, which creates a line of defense for both parties, wherein an occurrence of an event makes performance of the contract impossible. Based on that impossibility, the contract isn’t performed, and therefore, no party is liable to the other for such non-performance.\n\nConsidering the vast majority of circulars and notifications issued by the government with respect to the lockdown and curfews, there can be no problem in ascertaining that COVID-19 is a force majuere event.\n\nThis article shall creates levels of defense against this argument.\n\nThe first line of defense is that application of a force majeure event becomes problematic for an essential service. Recently in a commercial arbitration conducted between petitioner companies - Standard Retail Pvt Ltd, Integral Industries Pvt Ltd, Vinayaga Marine Petro Ltd and Haryana International Pvt Ltd with Hyundai Corp and GS Global, the petitioner companies sought a direction in restraining the respondent bank Wells Fargo from encashing letters of credit.\n\nThe petitioners contended frustration under Section 56 of the Indian Contract Act, and the same argument was disallowed as distribution of steel came under the purview of essential services.\n\nSo, that is the first line of defense parties have when force majeure is invoked against them. That, whether the service itself qualifies as an essential service or not, and whether there are an embargos put by the government in pursuance of the essential service.\n\nHowever, if it is not an essential service, COVID-19 shall definitely qualify as a force majeure event and that line of argumentation will not work.\n\nTherefore, the second line of defense is in proving the causal link between performance of contract and the force majeure event. This onus shall be on the party trying to enforce a force majeure clause. They have the onus to prove that force majeure has occurred, the same has made performance of contract impossible, and if not for it, then there would be no breach. The second step in this is definitive.\n\nIt is pertinent to note that in Energy Watchdog v. CERC, it was held that\n\n“...where performance is otherwise possible, it is clear that a mere rise in freight price would not allow one of the parties to say that the contract was discharged by impossibility of performance. Alternative modes of performance were available, albeit at a higher price. This does not lead to the contract, as a whole, being frustrated.”\n\nTherefore, there exists an argument that say for example, work for home services being provided was the alternative method of performance, though costly, it was an alternative. The question is whether reasonable steps were taken for the same or not?\n\nThe same concept was reinforced in M/s Alopi Parshad & Sons Ltd. v. Union of India, wherein it was held that,\n\n\nAnd the flipside was discussed in Satyabrata Ghosh v. Mugneeram Bangure, wherein it was held that\n\n“...if the untoward event totally upsets the very foundation upon which the parties entered their agreement, the contract can be held to be frustrated.”\n\nSo, the lines of argumentation and defense in summary would be:\n\n1. Whether the service qualifies as an essential service and whether the government has put any embargos on it?\n\n2. Whether causality between breach and force majeure event can be proven or not.\n\n3. Whether reasonable steps for the alternative method of performance were taken or not?\n\nThe Author is an Advocate practising at the Punjab & Haryana High Court.\n\nBar and Bench - Indian Legal news", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6793156266212463}
+{"content": "Every College Student Struggled With Answering Questions That A Kindergartener Can - Can You Nail These!?\n\nThose 5 years old are getting smarter every day!\n\nChris Anthemum\nCreated by Chris Anthemum\nOn May 24, 2017\n1 / 7\n\n\"In complete control\" - choose the piece below that best captures that quote.\n\n2 / 7\n\nHow many circles can you count in this illusion?\n\n3 / 7\n\nThe number of chicken triples every day, there were 2 chickens on the 21st day. How many chicken were there on the 20th day?\n\n4 / 7\n\nHow many bears are in this picture?\n\n5 / 7\n\nBill's birthday is first.\nJon's birthday is the day after Bill's.\nDad's birthday is last.\nMom's birthday is on the same day of the week as Dad's birthday.\nHada's birthday is the same week as Mom's birthday.\nKate's birthday is after Hada's birthday but is before Wes's birthday.\nAdd the number of Mom's birthday and the number of Kate's birthday.\n\n6 / 7\n\n14 balloons.\nA majority of the balloons are yellow.\nThere are fewer green balloons than any other color.\nThere are 4 red balloons.\nThere is 2 more blue balloon than green balloons.\nHow many green balloons + red balloons - blue balloons?\n\n7 / 7\n\nKiki is behind the tallest try. Jay is behind the smallest tree. Emerald is behind the second to smallest tree, which section of the picture is Kiki in?\n\nQuestions left", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9703676104545593}
+{"content": "Oil Prices\n\nOil Prices since 2000The cost of oil is important because of the large amount that is used in American industries and purchased by consumers every day. The price-per-barrel of the West Texas Intermediate oil firm can be used to predict future costs of business; industries heavily reliant on oil and gas consumption like construction and transportation would be more economically affected than industries such as technology.\n\nThe total rig count has decreased since the beginning of 2020 by 53 rigs from a total of 677 to 624 in March. The overall trend shows that the number of rigs has been declining since December of 2019 and has since fallen by an average of 2-3 rigs per reporting period. Oil prices have also been steadily decreasing by an average of $1.28 at a rate of –1% per month before the drop in March. In March, oil prices per barrel fell by 42% from $50.54 to $29.21 a barrel. Overall, the total number of rigs and price per barrel has declined by 24% and 50% over the past year.\n\nIf oil rigs are being removed in the United States, we would typically expect to see oil prices increase over time, due to basic supply and demand principles. Theoretically, as the total oil rig count decreases, there will be less oil produced, and as a result of less oil on the market with continued demand, the price would normally continue to increase until it reaches an equilibrium. However, we are experiencing many national and global factors that have come to counteract the reduction of total rigs. Demand has decreased in March, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Oil consumption has largely declined as many governmental restrictions now limit personal travel, and social distancing measures have been put into place. Another major factor in the decline of oil prices is the Oil Price War between Russia and Saudi Arabia. As a result of this price war, Saudi Arabia and Russia have both increased their oil production, thus causing sharp decreases in prices as supply increases. It is uncertain how these numbers will change as both the major factors of the oil price decline are dependent on government action and international affairs.\n\nOil Rigs and Prices\n\n\nApril 6, 2020", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.91195148229599}
+{"content": "WATCH: Japan Loses to Poland, Still Through in World Cup on Fair Play Tiebreaker\n\nPoland defeated Japan 1-0 but thanks to Colombia's victory over Senegal and the fair play tiebreaker, Akira Nishino's side ended second in the group.\nPublish date:\n\nPoland defeated Japan 1-0 in their World Cup Group H finale, but thanks to Colombia's 1-0 victory over Senegal and the never-before-used fair play tiebreaker, Akira Nishino's side ended second in the group and qualified for the knockout stage for the first time since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.\n\nJapan entered the day knowing a win or draw would secure its knockout place but that a loss would open the door for both Colombia and Senegal to pip the Samurai Blue to the last 16. That's very nearly how it played out, until Yerry Mina's 74th-minute goal for Colombia in the simultaneous finale tilted the scales back in Japan's favor.\n\nRight from the start, Japan had to deal with some early pressure from Poland, having to clear a corner in the first minute of play. Some nerves were cleary visible as Japan gave the ball away in the 5th minute, forcing a fast counter-attacking play from Poland, who entered the box looking to finish it off, but the Japanese defense cleared. Regardless, it was clear that Japan was feeling the tension.\n\nAfter 10 minutes of play, however, the Asian side found some rhythm as a great chance from outside the box forced a good save by Lukasz Fabianski. Most of the action was coming from the left wing and Gōtoku Sakai forced another stop from the Swansea stopper in the 12th minute.\n\nDespite the improvement, Poland was still threatening, especially in the air when once again, another corner was won by the Europeans but ending in the hands of Eiji Kawashima. As we closed in on 25 minutes of play, Adam Nawalka's side was clearly on the front foot. \n\nIn the 31st minute, Kawashima made what was arguably the save of the tournament when he reached out to deny Kamil Grosicki's header. His dive just about saved a goal as the ball nearly went in but his efforts denied the Polish star.\n\nWith five minutes to go in the first half, Japan closed the half with more possession in the final third but Poland's strong defensive unit contained and stood firm. It was a tense 45 minutes, filled with imperfections and an unbelievable save from the Japanese stopper. \n\nPoland kicked off the the second half with the same energy as the first, as Japan hoped to counter in the wide areas. Poland broke away in the 53rd minute but the through ball just outside the box was too much and Kawashima picked it up with ease.\n\nMoments later, however, Poland took the lead thanks to Jan Bednarek's finish from a set piece in the box. As it stood, Japan was out of the knockout stage.\n\nWith 20 minutes left, Japan searched for the equalizer, and in the 71st minute, Maya Yoshida connected from a corner but his attempt went wide of the goal. Time was running out for Japan and things were not getting easier as Poland was not backing down as it searched for a second. Japan, however, had life as Colombia scored. \n\nWith five minutes left in regular time, Japan, clearly aware of the situation, was sitting back and just holding on to the loss, hoping to rely on the tiebreaker by not even forcing a foul.\n\nAs the final whistle blew, the Asian side qualified to the round of 16 thanks to fair play points, having accumulated two fewer yellow cards in the group stage.\n\nFor a recap from the other Group H finale between Senegal and Colombia, read on here.\n\nImage placeholder title\n\nHere were the lineups for both teams:\n\nImage placeholder title\n\nHere are the rosters for both sides:\n\n\nGoalkeepers: Eiji Kawashima (Metz), Masaaki Higashiguchi (Gamba Osaka), Kosuke Nakamura (Kashiwa Reysol)\n\nDefenders: Yuto Nagatomo (Galatasaray), Tomoaki Makino (Urawa Reds), Wataru Endo (Urawa Reds), Maya Yoshida (Southampton), Hiroki Sakai (Marseille), Gotoku Sakai (Hamburg), Gen Shoji (Kashima Antlers), Naomichi Ueda (Kashima Antlers)\n\nMidfielders: Makoto Hasebe (Eintracht Frankfurt), Keisuke Honda (Pachuca), Takashi Inui (Eibar), Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund), Hotaru Yamaguchi (Cerezo Osaka), Genki Haraguchi (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Takashi Usami (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Gaku Shibasaki (Getafe), Ryota Oshima (Kawasaki Frontale)\n\n\nManager: Akira Nishino\n\n\n\n\n\n\nManager: Adam Nawalka", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6892740726470947}
+{"content": "BY Cosrx\n\nCosrx Aha/bha Clarifying Treatment Toner 150ml\n\nFavorites 7 favorites\n\nHow safe is it?\n\nProduct Description\n\nCOSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner is an exfoliating fluid that effectively eliminates flakes and dull skin cells while preventing blackheads and whiteheads from forming. Infused with natural acne-fighting acids, AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner controls excess oil and sebum while nourishing and hydrating depleted skin with essential vitamins.\n\nIngredients (11)\n\nPopular Ingredients In This Product\nAll Ingredients\nLoader wave\nHang tight. We're thinking.\nskinsafe_logo SkinSAFE Loader.\nHang tight. We're thinking.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9096075892448425}
+{"content": "Teaching Annotation & Analysis: Critical Analysis Boot Camp\n\nOne of my FAVORITE parts of teaching English at the high school level is analyzing texts with students. I love when they get their hands on a text and know they have to tools to come up with meaning and form an opinion on their own.\n\nA great strategy to give students those tools is close reading, where students get into the nitty gritty of a text by reading it multiple times and combing through both format and content.\n\nClose reading a text can be intimidating for many students, though, so I like to front-load them by directly teaching annotation and analysis techniques.\n\nThis year I am trying a little something new - actually, I’m trying a whole lot of little something’s new… Instead of teaching various close reading analysis techniques for each text we cover in class as we cover them, I am putting my students through a “Critical Analysis Boot Camp.” Over a course of three, 90-minute class periods, students in my 10th grade English class will read, annotate, and analyze 5 different types of texts, each through different critical lenses.\n\nYes, it’s a lot. But it is also completely doable…\n\nThis boot camp will begin with an overview and discussion of why we read, followed by some brainstorming of what, exactly, is a text. Next, I will introduce Literary Theory and (briefly) walk through some of the critical lenses they will be asked to apply in this class.\n\n[I have a very specific list of steps I have my students take when close reading and analyzing a text, as well as specific annotation marks so that we have a common annotation “language” - these specifics can be found on my Analysis and Annotation Cheat Sheet.]\n\nFinally, it’s analysis time! I will do a think-aloud (my favorite!) for students as I read, annotate, and analyze two very different types of texts - an article and a video of a dance performance.\n\nStudents will all have a copy of the article and will follow along with me, making the same annotation marks I make and jotting down the same notes as me in the margin. They will also help me to synthesize the message of the article into a 1-2 sentence analysis statement.\n\nThe performance analysis will go quite similarly, except that instead of annotating and note-taking on the text itself, they will record this part on a separate sheet of paper. Since a written text is not available for a dance performance, the annotations will be accompanied by notes that explain the moment in question, as well as a time stamp from the video. Again, students will help me craft a 1-2 sentence analysis statement of the performance.\n\nAfter following along with me for the two sample texts, students are on their own to analyze five types of texts - short story, article/essay, painting, song, and film clip. For each type of text, they will have 4-5 texts to choose from (they analyze one of each type of text). Each different type of text will also have a specific critical lens for students to consider during their analysis.\n\nOne thing I have developed this year to aide students in their annotations and analyses of class texts is Annotation Kits for each table. They are pretty simple - just a little crate with different colors and sizes of sticky notes, various highlighters, and a pack of colored pencils, PLUS enough Annotation and Analysis Cheat Sheets to go around. Students will be able to annotate any type of text easily with these kits on hand!\n\nThe Annotation and Analysis Cheat Sheet is available through my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Caffeinated Curriculum - I printed mine back to back and laminated them so that they will (hopefully) last!\n\nWhat are your go-to strategies for teaching students annotation and analysis techniques? Please share in the comments below!\n\n • Instagram - White Circle\n • YouTube - White Circle\n • Pinterest - White Circle\n • Facebook - White Circle\n\n\n\n\n\nPrivacy policy and disclosures →\n\n© 2018 by The Caffeinated Classroom. Proudly created with Wix.com", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8289092779159546}
+{"content": "Lakeview adds another All-State athlete\n\n\nNicole Cantin, Staff writer\n\n In late November, the state of Michigan held their state swim meet. Competing for Lakeview was sophomore Elly Belmore.\n\n On Nov. 22 and 23 at Oakland University, Belmore competed in the 200m Individual Medley and the 100m breaststroke against girls from schools all across the state. \n\n She gained a state title, placing first in the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:04:32 and second in the 200m IM at 2:06:27.\n\n But she did not make that type of accomplishment without lots of hard work. \n\n “I had morning practices three days a week for an hour and a half and then practice Monday through Saturday for 2 hours. For the week leading up, I went on a no sugar diet and cut out all junk food,” said Belmore.\n\n A good athlete should have dedication and passion towards their sport and be willing to work hard for their goals. Elly is the definition of a great athlete.\n\n “I was nervous leading up to it, but there were no real concerns. I just love the thrill of racing,” stated Belmore. \n\n Elly has lots of individual success, but she also has lots of teammates that look forward to winning titles together as a team.\n\n “Elly as a teammate is amazing. She’s caring, encouraging, and just makes practices genuinely more enjoyable by cracking jokes and just always have fun,” expressed Lexi Hey, ‘21.\n\n With achieving such great things as only a sophomore, people wonder what goals she holds next.\n\n “Next year I hope to get All-American, which is where you have to meet a certain time and they then take the top 100 in the country, and I also hope to get first in the state again,” explained Belmore. \n\n Since this event, Belmore has received praise from all her friends, family, coaches, and teachers. There is no one who deserves this title more. Everyone wishes Elly nothing but luck on reaching her goals.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9984709620475769}
+{"content": "Whip up a classic Italian dinner with Giada's 1-pan chicken and an easy lasagna\n\nThey're so incredibly simple yet full of zesty flavors.\n\nGet the latest from TODAY\n\nSign up for our newsletter\n/ Source: TODAY\nBy Giada De Laurentiis\n\nIf there's one thing people love, it's being able to use just one pot or pan to cook a delicious weeknight meal.\n\nThese all-in-one entrees minimize the amount of dishes you have to do at the end of the night and makes cooking for a group feel a little more relaxed.\n\nBut don't think that using just one pan or skillet will limit the flavor profile of any recipe. These dishes have all of the classic and zesty flavors you'd find in the traditional Italian versions.\n\nA little secret? I actually use plain tomato juice, like V-8, to make roasted chicken extra tender! It may not be wine, but feel free to take a sip while cooking.\n\nThis recipe captures the flavors of a classic cacciatore dish in a tender and juicy roasted chicken. The side dish is an opportunity to use up any day-old bread, plus, it's made right alongside the chicken so it's an all-in-one meal.\n\nGiada De Laurentiis' Spicy 1-Skillet Lasagna\n\nThis one-skillet savior is ideal for people who love to make lasagna but hate cleaning up after. Using no-boil lasagna noodles makes it so easy to cook all the ingredients one place. Plus, it's got a little kick.\n\nFor more family-friendly recipes, try my Cacio e Pepe with Pancetta and Arugula and this leaner version of eggplant Parmesan.\n\nCacio e Pepe with Pancetta and Arugula\nGiada's Sheet-Pan Eggplant Parmesan", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7882639765739441}
+{"content": "New Allegories\n\nNew Allegories, project by Z Simcic\n\n\nConcept and realization : Zvonka T Simčič\n\nProgramming, counselling and realization: Borut Savski\n\nPerformers: Mitja Osolnik / vocals, camera; Zvonka T Simčič / didgeredoo, kaoss, VJ concept; Valentina Praprotnik / didgeredoo; Borut Savski / programming, sound effects\n\nTheoretical-critical-activistic platform: Tanja Rener, Tatjana Greif\n\nTranslation: Bahet Kouraishi\n\nProduction: CCC Institute / Institite for media art and social research projects / CrossCommunityCreation\n\nThe performance looks like it consists of two parts – but only apparently as the contets of the two parts is compatible. The first part represents a theoretical–critical platform, while the other is an audio-visual-kinetic performance. Through this critical platform the context of a situation in Slovenia is presented: when a single-woman decides to have a child by the means of artificial insemination, although she is forbidden to do so by the state, and to form a single-parent family. What does the term »single-parent family« mean in the society nowadays? How to survive as a single mother and an artist in the state apparatus? What are her rights (non-rights)? How does the environment respond?\n\nThe second part of the performance exposes the fact that these actions play a much bigger role than just doing something against the present legislation. These actions represent an inner urge, regarding conscience and certain determination to carry out the decision against all odds. In the performing part an audio-visual orchestra is created together with the audience – a flowing structure of music and image.\n\nIn the centre of the installation there is a self-portrait of the artist with a child, in communication with the audience. The self-portrait of the artist appears in various forms – not only as a part of the projection, but also as a narrator and performer of the performance.\n\nThe Interactive audio-video performance deals with transmission of the invisible world into the visible one as well as the inaudible world into the audible one, and vice versa. Mitja, who is blind, presents a special element in the performance. He moves around with the help of the camera, programmed to lead Mitja through the space while simultaneously creating fragments of sound and image in the orchestration. The additional connection is created by Mitja with his vocal. The motive of becoming blind and enlightment is one of the key elements of the performance. Simbolically it turns back to the audience, demanding of it to be present and responsible for its acts.\n\nIt is a group creation, partially planned, and partially dependent on the tunning of the audience.\n\nThe project supported by the Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Ljubljana and Municipality of Medvode", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9991623163223267}
+{"content": "How can Drugs Affect Our Environment?\n\nDrugs Affect Our Environment\n\nNowadays, you can read and hear a lot of serious talks and information drive about the environmental changes that are happening on our planet. A lot of factors like pollution, improper waste management, and deforestation are just some major causes of environmental abuse. But, we also need to consider another factor that causes climate change — drugs. While most of us know that prohibited drugs like cocaine and opium are extremely dangerous to a person’s well-being, it also has a negative effect on our environment. The resources and the process needed to produce the final …\n\nThe Role of Insurance in Sustaining the Environment\n\nInsurance in Sustaining the Environment\n\nSometime during the 1990s, the United Nations statutory body United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) realized the role financial institutions could play in protecting the environment while maintaining a healthy profit for their business. After initial talks with, the UNEP joined hands with leading insurers, reinsurers, and pension funds companies to work towards a common goal of sustainable development.\nThis collaboration was carried forward by the companies diligently and came to be known as the UNEP Finance Initiatives (…\n\nBenefits of School Travel for Students\n\nBasically, education takes place in the classroom environment where the teachers present information to students and have them absorb it. Student performance tours give students an opportunity to enhance their social and personal development and deepen their understanding of things taught in the classroom. However, not all education ought to occur in the classroom environment. This is probably the reason why schools are turning to school travel tours to help them organize school trips for their students.\nBut how exactly can students benefit from such?\nGive Students Real-…\n\nList of The Best Eco- Friendly Clothing Brands in The Market Today\n\nEco- Friendly Clothing Brands\n\nAre you wearing a custom t shirts that is a health hazard to you and those surrounding? Most of the people wearing clothes don’t know that some of the clothes they’re wearing are pollutants and a health hazard to the environment and to them.\nThis is caused by the chemicals sprayed on the raw materials for textile industries. Most of the pesticides used in the growth of raw materials like cotton will affect the farmers working in those fields and also the nearby population. Therefore, some of the textile industries are using pesticide-free cotton so as to produce eco- friendly clothing brands…\n\nEnvironmental Effects of Indoor Marijuana Cultivation\n\nEnvironmental Effects of Indoor Marijuana\n\nMarijuana cultivation continues to take a new tide as the legalization of recreational cannabis take effect in most states. As marijuana products such as CBD oil continues to thrive in the market, more and more states have taken a new stand on marijuana.\nWith the legalization of recreational cannabis sweeping through various States, its cultivation process also increases. However, despite CBD oils having outstanding benefits, worries are now starting to break out in regards to the environmental effects of marijuana cultivation.\nIndoor Marijuana Cultivation\nThe most sort-out marijuana cultivation model is the indoor …\n\nBest Vitamins and Supplements to Boost Energy\n\nVitamins and Supplements\n\nAs we age, we wish we were that three-year-old bubbly girl who is dancing her heart’s content or that thirteen-year-old boy who juggles from one sport to another. Sadly, we’re not. As we age, our energy levels become inversely proportional– it decreases. Muscles start to become flaccid and even our endurance starts to decline. We will never be that three-year-old girl or thirteen-year-old boy again.\nBut the process of aging can be slowed down with chaga tea benefits. With proper exercise, healthy diet, and enough sleep, we can still dance and play sports in a more dynamic sense…\n\nThe Best Food Sources for Vitamins and Minerals\n\nEveryone needs a balanced diet to have a long and healthy life. We need vitamins and minerals to help us stay healthy. Some of the vitamins for the health of our body can be taken from best creatine monohydrate, but these supplements can be expensive. The good news is these vitamins and minerals can naturally be found in some of the foods rich in nutrients. Let’s talk about these food sources below.\nChaga Tea\nChaga tea is an all-in-one vitamin for the body. It contains all the vitamins and minerals we need to have for the day. It contains Beta-D Glucans to help boost the …\n\nWhat Is Overpopulation?\n\nOverpopulation is the situation where the human population exceeds the maximum carrying capacity of the environment. It can also be defined as the ratio of individuals compared to the available natural resources essential for survival.\nWhen an environment is overpopulated, it means that there are more people than the available resources such as water, transport, food, and social amenities. Overpopulation results in environmental deterioration, population disintegration, and poor quality of life.\nEvery year, approximately 81 million people are born. Areas with high population feel the effects of overpopulation most. Factors …", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9789532423019409}
+{"content": "Biobased Business Co-operation for Holland Biomass\n\nMeer lezen\n\nShale gas boom creates impulse for bio based chemicals\n\nResearch and development on algae and duck weed\n\nBio based chemicals are the unexpected beneficiaries of the North American shale gas boom, says a special report from IHS Inc., a leading global source of critical information and insight.\n\nMeer lezen\n\nBrewery combines wind, solar and biogas\n\nBetween biogas, wind and solar, Anheuser-Busch generates about half of its electricity from renewable energy to make beer at its Fairfield, California plant.\n\nThe company is the largest in the US to use nutrients in its wastewater to make biogas, a process called bio-energy recovery systems (BERS).\nMeer lezen", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8624469041824341}
+{"content": "Silk fabric characteristics and washing and maintenance methods\n\nSilk fabric characteristics and washing and maintenance methods\n\nThe silk fabric is soft and smooth, soft and light, with rich colors and cool and comfortable. Its main advantages are:\n\nFirst, the sense of comfort. Silk is composed of protein fiber, which has excellent biocompatibility with the human body. In addition, the surface has a smooth surface, and its friction coefficient to the human body is the lowest among all types of fibers, only 7.4%. Therefore, when our delicate skin and smooth and delicate silk enamel, it with its unique soft texture, according to the curve of the human body, considerate and safely care for every inch of our skin.\n\nSecond, the absorption and desorption are good. Silk protein fiber is rich in hydrophilic groups such as amine groups (-CHNH) and amino groups (-NH2), and because of its porosity, it is easy to diffuse water molecules, so it can absorb water or emit moisture in the air. Keep a certain amount of moisture. Under normal temperature, it can help the skin to retain a certain amount of moisture, not to make the skin too dry; in the summer, it can also quickly release the sweat and heat from the body, making people feel cool.\n\nIt is because of this property that silk fabrics are more suitable for direct contact with human skin. Therefore, silk clothing is one of the must-have summer clothes. Silk not only has good heat dissipation performance, but also has good thermal insulation. Its thermal insulation is derived from its porous fibrous structure. There are many very fine fibers in a silk fiber, and these fine fibers are composed of finer fibers. Therefore, more than 38% of the seemingly solid silks are hollow, and there is a large amount of air in these gaps, which prevents the heat from being emitted and makes the silk very warm.\n\nThird, sound absorption, vacuuming, and heat resistance. Silk fabrics have a high void ratio and thus have good sound absorption and air permeability, so in addition to making garments, they can also be used for interior decoration, such as silk carpets, tapestries, curtains, wall coverings, and the like. Arranging rooms with silk decorations not only makes the house dirty, but also keeps the room quiet. Because silk has moisture absorption, moisture release performance, moisture retention, air permeability and porosity, it can also adjust indoor temperature and humidity, and can absorb harmful gases, dust and microorganisms. In addition, the thermal denaturation of the silk fiber is small and relatively heat resistant. When it is heated to 100 ° C, it is only about 5 to 8% embrittled, and most synthetic fibers are 4 to 5 times larger than the silk.\n\nThe burning temperature of silk is 300~400 °C, which is a kind of flame retardant fiber, while the burning temperature of synthetic fiber is 200~2600 °C, which is flammable and fusible. Therefore, the use of silk fiber as a raw material for interior decoration can not only play the role of sound absorption, vacuuming, heat preservation, but also function as a flame retardant. Fourth, anti-UV. The tryptophan and tyrosine in silk protein can absorb ultraviolet rays, so silk has a good anti-ultraviolet function. Ultraviolet rays are very harmful to human skin. Of course, after absorbing ultraviolet rays, the silk itself undergoes chemical changes, so that the silk fabric is easily yellowed under the illumination of sunlight.\n\nWashing method Washing: Silk clothing is woven with protein-like delicate health care fiber. Washing should not be rubbed in rough articles and washing with washing machine. The clothes should be immersed in cold water for 5-10 minutes, and low-bubble washing powder can be synthesized with special silk detergent. The neutral soap is light and sloppy, and the painted silk Dress can be rinsed repeatedly in clear water.\n\nDrying: Silk clothing should not be sun-dried after washing, and should not be dried by a dryer. Generally, it should be placed in a cool and ventilated place to dry. Because the ultraviolet rays in the sun easily make the silk fabric yellow, fade, and age. Therefore, after washing silk garments, it is not advisable to twist the water. It should be gently shaken, and the opposite side will be spread out, and dried to 70% dry and then ironed or shaken.\n\nIroning: The anti-wrinkle performance of silk clothing is slightly worse than that of chemical fiber, so there is a saying that \"no wrinkles are not real silk\". After the clothes are washed, they are wrinkled and need to be ironed to be crisp, elegant and beautiful. When ironing, dry the clothes to 70% dry and then spray the water evenly. Wait for 3-5 minutes and then iron. The ironing temperature should be controlled below 150 °C.\n\nIt is not advisable to press the iron directly to avoid the aurora.\n\nPreservation: preserve silk clothing, thin underwear, shirts, pants, skirts, pajamas, etc., first wash, iron and then collect. The autumn and winter clothing, kneading, and cheongsam that are inconvenient to be washed and washed should be cleaned by dry cleaning and ironed to prevent mold and sputum. After ironing, it can also play a role in sterilization and pest control. At the same time, the boxes and cabinets for storing clothes should be kept clean and sealed as much as possible to prevent dust pollution.\n\nMaintenance method 1. Buy silk fabrics should pay attention to purchase 2-4 cm larger than their original size, so that they are comfortable to wear and are not easy to damage silk protein fiber.\n\n2. Silk fabric should be ironed at medium temperature (130 degrees - 140 degrees).\n\n3, silk fabric should be dry, can not be dried under the sun or fluorescent lights.\n\n4, silk clothing is best to store and keep dry, insecticide must be wrapped with cloth, do not directly touch the clothing.\n\n5, silk fabrics are highly hygroscopic. When not wearing, it is best to use clothes hangers to hang clothes and keep them ventilated; if the clothes are not very dirty, do not wash them, hang the clothes through the ventilated place until the sweat is volatilized and then wear; It is not very dirty and can be rinsed directly with water without any detergent. It is recommended not to wear a piece of clothing for a long time. Replacement can reduce the number of times the silk garment is launched.\n\n6, silk fabrics are easy to wrinkle. You can find a small spray bottle, which can be solved by a little water spray in a wrinkled place.\n\n\ndress,short sleeve T-shirt,Printed short sleeve T-shirt\n\nShaanxi Jiyun Textile Technology Co., Ltd ,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5642101764678955}
+{"content": "Essays on Requirement Management: The Search for Nirvana by Donald J. Reifer Article\n\nDownload free paperFile format: .doc, available for editing\n\nThe paper \"Requirement Management: The Search for Nirvana by Donald J. Reifer\" is a good example of an article on management. Management of requirements in software development is essential because a change in requirements intensely affects the cost and schedule. Reifer points out that software engineers are taught to spell out the requirements at the start of the project and not to change. Reifer asserts that software engineers create requirements specifications because specifications form the foundation of software engineers’ design and coding activities. The involvement of the user or customer in the development of requirement specification is because of cost and schedule impacts.\n\nReifer explains in the current software development environment the waterfall lifecycle has been replaced by rapid prototyping and application methods. Reifer points out that requirements development is a learning process and not a gathering process ( Reifer 45). Reifer observes that working with the user or customers’ guarantees success in the development of requirements specification. It is evident that the development of requirements specifications can take longer than software development. It is true that teams that develop requirements specifications spend hours checking each version of the requirements specification are complete, consistent and traceable.\n\nReifer describes the quick to a market commercial environment where software engineers interactively create requirements using a spiral model. The phases of the cycle provide software engineers with details regarding the product's design and basic functions. Reifer looks at the rapid development paradigm the software development where the team comprises marketing and system engineering people, users, customers, and the software engineer. These team works together to formulate the expectations, which are then communicated to the software engineer (Reifer 46). The continuous exploration and refinement observed in the spiral model allow the customers and requirements definition team to understand the purpose of the product.\n\nReifer observes that achieving success in software development is possible if software engineers maintain and allocate budget and schedule reserves aimed at addressing changes. Successful management of requirements requires clear objectives, teamwork, discipline, and knowledge. Clear objectives identify the purpose of the requirement and the probable user of the requirement. Teamwork requires that software engineers take up the identity of a generalist to enable their ideas to complement those of the user and requirement specification team.\n\nDiscipline allows the requirement development team to use a process method and tools appropriate in defining requirements and tracking the changes. Finally, knowledge of the application and environment the requirement will operate in is crucial. Software engineers are beneficial because they can help non-software people in explaining the consequences of their specification requirements (47).\n\nDownload free paperFile format: .doc, available for editing\nContact Us", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6539826393127441}
+{"content": "Posts Tagged 'reading art'\n\n266. Just reading\n\nCraving roots\n\nThere are many ways to read art. This is one of them: Just start writing and see where it takes you.\n\nYou can also say: Start to describe what you see. From there you start to be guided by your interests, associations, and yes, the universe supports you, based on your inclination at the time. We are always supported.\n\nThe painting is from June 5th and I wrote this on June 6th. Other things came in the way and I did them, but now I want to share this.\n\nThe first thing that came to my mind was that it came out alive. It means that the power that was used in order to create it is still in it. And what is the power? It is a thought, expressed in space and time.\n\nWhen you look at it, your energy field responds to the experience by arranging itself into an energy structure. To you it feels like a feeling that you may have a name for. Then your thought processes become engaged and a new adventure starts in your story of your life. It may be big or small. Maybe you immediately turn away, smile, have a cup of tea and look at birds in the sky?\n\nHere is what I wrote:\n\nIt feels like this: a number of shapes in different colors bump into each other in the middle (These are the colored shapes). The feeling is of an argument or at least a disagreement (Purple, orange, brown and blue). But it does not come to fighting.\n\nThere are three shapes who are out of the group. They haven’t come into touching relations, like the four others. So maybe they hesitate to join? Maybe the yellow on the left and the pink on upper left were kicked out of this society or could not join in as there was not even the slightest invitation extended to them. Or, maybe they stopped before they came too close, so that they can take a good look at what is happening. Maybe they want to check it out before they join? And the cloud, the third of the outsiders, is the one who cares the least. He seems to have more power than all the rest. He has his own behavior and his own field of reference, which is the weather system in the area and the world. As such he is much less a participant in the meeting. But because of him, the perspective of other, bigger systems, is added to every part of this picture.\n\nThen there is the earth with an orange border. But this element is cut abruptly on the left, without too much drama.\n\nThis tear-off breaks the impression of a stable earth. This earth can shrink to nothing. Don’t rely on me, it says. Look somewhere else for your stability.\n\nNow the purple and the brown seem to connect with the earth, in spite of it being ephemeral. The orange and the blue seem to be okay with just floating in the air. Or maybe they are not so okay with it, and this is why they come to mix with the earthlings.\n\nSo here is a kind of a summary. There is a little drama here. Like in a country, or any society. People collaborate without agreeing with each other. There are some small areas of overlapping and you can say, some form of compromise and collaboration. The others are in differing degrees of separation, deciding not to get involved. But they are close anyway. They are human too and they don’t want to give up on their belonging to this group.\n\nThese are the energy bodies, operating by the hidden assumptions that bring about what seems to appear in reality, which is the drawing in green lines.\n\nThe green lines describe little separate forms that together create the pattern of what appear in this world of time and space.\n\nSo when you wander in this world and see all these forms around you, know that they come from a deeper, usually unseen, layer of energy bodies, coming into being from thoughts and ideas.\n\nAll comes from thoughts.\n\nAs in a known Zen story, in which some students, looking at a flag that moved in the wind, argued about what truly moved. Is it the flag? Is it the wind? And the master said: Nothing moves, except for your thoughts.\n\nAnd how could I forget the red part of the lines, in a little area in the right? There was some drama in the reality of the picture.\n\nThis red part is indeed a part of the reality that I created with my thoughts. But I gave it the red color to say that according to my beliefs this is a violation of some sort.\n\nNow imagine that you are an art therapist and this is the first artwork that your new client made. Do you see how much can be learned from just the first painting?\n\nAnd if every one of us has a such a collection of thoughts with him at every moment, can you see what the fabric of our humanity is made of? If we want to have any measure of freedom, we must come out of this state, in which we are controlled by our assumptions, and look at it from a deeper perspective.\n\n170. Tuning in to who I am\n\nHere is another example of reading art. As it was in the previous entry, when you look at the drawing at first it seems as if it will be hard to tell something clear about it. But as I started describing what I see, the vision became clear. This is the fun in this game. The truth is always hiding in plain sight. And my blog has turned into straight forward reading of my art, based on the most straight-forward approach to understanding subconscious content through art. It is: simply describing what I see. As I describe what I see, the connection to my life appears. The art had to be done intuitively, to reflect so clearly what is going on in the subconscious. Any thinking-guided part of the art would have stopped the flow of the description and obscure the clarity. We would have to read the thought first and let it go in this way, so that the next drawing will flow better. It is a method. I am describing the method that I use in art therapy. Everything in this blog, right from the first entry has to do with how I work not only on myself but with others, to clear blockages to their inner flow and allow them to find out who they really are.\n\nThe layers of different focusses\n\nThe layers of different focusses\n\nIt looks like a collection of creatures. They are very lively and have the sense of being absorbed in being who they are, as monkeys do, but without an awareness of it. They also seem to be agitated and about to jump at any moment. This is what animals do. They behave as who they are, without any hindrances, and they do not know who they are. It is a simple life.\n\nThey look like monkeys or cats or bugs.\n\nThere is the lower layer in purple and browns. Then there is an upper layer in green and light blue. And finally there are the two light orange creatures at the top of the picture.\n\nYou can see that the interest of the animals in the lowest layer is horizontal. They do not think about going up.\n\nThe interest of the green animal is in the process of changing. The animal stops going right, horizontally, and turns to look up. The blue lines that come out of it also turn in different directions.\n\nThe light orange critters at the top of the picture fly up into the sky, and you can see that they are fine with it. They are peaceful. They do not feel fear. You can say that they are enjoying the flight.\n\nAll these are different focuses of the animals and the critters. These focuses are available to every one of them, but they make a choice and focus in one way.\n\nOther interesting elements in the drawing are the two places where there are the shapes in more intense orange. The one in the lower strata just creates an intense interest, presenting to the animals something intensely different. The one on the upper layer seems to be what has stopped the green animal from going to the right. It is sharp, and to avoid it the animal turned around.\n\nAll the orange shapes in the picture feel to me to be connected with what we call the spiritual pursuit, or seeking to know experientially who we are. At first it is something that feels different and provokes interest and wonder. Then it may be suffering of any sort that pushes us to change direction. And then comes the discovery of what was felt from the beginning, which is the sense of the true self, which shifts the focus away from the earthly bond.\n\nNow looking at the beginning of this path again, the first animal, the one in purple, seems to be peaceful and in meditation. All of this happens in his mind. The not-knowing, the intense interest, the change of direction and finally the flight. All these happen on their own, without any effort. It is just the way things happen when you take your hands off them, and allow them to move. This is what I call healing.\n\nThis is what this art process does.\n\nMy book “Opening Intuitive Flow Through Artwork” will come out soon. It has the method in it and examples from my sessions with people.\n\n168. Questions and a new beginning\n\nSomehow I lost the drive to read art. I mean to read my art. I still read others’. I feel resistance to reading mine. Maybe the reason is that I think: Well, what is the point? It does not mean much, since I am not attached to it. There is no reason why I’ll let this past thing interfere with what I want to do now. So why bother reading it? It looks beautiful anyway. Looked at from a deeper state, all the complications look beautiful, and this is enough to see.\n\nWhere does the beauty come from?\n\nSo what can I do with these artworks?\n\nHow can I continue my blog? After I stopped being interested in the contents of my past, it has become hard to add anything to the blog.\n\nI had some very good, high feelings, that I described, and some less good feelings, but now, what am I to do with this blog?\n\nMaybe this is the place to go up and up in vibrations? So this is a new beginning.\n\nLife as a process\n\nLife as a process\n\nLet’s look at this last drawing now.\n\nThere are warm colors at the bottom and they gradually turn colder until it is blue, transparent and very soft. I think that the texture, in spite of the coldness of the color itself, gives some warmth, related to the sensitivity that is expressed. So it is coldness described very sensitively. Maybe aloofness? So you become very interested, being a sensitive person that you are.\n\nThere is a feeling that something is growing in the drawing. There is a wider base shape, almost like the leaves of a plant close to the earth. From this comes a stem and another stem in orange and from them some flower, leaf, or a canopy, develop. All these happen in the warmer area. Then of course, if you think of it as a plant or a flower, then you have to have the sky somewhere behind and above. But the sky is not just a flat color. Something is alive there. Shapes come out of shapes, right side and left side parts, describing something that is not so clear realistically. What is it?\n\nA dream? Sleeping? Something in a sleeping bag? Clouds? A letter? and what letter is it? Yes, it is the G from my own name. I did not notice this when I made the drawing. Planning.. sleeping.. this is connected to that.. life.\n\nA plant is growing, still with the original thought of: Be a plant, be intense or mild. The intense side remains undeveloped. It sends feelers to the left side, the milder, so see what is life like on that side. Of course, here you have the fear of opening up and being yourself completely, checking yourself against another. Then, many thought patterns develop and they will create this plant’s future, its new adventure, its expansion or its remaining limited and constrained.\n\nIs there a separation between the physical and the mental? Between the simple program to grow (It is not simple really but not complicated by thoughts of and the complicated thought patters, to do this and that etc? Yes and no. How about this answer? You can see that this part is warm and that is cold. But where they touch, they melt into each other. The physical and the imagined melt into each other. They are connected, and there is a feeling of lingering there, where they touch. Is it attachment? I mean attachment from the Buddhist perspective, as of assigning importance to something and therefore holding on to something that otherwise would have just gone on and change into something else.\n\nThis melting into each other is true also for every step before this thinking occurs. The leaf melts into the stem. The stem melts into the flowering and the flowering melts into the imagination. What kind of being is that? Who is this? What a magical creature that is a process?\n\nAnd the whole scene has a magical feel to it. Things happen in the dream world, softly, silently. Are they real? Who is telling the story here? Is it the stem? The canopy? Me? You? Who are you anyway? Are you evolving from my dream? Am I nothing else but your imagination process?\n\nI am leaving you with many questions. Who needs an answer, when you have questions like these? It all keeps being created, flowing toward what seems to be up in this case. Maybe nothing really moves? Maybe it is all a thought in endlessness, which has never changed\n\n\n\nJoin 218 other followers\n\nMy Pages\n\nThe healing process\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6954658627510071}
+{"content": "\n\nDecember 2, 2014\n\nIt’s here!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhy did the crash happen?\n\nWhat could the driver and rider have done differently?\n\nDid Randy die?\n\nAll of those questions are left for the viewer to consider.\n\n\n\nGovernor Inslee joins others governors in proclaiming May as Motorcycle Awareness Month\n\nMay 8, 2014\n\n\n\n • encourage riders to participate in rider education programs.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLook Twice – Save A Life.\n\nDo I really need an endorsement to ride a scooter?\n\nMarch 23, 2010\n\nby Kyle McCarty\n\nIn Washington State, street-legal, two and three-wheeled vehicles can be defined as a moped or a motor-driven cycle (scooter or motorcycle). It all depends upon engine size and speed.\n\nA large number of riders do not know that (most) scooters require an endorsement.\n\n Mopeds vs. Scooters: What’s the difference?\n\n Simply put, a scooter is a two or three-wheeled vehicle that is 50 cc’s or larger and can go faster than 30 mph. A moped is a two or three-wheeled vehicle that is less than 50 cc’s and cannot travel faster than 30 mph.\n\nScooters, motorcycles and trikes that are 50 cc’s or larger and can go faster than 30 mph must be licensed. All of these vehicles are legally defined as motor-driven cycles. Riders must possess a valid driver license with the appropriate endorsement.\n\nMopeds that are 49 cc’s or smaller and cannot go faster than 30 mph must be licensed. These vehicles are legally defined as mopeds. Riders must possess a valid driver license.\n\nIn Washington, there are separate endorsements for two and three-wheeled vehicles. A rider will need a category 3 endorsement for a two-wheeled vehicle; while a three-wheeled vehicle requires a category 5 endorsement. If the rider successfully passes knowledge and riding skills tests for both two and three-wheeled vehicles, he or she can opt to add a category 7 endorsement to his or her license.\n\nIn an effort to help our community better understand the laws and risks of riding, the Washington Motorcycle Safety Program offers the following resources:\n\nDOL Motorcycle Information\nLegal Reference\nWashington State Patrol", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.985503077507019}
+{"content": "Microbiology (from Greek μῑκρος, mīkros, “small”; βίος, bios, “life”; and -λογία, -logia) is the study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells).[1] Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, parasitology, mycology and bacteriology.\n\nEukaryotic microorganisms possess membrane-bound cell organelles and include fungi and protists, whereas prokaryotic organisms—all of which are microorganisms—are conventionally classified as lacking membrane-bound organelles and include Bacteria and Archaea. Microbiologists traditionally relied on culture, staining, and microscopy. However, less than 1% of the microorganisms present in common environments can be cultured in isolation using current means. Microbiologists often rely on molecular biology tools such as DNA sequence based identification, for example 16s rRNA gene sequence used for bacteria identification.\n\nViruses have been variably classified as organisms, as they have been considered either as very simple microorganisms or very complex molecules. Prions, never considered as microorganisms, have been investigated by virologists, however, as the clinical effects traced to them were originally presumed due to chronic viral infections, and virologists took search—discovering “infectious proteins”.\n\n\n\n\nNo posts to display\n\n\nRecent Posts", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9346570372581482}
+{"content": "Chapter 9 Survey Research\n\nShortly after the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC, in September of 2001, researcher Jennifer Lerner and her colleagues conducted an Internet-based survey of nearly 2,000 American teens and adults ranging in age from 13 to 88 (Lerner, Gonzalez, Small, & Fischhoff, 2003).Lerner, J. S., Gonzalez, R. M., Small, D. A., & Fischhoff, B. (2003). Effects of fear and anger on perceived risks of terrorism: A national field experiment. Psychological Science, 14, 144–150. They asked participants about their reactions to the attacks and for their judgments of various terrorism-related and other risks. Among the results were that the participants tended to overestimate most risks, that females did so more than males, and that there were no differences between teens and adults. The most interesting result, however, had to do with the fact that some participants were “primed” to feel anger by asking them what made them angry about the attacks and by presenting them with a photograph and audio clip intended to evoke anger. Others were primed to feel fear by asking them what made them fearful about the attacks and by presenting them with a photograph and audio clip intended to evoke fear. As the researchers hypothesized, the participants who were primed to feel anger perceived less risk than the participants who had been primed to feel fear—showing how risk perceptions are strongly tied to specific emotions.\n\nThe study by Lerner and her colleagues is an example of survey research in psychology—the topic of this chapter. We begin with an overview of survey research, including its definition, some history, and a bit about who conducts it and why. We then look at survey responding as a psychological process and the implications of this for constructing good survey questionnaires. Finally, we consider some issues related to actually conducting survey research, including sampling the participants and collecting the data.\n\n9.1 Overview of Survey Research\n\nLearning Objectives\n\n 1. Define what survey research is, including its two important characteristics.\n 2. Describe several different ways that survey research can be used and give some examples.\n\nWhat Is Survey Research?\n\nSurvey researchA quantitative research approach that uses self-report measures and large, carefully selected samples. is a quantitative approach that has two important characteristics. First, the variables of interest are measured using self-reports. In essence, survey researchers ask their participants (who are often called respondentsA term often used to refer to a participant in survey research. in survey research) to report directly on their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Second, considerable attention is paid to the issue of sampling. In particular, survey researchers have a strong preference for large random samples because they provide the most accurate estimates of what is true in the population. In fact, survey research may be the only approach in psychology in which random sampling is routinely used. Beyond these two characteristics, almost anything goes in survey research. Surveys can be long or short. They can be conducted in person, by telephone, through the mail, or over the Internet. They can be about voting intentions, consumer preferences, social attitudes, health, or anything else that it is possible to ask people about and receive meaningful answers.\n\nMost survey research is nonexperimental. It is used to describe single variables (e.g., the percentage of voters who prefer one presidential candidate or another, the prevalence of schizophrenia in the general population) and also to assess statistical relationships between variables (e.g., the relationship between income and health). But surveys can also be experimental. The study by Lerner and her colleagues is a good example. Their use of self-report measures and a large national sample identifies their work as survey research. But their manipulation of an independent variable (anger vs. fear) to assess its effect on a dependent variable (risk judgments) also identifies their work as experimental.\n\nHistory and Uses of Survey Research\n\nSurvey research may have its roots in English and American “social surveys” conducted around the turn of the 20th century by researchers and reformers who wanted to document the extent of social problems such as poverty (Converse, 1987).Converse, J. M. (1987). Survey research in the United States: Roots and emergence, 1890–1960. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. By the 1930s, the US government was conducting surveys to document economic and social conditions in the country. The need to draw conclusions about the entire population helped spur advances in sampling procedures. At about the same time, several researchers who had already made a name for themselves in market research, studying consumer preferences for American businesses, turned their attention to election polling. A watershed event was the presidential election of 1936 between Alf Landon and Franklin Roosevelt. A magazine called Literary Digest conducted a survey by sending ballots (which were also subscription requests) to millions of Americans. Based on this “straw poll,” the editors predicted that Landon would win in a landslide. At the same time, the new pollsters were using scientific methods with much smaller samples to predict just the opposite—that Roosevelt would win in a landslide. In fact, one of them, George Gallup, publicly criticized the methods of Literary Digest before the election and all but guaranteed that his prediction would be correct. And of course it was. (We will consider the reasons that Gallup was right later in this chapter.)\n\nFrom market research and election polling, survey research made its way into several academic fields, including political science, sociology, and public health—where it continues to be one of the primary approaches to collecting new data. Beginning in the 1930s, psychologists made important advances in questionnaire design, including techniques that are still used today, such as the Likert scale. (See “What Is a Likert Scale?” in Section 9.2 \"Constructing Survey Questionnaires\".) Survey research has a strong historical association with the social psychological study of attitudes, stereotypes, and prejudice. Early attitude researchers were also among the first psychologists to seek larger and more diverse samples than the convenience samples of college students that were routinely used in psychology (and still are).\n\nSurvey research continues to be important in psychology today. For example, survey data have been instrumental in estimating the prevalence of various mental disorders and identifying statistical relationships among those disorders and with various other factors. The National Comorbidity Survey is a large-scale mental health survey conducted in the United States (see In just one part of this survey, nearly 10,000 adults were given a structured mental health interview in their homes in 2002 and 2003. Table 9.1 \"Some Lifetime Prevalence Results From the National Comorbidity Survey\" presents results on the lifetime prevalence of some anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders. (Lifetime prevalence is the percentage of the population that develops the problem sometime in their lifetime.) Obviously, this kind of information can be of great use both to basic researchers seeking to understand the causes and correlates of mental disorders and also to clinicians and policymakers who need to understand exactly how common these disorders are.\n\nTable 9.1 Some Lifetime Prevalence Results From the National Comorbidity Survey\n\nLifetime prevalence*\nDisorder Total Female Male\nGeneralized anxiety disorder 5.7 7.1 4.2\nObsessive-compulsive disorder 2.3 3.1 1.6\nMajor depressive disorder 16.9 20.2 13.2\nBipolar disorder 4.4 4.5 4.3\nAlcohol abuse 13.2 7.5 19.6\nDrug abuse 8.0 4.8 11.6\n*The lifetime prevalence of a disorder is the percentage of people in the population that develop that disorder at any time in their lives.\n\nAnd as the opening example makes clear, survey research can even be used to conduct experiments to test specific hypotheses about causal relationships between variables. Such studies, when conducted on large and diverse samples, can be a useful supplement to laboratory studies conducted on college students. Although this is not a typical use of survey research, it certainly illustrates the flexibility of this approach.\n\nKey Takeaways\n\n • Survey research has its roots in applied social research, market research, and election polling. It has since become an important approach in many academic disciplines, including political science, sociology, public health, and, of course, psychology.\n\n\n 1. Discussion: Think of a question that each of the following professionals might try to answer using survey research.\n\n 1. a social psychologist\n 2. an educational researcher\n 3. a market researcher who works for a supermarket chain\n 4. the mayor of a large city\n 5. the head of a university police force\n\n9.2 Constructing Survey Questionnaires\n\nLearning Objectives\n\n\nThe heart of any survey research project is the survey questionnaire itself. Although it is easy to think of interesting questions to ask people, constructing a good survey questionnaire is not easy at all. The problem is that the answers people give can be influenced in unintended ways by the wording of the items, the order of the items, the response options provided, and many other factors. At best, these influences add noise to the data. At worst, they result in systematic biases and misleading results. In this section, therefore, we consider some principles for constructing survey questionnaires to minimize these unintended effects and thereby maximize the reliability and validity of respondents’ answers.\n\nSurvey Responding as a Psychological Process\n\nBefore looking at specific principles of survey questionnaire construction, it will help to consider survey responding as a psychological process.\n\nA Cognitive Model\n\nFigure 9.1 \"Model of the Cognitive Processes Involved in Responding to a Survey Item\" presents a model of the cognitive processes that people engage in when responding to a survey item (Sudman, Bradburn, & Schwarz, 1996).Sudman, S., Bradburn, N. M., & Schwarz, N. (1996). Thinking about answers: The application of cognitive processes to survey methodology. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Respondents must interpret the question, retrieve relevant information from memory, form a tentative judgment, convert the tentative judgment into one of the response options provided (e.g., a rating on a 1-to-7 scale), and finally edit their response as necessary.\n\nFigure 9.1 Model of the Cognitive Processes Involved in Responding to a Survey Item\n\nConsider, for example, the following questionnaire item:\n\nHow many alcoholic drinks do you consume in a typical day?\n\n • _____ a lot more than average\n • _____ somewhat more than average\n • _____ average\n • _____ somewhat fewer than average\n • _____ a lot fewer than average\n\n\n\nContext Effects on Questionnaire Responses\n\nAgain, this complexity can lead to unintended influences on respondents’ answers. These are often referred to as context effectsAn unintended effect of the context in which a response is made. In within-subjects experiments, this can be an effect of being tested in one condition on how participants perceive stimuli or interpret their task and therefore how they respond in later conditions. In survey research, this can be an effect of the surrounding items or the response scale on responses to a particular item. because they are not related to the content of the item but to the context in which the item appears (Schwarz & Strack, 1990).Schwarz, N., & Strack, F. (1990). Context effects in attitude surveys: Applying cognitive theory to social research. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 31–50). Chichester, UK: Wiley. For example, there is an item-order effectThe effect of responding to one survey item on responses to a later survey item. when the order in which the items are presented affects people’s responses. One item can change how participants interpret a later item or change the information that they retrieve to respond to later items. For example, researcher Fritz Strack and his colleagues asked college students about both their general life satisfaction and their dating frequency (Strack, Martin, & Schwarz, 1988).Strack, F., Martin, L. L., & Schwarz, N. (1988). Priming and communication: The social determinants of information use in judgments of life satisfaction. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18, 429–442. When the life satisfaction item came first, the correlation between the two was only −.12, suggesting that the two variables are only weakly related. But when the dating frequency item came first, the correlation between the two was +.66, suggesting that those who date more have a strong tendency to be more satisfied with their lives. Reporting the dating frequency first made that information more accessible in memory so that they were more likely to base their life satisfaction rating on it.\n\n\nWriting Survey Questionnaire Items\n\nTypes of Items\n\nQuestionnaire items can be either open-ended or closed-ended. Open-ended itemsA questionnaire item that asks a question and allows respondents to respond in whatever way they want. simply ask a question and allow participants to answer in whatever way they choose. The following are examples of open-ended questionnaire items.\n\n\nOpen-ended items are useful when researchers do not know how participants might respond or want to avoid influencing their responses. They tend to be used when researchers have more vaguely defined research questions—often in the early stages of a research project. Open-ended items are relatively easy to write because there are no response options to worry about. However, they take more time and effort on the part of participants, and they are more difficult for the researcher to analyze because the answers must be transcribed, coded, and submitted to some form of content analysis.\n\nClosed-ended itemsA questionnaire item that asks a question and provides a set of response options for respondents to choose from. ask a question and provide a set of response options for participants to choose from. The alcohol item just mentioned is an example, as are the following:\n\n\nHow old are you?\n\n • _____ Under 18\n • _____ 18 to 34\n • _____ 35 to 49\n • _____ 50 to 70\n • _____ Over 70\n\n\n\n\nAll closed-ended items include a set of response options from which a participant must choose. For categorical variables like sex, race, or political party preference, the categories are usually listed and participants choose the one (or ones) that they belong to. For quantitative variables, a rating scale is typically provided. A rating scaleAn ordered set of response options to a closed-ended questionnaire item. is an ordered set of responses that participants must choose from. Figure 9.2 \"Example Rating Scales for Closed-Ended Questionnaire Items\" shows several examples. The number of response options on a typical rating scale ranges from three to 11—although five and seven are probably most common. They can consist entirely of verbal labels or they can consist of a set of numbers with verbal labels as “anchors.” In some cases, the verbal labels or numbers can be supplemented with (or even replaced by) meaningful graphics. The last rating scale shown in Figure 9.2 \"Example Rating Scales for Closed-Ended Questionnaire Items\" is a visual-analog scale, on which participants make a mark somewhere along the horizontal line to indicate the magnitude of their response.\n\nFigure 9.2 Example Rating Scales for Closed-Ended Questionnaire Items\n\nWhat Is a Likert Scale?\n\n\nIn the 1930s, researcher Rensis Likert (pronounced LICK-ert) created a new approach for measuring people’s attitudes (Likert, 1932).Likert, R. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology, 140, 1–55. It involves presenting people with several statements—including both favorable and unfavorable statements—about some person, group, or idea. Respondents then express their agreement or disagreement with each statement on a 5-point scale: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. Numbers are assigned to each response (with reverse coding as necessary) and then summed across all items to produce a score representing the attitude toward the person, group, or idea. The entire set of items came to be called a Likert scale.\n\n\nWriting Effective Items\n\nWe can now consider some principles of writing questionnaire items that minimize unintended context effects and maximize the reliability and validity of participants’ responses. A rough guideline for writing questionnaire items is provided by the BRUSO model (Peterson, 2000).Peterson, R. A. (2000). Constructing effective questionnaires. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. An acronym, BRUSOA prescriptive model for writing good questionnaire items. They should be brief, relevant, unambiguous, specific, and objective. stands for “brief,” “relevant,” “unambiguous,” “specific,” and “objective.” Effective questionnaire items are brief and to the point. They avoid long, overly technical, or unnecessary words. This makes them easier for respondents to understand and faster for them to complete. Effective questionnaire items are also relevant to the research question. If a respondent’s sexual orientation, marital status, or income is not relevant, then items on them should probably not be included. Again, this makes the questionnaire faster to complete, but it also avoids annoying respondents with what they will rightly perceive as irrelevant or even “nosy” questions. Effective questionnaire items are also unambiguous; they can be interpreted in only one way. Part of the problem with the alcohol item presented earlier in this section is that different respondents might have different ideas about what constitutes “an alcoholic drink” or “a typical day.” Effective questionnaire items are also specific, so that it is clear to respondents what their response should be about and clear to researchers what it is about. A common problem here is closed-ended items that are “double barreled.” They ask about two conceptually separate issues but allow only one response. For example, “Please rate the extent to which you have been feeling anxious and depressed.” This item should probably be split into two separate items—one about anxiety and one about depression. Finally, effective questionnaire items are objective in the sense that they do not reveal the researcher’s own opinions or lead participants to answer in a particular way. Table 9.2 \"BRUSO Model of Writing Effective Questionnaire Items, Plus Examples\" shows some examples of poor and effective questionnaire items based on the BRUSO criteria.\n\nTable 9.2 BRUSO Model of Writing Effective Questionnaire Items, Plus Examples\n\nCriterion Poor Effective\n\n“How much have you read about the new gun control measure?”\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUnlikely | Somewhat Likely | Likely | Very Likely | Extremely Likely\n\n\nA balanced version might look like this:\n\n\n\n\n\nNumerical rating scales often begin at 1 and go up to 5 or 7. However, they can also begin at 0 if the lowest response option means the complete absence of something (e.g., no pain). They can also have 0 as their midpoint, but it is important to think about how this might change people’s interpretation of the response options. For example, when asked to rate how successful in life they have been on a 0-to-10 scale, many people use numbers in the lower half of the scale because they interpret this to mean that they have been only somewhat successful in life. But when asked to rate how successful they have been in life on a −5 to +5 scale, very few people use numbers in the lower half of the scale because they interpret this to mean they have actually been unsuccessful in life (Schwarz, 1999).Schwarz, N. (1999). Self-reports: How the questions shape the answers. American Psychologist, 54, 93–105.\n\nFormatting the Questionnaire\n\n\nThe second function of the introduction is to establish informed consent. Remember that this means describing to respondents everything that might affect their decision to participate. This includes the topics covered by the survey, the amount of time it is likely to take, the respondent’s option to withdraw at any time, confidentiality issues, and so on. Written consent forms are not typically used in survey research, so it is important that this part of the introduction be well documented and presented clearly and in its entirety to every respondent.\n\n\nKey Takeaways\n\n • Responding to a survey item is itself a complex cognitive process that involves interpreting the question, retrieving information, making a tentative judgment, putting that judgment into the required response format, and editing the response.\n • Survey questionnaire responses are subject to numerous context effects due to question wording, item order, response options, and other factors. Researchers should be sensitive to such effects when constructing surveys and interpreting survey results.\n • Survey questionnaire items are either open-ended or closed-ended. Open-ended items simply ask a question and allow respondents to answer in whatever way they want. Closed-ended items ask a question and provide several response options that respondents must choose from.\n • According to the BRUSO model, questionnaire items should be brief, relevant, unambiguous, specific, and objective.\n\n\n 1. Discussion: Write a survey item and then write a short description of how someone might respond to that item based on the cognitive model of survey responding (or choose any item on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale at\n 2. Practice: Write survey questionnaire items for each of the following general questions. In some cases, a series of items, rather than a single item, might be necessary.\n\n 1. How much does the respondent use Facebook?\n 2. How much exercise does the respondent get?\n 3. How likely does the respondent think it is that the incumbent will be reelected in the next presidential election?\n 4. To what extent does the respondent experience “road rage”?\n\n9.3 Conducting Surveys\n\nLearning Objectives\n\n 1. Explain the difference between probability and nonprobability sampling, and describe the major types of probability sampling.\n 2. Define sampling bias in general and nonresponse bias in particular. List some techniques that can be used to increase the response rate and reduce nonresponse bias.\n 3. List the four major ways to conduct a survey along with some pros and cons of each.\n\nIn this section, we consider how to go about conducting a survey. We first consider the issue of sampling, followed by some different methods of actually collecting survey data.\n\n\nEssentially all psychological research involves sampling—selecting a sample to study from the population of interest. Sampling falls into two broad categories. Probability samplingAn approach to sampling in which the researcher can specify the probability that each member of the population will be selected. occurs when the researcher can specify the probability that each member of the population will be selected for the sample. Nonprobability samplingAn approach to sampling in which the researcher cannot specify the probability that each member of the population will be selected. Convenience sampling is an example. occurs when the researcher cannot specify these probabilities. Most psychological research involves nonprobability sampling. Convenience sampling—studying individuals who happen to be nearby and willing to participate—is a very common form of nonprobability sampling used in psychological research.\n\nSurvey researchers, however, are much more likely to use some form of probability sampling. This is because the goal of most survey research is to make accurate estimates about what is true in a particular population, and these estimates are most accurate when based on a probability sample. For example, it is important for survey researchers to base their estimates of election outcomes—which are often decided by only a few percentage points—on probability samples of likely registered voters.\n\nCompared with nonprobability sampling, probability sampling requires a very clear specification of the population, which of course depends on the research questions to be answered. The population might be all registered voters in the state of Arkansas, all American consumers who have purchased a car in the past year, women in the United States over 40 years old who have received a mammogram in the past decade, or all the alumni of a particular university. Once the population has been specified, probability sampling requires a sampling frameA list of all the members of the population, from which the actual sample is selected.. This is essentially a list of all the members of the population from which to select the respondents. Sampling frames can come from a variety of sources, including telephone directories, lists of registered voters, and hospital or insurance records. In some cases, a map can serve as a sampling frame, allowing for the selection of cities, streets, or households.\n\nThere are a variety of different probability sampling methods. Simple random samplingSampling where each member of the population has an equal probability of being selected. is done in such a way that each individual in the population has an equal probability of being selected for the sample. This could involve putting the names of all individuals in the sampling frame into a hat, mixing them up, and then drawing out the number needed for the sample. Given that most sampling frames take the form of computer files, random sampling is more likely to involve computerized sorting or selection of respondents. A common approach in telephone surveys is random-digit dialing, in which a computer randomly generates phone numbers from among the possible phone numbers within a given geographic area.\n\nA common alternative to simple random sampling is stratified random samplingSampling where the population is first divided into different subgroups or strata and a separate random sample is selected from each stratum., in which the population is divided into different subgroups or “strata” (usually based on demographic characteristics) and then a random sample is taken from each “stratum.” Stratified random sampling can be used to select a sample in which the proportion of respondents in each of various subgroups matches the proportion in the population. For example, because about 12.5% of the US population is Black, stratified random sampling can be used to ensure that a survey of 1,000 American adults includes about 125 Black respondents. Stratified random sampling can also be used to sample extra respondents from particularly small subgroups—allowing valid conclusions to be drawn about those subgroups. For example, because Asian Americans make up a fairly small percentage of the US population (about 4.5%), a simple random sample of 1,000 American adults might include too few Asian Americans to draw any conclusions about them as distinct from any other subgroup. If this is important to the research question, however, then stratified random sampling could be used to ensure that enough Asian American respondents are included in the sample to draw valid conclusions about Asian Americans as a whole.\n\nYet another type of probability sampling is cluster samplingSampling where larger clusters of individuals (e.g., cities, households) are sampled first and then individuals are sampled from these clusters., in which larger clusters of individuals are randomly sampled and then individuals within each cluster are randomly sampled. For example, to select a sample of small-town residents in the United States, a researcher might randomly select several small towns and then randomly select several individuals within each town. Cluster sampling is especially useful for surveys that involve face-to-face interviewing because it minimizes the amount of traveling that the interviewers must do. For example, instead of traveling to 200 small towns to interview 200 residents, a research team could travel to 10 small towns and interview 20 residents of each. The National Comorbidity Survey was done using a form of cluster sampling.\n\nHow large does a survey sample need to be? In general, this depends on two factors. One is the level of confidence in the result that the researcher wants. The larger the sample, the closer any statistic based on that sample will tend to be to the corresponding value in the population. The other factor is the budget of the study. Larger samples provide greater confidence, but they take more time, effort, and money to obtain. Taking these two factors into account, most survey research uses sample sizes that range from about 100 to about 1,000.\n\nSample Size and Population Size\n\nWhy is a sample of 1,000 considered to be adequate for most survey research—even when the population is much larger than that? Consider, for example, that a sample of only 1,000 registered voters is generally considered a good sample of the roughly 120 million registered voters in the US population—even though it includes only about 0.0008% of the population! The answer is a bit surprising.\n\nOne part of the answer is that a statistic based on a larger sample will tend to be closer to the population value and that this can be characterized mathematically. Imagine, for example, that in a sample of registered voters, exactly 50% say they intend to vote for the incumbent. If there are 100 voters in this sample, then there is a 95% chance that the true percentage in the population is between 40 and 60. But if there are 1,000 voters in the sample, then there is a 95% chance that the true percentage in the population is between 47 and 53. Although this “95% confidence interval” continues to shrink as the sample size increases, it does so at a slower rate. For example, if there are 2,000 voters in the sample, then this only reduces the 95% confidence interval to 48 to 52. In many situations, the small increase in confidence beyond a sample size of 1,000 is not considered to be worth the additional time, effort, and money.\n\nAnother part of the answer—and perhaps the more surprising part—is that confidence intervals depend only on the size of the sample and not on the size of the population. So a sample of 1,000 would produce a 95% confidence interval of 47 to 53 regardless of whether the population size was a hundred thousand, a million, or a hundred million.\n\nSampling Bias\n\nProbability sampling was developed in large part to address the issue of sampling bias. Sampling biasOccurs when a sample is selected in such a way that it is not representative of the entire population and therefore produces inaccurate results. occurs when a sample is selected in such a way that it is not representative of the entire population and therefore produces inaccurate results. This was the reason that the Literary Digest straw poll was so far off in its prediction of the 1936 presidential election. The mailing lists used came largely from telephone directories and lists of registered automobile owners, which overrepresented wealthier people, who were more likely to vote for Landon. Gallup was successful because he knew about this bias and found ways to sample less wealthy people as well.\n\nThere is one form of sampling bias that even careful random sampling is subject to. It is almost never the case that everyone selected for the sample actually responds to the survey. Some may have died or moved away, and others may decline to participate because they are too busy, are not interested in the survey topic, or do not participate in surveys on principle. If these survey nonresponders differ from survey responders in systematic ways, then this can produce nonresponse biasA type of sampling bias in which those who do not respond to the survey differ systematically from those who do, producing misleading results.. For example, in a mail survey on alcohol consumption, researcher Vivienne Lahaut and colleagues found that only about half the sample responded after the initial contact and two follow-up reminders (Lahaut, Jansen, van de Mheen, & Garretsen, 2002).Lahaut, V. M. H. C. J., Jansen, H. A. M., van de Mheen, D., & Garretsen, H. F. L. (2002). Non-response bias in a sample survey on alcohol consumption. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 37, 256–260. The danger here is that the half who responded might have different patterns of alcohol consumption than the half who did not, which could lead to inaccurate conclusions on the part of the researchers. So to test for nonresponse bias, the researchers later made unannounced visits to the homes of a subset of the nonresponders—coming back up to five times if they did not find them at home. They found that the original nonresponders included an especially high proportion of abstainers (nondrinkers), which meant that their estimates of alcohol consumption based only on the original responders were too high.\n\nAlthough there are methods for statistically correcting for nonresponse bias, they are based on assumptions about the nonresponders—for example, that they are more similar to late responders than to early responders—which may not be correct. For this reason, the best approach to minimizing nonresponse bias is to minimize the number of nonresponders—that is, to maximize the response rate. There is a large research literature on the factors that affect survey response rates (Groves et al., 2004).Groves, R. M., Fowler, F. J., Couper, M. P., Lepkowski, J. M., Singer, E., & Tourangeau, R. (2004). Survey methodology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. In general, in-person interviews have the highest response rates, followed by telephone surveys, and then mail and Internet surveys. Among the other factors that increase response rates are sending potential respondents a short prenotification message informing them that they will be asked to participate in a survey in the near future and sending simple follow-up reminders to nonresponders after a few weeks. The perceived length and complexity of the survey also makes a difference, which is why it is important to keep survey questionnaires as short, simple, and on topic as possible. Finally, offering an incentive—especially cash—is a reliable way to increase response rates.\n\nConducting the Survey\n\nThe four main ways to conduct surveys are through in-person interviews, by telephone, through the mail, and over the Internet. As with other aspects of survey design, the choice depends on both the researcher’s goals and the budget. In-person interviews have the highest response rates and provide the closest personal contact with respondents. Personal contact can be important, for example, when the interviewer must see and make judgments about respondents, as is the case with some mental health interviews. But in-person interviewing is by far the most costly approach. Telephone surveys have lower response rates and still provide some personal contact with respondents. They can also be costly but are generally less so than in-person interviews. Traditionally, telephone directories have provided fairly comprehensive sampling frames. Mail surveys are less costly still but generally have even lower response rates—making them most susceptible to nonresponse bias.\n\nNot surprisingly, Internet surveys are becoming more common. They are increasingly easy to construct and use (see “Online Survey Creation”). Although initial contact can be made by mail with a link provided to the survey, this approach does not necessarily produce higher response rates than an ordinary mail survey. A better approach is to make initial contact by e-mail with a link directly to the survey. This can work well when the population consists of the members of an organization who have known e-mail addresses and regularly use them (e.g., a university community). For other populations, it can be difficult or impossible to find a comprehensive list of e-mail addresses to serve as a sampling frame. Alternatively, a request to participate in the survey with a link to it can be posted on websites known to be visited by members of the population. But again it is very difficult to get anything approaching a random sample this way because the members of the population who visit the websites are likely to be different from the population as a whole. However, Internet survey methods are in rapid development. Because of their low cost, and because more people are online than ever before, Internet surveys are likely to become the dominant approach to survey data collection in the near future.\n\nOnline Survey Creation\n\nThere are now several online tools for creating online questionnaires. After a questionnaire is created, a link to it can then be e-mailed to potential respondents or embedded in a web page. The following websites are among those that offer free accounts. Although the free accounts limit the number of questionnaire items and the number of respondents, they can be useful for doing small-scale surveys and for practicing the principles of good questionnaire construction.\n\nKey Takeaways\n\n • Survey research usually involves probability sampling, in which each member of the population has a known probability of being selected for the sample. Types of probability sampling include simple random sampling, stratified random sampling, and cluster sampling.\n • Sampling bias occurs when a sample is selected in such a way that it is not representative of the population and therefore produces inaccurate results. The most pervasive form of sampling bias is nonresponse bias, which occurs when people who do not respond to the survey differ in important ways from people who do respond. The best way to minimize nonresponse bias is to maximize the response rate by prenotifying respondents, sending them reminders, constructing questionnaires that are short and easy to complete, and offering incentives.\n • Surveys can be conducted in person, by telephone, through the mail, and on the Internet. In-person interviewing has the highest response rates but is the most expensive. Mail and Internet surveys are less expensive but have much lower response rates. Internet surveys are likely to become the dominant approach because of their low cost.\n\n\n 1. Discussion: If possible, identify an appropriate sampling frame for each of the following populations. If there is no appropriate sampling frame, explain why.\n\n 1. students at a particular college or university\n 2. adults living in the state of Nevada\n 3. households in Little Rock, Arkansas\n 4. people with low self-esteem\n 2. Practice: Use one of the online survey creation tools to create a 10-item survey questionnaire on a topic of your choice.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.881835401058197}
+{"content": "Posts Tagged ‘Electronics and computer engineering’\n\nThe World as a State Machine\n\n\n\n\nRole of Industrial Consortia in Education and Research\n\nIn Education, Embedded Systems, Industrial Consortia, Research and Development on February 8, 2013 at 6:58 PM\n\nA Google search will reveal the existence of quite a few influential industrial consortia further the cause of research and education in fields identified by them. Almost all of them are run jointly by people from industry and prominent educational and research institutions. You can find a list of them compiled here. I have listed only the ones relevant to electronics and computer industries. I have found that not many students are aware of these consortia and that should not be the case. Some of these are highly active and they contribute a lot to research, development of technology and education. Consortia like Accellera Systems Intiative have contributed to a number of IEEE standards. Some of these can be downloaded for free from its website. The Semiconductor Research Association plays an important role in promoting research and education in the field of semiconductors. The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors has played an immense role in identifying challenges before the semiconductor industry- from design to manufacturing, to testing and validation. Many of these associations also offer scholarships and fellowships for students and research grants for faculty members. Their publications provide a lot of insight regarding the challenges at present and of the future. These publications may not always have a lot of in depth research material, the sort of which most graduate students are accustomed to, but they successfully paint the bigger picture. Paying attention to such facts can help in keeping research relevant to industry where necessary. Besides, it also helps in learning about the actual real world problems and the challenges involved in translating research into technology that can be scaled up and widely used. Sometimes, problems are considered solved in academic research but such solutions never make it to the market, even if of relevance, because their translation to scalable technology still remains an open problem.\n\nWhat is there in the word “distance”?\n\nIn Education, Mathematics on February 6, 2013 at 9:32 PM\n\nI fist learned about distances in school- class of classical geometry. Of course it was not called classical geometry in school but only geometry. The initial concepts were related to distances between points in a plane, between lines in a plane and between a line and a point in a plane. A plane, as you know, is a 2-dimensional (2D) space. In high school, this concept was extended to 3-dimensional space (3D). The concept of distance basically gives an idea of how far (or how close) are two things (lines, points) from (to) each other. What I learned was “2-norm distance” (the typical Euclidean distance):\n\n2-norm distance = \\sqrt{(\\displaystyle\\sum_{i=1}^{n} |{x_{i}}^2 - {y_{i}}^2|)}\n\nI learned about Hamming Distance during my undergraduate courses on electronics communication. However, it is only during research that I learned a lot more about distances. My first surprise came when I heard about distances in a class on image processing. You can use distances to measure similarity between images! Of course the definitions and methods to calculate those distances were also different. Since then I have learned about distances being one major way of identifying similarities between objects or classes of objects. The central idea behind all these different kinds of distances (not just in image processing) remains the same: to measure how far the objects are from each other in some respect. For instance, in psychoanalysis “Emotional Distance” is the degree of emotional detachment from some person or events; Czekanovski-Dice distance is used to compare two audio waveforms x and y in time domain etc. If your distance from the world of distances is not big ;), you might want to try reading the Dictionary of Distances.\n\nExperiments in Computer Science/Engineering?\n\nIn Design Methodologies, Education, Embedded Systems on February 1, 2013 at 1:35 AM\n\nA friend of mine, who is doing a project on implementing various image processing algorithms (like edge detection, adding colors etc.), was asked by the concerned supervisor to conduct experiments as part of the work. This friend then asked me what the supervisor meant by experiments in this particular case. I was taken aback initially because I had not come across the term experiment being associated with computer science/engineering in a case where the principal job was to implement some algorithms already developed by someone else and package the implementation as a software. Here, there is no hypothesis to be tested which is an integral part of any experimental science or approach! If the student’s job had been to choose an edge detection algorithm for implementation, by controlled experiments using different kinds of edge detection techniques on the same kind of workload, then that would have qualified as an experiment.\n\nNevertheless, I made some suggestions: examine the execution time of the developed software package as the input image size changes; test if there is any dependency based on the image format; test the performance (visual perception of quality of result, execution time) as the amount of information varies across images ( for example an image with a few straight lines/curves with a few orientations vs. an image with hundreds of straight lines/curves with varying orientations). I do not know if the concerned supervisor meant this or something else or the term was used in a loose way to refer to software testing.\n\nHowever, I decided to explore this topic a little bit more. I found that Stanford University has a graduate level course titled Designing Computer Science Experiments. An excellent paper on what is experimental computer science by Peter J. Denning, a former ACM President, was published in 1980 and can be found here. A good repository of resources is maintained by Prof. Dror Feitelson of Hebrew University, Israel here. Researchers in the field of computer architecture theorize (make a hypothesis) and do a lot of experiments to test their theory. For instance, people work on different kinds of FPGA architectures to see their benefits and drawbacks. The essential point is that in an experimental approach, one states a hypothesis, conducts experiments and then analyzes the data generated as a result of experiments to test the hypothesis.\n\nNumerical Stability in Calculations\n\nIn Design Methodologies, Embedded Systems, Engineering Principles, Mathematics on January 24, 2013 at 11:44 PM\n\nI did not have any course on algorithms in my undergraduate education. I studied about them (their properties, design etc.) during my research work. I now realize why their study is important for anyone who wants to be really good at designing algorithms or implementing them. After all, algorithms solve problems. I recently came across the subject of numerical stability of algorithms, numerical algorithms to be precise. While algorithms help solve problems, they need to be implemented on a digital machine (a computer for example) which has limited precision. Whatever number system we use, they cannot cover all the numbers present in exact mathematics. This leads to approximations as well as upper and lower bounds on the numbers that can be represented. Also, approximations can be the source of errors and deviations from the exact numerical answer. For instance, on a machine with only 3 digit precision, numbers like 22, 2.22, 0.110, 100, 177 can be represented. Now if you try to add 2 and 1000 instances of 0.11 , your sum would be 112 on this machine and this matches with the exact answer. Similarly, if you try to add 9 and 9 instances of 0.11, the answer on this machine would be 9.99, which matches with the exact answer. However, if you try to add 10 and 9 instances of 0.11 in that order i.e 10+0.11+0.11…., the machine would return 10 as answer because the moment you try to add 0.11 to 10, you are going to exceed the precision of the machine. Now imagine doing the same calculation in the reverse order i.e adding all the nine 0.11’s first and then 10 i.e. 0.11+0.11+….+10, the machine would return an answer of 0.99 which is far off from the actual answer 10.99 and far worse than the previous approximation of 10 (for the other order of addition). This means that the way you arrange your numbers( in memory, for instance an array) to be added also may influence the sum!! I wish that embedded systems engineers read more on this subject so that the numerical errors that we see cropping up in such systems get reduced. A nice introduction is at wikipedia.\n\nThe Internet of Things\n\nIn Embedded Systems, Engineering Principles, Interdisciplinary Science on November 29, 2012 at 2:43 PM\n\nWhen I first attended a presentation on “The Internet of Things”, I was not very excited. It turned out to be nothing more than a glorified description of sensor networks. Though this phrase was first used in 1999 as reported in an article in RFID journal, it has been interpreted in many different ways by different people. Trying to find a way through that maze of descriptions is really difficult. However, after reading a lot about it and based on my own understanding of embedded systems, sensor networks and systems engineering, I would like to share what it means for a non-technical audience. I find it best to explain through examples. Take the case of a smart home. You can control the appliances in your home while driving your car as there is a communication network that links you up with them while you are driving. Your smartphone connects you to the internet where you can shop, play games together with your friends and download apps that make your phone more versatile. It syncs with your email accounts and any sync enabled application, helps you make payments on the go (mobile banking), provide access to your data anywhere through cloud based tools like dropbox etc.. The GPS on your phone helps you find your way in a city by showing you on a city map that has been downloaded on to your phone using a wi-fi or similar data connection. You can drive almost safely even in a city new for you! These examples demonstrate an interaction between humans, electronic devices which may have sensors, mechanical devices and the traditional internet. By traditional internet I mean the internet which was seen initially as just a repository of information and which has now grown to include processing engines like those which facilitate “voice enabled search and SMS” on your smartphones, storage and compute space for cloud applications (like Amazon’s EC service) etc. Thus the “Internet of Things” is nothing but a network where human actions, electrical and mechanical devices and the internet come together to interact in a meaningful way. The scope of this interaction can be as varied and wide as possible depending on the intended result.\n\nA Case For Electrical and Eelectronic Measurement\n\nIn Design Methodologies, Education, Embedded Systems on October 23, 2012 at 12:36 AM\n\nPerhaps one of the least emphasized part of university education in electrical, electronics or computer engineering is related to the field of electrical and electronic measurements. Electrical measurements generally involve measuring current, voltage and resistance. In an embedded systems that has sensors, such measurements can play a critical role. The output of these sensors are converted to either current or voltage before further processing in software or hardware. Not only to test such a system but also to design it properly, it is important to understand the basic concepts of measurement like accuracy, repeatability, resolution, instrument error, instrument noise, capacitance of cables, probe resistance, instrument calibration etc. I had my first real experience with some really tough measurements to be done on an OC192 board for a telecommunication application while trying to debug some issues. I must say that while we place a lot of emphasis on software and hardware design issues, it is also important to consider the measurement side of the story in order to test if the software and the hardware are working properly. Measurement concepts like instrument calibration, sensitivity and timing are very important in a test set-up. Sometimes, we miss out these things resulting in a mismatch between requirements and implementation. Keithley’s Getting back to the Basics of Electrical Measurements is good for introduction as well as for refreshing one’s basic knowledge.\n\nError Documentation: Why not?\n\nIn Design Methodologies, Embedded Systems on August 27, 2012 at 12:48 PM\n\nI am sure that many of you who have used any software tool that throws up errors have spent time (at one point or another) figuring out what those errors mean. Every software tool that is used in any electronics or software design project throws up errors. Be it is GCC, EDA tools etc. One might have used the support channel of the vendor, user forums, websites like stackoverflow etc. to understand the meaning of those errors. A number of times, these errors do not make any immediate sense to the user. There are also many errors which can be because of multiple reasons. Once one gets a list of these reasons, one has to choose the one that is most likely to be applicable to the case at hand. All this reduces productivity. The time spent searching, gathering and analyzing information could have been better utilized focusing on design. Would it not be better if tool vendors also released documentation on the different kinds of errors that their tools might throw up and the associated reasons? I believe that this “ready-reference” would be very beneficial. After all during the development of those tools, the vendors are indeed aware of why a particular error has been thrown up. Why not just compile all that information in one place and help the user? Also, the errors are not always due to problems in the design source files. Sometimes they are there because the tool expects the user to structure the project, tool inputs etc. in a certain way. Given the complexity of modern EDA and other development tools and the time spent in learning them for effective use, it would only be welcomed if vendors offered this extra level of documentation.\n\nCan a computer do envy-free divison?\n\nIn Education, Interdisciplinary Science on July 28, 2012 at 10:15 PM\n\nWe have all studied division. In the world of simple mathematics, 8 divided by 2 is always 4. But what about dividing a cake into 2 equal pieces? A computer program can always divide 8 by 2 and give 4 as answer, but can a computer program divide a cake into 2 equal pieces? Let us make it a bit more complicated. Say the cake has to be divided between persons A and B and in such a way that neither of them feels that the other person got more. This means that neither A or B will envy the share received by the other. So here the notion of equal division has to be understood in the context of the result leading to an envy-free solution. This is the subject of “Fair Division” also known as cake cutting problem. It is studied in politics, mathematics, economics and the like. Methods and algorithms have been proposed to achieve fair division but all require inputs from the parties involved in the division at different stages of the procedure. Note that these inputs need not be disclosed as these could be the feelings/assumptions/conclusions running in the minds of the parties involved. This means that different inputs at different stages can lead to different outcomes. Does it remind of “Observer Effect” in Physics? Yes. The inputs(observation of a current state of division) by a party affects the outcome of division (phenomenon being observed). It is impossible (?) for a computer to solve a problem of this type entirely on its own. Such problems arise routinely in allocation of goods, dispute resolution, negotiation of treaties etc.\n\nBorrowing terms from economics, a number can be treated as ‘a homogeneous good’ while a cake is essentially ‘a heterogeneous good’ as different parts of it can taste different. Hence, its envy-free division is far more complicated. If you are interested, try to read “Fair Division-From cake-cutting to dispute resolution“, an excellent book by Steven J. Brams (political scientist) and Alan D. Taylor (mathematician).\n\nTeaching Productive Programming\n\nIn Education on June 19, 2012 at 11:29 PM\n\nThe past semester (Jan-May 2012), I supervised a lab on Data Structures and C for 1st year undergraduates. It was a good experience. The students were very bright and they all did well in their assignments. Recently, I have been doing quite a lot of programming related to electronic design automation as part of my research to test some of our proposed algorithms etc. I came to the realization that while many students are taught programming with a heavy focus on improving their programming skills (smaller code size, faster implementation etc.), there is a lack of focus on teaching them how to manage large codebases. When these students will go out to work in the industry, they won’t be writing just one program, they will be writing many as part of just one project. Understanding how to keep code modular by splitting into multiple source files, a few header files etc. is very important. It also helps in code reuse, which unfortunately is grossly underemphasized in universities but is a huge practice in the industry. Writing code that can be reused requires skills in including proper comments in code, meaningful naming of variables and functions, maintaining proper code documentation. While some of these are dealt with in pieces here and there, it is important to let students see and apppreciate the need for this process. Reducing effort and increasing productivity is another important issue that is underestimated in teaching. These two need not always be equated with superb coding skills. The ability to write makefiles and compile multiple source files using them, keep directories clean, have separate release and build directories, understand the need for bug tracking systems (like bugzilla etc.) and sourcecode/project/file versioning systems (like Tortoise Hg, Tortoise CVS etc.) are important for a successful, clean and productive project development. Many of these abilities are equally appplicable to both software and hardware development exercises. Things like versioning systems, bug tracking also help in understanding how people work in teams. It is all about team play when it comes to conceptualizaing, designing, building and shipping a product in the market. Take a look at the team size chart in a typical high end product development team (which itself is a combination of multiple sub teams) here and convince yourself!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7737299203872681}
+{"content": "Tap Your Emotional Intelligence To Support Your Remote Team\n\n\n\n\n\nStay in frequent communication\n\n • Create social and “fun” moments\n\nTake the opportunity to get to know them better.\n\n\n\n\n\nKnow your client’s business in order to serve it\n\nUnderstanding your client’s business\n\nOne of the best ways to make a strong impression with a new prospect or customer, is to demonstrate that you’ve done all the homework on them that you reasonably can.\n\nAbove all, they want to know that you understand their business, and you have good reason to believe you can help them… before the initial approach.\n\nI’ve found a good place to start is to understand their competitive landscape. There’s a simple but very effective model you can use as a checklist to be sure you’re covering all the bases.\n\nI’m referring to what is known as the “Five Forces Model”. It was described by Michael Porter in his 1980 book, Competitive Strategy. It’s a staple for business school strategy courses.\n\nThe Model and Starter Questions\n\nHere’s the model and some starter questions for you to research for the company and executive you’ll be meeting with:\n\nCompetitive Rivaries\n\nWhich companies compete for the same customers your prospect cares about?\n\nLarge companies operate in multiple segments. Be sure you’re researching competitors in the same segment your prospect works in.\n\nHow much market share does your prospect business enjoy? \n\nAre they gaining ground or losing ground? Their strategy will be different if they’re a leader, or a new entrant.\n\nThreat of New Entry\n\nWhat other companies are positioning themselves to compete in this space? \n\nAt one time, IBM was the runaway leader in computers. But along came DEC, HP, and a host of others.\n\nWhat is your prospect doing to create “barriers to entry” to make it hard for others to enter? \n\nUnique technology, strong reputation, global support capability, other ways?\n\nThreat of Substitution\n\nWhat could be a substitute in the market that winds up competing for the same users? \n\nThe first portable radio was a substitute for a record player. The record player was a substitute for live concerts… You get it! What competitors are finding a new way to serve the same market need?\n\nBuyer Power\n\nHow are their biggest customers influencing their product and service strategies? \n\nWhen I worked for HP, we spent a lot of time and energy visiting with our largest accounts to understand their emerging needs. That yielded a better understanding of the market trends of that customer category, which allowed us to get out ahead or our competitors in designing solutions to meet those emerging needs.\n\nSupplier Power\n\nWho supplies critical technology, raw materials, and human resources to your prospect’s firm?\n\nOil producing companies and countries wield considerable power over companies such as refineries, distributors, and automobile companies.\n\n\nUnderstanding your prospect and asking well informed questions gives you a leg up on your competitors who rely on lame “what keeps you up at night?” questions.\n\nCustomers reward the consultants who invest in understanding them. You don’t have to be an industry expert to ask a better question. You just have to do some basic research and personalize it to the person you will be sitting across from and the industry segment they serve.\n\nEmotional Intelligence Enables Great Leadership\n\nThe research is compelling. Emotional intelligence is a powerful enabler to being a great leader.\n\nThis short video explores research by the Center for Creative Leadership, Multi-Health Systems, and Google which demonstrates the power of emotional intelligence (EQ) to strong leadership and employee engagement.\n\nWhat’s your experience?\n\nAscendent is a certified to deliver the Hogan family of personality assessments, including EQ, as well the Multi-Health Systems EQ-i 2.0 assessments. Maybe we should talk!\n\nHow to Ask Powerful Follow-Up Questions\n\nDifferentiate your credibility by how you respond to what clients tell you\n\nThe best advisors are adept at asking powerful follow-up questions. They use a well framed follow-up to signal that they not only heard the previous answer, but have processed it to a preliminary understanding, and are now seeking to go farther and deeper to understand the speaker’s full meaning.\n\nRespond to the listener’s expectation\n\nIf you’re having a serious discussion with someone, they want to know that you’re really engaged in what they are saying and want to know more. Your caring approach to listening makes them feel heard, and that you are respecting their knowledge.\n\nThe speakers feel honored, and they want to continue the dialogue. This not only creates a link with the listener but opens the door for deepening the conversation and the underlying relationship.\n\nWhat’s my investment?\n\nAll of these advantages come at a price.\n\nSkillful tennis players anticipate where their opponent will return the volley and begin moving there as their opponent gets into position for their hit. That form of in-the-instant judgment comes after years of playing, and thousands of volleys. The equivalent experience from a consultant comes from years of learning and practicing their craft.\n\nMany of the readers of this piece have that level of experience in their domain. The trick is to be intentional about taking advantage of it as the conversation flows back and forth. Newcomers to a domain can prepare by tapping into experienced colleagues in advance of their meeting. They can ask about the most critical topics likely to come up, and how those topics best relate to customer those challenges.\n\nSteps for great follow-up questions\n\n 1. Do your homework on what you believe will be the critical topics you will discuss in this discussion.\n 2. Take advantage of what you already have experienced in those areas to anticipate how the conversation might flow.\n 3. If you don’t have direct experience, interview colleagues or available experts to understand the most critical aspects of the topics.\n 4. Be realistic about how far you can take a topic. Maybe ask a question about its relative importance, so . At a level that you will at least you will know they are critical, without going into any depth.\n 5. Invite a more experienced colleague to make the meeting with you.\n\nThen, relax and play the match. If you’ve done this level of prep, you will most likely sound more credible than most of your competitors.\n\nGreat Reads:\n\nHBR: The Surprising Power of Questions\n\nDeveloping executives – What’s the coaching business case?\n\nA strong coaching business case for a leadership development project keeps all parties motivated and driving toward success.\n\nVirtually all of my coaching with business leaders is funded by their firms. There are three parties to the agreement. The leader has to deliver the effort to fully work on their development. The stakeholder has to invest the resources to hire the coach and support the leader and their development effort. The coach has to deliver a coaching process that is effective.\n\nWhile the firm is investing in the individual, it is also wanting the coaching investment to result in some “return” to the company, reflected in improved business outcomes.\n\nIt helps leaders and their stakeholders to align quickly on the coaching goals if they think about the engagement as an investment and use investment language to describe the return. For an example, if an executive successfully improves employee engagement on his team, research says that team firm will enjoy higher productivity, and up to 20% higher profitability.\n\nI use a four phased “business case” approach to create the development plan. The client and stakeholder see the outcome in their terms. In the client’s mind, “I’ll get to know my team better and we’ll all work better together.” In the stakeholder’s mind, “Sam’s coaching could increase the productivity of his team, maybe by as much as 20%.”\n\nHere’s a description of my approach:\n\nFirst Base: Name the development goal\n\nUse assessments and stakeholder interviews to yield a list of potential objectives. Narrow the list to frame a very short list of general development objectives and guesstimate the outcomes. No more than five candidates should make it this far. Through discussion, we narrow the list to one or two that have the most compelling outcomes.\n\nI ask the client to “name” each finalist with a short phrase that is meaningful to them. We discuss projected outcomes of the finalists and choose the one or two which have the most compelling outcomes.\n\nTrap! Clients typically want to go straight to problem solving. It’s easier, more concrete, and it’s what everyone is clamoring for at the time. It’s important to differentiate between helping a client solve a specific problem (you’re a consultant) and helping them develop into the person that can accomplish what is demanded by their role (you’re a coach). Help them take the time to envision the future, by exploring who they need to be.\n\nSecond Base: Discover with the client “who” they will have to become, to achieve the outcomes they are hoping for. \n\n What new skills, concepts, values and beliefs will they possess after the coaching engagement? I help them explore the personal shifts that must occur for them to grow in the direction they’re seeking.\n\n Third Base: Envision what behavior changes will be noticeable if the development is successful\n\nFocusing on behaviors sets them up to measure the success of the coaching. On their own, clients can ask their key relationships, mentors, and teammates what new behaviors they’re noticing. In my practice, I ask my clients to come to each coaching session prepared to share the behavioral feedback they’re getting from others and noticing on their own.\n\nBonus! By encouraging our clients to gather their own accountability data, we’re setting them up to ultimately transition to self-coaching. They will be able to “pull” the coaching they need from managers and colleagues and measure if they’re making progress.\n\nHome Base: Ask, “So what?” Refine the business impact.\n\nIf all goes well, what needles move? How are things different?\n\nThe client will probably take a more personal view. “I’ll be a stronger leader and a better boss, and I’ll be more promotable.”\n\nThe stakeholders will more likely focus on business metrics. “They will be more productive, more profitable, and uncover best practices for the company.”\n\n\nThere’s no magic about where you start! Just start… Unlike baseball, you don’t have to run the bases in order, and you’re seldom done until you’ve visited each base a few times. Desired outcomes can drive the naming of goals. Goals drive the who’s… and the behaviors… behaviors drive outcomes and milestones… milestones drive actions and accountability…\n\nWhat’s important is that you explore all the bases. Give yourself time to put it aside and come back to it with fresh eyes.\n\nAs you move through the coaching, refresh the business case continuously and validate your investment decision.\n\n Drop me a note if you’d like a copy of a Microsoft Word template I use to discuss and refine the business case and create an action plan for the next steps of the development plan.\n\nTrust and Credibility: Research on the top five relating skills\n\nConsulting customers more often buy complex solutions from people with trust and credibility. \n\nThe research:\n\nSince August of 2016, Ascendent Leadership and colleagues at Partners International and Discovery Consulting have teamed up to discover what successful consultants consider to be the critical soft skills to generate trust and credibility. They are asking which of 20 commonly accepted consulting best practices rank as the most important in creating authentic advisory relationships. (Original blog article introducing the research.) While the research is continuing, we believe that the interim results are clear and reflect the consulting community. (Top five have been unchanged since we hit about 30 responses. The total number of responses is now approaching one hundred.)\n\nActive Listening was the runaway favorite. \n\nTop Five Skills Driving Trust, Accountability\n\n84 percent of respondents rated Active Listening as Critically Important, the top quartile of importance. That was over 30 percentage points higher than the runner up, Asking Powerful Questions.\n\nHere are the results for the top five, ranked by the number of total selections in the top quartile, as a percentage of total responses:Ability\n\nIt’s all about discovery!\n\nAll of the top five could easily fit under the umbrella term “discovery”:\n\nAbility to establish trust and credibility through their focus and presence\n\nCarrying on on a well-informed conversation about the clients’ business and their underlying success factors\n\nBuilding on the trust/credibility foundation to discover how the consultant’s value can align with the client’s most compelling opportunities and challenges\n\n\nWhen we invest the time to really understand our client before we interact, and continuously during our relationship, and when we …\n\nBring our best level of customer focus and presence to every interaction, and when we…\n\nAre confident enough to open up with what makes sense to us, and what doesn’t, …\n\nThen we earn our client’s trust and credibility, and …\n\nVery often, their business.\n\nTeam Development – Four Questions to Frame Your Plan\n\nTeam Development\n\n\n\nHere are the the four questions:\n\nWhat’s your goal for development?\n\n\nHow will you change through your investment?\n\n\n\nWhat new behaviors will others observe in you?\n\n\nWhat mission outcome will you enable when you accomplish your objective?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIf you want the business, find the spark!\n\nI have a friend of mine who likes to use the term “spark” to describe the emotional connection between two people beginning a romantic relationship. Most of us can recall a situation in our past where all the “specifications” for a new relationship were perfectly met, but where the chemistry between the two people just wasn’t strong enough to create an authentic romantic connection.\n\nI’d like to suggest that, as we are talking about a business opportunity with a client or prospect, some of the same emotional wiring that creates a romantic spark is going to be very influential in whether or not we find the energy to support working together.\n\nPeople have said, and I completely agree, that most people make decisions based on emotions, and then rearrange the facts and logic path to support a decision they’ve already made on an emotional basis.\n\nHere are two questions to consider as we are talking with a client or prospect about a new project they are considering:\n\nCan we feel the emotion they are carrying for the project?\n\nCan we find a complementary emotion in both our client and ourselves that could become the chemistry that drives our working together on that project and others to come?\n\nThe answers to these questions could help us understand how committed our contact is to this business outcome. Often, someone may have reached out to us to discuss a project which, frankly, they don’t care a flip about. They’re only engaging us to satisfy a commitment to someone else to “look into it”. That’s a long way from “get ‘er done!” On their side of the equation, there is no “spark”. That could be a good sign that this project is a nonstarter. Wish them well, pick up your hat, and walk (maybe run!) for the door.\n\nOn the other hand, if we believe that the value proposition for the project is genuinely compelling for this company, then we need to find someone else in the organization to become our champion, someone who has the spark (maybe even created the spark) and who provide the emotional energy for the project to move forward. Continue the conversation and probe to find that person. If you can engage that person in the conversation, your chances for success become infinitely better.\n\nEpilogue: The chances for creating a winning value proposition and a long term client relationship get infinitely better if we can find the emotional “spark” for both the project at hand and the on-going consultant-client relationship between us.\n\n\nBefore You Say No, Five Steps to Find Your Yes\n\nAfter the final no, there comes a yes and on that yes, the future of the world hangs. (Wallace Stevens)\n\nA sales executive friend of mine likes to say that the selling only begins after you’ve heard the first “No”. I always liked the expression, but it’s only recently that I’ve been thinking more about how great consultants move past a client’s reluctance to move forward on their recommendations… how they move past that initial No. As I have thought more about it, I have begun to really appreciate the wisdom in my friend’s saying.\n\nSalespeople call an early attempt to gain customer commitment a “trial close”. When the answer to that trial close is No, many (maybe most) of them decide that the deal is not likely to happen and they walk away. The skilled salespeople use that first “no” to energize themselves. They become intensely interested in understanding what it will take to get to the Yes. And then, the real selling begins…\n\nIn many of his talks, Peter Block tells a story about a young man who asks his beloved, “Will you marry me?” She energetically says, “No!” His response: “Great, then we can talk!” Inwardly, he is thinking, “Game On!!!” He’s obviously been listening to my sales friend.\n\nBlock also speaks eloquently about the usefulness of well managed conflict to define the win-win crucial to effective consulting. I love his quote, “Insight resides in moments of tension.” (Block 2011 )\n\nWilliam Ury, co-founder of Harvard’s program on negotiation and author of “The Power of A Positive No”(Ury 2007) , says it this way:\n\n“Perhaps the single biggest mistake we make when we say No is to start from No. We derive our No from what we are against – the other’s demand or behavior. A Positive No calls on us to do the exact opposite and base our No on what we are for. Instead of starting from No, start from Yes. Root your No in a deeper Yes – a Yes to your core interests and to what really matters.”\n\nFive steps to finding your Yes:\n\n 1. When you first hear whatever it is that infuriates you and you want to scream “No” back, notice your emotions. What are you feeling, and how intensely?\n 2. Step back, and do whatever it takes to give yourself some time to recover and regain control. Feign a coughing spell, or decide to call a break for some coffee. Whatever it takes.\n 3. Remind yourself that managed conflict is the most positive step you can take to get to the outcome you want, to your Yes. This is a good thing!\n 4. Ask yourself, what Yes are you seeking that is inconsistent with their No? Unpack and rediscover your most basic needs and the values. Which are relevant, here? Let these questions help you be clear about what you really want and need in this situation. Your Yes.\n 5. Distill your thinking down to a specific interest in this situation. When you get around to exploring that interest with your partner, it will give you confidence and it will make it easier for them to understand your Yes, and align it to theirs.\n\nThis series of steps has more moving parts that I can cover in a short article. Check out Ury’s excellent chapter on Discover Your Yes (Ury 2007) for a much more complete discussion.\n\n\n“A No uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘Yes” merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble” (Mahatma Ghandi)\n\nThe young woman in Block’s story begins the real courtship with her honest “No”. Her suitor wisely recognizes that No as the beginning of the dialogue that he hopes will get him to Yes.\n\nHow will you handle it, the next time someone tells you No? And why did you wait so long to ask the question?\n\nGreat Reads:\n\nBlock, P. (2011 ). Flawless consulting: a guide to getting your expertise used. San Francisco, Pfeiffer, an imprint of Wiley.\n\nUry, W. (2007). The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes. New York, Bantam Dell.\n\nThe network’s down! Five ways to empower your teams with Commanders’ Intent.\n\nWhat would your people do if they were suddenly cut off from all ability to contact you? … or their other leadership and sources of information, perspective, and resources?\n\nEmpower them to flex to the situation by understanding “Commander’s Intent”\n\nStudents of military strategy often use the term, “the fog of war” to describe a situation where leaders and troops lose contact with their chain of command and must deal with the ensuing confusion. In order to enable their people to continue to press forward and take initiative without immediate guidance, the military has developed a concept what they call “commander’s intent”. Through training and reinforcement, they give soldiers a clear vision of the intended outcome which enables them to take the initiative and tap their natural creativity to drive toward that vision.\n\nWhat’s the benefit?\n\nMilitary leaders have long understood that combat is a messy thing! Lines of communication are broken. Anticipated resources don’t show up. Key people become unavailable. Unexpected constraints pop-up and become problems to solve. Their enemies (and our competitors!) are planning, too. They may throw something at us that we didn’t expect.\n\nThe notion of commander’s intent enables our teams to take independent and continuous actionThey can move at the speed of the situation, They do not need to continuously check back with senior leadership to gain approval to take the next action.\n\nThe solution space\n\nGreat leaders create a “solution space” by the rules and constraints they impose on their team. That solution space is bounded by what the team can’t do. In business, the most common boundaries might be created by legal considerations, marketing strategy, ethics, or company policy. An example might be a policy that requires CEO approval to authorize an engagement that will lose money for the firm. Once the leader establishes the relevant and compelling constraints, what is left are the millions of other combinations of available actions, the “solution space”. All those options are available to the team member if they understand the space and feel empowered to operate in in all of it.\n\nIf they understand the ultimate desired end state, and if they know clearly the boundaries of their solution space, and if (this is big!) we have given them the flexibility and encouragement to operate freely in that space, then they can use their own initiative and creativity to realize the outcomes envisioned in the commander’s intent.\n\nFive Ways to establish your Commander’s Intent:\n\n 1. Paint the picture” of the end state in very clear, high contrast, colorful terms. Use relevant personal examples and stories liberally. Your team should be able to repeat it back to you instantly and accurately.\n 1. Invest the time and effort to be sure that everyone understands in the most concrete terms your organization’s strategic goals. That understanding becomes the anchor for everything you ask them to do. Use every means available to be sure your team understands the vision in the context of their individual roles. Great venues to do this are “coffee talks”, articles in your employee newsletters or blogs, and specific reference to the strategy in the resolution of real-time business issues. (Obviously, there are many others… Talk about your visions and specific goals incessantly!\n 1. When delegating, take the time it requires for your people to understand the desired outcome. How does that outcome fit into a broader strategy you have already clarified for them? With good questions, test their level of understanding and how they might apply that understanding in a real-time way.\n 1. Carefully challenge any constraints or boundaries on your team’s actions. Limit constraints to the minimum necessary. Be thoughtful about the constraining effects of any constraints you apply.\n 1. If you are a manager of managers, take advantage of your “bully pulpit” to model to your middle managers the encouragement of new frames of reference, and challenging unnecessary constraints. Enlist candid feedback from your entire team about how well you are doing.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7919983863830566}
+{"content": "Hardcore Politics: The Dying Breed of Belizean Politicians by Debbie Curling 3/28/2019\n\ndebbie curling\n\nDebbie Curling\n\nAs I watched the budget debate in the House this week, I was struck by the behavior of some of our mostly male-dominated, elected leaders, ironically being corralled by a lone female House Speaker trying to keep their behavior in check. On the UDP side, some of these hardcore politicians appeared polished while others not so much, which made me wonder why a leader would choose to have some of the latter on his ticket as representatives of his government?\n\nThe less polished ones came across as thugs hurling abuse at the other side, went off topic and made no sense while acting as attack dogs for the party (I assume). They ranted about corruption and continued their projections, ad infinitum, at the other side, while deflecting blame and defending themselves in a rather twisted manner. Witnessing this spectacle playing out on television, I found myself vacillating between disbelief, anger, shame, concern, and incredulity. To be fair, I have also seen similar behavior from some on the PUP side in the past so they are not off the hook in my criticism of politicians behaving badly; the behavior is all too familiar!\n\nI listened as one politician castigated Kareem Musa for daring to think differently from his father. Must we not as individuals evolve and change our opinions, our behavior and belief systems as we learn and grow? Heaven forbid I should still hold the same views of my parent’s generation. I would still have the mindset of a strict, austere Victorian era-mentality, living in a world that has left me so far behind in these our modern-day sensibilities; a society that has moved so far away from how our parents grew up, raised us, taught us, and guided us within the boundaries of their knowledge and society at the time.\n\nThis is not to say we must change our core principles and behavior, but one must adapt to changes in our society; one must evolve or get left behind. I posit a few simple questions to prove my point: do you type on an old-fashioned typewriter like your parents did, or do you use a computer that is much more efficient? Did our parents (or their parents) have any clue about climate change and its devastating effects on the environment? How many people’s lives have changed due to scientific discoveries within the last 100 years? Truthfully, I know that I eat healthier foods and exercise more than my parents ever did so to accuse Kareem of disloyalty to his father for daring to think differently is an absurdity mired in ignorance. I remain impressed that Kareem sat there in quiet dignity waiting for his moment to do the people’s business, but that’s another topic for another time!\n\nOld-guard politicians need to stop making fools of themselves in the public arena by sinking to this level of stupidity because this hardcore, hard-hitting mentality no longer resonates with this generation. We are tired of it, but many politicians remain stuck in a generational mindset that is no longer effective, so drunk on their power monopoly that they underestimate the will of the people. To paraphrase Michelle Obama, you don’t have to go low; you can go high! And when you are in our House debating issues that affect our lives, go high and stick to the topic. This is not your moment to unleash your rage, or score brownie points, or grandstand. You are there to do OUR business, which brings me to the point of my writing.\n\nIf we are to move forward as a nation in a dynamic, global arena that is rapidly changing and evolving, we as a nation cannot remain stagnant, sitting in this cesspool of bad behavior by politicians in which paying for votes get you elected and make you feel emboldened. Belizeans, your vote is your most precious right; it puts the power back into your hands; it gives you power over politicians who are, or might be, abusing you; the privilege is yours to put them in or take them out. On voting day, show up! It is your opportunity to choose your elected officials and to keep them accountable not just for their behavior, but also their use of the public purse.\n\nIf you are lucky enough to live in a country where you have the right to vote, let your vote be counted. This is not about rabid loyalty to party and individuals; this is about your country; it is about YOU and YOUR vote to effect change. It’s about the lives of you and your children not just for one day, but for the future. Use your vote purposefully; don’t sell it! We as a people need to up our game by cultivating global leaders who can represent us at home and abroad, manage our interests and finances, and behave effectively and dignified anywhere in the world as soon as they step off the plane.\n\nBelizeans, we need to get excited about a new generation of progressive, assertive thinkers entering the political leadership in Belize, and this MUST include the voices of women. I am heartened to hear some, but we need more, inspiring women rallying to the cause of progressive agendas: gender equality and violence against women and more; there is so much more we need to do. This week I read a post about a Mayan woman giving birth in the jungles of Punta Gorda, men carrying her in a make-shift hammock to get her to safety, simply because this and previous governments have neglected to give them a 5-mile road in and out of their remote village. Yet we are spending millions on a referendum.\n\nTHIS should anger all of us and not just women! It is shameful and heartbreaking, but only when women take control will things change for us. How much does it really cost to send some dump trucks full of sand and gravel to give these people a road? Men should not be making decisions (or not) that impact us; it is our responsibility to demand to be heard. Do you notice in Belize how men behave at a party? As soon as they arrive, they leave the women sitting in isolation and go huddle together at the bar, hanging out with their bros, talking man talk. I hazard a guess they are not discussing how to solve the world’s problems. But what does that tell us about our society? To be clear, I’m not trying to disrupt their bromance, but my point is…women need to come together just like men, stop tearing each other down, and get to work TOGETHER. Let us be the change we want to see and stop admiring these problems from afar. A woman alone has power, but together we have impact; there is power in the pack!\n\nThis is a time of transition in Belize and change will only come about if all of us put aside party politics and stand up for what is right and what we truly believe in. To the smart women who are competing for space in this male-dominated, hardcore political game, I say be assertive, stand your ground, demand a seat at the table. If they don’t allow you a seat, create your own table! Change might not happen overnight, but if we keep pounding away at it, eventually it will happen. We should not be our parent’s generation blindly following along with party politics. Our country’s future depends on all of us being free-thinking individuals armed with our right to vote.\n\nA new generation of progressive thinkers will change Belize and it MUST also include the diaspora. Despite what these hardcore politicians tell you, the diaspora is not the enemy or a threat as some would like you to believe. The diaspora might not be physically there, politicians might make it difficult for us to come home to vote, but this current government has disenfranchised many of you at home from voting too so we feel your pain. Nothing will stop us from fighting for our families, for Belize and for the future of our country. NOTHING and NOONE! Some politicians might want to count us out and marginalize us, but we are not going anywhere. Our voices will be heard. It takes courage, commitment and the will of The People to effect change. We are with you!\n\nLet us move forward together, but first we must hit the reset button and vote NO to the ICJ on April 10th.\n\n\ndebbie curling\n\nDebbie Curling\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n • To verify incidents which may occur in the Adjacency Zone;\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Belizean Diaspora Perspective By: Debbie Curling\n\nFullSizeRender (1)\n\nDebbie Curling \n\nBelizeans at home and abroad must begin to realize that despite the fact that time, space and location separates us, we have a shared identity and culture that makes us stronger together than separately. REMEMBERING is what heals: remembering our cultural traditions, our enthusiasm for sports, our passion for politics, our very good food, our Belizean music in all its varieties, our childhood proclivity for hopping fences to steal mangoes and craboo, riding our bikes to fetch buckets of water at the pipe stand, and many more. Oh yes! And playing bruk makachistah, bruk me bak!\n\nFunnily enough bruk makachistah is full of symbolism and meaning as it applies to our Belizean cultural heritage, personalities, attitudes, and our strength in the face of adversity. With hands akimbo and chest pumping, the entire game, if you will, is premised on defiance and a dare; a challenge that if you think you can bruk my bak, try it! The words and imagery signify our spirited, Belizean assertiveness, unafraid to face down a bully because we’ll duke it out fistycuffs, your mother will come to my mother’s house, we’ll both get our rear ends belted, and eventually after our egos have settled down, we’ll move on to becoming friends again. Times have changed I know, but this is the Belize WE know, WE love, and WE share…immigrants will come and go, but WE know OUR identity and WE know OUR culture!\n\nBelizeans share so many great experiences along with a strong and proud identity so why this division, this love/hate relationship, between us: based Belizeans vs. diaspora Belizeans? the Diaspora feel invisible, resented and unwanted to those at home and those at home feel abandoned, angry and resentful for being left behind “to suffah.” If we are to overcome this great divide that separates us, we must critically interrogate both perspectives to get a deeper understanding of the root causes. Understanding the psychology of abandonment is very important to the discourse if we are to heal our wounds and start fresh.\n\nSo what exactly is abandonment? According to J. Ray Rice, M.S.W., who has written several self-help books on the issue, “Abandonment is emotions, feelings, and acts that leave us with feelings, or experience of alienation, loss, betrayal, desertion, separation and segregation […]. These experiences or issues left unresolved affect our ability to reason, bond, trust, love, communicate, problem-solve […] respect the rights of all and live with our neighbors in peace.” http://blog.itsallaboutabandonment.com\n\nMany Belizeans, particularly children, have experienced abandonment due to a parent(s) or spouse(s) making the tough decision to leave their loved ones behind in order to provide a better life for them at home, not realizing the traumatic impact such an event will have on those they love. Those left behind may experience the inability to feel safe due to threatening circumstances, feel emotional neglect, or might not have been provided adequate shelter which creates fear and a strong sense of insecurity. Unfortunately, victims of abandonment often live a lifetime of fear that abandonment will recur. Dr. Claudia Black, M.S.W., states, “Shame arises from the painful message implied in abandonment: ‘You are not important. You are not of value.’ This is the pain from which people need to heal.”\n\nBased Belizeans feel a strong sense of betrayal toward its diaspora who they believe left them behind in search of “greener pastures,” and who might be prospering, while they at home continue to suffer. I would argue that these feelings of abandonment is the site of our contest. This deeply rooted grudge that manifests itself in a desire to somehow even the score even if it means shooting oneself in the foot. Belizeans at home often express a sense of entitlement to all things Belizean, attempt to shut us out of the political discourse by silencing our voices, our Constitution condones (or perhaps sets the standard for) this behavior by taking away our birthright, they criticize diaspora activists for being out of touch with the political reality on the ground whose politics is detached from the complexities of their lived reality, and the tension builds with accusations that the diaspora are cowards who ran away, or would run back to the States from the frontline of the struggle when things go wrong; the guilt-shaming list is long and harsh, but here is our perspective…\n\nWhile the diaspora appreciate the validity of some of these arguments, the Belizean discourse reveals that, in a limited way, we are dealing with a reality that is more complex than the argument presented. As I write this I am conscious of how my criticism will be received, I am conscious of that oppressive chasm that exists between us, and the notion that “home” is not necessarily a comfortable, welcoming place for the diaspora. We hear the echo of your voices telling us, “why you no go bak da States,” or the mumbling voices that ridicule us when we speak English, “e fahget how fuh talk creole.” It is within this context that based Belizeans fail to bridge the gap and why the diaspora, paralyzed by these criticisms, may refuse to cross over to shake the hand of our brothers and sisters. For us it is clear, based Belizeans do not allow for the crossing and re-crossing of our borders and see it as an invasion rather than a re-connection.\n\nIt is partially true that to be from the diaspora implies a certain level of consumption and opportunity to achieve wealth and a good education, but it also implies responsibility and obligation to family and dependents at home. To be fair, Belizeans in the diaspora face three challenges when they go abroad: surviving in a new and hostile environment away from the support of family, struggling to taking care of themselves while taking care of their families at home. Basically, supporting two households! Their mission to send remittances, boxes of clothes and other necessities to their families in order to provide economic relief props up the Belizean economy, but some pay a very high price to achieve this goal. Attracted to the possibility of work and the opportunity to acquire a good education, diaspora Belizeans sacrifice a great deal when taking this leap of faith. For most, it’s a hard life and not all it is cracked up to be; therefore, YOUR perception at home is not necessarily OUR reality abroad.\n\nFurther, not everyone who takes the giant leap to seek better opportunities abroad end up living a grand lifestyle. Some of our people (particularly in the “States”) come here with limited education, some illegally, they end up working two or three jobs to send money home to feed their families, they live in some of the most violent and depressed neighborhoods, their kids are exposed to tough gangs in schools, and they spend most of their time scrambling to survive so they can keep their families at home afloat. There is only a very small percentage of Belizeans who by a stroke of luck, or by their own perseverance, can claim success and wealth that allow them to go to and fro.\n\nTo be honest, our struggle to survive in a hostile, foreign land would be made a lot easier if Belizeans at home would welcome us with gratitude and appreciation for our sacrifice, instead of resentful displays and hurtful words. We get that most Belizeans at home cannot afford to travel anywhere and are perhaps stuck in the boredom of their lives, so when they see us, they are reminded of that. But what they must realize is that WE are happy to be home, away from the rat race, and envy the simplicity of THEIR lives. It is exactly our inability to reconnect with each other that cause the distancing and misunderstandings.\n\nThe term “diaspora” clearly has elitist connotations. It conjures up an idea that builds on a fantasy that coming to America means affluence and easy riches. These perceptions are often reinforced by some members of the diaspora (not all) who do return home flaunting their newfound status with “states clothes,” an American accent, and that Yankee dollar; this is true. But for many who are faced with hardships, along with the shame that they might not be living up to your expectations, your criticisms and your resentments are undeserved and hurtful.\n\nYes, there are advantages but there are also limitations to living in the diaspora. When we arrive the diaspora is engaged in an ongoing process of negotiating our identity for our selves and our children. Understanding our displacement, the cultural challenges we face, surviving the politics of a new country, having to maneuver and negotiate our space in unfamiliar territory, or trying to blend into a new society that we sometimes do not fully understand, or cannot fully penetrate, can sometimes beat us down. So, yes, protracted exclusion is our daily reality (at home and abroad).\n\nWe regret that your echoing voices misnaming us, truncating our Belizean identity while simultaneously inscribing us with your language of exclusion and marginality, may never stop. But we hope the term BelAm will be subject to new analysis, new understandings, if we are to unlock a discourse that continues to inscribe the diaspora as outsiders. Why are these definitions being deployed against us? Your language of separation is mostly applied to Belizeans in America; the eye opener for us is that Belizeans living in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Africa have no such negative inscriptions. The term BelAm suggests a state of opposition or resistance when juxtaposed against Belizeans at home.\n\nWith that said, Belizeans in the diaspora will continue its ongoing search to find language to articulate ourselves. We have no desire to negotiate the terms of our identities in ways other than “representing” OUR Belizeanness because anything else would contribute to our destruction. It is in this context of refusing to surrender OUR love for Belize, OUR Belizean identity and OUR culture…this forced construction, that we demand our seat at the table so OUR voices can be heard. Based Belizeans are not more entitled to all things Belizean than us. Concessions will have to be made and there is no need for an unnecessary war of words. Paula Giddings once wrote, “A nation is therefore a large-scale solidarity, constituted by the feeling of the sacrifices that one has made in the past and of those that one is prepared to make in the future.”\n\nThe Belizean diaspora is not going anywhere because we love our country too. We have been criticized for our inability to effectively organize ourselves so we can make a difference at home and that is a fair argument. The Belizean diaspora often bemoan our lack of unity, our failure to organize and mobilize in an effective way, how we often undermine ourselves by factionalism from different groups, how scattered and divided we are across regions, and how we have a tendency to compete for political space rather than cooperating with each other. We are distrustful of some of our fellow Belizeans who quickly change course when they see a better opportunity elsewhere, but some of us refuse to give up and where there is a will, there is a way.\n\nOur determination and strong sense of responsibility to The Jewel is boosted enormously by new communication technologies that allow us to communicate, organize and spread the message through social media and the Internet. Facebook offers us the opportunity to communicate, argue amongst ourselves as Belizeans often do, it offers the cross-fertilization of ideas and the possibility of immediate exchange between us in all our scattered locations. The texts we create in our discourses have the ability to circulate in communities far and wide and have brought us closer together in more meaningful ways than we could ever imagine.\n\nIf Belizeans at home and abroad can draw on a shared cultural repertoire of ideas perhaps we can find some common ground. At the end of the day REMEMBERING…that we share the same love of country, the same cultural identity, the same political concerns for Belize’s political transformation, the same hope for Belize, then perhaps once we recognize that WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, we can start extending the hand of friendship, maintain some degree of civility towards each other that results in dignity and hope for ALL. We are on the same page folks! We are on the same page!\n\nHatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it. – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.\n\nDebbie Curling was a member of the Belizean Diaspora and has recently returned home to Belize.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5873826146125793}
+{"content": "CGTN: Remembering the medical professionals we've lost to coronavirus\n\n06 aprile 2020 07:57\nFonte: Adnkronos\n\n\nBEIJING, April 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The unknown, relentless novel coronavirus has so far deprived thousands of people of their beloved family members in China. Parting ways doesn't mean parting forever. CGTN explores in detail the lives of those who have died from the coronavirus since the outbreak began. Youtube： To learn more about these doctors and other victims of the novel coronavirus in China, visit CGTN's interactive memorial page. Liu Yang never thought this meeting with her father, even though it was from afar, would be their last. Her father Liu Zhiming, a prominent neurologist, died on February 18 after being infected by the novel coronavirus. Liu was director of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital, which was designated by the Wuhan municipal government on January 21 as one of the hospitals to treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus or suspected of having the virus. \"He called me, asking me to prepare some clothes for him. He said he was too busy to go home. At the time, I felt that he was short of breath,\" said his wife Cai Liping, an ICU head nurse at Wuhan Third Hospital. A workaholic, he was on shift for three days straight in converting a part of the hospital into isolation wards that began receiving infected patients on January 23. That was the day when Wuhan was put on lockdown, and also the day Liu was diagnosed with COVID-19. He was hospitalized the next day and soon attached to a ventilator, talking only on the phone with Cai, who was on a hectic schedule in treating severe COVID-19 cases. In his last days, he rejected intubation, according to Hong Yi, secretary of Wuchang Hospital's discipline committee. \"He was worried that his team would be infected.\" On the day he passed away, there were 431 COVID-19 patients in his hospital. He's the first known hospital director to have died from the coronavirus. Aside from senior medical professionals on the frontline of the battle against COVID-19, there are young doctors at the beginning of their careers such as Xia Sisi, a gastroenterologist at Wuhan's Union Jiangbei Hospital. She died from the infection in late February. Colleagues said she could have been infected in January, when she tended to an elderly patient who had presented symptoms of the novel coronavirus. Five days later, she had a fever of 38.9 degrees Celsius and felt a tightness in her chest. She was hospitalized on that day. When she felt she could be discharged and go back to the frontline after her symptoms subsided a few days later, her situation deteriorated. Her husband Wu Shilei, a surgeon at Wuhan Pu'ai Hospital, rushed to the emergency room in the early hours on February 7. Her heart had stopped. Doctors intubated and resuscitated Xia after putting her on ECMO support, then transferred her to a hospital specializing in intensive care. But she remained in a coma and passed away on February 23. Back home, Wu couldn't come to terms with her death. \"We had promised to fight on the frontline together when she recovered.\" He didn't know what to tell their two-year-old son. \"Jiabao believes his mother is still working at the hospital.\" So far, at least 46 medical professionals in China have died in relation to the coronavirus outbreak. Some had decades of experience while others were just beginning their mission to help others. Li Wenliang, the ophthalmologist who shared a patient report in December that alerted his medical school classmates to the coronavirus, died at 34 years old. Song Yunhua, a doctor at a community health center, was hit by a motorcycle after working long hours to screen patients for the virus. She was 46. Many of these doctors were likely exposed to the coronavirus from late 2019 to January, when the new virus was just coming to light. Medical professionals had encountered patients that might have had COVID-19 before it had been identified as a distinct coronavirus strain, so they had worn protective equipment and followed procedures that were appropriate for dealing with low-level infectious diseases. Little did they know that they had come into contact with a serious yet mysterious virus that would evolve into a global pandemic months later. These doctors maintained the utmost professionalism and concern for their colleagues and patients in the darkest moments. Their spirit is seeded in those who aspire to follow in their footsteps, such as Liu Yang, who is now a first-year medical student at the very school that her father Liu Zhiming graduated from. To view the original article, click HERE.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6175403594970703}
+{"content": "add share buttons\n\nRestoring Kidney Function Naturally\n\nSince the kidneys are such a very important organ inside the human body, people must understand how that they operate and try to keep them working properly during their whole lives- or even for the interest of the kidneys themselves afterward for the interest of the person's overall general wellbeing and well-being.\n\nFolks should also understand the value of her or his kidneys. However, in the event, while he or she's neglected them and they're no longer working correctly, individuals must find ways that help restore kidney function obviously. Get more information about truvada lawsuit attorneys through searching online.\n\ntruvada kidney attorneys, truvada kidney attorney\n\nImage Source by Google\n\nFundamentally, kidneys' role is to get rid of any sorts of acid waste which may accumulate within the body's body. Where do these wastes come out? Well, there are many resources, some of which might seem to be more evident than others. For example, smoking is understood by many individuals to be bad for the whole body- but in addition, it supplies a significant negative influence in the kidneys.\n\nAnother comparatively straightforward reason behind kidney malfunction is a bad diet. Comprising highly processed foods in addition to acidic carbonated beverages of different kinds. All these consumables might meet some taste buds, but they definitely don't satisfy the organ that's responsible for the utilization of these toxins and acids these foods and drinks contain – the terrific kidneys. It's because of this they need to be avoided in any way costs.\n\nBut, even though that may prove a fantastic help in restoring kidney operate obviously, other more powerful methods exist also. These approaches come in the shape of various distinct herbs required to restore kidney function obviously inside the body.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6285126209259033}
+{"content": "When one needs to improve the performance and speed of their data-driven web applications, the first thing to do is having a proper caching system. The first two names that come to the mind instantly are Memcached and Redis. These are distributed caching system used to boost the speed of database-driven websites. They cache the data and objects in the RAM so that they are easily accessible as opposed to going to external data sources like database or API to retrieve data. To choose between these two data engines, one has to know the differences to pick the right one for their web applications.\n\nThe Similarities Between The Two Cache Engines –\n\nBefore going into the difference, the similarities should be clear so that the similar parameters should not be considered as a deciding factor. Both of them serve as in-memory and key-value data structure stores. They use NoSQL data management solutions, and they keep data in the RAM for easy and fast fetching. Both are lightning fast in their speed performance. They have similar throughput and latency properties. Memcached hit the market earlier in 2003 while Redis was introduced in 2009. Redis is actually developed to overcome all the shortcomings on Memcached and yet, maintaining all the features Memcached is popular for. In fact, Redis has a few additional features and is considered to be more powerful and useful than Memcached.\n\nDifferences Between Memcached vs Redis –\n\nRead-Write Speed – The read-write speed determines the overall speed in data management. Both the engines have extremely high speed as you would expect but as per benchmarking, Redis edges over Memcached slightly. But when it comes to handling high traffic websites that are database driven, Memcached clearly outperforms Redis, and the response is fast by far.\n\nStorage – Memcached stores data in its memory directly and retrieves them when required directly from its memory rather than visiting the source database. But Redis itself is a database that is residing in its memory. It has the same mechanism as a database like key-value pair for storing and retrieving data. Redis is perfect if you need real-time metrics and analytics.\n\nData Structure – Memcached uses only string and integer to store data in its memory. The integers allow only addition and subtraction data manipulation. There is no scope for arrays, objects, and other widely used data structures. Saving them is hectic, and it makes the process slow. Redis takes care of the problem and has data structures like binary safe strings, list, set, sorted set along with string an integer.\n\nReplication – Replication is a big factor in any data storage system. Unfortunately, Memcached does not support it, and there has been no improvement on that front. Memcached is continuously putting effort to optimize the system to increase speed but not adding any new features. Redis, on the other hand, supports master-slave replication. The slave servers can have an exact copy of master servers. Therefore, in case of a system failure, the application will not be affected.\n\nPersistence – Persistence is another big deciding factor in any data storage system. It is a must-have feature, but Memcached does not have an improved system. In Redis, the data gets synced every two seconds, and there are various options available for controlling the data persistence. This means even when there is an accidental failure in the application and unplanned shutdown, the data are retrievable. In Memcached, it will be lost instantly. In a cache system, you would not expect data persistence but the fact that Redis does have it and you can turn it on and off as per your requirement, it makes it score over Memcached.\n\nPipelining – Pipelining is the main reason why Memcached is efficient in handling high traffic websites. Memcached also has multi-threading option for attending to multiple requests in parallel. Redis has an underdeveloped pipelining system, and it needs to improve significantly to catch up with Memcached. On the contrary, Redis provides a constraint limit 512MB to handle large data in comparison to Memcached whose constraint limit is merely 1MB. It is one of the major reasons behind the popularity of Redis in today’s scenario especially when you need to store the entire page in a cache.\n\nFinal Verdict –\n\nRedis is a perfect caching solution for web applications like online stores, IoT applications, and real-time analytics. Redis can boost the page loading time for e-commerce solutions due to its full page cache mechanism. You can even store sessions. IoT applications send a lot of data every minute to the web server, and these data can be pushed to Redis for processing before transferring to a permanent storage. You can use Memcached for its simplicity, better efficiency in handling high traffic, and efficient memory management for rather lightweight database-driven web applications. But in reality, Redis is superior, and Memcached is a subset of Redis.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9359109401702881}
+{"content": "Development of Simultaneous Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis at the Single Cell Level\n\nMaster's Thesis, 2018\n43 Pages, Grade: 15/20\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3.10 PCR\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIntroduction: Roughly half of the human preimplantation embryos obtained after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) show a high frequency of chromosomal mosaicism, the event where not all cells of an embryo display an identical chromosomal composition. These abnormalities are mostly explained by anaphase lagging, non-disjunction and endoreduplication, of which anaphase lagging is the most common mechanism resulting in mosaicism. They originate during postzygotic, mitotic divisions. Several authors hypothesize that the causes of the aberrations lie in the depletion of certain transcripts such as for the components of the chromosomal passenger complex (CPC) and the spindle attachment checkpoint (SAC) which are key regulators during cell division that correct chromosome attachment errors and prevent chromosome mis-segregations and aneuploidy. Conversely, transcriptome analysis on whole embryos has shown the presence of these transcripts which argues against their role during the development of aneuploidies. Interestingly, different SAC and CPC expression levels were shown at the single cell level, but without correlation to chromosomal abnormalities.\n\nAim: In this master thesis, we want to develop and implement simultaneous genome and transcrip- tome analysis at the single cell level, through analyzing single cells of human embryonic stem cells and human fibroblasts. For the validation of the experiments we used (1) purified RNA & DNA mixes, (2) larger numbers of cells and (3) dilutions down to one single cell. The ultimate goal of using such technique is to investigate each single blastomere of human embryos at the two- to eight-cell stage. We particularly want to investigate the hypothesis whether shortage of previously mentioned tran- scripts leads to an abnormal number of chromosomes during embryonal development.\n\nMaterials and Methods: Single cells are collected manually into a lysis buffer. Oligo-dT-30VN labelled magnetic beads are prepared by conjugating a biotinylated oligo-dT primer to streptavidin-coupled magnetic beads. The mRNA and genomic DNA are physically separated through binding of the con- jugated beads to the poly-A tail of the mRNA. After placing the tube on a magnet plate, we collect the supernatant containing the genomic DNA while the mRNA is attached to the tube. Reverse tran- scription is performed with a SMART-seq2 based protocol. Subsequently we amplify the cDNA (IS Primers) and gDNA (Multiple Displacement Amplification or Picoplex). To test the presence of the cDNA we measure the concentrations and perform qRT-PCR. We check the presence of amplified gDNA using a Nanodrop and checking the presence of the CFTR gene by PCR. The Picoplex amplified gDNA is subsequently sequenced by shallow whole genome sequencing at the Centre for Medical Genetics (CMG). RNA-sequencing was not validated within this thesis.\n\nResults: We validated the oligodT-primer, TSO and ISPCR primer by conversion of RNA from hESC and fibroblasts into cDNA and subsequent amplification. We observed a non-linear amplification pattern in our qRT-PCR results. We showed presence of GAPDH and pluripotency genes (SOX2 and NANOG) in hESC RNA. After validating the mRNA part of our protocol, we implemented the physical separation of mRNA and gDNA. When applying our protocol to single cells we observed different gene expression patterns in every single cell compared to the bulk RNA analysis that remains stable. We measured cDNA amounts of 12-40ng. For the gDNA part we performed either multiple displace- ment amplification (MDA) or Picoplex and measured gDNA amounts of >0.5µg. The presence of the CFTR gene after performing PCR was shown in 12 out of 18 (66.6%) samples. Shallow whole genome sequencing (WGS) after Picoplex was able to detect duplications and deletions of regions of chro- mosomes 1, 5 and 18 of a hESC line with known abnormalities.\n\nDiscussion and Conclusion: We successfully validated and implemented simultaneous genome and transcriptome analysis at the single cell level in our lab. The observed non-linear amplification pat- tern of our cDNA which is likely to occur in PCR-based methods. It is well known that bulk RNA analysis hides cell-to-cell variability, confirmed by our qRT-PCR results. We measured the expected amounts of cDNA and gDNA after amplification in our lab. PCR after MDA on the CFTR gene showed absence of amplification that is a fact in whole genome amplification methods. Shallow WGS after Picoplex detected the known chromosomal abnormalities in two single cells from an abnormal hESC line, however, one sample showed a high noise. The noise is explained by incomplete transfer of gDNA during the separation from mRNA. With this technique we can analyze each single blastomere from 2-to 8-cell cleavage stage embryos. We aim to identify novel markers for genetic health by comparing the genome with the transcriptome. This may increase the efficiency of IVF in the future.\n\n\nInleiding: Ongeveer de helft van de menselijke pre-implantatie embryo's verkregen na in vitro fer- tilisatie (IVF) en intracytoplasmatische spermainjectie (ICSI) vertonen een hoge frequentie van chromosomaal mozaïcisme, waarbij niet alle cellen van een embryo dezelfde chromosomale samen- stelling vertonen. Deze afwijkingen worden meestal verklaard door anafase-lagging, non-disjunctie en endoreduplicatie, waarvan anafase lagging het meest voorkomende mechanisme is dat resulteert in mozaïcisme. Ze ontstaan tijdens postzygotische, mitotische celdelingen. Verschillende auteurs veronderstellen dat de oorzaken van de aberraties in de afwezigheid van bepaalde transcripten lig- gen zoals voor de componenten van het chromosomale passenger complex (CPC) en het spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), die tijdens de celdeling belangrijke regulatoren zijn, verantwoordelijk voor het herstellen van fouten in de binding van chromosomen op de mitotische spindle en het voorkomen van chromosoom mis-segregatie en aneuploidie. Analyse van het transcriptoom van volledige embryo’s heeft daarentegen de aanwezigheid van deze transcripten aangetoond, wat tegen hun rol tijdens de ontwikkeling van aneuploïdieën spreekt. Verschillende SAC en CPC levels op het niveau van één enkele cel werden aangetoond, maar zonder correlatie met chromosomale afwijkin- gen.\n\nDoel: In deze master thesis willen we simultane genoom- en transcriptoom analyse op het niveau van één enkele cel in ons laboratorium ontwikkelen en implementeren, door het analyseren van cellen van humane embryonale stamcellijnen en humane fibroblasten. Voor de validatie van de ex- perimenten gebruiken we (1) geëxtraheerde RNA/DNA mixes, (2) groter aantal cellen en (3) ver- dunningen tot één enkele cel. Het uiteindelijke doel van het gebruik van een dergelijke techniek is om elk blastomeer van het twee- tot achtcellig stadium van menselijke embryo's afzonderlijk te onderzoeken. We willen vooral de hypothese onderzoeken of een tekort aan eerder genoemde trans- cripten leidt tot een abnormaal aantal chromosomen tijdens de embryonale ontwikkeling.\n\nMateriaal en Methoden: De cellen worden manueel in een lysis buffer gebracht. Oligo-dT-30VN ge- merkte magnetische beads worden bereid door een gebiotinyleerde oligo-dT-primer te conjugeren aan streptavidine-gekoppelde magnetische beads. Het mRNA en genomisch DNA worden fysisch gescheiden door binding van de geconjugeerde beads aan de poly-A staart van het mRNA. Nadat de buis op een magneet is geplaatst, collecteren we het supernatant dat het genomisch DNA bevat terwijl het mRNA aan de zijkant van het buis plakt. Reverse transcriptie wordt uitgevoerd met een op SMART-seq2 gebaseerd protocol. Vervolgens amplificeren we het cDNA (IS Primers) en gDNA (Multiple Displacement Amplification of Picoplex). Om de aanwezigheid van het cDNA te testen, meten we de concentraties en voeren we qRT-PCR uit. We controleren de aanwezigheid van gDNA met behulp van een Nanodrop en controleren de aanwezigheid van het CFTR-gen met PCR. Het met Picoplex geamplificeerde gDNA wordt vervolgens gesequenced door shallow sequencing van het ge- noom door het CMG. RNA-sequencing werd niet gevalideerd binnen dit proefschrift.\n\nResultaten: We valideerden de oligodT-primer, TSO en ISPCR-primer door omzetting van hESC en fibroblast RNA in cDNA en daaropvolgende amplificatie. We hebben een niet-lineair amplificatie pa- troon waargenomen in onze qRT-PCR-resultaten. We toonden aanwezigheid van GAPDH en pluripo- tentie genen (SOX2 en NANOG) in hESC aan. Na validatie van het mRNA deel hebben we de fysieke scheiding van mRNA en gDNA geïmplementeerd. Bij de toepassing van ons protocol op één enkele cel hebben we verschillende genexpressiepatronen in elke cel waargenomen in vergelijking met de bulk-RNA-analyse, die stabiel blijft. We maten cDNA-hoeveelheden van 12-40ng. Voor het gDNA deel voerden we ofwel MDA of Picoplex uit en hebben gDNA-hoeveelheden van >0,5µg gemeten. De aanwezigheid van het CFTR-gen na het uitvoeren van PCR werd getoond in 12 van de 18 (66,6%) stalen. Shallow sequencing van het genoom na Picoplex kon duplicaties en deleties van bepaalde regio's van chromosomen 1, 5 en 18 van een hESC lijn met gekende afwijkingen detecteren.\n\nDiscussie en Conclusie: We hebben succesvol het protocol voor simultane genoom en transcriptoom analyse op het niveau van één enkele cel geïmplementeerd. Het waargenomen niet-lineaire ampli- ficatie patroon van ons cDNA is gekend in PCR-gebaseerde methoden. Het is bekend dat bulk RNA- analyse de cel-tot-cel variabiliteit maskeert, wat onze qRT-PCR-resultaten bevestigen. We maten de verwachte hoeveelheden cDNA en gDNA na amplificatie in ons lab. PCR na MDA op het CFTR-gen toonde in zes gevallen afwezigheid van amplificatie, dat optreedt in gehele genoom amplificaties. Shallow sequencing na Picoplex kon gekende chromosomale afwijkingen detecteren. Echter was één sample van slechte kwaliteit, wat te wijten is aan onvolledige scheiding van gDNA. Met deze techniek kunnen we elk blastomeer analyseren van 2-tot 8-cellige embryo's. We willen nieuwe markers voor genetische gezondheid identificeren door het genoom te vergelijken met het transcriptoom. Dit kan de efficiëntie van IVF in de toekomst verhogen.\n\n1. Introduction\n\nSince 1993 it has been shown that about 50% of human preimplantation embryos obtained after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) display chromosomal mosaicism, the event where not all cells of an embryo show an identical chromosome composition (1–3). These chromosomal abnormalities originate during postzygotic, mitotic divisions (4–7). Furthermore, re- searchers explain the mitotic chromosomal mis-segregations with anaphase-lagging, non-disjunc- tion and endoreduplication (5). Within the field of human reproduction, we need to elucidate the origin of chromosomal abnormalities in early human embryos, because it may hamper the IVF out- come substantially (8). This can lead to new genetic markers, which may improve the efficiency of IVF.\n\n1.1 Assisted Reproductive Technologies\n\nAfter the first baby was born after IVF in 1978, the number of births after assisted reproductive technologies (ART) increased, resulting in more than 5 million children worldwide (9, 10). While female infertility is an indication for IVF, male infertility is treated with ICSI that was first described in 1992 (11, 12). In women, infertility occurs due to ovulatory problems, absence of the uterus, obstruction or absence of the tubes, endometriosis, abnormalities in the level of sex hormones and age. Infertility in men is linked to poor quality of the sperm and as in women to endocrinological malfunctions. In some cases the infertility problem occurs in both partners (10).\n\nTo allow for successful ART treatment patients are treated by controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH). The growth of follicles is stimulated by 7-10 days injection of recombinant FSH (follicle stimulating hormone). From day 6 of stimulation a GnRH (gonadotrophin releasing hormone) antagonist isadministered daily resulting in the reversible inhibition of gonadotrophin release. This creates a neg- ative feedback loop preventing a premature LH (lu- teinizing hormone) peak. During COH a premature LH peak is likely to occur which avoids multiple fol- licle maturation (13).\n\nDuring follicle stimulation, doctors check the hor- monal status and the state of the follicles. When an adequate follicle stimulation is reached the injection of hCG (human chorion gonadotrophin) completes follicle maturation. Then oocytes are picked-up through vaginal puncture and aspiration of follicles. After preparation of the sperm sample the oo- cytes are inseminated in vitro. When the sperm quality is inadequate due to severe oligozoospermia and/or severe asthenozoospermia and/or severe teratozoospermia ICSI is advised by injecting one spermatozoon into the oocyte using a micropipette (12). The embryos are transferred two to five days after IVF or ICSI into the uterus to start implantation in the endometrium. Figure 1 shows the different stages of in vitro embryonal development from day 1 to day 5. The invention of IVF also provides access to human embryos in the laboratory.\n\nHowever, embryos can undergo preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) to avoid transfer of an embryo affected by a genetic disease and/or aneuploidies and/or chromosomal structural rearrangements.\n\n1.2 Preimplantation Genetic Testing\n\nPreimplantation Genetic Testing allows for the investigation of the DNA content of polar bodies (PB) removed from oocytes and biopsies from cleavage or blastocyst stage preimplantation embryos. PGT is divided into three subgroups: PGT for aneuploidies (PGT-A); PGT for monogenic/single gene de- fects (PGT-M); and PGT for chromosomal structural rearrangements (PGT-SR). The formerly known terms Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) and Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) are now replaced by the term PGT (14).\n\nThe development of such PGT methods was started when Edwards and Gardner made the first effort to determine the sex of rabbit blastocysts in 1967 (15). However, PGT only became feasible when polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was invented. Handyside et al. (16) and Verlinsky et al. (17) then reported independently the implementation of PGT by analyzing single cells (blastomeres) or polar bodies of preimplantation embryos which originate from couples with a higher risk of transmitting X-linked and monogenetic diseases. Nowadays, trophectoderm (TE) biopsy followed by PGT is an established method in the IVF clinic with numerous healthy new-borns assuming that PGT is a safe and reliable technique without significant appearance of adverse effects (18, 19). PGT aimed to improve life birth rates (PGT-A) and to avoid the birth of children affected with a monogenetic dis- ease (PGT-M) or translocations (PGT-SR). If this aim in the clinic is reached, however, still needs to be proven.\n\n1.2.1 PGT for monogenic/single gene defect (PGT-M)\n\nPGT was initially developed for the detection of monogenic disorders present at birth such as cystic fibrosis (CF), beta-thalassemia, myotonic dystrophy, Huntington’s disease, fragile X syndrome and other X-linked diseases. Nowadays, monogenetic disorders are diagnosed with PCR-based methods that allow for the detection of over 400 different diseases (20).\n\nSingle cells for PGT are biopsied from three different stages: 1st and/or 2nd PB at day 0; one or two blastomeres at day 3; or five-ten cells of the TE at day 5. One specific problem during single-cell PCR is allele-drop-out (ADO). ADO is understood as a non-amplification of individual alleles during PCR that leads to a false homozygosity (figure 2). Heterozygous embryos then could be diagnosed as homozygous (21). Several protocols improved the technique using different cell lysis methods and increasing the denaturation temperature (22–24). To lower the impact of high ADO rates re- searchers can increase the number of loci and analyse several replicates of the same sample (25). However, working with embryos would restrict the use of replicates. Multiplex fluorescent PCR, how- ever, solved the problem of ADO (25). PCR fragments are labelled with a fluorochrome and can be detected with an automated sequencer. It combines for example the mutation and one linked marker, usually microsatellites close to the mutation. This allows for the detection of the ADO (26).\n\nAbbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten\n\nFigure 2: Allele drop-out. Heterozygous DNA samples undergo amplification. One allele is not amplified during PCR resulting into two possible homozygous outcomes: normal or affected. This leads to a wrong diagnosis of the sample.\n\nSince ~6 picogram DNA is present in a single cell, samples contaminate rapidly. Hence, all single cell experiments should be performed under sterile conditions in a laminar flow hood as a dedicated pre-amplification area separated from a post-amplification area (27). To overcome the low amount of DNA researchers and embryologists perform whole genome amplification (WGA) before PCR to increase DNA levels. This resulted in a significant increase of the ADO ratio in all biopsied cells (24, 28, 29). Multiple displacement amplification (MDA) is a non-PCR based isothermal technique for WGA. First DNA is denatured into single strands. Subsequently f29-DNA polymerase and random hexamers are added by which a second complementary strand is synthesised. The enzyme then displaces the strand. Further polymerization of these displaced strands leads to a hyperbranched structure (25). However, after regular PCR on samples which underwent MDA researchers observed a rather high ADO ratio and preferential amplification of certain alleles (28–30). In this case ADO can also be avoided by subsequent multiplex PCR, but it is technically more challenging especially without pre-amplification.\n\n1.2.2 PGT for aneuploidies (PGT-A)/structural rearrangements (PGT-SR) Fluorescence in situ hybridization for single cell analysis\n\nStructural rearrangements such as Robertsonian and reciprocal translocations form another indication for PGT. Robertsonian translocations are fusions between two acrocentric chromosomes (13, 14, 15, 21, 22 and Y) at the centromere resulting in the loss of the short arm. Reciprocal translocations develop through fusion of breaks in non-homologous chromosomes. Both translocations appear balanced or unbalanced. Balanced translocations do not affect the phenotype, whereas unbalanced translocations result in monosomies and trisomies. Carriers of balanced translocations have an increased risk of abnormal offspring, such as trisomy 21 when a Robertsonian translocation affects chromosome 21 (30, 31). More frequently, however, they are prone to subfertility resulting in repeated miscarriage or implantation failure.\n\nWith the invention of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) it was possible to differ between balanced situations (normal or balanced carrier) and an unbalanced chromosome composition (figure 3). Diagnosis of every translocation case became possible with the use of both subtelomeric and centromeric probes (26).\n\nAbbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten\n\nFigure 3: Outcome of PGT with FISH (25). An example of a reciprocal translocation. Chromosomes are labelled with centromeric (yellow and green) and telomeric (red) probes. The blue circle shows an inter- phase nucleus from a blastomere. The first result shows a normal situation (2 dots from each color). The second is a balanced situation with exactly the same dots as the normal. This translocation causes no phenotypically changes. The third result shows an aneuploid cell. One red dot is missing, which is inter- preted as a monosomy for one part of chromosome B. The other part is trisomic for the blue chromosome. The fourth result shows another possibility for an unbalanced situation. This cell is trisomic for a part of chromosome B (3 red dots) and monosomic for a part of the blue chromosome.\n\nFor PGT-SR with FISH, polar bodies, single blastomeres from day 3 embryos and blastocysts can be analyzed (figure 3). Polar bodies, however, only provide genetic information inherited from the mother. For FISH, the single cell is spread and fixed on a microscope slide. The cell membrane and cytoplasm is removed and the nucleus is permeabilized. Denaturation of DNA leads to single strands that can hybridize with target-specific probes labelled with fluorochromes. The slides are analysed with an UV microscope. With FISH unbalanced embryos can be excluded for transfer in the IVF laboratory allowing for the birth of healthy children.\n\nWomen with advanced age (>37 years) carry embryos and oocytes with increased aneuploidy rates which is an indication for PGT-A. PGT for aneuploidies was initially done by FISH to choose only euploid embryos for transfer after ART. It was hypothezied that PGT-A with FISH increases pregnancy rates, but several RCTs rejected this (32–34). Analyzing one single blastomere is unrep- resentative for the whole embryo since cleavage stage embryos show high rates of mosaicism. Ad- ditionally, the number of chromosomes that can be analysed at the same time is limited because there are only five different fluorochromes available. That makes it not practical to analyse all chro- mosome pairs. This problem could be overcome by performing multiple rounds, but the accuracy seems to drop to 41% when five chromosomes or more are analysed (35). Another limitation is the required spreading and fixing of the nucleus on a microscope slide that could lead to chromosome loss, harm of the nucleus, overlying signals and failure during hybridization (36). Additionally, FISH is not suitable to detect segmental abnormalities (see 1.2) since the fluorochrome labelled probes only hybridise to the target (37).\n\nAlso, the use of single blastomeres from day 3 embryos has mainly shifted to TE biopsy since it was unclear how blastomere biopsy affects the embryo on short-term and children born after ART on\n\nlong-term (32, 33). Furthermore, the reliability increases through analysing 5 to 10 cells from circa 150 cells present at blastocyst stage and researchers proved that blastocyst biopsy is less harmful to the embryo than day 3 biopsy (34). In the meantime, FISH for the detection of aneuploidies has been completely replaced by next generation technologies (NGT) such as array-Comparative Genomic Hybridization (aCGH) and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), but the detection of unbalanced chromosome translocations is still an indication for FISH (26). Comprehensive Chromosome Screening\n\nIn contrast to FISH the use of comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS), with first CGH on met- aphase spreads of chromosomes and subsequent array CGH, allows for genome-wide aneuploidy screening. With CGH it is possible to investigate DNA copy number variations (CNV) through com- parison of the DNA content of two differently labelled samples, after hybridisation on metaphase spreads of a normal individual (38). However, CGH has a high workload and is time consuming making it less convenient for the clinic. Based on the same principle, researchers introduced array- CGH (6, 39). In contrast to CGH it compares equal amounts of the labelled test and reference sample after co-hybridization on numerous DNA probes coated in an array instead of metaphase spreads of an normal individual (40). These probes commonly consist of complementary DNA, such as oligonu- cleotides or genomic fragments generated in different types of vectors allowing for a higher resolu- tion than CGH (41). Array-CGH at the single cell level requires WGA since DNA amounts in the nanogram range are necessary.\n\nRandomized controlled trials (RCTs) have demonstrated that pregnancy rates do not increase after PGT-A with FISH. However, CCS on every single cell of day 3 embryos revealed the entire scope of mosaicism (4–6). Certain day 3 embryos are shown to contain both normal and aneuploid cells whereas others contain only aneuploid cells with varying levels of abnormality in each cell. Capalbo et al. (33) however claim that the mosaicism levels in day 3 embryos are overvalued due to technical faults and deficient robustness of aCGH. The other authors (4–6) validated aCGH and demonstrated highly reliable results. Unravelling the exact biological consequences of mosaicism in human preim- plantation embryos will keep researchers occupied.\n\nSingle Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) arrays form another approach for CCS. SNPs are variations of a single base pair in a DNA strand present in at least 1% of the population. Diseases can be caused by a single base pair change, but not all SNP lead to a pathological mutation. Every SNP consist of two alleles or base pairs. These variations are not randomly distributed, but divided as haplotype blocks. Thus, in certain regions of our DNA only one allele type is present. A section of for example five SNPs will then displays two or three of the 25 or 32 possibilities (26). There exist numerous SNPs in our genome from which 15 million are identified. However, conventional SNP arrays do not require a library for all of the 15 million SNPs due to the haplotype blocks. They use rather oligonucleotides of usually 25 base pairs complementary to the two alleles of a several hun- dred thousands of SNPs (26). It can be used for all types of PGT. Next Generation Sequencing\n\nNGS reaches a higher sensitivity than aCGH and SNP array for the detection of aneuploidies in human preimplantation embryos and its costs are decreasing quickly (26). This technique has a typical coverage (depth of sequence) of 30x, which means that one base pair is read 30 times. We have to mention that for PGT the use of shallow whole genome sequencing is applied with a depth of for instance 0,3x (42). This extremely reduces the costs.\n\nMoreover, NGS sequences mutations at very low levels in contrast to first generation technologies as for instance Sanger Sequencing (43). Subsequently, several groups developed their own ap- proaches to NGS but with a common scheme: Library preparation is required before sequencing. The DNA to be sequenced is sheared into small bits allowing for binding of platform specific adaptor sequences on the 3’ and 5’ end (paired-end) (44). In numerous platforms, the signal to noise ratio is enlarged by local clonal amplification, generating clusters (45). One of these platforms is the Illumina technology (figure 4) working on a flow cell, a glass slide with different lanes: 1 lane (MiSeq), 2 lanes (HiSeq 2500) or 8 lanes (HiSeq 2000) (43). These lanes are composed of two types of oligos (forward and reverse) on which the adapter sequences bind. After hybridization on one type of the oligos, a DNA polymerase generates a complement of the bound fragment. Then the initial DNA template is denatured and washed out. Subsequently, multiple steps of clonal amplifica- tion by bridge amplification are performed. The strand folds over to the other complementary oligo, while a complementary bridge is created by DNA polymerase. When these strands are denatured, two single strands are tethered to the flow cell. For sequencing, different labelled dNTPs are incor- porated allowing for detection of the signal with an optical sensor. This process is called Sequencing- by-Synthesis. The huge data volume needs to be aligned to reference sequences by using software programs.\n\nZhang et al. (46) analysed single cells derived from blastocysts with massive parallel sequencing (MPS), a general term for whole genome sequencing (WGS) approaches, using the HiSeq 2000 platform. They detected aneuploidies and CNVs larger than 1Mb which was confirmed by SNP arrays. Furthermore, NGS reached 99.63% sensitivity and 97,71% specificity. Such high specificity and sensitivity rates after single cell NGS were also shown by others as well as the ability to diagnose segmental abnormalities (47). Following validation, several RCTs show that these techniques for PGT-A are reliable, safe and effective (34, 48, 49). In turn, some authors criticize the study size and the methods to investigate the study results (50, 51). Additionally, it has been shown that mosaic blastocysts are capable to implant leading to healthy offspring (8, 52).\n\nAbbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten\n\nFigure 4: Illumina sequencing technology. (1) Adapter sequences attach to the flowcell. (2) After bridge amplification, forward and reverse strands are tethered to the flowcell. (3) Denaturation allows for further amplification and cluster formation. Sequencing by synthesis of the forward and reverse strands is performed by detecting the fluorescence signals of different dNTPs. Figure from: ogy.html?langsel=/be/\n\n1.3 The origin of chromosomal abnormalities in preimplantation embryos\n\nA meta-analysis of van Echten-Arends et al. (2) showed that 73% of the human preimplantation embryos generated after IVF are chromosomally mosaic of which diploid-aneuploid mosaicism is the most common state (59%) followed by aneuploid mosaicism (15%). These chromosomal abnormal- ities were shown to arise during early embryonic development (6, 7, 53). Mitotic errors occur during all stages of embryogenesis, but appear more likely within the first three divisions (5, 54, 55). The two key mechanisms leading to mitotic aneuploidies are anaphase lagging and non-disjunction (55–59). Meiotic aneuploidies were observed at the first meiotic division predominantly in females (60). The underlying mechanisms of meiotic errors are predivision of chromosomes at metaphase I and premature segregation of sister chromatids which are related to advanced maternal age and the number of crossing-overs. For detailed review see (60).\n\nBeside numerical aberrations the use of CCS revealed that structural abnormalities also appear dur- ing the first cleavages of the embryo which results in mosaicism of specific chromosomal segments (4–6, 59, 67). Researchers assume that these segmental abnormalities occur due to breakage-fusion-bridge cycles (66). Failure during the repair of DNA double strand breaks (DSB) could lead to these abnormalities, but the origin of DSBs in human embryos remains unclear.\n\nOnly a few research groups investigated the origin of chromosomal abnormalities in preimplantation embryos. In this part, we will discuss the fundamental molecular mechanisms of this exceptional event, especially the role of the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) and the chromosomal passenger complex (CPC). These transcripts are targets for investigating the origin of aneuploidies in human preimplantation embryos.\n\n1.3.1 Origin of mitotic aneuploidies Underlying processes leading to abnormal chromosome numbers\n\nA number of mechanisms could be the source of aneuploidy in human preimplantation embryos. Causes of abnormal chromosome segregation during mitosis are endoreplication, anaphase lagging, non-disjunction, premature cell division, chromosome demolition and/or breakage, cell fusion of blastomeres and error in cytokinesis (3) (figure 5). Several authors reported that anaphase lag and non-disjunction are the most common processes leading to numerical aberrations (5, 61–65). Ana- phase lag during mitosis is explained as a delayed motion of a single chromatid where it fails to attach to the spindle and thus is not included in the newly formed daughter cells. Since the lagging chromosome forms an anucleated fragment that is lost this mechanism is leading to one normal daughter cell and one carrying a monosomy. Mitotic non-disjunction describes the failure of sister chromatids to split correctly during metaphase resulting in one daughter cell with a monosomy and another with a trisomy. Coonen e t al. (58) examined blastocysts by performing FISH and concluded that two-thirds of the mosaicisms appear through anaphase lag in both sex-chromosomes and au- tosomes, while in one-third of the aneuploid blastocysts non-disjunction and anaphase-lag are pre- sent with non-disjunction foremost in the sex-chromosomes and anaphase-lag in the autosomes. Different from Coonen and colleagues another study performed three sequential rounds of FISH instead of one round on day 5 embryos. They reported that chromosome loss and therefore ana- phase-lag is the main mechanism leading to aneuploidy (59).\n\nHowever, chromosome loss could be seen as artefacts due to failures as overlying signals or failure during hybridization. A combination of FISH, CGH and aCGH a few years later revealed that chro- mosome loss is not elevated relative to chromosome gains which contradicts the previous studies (62). Other mechanisms leading to aneuploidy are premature cell division and endoreplication. Premature cell division causes the formation of haploid cells, while endoreplication results in poly- ploid cells due to duplication of DNA without subsequent division of the cell. Triploidy due to en- doreplication was detected in human zygotes and tetraploidy has been observed in one two-cell embryo (5, 63, 64).\n\nAbbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten\n\nThe mechanism of chromosome demolition was initially introduced to explain trisomic zygote rescue. During chromosome demolition one of the three chromosomes undergoes removal and/or fragmen- tation resulting in two diploid daughter cells (65). If chromosome demolition however affects a dip- loid cell this will plausibly lead to a numerical chromosome aberration.\n\nMitotic aneuploidy can furthermore be correlated with errors in cytokinesis. Absent or distorted cy- tokinesis leads to cells with two nuclei, tetraploidy or spindle abnormalities and hence to a chaotic karyotype (66, 67). Xanthopoulou et al. (68) have found that blastomeres with two nuclei can also be the result from haploid mononucleated blastomeres which underwent endoreplication followed by karyokinesis.\n\nChromosome breakage is the last mechanism to be discussed. It causes partial chromosome loss and gain on almost each chromosome (53, 56, 61, 69). Embryo analysis using CGH have shown that embryos with partial aneuploidy are prone to an unstable karyotype caused by acentric and dicentric chromosomes (70). Since the resolution of CGH is lower than these of SNP array or aCGH (see, chromosome breakage resulting in smaller deletions or duplications were not detected. Vanneste et al. (6) showed that segmental deletions, duplications and amplification are highly pre- sent during early embryonal development including the appearance of breakage-fusion-bridge-cy- cles. Subsequently, Voet et al. (61) hypothesized that these aneuploidies occur through incorrect repair of DNA double strand breaks (DSB) in the zygote during the first two cleavages. There exist two key repair pathways for DSB: homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous DNA end joining (NHEJ). Elucidating these pathways would go beyond the scope of this master thesis. Here, suffice it to mention that the presence of components of both pathways in human preimplantation embryos has been observed (71, 72).\n\nAlthough the mechanisms behind these DSB during early embryonal development remain unclear, the existence and causes of analogous DSB in human embryonic stem cells (hESC) have been described. Jacobs et al. (73) hypothesized that DSBs are caused by replication stress and replication fork collapse. Maternal factors affecting mitotic aneuploidies\n\nBefore going in-depth of molecular mechanisms, we will discuss briefly the maternal factors affecting aneuploidy. One key event during the first cleavages is embryonic genome activation (EGA). It oc- curs stepwise: first at the 2-cell stage (early maternal), second at 4-cell stage (late maternal) and the major activation between the 6-and the 8-to 10-cell stage (figure 6). Before major EGA, the development is dependent on the stored proteins and mRNA in the oocyte (74–77).\n\nWhen a maternal protein product or mRNA is defective through exposure to environmental factors as radiation and chemicals or internal factors as poor vascularization of the antral follicle during oocyte maturation, the mechanisms that direct and control mitosis show a high risk to fail. Supposing such failure occurs before EGA, incorrect chromosome segregation could lead to aneuploidy since mechanisms as microtubule kinetics, cell cycle checkpoints, DNA repair proteins, chromosome co-hesion, telomere shortening and mitochondrial function are affected by maternal proteins (73). Examples of such protein products of maternal oocyte origin are the SAC and the CPC. Their role throughout mitosis and the consequences of depletion of certain components is clarified in the fol-lowing sections. The spindle assembly checkpoint during mitosis\n\nThe SAC is a mitotic feedback-control system that prevents onset of anaphase and chromosome segregation, until all chromosomes are properly attached to the mitotic spindle (78). Thus, it avoids the development of aneuploidies by arresting the cell in mitosis and blocking transition into the ultimate steps of cell division (79). It consists of several proteins such as the sensor protein mitotic arrest deficient 1 (MAD1), budding uninhibited by benzimidazoles 1 (BUB1), and multipolar spindle 1 (MPS1). The signal converter mitotic checkpoint complex (MCC) is an organization of MAD2, BUB3, BUB related 1 (BUBR1) and cell division cycle protein 20 (CDC20) A second organization is the ubiquitin ligase anaphase–promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) (78–80).\n\nDuring prometaphase, the kinetochores of the chromosomes attach to the spindle microtubules (fig- ure 7 A+B). The SAC is then active and monitors the state of kinetochore attachment. In case of improperly attached or unattached chromosomes the SAC signal is transduced. Subsequently, the SAC effector MCC, assembled at unattached kinetochores, binds and inhibits the APC/CCDC20-complex which regulates metaphase-anaphase transition. When all the chromosomes are properly attached to the mitotic spindle, the activation of the APC/CCDC20-complex enables Cyclin B and Securin ubiq- uitination and subsequent proteolysis leading to inactivation of Cyclin Dependent Kinase (CDK1) and activation of Separase. Inactivated CDK1 results in start of mitotic exit whereas active Separase cleaves the cohesin complex of the sister chromatids. This results in sister chromatid separation and finally to onset of anaphase. Moreover, other SAC key elements including MAD1, BUB1, MPS1, and Aurora-B increase the SAC signal and the amount of MCC assembly at the kinetochores (78, 79). Aurora-B is a serine/threonine (S/T) protein kinase functioning as a subunit of another complex named the chromosomal passenger complex which is discussed later.\n\nThe attachment process and the separation of the sister chromatids is shown in figure 7C. SAC proteins are recruited due to a signal produced by unattached kinetochores. This and the presence of a high level of MAD2 at the kinetochores lead to the concentration of Aurora-B kinase at the centromeres. Unattached kinetochores cause a lack of tension between the sister chromatids which possibly leads to Aurora-B activation.\n\nAbbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten\n\nFigure 7 : The SAC mechanism and the kinetochore attachment process. (A) Mitosis is halted by active CDK1. The SAC is switched on during prometaphase. In case of improperly attached or unattached kinetochores, a SAC signal is transduced. The MCC amplifies this signal and inhibits after binding the APC/CCDC20-complex. Therefore metaphase-anaphase transition is avoided. When all of the chromosomes are properly attached to the kinetochores (metaphase), the APC/CCDC20-complex is activated. Subsequently, the ubiquitination of Cyclin B and Securin is promoted leading to the start of mitosis exit and the cleavage of cohesin of the sister chromatids, respectively. (B) Concurrent MCC production and inhibition even when the SAC is switched on, assure for a high level of MCC at any given time. (C) Unattached kinetochores constantly produce a ‘wait’ signal, expressing high levels of MAD2 (red). Under these circumstances and probably due to lack of tension, Aurora B kinase also assembles but at the centromeres (green). Increase of tension due to attached kinetochores in turn, depletes MAD2 and the SAC signal terminates. Then Separase activity cleaves the cohesin of the sister chromatids and anaphase ensues. At this point, also Aurora B kinase is depleted from the centromeres. (A) and (B) from (79), (C) from (78).\n\nAfter the attachment of the chromosomes to the microtubules, MAD2 levels decrease 50-100-fold. When all chromosomes completed attachment the SAC signal is quenched. Separase is then acti- vated and cleaves the sister chromatids by proteolysis of cohesin (78).\n\nThe SAC is indispensable for normal mitotic progression since it prevents metaphase-anaphase tran- sition until not all chromosomes are properly attached to the mitotic spindle. Wei et al. (80) investigated the role of SAC elements (BUB3, BUBR1 and MAD2) in mouse preimplantation embryos by overexpression or knock-down. Overexpression of such components inhibited the separation of sister chromatids, confirming the role of monitoring the metaphase-anaphase transition during the first cleavages. Downregulation in turn hastens metaphase-anaphase transition and causes micronuclei formation, improper chromosome segregation and aneuploidy resulting in implantation failure and delayed development. The chromosomal passenger complex\n\nThe CPC is one of the main controllers of mitosis and is present at different localizations during certain phases of mitotic cell division and cytokinesis. It regulates key mitotic events such as cor- rection of chromosome-microtubule attachment errors, activation of the SAC, chromosome conden- sation, spindle assembly and cytokinesis. The CPC is organized into four subunits: Aurora B, INCENP (inner centromere protein), Survivin and Borealin. Especially Aurora B as a protein kinase has mul- tiple functions such as signaling to the SAC through phosphorylation which leads to the assembly of MCC, the effector of the SAC. The INCENP is the scaffold where the CPC proteins assembly occurs. Aurora B is fully activated through binding on the IN-BOX of INCENP leading to phosphorylation (figure 8 A). During early mitosis, the INCENP/Borealin/Survivin complex localizes to histones at the inner centromere, whereas during late mitosis this complex is binding to microtubules at the spindle midzone. Increased CPC on these sites enables phosphorylation and therefore full activation of Aurora B (figure 8 B) (81). Van de Werken et al. (82) revealed that the assembly of CPC proteins at the INCENP during prometaphase of human zygotes is less confined than in later stages of pre- implantation development. They assume that the disordered CPC localization in the zygote causes an increase in chromosome mis-segregation, particularly of paternal origin.\n\nIt has been shown that the inhibition of Aurora B and depletion of Borealin increases kinetochore- microtubule attachment errors (83, 84). During normal conditions, however, the CPC destabilizes and repairs those fail- ures (85, 86) . Moreover, the CPC is es- sential for SAC activation since active Aurora B facilitates recruitment of the SAC elements MAD1, MAD2, BUB1, BUBR1 and MPS1 (87–89). In late mito- sis researchers observed a role of the CPC in central spindle formation, regu- lation of furrow ingression and abscis- sion (86, 90). These processes appear in cytokinesis which allows for a coordi- nated and accurate separation of the two daughter cells. The role of the mei- otic kinase Aurora C in the CPC during human preimplantation development is demonstrated by Avo Santos et al. (91). Aurora C appears in oocytes, zygotes and stays in early preimplantation em- bryos. Somatic Aurora B in turn is only present in blastocysts. The investigators hypothesize from these results that Au- rora C is involved during the develop- ment of aneuploidies.\n\nFigure 8 : Aurora B activation and CPC localization (81). (A) Inactive Au- rora B (red) binds to the INCENP) yellow) and is fully activated after phos- phorylation by trans catalysation. (B) in vivo Aurora B activation requires CPC localization. INCENP, Borealin and Survivin target the CPC to the his- tones of the inner-centromere (early mitosis) and the spindle midzone (late mitosis). Assembly at this region enables auto-phosphorylation in trans, which fully activates Aurora B kinase.\n\n2. Objectives of the master thesis\n\nThe main objectives of this master thesis are to develop and validate a protocol for simultaneous genome and transcriptome analysis at the single cell level. For that, we plan to analyze hESC (which have a transcriptome close to that of the preimplantation embryos) and fibroblast cells with normal and abnormal karyotype. At the start of the experiments we will use (1) purified RNA & DNA mixes, (2) larger numbers of cells and (3) dilutions down to one single cell equivalent for validation of the protocol described by Macaulay et al. (92).\n\nThe three sub-goals are validation and implementation of (1) Separation of RNA & DNA, (2) RNA amplification, (3) DNA amplification. We want to mimic the amount of RNA and DNA in a single cell (10-30pg total RNA of which <1pg mRNA and ~6pg total DNA) before we perform the experiments on single cells. To validate for separation of RNA and DNA we will test their presence by real-time PCR (GAPDH, MSH2, SOX2 and NANOG) and PCR (CFTR gene), respectively. When reaching these aims on time, we will include the validation of shallow whole genome sequencing.\n\nBy implementing this innovative technique in our lab, it will be possible to investigate each single blastomere of human embryos at the two- to eight-cell stage. This allows for studying the origin of chromosomal abnormalities in early embryos. The REIM/REGE group particularly wants to investi- gate the hypothesis that the depletion of mRNA and protein products of maternal oocyte origin and that are involved in mitosis -especially SAC and CPC- lead to aneuploidy before EGA. RNA-sequenc- ing of the whole transcriptome will also allow to investigate alternative pathways, such as the DNA repair pathways.\n\nSeveral authors have previously analyzed the transcriptome of whole embryos and observed the presence of transcripts for SAC, CPC and DNA repair mechanisms (71, 75, 77, 93). These investiga- tions disagree with a role of aforementioned components during development of aneuploidies in early embryos. Nevertheless, experiments on whole embryos hide possible effects at the single cell level, which is also the level at which aneuploidies occur. RNA-sequencing of individual single blas- tomeres reveals different levels of transcripts including of genes for SAC, CPC and DNA repair path- ways (77). We have to mention that these researchers did not associate the transcriptome with the presence of chromosomal abnormalities.\n\n\nExcerpt out of 43 pages\n\n\nDevelopment of Simultaneous Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis at the Single Cell Level\nVrije University Brussel (Reproduction Genetics and Regenerative Medicine)\nCatalog Number\nISBN (eBook)\nsingle cell analysis\nQuote paper\nMarius Regin (Author), 2018, Development of Simultaneous Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis at the Single Cell Level, Munich, GRIN Verlag,\n\n\n • No comments yet.\nRead the ebook\nTitle: Development of Simultaneous Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis at the Single Cell Level\n\nUpload papers\n\nYour term paper / thesis:\n\n- Publication as eBook and book\n- High royalties for the sales\n- Completely free - with ISBN\n- It only takes five minutes\n- Every paper finds readers\n\nPublish now - it's free", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7882287502288818}
+{"content": "Charged With Theft or Shoplifting\n\nArrested and Charged With Theft or Shoplifting\n\nDo You Need a Juvenile Court Attorney for a Shoplifting or Theft Case?\n\nA conviction for a theft will result in a permanent criminal record detailing the conviction, as well as fines, community service, and possibly even jail time. While a defendant may think the sentence handed down will not be harsh since the theft was minor, it is important to understand the implications of having a permanent criminal record with a theft conviction on it. This can significantly harm an individual’s chances of getting a job, getting into a school, or obtaining a professional license. Pleading guilty to theft in Juvenile Court “just to get it over with” is not the best course of action. It is important you seek proper, qualified representation by a Municipal Court Attorney to ensure that you are taking the most appropriate steps throughout your trial.\n\nIt is important to note that prosecutors may be open to allowing a plea deal in certain New Jersey theft cases. Plea deals involve the prosecution agreeing to charge the defendant with a lesser offense in exchange for a guilty plea. In certain theft cases, this may allow defendants to plead guilty in exchange for the prosecution agreeing to drop his or her charge down to a disorderly person’s offense even if the item the defendant stole was valued at over $200. Although this automatically subjects the defendant to a guilty verdict and thus a criminal record and sentence, it also helps the defendant avoid the harsher sentence that can result from being found guilty of a more serious theft crime.\n\n\n\nThe most common theft crimes are theft of movable property, theft of service, theft by deception, and receipt of stolen property. Theft of movable property is the typical crime one thinks of where someone steals a movable item that isn’t there’s. Theft of service(s) usually involves stealing services that one has not paid for, like telephone or cable TV. Theft by deception involves giving a false impression to another to obtain the property of another, such as pretending to be collecting money for charity for example. Finally, receipt of stolen property involves simply receiving property that one knows was stolen, even if the receiver did not steal it themselves. Receipt of stolen property is a typical example of a crime that many falsely believe to be legal. These are only some of the many laws specifically related to thefts in New Jersey.\n\n\nThere are numerous laws involving minor theft and shoplifting crimes, many which are not listed here. It is best to consult an experienced Juvenile Court Attorney if you would like any further information, as they are familiar with the specific state laws and can tell you what does and does not constitute a theft or shoplifting crime in New Jersey.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFredrick P. Niemann Esq.\n\nTheft and Shoplifting charges in New Jersey are no joke. Juvenile Courts take these charges very seriously, as should you. It is important to have a knowledgeable NJ Juvenile Court Attorney by your side throughout your trial. Please call Fredrick P. Niemann Esq., an experienced Juvenile Court Attorney, today toll-free at (855) 376-5291 or email him at You’ll find him non-judgmental, easy to talk to and more than willing to discuss your case.\n\n\nWritten by Fredrick P. Niemann, Esq. of Hanlon Niemann & Wright, a New Jersey Juvenile Court Attorney", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8309046030044556}
+{"content": "Q&A; WITH PAUL APODACA : ‘The Museum Is a Place of Cultural Ceremony’\n\n\n“Colors of the Dawn/Invisible People: The Arts of the Amazon,” currently at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, is the first exhibition to be mounted by Paul Apodaca, the museum’s curator of Native American art, since its reopening in October. Apodaca, 42, welcomed the show’s opening as an opportunity to talk about the exhibition and the museum’s mission, as well as his views on art and its role in society.\n\nQuestion: All of the objects included in “Colors of the Dawn” are either ceremonial or, in the case of earrings, ornamental. Is this an exhibition of art or artifacts?\n\nAnswer: I want people to see these not as ethnic objects, not as anthropological oddities, not as Ripley’s-Believe-It-or-Not kinds of things, but as works of art expressive of people’s lives, thoughts and feelings.\n\nAll people use art in a ceremonial way, and most art has a social as well as a personal context. Perhaps the ceremony is opening night at the Met to see the latest Van Gogh acquisition. Perhaps the artwork is a reaction to war. War is certainly a cultural ceremony.\n\n\nPicasso’s “Guernica,” for instance, expressed both his own views about war and also what he thought was the collective reaction of people within Spain.\n\nQ: “Guernica” has a definite social context. What about, say, Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase”?\n\nA: I am a Navajo. I can tell you that if I were to bring one of Jackson Pollock’s most abstract pieces, or any Picasso or Duchamp, to a reservation, we would look at it and say, “Oh, that’s American,” or “That’s Western.”\n\nIt might look individualistic and mysterious to someone within (this) culture, but to someone outside of the culture, it may simply look typical. That’s the illusion of culture.\n\n\nBy the way, art historians don’t talk about it, but Pollock did a series of canvases that were reproductions of Navajo sand-painting designs. In all cases, Pollock began with an individual ritual involving canvas and paint, which he then offered to, and (it) was accepted by the group, which then placed the work into its ceremonial houses--the museums.\n\nQ: Ceremonial house, as in place of worship?\n\nA: The museum is a place of cultural ceremony, absolutely, the same way that a football game is a ritualistic sport. Ritualistic foods are consumed (at a football game) and there are ritualistic chants.\n\nBeing within the society or culture sometimes prevents us from seeing those ritualistic aspects. We think that the whole thing is personal, a series of individual choices.\n\n\nBut just try to explain to someone outside of this culture what a hot dog is all about. It’s more than a food, isn’t it? Just like baseball is more than a game. To eat a hot dog at Wrigley Field? That we view ourselves as normal, and “the other” as odd and interesting, is a holdover of 19th-Century colonialism.\n\nAs we come into a true multicultural view, we’ll see that we’re just as interesting and colorful as “the other.” Of course, one of the most interesting and beautiful rituals in which we engage is the opening of a new exhibition at a museum.\n\nQ: How much contextual information are you providing for the Amazonian objects in “Colors of the Dawn”?\n\nA: We are a cultural art museum. If we were an anthropology museum, or an ethnology or ethnography museum, our mission would be precisely to explain the culture of these people.\n\n\nBut our emphasis is art, not anthropology. I’m providing a poetic narrative to transmit some of that information, but I don’t want that information to interfere with your ability to look at the art as something beautiful.\n\nWhen a museum displays a Picasso, there’s no demand to explain the history of Spain, to show a typical Spanish village or to show how a Spanish artist’s studio might look. If we show French art, there’s no need to play French music in the gallery. Granted, we already know a good deal about French and Spanish culture, but the reason we don’t provide the background is more a matter of cultural chauvinism.\n\nWhen we see a French Impressionist painting, the French part is minor compared to the Impressionist part. We look at the painting primarily as a depiction of form and color and light. We don’t think of it as an extension of Gaelic evolutionary culture somehow connected to Charlemagne or Louis XVI. We remove it from the culture and think of it in almost entirely intellectual terms. Why are we unable to do that with artwork of people from Polynesia or Africa or the Americas?\n\nQ: What do you believe is the difference between art and craft?\n\n\nA: Those iron walls of fine art versus folk art versus craft are shattering. There is no difference. Those were class separations that enabled the divinely inspired artist to continue to be subsidized by the Pope, intellectual constructs designed to separate what could be figured out by the intellect of man versus what could be graced to man by God.\n\nThe European definition of art in any case changes all the time. At one time, art is what the church approves, at another--say, as defined by Sotheby’s--whatever buys or sells in the marketplace.\n\nArtists of European extraction have continually challenged the definition of art, and how they have done so is precisely the course that Western art historians follow so diligently.\n\nThat definition has been challenged repeatedly from the inside, but now we have a chance to challenge that definition from the outside, with the art of non-European cultures.\n\n\nQ: How would you compare, for example, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with an Amazonian headdress?\n\nA: They’re both ceremonial, they both took a special effort and special devotion--in the very pure sense of men standing in awe of beauty, they’re equal. Where there’s no comparison is in the work involved.\n\nThe Sistine Chapel represents years of work, it’s a monumental human achievement in the amount of time and effort that went into it, whereas a headdress can be completed in a few days.\n\nBut that’s the only way that it’s essentially different. The headdress, though only a few days’ worth of work, also represents the expression of a lifetime’s worth of devotion to the ideas and concepts of its culture.\n\n\nQ: Much like the single brush stroke of a Chinese watercolor?\n\nA: On the very most poetic and essential level, a perfect example.\n\nQ: Let’s say an Amazonian is looking at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, while a European is in a room looking at an Amazonian feather headdress. What happens?\n\nA: Both are confused. Eventually, they both start to recognize colors and harmony and the work that has gone into them, and eventually they both begin to appreciate them as works of art.\n\n\nQ: I would suspect that at first the Amazonian might be overwhelmed, and the European underwhelmed--the Amazonian assaulted by too much sensory data, the European too little.\n\nA: That might be a cultural chauvinism of “primitive” versus “modern.” But, yes, it may indeed be the case that the Amazonian is overwhelmed by information--to the point where he might not even see it.\n\nI come from another culture, and I know what it’s like to stand in front of something and not be able to see it. I’m reminded of the film “Alien.” There are scenes in that film where the monster is right there in front of you, yet you can’t see it until all of a sudden a coil moves and everyone in the room screams. It was in front of you the whole time but you couldn’t see it because reference points needed for identification were not in motion.\n\nThose kind of references can also be cultural. I can show you a Navajo rug and you won’t see what I see in it. You might see lines and shapes--I might see a rainstorm.\n\n\nQ: Do you believe the headdress and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are works that are equal in complexity?\n\nA: For us to believe in the equality of human beings, we must really believe in the equality of human beings, and that includes the complexity of their expressions.\n\nTo think that some people need complex math equations to satisfy their intellect while other human beings need simple ones is another terrible chauvinism. All people work to the same level of complexity.\n\nThat complexity can be communicated empathetically or explicitly. It can be expressed in a mathematical equation, in an Islamic set of tiles or in what may appear to be, to a person outside of a culture, a very simple object. But (a similar) level of complexity is always present. . . .\n\n\nOne of the peculiarities of European Western culture--just peculiar, not bad or good--is that it verbalizes and otherwise manifests its complexity as explicitly as it can. In fact, we exhaust ourselves with the explicit explanation.\n\nThere’s no energy left to appreciate more empathetic kinds of communication. Art, as the language of human expression, is a way for us to start to see the way other cultures see. You’ll never ever think like an Amazonian, nor will I. But we can begin to think a little bit more like them.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8843740224838257}
+{"content": "How well do you know Genealogy?\n\nGenealogy is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. How much do you know about genealogy? Take our quiz to find out!\nHow many Americans are estimated to be related to one or more of the pilgrims who sailed to America on the Mayflower?\nThe Mayflower was a ship from England that transported the first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth, England, to the New World in 1620.\n\nThere were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about 30.\nWhat does DNA stand for?\nA human DNA molecule is made up of two strands wrapped around each other like a twisted ladder. While there are many different types of DNA test, there are really only three tests which are used for genealogy research: the Y-chromosone (Y-DNA) test, the mitochondrial (mtDNA) test and the relatively new - and very popular - autosomal (atDNA) test.\nWhat is a haplogroup\nHaplogroups pertain to a single line of descent. As such, membership of a haplogroup, by any individual, relies on a relatively small proportion of the genetic material possessed by that individual. If you meet someone who shares your haplogroup, it does not mean you are closely related. It means your ancestors followed a similar migration path.\nWhat causes red hair?\nKnown as an MC1R mutation. As a recessive trait it must be inherited from both parents to cause the hair to become red. Consequently there are far more people carrying the mutation for red hair than people actually having red hair. tudies have demonstrated that people with red hair are more sensitive to thermal pain and also require greater amounts of anesthetic than people with other hair color.\nPeople that do not like the taste of Cilantro, often claim it tastes like which of these?\nVariation in the OR6A2 gene has been identified as a likely cause of some people's strong dislike of cilantro.\nWhich of the following is not an occupational related surname?\nBerg is a topographic name for someone who lived on or by a hill or mountain, from Middle High German berc. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe.\nHow many third cousins does the average person have?\nUsing a model where a family has 2-3 children, you would have 190 third cousins, 940 fourth cousins and 4,700 fifth cousins!\nTo learn more about your family history, visit our site!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7969093322753906}
+{"content": "Research Haven |\nSupporting students\nsince 1996.\n\nCultural Perspectives in Cuba and the United States\n\nAbstract: This is a 15 page paper that provides an overview of cultural perspectives in Cuba and the United States. Emphasis is placed upon capitalism as a barrier to the expression of cultural value. Bibliography lists 8 sources.\n\nFilename: KFamrper.doc\n\nPages: 15\n\n\nSubcatagory: Cuba\n\nSpecial News and Events\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000096559524536}
+{"content": "A Kind of Magic\n\nAI is not about replacing the human with a robot. It is about taking the robot out of the human. Usama Fayyad Digitization has gained momentum and it is getting magnitude and speed, with most efforts aiming at making manual tasks as less repetitive and boring as more accurate and faster. Economists studying the relationship between technological change, productivity and employment almost unanimously agree that AI systems are going to transform the economy. However, they have also been insisting that, to increase productivity, investments in AI must go together with […]\n\nLogin to keep reading\nAutenticarsi per continuare a leggere", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9987831711769104}
+{"content": "amazon and netflix productions\n\nIn mid-March, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic brought Hollywood and global entertainment industries to a halt, shutting down film and TV productions across the world. But as cases in the U.S. are on the rise, life in countries across the Atlantic (and Pacific) are beginning to return to normal. Film and TV productions overseas are slowly resuming, with France becoming the next country to loosen restrictions enough for Amazon and Netflix productions to restart.\n\nVariety reports that Amazon and Netflix productions that shoot in France are preparing to resume shooting as the country loosens restrictions that have been in place since going into lockdown in mid-March. This includes the Amazon drama Voltaire Mixte and Netflix’s Arsene Lupin starring The IntouchablesOmar Sy.\n\nVoltaire Mixte, which follows an all-boys high school in the ’60s that starts welcoming girls, is expected to restart filming in mid-July in the south of France while Arsene Lupin, a modern-day reimagining of the iconic gentleman thief, won’t begin shooting until September, according to Variety. The latter series was filming in the Louvre when production stopped, but the famous French museum will reopen in June.\n\nThe slow restarting of production is possible due to the French government’s recent launch of a temporary indemnity fund created by the National Film Board (CNC) in collaboration with the regions and private partners, including banks, loan institutions and insurers. Not many details available about the fund, but culture minister Franck Riester said on May 6 that the fund will exceed €50 million ($54 million) and will be extended to film and TV productions that were halted during the pandemic. France’s health minister is also expected to greenlight sanitary guidelines for filming during the pandemic.\n\nFrench films will also resume shooting in June, with two big-budget movies from Pathé, the period drama Eiffel starring Sex Education star Emma Mackey, and the World War II drama Adieu Monsieur Haffmann set to shoot in Paris.\n\nFrance joins New Zealand and the Czech Republic as the latest country to cautiously resume shooting amid the pandemic. This helps Hollywood productions that are shot overseas, but it seems that domestically-shot films are still a ways away from resuming.\n\nCool Posts From Around the Web:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6229091882705688}
+{"content": "Political films in Bengali: The legacy of Satyajit, Ritwik, and Mrinal | The Daily Star\n01:17 AM, March 27, 2020 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:12 AM, March 27, 2020\n\n\n\nThe first anthology film of Bangladesh which features eleven different stories from eleven different directors, titled \"Iti, Tomari Dhaka\" (Sincerely yours, Dhaka) landed on Netflix shortly after its release in the theatres. While each of the eleven stories in this widely acclaimed film revolves around the lives of people from diverse spheres in Dhaka, there is one particular story that caught everyone's attention differently. \"Jinnah Is Dead\", directed by Krishnendu Chattopadhyay is based on the lives of the Bihari community living in a Geneva Convention Camp in Dhaka. While \"Jinnah Is Dead\" is a story that focuses on the marginalised lives of the residents of the Bihari refugee camps and their struggles for survival, its essence is that it depicts the identity crisis of such a man coming from the refugee camp who makes his way into the Bengali society, but cannot let go of his roots altogether. This identity crisis and the indication of this man's inclinations towards the ideology of Jinnah is what essentially makes this story a political one. This sort of narrative is not something we see in our movies every now and then, given that very few films have been made in our country that are truly political in nature.\n\nA political film can be described as an instrument that kindles consciousness in the viewer about the injustice and exploitation prevailing in society. The making of a political film depends on the freedom of expression that a filmmaker has. Political films can be differentiated from purely historical films in the sense that political films make way for self-criticism of the viewer. It essentially differs from a propaganda film, because it involves taking a stance, which usually implies standing with the oppressed. In that sense, two movies produced in Bangladesh stand successful in being truly political, Zahir Raihan's \"Jibon Theke Newa\", released before the independence of the country and set in the background of the language movement in 1952 and Tareque Masud's \"Matir Moyna\" (The Clay Bird) released in 2002, which was long after the country's independence, but set in the 1960s, a turbulent time when the people of the then East Pakistan were starting to discover a cultural identity of their own amidst the prevailing religious dogmatism. Both of these filmmakers, though they belonged at different times were successful in making political films because of their unique forms, techniques, and way of story-telling. These two very uniquely talented filmmakers could take the art of political films to newer heights if it were not for their untimely demises. But three names have truly contributed to establishing political films in the Bengali cinemas: Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen.\n\nSatyajit Ray changed the perception about Bengali films in the international arena with his debut film \"Pather Panchali\" in 1955. In the later years of his filmmaking career, after the tremendous success of his famous \"Apu trilogy\" and other literary adaptations, his interests started inclining towards films with stronger political statements. He made films like \"Pratidwandi\" (1970), \"Sheemabaddha\" (1971) and Jana Aranya (1975), which were set against the backdrop of the then Kolkata, and condemned the prevailing crises that the city and the state as a whole were caught within, such as bureaucratic corruption, political hypocrisy and the conformist way of thinking by the masses and the educated middle class. According to Ray, the one-man protest depicted in \"Pratidwandi\" could be stronger than the combined efforts of the Naxalite movement. In 1980, \"Hirok rajar Deshe\", a political satire made by Ray, sequel to \"Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne\" (1968) was released. This film depicted the conflict between creative and enlightened individuals and an oppressive monarchy. Many consider this film to be a strong criticism and condemnation of the Indira Gandhi regime for imposing a state emergency in India in 1975. This legendary cinema remains relevant to this day while discussing state oppression or injustice. A very recent political satire film in Kolkata titled \"Bhooter Bhobishshot\" (2012) is said to be directly influenced by \"Hirok Rajar Deshe\" by many. Later on, Ray made \"Ganashutru\" (1989), a movie that addressed and condemned religious dogmatism. Ray's political films always ended with an optimistic note, shining a ray of hope although an exception of this was made in \"Jana Aranya\".\n\nRitwik Ghatak was another pioneering figure of Bengali political films. He only directed eight feature films in his entire career. His trilogy consisting of \"Meghe Dhaka Tara\", \"Komal Gandhar\" and \"Subarnarekha\" showed the price of independence from the British colonial lords with the agony of partition in Bengal, through the story of a refugee camp. According to Ghatak, cinema to him was a means of expressing his anger and frustration at the sorrows and sufferings of the people. One interesting fact about this trilogy is that the stories largely depend on the point of view of the female protagonists while showing the severity of the refugee crisis. \"Jukti, Tokko Aar Goppo\", his last film, was set against the backdrop of the Naxalite movement in West Bengal. This film questioned the then political scenario through a narrative style that was successful in shocking the viewers and making them uncomfortable and self-critical, thus serving the purpose of a political film with great success.\n\nThe Calcutta trilogy by Mrinal Sen is considered to be one of the most prolific works in Bengali political cinema. The trilogy consists of \"Interview\" (1970), \"Calcutta 71\" (1972) and \"Podatik\" (1973). Set in the background of the Naxalite movements of West Bengal in the 70s, the three films capture three different angles. The first one captures the colonial norms posing as an obstacle for the growth and development of the middle class while the second one captures the harsh reality of poverty and exploitation. And finally, the third one captures the critical angles of the Naxalite movement through the lens of a young Naxalite. The third one created a lot of controversy among both the supporters of the left and the right wings, stirring heated debate against the film from both sides. But according to Sen, it was important to raise these issues no matter how controversial they were, because if there was something wrong about the process of a movement, it needed to be figured out.\n\nIf we believe that this discussion is confined within Bangladesh only, what we need to remember while emphasising the need to patronise more political films is that in a society that is still suffering from the wounds of colonisation and oppression, cinema can act as the most important art form that can make people self-aware and self-critical, and enable them to take a stance against the prevailing inequality. Political films can be crucial in fighting oppression and gaining freedom of speech and expression. And the young artists of the country, who are gradually moving away from the practice of staying apolitical can always draw inspiration from the works of Ray, Ghatak, and Sen. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nType START BR and send SMS it to 22222\n\nType START BR and send SMS it to 2222\n\nType START BR and send SMS it to 2225\n\nLeave your comments\n\nTop News\n\nTop News", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6648585796356201}
+{"content": "Return | Legislation 101 | Committees | Voteopolis Integration | Lobbyists | Federal vs States | Constitutional Amendments\n\nCommittees Considered: Understanding A Crucial Stage In The Lawmaking Process\n\nDespite Congress's enormous influence over our lives, Americans know relatively little about how it operates. Most people have a general idea that Congress can pass laws, but know little of the specifics. In particular, committees remain a mystery to many citizens. Occupying a crucial stage between a bill's introduction and its final vote, congressional committees can investigate key issues, reconcile disagreements between the House and the Senate, and approve, reject, or modify legislation. It is thus essential to understand how they work.\n\nStanding Committees\n\nMost discussion of congressional committees centers on standing committees, or the permanent organizations that both houses of Congress use to deliberate on legislation. After a member of Congress introduces a bill, the chamber sends it to the committee most directly related to its provisions. The committee then discusses the bill, studies and modifies it, and votes on whether to approve or reject it. The Senate has 16 standing committees, while the House of Representatives has 19. The most important committees include:\n\n • The Senate Committee On Armed Services- Currently chaired by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), this committee votes on issues related to national defense, military research, space exploration, and strategic resources. The House of Representatives has a similar body, the House Committee on Armed Services.\n • The Senate Committee On Health, Education, Labor, And Pensions- This committee handles legislation on a range of different issues related to public health, education, and economic wellbeing. These include the minimum wage, OSHA regulations, pensions, student loans, and accommodations for Americans who have disabilities. Its chair is Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN).\n • The House Committee On Energy And Commerce- One of the oldest committees in Congress, this body was first created in 1795. It handles legislation on everything from food and drug regulations to energy supply to interstate and international commerce to environmental protection. Its current chair is Representative Greg Walden (R-OR).\n • The House Committee On Ways And Means- This committee controls all taxes, tariffs, and other Federal means of raising revenue, as well as major government spending programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Because this committee has so much power, Representatives who serve there are not allowed to serve on other committees unless their party’s leaders give them a special dispensation. Its chair is Kevin Brady (R-TX).\n\nIn addition to shaping and voting on legislation, Senate committees also have the power to vote on Presidential nominees for related cabinet positions. Before the Senate voted to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, for example, the Senate Committee On Health, Education, Labor, And Pensions had to approve her.\n\nSelect Committees\n\nIn addition to standing committees, both houses of Congress can also organize select, or special, committees. As their name implies, these committees are devoted to completing specific tasks, after which point they usually cease to exist. Typically, select committees serve an investigative function, researching topics on behalf of standing committees or the chamber as a whole. Select committees have included:\n\n • The Senate Select Committee On Intelligence- This committee was created in 1976 to oversee the CIA, the National Security Agency, and other key elements of the American intelligence community. Despite being a select committee, it continues to operate after 40 years.\n • The House Select Committee On Energy Independence And Global Warming- Established in 2007, this committee investigated strategies to encourage renewable energy use and reduce American contributions to climate change. It was disbanded in 2011 due to changes in House leadership.\n • The House Select Committee On Benghazi- Created in 2014, this committee researched the events leading up to the 2012 attack on American diplomatic and intelligence facilities in Benghazi, Libya. It was this body that discovered that Hillary Clinton had used a private email server while serving as Secretary of State, a revelation that may have led to her loss in the 2016 US presidential election.\n\nSelect committees can become standing committees over time. The House Committee On Ways And Means, for example, began as a select committee.\n\nConference Committees\n\nFor a bill to become law in the United States, both the Senate and the House of Representatives must pass it. The simplest way to do this is for one chamber to approve the bill that the other chamber already passed. Because both chambers tend to develop their own versions of bills, however, they must usually reconcile the different provisions of their legislation before they can enact them. To do this, they create conference committees, or committees made up of both Senators and US Representatives. Conference committees work to reconcile differences between the two houses' bills. Often, the majority of the differences are simply variations in language; the committee need only make sure the final bill has consistent wording. When the two bills have significantly different provisions, however, the committee must find a compromise that both chambers of Congress will accept.\n\nA Note On Subcommittees\n\nBecause full committees have to consider a wide range of issues, they often establish subcommittees to divide up the work. Subcommittees are specialized bodies that focus on a specific issue under the broader committee’s jurisdiction.\n\nThe House and Senate have relatively few rules on subcommittees, and generally allow committee chairs to decide for themselves how to organize smaller bodies. This often means that subcommittee organization varies based on which party controls each chamber. When the Democratic Party is in control of the House of Representatives, for example, it requires all subcommittees to contain no more than 60 percent of the members of the full committee; the Republican Party has no such rule.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6416418552398682}
+{"content": "PLM, ECO and Cost of Change\n\nPLM, ECO and Cost of Change\n\nCost is an important topic. Period. Everybody agrees with this statement. I can even say many companies investing a lot in their ability to calculate and predict the cost of product. Compared to that, cost of change is much less exposed. However, cost of change can be even more destructive for the overall cost of the product you manufacturing and the business. Recently, I’ve been spending some time analyzing how companies are managing changes and how PLM systems are supporting them. I decided to put some thoughts about change management and cost calculation.\n\nCost Standard and processes\n\nThere are several policies or standards you want to have in your company when it comes to cost management and change processes. Change cost policy – usually specify the changes that required cost calculation (or not) and company payback period. Cost calculation document. You want to have it in the way that allows you to follow up it from the historical perspective as well as an instruction how to do so. The important question of every PLM implementation is how you are able to automate cost of change calculation and embed it in the overall change process.\n\nIs there something you can call “average cost of change”?\n\nThe perception of people in any company is that cost is expensive thing to have. At the same time, it is hard to come with a range of how much an average change cost. $1K-5K is a range you might be hearing. But it is too broad. Another point of confusion is to conclusion out is included in this cost – engineering services, labor, equipment, etc.\n\nCost Calculation Classification\n\nI can classify all changes into four groups: cost reduction, product maturity, product development, others. Depends on what type of change you are estimating, actually change cost calculation can be different. If you estimating change that marked to save cost or time, you absolutely need to calculate the cost. However, if you making a change that related to product maturity, you probably can skip some cost of change calculation. Taking right assumption can significantly improve the speed of change processes, which is an essential part of every manufacturing organization.\n\nWhat is my conclusion? Change management is one of the most complicated discipline in product development lifecycle. To measure it right and tack the history and metrics of changes together with cost calculation is tricky and very important. I haven’t seen ready out of the box implementations that can do so. Main reason – system customization is complicated to have all information in PLM system. Sometime, if cost calculation is complicated, you can calculate profit erosion. What is your practice and experience? Speak your mind, please. Do you have any examples you can share?\n\nBest, Oleg\n\nImage: jannoon028 /\n\n\nShare This Post", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.568138062953949}
+{"content": "Compare and Contrast Essay – what things to Write to have the greatest Marks?\n\n\n\nThe students can learn various methods of composing an essay throughout an academic life. However, the educational sessions are really short, and it’s also perhaps not simple to achieve all of the writing skills. Frequently, you see a relevant topic, and begin composing an essay about it. Now, while this subject asks you to create a comparison of two things that are different it becomes tough for you really to compose the essay. This will be called while the contrast essay or even the assess essay.\n\nYou must write down the similarities and differences of varied items. For example, you could make a contrast of-\n\n • Two theories\n • Different viewpoints\n • Statistical data\n • Historic event\n\nAmong the essay authors, you should know the right meaning of the term, compare. The main function is always to find out the similarities regarding the specific issues and just how those issues vary from the other person.\n\nThe secondary class students need to write the compare and in most cases contrast essay. Your project can give clear instructions on everything you need to compare.\n\nMethods for composing the basic component\n\nWhile writing the introduction of your comparison essay, you need to provide the major information. It is best to include the relevant data on the plumped for elements. You need to compose a very good thesis that is high-quality declaration. In the paragraph that is beginning you can fleetingly make clear the facts which have to be examined within the essay. Try to mention the basis for which this content gives value to all or any the readers.\n\nDistinguishing the huge difference and similar aspects\n\nWith this right component, you might better make a chart. This can help you to show The aspects that are major effortlessly. To produce this chart, you have got towards the relevant criteria on which you have to give attention to comparing the selected products. The criteria for instance, when you are writing on two different foods include brands, cost, components, tastes and many other. Now, centered on your essay subject, you can test in order to make concerns on- Who? Why? Where? Or Just How? This will assist you to to understand whether your articles has met the targets behind composing the essay.\n\nThe compare and compare essay may we do your essay website additionally be linked to two activities. For the reason that instance, it is possible to concern-\n\n • At what time, the occasions were held?\n • What makes those activities notable to us?\n • can there be any reputed individual, from the events?\n • exactly What were the results of these events?\n\nComparing on such basis as two subjects\n\nYou can begin to state everything regarding the first topic or subject. Then, you can easily relocate to the next someone to provide the contrast. Whilst the word limitation is quite short, it will probably be possible for one to compose the information on every product. This can be a structure that is logical your essay paper. But, we’ve seen that some university professors try to find the comparison that is direct of various things. They cannot choose to read a listing of various traits. That Is why you might choose another structure by concentrating on the points. Relate and comparison by placing two selected subjects side by side.\n\nBut, there is absolutely no rule that is strict writing this essay in a specific structure. It is possible to get hold of your teacher to learn exactly what they prefer. This can allow you to score greater markings into the essay paper.\n\nNow, for conclusion, you can try to produce a good impression. You must speak about both the subjects of contrast, and then make an assessment that is overall. When you believe you can’t write this compare and contrast essay, your may employ writers that are professional.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7423009872436523}
+{"content": "Django Junkie\n\n\nSmarterer, acquired by Pluralsight for $75M, provides a simple and satisfying way to discover just how much you know, and earn badges for your scores. They landed partnerships with the largest hiring platforms in the world to help employees validate potential candidates.\n\nDevelopment was in Python using the PyBald framework with SQLAlchemy.\n\n\nSoftware Engineer\n\n\nAcquired by Pluralsight", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9582990407943726}
+{"content": "Tue, 24 Mar 2020 01:18:55 +0000WeeblyThu, 12 Mar 2020 16:22:30 GMThttp://solvers.studio/blogs/what-is-service-design\n\nThis question comes up time and again so we thought it would be useful to give a quick overview for those who haven't even heard of it before or remain unsure on what it's all about.\n\nRelatable content\n\nIn truth, whenever we've been asked 'what do you do?' or 'what does service design mean?' we've given a whole range of different answer in the past, searching for the best way to explain it to the uninitiated. Making it relatable is key. We've found there are 2 approaches that are pretty successful at getting it across to other people.\n\n1/ The 'so, what do you do?' approach\nQuite often those asking us 'what is service design?' question are entrepreneurs, business managers and public sector leads who deliver services as a part of their job. We've found that by flipping the question around and asking them to explain what they do is really useful in contextualising our work. We ask them to tell us about their services, how they deliver them, and how they made the decisions to deliver it the way they do. Sometimes they may hesitate or look a little puzzled (understandably), but with a bit of coaxing they end up giving a pretty detailed response about how they interact with their customers and what tools they use. Sometimes they'll even talk about how they market their offer, their procurement processes, their CMS etc. We then point out that all of these things they're talking about is fundamentally service design; making informed decisions to deliver a quality service that's efficient, effective and driven by the aim to increase value to both the customer and the organisation.\n\n2/ The 'product design' approach\nWhilst the term 'service design' may be unfamiliar to many, if we ask people 'do you know what product design is?', the majority of people will say 'of course!' Well, service design is, in essence, the same principle. Product design teams will research, generate ideas, prototype, test, fail, prototype again, test again, fail again... (you get the idea), produce a market-ready version, implement, evaluate and reiterate, all with the intention of producing something that is of value to the business and to the user; something that is attractive and easy to use. With any luck, what they produce will be innovative, create positive impact and perhaps even disrupt the marketplace. Service design teams do exactly the same thing and for the same outcomes as those in designing for products but for, you know, services.\n\nWhilst these analogies may not give a thoroughly detailed explanation of service design and all it entails, we find they're good starting points to help people understand what it is we do.\n\nDefining it\n\nThere are lots of definitions of what service design is; many that are long-winded, jargon-filled and completely inaccessible to those unfamiliar with it. The best definition we've found - and the one that best describes what we do - is from UK Design Council:\n\"Service design is all about making the service you deliver useful, usable, efficient, effective and desirable.\"\n\nIt's all about using design-led approaches to holistically develop new ways of delivering your service to your audience. \n\nRegardless of the different tools you might use or what activities you might do to develop a service, the core principles stay consistent. Service design is:\n • Human-centred: it's rooted in the human experience of all those affected by the service\n • Collaborative: it involves stakeholders at all levels and actively engages them throughout the design process\n • Iterative: it explores options, it's reflective, and it's adaptive\n • Sequential: it reveals the service as a series of intentional and interconnected actions\n • Real: it uses research, prototyping and testing to ground the designs in reality\n • Holistic: it considers the needs of stakeholders across the whole organisation\n\nThe process\n\nThere's no single rule on what service design must look like, nor on the precise actions you should undertake. However, there are 4 stages to move through as a part of the service design process, all which take us through a series of divergent and convergent steps.\nFrom 'This is Service Design Doing'\n\nThese stages are not linear and will overlap, sometimes considerably. There will also be preparation that needs to be done at the beginning, and continuing evaluation and iteration following implementation. We're often dealing with complex systems and services, organisations with their own cultures and idiosyncrasies, unpicking legacy problems and addressing a marketplace with ever-increasing expectations. \n\nBenefits of Service Design\n\nThere are lots of articles and statistics out on the web about the value of embedding design and design approaches in your organisation; much of it is anecdotal or data produced from small sample sizes, however there are some larger studies which, we feel, start to give a real reflection of how it can contribute. \n\nMcKinsey & Company developed an index featuring 12 key design actions grouped into 4 themes - analytical leadership, user experience, cross-functional talent, and continuous iteration - and how organisations leveraged these to develop a design culture and mindset. \n\n\"We tracked the design practices of 300 publicly listed companies over a five-year period in multiple countries and industries. Their senior business and design leaders were interviewed or surveyed. Our team collected more than two million pieces of financial data and recorded more than 100,000 design actions.\" - The business value of design\n\nThe result of this 5 year research piece showed that those with the highest 25% index score performed significantly better than the industry benchmark, and that they had \"32 percentage points higher revenue growth and 56 percentage points higher TRS [Total Return to Shareholder] growth for the period as a whole.\" \n\nThis McKinsey study backs up an earlier research piece conducted by the Design Council which reached similar conclusions about \n'design alert' businesses - those that \"had observed a direct impact from the use of design on several business performance measures\" - significantly outperforming others. Around 17% of the 1500 businesses, across a range of sectors and of various sizes - could be described as 'design alert'.\n\nTwo headlines from the Design Council report stood out:\n • Businesses where design is integral to operations are twice as likely to have developed new products and services (80% v 40%)\n\nEmbedding a design mindset can make an organisation more resilient, sustainable and more capable of finding meaningful solutions in the future which lead to new and improved services being created.\n\nWhy a service design agency?\n\nThis isn't an easy process, nor is it straightforward. It's often messy and complex, especially if there's significant business change taking place. It takes a skilled designer to facilitate this process, and it requires a multidisciplinary approach (which is why we develop a network of associates with a whole range of skills).\n\nThe beauty of it is that many of the required skills will likely exist in your organisation already. People will already be empathising with their users, solving problems, designing solutions, enhancing benefits and implementing efficiencies all over the place. Chances are you have Service Designers in-the-making working for you, and we can help you nurture them and complement them by bringing in facilitators, researchers, technical expertise and the necessary experience to help you produce great services. \nGet in touch", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8002640604972839}
+{"content": "Leverage your team projects for talent development\n\nLeverage your team projects for talent development\n\nLast week, I listened to the familiar laments of bright and dynamic professional I know. Working for a global consulting firm, he joins a new project team every 3 to 6 months. Eager to have steady career progression, he is usually left on his own to grow his skills. He asked me if it is reasonable to expect his pressured manager to be more deliberate in giving him opportunities to grow.\n\nHaving met and worked with scores of development-oriented managers, my answer is yes, some managers purposely engineer development for their team, right into the project. These smart team managers aren’t necessarily altruistic; they have a lot to gain. They become talent magnets for high performing employees who feed a cycle of more development and greater performance. One such manager told me “Team projects have got to be the best opportunity to grow the greatest number of people all at once. Plus, learning together is always more engaging than learning individually.”\n\nWhat does this seasoned manager know that others do not? Here are 4 steps to be used during the flow of projects to develop an entire team, all at once.\n\n1. Before the project begins, staff the project for maximum development possibilities\nResist the temptation to build a team of deep specialists who can crank the work out at warp speed (which is not so interesting for them). Instead, gear it for maximum results along with maximum development; team members will be grateful and come back for more. Take the time to know each team player’s talents and mix their skills sets (e.g., technical and interpersonal). One seasoned manager told me she always builds in multiple disciplines and tells people to get out of their silos and problem solve together. She said “Learning together is extremely powerful– but it takes the manager to set it up and set the expectations.”\n\n2. Launch the project with the requirement for development\nGreat project managers like you set the team up properly with mission, goals, targets, monitoring and decision-making authority. And if you are developmentally focused, you also require team members to grow their skills, as well as help others to do the same. Given the project deliverables, have team members come to a launch meeting prepared to articulate what they will contribute, where they hope to develop, and how they can help others grow. It will be a collaborative effort on all fronts. Then, embed development goals into the project metrics.\n\n3. Once the team is up and running, demonstrate your ongoing interest in development\nConsider these developmentally focused actions:\n- Monitor the amount of development taking place, and re-balance the assignments and players to provide efficiency in accruing results and development simultaneously.\n- Add complexities into the assignments that truly challenge the team to expand perspective and use new approaches.\n- Set up space and time (i.e., at staff meetings, brown bag lunches) for team members to ask for advice on their challenges and to share what is working particularly well.\n- Use pulse surveys to ask about additional resources they need, and what they are doing to help others grow.\n- Substitute stating observations with the use of targeted questions which are focused on more expansive thinking and deliberate actions (e.g., “What’s the proof you have properly calibrated this deliverable to have lasting impact for the client?” )\n\n4. At the close of the project, debrief for both business results and development accomplishments\nHave team members come prepared with their best insights about what transpired for the client, the team, and for themselves. Ask about their most exciting learning and how that will lead to their improved performance in the future. Discuss ways to embed their learning into improved team approaches for the next team assignment.\n\nSo, does your reputation for project management entice team members with the possibility for lots of development? Make your project effort the place to be, where high performing team members are excited about the work and their colleagues, and thrilled to be growing everyday while they deliver results.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9912013411521912}
+{"content": "Yeah, it is a form of resistance\n\n\nI’ve been making a few tweaks to older posts, changing units of measure from English to metric.\n\nI have never understood why the metric system failed to take root in the US. It’s logical. It’s the international standard. We are not so special that we should have our own system of measurements. Even England abandoned the English measures years ago.\n\nIt seems desperately important to me to embrace the metric system at the moment. Under the current regime, the US is hell-bent on becoming more insular, more dumbed-down, and more out of touch with reality. No thanks.\n\nMost of my weaving equipment is metric to begin with, except for a couple of ’48/10′ reeds that I keep for weaving US patterns. I may ditch those in favor of proper 50/10 reeds, because so many US weaving patterns have mushy setts to begin with and could benefit from 2 more ends per cm.\n\nMetric reeds, for those who do not use them, are measured in ends per 10 cm. To convert to a US reed size, divide the first number by 4.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9918850064277649}
+{"content": "What is Pleurisy?\n\nPleurisy is an inflammation of the thin membranous tissue that covers the external part of the lungs. Disease may spread to the periphery of the lungs, and set up infection here. This may result in fluid being produced at the lung surface. This can accumulate between the lung and the walls of the thoracic cage, it is termed a pleural emission. If it becomes infected with other invaders, it may turn into pus and become emphysema. A pneumothorax develops if the tuberculosis ruptures into the pleura and air accumulates here, so forming a pocket of air. This can further reduce the capacity of the lungs, and produce its own set of symptoms. These complications are however seen much more rarely than in the past.\n\nA simple dry pleurisy usually has a sudden onset. A sharp, shooting pain, much like a stitch, occurs on the affected side. It is often described “as if a red-hot poker is being pushed through me.” The pain is usually aggravated by respiratory movements, particularly inspiration. Coughing can really seem to tear the body apart, and cause intense pain. Also, simple body movements can aggravate the pain. Breathing tends to become rapid and shallow, chiefly because respiratory movements amplify the discomfort. There may be a dry, nonproductive cough and a mild fever. If the pleura covering the diaphragmatic part of the lung are involved, the pain is usually referred to the shoulder or to the abdomen. In fact, pleurisy in this region has sometimes been incorrectly diagnosed as an acute disorder of the abdomen. The picture will be further complicated by the nature and extent of the underlying disease.\n\nIn many viral chest infections, symptoms there may be minimum and the pleurisy may be the chief point of discomfort. Often an effusion will follow on from the pleurisy, but this does not necessarily occur. Diagnosis is often fairly easy to make. However, the doctor may be intent on checking for any serious underlying chest disease, and so may order a chest X-ray to help. With a stethoscope, he or she may hear a typical “pleural rub” as the roughened pleural surfaces slide over each other. This is usually diagnostic of the complaint.\n\nPleurisy Causes\n\nThe most common cause of pleurisy is a lung infection such as pneumonia. Any type of pneumonia, whether it be viral, bacterial or due to aspirated foreign material, can rapidly lead to pleurisy. However, it may also occur in relation to other more severe conditions, such as lung cancer, pulmonary infarcts (a major blood vessel of the lung being clotted), pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchitis or usually any other serious lung disease.\n\nIt may also be produced by injuries to the lung wall and other external causes. Even a sudden “chill” or getting drenched in a rainstorm may precipitate an attack, as the body cools down and its defenses are temporarily reduced. Fibrin may exude from the blood, causing the adjacent sheets of visceral and parietal pleura to stick together. Later on this may persist in a thickening of the pleura which can be detected on X-ray examination.\n\nIn most cases of simple “dry pleurisy” the condition tends to resolve and become normal quite rapidly as the underlying disease is brought under control. However, it sometimes progresses through successive stages. These are given their own particular names.\n\nIf the lungs produce fluid and this is pushed into the space between the pleural layers, a “pleural effusion” is said to have taken place. In some conditions, bacterial infection of this fluid occurs and a mass of pus is produced. This is termed a “purulent pleurisy” or “emphysema”. These terms are largely textbook distinctions, for in reality they are merely progressive stages of the same general condition. Once more, it is pointed out that these complications, or advanced stages, are usually governed by the original cause and they will vary in accordance with the underlying basic cause for the initial effusion.\n\nPleurisy Symptoms\n\nPain is the usual symptom and is worse with deep breathing or coughing. Usually it affects one side, often at the lower part of the rib cage at the back or side. The pain may be noticed mostly in a shoulder or the abdomen. If severe, the person may breathe less deeply and there may be a grunting noise with expiration.\n\nPleurisy Treatment\n\nAs with any severe, sharp or stabbing chest pain, prompt medical advice is recommended. Antibiotics prescribed by the doctor will usually cut short the attack, but simple measures will help. Paracetamol elixir for children, or tablets for older ones, will reduce pain and fever. A cough linctus such as Pholcodine will reduce a cough, for coughing aggravates the pain and discomfort. Local heat may help, such as a hot water-bottle, but make certain you don’t burn junior’s skin! Most cases respond well to simple measures. If the child is obviously not responding rapidly, the doctor may suggest an X-ray examination. If there is any underlying cause, or fluid collection, appropriate treatment will be arranged.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8903982043266296}
+{"content": "If The Bucks Don’t Win The Finals, Giannis Is As Good As Gone\n\nPicture Giannis Antetokounmpo’s situation right now: Being the reigning NBA MVP, everyone expects a lot out of him. Currently, the Milwaukee Bucks are ranked first in the league with a 53-12 record, so that isn’t quite a problem. Yet.\n\nDue to an unfortunate left knee sprain on March 6th, Giannis exited the Bucks-Lakers game early — which contributed to their tenth loss of the season. The next two games following, the Greek Freak was out, and guess what else has been happening since? They have began to tank. Why? Because the Greek Freak has been carrying the team, and without him the Bucks are just an average team in the East with a few good shooters.\n\nBut even when he has played with Milwaukee, the team hasn’t been able to make the Finals. Last season, the Toronto Raptors beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals in six games. Or like how in 2018, they were knocked out of the playoffs after a seven-game series in the first round by the Boston Celtics. Boston was the team that faced LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers squad in the Eastern Conference Finals that year. Or like how they also lost to the Raptors in the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs. He has got to be sick of losing.\n\nHistory has shown that if the best player in the league can’t win a championship with their team, they are likely to move: Just like when LeBron went to the Miami Heat or when Kevin Durant joined the Warriors. Giannis could be thinking the same thing.\n\nThat said, this NBA shutdown could actually help the Bucks keep Giannis possibly for one more year. If the Bucks lose this year again, then he might think that it was because of the overall league inconsistency due to the Coronavirus — because everyone is at home, each player grows more inconsistent. This makes it even harder to determine what team truly is the best because everyone is off. Only luck can win games at that point. This might not be the case, but it could give Giannis another reason to stay in Milwaukee for another year after his contract expires.\n\nThe reason why the idea of Giannis moving teams is so relevant is because his contract expires after the end of the 2019-2020 NBA Season. Currently, he is on the fourth and final year of his $100,000,000 contract with the Bucks. After it expires, he has two options: Stay in Milwaukee and sign a 5-year, $253 million contract extension with the Bucks, or opt out to become a free agent — where he would make less money. But as many NBA players have said before, money can’t buy championships. And quite frankly, any amount of money seems to not give as much of a thrill for a player than for them to write their name in the history books with an NBA Finals win.\n\nSo for the Bucks’ sake, they better win this year’s NBA Championship, because if not, Giannis will most-likely be on the move.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9725458025932312}
+{"content": "What Are the Odds?\n\n2020M92 min\n\nWhen two unlikely friends play hooky from school, accidental encounters and otherworldly events turn their day into a whimsical coming-of-age journey.\n\nGenres:Comedies, Dramas, Independent Movies\n\nDirector:Megha Ramaswamy\n\nCast:Yashaswini Dayama, Karanvir Malhotra, Abhay Deol, Priyanka Bose, Monica Dogra, Sulabha Arya, Manu Rishi Chadha, Ananya Melkote\n\nProduction Country:India\n\n What are the Odds? (2019) on IMDb\n\nClick to Rate:\n\nAdded to Netflix:May 20, 2020\n\nSimilar Titles\n\n\nRecently Viewed", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8062686324119568}
+{"content": "Using Chyrons Instead Of Biometrics To Catalog Expert Commentary On Television News\n\nA key societal question involves just who all of the experts are that television news stations are turning to during events like Covid-19 or other major world events. Given that many stations typically have a standing set of well-known experts they turn to regularly, facial recognition is often cited as a quick way to inventory who's speaking on the news by using external commercial celebrity facial recognition APIs to scan through footage for well-known commentators, especially a network's own personalities. Despite their potential ease of use, such tools pose vast privacy and ethical concerns and during events like Covid-19 their utility would likely be much diminished as networks turn to a vast new cast of commentators, many of whom are unlikely to appear in facial databases.\n\nInstead, chyrons offer a non-biometric approach to tracking expert commentary that leverages the fact that television news stations typically display the name, title and affiliation of interviewees in the chyron text towards the bottom \"lower third\" of the screen during the entire or majority of the time the person is on-air.\n\nFor example, take Dr. Darria Long, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, which CNN has turned to regularly over the past month. A search of closed captioning yields just 7 mentions of her name spoken out loud, several of them misspelled by the transcriptionist. In contrast, scanning the complete onscreen text of CNN since Jan. 25 yields 1,099 seconds of airtime in which her name appeared, reflecting appearances in a range of settings.\n\nSimilarly, Dr. Jonathan Iralu does not appear at all in the closed captioning for CNN since the start of this year. In contrast, onscreen OCR picks up 40 seconds of airtime in which his name appeared, most of which his face was covered by a mask, which would render most commercial biometric APIs unable to identify him.\n\nPutting this all together, chyrons offer a powerful mechanism for cataloging the myriad onscreen experts interviewed on television news and better understanding who networks turn to to inform their viewers.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7526190280914307}
+{"content": "Around The Farm: One Sassy Sunflower\n\nStop and smell that sunflower…it has a lovely fragrance!\n\nThere’s a volunteer sunflower growing close to the duck coop. It was probably a stray seed that the fowl missed, a seed that luckily landed in the damp soil where it wasn’t spotted and then germinated. This sunflower turns its face to the sun in the morning, as if to greet the new day. I like sunflowers, and I especially like the ones that just pop up (seemingly) out of nowhere.\n\nI once had a patch of volunteer sunflowers grow in an area where a chicken tractor had been. It was such fun watching the plants grow, completely on their own – you have to marvel at their resilience. These plants put out really interesting flowers: some were the typical single flower heads, but others had multiple small heads. We mowed carefully around them to ensure that they weren’t damaged.\n\nUnfortunately, the fowl had other ideas; the ducks, in particular, began to eat the sunflowers before the seeds could ripen. They, along with the chickens, ate the stalks and leaves, and finally decimated the heads. They did the same thing to volunteer oats that had also grown from treats the fowl had missed. Clearly, edible volunteers aren’t safe around the fowl.\n\nThis sunflower is partially protected by avian netting, so I think it has a good chance of producing mature seeds…and then, the cycle can begin again. Those fowl have sharp eyes, though, and I won’t be entirely surprised if they figure out a way to get to this sunflower. In the meantime, though, I’ll enjoy its cheery countenance. With some luck, this may morph into a “farm foraging” (harvesting?) post someday.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9549939036369324}
+{"content": "Howard Beach II\n\nFeel the magic atmosphere of a city apartment!\n\nDo you think a well-designed apartment always implies a lot of money spent on its renovation and interior decoration? Not always. As a rule, the main expenses are caused by purchasing finishing materials and interior items, but much also depends on the talent and experience of designers, and the apartment outlined below is a clear confirmation of this.\n\nThanks to Grandeur Hills Group interior designers this ordinary apartment, located in New York City, NY, has turned into one of the jewels of the city, and the cost of the interior design did not exceed the agreed budget.\n\nIn spite of the small windows, the apartment is filled with light, thanks to both high-quality mounted lighting and light colors in which all the rooms of the apartment are decorated.\n\nIt looks like you are in a magical winter wood, where all the branches of trees are covered with hoarfrost. The air is clean and fresh. Nothing interferes with your solitude and relaxation.\n\nThe ceilings and walls are white and the floor is brown. As spectacular decorative elements the abstract paintings on the walls contrast with a variety of furniture pieces. The rooms don’t look spacious, but emit that particular warmth people value most.\n\nThe floors and furniture sparkle, creating a magical atmosphere in all the rooms. Due to the convenient arrangement of furniture, the rooms have enough free space.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9986280798912048}
+{"content": "Believe In God But Not Religion?\n\n\nDo agnostics believe in God?\n\n\nWhat does it mean to be spiritual but not religious?\n\n“Spiritual but not religious” (SBNR), also known as “Spiritual but not affiliated” (SBNA), is a popular phrase and initialism used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth.\n\nWhat religion believes in God only?\n\nThe concept of ethical monotheism, which holds that morality stems from God alone and that its laws are unchanging, first occurred in Judaism, but is now a core tenet of most modern monotheistic religions, including Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Baháʼí Faith.\n\nHow is Deism different from Christianity?\n\nChristian deists reject these ideas as products of human hatred and a failure to recognize God’s natural laws of love for others. Christian deists consider themselves to be disciples, or students, of Jesus because Jesus taught the natural laws of God. But Christian deists believe that Jesus was only human.\n\nIs an agnostic the same as an atheist?\n\n\nWhat is the atheist symbol?\n\nThe atomic whirl is the logo of the American Atheists, and has come to be used as a symbol of atheism in general as some American Atheist members claim.\n\nWhat is it called when you believe in God but don’t go to church?\n\n\nWhat religions do not believe in afterlife?\n\nJehovah’s Witnesses. Jehovah’s Witnesses occasionally use terms such as “afterlife” to refer to any hope for the dead, but they understand Ecclesiastes 9:5 to preclude belief in an immortal soul. Individuals judged by God to be wicked, such as in the Great Flood or at Armageddon, are given no hope of an afterlife.\n\nWhat are the spiritual religions?\n\nReligious symbols in clock-wise order from top: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá’í Faith, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Slavic neopaganism, Celtic polytheism, Heathenism (Germanic paganism), Semitic neopaganism, Wicca, Kemetism (Egyptian paganism), Hellenism (Greek paganism), Italo-Roman neopaganism.\n\nWhat’s the oldest religion on earth?\n\nThe Upanishads (Vedic texts) were composed, containing the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The Greek Dark Age began. The Olmecs built the earliest pyramids and temples in Central America. The life of Parshvanatha, 23rd Tirthankara of Jainism.\n\nWhich country has no religion?\n\nThe WIN-Gallup International Association (WIN/GIA) poll results below are the totals for “not a religious person” and “a convinced atheist” combined.\n\nWe recommend reading: The Chief End Of Man Is To Glorify God And Enjoy Him Forever?\n\nCountries and regions.\n\nCountry or region China (details)\nWIN/GIA (2017) 90%\nWIN/GIA (2015) 90%\nWIN/GIA (2012) 77%\nDentsu (2006) 93%\n\n98 more columns\n\nWhich religion is the best?\n\nAdherents in 2020\n\nReligion Adherents Percentage\nChristianity 2.3 billion 29%\nIslam 1.9 billion 24%\nSecular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist 1.1 billion 14%\nHinduism 1.1 billion 14%\n\n18 more rows", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999036967754364}
+{"content": "How To: Create a Backup Repository using Veeam\n\nA backup repository is a location used by Veeam Backup & Replication jobs to store backup files. This will be where the Veeam local backup images will stored.\n\nTo create a backup repository:\n\n 1. Open Veeam Backup and Replication Console\n 2. On the bottom left hand side, select Backup Infrastructure\n 3. On the top left, underneath Backup Infrastructure, select the Backup Repositories option:\n 4. Add Repository on the top left hand side. This will open a Backup Repository Creation Wizard.\n 5. Start by choosing the name that you’d like to name your repository. For the purpose of this guide, the name will be “Local Backup Storage”:\n\n\n 6. Select the type of backups. The two most commonly chosen are:\n\n • Microsoft Windows Server – For local or attached hard drives.\n • Shared Folder – For UNC paths\n\n Note: This guide will be using an internal storage for demonstration. Due to this, we’ll be selecting Microsoft Windows Server. If you used an alternative backup type, the subsequent dialogue will be different.\n 7. Select the repository server. To view available hard drives, click “Populate”.\n 8. Choose the folder location for where you would like the backup images to be stored.\n You can further modify the number of concurrent tasks and limit the read/write speed. In most scenarios, the default is acceptable.\n 9. Choose the mount server that will be used for restores. This can be set to localhost or another machine on the network. For most scenarios, the local machine is acceptable.\n During the restore process, Veeam Backup & Replication will mount the disks from the backup file residing on the backup repository to the mount server. As a result, data will not have travel over the network, which will reduce the load on the network and speed up the restore process.\n 10. Review the settings and apply.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8212459087371826}
+{"content": "So How Do You Keep Score?\n\nI see you. I see your look of skepticism. Quizzically reading last week’s column. Wondering, “OK, mister smarty-pants, if you don’t like KPIs, just how do you measure success?” I also heard some muttering about, “That’s all well and good for you, but some of us live in the real world, and have bosses that demand measurable results.”\n\nI get it. We live in a rational world. There are bosses and organizations that demand proof. That want to see results. That want to know, clearly and unequivocally, that a change—if made—will lead to specific, concrete and measurable outcomes.\n\nThat’s not to say that the world is actually rational, or behaves in a way that even approximates rationality. But people want to impose measurability and conformity nonetheless, and preferably to two decimal points.\n\nThis was the point of last week’s discussion. Those who use terms like “KPI” are specifically those people that want cold, hard numbers. Who want proof. Who want solid, incontrovertible evidence that changes deliver results, and that have concrete specifics of what those results were.\n\nThe challenge is that measuring outcomes is hard. Very frequently—particularly on initiatives that matter—it’s impossible. That’s not something that those on the KPI bandwagon like to hear, but it’s still true.\n\nThis of course leads us back to the question that started the whole discussion: how do you demonstrate results, when you can’t accurately measure them? Recognizing that most of us are still obliged to do something, this is my very best effort to provide some meaningful guidance on strategies that may work.\n\nTo start, let’s go back to the example I shared last week. The initiative in question had as its primary goal the transformation of the culture within an organization. Specifically, it was to help staff be more collaborative, consultative and client-service focussed. It was to help them become consultants to their clients, getting beneath surface requests to understand the real problems and needs, and figure out how to deliver solutions in a way that allowed problems to stay solved.\n\nThat’s no small order. There is a lot of work and a lot of evolution and adoption required if an initiative like that is going to be successful. This isn’t just a change in process and approach. It is also a shift in attitude. It is a developing of skills. It is a building of awareness. And it is a change in behaviours and mindset. Done successfully, that means that a change in operating mode within the organization is completely internalized by staff. They view the new approach as normal. By the end—done well—they would have a difficult time imagining a time when they didn’t work that way.\n\nSo how do you measure something where—almost by definition—demonstration of success is that you don’t realize a change actually happened? This is the very real challenge that many of us face with our change initiatives. And it leads to my first rule of measurement: the more important something is, the harder it is to measure it well.\n\nIf we unpack what we are trying to do with this initiative, though, there are really three major forces at work. First, we led with trying to change the culture. That cultural shift is trying to adopt a more collaborative, consultative approach with clients. And it is trying to focus on better identifying client problems, and devising and implementing better solutions. Surely we can measure something in there, mightn’t we?\n\nWell, we can and we can’t. There are a lot of different ways to think about and assess culture, for example. There are assessment frameworks designed to evaluate a range of cultural behaviours. The challenge is focusing on which changes you are wanting to evaluate. Similar problems with client service, and even with problem solving. It’s the difficulty of getting to the specifics of what different needs to look like here.\n\nMore importantly, any of these measures is perceptual. You’re asking for an opinion. Every cultural assessment asks respondents for a subjective perspective of how they perceive the culture. And there are any number of unrelated factors that might influence how—in any given moment—people respond. We can measure client satisfaction, and how that changes over time. And we can measure degrees to which people perceive problems being solved, or the effectiveness of solutions. These measures are not objective, though; they are subjective opinions based on in-the-moment responses, and we don’t know what else is driving the response.\n\nThat’s not to say don’t use those measures, but it is to say be cautious about how you interpret them, and the meaning that you build in to the results. Because subjectivity is—well—subjective. We don’t know how much a given rating is a product of real satisfaction with what we’ve done, or other factors that might influence how we are being perceived. Our client might be having a really bad day—or a really good one. They might be trying to be nice, or to not rock the boat. They might philosophically approach ratings as “I’ll give you top marks until you do something wrong” or “you start at the bottom of the scale and build up as you impress me.” Give people an odd-numbered scale, and some people will sit on the fence. But if we start with a baseline of how an organization performs today, we can at least evaluate how those scores change. Subject to all the limitations I’ve already mentioned—and more.\n\nMoving beyond the subjectivity of the measures, there is another challenge that we have to solve. Specifically, if we’re measuring the impact of a particular initiative, there is the fundamental question of how we know any changes in performance are a result of the change we’ve made, or some other factor? And the short answer is, we don’t. Your measure might be as concrete and specific as profitability, and—directly measurable though that might be—just because that goes up doesn’t mean that the change you made was a success.\n\nPerformance can change for any number of reasons, not just the one that we are focussing on. In my client organization, for example, this isn’t the only initiative underway that is focussed on culture change, on improving the quality of service or on the effective delivery of solutions. So isolating impacts to any one initiative is nigh on impossible. You may see improvement, but what drove that increase could be the result of any number of changes. Or none of them.\n\nIn the face of challenges in measuring impact, what we often resort to is just tracking activity. How many calls did we answer? How many customers did we serve? How many widgets have we implemented? How many requests have we closed? How many people have participated in training? Given that action and behaviour is part of any change, some level of tracking might be useful. But this doesn’t tell us how well, or how effective or how responsive we were. So by all means track it, but we need to be careful about what we claim the activity to represent. Action and activity is not results and outcomes.\n\nAs we began this discussion, I noted that I was identifying strategies that may work. You will also have no doubt noted lots of conditional statements as I’ve discussed possible approaches. As much as this may look like dissembling and evasiveness, it’s a actually not. It’s once again acknowledgement that the right answer depends.\n\nWhat it depends on, in this case, is what you need to be able to demonstrate. Or, to take a slightly more cynical view, what you can get away with. And what I mean in both of those hot takes is that the required measurement approach largely relies upon the expectations of the executives you need to support. And that’s going to come down to two factors: their bias towards measures and KPIs, and the degree to which they feel vulnerable on the investment being considered.\n\nI have had executives sponsor initiatives where they know what is being done is complicated, difficult and fuzzy. Where they also know that it’s the right thing to do. And where their required proof was limited to a gut-level check that progress was being made and that things felt like they were on the right track. Which is by no means an indication that they were flakes, softies or AWOL sponsors. They passionately cared about what we were doing, they scrutinized and challenged and they kept close to the work being done. They just weren’t fussed about proving the value of the work, because they already knew and were convinced of the value of the work.\n\nI have also had executives that demand proof. They want measures. They challenge business case after scorecard, and demand reworking and readjustment of claims, promises and metrics until they are satisfied that they have exercised appropriate scrutiny and that they can trust that results will be delivered. They believe that the metrics they’ve insisted upon will demonstrate impact, highlight problems and guarantee results. I’ve built the business cases and suggested the metrics and done what I can do to get them to a comfort level. And once they’ve applied that scrutiny, they’ve often left the project alone and paid it little further attention.\n\nSpeaking personally, I’d rather work with the trusting client that keeps their nose in (scrutiny notwithstanding) than I would the hard-nosed numbers person that judges and then bails. And the reason for that is very simple: the executive that trusts but verifies is more honest about the opportunity, and more realistic about what’s required for success. They know that the initiative is important, but they also know that it needs their on-going support and attention if success is reasonably going to be possible.\n\nI can give you all the numbers in the world. I can design scorecards that will knock your socks off. I can devise metrics and measures to measure around just about anything. And I can do it to two decimal points of precision, and beyond. But I’d be lying if I pretended that the numbers told the full picture. They’re an approximation of the truth and a mere semblance of objective reality.\n\nWhat this all comes down to is a need to be clear about what matters. And what we can do to indicate whether we are seeing more or less of what we care about in terms of actual performance. That means that the metrics that we use don’t tell us the story. What they do instead is point to where we might look in order to discover the story. Where we see changes that we hoped for, we still need to follow up and verify if what is happening is what we want, and for the reasons we are hoping for. Where we aren’t seeing the results that we want, we need to look more closely and ask why. And when results shift and change over time, we need to avoid being overly confident that what is driving the change is the awesome work that we are doing.\n\nMeasures are indicators, and nothing more. Metrics can track and inform, but they can’t extrapolate and explain. Many things can be quantified, and those numbers can tell you how many, how long, how fast or how much. But the “so what” comes from understanding the story behind the numbers. For every indicator on every dashboard, there is an underlying story that needs to be explored of what’s really happening, what’s being hoped for, what’s being hidden and what’s being ignored.\n\nLeave a Comment", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8218262195587158}
+{"content": "Botswana is one of the most stable countries in Africa and on the top 10 safest countries to visit in the world. Tourism is well developed in Botswana, as a contrast to its neighbouring countries, and is somewhat distanced from crime across Africa. Most tourists visiting the country tend to go to Botswana’s main national parks.\n\nDisturbances are low as well, so traveling to Botswana is the best option for anyone wanting to visit Africa. The country is modern and developed, and the infrastructure works. You can even safely drink the tap water in the towns and cities, and you do not need protection against cholera or yellow fever.\n\nHIV/AIDS is a serious issue, but unless you fail to take the necessary precautions, there should be no unnecessary risks. Yet, the greatest danger to the tourist is wildlife and the risks of driving in the bush.\n\nNatural disasters are not a common occurrence in Botswana, and it seems to have few problems in this regard. Floods have occurred at Gaborone Dam, which represents the main water source for the city and comes with a risk of overflowing in the event of heavy rainfall upstream.\n\nThe country also experiences heatwaves which then correlates into droughts. Follow the news and current status in the country before planning your trip. If an incident does happen, seek shelter and immediately wait for rescuers to arrive.\n\n\n\nGaborone is the capital of Botswana and has the highest populated area in the country as well. Therefore, it will have the highest level of crime in the country. This should not discourage you but keep you vigilant for street crimes such as theft.\n\nMaun is the tourist capital of the country. Most people visiting the country can be found visiting Maun. Criminals do take advantage of tourists as they are unfamiliar with the surroundings.\n\nFrancistown is the second largest city in Botswana. Like any city worldwide, the more people, the more crime can happen. Be vigilant with your valuables and avoid travelling at night on your own accord.\n\nAlso, take care of your luggage as there have been reports of baggage theft at the airports.\n\n\n\nWhen travelling at night, always use a taxi from your hotel to and from bars or restaurants in the cities. Keep all your valuables safe and be aware of your surroundings and be vigilant for anyone watching you, particularly in crowded areas.\n\nBe careful when using your phone in public areas and avoid using it when in a crowded area. Do not let your credit card out of your sight and do not use ATMs at night or the ones situated in public streets. \n\nWhen visiting a game park, do not go close to the wild animals and follow your wildlife guard’s instructions. Avoid swimming in rivers and lakes, due to the dangers from both wildlife and water-borne diseases.\n\n\n\nIf you travel to remote areas, plan your trip ahead of time and make the travel and accommodation arrangements in advance. Take emergency supplies (including water and fuel) and be prepared for off-road driving conditions. In extremely remote areas, travel in a group or with a satellite phone in case of a breakdown.\n\nThere are limited options in Botswana when it comes to public transport. The main cities do have public transport which is mostly minivan taxis that seat about 16 passengers. These taxis travel along permanent routes and are easily hailed. Buses are the popular transport alternatives in Botswana when it comes to travelling between cities.\n\nMost tourists to Botswana choose to rent a car and drive themselves around. Tourists may drive on an international driver’s permit and their valid home country licence for up to three months. Road conditions in Botswana are good and the roads are well maintained. The speed limit is 120 km/h (74mp/h) on highways, and 60 km/h (37mp/h) in built up areas and towns.\n\nSome Botswana roads do still have problems. There are erratic drivers and bad signage. The biggest problem is domestic and wildlife animals on the roads. During the rainy season, dirt roads can be disastrous, and it is advised never to drive on these roads at night. \n\n\n\nFollow the rules of the road and drive defensively. Do not assume that other drivers will do what they are supposed to do.\n\n• Only overtake when it is safe. Never overtake on a blind rise or where there is a solid white line.\n\n• Always check your blind spot before changing lanes, even when the road seems deserted.\n\n• Stay alert and keep an eye on what’s happening around you.\n\n• Always be prepared for emergencies. Carry an emergency kit with items that will come in handy if you’re stranded on the side of the road or involved in a vehicle accident.\n\n• Watch out for potentially dangerous drivers and pedestrians walking along the road.\n\n• Be on the lookout for obstructions like potholes or animals which may stray into the road especially at night. It is best to avoid driving at night.\n\n\n\nTaking photographs or using video equipment near military and government installations is prohibited. Always ask permission before taking photographs of people in Botswana.\n\nHowever, Botswana is the ultimate place to test your wildlife photography skills. Remember to take some insect repellent and extra batteries as you do not want to lose that priceless shot. Make sure you do not wander off too far from your tour group.\n\nAlso keep a garbage bag or anything else you can use to cover your equipment in the event of unexpected downpours.\n\n\n\nThere can be police and veterinary roadblocks which consists of bureaucracy and bored stiff officials, but corruption is rare. At these incidents, you can land up unpacking your luggage for inspection at checkpoints. \n\nThe Botswana Defence Force take their duties seriously and it is better to abide. Avoid the State House, the official presidential residence in Gaborone, especially at night.\n\nDon’t allow your passport to expire whilst staying in Botswana.\n\nIt is illegal to buy, sell, kill or capture any protected wild animal or trade its parts. Those caught hunting, purchasing or trafficking such goods will be prosecuted and sentences if found guilty can be extremely severe.\n\nChristianity is the main belief system in Botswana, with well over 60 percent of the population. It was brought over by David Livingstone in the middle 19th century who converted Chief of Bakwena to Christianity. The foremost denominations are - Roman Catholic, Anglican, Zion, Lutheran and Methodist Christian Church.\n\n\n\nHomosexuality is no longer prohibited by law, but public outlooks are less accepting than in other Western countries and public displays of affection could attract negative attention.\n\n\n\nDrug taking and smuggling is a serious offence. The punishments can be severe with long prison term sentences. Do not offer to carry a package from an unknown of suspicious source in your luggage as you risk being used as a drug mule.\n\n\n\nProhibited Goods\n\n\n\n• Military firearms, ammunition and explosives\n\n\nThe following articles and consumables which are duty free are:\n\n Wines - 2 litres\n\n Spirits and other alcoholic beverages - 1 litre\n\n Cigarettes - 200\n\n Cigars - 20\n\n Cigarette or pipe tobacco - 250 grams\n\n Perfume - 50 ml\n\n Toilet water - 250 ml\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe government healthcare system in Botswana is predominant throughout the country. Private healthcare facilities are far better equipped with medical equipment, so it is advised to have medical insurance for your trip.\n\nIt is always recommended that you make use of travel insurance and medical aid services supplied by your provider at home, which will ensure that you can benefit from treatment in the private medical facilities in Botswana. Private healthcare providers are geared towards catering for tourism and provide a good service.\n\n\n\nThe CDC and World Health Organization recommend the following vaccinations for Botswana: hepatitis A, hepatitis B, typhoid, yellow fever, rabies, meningitis, polio, measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis), chickenpox, shingles, pneumonia and influenza.\n\nMeasles is in many countries and outbreaks of the disease are occurring around the world. Before you travel, regardless of where you are going, make sure you are protected fully against measles.\n\nThere is also a high risk for Malaria is in central and northern Botswana and there is a lower risk in the rest of the country. The highest risk of transition is in the rainy season, from November to June. If travelling to these areas, it is best to get anti-malaria medication for your trip. Insect repellent is also highly advised.\n\n\n\nMalaria, caused by the Plasmodium parasite, is spread by the female Anopheles mosquito. This mosquito does not hum and does not create a welt at the site of the bite, so a person does not know if they have been bitten. This preventable disease affects approximately 216 million people worldwide and kills 445,000 people, mostly children.\n\n\n\nThe tap water is relatively safe in the main cities of the country. You can get typhoid through contaminated food or water in Botswana. The CDC recommends a vaccine for most travellers, especially if you are visiting smaller cities or rural areas, or if you are an adventurous eater.\n\nThoroughly cooked hot foods can be eaten as it will mean most infections can be avoided. Raw fruits can be eaten only if they have an unbroken skin and are peeled. Raw vegetables and salads should be avoided due to contamination.\n\nIf food has been left out of a refrigerator for longer than an hour especially eggs, chicken and dairy do not consume them.\n\n\n\nDo not touch stray, domestic and wild animals in Botswana. Rabies can be found in dogs, bats, and other mammals in Botswana, so the CDC recommends a Rabies vaccine. Tourists involved in outdoor and other activities (such as camping, hiking, biking, adventure travel, and caving) that put them at risk for animal bites.\n\n\n\nForeign women have not been targeted in the country. So, is Botswana safe for solo women travellers? It appears to be so. The threat for women is the same in western countries.\n\nIt is advised to never go unaccompanied after dark. Single women in nightclubs or bars should be vigilant and aware of their surroundings and what you are consuming. Women should be careful not stay out too late at night.\n\nBotswana is one of the few African countries that it is safe for children to visit. Travelling with your child in Botswana should not have many problems. Children should remain within your sight at all times, especially when you are travelling.\n\n\n\nMoAfrika Tours is a leading tour operator in South Africa that offers an outstanding selection of tours to Botswana. We have a close association with the most reputable tour operators in Botswana who make safety a priority.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9518929123878479}
+{"content": "Motion nature projection reduces patient's psycho-physiological anxiety during CT imaging.\n\nOnderzoeksoutput: ArticleAcademicpeer review\n\n\nA growing body of evidence indicates that natural environments can positively influence people. This study investigated whether the use of motion nature projection in computed tomography (CT) imaging rooms is effective in mitigating psycho-physiological anxiety (vs. no intervention) using a quasirandomized experiment (N ¼ 97). Perceived anxiety and pleasantness of the room were measured using a questionnaire, and physiological arousal was measured using a patient monitor system. A mediation analysis showed that motion nature projection had a negative indirect effect on perceived anxiety\nthrough a higher level of perceived pleasantness of the room. A linear-mixed-model showed that heart rate and diastolic blood pressure were lower when motion nature was projected. In conclusion, by creating a more pleasant imaging room through motion nature projection, hospitals can indirectly reduce patient's psycho-physiological anxiety (vs. no image projection) during a CT scan.\nOriginele taal-2English\nPagina's (van-tot)168-176\nTijdschriftJournal of environmental psychology\nStatusPublished - 2017\n\n\n\n • psychologie\n • ziekenhuispatiënten\n\nCiteer dit", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5446068644523621}
+{"content": "CrowdWiz (WIZ) Price, Market Cap and live charts\n\n\n$0.00360000 0 %\n1,847 # 0.00 %0.00 %0.00 %\n\nMarket Cap\n\n\n24h Volume\n\n\nCirculating Supply\n\nWIZ 4,300,515.816\n\nMax Supply\n\n\nWhat is CrowdWiz Coin price now?\n\nCrowdWiz is at $0.00360000 with a 24-hour trading volume of $0.00. The price has lowered by (0 %) in the last 24 hours.\n\nWhat is the circulating/maximum supply of CrowdWiz Coin?\n\nCrowdWiz Coin has a current circulating supply of WIZ 4,300,515.816. The total maximum supply of CrowdWiz is WIZ .\n\nWhat is the most active exchange for CrowdWiz Coin ?\n\nCrowdWiz Coin can be traded on HitBTC and HitBTC cryptocurrency exchanges", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.951287567615509}
+{"content": "Which is best for me - Mixed Recyclables or individual bins for each stream?\n\nMore and more of our customers are asking us this, and the answer is more complex than you'd think. Let's start by looking at what each option means.\n\nMixed recyclables - also known as co-mingled or commingled recycling, this is everything you can recycle thrown into the same bin.\n\nSource-separated streams - each recyclable is collected individually and stays separated all the way through the recycling process.\n\nSegregated recycling collection is proven to have much lower contamination rates than commingled - in UK materials recycling facilities (MRFs) that handle mixed collections, the rate of wastage can be up to 15 per cent, compared to less than 1 per cent for source separated schemes. Recycling collections are typical compacted after collection, which can make separating some materials impossible.\n\nMixed Recyclables bins are an excellent choice where space is at a premium, and that 85 per cent recycling rate is higher than you would see with no recycling bins at all. Remember that to minimise contamination, we would always recommend using a general waste bin in partnership with the mixed recycling container - we sell a wide range of co-ordinating products in sizes from 30-1280 litres, so there's a bin at Glasdon for all locations.\n\nIf you're considering mixed recycling, be sure to check with your service provider first as many waste management companies may have concerns about post-collection separating.\n\nIf you'd prefer source separated, but still have concerns about floor space in your workplace, here's a couple of tips:\n\nMulti-stream bins offer the space-saving style of a mixed recycling container but keep two (or three) different recycling streams separated within the bin. An attractive bin like Nexus 100 Duo or Envoy Duo can be specced to collect any two recycling streams - we sell a number of popular configurations here on our website, but we can personalise your bin to recycle (almost) anything.\n\nCentral recycling points are a great way to collect large amounts of recycling without installing (and emptying) dozens or hundreds of bins. You'd be surprised where you have space in corridors or near communal areas for a bank of larger units like the Nexus 140 Recycling Bin.\n\nMonday, July 2, 2012\n\n Relevant Questions\n\nGuide to Fixings for Litter and Recycling Bins\nWhat are the benefits of office recycling?\n\n Recent Questions\n\nPrioritise Safety, with FOD Bins by Glasdon\nThe Glasdon Guide to Specifying Cycle Parking\nThe Benefits of Battery Recycling\nView All\n\n This may also interest you..\n\nOutdoor Recycling is Evolving\nChoc-full of Glasdon Recycling Containers at Cadbury World\nUnderstanding Plastic to Respect the Earth\nView All\nScotland Excel CPC NWUPC\nPrompt Payment Code Approved Signatory", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8260334730148315}
+{"content": "Denture Relines\n\n\nHard Denture Reline\n\nAll full dentures should have a hard reline every two years. We will remove a layer of acrylic from the dentures interior surface, and then fill the denture with a putty-like material which conforms to the contours of your mouth creating an accurate impression. The denture is then sent to our dental lab where it is adjusted to the new shape of your gum tissue. This results in maximum contact between the denture and your mouth.\n\nSoft Denture Reline\n\nSome patients are unable to wear ordinary dentures because of tender gums or sore spots. We may recommend relining the denture with a material that stays pliable for one to two years before needing replacement. This material is much less likely to give the patient sore spots than the standard hard acrylic reline. \n\nTemporary Relines\n\n\nA temporary, or palliative (medicated) reline material may be recommended to allow the inflammation to subside. This reline makes the denture fit much more tightly, and is usually soft and pliable. After a few weeks, the gums return to a normal state. The patient is then ready for their new denture or hard reline.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6192523241043091}
+{"content": "Use coupon code TOP15 on all courses\n\n\nStatic Gk Quiz for SBI 2018 - Part 31\n\nStatic Gk Quiz for SBI 2018 - Part 31\n\nQuestion 1.\n\nGair is a type of folk dance famous in which state of India? \nA. Gujarat\nB. Rajasthan\nC. Punjab\nB. Bihar\nAns: B\n\nQuestion 2.\n\nWorld food day is celebrated on? \nA. October 16\nB. October 15\nC. November 16\nD. November 15\nAns: A\n\nQuestion 3.\n\nGaruda shakti is the joint exercise between India and which of the following country \nA. Sri Lanka\nB. Indonesia\nC. Japan\nD. Singapore\nAns: B\n\nQuestion 4.\n\nwhich city in India is called as 'city of weavers'? \nA. Prayag\nB. Panipet\nC. Jamshedpur\nD. Varanasi\nAns: B\n\nQuestion 5.\n\nNewlands stadium is located in which country? \nA. New-Zealand\nB. Netherland\nC. South Africa\nD. Thailand\nAns: C\n\nQuestion 6.\n\nThe book 'India 2017 Yearbook', compiled by Rajiv Mehrishi, was launched by the Chief Minister of which state? \nA. Gujarat\nB. Uttar Pradesh\nC. Bihar\nD. Rajasthan\nAns: D\n\nQuestion 7.\n\nWhat is the rank of India in world bank's ease of doing business ranking? \nB. 105\nC. 200\nD. 205\nAns: A\n\nStatic Gk Quiz for SBI 2018 - Part 30\n\nQuestion 8.\n\nRecently died Sukharanjan Sengupta belongs to which field? \nA. Veteran actor\nB. Eminent Hindi poet & Jnanpith awardee\nC. Veteran journalist\nD. Renowned Malayalam writer\nAns: C\n\nQuestion 9.\n\nPawan Kumar Chamling is the Chief Minister of which of the following Indian state? \nA. Sikkim\nB. Tripura\nC. Uttarakhand\nD. Himachal Pradesh\nAns: A\n\nQuestion 10.\n\nNameri National Park is in which state of India? \nA. Chattisgarh\nB. Assam\nC. Nagaland\nD. Himachal Pradesh\nAns: B\nJoin 40,000+ readers and get free notes in your email", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9559444785118103}
+{"content": "The 5 Best Gangster Documentaries on Netflix\n\nFans of old mafia and gangster films are not always aware that some of the best films in that genre are actually documentaries, especially if you have any historical interest in the events that produced such well known films as The Godfather or Goodfellas. Documentaries show the grittier realism of the real criminals and events in their lives. While certainly less glamorous, documentaries open the door to a whole new understanding of gangster and mafia culture, lifestyle, and what drove individuals to build the criminal enterprises they depended on to survive.\n\nAnd while biopics are one good way to get the background on individuals, they often glaze over less glamorous details and get the facts wrong, while documentaries are held to a higher standard in terms of getting the events reported correctly. Netflix has a strong backlog of documentaries about criminal enterprises, whether they be gangsters in England, or mafia leadership in the early years of America. Let’s take a look at some of the top instant streaming options for those fascinated by the history of organized crime.\n\n1. Cartel Land\n\nThe Mexican Cartel is known for being a ruthless, violent operation. It terrorizes citizens on both sides of the border, while the Mexican government leaves many small towns to fend for themselves. Cartel Land shows us the stunning true story of vigilantes rising up to battle the Cartel. These militias arm and protect their villages, and operate with a swift, merciless brutality to protect their homes. The documentary itself is a breathtaking affair, putting the filmmakers right in the middle of what amounts to a war zone. \n\n2. A Very British Gangster\n\nTake a dive into the lives of one of Britain’s major underworld families and its leader, Dominic Noonan, a large bald man who doesn’t quite admit to murder on camera, but who still has quite the creepy vibe. That’s perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of the documentary. Unlike other historical films, which depend a great deal on interviews from family or victims while utilizing stock footage from that era, this film features an interview with Noonan himself, who is generally quite involved in the telling of his story.\n\n3. Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger\n\nThis documentary takes an unfiltered look at one of America’s most notorious gangsters. For years, Whitey Bulger ruled Boston’s criminal underworld with impunity, thanks to his connections with the FBI. This is the man that Johnny Depp portrayed in 2015’s Black Mass.\n\n4. Crips and Bloods: Made in America\n\nThe conflict between the Crips and Bloods is one that’s become both infamous and iconic in American culture. The origins of this battle date all the way back to the late-’60s and early-’70s, and even today it rages on in the streets of Los Angeles. Crips and Bloods: Made in America tracks that history, explores its roots in our country’s latent institutional racism, and paints a picture of just how deep this rivalry goes.\n\n5. Cocaine Cowboys\n\nThis 2006 documentary film explores the rise of cocaine and the Miami Drug War, which spread through the city in the ’70s and ’80s. The film delves into interviews with law enforcement, journalists, lawyers, and gang members to provide viewers with a first-hand look at the drug war that ravaged Miami.\n\nThe film was directed by Billy Corben and produced by both Corben and Alfred Spellman.\n\nAdditional reporting by Nick Cannata-Bowman and Evie Carrick.\n\nCheck out Entertainment Cheat Sheet on Facebook!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9879860877990723}
+{"content": "June 26, 2019\n\nLiquidated damages in the Tanzanian construction industry\n\nAs the construction industry continues to develop in Tanzania, the use of international standard contracts has increased. In particular, we have seen the FIDIC (Fédération Internationale Des Ingénieurs-Conseils) standard form contracts used more frequently in this jurisdiction.\n\nTanzanian law only provides guidance in relation to LDs for contracts where one party is a governmental body.\n\nFor more information about the most recent FIDIC updates, please click here.\n\nIt is standard practice for most construction contracts, including FIDIC contracts, to contain a liquidated damages clause. As liquidated damages (LDs) provide for a pre-agreed rate of damages, payable to the employer by the contractor in the event of a contractor's delay in performing the work, the risk of delay for the employer is mitigated.\n\nLDs, as opposed to general damages, do not require the claimant to prove that the losses claimed have actually been suffered. As such, the contract will provide for a genuine and fixed pre-agreed estimate of loss. Often this is calculated based on the amount of loss that will be incurred on a daily basis if the work is not completed on time.\n\nIt is important to note that Tanzanian law only provides guidance in relation to LDs for contracts where one party is a governmental body. There is no statutory guidance for contractual LDs where both contracting entities are private parties. In Tanzania, LDs clauses in government contracts are included pursuant to section 77(4) of the Public Procurement Act 2011.\n\nGiven the frequency with which construction projects involve public entities in Tanzania, this note will predominantly focus on LDs in the context that a government counterparty exists within the contractual structure.\n\nAre LDs a necessity?\n\nPursuant to regulation 112 of the Public Procurement Regulations (the Regulations), Tanzanian law prescribes that the employer imposes on the \"tenderer\" LDs for \"undelivered materials or goods, undelivered or delayed services or delayed works\". Further, the Regulations imply a cap of LDs in the event that no such cap is pre-agreed in the contract.\n\nNotwithstanding the above, given the nature of construction projects and the tendency for delays to occur, employers should generally take a cautious approach and negotiate the inclusion of a LDs clause, thus decreasing the likelihood of dispute over payments for delayed works. LDs may also be beneficial to contractors as they provide an effective means to cap their liability for delay which can be priced into their bid before entering into a contract.\n\nOf course, if the employer and contractor are private entities, the inclusion and negotiation of LDs provisions is of particular significance, given that there is no underlying statute with maximum rates already provided upon which to rely on. As such, the importance of mitigating the risk of delay through the inclusion of LDs is heightened, particularly due to the often unequal bargaining positions between the parties.\n\nCan the contract stipulate a daily rate and an overall amount of damages?\n\nThe contract can stipulate a daily rate of LDs from between 0.10% to 0.15% of the contract value, per day, up to a sum equivalent to the amount of the performance guarantee.\n\nRegulation 112(3) of the Public Procurement Regulations further provides that, the maximum amount of the LDs shall be equal to the amount of the performance bond or guarantee established in the contract.\n\nCan the damages stipulated within the contract exceed those prescribed by the Regulations?\n\nWhilst the Regulations are not strictly authoritative on the amounts of LDs to be agreed, it is strongly advised that the LDs prescribed under the contract remain within the parameters set out by the Regulations. This will mitigate the risk of any successful challenge by the contractor should the LDs be disputed. Indeed, as indicated above, the Regulations prescribe limits on LDs in order to guard against overly punitive and excessive compensation.\n\nCan the amount stipulated in the contract be revised by a Court?\n\nPursuant to section 74(1) of the Law of Contract Act, a Court will have the discretion to revise the amount stipulated. This is despite the fact that no damage has been suffered. However, the damages awarded by the Court cannot exceed the amount prescribed in the contract. As such, whilst a Court cannot simply reject payment of LDs because no damage has occurred, it is bound by the confines of the contract and the amounts stipulated within it. Nonetheless, employers should be aware because this does mean that courts have the discretion to reduce LDs from the actual amount stipulated in the contract.\n\nPerformance LDs\n\nPerformance LDs are often included in construction contracts where the works involve a measurable output, for example a power plant. Performance LDs can be included as a means of compensation if a specified task is not done to the standard specified in the contract. Whilst not as common as LDs, which relate to delays, it is worth considering their inclusion into a construction contract, particularly if there are specific output, efficiency and availability requirements. Unlike LDs, no cap is specified for performance LDs under Tanzanian law.\n\nIn summary, LDs are fundamental to any well-structured construction contract. Whilst general damages will provide protection for actual loss suffered owing to delay, LDs provide an added layer of protection for the employer for loss that cannot be quantified. By contractually agreeing to a rate of damages prior to the contractor undertaking the works, employers are safeguarded against significant losses, and contractors have an understanding of how much they may owe the employer if they are in breach. LDs also serve the additional purpose of ensuring that the contractor completes the works fully in a timely manner.\n\nEnforceability of LDs\n\nThe principles outlined below are applicable in Tanzania given that Tanzania is a common law jurisdiction.\n\n • Penalty: the amount of LDs should be a genuine pre-estimate of the loss likely to be sustained by the employer. The English courts are beginning to move away from this principle and have recently held that LDs need not solely be a genuine pre-estimate of loss, but can reflect the wider commercial context of a transaction and seek to protect legitimate commercial interests. However, it is crucial to note that if the level of LDs is extravagant, exorbitant or unconscionable, then the courts are unlikely to enforce them.\n\n • Prevention Principle: if the employer prevents the contractor from completing the works on time then the courts may find that time has become 'at large' – this means the contractual completion date will fall away and the contractor is required to complete the works within a reasonable time. Along with the contractual completion date, the LDs provisions will also fall away.\n\n • Uncertainty: contractors may also argue that the scope of LDs clause is too uncertain in its meaning or effect to be enforceable, although in practice, courts are generally reluctant to find all or part of a contract void for uncertainty.\n\nCase in point – English Court of Appeal\n\nTriple Point Technology Inc v PTT Public Company Limited\n\nThis case examined what happens in respect of an LDs clause if the works are incomplete and the contract is terminated.\n\nThe facts:\n\nThe Contractor (Triple Point) was late in completing one of the phases of works. Triple Point demanded payment for the incomplete works. The Employer (PTT), holding that payment was subject to the fulfilment of milestones, refused to make payment. Triple Point suspended its works so PTT terminated the contract. PTT claimed LDs.\n\nThe decision:\n\nThe court followed earlier authorities, confirming that once the contract is terminated, the contractor is not under an obligation to complete the works. Therefore, LDs cannot apply.\n\nThis meant that PTT could only seek LDs for work that had already been completed as the contract had already been terminated.\n\nIn light of this decision, a belts and braces approach should be taken when drafting LDs clauses in order to ensure that if the party in question wants to guarantee that LDs apply in the event of termination or abandonment, they do not apply only when works are complete. As such, it would be sensible to factor in a number of different completion dates.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9804254770278931}
+{"content": "6 Steps to an Effective Post-Event Debrief\n\nHow to debrief\n\nTaking time to debrief an event reaps many benefits, even when it seems to have gone off without a hitch. There are always things that could be improved. Debriefing allows for gaining valuable feedback, streamlining your process, enhancing the attendee experience and further cementing relationships with sponsors, vendors and staff.\n\nStep 1: Set the Date\n\nA quality event debriefing starts before the event. The event manager should serve as the debriefing manager, responsible for scheduling the date and communicating it to the team early. Make it a debrief and celebration all in one. The idea of planning a mini-event after the main event may not be appealing, but it will be worth it.\n\nStep 2: Provide a Cheat Sheet\n\nSet your event team up for success by giving them the following four questions they’ll be asked, which come from “The Four Helpful Lists” created by Tom Paterson:\n\n> What went right?\n\n> What was wrong?\n\n> What was missing?\n\n> What was confusing?\n\nGiving them these on the front end is like giving them a study guide of answers that will be on a quiz. Now they can take notes throughout the event and be well-prepared for the debriefing.\n\nStep 3: Begin\n\nPeople like to hear the results of things they’ve worked on, so begin your debriefing with a presentation of the event itself. Show a video or a slideshow of photos and share final numbers on attendees, volunteers, funds generated, etc. If you gathered feedback from attendees in the form of a poll or survey, have those tallied and share any interesting findings. Tell a few exciting or moving stories about the event or open up the floor for team members to share.\n\nStep 4: Get Down to Business\n\nSpend the next 45 to 90 minutes taking your team though the aforementioned four questions. Make a column for each of the four lists on a large smartboard, whiteboard or flip chart and fill up each column. If the conversation stalls, tailor the responses to different areas of the event: registration, technology, budget, revenue goals, location, marketing, food and beverage, attendee experience and engagement, speakers, content, customer service, etc.\n\nStep 5: Narrow It Down\n\nPut an asterisk by topics others in the room agree with and then comb the columns for common themes. Cross out and draw arrows as needed. Now go through each column and circle issues you want to pay special attention to. The goal is to amplify the right, fix the wrong, clarify the confusing and add the missing.\n\nNow create a fifth column and label it “Core Issues.” Each core issue will have an action item assigned to a person with a deadline. The manager will need to stay in close contact with everyone assigned an action item, staying informed of the outcomes and making sure the deadlines are met. Save the list of core issues and use them for the preplanning of next year’s event to ensure the “rights” are repeated and the other three categories are improved.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6278622150421143}
+{"content": "traditional crafts\n\nIs it a grass? Is it a tree? No, it’s bamboo.\n\nBamboo is one of the most unbelievable plants that we have on this planet. Not only can it grow by almost 1 meter in a 24 hour period, it can also be used for a huge amount of things. Musical instruments, sports equipment, drainage pipes, building materials, toys, furniture, tools, cutlery, and the first ever lightbulbs to name just a few. And, it tastes great too!\n\nNot Just Arashiyama\n\nFor bamboo in Kyoto, most people will head straight for Arashiyama’s bamboo forest, and while not a bad place, it falls well short of what the Rakusai Bamboo Park can offer. Located in Rakusai New Town, the park was created by the late Dr. Koichiro Ueda (known around the world as Dr. Bamboo) and aims to inspire people to take a deeper interest in bamboo, and from my experience there, it really can deliver on this.\n\nAll about Bamboo\n\nAlthough quite compact, the public area of Rakusai Bamboo Park contains over 100 species of bamboo and a wealth of information about it in the adjoining museum. Highlights in the museum include Thomas Edison’s first light bulb, which was made using a thin bamboo filament grown in Yawata, Kyoto prefecture. Edison tested thousands of carbonised organic filaments before settling on bamboo and residents of Yawata are quite proud of this history. As such there is an ‘Edison Street’ as well as a monument to the inventor there.\n\nThe museum also provides details on how bamboo grows, and not wanting to spoil everything before your visit, some tidbits include that it grows as a colony, with individual branches only growing for the first sixty days of their ten year lifespan. For more information, please visit yourself! If Mr. Nishimura is present, he will be able to share a lifetime’s worth of knowledge and passion about bamboo.\n\nMr Nishimura is ready to explain all!\n\nNot to be overshadowed by the museum, the garden is also quite spectacular. As mentioned earlier there are over 100 varieties of bamboo within the grounds, and all can be seen up close while walking along the meandering paths and lawns. Some of the most memorable bamboo species for me include the kikio-chiku, tortoise shell bamboo, which was the result of a mutation and is only cultivated in Kyoto.\n\n\nKuro-chiku, black bamboo that looks like something out of a fantasy story.\n\n\nAnd Kinmei Mosumo, a beautiful green and golden striped bamboo designated a Natural monument by the government of Japan.\n\nKinmei Mosumo\n\nHistory too!\n\nThe garden also includes some impressive architectural features, including the Dodo bridge, a stone monument with a bloody history dating back more than 600 years. During the Onin War (1467-1477), two armies led by Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sôzen fought on either side of the bridge numerous times. The bridge was originally located over the Kokawa river, but when the waterway was filled in in the 1960’s, the bridge stones were relocated to several locations including The Bamboo park, as well as Muromachi elementary school.\n\nA large number of buddha statues can also be found in the garden, with a claim that they were originally part of the walls of Nijojo castle. They were discovered during the construction of Kyoto’s subway system, and were transported to Rakusai Bamboo Park for safe keeping.\n\nAll in all, the park is a great place to learn about bamboo, see some interesting monuments, and enjoy a lovely garden. It is also completely free! There are usually very few people there as well, making it a peaceful place to explore away from the crowds of Kyoto. The walk up to the park also goes through several active bamboo farms, giving you a chance to see farmers digging up shoots, or managing the plants depending on the season.\n\nAbout the locations in this article\n\nRakusai Bamboo Park (Rakusai Chikurin Koen)\n2-300-3 Ooe Kitafukunishi-cho, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto\nBooking / Inquiries\n\n\nA beautiful Kyoto building recommended by Englishman enthusiasts\nHarry Hammond\n\nHarry Hammond is an Englishman lost in Kyoto, with a passion for history and architecture. He loves finding the hidden stories and history behind both the famous and the unknown buildings that shape this beautiful city.\n\nRelated Tags", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5155631303787231}
+{"content": "ASTM-D6527 Standard Test Method for Determining Unsaturated and Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity in Porous Media by Steady-State Centrifugation (Withdrawn 2017)\n\nShow Complete Document History\n\nDocument Center Inc. is an authorized dealer of ASTM standards.\n\n\n\n1.1 This test method covers the determination of the hydraulic conductivity, or the permeability relative to water, of any porous medium in the laboratory, in particular, the hydraulic conductivity for water in subsurface materials, for example, soil, sediment, rock, concrete, and ceramic, either natural or artificial, especially in relatively impermeable materials or materials under highly unsaturated conditions. This test method covers determination of these properties using any form of steady-state centrifugation (SSC) in which fluid can be applied to a specimen with a constant flux or steady flow during centrifugation of the specimen. This test method only measures advective flow on core specimens in the laboratory.\n\n\n\nSignificance and Use\n\nRecent results have demonstrated that direct measurements of unsaturated transport parameters, for example, hydraulic conductivity, vapor diffusivity, retardation factors, thermal and electrical conductivities, and water potential, on subsurface materials and engineered systems are essential for defensible site characterization needs of performance assessment as well as restoration or disposal strategies. Predictive models require the transport properties of real systems that can be difficult to obtain over reasonable time periods using traditional methods. Using a SSC-UFA greatly decreases the time required to obtain direct measurements of hydraulic conductivity on unsaturated systems and relatively impermeable materials. Traditionally, long times are required to attain steady-state conditions and distributions of water because normal gravity does not provide a large enough driving force relative to the low conductivities that characterize highly unsaturated conditions or highly impermeable saturated systems (Test Method D5084). Pressure techniques sometimes can not be effective for measuring unsaturated transport properties because they do not provide a body force and cannot act on the entire specimen simultaneously unless the specimen is saturated or near-saturated. A body force is a force that acts on every point within the system independently of other forces or properties of the system. High pressures used on saturated systems often induce fracturing or grain rearrangements and cause compaction as a result of high-point stresses that are generated within the specimen. A SSC-UFA does not produce such high-point stresses.\n\nThere are specific advantages to using centrifugal force as a fluid driving force. It is a body force similar to gravity and, therefore, acts simultaneously over the entire system and independently of other driving forces, for example, gravity or matric potential. Additionally, in a SSC-UFA the acceleration can dominate any matric potential gradients as the Darcy driving force. The use of steady-state centrifugation to measure steady-state hydraulic conductivities has recently been demonstrated on various porous media (1,2).\n\nSeveral issues involving flow in an acceleration field have been raised and addressed by previous and current research (1,4). These studies have shown that compaction from acceleration is negligible for subsurface soils at or near their field densities. Bulk densities in these specimens have remained constant (±0.1 g/cm3) because the specimens are already compacted more than the acceleration can affect them. The notable exception is structured soils. Special arrangements must be made to preserve their densities, for example, the use of speeds not exceeding specific equivalent stresses. As an example, for most SSC-UFA specimen geometries, the equivalent pressure in the specimen at a rotation speed of 2500 rpm is about 2 bar. If the specimen significantly compacts under this pressure, a lower speed must be used. Usually, only very fine soils at dry bulk densities less than 1.2 g/cm3 are a problem. Whole rock, grout, ceramics, or other solids are completely unaffected by these accelerations. Precompaction runs up to the highest speed for that run are performed in the SSC-UFA prior to the run to observe any compaction effects.\n\nThree-dimensional deviations of the driving force as a function of position in the specimen are less than a factor of two. Theoretically, the situation under which unit gradient conditions are achieved in a SSC-UFA, in which the change in the matric potential with radial distance equals zero (dψ/dr = 0), is best at higher water flux densities, higher speeds, or coarser grain-size, or combination thereof. This is observed in potential gradient measurements in the normal operational range where dψ/dr = 0. The worst case occurs at the lowest water flux densities in the finest-grained materials (1).\n\nThere is no sidewall leakage problem in the SSC-UFA for soils. The centrifugal force maintains a good seal between the specimen and the wall. As the specimen desaturates, the increasing matric potential (which still operates in all directions although there is no potential gradient) keeps the water within the specimen, and the acceleration (not being a pressure) does not force water into any larger pore spaces such as along a wall. Therefore, capillary phenomena still hold in the SSC-UFA, a fact which is especially important for fractured or heterogeneous media (2). Cores of solid material such as rock or concrete, are cast in epoxy sleeves as their specimen holder, and this also prevents sidewall leakage.\n\nThe SSC-UFA can be used in conjunction with other methods that require precise fixing of the water content of a porous material. The SSC-UFA is used to achieve the steady-state water content in the specimen and other test methods are applied to investigate particular problems as a function of water content. This has been successful in determining diffusion coefficients, vapor diffusivity, electrical conductivity, monitoring the breakthrough of chemical species (retardation factor), pore water extraction, solids characterization, and other physical or chemical properties as functions of the water content (2,5).\n\nHydraulic conductivity can be very sensitive to the solution chemistry, especially when specimens contain expandable, or swelling, clay minerals. Water should be used that is appropriate to the situation, for example, groundwater from the site from which the specimen was obtained, or rainwater if an experiment is being performed to investigate infiltration of precipitation into a disposal site. Appropriate antimicrobial agents should be used to prevent microbial effects within the specimen, for example, clogging, but should be chosen with consideration of any important chemical issues in the system. A standard synthetic pore water solution, similar to the solution expected in the field, is useful when it is difficult to obtain field water. Distilled or deionized water is generally not useful unless the results are to be compared to other tests using similar water or is specified in pertinent test plans, ASTM test methods, or EPA procedures. Distilled water can dramatically affect the conductivity of soil and rock specimens that contain clay minerals, and can induce dissolution/precipitation within the specimen.\n\nThis test method establishes a dynamic system, and, as such, the steady-state water content is usually higher than that which is attained during a pressure plate or other equilibrium method that does not have flow into the specimen during operation. This is critical when using either type of data for modeling purposes. This test method does not measure water vapor transport or molecular diffusion of water, both of which become very significant at low conductivities, and may actually dominate when hydraulic conductivities drop much below 1010 cm/s.\n\nThe quality of the result produced by this test method depends upon the competence of the personnel performing it, and the suitability of the equipment and facilities used. Agencies that meet the criteria of Practice D3740 are generally considered capable of competent and objective testing and sampling. Users of this test method are cautioned that compliance with Practice D3740 does not in itself ensure reliable results. Reliable results depend on many factors; Practice D3740 provides a means of evaluating some of those factors.\n\n\ncentrifugation; flow; hydraulic conductivity; permeability; porosity; porous media; rock; SSC-UFA; soil; steady-state; transport; unsaturated; unsaturated flow apparatus; water flux density: Water flux density; Centrifugation; Ceramic materials/applications; Concrete; Hydraulic conductivity/transmissivity; Porous media/materials; Rock materials/properties/analysis; Saturated hydraulic conductivity; Sediment; Soil; Steady-state centrifugation (SSC); Subsurface investigation--soil/rock; Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity; ICS Number Code 07.060 (Geology. Meteorology. Hydrology)\n\nTo find similar documents by ASTM Volume:\n\n\nTo find similar documents by classification:\n\n07.060 (Geology. Meteorology. Hydrology)\n\n\nThis document is available in either Paper or PDF format.\n\nDocument Number\n\n\nRevision Level\n\n2000 R08 EDITION\n\n\n\nModification Type\n\n\nPublication Date\n\nOct. 1, 2008\n\nDocument Type\n\nTest Method\n\nPage Count\n\n10 pages\n\nCommittee Number", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8971351385116577}
+{"content": "A Series of Gothic Inspired Monotype Prints\n\nSkulls have always fascinated me, from my teenage years as a goth, to using them as subjects for learning anatomy of the human face. We all have one, the vessel which protects out brains and holds our faces in the proper place. Because human faces are so familiar to us, we try to make ‘faces’ in everything, making the skull an easy subject to abstract and stylise in a myriad of ways.\n\nThe Gothic series was started at a time when I felt I’d started to lose direction in my work and I noticed that Instagram was awash with projects based on 100 day art challenges and creative prompt months like Inktober and Drawlloween (running each October). My own exploration of skulls started as part of the Inktober group where I drew a skull for each of the themes during the month. The simple ink drawings I sketched then extended into my monotype printing work leading me to create larger and richly textured monotype prints on paper at The Glasgow print Studio. Some of these were then developed into mixed media pieces, where I added paint, pencil and ink to the original prints.\n\nMy love of skulls is not down to devil worship (as one of my more outspoken Instgram followers was convinced) or religious notions, but more of a celebration of our roots, our own physical structure and our very existence of being human. I also have a small obsession with Mexican Folk Art, where the ‘Calavera’, a decorated skull, is used to celebrate the lives of recently deceased loved ones through the celebration known as The Day of The Dead, which is another project I plan to develop once I can get to Mexico.\n\nThrough creating these Calavera type portraits , I hope to have caught a glimmer of humanity, during its short and fleeting life.\n\nGothic - Fiona Wilson Fine Art Printmaking\n\nMonotype Prints\n\nWhat are monotype prints?\n\nEach of the artworks shown are created by inking up a bare, perspex ‘plate’ which is then run through a high pressure press to transfer the image to archival quality artist’s printing paper. The image is drawn freehand onto the plate by the artist. Some of the images are a simple one or two layers, but most of them require multiple passes through the press using individually inked up, or painted plates, in a very lengthy process.\n\nSome of Fiona’s monotype prints are then further embellished with direct printing of relief images, wallpaper and real objects like feathers, as well as drawn elements with pencil, paint and metallic inks. In creating a monotype print the artist is able to capture the immediacy of their thought processes as there is very little room for retouching or correction so the marks and brush strokes are usually completely unedited.\n\nEach stage of this process is done completely by hand and results in a one of a kind print that cannot be replicated. The term ‘mono’ means one. Some elements may reappear as ghosts of the original print, so some are similar but never the same. All the prints and mixed media works were produced by me and used a Takach electronic press at the Glasgow Print Studio where I also regularly run workshops which teach the art of making monotype prints.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9948591589927673}
+{"content": "If you are going to be painting several children, have them sit on high stools, preferably with backs. A proper working posture prevents back complaints.\n\nHint: children like to be able to watch their face being painted in the mirror. This will generally ensure they are less easily distracted and are more likely to sit still.\n\n\nIf the skin is dry or sensitive, than apply a thin layer of Grimas Under Make-up Base: a non-greasy cream with a caring effect. Let the skin absorb it for a few minutes before you start working on the skin with Cake or Water Make-up, thus ensuring that the product has been fully absorbed into the skin.\n\nIf children have skin irritation or small cuts on their faces, you can also do the painting on the hand.\nThe shape, width and quality of the brush are to a great extent qualifying the effect you can achieve with it. For instance, round brushes are ideal for making curves and drawing curls. You draw straight lines preferably with a flat brush, keeping the handle of the brush pointed in the direction of the line. To draw a thin line, you do not necessarily need to use a narrow brush. You can also use the edge of a flat brush for that. This brush is also very convenient for making a thick line merge into a thin one, turning the brush on its side in one fluid action as you go automatically changes the line from thick to thinner. When you come to the end of a line, lift the brush from the skin in a single smooth movement.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9976999759674072}
+{"content": "\n\nJournal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary\n\n\n\n\nAre High-Risk Anticholinergic Medicines Prescribed Too Often for Older Adults?\n\nJournal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary\n\nAnticholinergics are a class of medications that are often prescribed for allergies, lung disease, and urinary incontinence. They also often can increase health risks for older adults. These medicines can affect your memory and ability to think, and they can even lead to increases in the risk for falls, dementia, and death. Additionally, older adults often have a difficult time tolerating anticholinergics because of age-related physical changes, such as reduced liver and kidney function, and because medications can impact our brain chemistry more strongly as we age.\n\nExperts use tools to help older adults and healthcare professionals understand the risks associated with medications like anticholinergics. One of these tools is the AGS Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults. The AGS Beers Criteria details medications with risks that may outweigh their benefits for older adults. The AGS Beers Criteria identifies 52 “high-risk” anticholinergics. Thirty-five of these are included on a list of medications worth avoiding altogether for older people, unless a healthcare professional has a compelling reason for prescribing them on a case-by-case basis.\n\nRecently, a team of researchers decided to study how frequently healthcare providers prescribe potentially inappropriate medications like anticholinergics in light of recommendations like those from the AGS Beers Criteria. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Continue reading\n\nStudy Finds that Most Older Adults are Aware of Medication Risks\n\nJAGS graphicJournal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary\n\nGeriatrics experts know that certain medications may have risks for older adults that outweigh their benefits, especially when safer alternatives are available. Medications that could be “potentially inappropriate” for older adults are included on recommendation lists that your healthcare provider can consult, such as the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Beers Criteria or the STOPP-START list.\n\nHowever, despite these recommendations, 25 percent of older adults take at least one potentially inappropriate medication every year. Taking these medications can increase the risk of being hospitalized due to a medication-related problem. Although 70 percent of older adults are willing to stop taking certain medications, healthcare providers continue to prescribe some potentially inappropriate medicines to older adults.\n\nResearchers from the Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie in Montréal, Canada, designed a survey to learn about older adults’ awareness of drug-related health risks. They conducted the survey over the telephone with 2,665 participants, aged 65 or older. Continue reading\n\n\nJAGS graphicJournal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary\n\n\nPIMs may include treatments like:\n\n • Benzodiazepines (medications sometimes called “tranquilizers” and used to treat sleep problems, anxiety, or to relax muscles)\n • Antipsychotics (medications sometimes used to address mental health conditions)\n • H2-blockers (medications sometimes used to decrease the production of stomach acid)\n • Anticholinergics (medications that block a substance called acetylcholine, a “neurotransmitter” that transfers signals between certain cells to impact how your body functions. Anticholinergics have been used to treat several different conditions, including incontinence and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD).\n\nA Canadian research team investigated how often healthcare providers prescribed PIMs to older adults living with dementia or other mental health concerns and who were being admitted to nursing homes. The research team examined records from more than 40,000 people with dementia or cognitive impairments who were over the age of 66 and had been admitted to nursing homes between 2011 and 2014. The team published their study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.\n\nContinue reading", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6848799586296082}
+{"content": "\"An inspirational, professional and MC\"\n\nMaster of Ceremonies (MC)\n\nKirstin has established a reputation for being a highly respected and engaging MC. \n\nAs well as undertaking MC responsibilities, as a keynote speaker herself Kirstin is often invited by clients to provide a brief keynote during proceedings or to provide commentary between speakers to help audience members link back to the themes of the event. \n\nThe types of events Kirstin has facilitated and MC’d include – \n\n* Conferences of more than 1000 people over a number of days\n* Gala dinners\n* Panels (as both a moderator and panellist)\n* Boardroom lunches\n* Industry events\n* Workshops\n\nInterviewing Melbourne Cup winning jockey, Michelle Payne\nMC, OzWater Conference for 1300 delegates\n\nAs an active user of social media, Kirstin will ensure event hashtags are used effectively by audiences where appropriate. \n\nKirstin finds she is generally able to encourage even usually reserved crowds to start tweeting, take selfies and post about the event. On more than a few occasions Kirstin’s enthusiasm for audiences to use social media has seen the event trending (and fortunately for all the right reasons!). \n\nEnquire about engaging Kirstin to MC your event\n\nKirstin is exclusively represented by Saxton Speakers. Someone will be in touch with you as soon as possible to discuss your enquiry with you.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5944812297821045}
+{"content": "DBS PayLah! App\n\nUsability Testing\n\n\nEvaluate the PayLah! App with actual users, identify user experience issues and recommend solutions where required.\n\nWhat We Did\n\nUsability testing\n\n\nConducted usability testing with eye-tracking on 12 participants, all of whom were between 20-35 and frequent users of iBanking or mobile banking. Participants carried out tasks on the mobile app to identify areas of improvement on the user interface. Users were asked to complete a set of tasks while the moderator observed the user's actions and eye movements, after which the user watched a replay of their experience and discussed issues and potential solutions with the moderator.\n\nDo you have a similar project in mind? Let's have a coffee!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9951464533805847}
+{"content": "Theme 2019\n\n\nWho is responsible here?\n\nGoing on a holiday by plane or train? Spending more time with your family or working a few extra hours? Allowing more refugees in Europe or not? Questions concerning responsibility. Responsibility is consciously choosing to take care of something or someone and accepting the consequences of your choice to do it or not do it. To accept these consequences knowledge about your choice is necessary. However, the choices are often not only two sided. The current world is extremely complex. Life on earth is getting even more complex by new developments, the infinite access to information and the continuously growing connections.\n\nNevertheless, is the search for responsibility is a hot topic. We share posts from Greta Thunberg on Instagram, we proudly buy biofoods, we vote for a party which claims to reach a perfect balance for refugees and love to talk about women’s quota on every party. But does this really help? Aren’t we fooling ourselves?\n\nYou realise what taking your responsibility can do for you and your environment, but still you sometimes choose to not do what it actually takes. Does responsibility, as we know it now, ask too much of us, because of which we just let it go? Do we have to learn again how to prioritise? In society private life, professional environments and public space are intertwined. Additionally, there are institutes trying to direct our way of acting. Is it strange that we sometimes choose the easy way out and not surrender all the way to our responsibilities? What does it mean if we do so? Who does take responsibility then?\n\nDuring the forty-first symposium of the Veerstichting we challenge ourselves to have an open conversation. We confront ourselves and search for the chances the quest for responsibility brings us. A complex world asks for a critical view on the way we act. Who is responsible here?\n\n41th symposium 2020\n\n\nAT Kearney\n\n\nUniversiteit Leiden\n\nLiberty Global\n\n\nGolden sponsors\n\n\nTake away\n\n\n\n\nSurlinio Social Media\n\n\nJohnson & Johnson\n\n\n +31(0)71 512 35 45", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9002236127853394}
+{"content": "What will inflation be in coming years? The real answer is that it varies according to your age and spending patterns. Inflation wallops someone with kids in college, and is hardly noticeable to stay-at-home types. Another consideration: Do you buy more goods (whose prices are going down) than services (going up, mostly).\n\nInflation is a sustained increase in prices for general goods and services in the economy and is typically measured annually. Theoretically speaking, as inflation rises, every dollar you own buys a smaller amount of a good or service.\n\nWhile the reported inflation rate (typically reported as the CPI or Consumer Price Index) is important for Social Security income calculations, which rise with the index, it may not accurately reflect your individual inflation rate.\n\nAccording to the Wall Street Journal, the overall inflation rate is running less than 2% per year, but that figure masks a division between goods and services.\n\nThe cost of services is climbing while prices for goods are declining. For example, a man’s suit is 3.7% cheaper than it was in 2010 but 9.2% more expensive to dry clean. TV prices have fallen nearly 58% over the same period, while cable TV service costs 13.7% more.\n\nSimilarly, the inflation rate for higher education compared to the overall economy has run much hotter than other costs over the past three decades. As the population of 18-year-olds declines, however, we see an ebbing of college education price increases.\n\nGoods can usually be produced anywhere. In an economy where dollars travel freely, buyers typically purchase from the low-cost provider who delivers the desired level of quality. Your toaster can come from China, yet your barber (a service) better be in the neighborhood. As international trade and transportation logistics continue to improve, we see a natural downward pressure on the price of goods. But the service sector is another story.\n\nWe get to choose some financial expenses and lifestyle choices, although others we must accept. People planning to retire commonly ask how to calculate the future rate of inflation. Projecting what price increases lie ahead is central to anticipating annual income needs. Sadly, there is no magic number. For many, the assumed number is usually flawed and can vary significantly from one family to the next.\n\nFor example, if you enjoy travelling, you will likely incur many service expenses including hotels, dining and transportation; thus you should expect travel inflation will be higher than the reported CPI. Travel expenses tend to increase in the early years of retirement and slow later on as people take fewer trips.\n\nOn the other hand, if you are a homebody who does your own yardwork and property improvements, then you will likely encounter lower inflation levels relative to your traveling friends. The key point is that your personal inflation rate is unique based on your age and your lifestyle. The headline CPI number is important only as a general gauge.\n\nThe more we consider prices as they relate to goods and service aspects of the economy —and the lifestyle of the investor—the more accurate we can be in estimating an inflation number. For now, airlines are loving lower oil prices and young folks buying their first television are smiling ear to ear.\n\n\n©Morningstar 2015. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9594742059707642}
+{"content": "Nigerian hot fresh new artiste, Usiomon Daniel also known as Daniel Drizzy by his stage name has released his highly anticipated single titled “For You”.\n\n\n“For You” is a love song mixed with pop and blended with afrobeat, making the sound so professional.\n\nMoreover, the song was produced by Blameless, mixed and mastered by Eltunes.\n\nListen to the audio:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9883878231048584}
+{"content": "English synonyms about - contact \n\n\n\n1 fascination\n\n\nsynonym: captivation.\n\n\nRoget 825: excitability, impetuosity, vehemence; boisterousness etc. adj.; turbulence; impatience, intolerance, nonendurance; irritability etc. (irascibility) 901; ... show more\n\nRoget 865: desire, wish, fancy, fantasy; want, need, exigency. mind, inclination, leaning, bent, animus, partiality, ... show more\n\nRoget 870: wonder, marvel; astonishment, amazement, wonderment, bewilderment; amazedness etc. adj.; admiration, awe; stupor, stupefaction; stound, ... show more\n\n\n2 fascination\n\nA feeling of great liking for something wonderful and unusual.\n\nsynonyms: captivation, enchantment, enthrallment.\n\nRoget 829: pleasurableness, pleasantness, agreeableness etc. adj.; pleasure giving, jucundity, delectability; amusement etc. 840. attraction etc. (motive) ... show more\n\nDutch: fascinatie\nPolish: urzeczenie, oczarowanie, zauroczenie, olśnienie, fascynacja\n\n3 fascination\n\nThe capacity to attract intense interest.\n\nMoby thesaurus: admiration, affinity, agacerie, allure, allurement, amaze, amazement, animal magnetism, appeal, astonishment, astoundment, attraction, attractiveness, awe, awesomeness, bedevilment, beguilement, beguiling, beguilingness, bent ... show more.\n\nFind more on fascination elsewhere: etymology - rhymes - Wikipedia.\n\ndebug info: 0.0293", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999984622001648}
+{"content": "All of the following clips are from the Howard Shelley 70th Birthday Concert held on the 13th March 2020 featuring virtuoso violinist, Ruth Rogers, Leader of London Mozart Players (Grayshott Concerts orchestra in residence), Sebastian Comberti, Principal Cellist LMP and Howard Shelley, international Pianist and Conductor Laureate LMP for a rare performance of Beethoven's celebrated Triple Concerto for Violin, Piano and Cello.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9705719351768494}
+{"content": "Displays a list of all ACI threads and specifies what each thread is doing.\n\n\nThis action uses port 16000 to request thread information from DIH, which is located on a machine with the IP address\n\nParameter Description Required\nEncryptResponse Encrypt DIH output.\nFileName The file that DIH writes output to.\nForceTemplateRefresh Forces DIH to load the template from disk.\nOutput Writes DIH output to a file.\nTemplate The template to use for the action output.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6715623140335083}
+{"content": "Supplementary Materials Supplemental Data supp_83_5_949__index. domains. These mutations increase thermostability of\n\nSupplementary Materials Supplemental Data supp_83_5_949__index. domains. These mutations increase thermostability of the receptor by locking it in a particular conformation (i.e., inactive or active), directed from the pharmacology of the ligand used during the protein engineering process (Robertson et al., 2011; Tate and Schertler, 2009). Using the Celebrity method, active-state (GL0, GL23, GL26, and GL31) and inactive-state (Celebrity2) adenosine A2A Celebrities have been designed, allowing solving of crystal constructions of agonist-bound and inverse agonist-bound adenosine A2A receptors (Dore et al., 2011; Lebon et al., 2011b). Recently, the benefit of structure-based drug design has been shown at GPCRs with the adenosine A2A crystal structure used to aid finding of a novel chemical series of receptor antagonists (Congreve et al., 2012; Langmead et al., 2012). Many models have been developed to describe receptor activation (for good examples, observe De Slim et al., 1980; Samama Rabbit Polyclonal to DRP1 et al., 1993), the simplest of which is the two-state model (Fig. 1; Leff, 1995) that explains receptors existing in active (R*) or inactive (R) forms. The equilibrium between R and R* is definitely defined from the isomerization constant L (L=R*/R). Even though two-state model does not account for such phenomena as biased agonism or multiple conformations that exist between R and R* (observe Perez et al., 1996), the model is extremely useful conceptually, describing interactions of many GPCR ligands. Agonists are explained to bind with higher affinity to R*, inverse agonist Mocetinostat inhibitor database to R, whereas neutral antagonists bind with equivalent affinity to R and R*. Open in a separate windows Fig. 1. Two-state model of GPCR activation. A receptor can exist in an inactive (R) or active (R*) form. An inactive receptor may isomerize to the active form (R*) actually in the absence of an agonist, a property known as constitutive activity. Once the ligand is definitely bound, the receptor can exist in two claims, occupied (AR) or Mocetinostat inhibitor database occupied and triggered (AR*), the second option being the varieties that couples to G protein (Strange, 2000). The position of equilibrium between R and R* will depend on the isomerization constant (are the equilibrium constants for agonist binding to the receptor conformations R and R*, respectively; defines the effectiveness of A. In the inactive-state A2A Celebrity, there is a significant decrease in the affinity of agonists [CGS21680 (2-p-(2-carboxyethyl)phenethylamino-5-N- ethylcarboxamidoadenosine) and 5-checks to compare two data units (= 0.05) Mocetinostat inhibitor database and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (with Dunnetts post-hoc test if 0.05) to analyze multiple data sets (= 0.05). Molecular Modeling and Ligand Docking. The alignment of the inactive state crystal structures of the adenosine A2A receptor in complex with ZM241385 (3PWH), XAC (3REY), and caffeine (3RFM), onto the triggered form of the receptor in complicated with NECA (2YDV), was performed using the align algorithm within PyMOL (The PyMOL Molecular Images System, edition 1.3; Schr?dinger, Mocetinostat inhibitor database LLC, NY, NY). The binding cavity within 2YDV was generated within PyMOL from an apo edition from the proteins using the Cavities and Storage compartments (Culled) recognition algorithm with default beliefs for Cavity Recognition Radius and Cutoff. The ligand docking tests were led by ligand framework activity romantic relationship and by our iterative procedure for assessing books site-directed mutagenesis (SDM) and designing and examining our very own mutants using biophysical mapping (BPM; Zhukov et al., 2011) to recognize possible binding settings. The protein docking and preparation experiments were completed inside the Schr?dinger Maestro bundle (Maestro, edition 9.2; Schr?dinger, LLC) using the framework from the inactive adenosine A2A receptor (3PWH), seeing that the foundation for subsequent dockings. The grid era essential for docking was performed within Glide. The residues highlighted in prior BPM tests (Zhukov et al., 2011) had been utilized to define the cavity from the grid; nevertheless, no constraints had been added in the grid era to make sure that following dockings weren’t biased at all. Glide XP docking was completed on every one of the ligands involved with 10 poses per ligand getting stored. The poses were assessed against the BPM data and the very best solution identified then. Outcomes Agonist Binding towards the Active-State Adenosine A2A Receptor. To check for adjustments in agonist affinity on the active-state Superstars, saturation binding tests had been performed using the radiolabeled agonist [3H]NECA. The radiolabeled agonist destined with high affinity towards the wild-type adenosine A2A receptor (p= 0.28; one-way ANOVA; Supplemental Desk 2), nor was there any significant transformation in the affinity of [3H]NECA between your full-length (A2A) and C-terminally truncated [A2A(1-316)] receptor (= 0.51; unpaired two-tailed check; Supplemental Table 2). A tendency could be seen where an increase in receptor thermostability led to an increase in receptor manifestation ( 0.01 A2A versus GL26 and .", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6778565049171448}
+{"content": "Mondadori Store\n\nTrova Mondadori Store\n\nAccedi o registrati\n\nlista preferiti\n\nPer utilizzare la funzione prodotti desiderati devi accedere o registrarti\n\nVai al carrello\n prodotti nel carrello\n\nTotale articoli\n\n0,00 € IVA Inclusa\n\nThe Prophet is a book of 26 prose poetry fables written in English by the Lebanese-American poet and writer Kahlil Gibran on the subject of Life and the human condition. It is Gibran's best-known work. The Prophet has been translated into over 100 different languages, making it one of the most translated books in history, and it has never been out of print.\n\nThe prophet, Al Mustafa, has lived in the city of Orphalese for 12 years and is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses topics such as life and the human condition.\n\n\nThe Prophet has been translated into more than 100 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history. By 2012, it had sold more than nine million copies in its American edition alone since its original publication in 1923.\n\nThe Prophet was first published in 1923. Also available as audiobook, read by Mark F. Smith (1 hour, 28 min).\n\nKhalil Gibran (1883-1931) was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, visual artist and Lebanese nationalist. A member of the New York Pen League, he is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. Gibran is the third-best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi. The Prophet has been translated into as many as 110 languages.\n\n\nGeneri Psicologia e Filosofia » Filosofia: Opere divulgative e generali , Storia e Biografie » Storia: opere generali » Storia: specifici argomenti\n\nEditore Anncona Media\n\nFormato Ebook con Adobe DRM\n\nPubblicato 26/04/2019\n\nLingua Inglese\n\nEAN-13 9789177595564\n\n0 recensioni dei lettori media voto 0 su 5\n\nScrivi una recensione per \"The Prophet\"\n\nThe Prophet\n\nAccedi o Registrati per aggiungere una recensione\n\ntorna su Torna in cima", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.637537956237793}
+{"content": "Unit Converter\n\nConversion formula\n\n\n1 d = 86400 s\n\nTo convert 407 days into seconds we have to multiply 407 by the conversion factor in order to get the time amount from days to seconds. We can also form a simple proportion to calculate the result:\n\n1 d → 86400 s\n\n407 d → T(s)\n\nSolve the above proportion to obtain the time T in seconds:\n\nT(s) = 407 d × 86400 s\n\nT(s) = 35164800 s\n\nThe final result is:\n\n407 d → 35164800 s\n\nWe conclude that 407 days is equivalent to 35164800 seconds:\n\n407 days = 35164800 seconds\n\n407 days is equal to 35164800 seconds\n\nAlternative conversion\n\nWe can also convert by utilizing the inverse value of the conversion factor. In this case 1 second is equal to 2.8437528437528E-8 × 407 days.\n\nAnother way is saying that 407 days is equal to 1 ÷ 2.8437528437528E-8 seconds.\n\nApproximate result\n\nFor practical purposes we can round our final result to an approximate numerical value. We can say that four hundred seven days is approximately thirty-five million one hundred sixty-four thousand eight hundred seconds:\n\n407 d ≅ 35164800 s\n\nAn alternative is also that one second is approximately zero times four hundred seven days.\n\nConversion table\n\ndays to seconds chart\n\n\ndays (d) seconds (s)\n408 days 35251200 seconds\n409 days 35337600 seconds\n410 days 35424000 seconds\n411 days 35510400 seconds\n412 days 35596800 seconds\n413 days 35683200 seconds\n414 days 35769600 seconds\n415 days 35856000 seconds\n416 days 35942400 seconds\n417 days 36028800 seconds", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6103989481925964}
+{"content": "Floating wraps filming\n\n\nThe shooting of the short fiction film Floating took place from 11 to 14 June 2018, on various locations in Istria: Cape Kamenjak, the island Fratarski otok, and Rovinj. The film was written and directed by Judita Gamulin.\n\nThe story follows a young seemingly idyllic family of four as they spend a day on an island excursion.\n\nThe cast features Ivana Roščić and Gordan Kičić in leading roles, supported by young actors Leona Perok and Grga Podobnik.\n\nOther members of the crew include DoP Tomislav Sutlar, editor Tomislav Stojanović, production designer Petra Poslek, costume designer Ivana Zozoli, and make-up artist Tina Jesenković.\n\nThe film is co-financed by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the City of Rijeka.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9198608994483948}
+{"content": "• No Comments\n\nThe internationally recognized European Standard is EN, in the United States, tetrahydrothiophene or amyl mercaptan are also approved odorants, although neither is currently being utilized. If some change happened to the characters lives during the episode, because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order. Tanzania is a one party dominant state with the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party in power, from its formation until , it was the only legally permitted party in the country. Gabi ng Pagpapakilala Feb. Driven by guilt and grief, Theresa tried to get Diego back. Biologist Jeremy Griffith defines love as unconditional selflessness, a person can be said to love an object, principle, or goal to which they are deeply committed and greatly value. Sometimes these are considered members of the immediate family, depending on an individuals specific relationship with them. The word family can be used metaphorically to create more inclusive categories such as community, nationhood, global village, the field of genealogy aims to trace family lineages through history.\n\nThe wider maritime region and much trade was under Dutch control for the following period, in the entire island, as well as the Temenggong, became a British possession after a further treaty with the Sultan. Some historians date modern conceptions of love to courtly Europe during or after the Middle Ages. The first is an explosion if the mixture of LPG and air is within the explosive limits. As of , approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. Other family structures, such as blended parents, single parents, a matrifocal family consists of a mother and her children 8. Cebu City, although independent from Cebu Province together with Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu , is the largest city and economic hub of the island.\n\nIna, Kapatid, Anak Episode – Pinoy TV\n\nCelyn and Ethan spied around Mio’s house, trying to find evidence confirming their theory of a link between him and Diego. Lucas, who wanted Mio dead lest he be implicated, agreed and sent him the money through Theresa.\n\nIf the network likes the pilot, they pick up the show to inq it the next season, sometimes they save it for mid-season, or request rewrites and further review 4.\n\nThis was kapattid of the precursors to Marcos declaration of martial law inUP Diliman was formally established as a constituent university on April 23, at the th Meeting of the U. The origin of the name Kenya is not clear, but perhaps linked to the Kikuyu, Embu and Kamba words Kirinyaga, Kirenyaa, if so, then the British may not so much have mispronounced it, as misspelled it.\n\n\nDuring the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan, after early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce.\n\nLove can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion and it may also describe compassionate and episodr actions towards other humans, ones self or animals. Sauk family photographed by Frank Rinehart in The serial collection totals 60, divided into 26, print titles and 33, unique titles in online journals and this collection has steadily grown through acquisitions and generous donations.\n\nInterpersonal love refers to love human beings 9. Beatriz then planned to flee to Singapore for their safety, and she finally reconciled with Theresa one night, amidst hugs and tears. However, most present states in Africa originate from a process of decolonization in the 20th century, afri was a Latin name used to refer to ija inhabitants of Africa, which in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the Mediterranean.\n\nIna, Kapatid, Anak Episode 109\n\nIn the 19th century, the German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf was staying with the Bantu Kamba people when he first spotted the mountain. Philippines — The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean.\n\nThere are four languages on the island, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil. The Menai Bay Conservation Area is Zanzibars largest marine protected area, over different languages are spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa.\n\nMio asked for an exorbitant ransom from Lucas Elizalde, Beatrice’s father, who was Mio’s employer and thus the mastermind. The program follows their lives and adventures, except for soap opera-type serials, many shows especially before the s, remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little.\n\nTheresa’s cousin, Oscar, has flashbacks of Theresa’s pregnancy; when the midwife delivered twins, he decided to kept it a secret. Chiu at Barrio Fiesta, London, June Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on 16 November They promised not to tell anyone when Liam also found out Celyn likes Ethan. Gabi ng Pagpapakilala Feb. Celyn also met her friends, Ethan Castillo Enchong Dee and Liam Lagdameo Xian Lim ; she and Liam were initially irritated with each other and she remembered Ethan from a childhood incident where he seemingly saved her life.\n\n\nIts capital is Cebu City, the oldest city and first capital of the Philippines, Cebu City forms part of the Cebu Metropolitan Area together with four neighboring cities and eight other local government units.\n\n\nThis gives way to temperate and forested areas in the neighbouring western region. Kenya coverskaatid, and had a population of approximately 48 million people in JanuaryKenya has a warm and humid tropical climate on its Indian Ocean coastline. Varieties of LPG bought and sold include mixes that are mostly propane, mostly butane and, most commonly, in the northern hemisphere winter, the mixes contain more propane, while in summer, they contain more butane.\n\nThis diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states. Mennonite siblings, Montana Maji Maji Rebellion against German colonial rule in Cebu City, although independent from Cebu Province together with Mandaue and Iapatidis the largest city and economic hub of the island.\n\nGabi ng Pagbabago Mar. Some viewers of the episode where Celyn and Margaux figure in a vehicular accident were surprised that the airbags of the Chevrolet Cruze used in the inna did not deploy despite the damage to the car depicted. The Kenya—Uganda Railway near Mombasaabout", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.962791919708252}
+{"content": "During his triple degree master's program, Leonardo Deschaseaux landed a Microsoft internship. From that, he found a top tech job at Zelros, an artificial intelligence insurtech firm.\n\nLéonardo, étudiant EDT\n\nWhen he graduated his bachelor’s in finance, Leonardo Deschaseaux never dreamed he’d land a Microsoft internship. It felt like one of those impossible tech jobs, Leonardo remembers, somewhere only for the best of the best.\n\nBut during the European Triple Degree Master of Science in Management program at emlyon business School in France, Leonardo found his way into the marketing department at the world’s largest company. He’s now working as an alliance manager at Zelros, an artificial intelligence insurance technology company.\n\nFor those aspiring for a career in tech, it’s an admirable career leap. Here’s how he pulled it off.\n\nLooking for an international experience\n\nHalf Spanish, half French, Leonardo always had a desire to explore and understand new cultures. He was lucky to spend a year studying in the US during his bachelor’s, and when it came to his MSc in management it was important for him to continue this international experience.\n\nemlyon business school stood out to him for two reasons. Firstly, he had the sense that it was an international institution, that would give him a diverse, global perspective.\n\n“It’s not a French school filled with just French students,” he remarks.\n\nBut even more than that, Leonardo was drawn towards the European Triple Degree - Grande Ecole program. Across the two year program, students study at emlyon business school in France, at Lancaster University in the UK, and at Ludwig-Maximillians University (LMU) in Germany.\n\n“You’re getting different perspectives, from different professors, from the three different universities. We could explore a lot more than if we had just one set of professors from one university,” Leonardo remembers.\n\nAt each institution, he discovered a different way of learning, as well as a brand new, internationally diverse class cohort. The effect this had on his personal skills, he remembers, was significant. From class group work, to interacting with students from around the world, he learned a great deal about how to manage and work with people.\n\n“You learn a lot from everyone, the others get to learn from you, and you make some great connections and experiences,” Leonardo remembers.\n\n\nHow he landed a Microsoft internship\n\nWhen he started his master’s, Leonardo was very much at the beginning of his career. His work experience was limited, and he was fresh off his bachelor’s degree.\n\nWhile the academic aspect was important, he also craved work experience that was going to enhance his understanding of how business works and boost his profile. He had a rigorous introduction to the fundamentals of business during his time at emlyon business school, including courses in operations management and organizational behaviour. But it was the six month internship during his master’s that really prepared for the world of work.\n\nLeonardo was increasingly drawn towards a tech career, and a chance to intern at Microsoft seemed like the perfect step into the industry. Despite his fears about how difficult it would be to land an internship there, Leonardo was accepted to work in their marketing partnerships department for the Azure Cloud service. Here, he helped partners strategize their own business solutions using the Azure technology, as well working on sales strategies for new partners.\n\nHe notes that Microsoft aren’t just looking for the highest candidates from leading business schools; in fact, it’s quite simple what they’re looking for.\n\n“They’re much more focused on the person—you have to show that you’re willing to work, to do something great, to be motivated, and to have the social skills for that environment,” Leonardo notes.\n\nFrom Microsoft to insurtech\n\nLeonardo actually first interacted with his current employer, Zelros, during his Microsoft internship. Zelros was a partner company, and since they were based in France, he had close interactions with them.\n\nZelros provides insurance solutions for customers using artificial intelligence technology. Leonardo is working at a cutting edge area of insurtech (insurance technology) that requires a strong understanding of the tech landscape, something he wouldn’t have got without his master’s and his internship.\n\nFrom AI and machine learning, to blockchain—which Leonardo wrote his dissertation on—courses at emlyon business school gave him a good understanding of digitalization, and how it is changing the way business is done. There’s no doubt whether he’d be in his current role without this foundational knowledge.\n\nHis two main pieces of advice to anyone else embarking on the master’s?\n\n“Work as hard as possible, but make the most of your experience.”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8263007998466492}
+{"content": "Grey Squirrel\n\nThe painting of \"Bernarr & the Maple War\" depicts a legendary battle of 892 between grey squirrels and a clan of chipmunks near Mapleharbour.\n\nThe squirrel is a species of mammal present in the Mouse Territories.\n\nThe squirrel possesses culture and, to some extent, technology, including the creation of camouflaged clothing incorporating fallen leaves and other vegetation.[1] Squirrels are also known to use weapons such as swords — although it is uncertain whether the species forges these itself or scavenges the weapons from other creatures.[1][2]\n\nNotable squirrelsEdit\n\nComing soon.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9954020380973816}
+{"content": "How would you deconstruct and reconstruct your portfolio? If it looks different before and after, it is time for you to consider rebalancing your investment portfolio.\n\n\nImagine if your entire portfolio was immediately liquidated into cash. How would you reconstruct your portfolio with your now fully cash holdings?\n\nA virtual exercise of hitting the reset button on all your investments may give you insights on what you should change (or not change) with your investment portfolio.\n\nThis exercise of deconstruction and reconstruction helps form the basis of portfolio rebalancing. How will you look at your current investment portfolio and make changes so it moves closer to your ideal portfolio?\n\n\nWhy Rebalance?\n\nThe key aim of portfolio rebalancing would be not to maximize returns per se, but to reduce the risks in your investment portfolio. A trade-off for slightly less potential returns will significantly lower your risks.\n\nRebalancing improves your risk-return ratio. Now go find that sweet spot!\n\n\nWhen to Rebalance?\n\nIt does not make sense to make adjustments to your portfolio every time your portfolio allocation goes off by 1 or 2%. Nor does it make sense to look at your portfolio every day or every week and decide to make adjustments. The cost for doing that will be both financially and time-consuming.\n\nThe best balance for rebalancing would be to look at rebalancing every 6 or 12 months and to rebalance when any allocation is off by 5% or more.\n\nTime and threshold approach: Rebalance at 5% and every 6 months (or longest 12 months)\n\n\nAsset Alignment\n\nStart with taking a high view of your overall investment portfolio and your personal investment plan goals. We will look at asset alignment in the following areas:-\n\nHigh Risk Versus Low Risk Assets\n\nThe total percentage of high risk versus low risk assets would be the most basic, and yet most important form of alignment. High risk assets would include shares, unit trusts and property. Low risk assets would include fixed deposits, bonds, and endowments. This is as simple as starting out with age-based allocation of high:low risk assets and selling/buying assets to move you towards your desired allocation.\n\nAsset Class Weightage\n\nWithin the high/low risk assets, you will also have your asset class weightage. This can be slightly more challenging with assets that are more fixed. For example, buying a single property can take up a much high percentage of your investment portfolio. Or for your EPF savings, you only have limited choices for withdrawing the funds before your retirement age.\n\nUnder-Performing Investments\n\nYou should have expectations for a particular investment’s performance that falls within an asset class. Are any of your investments under-performing expectations? Is it a temporary under-performance or dip which you don’t have to fret on, or is it symptomatic of a bigger and deeper underlying issue?\n\nSector Weightage\n\nYou will also want to group up your investments into sectors to see if you’re over/under-weighted in any specific sector(s).\n\nMarket/Country Weightage\n\nAre you overweight in any country (usually your home country)? As your investment portfolio grows, you will want to make sure that a designated percentage of your investments are overseas in different markets as well thus reducing your country risks.\n\n\nMistakes to Avoid\n\nToo much of any good thing is bad when taken to the extreme. Here are some common pitfalls and mistakes to hopefully avoid.\n\nDon’t Overdo It\n\nBalance is the key in rebalancing (pun not quite intended). Rebalancing too often and when unnecessary leads to unnecessary losses. This includes bleeding from a thousand cuts with increased fees and transaction costs.\n\nDon’t Fall in Love\n\nEmotions can quickly cloud an investors mind. With any investment, you should be able to simply explain why you invested, and in the next breath in what circumstances will you exit the investment. Don’t stubbornly hold on to something (or someone) who doesn’t love you back.\n\nDon’t Be Kiasi\n\nImagining danger lurking at every possible time and location is no way to live. Otherwise you end up selling your winners too early and losing out on potential profits.\n\nKiasi [kiaⁿ-sí)] (hokkien) literally, afraid to die, but what it really means is being afraid to take risks or to be overly cautious.\n\n\nHow often do you rebalance your portfolio and what are your reasons for rebalancing?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7220360040664673}
+{"content": "Yahoo! JAPAN\n\n\ntdp cpu で検索した結果 11～20件目 / 約26,500,000件 - 0.35秒\n\n\n 1.：いまさら聞けないIT用語集 TDPってなに？ 消費電力じゃないの ...\n これは、単にCPUクーラーの選定だけでなく、PCのケース内部の冷却風の速度や流量 なども影響する。 このTDPという指標がいつ位から登場したかの正確な資料はないの だが、手持ちのPentiumのデータシートでは消費電力に関して ...\n 2. What is TDP in CPU and Why Does it Matter? - Tech Gearoid\n 2019年11月26日 ... In the most simplest terms, Thermal Design Power (TDP) is the measure of the amount of HEAT the processor generates. This rating is used to choose the Cooling System of your computer (NOT THE POWER SUPPLY).\n 3. What is TDP? - Computer Hope\n 2019年8月2日 ... TDP (short for thermal design power, or thermal design point) is a measurement of how much heat is generated by electronic hardware, such as a CPU. For example, a CPU cooler rated for 65 W TDP can dissipate the heat ... > ... > T - Definitions\n 4. Why Intel Processors Draw More Power Than Expected: TDP and ...\n 5. What is processor TDP and does it mean that processor with 60W ...\n TDP stands for “thermal design power” or “Total power dissipation”. It refers to the total amount of heat the processor should output , in watts. Usually , it's also a very rough estimate of the CPU's power consumption . This value helps you choos ...\n 6. Power Supply Calculator - PSU Calculator | OuterVision\n ... greatly extends the ability to select various PC parts and components, adds CPU and Graphics card overclocking, and allows consumers to calculate PC energy consumption, compare PSU efficiencies, and ultimately project energy cost.\n 7. Thermal Design Power (TDP) - CPU-World\n The Thermal Design Power (TDP) is the average maximum power a processor can dissipate while running commercially available software. TDP is primarily used as a guideline for manufacturers of thermal solutions (heatsinks/fans, etc) which ...\n 8. Q What is thermal design power (TDP)? - CPU UserBenchmarks\n For laptops and other portable computers low TDP's are essential (often between 5 and 20 watts) as they prolong battery life. Aside from the power savings offered by CPUs with low TDP's there are other factors such as cooling requirement ...\n 9. What Is Thermal Design Power? Explained - MakeUseOf\n Thermal Design Power, or TDP, refers to the maximum amount of heat a CPU or GPU is expected to generate under general usage. TDP values are expressed in watts and are often used as a guide for how much power the hardware requires to ... > ... > Technology Explained\n 10. What Is Thermal Design Power (TDP)? - Lifewire\n 2019年11月19日 ... You may have come across \"TDP\" while reading about graphics cards and CPUs . The acronym stands for thermal ... Have you been reading a CPU or graphics card review and run across the term TDP? Do you wonder what ... > ... > Accessories & Hardware\n « 前へ1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 次へ »\n\nCopyright (C) 2020 Yahoo Japan Corporation. All Rights Reserved.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000075101852417}
+{"content": "C: Terrible Consonant\n\nNo. How Can I say that viCious letter — terrible Consonant? C! No, I Can’t go on anymore denying its horrid power over me. Just to look at its Curved Crooked from brings the bile up from my stomach. Look how it jests at me, thrusting its points out side-like, as if to leap in a headlong rush, impaling hapless vowels on it’s vertiCes. No. No. I have written it too:\n\nThere stands the enemy of all that I am—my foe, my adversary, the Culmination of all that is wrong with the world. You don’t believe me? You say, “How Could such a benign letter be the Cause?” You fool. I say, you blind ignorant babe. You have been wooed by its innoCuous yet Covert pretense. Know now that C is a killer. Yes, turn your baCk, and nothing will stop the slaughter. Don’t let your apathy bloCk you from truly examining—finally seeing—the beast from the lamb. Why do we trust it? It seems too inCredible, but we do. I shall tell you, for I have taken its existenCe to heart. I shall reveal the Codex that is its mystery. I will not stop until C has been blotted from the alphabet. Gone.\n\nC’s seCret lies in its ability to Camouflage itself in apparent usefulness. I first disCovered this while writing. Sent and Cent, though spelled differently, have the same pronunCiation. But C also bolsters a hard sound… Yes, yes, I know. This shouldn’t be, but look for yourself: Caught, Cat, Carpet. They all seem so unique, until you remember (as I did) that K has the same sound. Why not spell these words like so: kaught, kat, karpet. This insidious letter has weaseled its own spaCe in the alphabet where none was needed. Its pillage of words ends here!\n\nSoon after I disCovered these horrid faCts, C took its revenge. It Came to me in my sleep: cccccCCCCcCCccCcCccCCc. Hissing and Clucking at me until I thought my brain would burst. Repeating in CyCliC CyCles, revolving and tightening about my throat until I Could no longer scream. But a deep strength, drawn from a respeCt for Consonants and vowels of all kinds rose up in me. I grabbed C by its outstretched hooks. My right hand bleed from the gashes. I wrestled it, holding and twisting until I nearly lost ConsCiousness. Turning it up, I finally rendered the letter into an inert U.\n\nYoU are dead! Finally dead. And now the alphabet will be safe from yoUr sharp points and tongUe. But wait, am I really rid of yoU? No… not yoU again. Not U!\n\nTim Kane\n\nHave a Blue Fish Day (Using Surrealism in Your Writing)\n\nWhen I was younger, sometimes I would declare that such and such a day was a blue fish day, meaning it had that ethereal quality as if waking from a dream.\n\nWhat I later learned, was that I was utilizing the the paranoiac-critical method to unlock my unconscious mind. It might just sound like I made those words up. I didn’t. Salvador Dalí did. He was fascinated by the unconscious mind and dreams. (He plagued Freud with letters begging for an audience).\n\nParanoiac-Critical Method\nTypically we’re taught to associate rational cause and effect explanations to events in our lives. Dalí wanted the reverse. A sort of stream of consciousness where irrational thoughts could be attached to events. He described the paranoiac-critical method as a “spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on the critical and systematic objectivity of the associations and interpretations of delirious phenomena.”\n\nBallerina in a Death's Head is an example of the paranoiac-critical method. Do you see a skull or a ballerina?\n\nIn short, this is the ability of the viewer to perceive multiple images within the same configuration. All of us practice the paranoiac-critical method each time we gaze up at clouds in the sky and imagine different shapes. In fact all those sighting of Jesus on a slice of toast or a stucco wall are simply the Paranoid Critical Method in action.\n\nA great introduction to Dalí and the whole surrealist world comes in the short film “The Death of Salvador Dalí.”\n\nBut you don’t have to sit idly by to create these associations. There are certain games you can play to help activate this irrational side of your brain.\n\nExquisite Corpse\nThis is a game played often by the Surrealists. In this, each person writes part of a sentence, and then folds the paper over so that the next person has no idea what was written. In this fashion, a collage of words creates a bizarre sentence. The name derives from the first playing of the game: “Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.” (“The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.”)\n\nThe game was also played with pictures. One person might draw the head and then fold the paper over so that only a few connecting lines could be seen. This would continue until a total figure had been created.\n\n4-part Corpse drawing; Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miro, Max Morise\n\nCut Ups\nIt seems the surrealists did have their limit as to what they’d accept. At a surrealist rally in the 1920s Tristan Tzara built a poem from scratch by pulling words out of a hat. A riot broke out and wrecked the theater. Andrè Breton expelled Tristan Tzara from the movement.\n\nNot until forty years later did this technique reemerge. Brion Gysin, a painter and writer, noticed that he’d sliced though the New York Herald Tribune on his cutting board. The cut sections lined up and could be read across. He loved the idea so much that he fashioned and essay called, Minutes to Go. Here’s an excerpt.\n\n“Sickle moon terror nails replica in tin ginsberg. Replicas of Squareville — grey piebald pigeons — pointedly questioned, mimic each other.”\n\nI used this technique to write the opening line to my first published short story. I was stuck and wanted a jarring image to pull the reader in. Sitting in a coffee shop, I picked up the newspaper and started tearing (I didn’t have scissors). I had to do two or three tries until something decent came up, but I think you’ll agree, the technique works.\n\nUnfamiliar puddles of light lurked in the crevices like cancer.\n\nSo the next time you’re stuck with a scene or a character or even an idea, turn to the Surrealists for help. As your rational brain gets stuck in rut, unwilling to deliver words on the page, kick it in the but by unlocking your irrational side. Make your day a blue fish day and see what happens.\n\nTim Kane", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6963186860084534}
+{"content": "March 8, 1917 A Political Plague\n\n\nThe “War to End all Wars” dragged into its third dismal year in 1917, seeming as though it would go on forever. Like two exhausted prize fighters, neither side could muster the strength to deliver the killing blow. Many single days of the great battles of 1916 alone produced more casualties than every European war of the preceding 100 years, combined. At home, the social fabric of the combatant nations was unraveling.\n\nWW1-Timeline-1917By 1916 it was generally understood in Germany that the war effort was “shackled to a corpse”, referring the Austro-Hungarian Empire where the war had started, in the first place. Italy, the third member of the “Triple Alliance”, was little better. On the “Triple Entente” side, the French countryside was literally torn to pieces, the English economy close to collapse. The Russian Empire, the largest nation on the planet, was teetering on the edge of the precipice.\n\nThe first of two Revolutions that year began on February 23 according the “Old Style” calendar, March 8, “New Style”. Long-standing resentments over food rationing turned to mass protests in and around the Russian capital of Petrograd (modern-day Saint Petersburg). Eight days of violent demonstrations pitted Revolutionaries against police and “gendarmes”, that medieval remnant combining military units with the power of law enforcement.\n\nBy March 12 (new style), mutinous units of the Russian military had switched sides and joined with the revolutionaries. Three days later, Car Nicholas abdicated the Imperial throne.\n\nGerman propaganda postcard depicting Russian peasants begging for food. With the size of the Russian empire and the difficulty in transportation, the propaganda wasn’t far from the truth.\n\nAmidst all this chaos, Kaiser Wilhelm calculated that all he had to do was “kick the door in” and his largest adversary would collapse. He was right.\n\nFollowing the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty, the more moderate Menshevik “Whites” vowed to continue the war effort. The split which had begun with the failed revolution of 1905 was more pronounced by this time with the radical Bolsheviks (“Reds”) taking the more extreme road. While Reds and Whites both wanted to bring socialism to the Russian people, Mensheviks argued for predominantly legal methods and trade union activism, while Bolsheviks favored armed violence.\n\nIn 1901, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov adopted the pseudonym “Lenin” after the River Lena, the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers flowing into the arctic ocean. The middle-class son of a professor of mathematics and physics and the daughter of a well-to-do physician, Ulyanov became radicalized after the 1887 execution of his brother, for plotting to murder the Czar.\n\nimages (61)\nVladimir Ilyich Lenin\n\nThe man was soon convinced that capitalist society was bound to give way to socialist society with a natural transition to communism, not far behind.\n\nLenin was in exile when the war broke out, arrested and briefly imprisoned for his Russian citizenship. The radical revolutionary was released due to his anti-czarist sentiments when he and his wife, settled in Switzerland.\n\n\nLurching toward food riots of his own and loathe to unleash such a bacterium against his own homeland, a “Sealed Train” carrying Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and 31 dissidents departed from exile in Switzerland on April 9, complements of the Kaiser. Leaving Zurich Station amid the jeers and the insults of 100 or so assembled Russians shouting “Spies!” “Traitors!” “Pigs!” “Provocateurs!” Lenin turned to a friend and said. “Either we’ll be swinging from the gallows in three months, or we shall be in power.”\n\nNorth through Germany and across the Baltic Sea, this political plague bacillus traveled the length of Sweden arriving in Petrograd on the evening of April 16, 1917. Like the handful of termites that brought down the mighty oak, this small faction inserted into the body politic that April, would help to radicalize the population and consolidate Bolshevik power.Sealed TrainBy October, Russia would experience its second revolution of the year. The German Empire could breathe easier. The “Russian Steamroller” was out of the war. And none too soon, too. With the Americans entering the war that April, Chief of the General Staff Paul von Hindenburg and his deputy Erich Ludendorff could now move their divisions westward, in time to face the arrival of the American Expeditionary Force.\n\nOn July 17, 1918, an assassination squad from the Ural Soviet of Workers’ Deputies murdered Czar Nicholas along with his wife and children, family physician, servants and dogs. It was the end of the Romanov Dynasty, the end of Czarist Russia. The citizens murdered by the totalitarian system of government which would rise in its place, has been estimated as high as sixty million.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6222038269042969}
+{"content": "Couple on Horseback at Fiesta Baviacora, Sonora\n\nBill Steen is a well-known photographer out of Elgin, AZ. Together with his wife he runs a nonprofit called \"The Canelo Project,\" which connects people, culture and nature in projects using art and architecture.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9958206415176392}
+{"content": "Sat, 07 Mar 2020 03:27:20 -0500WeeblyWed, 28 Dec 2016 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.globalintelligencetrust.com/erin-bailey/chinese-human-rights-defenders-appear-to-have-been-disappeared-forcibly\nAs part of a greater crackdown on Chinese human rights defenders, human rights campaigner Liu Feiyue, lawyer Jiang Tianyong, and activist Huang Qi have all been missing since November. The Chinese government should immediately account for these men who have all been previously harassed by authorities and appear to have disappeared, forcibly.\nOn November 17, national security police arrested Liu Feiyue, founder of the Hubei-based grassroots rights monitoring organization Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch. Although Liu’s family has not received a written notice, Hubei police told Liu’s family that he was being detained on suspicion of “subversion of state power”(1). Liu’s Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch is a grassroots platform that has reported human rights abuses in China since 2006, documenting detention, imprisonment, and harassment of activists, petitioners, and protestors, including the use of involuntary psychiatric detention (2).\nOn November 21, Beijing human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong went missing. He is said to be in police custody for allegedly “leaking state secrets” (3). The Legal Daily said Mr. Jiang was a “citizen advocate” who “meddled in some serious cases, wantonly fabricated and spread rumors on the internet, and incited petitioners and the families of people in legal proceedings to resist state agencies” (4). These accusations are not substantiated. Jiang’s family tried for several days to report his disappearance to various police units, but officers declined to act (5). A state report said Jiang’s family “has been notified according to the law”; however, his family said they have received no such notification and do not know where Jiang is being held (6). Jiang, who was disbarred in 2009 for political reasons, has long been active in human rights cases, and in 2011, he was detained for two months and tortured for his activism (7).\nOn November 28, Huang Qi, founder of Sichuan-based website “64 Tianwang”, was taken from his home in Chengdu, Sichuan Province by public security officers. There has been no formal notification about his detention and his whereabouts remain unknown. Huang, imprisoned twice for a total of eight years, has used his website to report on human rights violations, including the detention of activists, petitioners, and Falun Gong practitioners, and forced demolitions since 1999 (8). Awarded the Press Freedom Prize by Reporters Without Borders in November 2016, 64 Tianwang is one of the longest-running human rights websites based in China (9).\nChina’s Criminal Procedure Law requires police to notify families within 24 hours of criminal detention, but the requirement can be waived in cases involving “national security” and “terrorism,” and when the police believe that such notification could “impede the investigation” (10). Although the Criminal Procedure Law allows lawyer-client meetings within 48 hours of lawyers making such requests, in cases involving “national security,” “terrorism,” and “major corruption,” police approval is required before such meetings can take place (11). This is highly problematic because as Amnesty International’s Nicholas Bequelin has explained, “The definition of what is a ‘state secret’ is over-broad and open-ended. There is no real way to legally challenge a classification. […] Even publicly available information can be considered a state secret if communicated abroad […] State secrets charges have long been the weapon of choice to silence critics, dissenters, journalists and party foe[s]” (12). The secret detention of individuals significantly increases the risk of torture in detention. With the law open to state interpretation, the Chinese government, critics claim, is empowered to silence anyone it feels poses a threat to its agenda. Critics also argue that not only does this punish those who do dissent, but also sends a serious warning to the rest of China that if one does not silence their criticism, the state will silence them instead. \nChina’s use of forced disappearances is not uncommon. In 2011, an anonymous online declaration for a “Jasmine Revolution” resulted in dozens of Chinese government critics disappearing and being held in secret locations for weeks. In 2012, changes to the Criminal Procedure Law made it lawful to hold individuals for up to six months without disclosing their whereabouts (13). In July 2015, the government took into custody more than 280 human rights lawyers, their associates and activists supporting them and concealed information about the detainees whereabouts and wellbeing for months (14). Many of these lawyers faced criminal charges, including subverting state power, which can carry a sentence of up to life in prison.\nThese disappearances reflect a government crackdown on human rights defenders since President Xi Jinping took power. Xi’s leadership has followed an authoritarian path in response to perceived threats to the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy. Under his predecessor, Hu Jintao, China was governed by a softer authoritarian rule. Because he was considered a soft leader, Jintao’s reign saw a spike in corruption and decentralization of power within the party. In response, Xi has orchestrated the harshest crackdowns on free speech and anti-government rhetoric witnessed in China in the last 30 years. President Xi has grown increasingly insecure about independence movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as the influence that Western culture has had on Chinese people. This has caused him to further promote Communist values, and shelter China from the world in terms of cultural integration. President Xi’s domestically popular anti-corruption campaign continues to include prosecutions that violate the right to a fair trial. Activists seeking to defend human rights, such as Liu Feiyue, Jiang Tianyong, and Huang Qi, have faced a surge in punishment under Xi, at times enduring arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, politicized prosecutions, and torture.\nThe Chinese government’s fear of criticism is exemplified by Central Document No. 9, issued by the CCP Central Committee and circulated throughout the Party system nationwide (but leaked outside of China) in 2013. It reveals the CCP’s assessment of the ideological weaknesses it is experiencing inside the Party and in society, and further illustrates the dislike the CCP has toward Western political influence. The document paints a picture of a ruling party under assault from within and without––an extremely unconfident party acting defensively to fend off perceived threats to its continued rule and existence. Noteworthy problems listed include: the promotion of Western constitutional democracy, the promotion of “universal values” in an attempt to weaken the theoretical foundations of the Party’s leadership, the promotion of civil society in an attempt to dismantle the ruling party’s social foundation, and the promotion of the West’s idea of journalism, which is said to challenge China’s principle that the media and publishing system should be subject to Party discipline. The problems explicitly listed exemplify the state’s fear of those who fight for human rights and access to an open and unbiased media. \nThe status of human rights under President Xi Jinping continues in a negative direction. Chinese authorities should order an immediate and impartial investigation into the missing activists whereabouts, publicly disclose its findings, and bring those responsible to justice. If credible evidence of an internationally recognized crime does exist, those in custody should be given a fair and unbiased trial in court that is in line with international human rights standards. Chinese authorities should ensure that those detained are protected from torture and have access to adequate medical care. Additionally, the detainees should be allowed access to their families and a lawyer of their choice. Forced disappearances in China should not go ignored by the international community.\n\n(1) \"China: Three Activists Feared 'Disappeared'\" Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, 16 Dec. 2016. Web. 28 Dec. 2016.\n(2) Ibid. \n(3) Ibid. \n\n(4) \"Lawyer, Web Publisher Accused of Leaking Secrets.\" China Digital Times. China Digital Times, 23 Dec. 2016. Web. 28 Dec. 2016.\n(6) Ibid.\n(7) Ibid. \n(8) Ibid.\n(9) Ibid. \n(10) Ibid.\n(11) Ibid.\n\n(14) \"China: Events of 2015.\" Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 28 Dec. 2016.\n\nImage: © Jess Yu | Dreamstime.com - 1 July protest in Hong Kong\nTue, 20 Dec 2016 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.globalintelligencetrust.com/erin-bailey/south-sudan-setting-the-stage-for-genocide\nWith only 5 years since it gained independence in 2011, South Sudan has struggled through a civil war that has killed approximately 50,000 to 300,000 people and displaced 1.6 million (1). The war broke out in December 2013, following President Salva Kiir’s accusations that former Vice President Riek Machar was plotting a coup d’état. This conflict has resulted in three years of fighting between government forces, rebel troops and allied militias. The fighting has mostly pitted Kiir's Dinkas, the dominant ethnic group estimated to be roughly a third of the population, against Machar's Nuer tribe. But dozens of other ethnic groups, South Sudan have been pulled into the conflict as the fighting spreads. Despite a fragile peace deal signed last year, fighting and attacks on civilians continue.\nThe civil war has resulted in United Nations condemnation and allegations of ethnic cleansing. The UN established the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (UNMISS) in March 2016 to monitor and report on the human rights situation. On December 1, the head of the commission reported that there was a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in the country, involving massacres, starvation, gang rape and the destruction of villages. \"The stage is being set for a repeat of what happened in Rwanda and the international community is under an obligation to prevent it,” commission chairwoman Yasmin Sooka told a news conference (2). \"You have ethnic tensions because people have been displaced from their land based on ethnicity. Everybody believes that a military conflict is almost inevitable in different parts of the country,” Sooka told Al Jazeera (3). The United States also warned of escalating violence. \"We have credible information that the South Sudanese government is currently targeting civilians in Central Equatoria and preparing for large-scale attacks in the coming days or weeks,\" Keith Harper, the US representative at the UN Human Rights Council, said in Geneva (4). In November, the UN's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, told the Security Council there was a risk of \"outright ethnic war\" and the \"potential for genocide” (5). The UN human rights experts are expected to publish a report on their findings in March.\nDespite the UN’s critical reporting on the situation in South Sudan, there has also been criticism of UNMISS and how the UN has handled the crisis. This criticism is justified as the commission’s failure to send help when a call came from the nearby compound under attack resulted in dozens of people being killed between July 8 to 11 (6). At least five foreign aid workers were raped when between 80 and 100 uniformed soldiers overran a hotel (7). In the weeks following the violence, UNMISS also struggled to send out patrols. During this period, several South Sudanese women were raped by soldiers from President Salva Kiir's Sudan People's Liberation Army. Peacekeeper’s deaths could have been prevented with a quicker response and better access to medical care. UN leadership has failed peacekeepers through inadequate emergency care and a timid response to government obstruction (8). Although the UN opened an investigation into the situation, it did not address these failures directly. Instead, the investigation resulted in Ban Ki-moon firing the Kenyan commander of peacekeeping forces in the country for failing to protect civilians.\nThis response resulted in Kenya pulling out its troops deployed in South Sudan as a form of protest against the UN. The Kenyan ministry expressed anger that this incident was unfairly blamed on a single individual, and said that Lieutenant General Ondieki was not to blame for violence that killed dozens of people (9). \"What is clear is that UNMISS suffers from fundamental structural and systemic dysfunctionality, which has severely hindered its ability to discharge its mandate since its inception,\" the ministry said (10). Although the response by UNMISS was inadequate, improved trauma care and medical support is necessary to help them in their mission. The government of South Sudan has tried to relentlessly block UNMISS's movement, including trying to limit deployment of additional peacekeepers. Peacekeepers in the region need real support, including an arms embargo, instead of UN headquarters merely offering condemnations. \n\nOn December 1, South Sudan President Salva Kiir denied allegations by the United Nations that ethnic cleansing in the country's conflict is so bad that the stage is set for genocide.\"There's no such thing in South Sudan. There's no ethnic cleansing,\" he told Reuters news agency in the Johannesburg (11). Security guards prevented further questions.\nDespite Kiir’s denial, the violence cannot be ignored. More than 4,000 people are crossing into Uganda daily, where the Bidibidi refugee settlement, open since August, now hosts some 188,000 people (12). Another 36,600 refugees have reached Ethiopia since early September, and more than 57,000 fled to Congo this year (13). It is the largest mass exodus of any conflict in Central Africa since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In the Equatorias region, the UN commission \"heard numerous accounts of corpses being found along the main roads,\" the UN's Godfrey Musila said (14). Aid workers describe gang rape as so prevalent that it has become 'normal' in this environment (15). UN workers have heard villagers all over the country declaring that they are ready to shed blood to get their land back (16). Additionally, a cattle-raiding feud between rival ethnic groups in Jonglei state has left hundreds of people dead and some 100,000 displaced since South Sudan’s independence (17). The countless accounts of violence and mass human rights violations show that the political conflict has resulted in ethnic cleansing, despite Kiir’s protestations to the contrary. \nThe reasons behind the political crisis and civil war go beyond ethnic conflicts. Although the country is rich in oil, it is still one of Africa’s least developed economies. Instead of using oil money to fund infrastructure, health services or other initiatives that benefit the public good, oil money has been stolen by elites or spent on the military. Post-independence excess of money, as well as arrogance within the government, resulted in shutting down the national oil production because of a dispute with the northern Sudanese president. Kiir’s “big tent” policy, which in practice resulted in using state funds to buy loyalties by licensing corruption, required a large income, which no longer existed (18). This policy had the repercussion of intensified political competition within the ruling party. It was also highly problematic that the nation did not have a professionalized, institutionalized army, but rather a collection of militias. \n\nPolitical conflict caused political identity to default into ethnic identity. In South Sudan, groups, including militias, have been historically organized on an ethnic basis. Likewise, the groups that have organized around the president––the militias that carried out the massacres in Juba in the first days of the conflict in December 2013––have organized on an ethnic basis (19). Political tension and ethnic-based fear and resentment has resulted in people turning inwards to their own ethnic groups for security. Riek Machar resorted to ethnic mobilization because it was quick and cheap. He could call upon the Nuer militia and the so-called “White Army” to mobilize almost overnight, as they have done for some 20 years (20). And then, inevitably, the conflict became primarily Nuer verse Dinka. \nIn order to prevent this civil war from turning into genocide, the international community needs to step in immediately. To avert continued mass bloodshed, the UN experts lists a number of steps: expedite the immediate arrival of the 4,000-strong Regional Protection Force in South Sudan; ensure that the force is not restricted only to the capital; freeze assets; enact targeted sanctions; and implement an arms embargo (21). Peacekeepers on the ground need the support of an arms embargo; otherwise, violence is going to continue to get out of control. Although the UN’s condemnations are a necessary step, it is important that it is followed up with actions that directly address the situation. There also needs to be immediate deployment of the regional protection force already approved by the UN Security Council in resolution 2304. The force's mandate should be expanded to include monitoring, disarming and demobilizing any armed group targeting civilians. In addition, the African Union Commission and the South Sudan government need to urgently establish the proposed Hybrid Court for South Sudan (HCSS). Although it is imperative that the fighting is brought to an end, those responsible for crimes against humanity still need to be held accountable. The international community needs to act now to stop ethnic cleansing, genocide and state-collapse in South Sudan.\n\n(1) Waal, Alex De. \"Understanding the Roots of Conflict in South Sudan.\" Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 14 Sept. 2016. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.\n(2) \"UN: 'Ethnic Cleansing under Way' in South Sudan.\" Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera Media Network, 01 Dec. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. \n(3) Ibid. \n(4) Ibid. \n(5) Ibid. \n(6) \"Kenya Withdraws Troops from UN Mission in South Sudan.\" Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera Media Network, 03 Nov. 2016. Web. 08 Dec. 2016.\n(7) Ibid. \n(8) Wells, Matt. \"The UN Has Failed Its Peacekeepers in S Sudan.\" Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera Media Network, 10 Sept. 2016. Web. 08 Dec. 2016.\n(10) Ibid. \n(11) \"South Sudan Denies UN Allegations of 'ethnic Cleansing'\" Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera Media Network, 1 Dec. 2016. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.\n(12) Ibid. \n(13) Ibid. \n(15) Ibid. \n(16) Ibid. \n(17) \"South Sudan Profile.\" BBC News. BBC, 27 Apr. 2016. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.\n(19) Ibid.\n(20) Ibid. \n(21) \"Security Council Approves Regional Protection Force for UN Mission in South Sudan.\" UN News Center. United Nations, 12 Aug. 2016. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.\n\nImage: © Paskee | Dreamstime.com - Fleeing the fights\nWed, 23 Nov 2016 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.globalintelligencetrust.com/erin-bailey/south-africa-burundi-and-the-gambia-set-dangerous-precedent-leaving-the-icc\nThe decision by South Africa, Burundi and the Gambia to leave the International Criminal Court sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of the African countries under the Court’s jurisdiction. Created in 2002 and governed by the Rome Statute, a 1998 treaty, the ICC is the first legal body with permanent international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity (1). The treaty had 124 member states including 34 African states, which represents the largest regional bloc of member states (2). Described as a “milestone in humankind’s efforts towards a more just world,” in the ICC’s founding documents, the Court aims to hold criminals accountable for their crimes and prevent atrocities from happening again (3). \nSince then, many African countries have expressed dissatisfaction with the Court, which is located in The Hague, and have accused it of bias. The Gambia announced on October 25 that it would withdraw from the ICC, calling the Court an “‘International Caucasian Court’ for the persecution and humiliation of people of color, especially Africans” (4). Burundi labeled the ICC as a ‘Western tool to target African governments’ (5). Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni called the ICC “useless” and praised South Africa’s decision to leave (6). Namibia is also reconsidering its membership. Additionally, the African Union earlier this year said it would consider a mass withdrawal from the Court––a proposal initiated by Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, who had previously appeared at The Hague on allegations of crimes against humanity (7). Despite this, the Court also has supporters in the region. At an African Union summit meeting in July, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia were among the countries that opposed a Kenyan-led drive for a group walkout (8).\nFrustrations with the Court are not unwarranted. Nine out of 10 cases the Court is currently investigating are in African countries (Mali, Cote D’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Libya, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo). Georgia is the only country not in Africa facing an investigation. One example of bias is the fact that the Gambia has pressured the ICC to try and punish the European Union for the deaths of thousands of African migrants trying to reach its shores, yet has been unsuccessful. Additionally, the ICC’s unwillingness to prosecute Tony Blair for his role in the Iraq War is another example of institutional prejudice. Defending the Court against accusations of bias, the ICC’s top prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, a lawyer from the Gambia, points out that six of the nine African cases were brought to the Court by African governments and that two were referred by the United Nations Security Council (9). Also, supporters of the ICC argue that the focus on Africa was partly a result of the difficulties of conducting inquiries in other places and due to a prosecutorial strategy of going after high-level perpetrators (10). The Court has initiated preliminary investigations into situations in Palestine, the Ukraine, Colombia, Afghanistan, as well as the UK’s involvement in the Iraq War, but this preliminary caseload also includes investigations into Nigeria, Burundi, Guinea and Gabon (11).\nSouth Africa’s decision to leave the ICC is especially problematic. The state announced it would leave in response to criticism that it had ignored an order to arrest President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, saying that handing a leader over to the ICC would amount to interference in another country's affairs (12). It's an unfortunate change of positions for a country that was a founding member of the Court in the years after South Africa emerged from apartheid and had a legacy of supporting international justice under Nelson Mandela’s rule. As one of Africa's most developed countries, it is a reasonable fear that more states will follow South Africa’s decision to leave the ICC in a snowball effect. The Gambia already has. Yet, the criticism that South Africa faced for not arresting Mr. Bashir was deserved. Mr. Bashir has been long sought by international prosecutors for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide related to the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. His ability to elude the Court once again is seriously damaging to the six-year campaign to bring him to justice. As a member of the ICC, South Africa had international and domestic legal obligations to arrest the ICC fugitive. \nFacing criticism from human rights groups for the Bashir situation, President Jacob Zuma justified the decision to quit the ICC by arguing it conflicted with the state’s obligations to the African Union to grant immunity to serving heads of states (13). U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Zuma to reconsider its plan to withdraw from the ICC saying he \"appreciates the continued and unwavering commitment of the South African government to justice and accountability\" and hopes it will reconsider its decision (14). Ban said that he regretted the ICC departures and that they could \"send a wrong message on these countries' commitment to justice” (15). South Africa’s decision to leave was not based on the “bias” that has been an understandable criticism of the Court. Zuma’s decision was an attempt to protect leaders who have committed horrible crimes and was a betrayal to all of the victims who have suffered. \nThe African leaders who are being persecuted deserve to be. In April, ICC chief prosecutor announced an investigation that would begin in Burundi for acts of killing, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence (16). This would have most likely found controversial President Pierre Nkrunziza guilty of widespread violence. It is apparent that Burundi’s withdrawal is about protecting top leaders’ own interests and not about unfairness and geopolitical prejudice. Additionally, the Gambia justified their withdrawal as a response to geographical prejudice, yet the state has a questionable human rights record and had serious prospects of facing an ICC investigation eventually. If African states want to blame the Court for bias, that is understandable. Yet, that is not the real reason they are leaving. Domestic considerations, including the possibility of imminent prosecution, are the main motives behind ICC withdrawals.\nThe African Union has pressured its member states to withdraw from the ICC on grounds of alleged institutional bias. In January 2016, the AU met with the purpose of developing a “comprehensive strategy,” which included a withdrawal from the ICC and demanding that serving heads of state, including senior state officials, be granted immunity from prosecution (17). Giving serving heads of state immunity conflicts with the AU’s stated value of “justice.” Another conflict is that Article 4 of the constitutive act of the AU expressly rejects acts of impunity (18). Also, 2016 has been identified as the “African year of human rights with particular focus on the rights of women,” yet countries are backing out of their commitments to protect human rights. It is fraudulent that the AU claims to work in the best interests of the people, but wants impunity for African leaders that are committing atrocious crimes against African people.\nIf problems with the ICC were just about geographical prejudice, the African states would stay in the Court in order to reform it from within and make sure that the pursuit of justice is applied equally to all states and regions. Efforts need to be directed toward reforming the Court, not giving up on it and its goals of a more just world. If African states continue to back out and challenge the Court’s legitimacy, which is very possible due to South Africa’s influence, it could be fatal for an institution designed to protect the world’s most vulnerable people. The African states that do support the ICC need to continue to speak out and express their support of the institution as well as their continued commitment to human rights. Also, the ICC needs to find ways to work with the African Union and ensure that the ideals of justice and human rights are prioritized above state official impunity. It is necessary that the ICC maintains legitimacy for the sake of the victims who are abandoned and hurt by the governments that are supposed to be protecting them. South Africa, Burundi and the Gambia’s decision to leave further hurts their people and is an affront to decades of efforts in the global fight for human rights. \n\n(1) Associated Press. \"AP Explains: Why African States Have Started Leaving the ICC.\" Fox News. FOX News Network, 26 Oct. 2016. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.\n(2) Ibid. \n(3) Chutel, Lynsey. \"The African Leaders Leaving the International Criminal Court Actually Have a Chance to Fix It.\" Quartz Africa. Quartz Africa, 28 Oct. 2016. Web. 2 Nov. 2016.\n(4) Jospeh, Abraham. \"Why Did South Africa, Burundi and Gambia Decide to Leave the International Criminal Court?\" The Wire. The Wire, 1 Nov. 2016. Web. 2 Nov. 2016.\n(5) Ibid.\n(6) Ibid.\n(7) Ibid.\n(8) Chan, Sewell, and Marlise Simons. \"South Africa to Withdraw From International Criminal Court.\" The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2016. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.\n(9) Ibid. \n(10) Ibid. \n(13) Nichols, Michelle. \"U.N. Chief Urges South Africa's Zuma to Reconsider Quitting ICC.\" Reuters. Reuters, 30 Oct. 2016. Web. 2 Nov. 2016.\n(14) Ibid.\n(15) Ibid.\n(16) Ibid.\n(17) Ibid.\n(18) \"Constitutive Act.\" African Union. The African Union Commission, 2001. Web. 2 Nov. 2016.\n\nImage: © STRINGERimages | Dreamstime.com - The Flag And The International Criminal Court In Dramatic Colours Photo\nFri, 28 Oct 2016 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.globalintelligencetrust.com/erin-bailey/the-film-industrys-influence-on-sino-american-relations\nChinese culture has long been portrayed by the Western film and television industry in a negative light. Racism and stereotyping leads to many Asian cultures being lumped together and confused. Often times anything “Oriental” is referred to as Chinese, and cultural appropriation is not uncommon. Asian-American actors are often pigeonholed into the same types of roles, including the perpetual foreigner, the sidekick, or the nerd. For example, in the 1984 film Sixteen Candles, Long Duk Dong was a foreign exchange student whose clueless and drunken behavior provided comic relief at the expense of reinforcing stereotypes. Long Duk Dong has become a symbol of racist caricatures that have showed up in film or television over the years. \nAlthough some might argue that the days of Chinese stereotypes being outright mocked in Western television and films are over, this is not true. On October 3, the Internet blew up after Fox News ran a segment on “The O’Reilly Factor” where reporter Jesse Watters interviewed Chinese immigrants on the streets of New York City’s Chinatown. The cringe-worthy segment used loaded questions and Asian stereotypes to mock Asian Americans. The video contained references to martial arts, Mr. Watters playing with nunchucks, getting a foot massage, and asking if watches being sold on the street were “hot”. The use of subtitles for speakers with accented but perfectly intelligible English bought into the perpetual foreigner syndrome. When one woman says she doesn’t want to vote for Mr. Trump so she was voting for Mrs. Clinton, Watters responds with, “So China can keep ripping us off.” Reacting to the video with disgust, elected officials and activists protested outside the Manhattan headquarters of Fox News. Mayor Bill de Blasio called the segment “vile” and Councilman Peter Koo said, “Passing off this blatantly racist television segment as ‘gentle fun’ not only validates racist stereotypes, it encourages them” (1). \nRacist film and television plays into the xenophobia and anti-China sentiment that many Americans have. Since the majority of Americans will never visit China and have little formal education on the topic, it is easy for them to believe what they see on television. Fear-mongering politicians like Donald Trump, Republican U.S. Presidential candidate, often use China as a scapegoat for problems in the United States and claim it is a threat and hindrance to America’s growth. China was mentioned 12 times during the first presidential debate, mostly by Mr. Trump, who says he will “win” against China if he becomes president (2). This sort of divisive rhetoric is highly problematic as it seeks to bring conflict to Sino-American relations. The Sino-American relationship has been described by world leaders and academics as the world's most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century (3). Having shared political, economic, and security interests, creating an “us vs. them” mentality and positioning the countries at odds against one another is dangerous. For the benefit of both countries, as well as the rest of the world, it is necessary for Sino-American relations to be pragmatic. \nOne of the shared American and Chinese interests is that of the film industry. In recent years China has had growing interest and influence in Hollywood. Measured by movie ticket sales and the massive theater building boom, China is expected to become the world's largest film market next year. Chinese companies also continue to increase their investments in entertainment properties. Dalian Wanda Group purchased the Burbank production company Legendary Entertainment earlier this year, owns the AMC movie theater chain, and agreed to buy Carmike Cinemas for $1.1 billion, which would create the world’s largest cinema chain (4). Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is also teaming up with Wanda to market its films in China (5). Additionally, Hollywood’s highest-grossing director, Steven Spielberg, is working with Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in a partnership that will help Mr. Spielberg’s Amblin Partners produce, finance, and distribute movies in China (6). In exchange, Alibaba will rely on Amblin to become a bigger part of Hollywood’s production and distribution scene (7).\nMany people in the United States are worried about China’s growing influence in Hollywood. Sixteen members of Congress wrote a letter calling for scrutiny of Chinese investments in the U.S. film industry (8). These concerns are not misguided. In efforts to legitimize the continued rule of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping has waged a soft-power campaign to improve China’s global reputation and increase its influence abroad. The campaign requires artists, filmmakers, writers, academics, and the media to “serve socialism” and show “positive energy” by offering uplifting messages about the party (9). A movie cannot play in China unless it is approved by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television (10). American studios that want films distributed in China either submit to Beijing’s censors or self-censor. China’s poor history with respect toward human rights, its authoritarian governance, and mass censorship leads to legitimate concerns about the films the party will approve. Many people are worried about Chinese propaganda slipping into films as well as censorship of any criticism. Therefore, calls for scrutiny of Chinese investments and what films are produced are not wrong. Being a country that upholds creative freedom, the film industry needs to be careful about protecting itself against pressures from the Chinese Communist Party. \nDespite this, the partnerships between China and Hollywood also have many benefits. As China is to become the leading film market, appealing to Chinese audiences is inevitable for American companies. The Chinese market is a place to make up for lost ground if a movie fares poorly in the United States. Many films that are expensive to make depend on the added revenue of overseas sales. Also, distribution partnerships are increasingly important for Hollywood studios, since they have little control over how a movie is marketed or released in China. By working with Chinese firms, American companies can have more control. China and Hollywood working together not only brings economic benefits, but cultural ones. In reference to his partnership with Alibaba, Steven Spielberg said, “We can do co-productions between our company and your company, and we can bring more of China to America, and more of America to China” (11). As the United States and China continue their bilateral relationship it is important for citizens of both countries to better understand each other’s culture to reduce xenophobia and racism. Growing Chinese influence in production should limit the racist and stereotypical portrayals of Chinese culture and people in Western film and television. Although scrutiny of Chinese propaganda is not mistaken, efforts to completely limit Chinese influence in film could precipitate dangerous federal regulation of culture. As China’s influence in Hollywood continues to grow, it is important that a pragmatic approach is taken to preserve favorable Sino-American relations. \n\n(1) Stack, Liam. \"Protest Against Fox Correspondent Accused of Racism for Chinatown Interviews.\" The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 6 Oct. 2016. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.\n(2) DiChristopher, Tom. \"Jack Ma: I'm Not Worried about Anti-China Sentiment on Campaign Trail.\" CNBC. NBCUniversal, 1 Sept. 2016. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.\n(3) Gul, Ferdinand A., and Haitian Lu. Truths and Half Truths: China's Socio-economic Reforms (1978-2010). Oxford: Chandos Pub., 2011. Print.\n(4) Hammond, Ed, Anousha Sakoui, and Alex Sherman. \"AMC's $1.1 Billion Carmike Deal Makes China Movie Powerhouse.\" Bloomberg. Bloomberg, 3 Mar. 2016. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.\n(5) Ma, Wayne, and Erich Schwartzel. \"Sony and Wanda Team Up to Market Films in China.\" Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc., 23 Sept. 2016. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.\n(6) Abkowitz, Alyssa, and Erich Schwartzel. \"Alibaba Goes to Hollywood in Deal With Steven Spielberg’s ...\" Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc, 10 Oct. 2016. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.\n(7) Ibid. \n(8) Daly, Robert. \"Hollywood’s Dangerous Obsession with China.\" Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2016. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.\n(9) Ibid.\n(10) Ibid. \n\nImage: © Waihs | Dreamstime.com - Shenzhen, China: Cinema Photo", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8162128329277039}
+{"content": "Astronomie - Was, wenn wir außerirdisches Leben finden? Ein öffentliches Symposium in Washington DC behandelt dieses provokante Thema.\n\n\nThe preliminary program is extremely exciting. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute will talk about current approaches to finding life beyond Earth, and what happens if we do. Philosopher Clément Vidal will speak about the possible discovery of non-communicative extraterrestrials, while the SETI Institute’s Doug Vakoch will share his insights on how we can communicate with extraterrestrials.\nWe scientists in the field of astrobiology are often preoccupied just trying to find life beyond Earth. But what happens if we actually do? I’m looking forward to a lively discussion in September.\nQuelle: Air&Space", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999998927116394}
+{"content": "[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Natural disasters and large-scale emergencies are part of our reality, no matter how much we wish that weren’t true. Since you cannot prevent the next earthquake, wildfire, or hurricane, you can use that energy to make sure you’re prepared for these outcomes and more.\n\nSeptember is National Preparedness Month, and the Federal Trade Commission urges all people to make a plan. You can start with online resources, and also work to understand what kinds of emergencies are likely to affect you based on your location, age and other demographics.\n\nWhile other knowledgeable sources will help you determine how much clean water or prescription medications you might need to store, the Identity Theft Resource Center wants you to plan for a different emergency aspect: identity theft protection and fraud prevention during events like these.\n\nIn any emergency, you may have to prove your identity while also being cut off from access to your important papers. During the aftermath of a dangerous event, you may need to be able to access your funds and deal with insurance agents, contractors, repairmen and more. Here are some tips to help you through it, including:\n\n1. Secure and access your documents – Your personal papers can play a strange role during a crisis. They are both proof that you are who you say you are, but they are also a hot commodity for scams, fraud and theft. You have to somehow keep them protected at all times, be able to access them in a crisis, but also not let them fall into the wrong hands during times of trouble. Sounds impossible, right?\n\nIt doesn’t have to be. First, remember that if you’re evacuating in a sudden emergency like a house fire or flash flood, your documents are not necessary for receiving medical care, emergency housing or other basic needs. In fact, if someone demands your driver’s license or Social Security card before they’re willing to provide that kind of assistance, you might be dealing with a scammer.\n\nHowever, there will be instances in which you need to provide some kind of proof. When planning your emergency supplies, consider including something like a small, password-protected flash drive that holds pictures of key documents. That way, you’re not endangering your originals—or leaving them stored unsafely when not needed—but you can call them up when the emergency has passed. For every other time, make sure your papers are secured and safe from harm and theft in a safe deposit box, home fire safe, or another protected place.\n\n2. Accessing your funds – As part of any preparedness plan, you need to know how you will get to your money and your insurance documents if you need them. Again, things like emergency medical services should be provided without documentation or money to those in crisis, but if you’re able to provide things like medical insurance cards for less serious issues, that can be helpful.\n\nOne option is to place your expired medical insurance cards in your preparedness items. That way, the hospital will at least have the information they need to contact your provider and verify your current coverage. Again, this is for non-life-threatening situations in which you’re simply separated from your documents.\n\nYour money, however, may be in as much danger after an emergency as your family was during the event. Scammers and fraudulent individuals use news of major events as a gateway to targeting victims with everything from repair scams to fake government handouts. Be very careful about who you deal with after an event, and get all price quotes in writing before work begins. Never turn over your information to someone who claims to be part of an assistance program until you have verified their role with a reputable agency.\n\nIn order to be prepared, one of the best things to do with your documents is to make sure they are always stored together in a safe place. If you need access to them, you can grab the entire bundle of birth certificates, marriage certificates, property deeds, Social Security cards and more then escape the crisis. If a disaster separates you permanently from your important papers, contact the proper authorities as soon as it’s safe and feasible to do so.\n\n\nRead next: The Harm in Hoaxes on Social Media", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9901450276374817}
+{"content": "Descartes Facts\n\nDescartes Facts\nRené Descartes (March 31, 1596 - February 11, 1650) was a seventeenth century philosopher, mathematician, and writer. Despite his French origin, he spent most of his life in the Dutch Republic. Known as the \"father of modern philosophy,\" much of the understanding of Western philosophy is based on his writings.\nInteresting Descartes Facts:\nDescartes may be most widely and well known for his statement, \"Cogito ergo sum, better known by the English translation, \"I think, therefore I am.\"\nDescartes has been bestowed with a moniker \"father of analytical geometry,\" for his work that draws parallels between algebra and geometry. This connection between the fields is important in calculus.\nThis system is used for graphing and plotting by assigning a reference point based on a set of numbers, from which algebraic equations can be represented as shapes by connecting the coordinates.\nAt the same time, Descartes' work is still taught in most mathematics departments, especially his Cartesian coordinate system.\nDescartes' most famous writing may continue to be his Meditations on First Philosophy, which is still often required reading in philosophy courses at most universities.\nIn 1633, Descartes decided not to publish one of his works, Treatise on the World, following the decision by the Catholic Church to condemn Galileo for heresy.\nHis philosophy was opposed by the empiricist school of thought, which was founded on the work of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.\nBoth Descartes and Leibniz made crucial contributions to science as well as mathematics.\nDescartes' work formed the basis for 17th-century rationalism, which was later supported by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, as all three were highly educated in the different areas of mathematics.\nThis experience led him to believe that understanding science would be the source of true wisdom and the major purpose for his life's work.\nThese visions led Descartes to formulate a new philosophy on analytical geometry, specifically the concept that mathematics could be applied to philosophy.\nAccording to accounts, Descartes had a \"vision\" while locked in an oven room; in that time, he had several visions and therefore believed they were divinely inspired.\nWhile studying engineering with the express intent of becoming a military engineer, Descartes was required and encouraged to study as much as he could in the various fields of mathematics.\nWith Descartes' early desire to become a career military officer following earning his law degree, he enlisted in the Army of Breda in the Dutch Republic, under the command of Maurice of Nassau.\n\nRelated Links:\nScientists Facts\nAnimals Facts\n\nEducational Videos", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9804802536964417}
+{"content": "A white police officer who shot and killed a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer was cleared of civil rights violations this week. The department that employed him? Excoriated.\n\n\n\nAn analysis of two years of police data showed blacks in Ferguson were routinely detained without probable cause and twice as likely as whites to be searched. They were more likely to be pulled over, ticketed or arrested. They were far more likely than whites to be charged with petty offenses such as jaywalking or disturbing the peace.\n\nThose constitutional abuses were largely driven by pressure from the city to raise revenue, Justice found. A growing reliance on fees and fines — disproportionately levied against African-Americans — turned the police department into a collection agency, it said.\n\nThe investigation showed that police used force, including Tasers, almost exclusively against blacks. In 100 percent of incidents in which a police dog bit a suspect, the victim was black.\n\nThe investigation also uncovered racist emails exchanged by police and city officials on their government accounts. President Obama as a chimpanzee. Abortions for black women as a way to reduce crime. And worse.\n\n\nThat dynamic is disturbingly familiar in cities across America. That’s why the violent protests that erupted in the streets of Ferguson were echoed in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, Detroit and elsewhere.\n\nThe Ferguson report recommends more than two dozen policing reforms that would typically lead to a negotiated settlement with the Justice Department. Similar agreements are in force in cities including Albuquerque, New Mexico, New Orleans and Cleveland.\n\nThe recommendations could form a template for cities seeking to improve public confidence in law enforcement: more training. Better tracking and review of arrest, search and ticketing practices. Community partnerships. A diverse police force. A transparent system for responding to allegations of police misconduct.\n\nFerguson’s leaders have said they’d have a hard time coming up with the money to implement those changes. They’ve broached the possibility of contracting out police services to St. Louis County. Many residents of Ferguson would be happy to see the police department disbanded. The relationship, they say, is beyond repair.\n\nThat distrust can inflame routine interactions between police and citizens, Holder noted.\n\n“Even in cases where police encounters start off as constitutionally defensible, we found that they frequently and rapidly escalate — and end up blatantly and unnecessarily crossing the line.”\n\nHe was talking about Ferguson, but it could have been any number of cities in America. We hope they know who they are.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8234504461288452}
+{"content": "Cheap Flights to Auckland\n\nThe city of Auckland is located on the Northern Island of the country. With a population of over 1.5 Million, the city is referred to as the most populous urban centre of New Zealand. The city is a popular tourist destination as it is home to some of the most amazing Harbors, Parks, and Beaches. The Sky-Tower of the city is quite popular because it offers some breath-taking views of the entire city. Moreover, the oldest park of the city is named as the Auckland Domain. The park is home to the ever-green and eye-catching winter gardens and based around an extinct volcano.\n\nThe Harbors in the city are quite famous because of the clear waters and enigmatic sea life. The Waite Mata Harbor and the Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium are some of the most important destinations to explore the spectacular Marine life. TravelWideFlights is providing its clients with cheap flights deals to Auckland with proper guidance and supervision. The Museums in the city are also worth visiting as they provide the guests with an inspirational experience. The Auckland War Memorial Museum, the New Zealand Maritime Museum, and Torpedo Bay Navy Museum are some of the most popular ones in the city.\n\nThe customers traveling to Auckland can expect a wonderful and delightful journey with the world's most popular International Airlines.The Airlines traveling to Auckland are Qantas Airways, Emirates Airline, KLM, and China Southern. If you are looking for assistance on your travel plans to Auckland, contact our team. We can also provide our clients with reservations and bookings in the most luxury resorts in the city.\n\nCheap Flights To auckland, Auckland Beach\n\nChina Southern\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQatar Airways\n\n\n\nBritish Airways\n\n\n\nQantas Airways\n\n\n\nAir New Zealand", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6534188985824585}
+{"content": "Meet Butterfly Biologist Frederik Nijhout\n\nJul 2, 2018\n\n\nThat fascination carried over until adulthood and into a career as a developmental physiologist at Duke University. Nijhout researches the patterns and colors on butterfly wings and has drawn surprising connections between the genetic development of butterflies and humans. Host Frank Stasio speaks with Nijhout about his childhood, his long-standing career in physiology and how his work has given him new insights into the dangers of acetaminophen.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.000007152557373}
+{"content": "Berksan has been established in December 1998 to provide engineering and construction services for national and international projects.\n\nBerksan has been working on industrial and construction sector since 2000. Many complex and major projects have done by Berksan, in many different places around the world. The team spirit and work ethic of the Berksan members made a difference in his sector and it always gives the clients pleasure.\n\nBerksan undertakes major Electro-Mechanical Projects which includes power stations, oil and gas plants, refineries, desalination plants, chemical plants, manufacturing plants, airports, hotels, subway systems, business centers as a contractor.\n\nWho we are overview\n\nCore Purpose\n\nWho we are core purpose\nWho we are overview\nAchieving the company's success with personal values is a distinctive characteristic of Berksan.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9638744592666626}
+{"content": "Led Surgical Examination Lights\n\n- Jan 31, 2018-\n\nAllows the patient to sit at any angle in the 0-90°. Sit up and be able to dine with the table or study. The multifunctional table can be disassembled and can be placed at the bottom of the bed when not in use. Often let the patient sit up, can prevent the organization to shrink, reduce edema phenomenon. Contribute to the recovery of activity capability. When the patient sits up, he can remove the bed tail and get out of bed.The operating lamp is a lamp with special function. and the invention and application of the lamp has to start from 1809, the British chemist David invented electric arc lamp, man entered the era of electric lighting.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9931234121322632}
+{"content": "Central Waigani\n\nSlow Christmas for city shops\n\nThis means a less stressful day for shops throughout the nation’s capital.\n\nLoop PNG visited major shops like RH Hypermart and Stop N Shop, which were open today.\n\nIt was a normal Sunday for them, with less customers and was less hectic than the two previous days.\n\nAccording to a shop assistant at Stop N Shop, there was a little bit of a crowd in the morning but it had all cleared out.\n\nThe two previous days however, were the busiest, they confirmed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9663036465644836}
+{"content": "Carbon announces EPX 82 and EPU 41 materials\n\nEPU 41 - production-grade elastomeric material. Image:\n\nA Silicon Valley-based digital 3D Manufacturing company, Carbon has announced two new materials: Epoxy (EPX) 82 and Elastomeric Polyurethane (EPU) 41.\n\nEPX 82 is a high-strength engineering material with a heat-deflection temperature of 115 °C and good impact strength, making it ideal for applications requiring a balance of strength, toughness, and thermal-cycling durability such as connectors, brackets, and housings in the automotive and industrial sectors. Its mechanical properties are comparable to lightly glass-filled thermoplastics (e.g., 20% GF-PBT, 15% GF-Nylon) and meet the USCAR-2 fluid compatibility standards.\n\nThe launch of EPU 41 adds to Carbon’s unparalleled elastomeric materials families (SIL 30, EPU 40, and EPU 41), and is especially well-suited for producing elastomeric lattice geometries that can outperform traditional foams. It has higher resilience at room and low temperatures compared to EPU 40, and its tear strength, energy return, and elongation make it perfect for cushioning, impact absorption, and comfort. EPU 41 also performs very well in functional testing, including fatigue, hydrolysis, UV-stability, and plastic deformation tests.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9851985573768616}
+{"content": "Beginner’s guide to key AI terms and concepts\n\nThis is a short guide to key terms and concepts. You can read a longer paper written by us for the European Rights Academy about the way in which AI and Machine Learning can be discriminatory here.\n\nArtificial Intelligence\n\nIn broad terms, Artificial Intelligence or AI is a form of technology, the aim of which is to create computer based systems which are able to mimic human intelligence. A detailed paper exploring the meaning of AI has been produced by the European Commission and is available here.\n\n\n\nAlgorithmic decision systems (ADS)\n\nAlgorithms are increasingly involved in systems used to support decision making; these are sometimes known as ‘ADS’ (algorithmic decision systems)\n\nDirect discrimination\n\nDirect discrimination is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. It will occur when someone is treated less favourably because of a protected characteristic.\n\nImportantly, if a rule or provision is applied which means that everyone who is disadvantaged by it shares a particular protected characteristic, and everyone who is not disadvantaged by that rule or provision does not possess the protected characteristic, then direct discrimination will have occurred. A detailed exposition of these type of “proxy” direct discrimination claims is available here.\n\nOther than age discrimination, direct discrimination can never be justified and will always be unlawful unless an exception contained within the Equality Act 2010 applies.\n\nThe concept of direct discrimination within the Equality Act 2010 is broad enough to cover “discrimination by association” and “perceived discrimination”. In neither case does the claimant need to actually possess the protected characteristic.\n\n\nThe design and development of AI systems in accordance with an ethical system from the outset.\n\nEquality Act 2010\n\nKey piece of legislation in Great Britain which prohibits many forms of discrimination. A full copy is available here.\n\n\nHarassment is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. It will occur when a person (A) engages in unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, and the conduct has the purpose or effect of violating B’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for B.\n\nHuman-centric approach to AI\n\nTo create human-centric AI is to ensure that human values are at its core, such as, the principle of non-discrimination and respect for fundamental rights.\n\nIndirect discrimination\n\nIndirect discrimination is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. It will occur where a person (A) applies to another person (B) a provision, criterion or practice which is applies or would apply to everyone, but it puts or would put persons with whom B shares a protected characteristics at a particular disadvantage when compared with persons with whom B does not share it, and B is at this disadvantage and A cannot show it to be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.\n\nMachine learning\n\nThe power of an algorithm is often linked to “machine learning” which is a means of refining algorithms and making them more “intelligent”.\n\nHere is an extract from “The privacy pro’s guide to explainability in machine learning” published by the International Association of Privacy Professionals, which explains more:\n\nWhat is machine learning?\nMachine learning is a technique that allows algorithms to extract correlations from data with minimal supervision. The goals of machine learning can be quite varied, but they often involve trying to maximize the accuracy of an algorithm’s prediction. In machine learning parlance, a particular algorithm is often called a “model,” and these models take data as input and output a particular prediction. For example, the input data could be a customer’s shopping history and the output could be products that customer is likely to buy in the future. The model makes accurate predictions by attempting to change its internal parameters — the various ways it combines the input data — to maximize its predictive accuracy. These models may have relatively few parameters, or they may have millions that interact in complex, unanticipated ways. As computing power has increased over the last few decades, data scientists have discovered new ways to quickly train these models. As a result, the number — and power — of complex models with thousands or millions of parameters has vastly increased. These types of models are becoming easier to use, even for non-data scientists, and as a result, they might be coming to an organization near you.\n\nProtected characteristics\n\nThese are human characteristics which are protected under the Equality Act 2010 such as it is unlawful to discriminate in relation to them. They include:\n\n • Gender;\n • Age;\n • Race;\n • Religion or belief;\n • Disability; and\n • Sexual orientation.\n\nReasonable adjustments\n\nThe Equality Act 2010 imposes an obligation upon employers, service providers and public authorities to make reasonable adjustments.\n\nThis means that where a provision, criterion or practice of A’s puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who are not disabled, A must take such steps as it is reasonable to have to take to avoid the disadvantage.\n\nSexual Harassment\n\nSexual harassment is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. It will usually occur when a person (A) engages in unwanted conduct of a sexual nature and the conduct has the purpose or effect of violating B’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for B.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9986472725868225}
+{"content": "An introduction to BiniSystems technologies\n\n\nThis was the first Binishells and the fist example of Construction Automation in History. A sequence of other technologies based on the concept of Construction Automation were subsequently developed", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000096559524536}
+{"content": "girls wearing mask\n\n\n\nCoronaviruses constitute the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, in the family Coronaviridae, order Nidovirales, and realm Riboviria.They are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. The genome size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 27 to 34 kilobases, the largest among known RNA viruses.The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”, which refers to the characteristic appearance reminiscent of a crown or a solar corona around the virions (virus particles) when viewed under two-dimensional transmission electron microscopy, due to the surface covering in club-shaped protein spikes.\n\n\n\nThe name “coronavirus” is derived from Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “wreath”, itself a borrowing from Greek κορώνη korṓnē, “garland, wreath”. The name refers to the characteristic appearance of virions (the infective form of the virus) by electron microscopy, which have a fringe of large, bulbous surface projections creating an image reminiscent of a crown or of a solar corona. This morphology is created by the viral spike peplomers, which are proteins on the surface of the virus .\n\nCoronaviruses are large pleomorphic spherical particles with bulbous surface projections. The diameter of the virus particles is around 120 nm. The envelope of the virus in electron micrographs appears as a distinct pair of electron dense shells.\n\nThe viral envelope consists of a lipid bilayer where the membrane (M), envelope (E) and spike (S) structural proteins are anchored. A subset of coronaviruses (specifically the members of Betacoronavirus subgroup A) also have a shorter spike-like surface protein called hemagglutinin esterase (HE).\n\nInside the envelope, there is the nucleocapsid, which is formed from multiple copies of the nucleocapsid (N) protein, which are bound to the positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome in a continuous beads-on-a-string type conformation. The genome size for coronaviruses ranges from approximately 27 to 34 kilobases. The lipid bilayer envelope, membrane proteins, and nucleocapsid protect the virus when it is outside the host cell.\nInfection begins when the virus enters the host organism and the spike protein attaches to its complementary host cell receptor. After attachment, a protease of the host cell cleaves and activates the receptor-attached spike protein. Depending on the host cell protease available, cleavage and activation allows cell entry through endocytosis or direct fusion of the viral envelop with the host membrane.\n\nOn entry into the host cell, the virus particle is uncoated, and its genome enters the cell cytoplasm. The coronavirus RNA genome has a 5′ methylated cap and a 3′ polyadenylated tail, which allows the RNA to attach to the host cell’s ribosome for translation. The host ribosome translates the initial overlapping open reading frame of the virus genome and forms a long polyprotein. The polyprotein has its own proteases which cleave the polyprotein into multiple nonstructural proteins.\n\nA number of the nonstructural proteins coalesce to form a multi-protein replicase-transcriptase complex (RTC). The main replicase-transcriptase protein is the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). It is directly involved in the replication and transcription of RNA from an RNA strand. The other nonstructural proteins in the complex assist in the replication and transcription process. The exoribonuclease non-structural protein for instance provides extra fidelity to replication by providing a proofreading function which the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase lacks.\n\nOne of the main functions of the complex is to replicate the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense genomic RNA from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the replication of positive-sense genomic RNA from the negative-sense genomic RNA. The other important function of the complex is to transcribe the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the transcription of these negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules to their corresponding positive-sense mRNAs.\n\nThe replicated positive-sense genomic RNA becomes the genome of the progeny viruses. The mRNAs are gene transcripts of the last third of the virus genome after the initial overlapping reading frame. These mRNAs are translated by the host’s ribosomes into the structural proteins and a number of accessory proteins. RNA translation occurs inside the endoplasmic reticulum. The viral structural proteins S, E, and M move along the secretory pathway into the Golgi intermediate compartment. There, the M proteins direct most protein-protein interactions required for assembly of viruses following its binding to the nucleocapsid.Progeny viruses are then released from the host cell by exocytosis through secretory vesicles.\n\nHuman to human transmission of coronaviruses is primarily thought to occur among close contacts via respiratory droplets generated by sneezing and coughing.The interaction of the coronavirus spike protein with its complement host cell receptor is central in determining the tissue tropism, infectivity, and species range of the virus. The SARS coronavirus, for example, infects human cells by attaching to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor.\n\nThe scientific name for coronavirus is Orthocoronavirinae or Coronavirinae.Coronavirus belongs to the family of Coronaviridae.\n\nGenus: Alphacoronavirus\n Species: Human coronavirus 229E, Human coronavirus NL63, Miniopterus bat coronavirus 1, Miniopterus bat coronavirus HKU8, Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, Rhinolophus bat coronavirus HKU2, Scotophilus bat coronavirus 512\nGenus Betacoronavirus; type species: Murine coronavirus\n Species: Betacoronavirus 1, Human coronavirus HKU1, Murine coronavirus, Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5, Rousettus bat coronavirus HKU9, Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, Tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4, Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, Human coronavirus OC43, Hedgehog coronavirus 1 (EriCoV)\nGenus Gammacoronavirus; type species: Infectious bronchitis virus\n Species: Beluga whale coronavirus SW1, Infectious bronchitis virus\nGenus Deltacoronavirus; type species: Bulbul coronavirus HKU11\n Species: Bulbul coronavirus HKU11, Porcine coronavirus HKU15\n\n\nThe most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all coronaviruses has been placed at around 8000 BCE.The MRCAs of the Alphacoronavirus line has been placed at about 2400 BCE, the Betacoronavirus line at 3300 BCE, the Gammacoronavirus line at 2800 BCE, and the Deltacoronavirus line at about 3000 BCE. It appears that bats and birds, as warm-blooded flying vertebrates, are ideal hosts for the coronavirus gene source (with bats for Alphacoronavirus and Betacoronavirus, and birds for Gammacoronavirus and Deltacoronavirus) to fuel coronavirus evolution and dissemination.\n\nBovine coronavirus and canine respiratory coronaviruses diverged from a common ancestor in 1951. Bovine coronavirus and human coronavirus OC43 diverged around the 1890s. Bovine coronavirus diverged from the equine coronavirus species at the end of the 18th century.\n\nThe MRCA of human coronavirus OC43 has been dated to the 1950s.\n\nMERS-CoV, although related to several bat coronavirus species, appears to have diverged from these several centuries ago.The human coronavirus NL63 and a bat coronavirus shared an MRCA 563–822 years ago.\n\nThe most closely related bat coronavirus and SARS-CoV diverged in 1986.A path of evolution of the SARS virus and keen relationship with bats have been proposed. The authors suggest that the coronaviruses have been coevolved with bats for a long time and the ancestors of SARS-CoV first infected the species of the genus Hipposideridae, subsequently spread to species of the Rhinolophidae and then to civets, and finally to humans.\n\nAlpaca coronavirus and human coronavirus 229E diverged before 1960.\nHuman coronaviruses\n\nCoronaviruses vary significantly in risk factor. Some can kill more than 30% of those infected (such as MERS-CoV), and some are relatively harmless, such as the common cold. Coronaviruses cause colds with major symptoms, such as fever, and sore throat from swollen adenoids, occurring primarily in the winter and early spring seasons. Coronaviruses can cause pneumonia (either direct viral pneumonia or a secondary bacterial pneumonia) and bronchitis (either direct viral bronchitis or a secondary bacterial bronchitis).The much publicized human coronavirus discovered in 2003, SARS-CoV, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), has a unique pathogenesis because it causes both upper and lower respiratory tract infections.\n\nSeven strains of human coronaviruses are known:\n\nHuman coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E)\nHuman coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43)\nSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)\nHuman coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63, New Haven coronavirus)\nHuman coronavirus HKU1\nSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), previously known as 2019-nCoV or \"novel coronavirus 2019\"\n\n\nCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)\nMain article: Coronavirus disease 2019\nCharacteristics of patients\nwho have been infected with\nSARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV (\n\n\n\nIn December 2019, a pneumonia outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO),later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Some researchers have suggested that the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market may not be the original source of viral transmission to humans.\n\nAs of 16 March 2020, there have been at least 6,513 confirmed deaths and more than 169,387 confirmed cases in the coronavirus pneumonia pandemic. The Wuhan strain has been identified as a new strain of Betacoronavirus from group 2B with approximately 70% genetic similarity to the SARS-CoV.The virus has a 96% similarity to a bat coronavirus, so it is widely suspected to originate from bats as well. The pandemic has resulted in serious travel restrictions.\nOther animals\n\nCoronaviruses have been recognized as causing pathological conditions in veterinary medicine since the early 1970s. Except for avian infectious bronchitis, the major related diseases have mainly an intestinal location.\nDiseases caused\n\nCoronaviruses primarily infect the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds. They also cause a range of diseases in farm animals and domesticated pets, some of which can be serious and are a threat to the farming industry. In chickens, the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a coronavirus, targets not only the respiratory tract but also the urogenital tract. The virus can spread to different organs throughout the chicken.Economically significant coronaviruses of farm animals include porcine coronavirus (transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus, TGE) and bovine coronavirus, which both result in diarrhea in young animals. Feline coronavirus: two forms, feline enteric coronavirus is a pathogen of minor clinical significance, but spontaneous mutation of this virus can result in feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a disease associated with high mortality. Similarly, there are two types of coronavirus that infect ferrets: Ferret enteric coronavirus causes a gastrointestinal syndrome known as epizootic catarrhal enteritis (ECE), and a more lethal systemic version of the virus (like FIP in cats) known as ferret systemic coronavirus (FSC). There are two types of canine coronavirus (CCoV), one that causes mild gastrointestinal disease and one that has been found to cause respiratory disease. Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is a coronavirus that causes an epidemic murine illness with high mortality, especially among colonies of laboratory mice.Sialodacryoadenitis virus (SDAV) is highly infectious coronavirus of laboratory rats, which can be transmitted between individuals by direct contact and indirectly by aerosol. Acute infections have high morbidity and tropism for the salivary, lachrymal and harderian glands.\n\nA HKU2-related bat coronavirus called swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) causes diarrhea in pigs.\n\nPrior to the discovery of SARS-CoV, MHV had been the best-studied coronavirus both in vivo and in vitro as well as at the molecular level. Some strains of MHV cause a progressive demyelinating encephalitis in mice which has been used as a murine model for multiple sclerosis. Significant research efforts have been focused on elucidating the viral pathogenesis of these animal coronaviruses, especially by virologists interested in veterinary and zoonotic diseases.\nIn domestic animals\n\nInfectious bronchitis virus (IBV) causes avian infectious bronchitis.\nPorcine coronavirus (transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus of pigs, TGEV).\nBovine coronavirus (BCV), responsible for severe profuse enteritis in of young calves.\nFeline coronavirus (FCoV) causes mild enteritis in cats as well as severe Feline infectious peritonitis (other variants of the same virus).\nthe two types of canine coronavirus (CCoV) (one causing enteritis, the other found in respiratory diseases).\nTurkey coronavirus (TCV) causes enteritis in turkeys.\nFerret enteric coronavirus causes epizootic catarrhal enteritis in ferrets.\nFerret systemic coronavirus causes FIP-like systemic syndrome in ferrets.\nPantropic canine coronavirus.\nRabbit enteric coronavirus causes acute gastrointestinal disease and diarrhea in young European rabbits. Mortality rates are high.\nPorcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PED or PEDV), has emerged around the world.\nSources @\n\nSubmit your content\n\n\nLeave a Reply", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7806687951087952}
+{"content": "body composition\n\nYou don't owe anyone an explanation about your lifestyle. Do what's right for you.\nAerobic endurance will carry over to better performance in the weight room.\nAchieving the ideal body is up to us and is based around how we define it.\nWinter means it’s time to knuckle down and get some decent training through the cold months.\nScience shows us the myriad benefits of adding hot yoga to your routine.\nYou have a relationship with your health and fitness. But have you been throwing up red flags and deal breakers when it comes to your success? Here are ten you might be guilty of.\nEvery firm has a certain amount of overhead. In the human body, we can think of our body fat as overhead. How does this overhead affect us as weightlifters?\nBetaine plays a critical role in general health and seem to be a supplement that holds potential value to athletes - especially those looking to improve their appearance and reduce fat.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5480930805206299}
+{"content": "The oil and gas industry is pivoting. Where other industries have been forging ahead, the oil and gas sector has been lagging behind through outdated technology and methodologies. But there’s a pressure on them to perform better. A global push for a reduced environmental impact coupled with the rise of new technologies is causing a shift in the industry.\n\nIn fact, Deloitte takes it a step further by explaining that the reason for the success being seen in the sector today is purely down to a willingness to solve complex challenges.\n\nBut as with any organisation who has made a change – if they want to stay ahead of the game, they need to keep reinventing themselves.\n\nBut what does it mean to be a true innovation in this market? According to a Deloitte Oil & Gas Conference held in Rotterdam, “Truly successful innovators manage innovation as a portfolio of ambitions and resource their efforts accordingly. They know where to play, how to win, where to invest and where to expect returns. They go beyond product innovation and discern ten types of innovation. Also, they treat innovation as a discipline, so for instance they create a smart metric system and valuation methodology that reflects the ambition.”\n\nInnovation doesn’t always mean coming up with the latest cool product or gadget – but quite often starts by thinking about something in a different way, or doing something in a way that makes it easier to get done or improve productivity. And Deloitte agrees. In fact, they say this: “When discussing innovation, we tend to think about product innovation only, whereas we should consider a much more diverse set of innovation types, consisting of profit model, network, structure, process, product performance, product system, service, channel, brand, and customer engagement“.\n\nDeloitte has created a great detailed guide to each of these. Here are our summaries of these 10.\n\nProfit Model Innovation\n\nHow you make money\n\n\nAlso referred to as Business Model innovation, changes in customer behaviour, globalisation and technological innovations are currently creating a “window of opportunity” for new business models to emerge and whether it’s a trend towards subscription models, or whether we move from the own it to lease it for life model, new ways of making money are springing up all around us. Probably the most famous example of a innovation in profit model, was Roll’s Royce’s decision to move towards a “power-by-the-hour” model. The new business model does not sell engines, but thrust hours to the airlines: The airlines pay only for the operating hours of the engines and are no longer obliged to buy the turbine engines.\n\nNetwork Innovation\n\nHow you connect with others to create value\n\nWhat Deloitte says: “In today’s hyper-connected world, no company can or should do everything alone. Network innovations provide a way for firms to take advantage of other companies’ processes, technologies, offerings, channels, and brands—pretty much any and every component of a business. These innovations mean a firm can capitalise on its own strengths while harnessing the capabilities and assets of others. Network innovations also help executives to share risk in developing new offers and ventures. These collaborations can be brief or enduring, and they can be formed between close allies or even staunch competitors.”\n\nWhether it’s Microsoft researching a solution to tedious mobile device charging protocols, called AutoCharge that charges devices automatically using light beams, or whether it’s the development of MAMMOET, a European Commission-sponsored project, which aims to enable much more efficient mobile data transfers, network innovation enables us to communicate better and be even better connected to the world around us.\n\nStructure Innovation\n\nHow you organise and align your talent and assets\n\nWhat Deloitte says: “Structure innovations are focused on organising company assets—hard, human, or intangible—in unique ways that create value. They can include everything from superior talent management systems to ingenious configurations of heavy capital equipment. An enterprise’s fixed costs and corporate functions can also be improved through Structure innovations, including departments such as Human Resources, R&D, and IT. Ideally, such innovations also help attract talent to the organisation by creating supremely productive working environments or fostering a level of performance that competitors can’t match.”\n\nIn this era where organisations are up against the biggest skills gap of all time – finding, and retaining, the best skill is paramount – whether that be through physical employment, or a more networked infrastructure that lends itself to collaborative working, being accessible and having systems that support that will stand your organisation in good stead to have the right talent, as and when you need it.\n\nProcess Innovation\n\nHow you use signature or superior methods to do your work\n\nWhat Deloitte says: “Process innovations involve the activities and operations that produce an enterprise’s primary offerings. Innovating here requires a dramatic change from “business as usual” that enables the company to use unique capabilities, function efficiently, adapt quickly, and build market–leading margins. Process innovations often form the core competency of an enterprise, and may include patented or proprietary approaches that yield advantage for years or even decades. Ideally, they are the “special sauce” you use that competitors simply can’t replicate.”\n\nAnd this is what we love. Getting stuck into the very core that runs our daily business. And, surprisingly, businesses still get this wrong. Organisations wonder why their teams are inefficient, why their revenue-streams appear to be drying up – and simply because of operational process that is out of balance. Hidden revenue opportunities lurk where exhaustive process hinders – and looking at freshening up the way you do things, paying close attention to the expectations of your customers, should be your first step towards getting your operational business in order.\n\nProduct Performance Innovation\n\nHow you develop distinguishing features and functionality\n\nWhat Deloitte says: “Product Performance innovations address the value, features, and quality of a company’s offering. This type of innovation involves both entirely new products as well as updates and line extensions that add substantial value. Too often, people mistake Product Performance for the sum of innovation. It’s certainly important, but it’s always worth remembering that it is only one of the Ten Types of Innovation, and it’s often the easiest for competitors to copy. Think about any product or feature war you’ve witnessed—whether torque and toughness in trucks, toothbrushes that are easier to hold and use, even with baby strollers. Too quickly, it all devolves into an expensive mad dash to parity. Product Performance innovations that deliver long-term competitive advantage are the exception rather than the rule.”\n\nA great example of this type of innovation at its peak is when Toyota decided to invest a substantial amount into the development of the Toyota Prius. Remember, back in the day, when a hybrid driving option was cutting edge stuff? Well, first commercialised by Toyota, the Prius was leading of it’s kind. Toyota had enough of a product performance advantage, and perhaps more importantly, committed to the Prius’ success, that the Prius model continues to account for about half of all hybrids sold in the US, with Toyota owning nearly 64% of the US hybrid market. Yep. That was innovation.\n\nProduct System Innovation\n\nHow you create complementary products and services\n\nWhat Deloitte says, “Product System innovations are rooted in how individual products and services connect or bundle together to create a robust and scalable system. This is fostered through interoperability, modularity, integration, and other ways of creating valuable connections between otherwise distinct and disparate offerings. Product System innovations help you build ecosystems that captivate and delight customers and defend against competitors.”\n\nThe concept of IFTTT: Better known as “if this, then that” system language. When the IFTTT concept was created, it revolutionised how we do things. It has, and still does, given us control over the essential parts of our day-to-day lives. These “if this, then that” statements are called “recipes,” as they allow you to combine different devices, trigger and action ingredients, at will. For example, if the temperature in my house drops to below 5 degrees, turn my heating on, and switch the lights on through my connected HIVE system.\n\nService Innovation\n\nHow you support and amplify the value of your offerings\n\nWhat Deloitte says, “Service innovations ensure and enhance the utility, performance, and apparent value of an offering. They make a product easier to try, use, and enjoy; they reveal features and functionality customers might otherwise overlook; and they fix problems and smooth rough patches in the customer journey. Done well, they elevate even bland and average products into compelling experiences that customers come back for again and again.”\n\nThis type of innovation is completely customer-centric and changes the way your customer does. Whether their buying habits change, or their demand does, adapting to new buying behaviour means your business changes and keeps in pace with their requirements. We only need to mention the way Apple and Netflix has changed the way we listen to music, or watch movies.\n\nChannel Innovation\n\nHow you deliver your offerings to customers and users\n\nWhat Deloitte says: “Channel innovations encompass all the ways that you connect your company’s offerings with your customers and users. While e-commerce has emerged as a dominant force in recent years, traditional channels such as physical stores are still important — particularly when it comes to creating immersive experiences. Skilled innovators in this type often find multiple but complementary ways to bring their products and services to customers. Their goal is to ensure that users can buy what they want, when and how they want it, with minimal friction and cost and maximum delight.”\n\nBack in the day, when the birth of the automobile happened – it completely changed the channel of supply and demand – the notion of “delivery” became one synonymous with efficiency and luxury. And still that continues today – with the evolution of delivery now spreading to as far as emergency supplies being delivered by drone.\n\nBrand Innovation\n\nHow you represent your offerings and business\n\nWhat Deloitte says: “Brand innovations help to ensure that customers and users recognise, remember, and prefer your offerings to those of competitors or substitutes. Great ones distill a “promise” that attracts buyers and conveys a distinct identity. They are typically the result of carefully crafted strategies that are implemented across many touch-points between your company and your customers, including communications, advertising, service interactions, channel environments, and employee and business partner conduct. Brand innovations can transform commodities into prized products, and confer meaning, intent, and value to your offerings and your enterprise.”\n\nCustomers have moved beyond buying products. They buy meaning. They buy reputation. They buy access. Brands no longer simply represent a product – they have become the product. Case in point: Dyson. Apple. Amazon.\n\nCustomer Engagement Innovation\n\nHow you foster compelling interactions\n\nWhat Deloitte says: “Customer Engagement innovations are all about understanding the deep-seated aspirations of customers and users, and using those insights to develop meaningful connections between them and your company. Great Customer Engagement innovations provide broad avenues for exploration, and help people find ways to make parts of their lives more memorable, fulfilling, delightful — even magical.”\n\nEstée Lauder were onto something with the development of their Consumer Engagement Centre of Excellence in 2016, which centralised consumer learning and insight. They knew that by centralising consumer learning, coupled with data collection such as social listening and focus groups, the team would be able to gather insights into a diverse range of consumers and use the learnings to drive innovation across the company. And they’re still doing it today – and they continue to revolutionise their industry.\n\nIf you’re ready to delve into a new way of doing things, and need help getting there, we’d love to talk to you.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6070259213447571}
+{"content": "Our survival depends on the oceans.\n\nThe world’s population is constantly growing and 60 percent of people lives in coastal areas. Hundreds of millions of people depend on the seas for income and nutrition.\n\nMarine ecosystems are under threat.\n\nHabitat destruction, pollution and ocean acidification caused by unsustainable fishing, maritime trade and human misconduct have led to a serious worsening of sea conditions, endangering the vital marine resources for future generations.\n\nGlobal demand for seafood products is growing rapidly.\n\nDemand for seafood products is growing roughly twice as fast as human population growth, putting enormous pressure on fish stocks, which are now either fully exploited or overexploited and are estimated at 88 percent.\n\nAquaculture is only part of the answer.\n\nGrowth in aquaculture (fish farming) has been helping mitigate the decline in wild-caught stocks and now accounts for over 50 percent of fish destined for human consumption. But, if not managed sustainably, it can have adverse impacts on aquatic habitats and wild populations.\n\nIllegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is increasing\n\n1 out of 5 fish caught is thought to come from IUU fishing. The environmental effects are compounded by the social problem of poor labour conditions on IUU boats.\n\nGlobal trade also has a significant impact on the seas.\n\nNowadays, around 90 percent of the international trade in goods derives from the sea, causing pollution and collisions between ships and whales.\n\nFaced with all these environmental and social issues…\n\nThere is a global will to take action now.\n\nThe United Nations 2020 Sustainable Development Goals address the urgency of conserving marine resources and using them sustainably. Friend of the Sea’s mission reflects these goals.\n\nwhy sustainable\n\nConsumers are increasingly looking for sustainable solutions.\n\nSustainable management of aquatic resources is the only way to ensure a future for our oceans, and consequently for the human consumption of seafood products.\n\nContinue to contribute to the protection of the marine environment. Choose only Friend of the Sea certified sustainable seafood at your grocery store.\n\nDolphin and whale watching", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9849625825881958}
+{"content": "From Mars Attacks Cards 1962\n\nAs expected, coming in a range of materials means that there is extensive flexibility with respect to colour choice. Throughout their history the Moon Boot has always been a bright and happy addition to any winter wardrobe and now is no different. Colour examples include neutral and subtle tones such as ochre, grey, dark brown, black and ice through to light pink, violet, azure, petrol blue, orange and sea green. More conspicuous colours consist of silver, ivory, burgundy, bouganville, apricot, red and yellow especially since some also come in a metallic finish. The Face Behind The Veil. Titan is a little larger than Mercury--the smallest major planet inhabiting our Solar System. Indeed, Titan would have been classified as a major planet in its own right if it orbited our Sun instead of Saturn. The Huygens Probe images lifted the veil from the face of this distant moon-world, revealing a youthful surface that is both smooth and relatively free of impact craters. Huygens also found that this icy, hydrocarbon-saturated moon's climate includes those heavy rains of gasoline, as well as raging, roaring winds. Some of Titan's surface features were found to be hauntingly akin to certain surface features on Earth. Sun in Sagittarius. With the transition of the Sun into the next sign of Sagittarius we will move into a more extroverted and expanding flow of energy with many ideas and inspirations.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6870446801185608}
+{"content": "0 have signed. Let’s get to 1,500!\n\nI'm signing this for the elected council of Medicine Hat to plan permits to the citizens of Medicine Hat, and implement a program allowing for the the care, and maintenance of backyard chickens! \n\nThis is the best way to provide for our own families during a time of economic struggle, and help reduce the negative impacts of factory farming and egg plants. \n\nThis program has seen incredible success in other cities like Red Deer and there is no viable reason for this not to occur in Medicine Hat!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8377121686935425}
+{"content": "Studio Ongarato\n\nMulti-disciplinary design studio\n\n\nFor 25 years, Studio Ongarato has challenged the conventions of branding, wayfinding and placemaking. Founded always on a rigorous, strategic interrogation of brand and context, our ideas transcend form and dimension to connect on an experiential level that elevates clients to the forefront of cultural influence. Like the concepts they create, the people of Studio Ongarato are diverse and fiercely original. Renowned as designers, curators and editors, architects, art directors and craftspeople, we seek unique, compelling outcomes for each project, often in close collaboration with leading artists and artisans. Based in Melbourne, Hong Kong and Dubai, the studio operates without borders for clients drawn principally from the realms of hospitality and hotels, property and real estate, arts and culture.\n\n\nInstagram @studio.ongarato", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9959920048713684}
+{"content": "A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet that generates thrust by jet propulsion. This broad definition includes airbreathing jet engines. In general, jet engines are combustion engines. The term “jet engine” is commonly used only for airbreathing jet engines.\n\nNo products were found matching your selection.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998773336410522}
+{"content": "\n\nLatest Resources\n\nReal-time data improves admission and advising experience\n\n\nIntegrating systems to increase retention\n\nHear how Southern New Hampshire University is improving student outcomes by getting to the right students, at the right time, with the right data.\n\nHow do students feel about the registration process?\n\n\nHow do students learn what courses transfer?\n\n\nWhat do students discuss with their advisors?\n\n\nThe cost of changing majors\n\n\nRoyal Holloway - Digital Wave\nRoyal Holloway prepares for digital transformation in higher education\n\n\nChatbots on Campus\n\n\nUniversity of San Diego - Registration is a snap\n\nAfter the University of San Diego implemented the updated Banner® Registration application in Banner® Student, it had a 47 percent decrease in call volume in regards to registration issues and registration help desk tickets diminished significantly. Watch the video to learn why this efficient, easy-to-use app delivers a superior user experience.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9988643527030945}
+{"content": "The Trial of the Cannibal Dog (Hardcover)\n\nThe Remarkable Story of Captain Cook’s Encounters in the South Seas\n\nBy Anne Salmond\n\nYale University Press, 9780300100921, 538pp.\n\nPublication Date: August 11, 2003\n\nList Price: 30.00*\n* Individual store prices may vary.\n\n\nA masterful retelling of three voyages that changed the world\n\nThis vivid book retells the story of Captain Cook’s great voyages in the South Seas, focusing on the encounters between the explorers and the island peoples they “discovered.” While Cook and his men were initially confounded by the Polynesians, they were also curious. Cook and his crew soon formed friendships—and often more intimate relationships—with the islanders. The islanders, who initially were not certain if the Englishmen were even human, came to experiment with Western customs and in some cases joined the voyagers on their expeditions. But familiarity quickly bred contempt. Shipboard discipline was threatened by these new relationships, and the culture of the islands was also changed forever. Captain Cook, initially determined to act as an enlightened leader, saw his resolve falter during the third voyage. Amicable relations turned hostile, culminating in Cook’s violent death on the shores of Hawaii. In this masterful account of Cook’s voyages, Anne Salmond—a preeminent authority on the history of the south seas—reimagines two worlds that collided in the eighteenth century, and the enduring impact of that collision.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6790564060211182}
+{"content": "South Korea serial killer suspect identified after 33 years | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN\n\nSouth Korea serial killer suspect identified after 33 years\n\nSouth Korean police have identified a suspect in one of the country’s most notorious serial murder cases more than 30 years after the first of the 10 killings, they said yesterday. Between 1986 and 1991 a record number of police officers for a single case were mobilised to try to find the person who raped and murdered women in rural parts of Hwaseong, south of Seoul.\n\nThey investigated some 21,000 individuals and compared the fingerprints of around 20,000 more without success, and the case inspired South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s 2003 box office hit “Memories of Murder”. But using the latest forensic techniques to retrieve DNA from long-past crimes officers have identified Lee Chun-jae, 56, as a suspect in at least three of the killings, said Ban Gi-soo of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.\n\nSamples collected from evidence including a victim’s underwear matched with Lee’s, the police said. The suspect is currently serving a life sentence for raping and murdering his sister-in-law in 1994, but denies involvement in the Hwaseong murders and the statute of limitations has expired, meaning he will not be prosecuted, police added.\n\n“I express my deep condolences to the victims and their families, as well as the Korean public, for not having been able to solve this case for a long time,” Ban told reporters.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9825954437255859}
+{"content": "Skip to main content\n\nÜber dieses Buch\n\nIt is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to honor our distinguished colleague, Professor Leo Brewer, on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birth day, with this special volume of High Temperature Science. Leo and his wife, Rose, are personal friends of several generations of students and postdoctoral researchers at the University of California at Berkeley. Their concern and understanding has been important to many of us over the past forty years. Each paper in this volume has at least one author who was a gradu ate student or a postdoctoral researcher in Leo's laboratory at Berkeley. The variety of topics is indicative of the wide-ranging science done by Brewer-ites and by Leo Brewer himself. He has personally participated in the resolution of many of the classical problems of high-temperature science-from the heat of sublimation of graphite to the dissociation en ergy of nitrogen to the prediction of binary and ternary phase diagrams. He and his students have made major contributions to atomic and molec ular spectroscopy. He has made significant contributions to the develop ment of efficient systems for energy conversion and to ceramics. In addi tion to his research activities, Leo Brewer has been a long-time participant in the dynamic undergraduate teaching program of the Berkeley Chemistry Department. He has provided crucial insight for stu dents involved in those career-shaping experiences that one endures while acquiring the basics of inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry with that interwoven common bond of thermodynamics.\n\n\n\nThe Responsibility of High Temperature Scientists\n\nWhen I was first introduced to high temperature research on joining the Manhattan Project in January 1943, I was surprised by the novelty and unexpected complexity of high temperature systems. At room temperature, one expects a mixture of aluminum metal with an aluminum halide or aluminum oxide to be restricted to the zero and 3+ oxidation states. The predictions of chemical behavior upon heating, based on room temperature behavior, are grossly in error because of neglect of the additional oxidation states that become increasingly important as the temperature is increased. In high temperature aluminum—oxygen systems, for example, the trivalent gaseous species has not even been reported, but Al2O, AlO, Al2O2, and AlO2 gases have been established. For gaseous systems in equilibrium with condensed phases, one can demonstrate that the gaseous phase will become more and more complicated as the temperature is increased both with respect to the number of species and with respect to the complexity of the molecules.\nLeo Brewer\n\nDetermination of the Dissociation Energies of Gaseous Iron Monoxide and Manganese Monoxide by the Mass Spectrometric Knudsen Cell Method\n\nThe dissociation energies D 0 0 (FeO) = 95.9 ± 1.8 and D 0 0 (MnO) = 88.1 ± 1.8 kcal mol-1 were determined by studying the metathesis reactions FeO(g) + Se(g) = Fe(g) + SeO(g) and MnO(g) + Fe(g) = Mn(g) + FeO(g) by the mass spectrometric Knudsen cell method in the respective temperature intervals, 1640–1810 K and 1660–2060 K. These results are critically compared with the literature data, which implied the need for their reevaluation and a review of the thermodynamic data for FeOH(g) and FeO2(g). For the latter molecule, thermodynamic functions are presented.\nS. Smoes, J. Drowart\n\nThe Surface Diffusion of High Temperature Vapors in Porous Alumina\n\nIn porous alumina barriers ~ 1 mm thick, 45% porosity, and ~1.2 pm average pore diameter, transmission coefficients for NaCl, NaF, and LiF vapors are ~2.6, 6, and 12 times that of He, indicating that surface diffusion contributes to the transmission. For Zn vapor, transmission coefficients are 1.2–3.5 that of He through the ~1.2 µm pores and 18 times that of He through 0.14 p.m pores. The temperature dependences of LiF and NaCl transmission by surface diffusion are close to those for Knudsen effusion, a result that indicates that the activated complex for surface diffusion is very weakly bound to the surface. Above their melting points, the transmissions of LiF and NaCl are irreproducible, but are usually markedly increased, perhaps because a liquid-like film partially penetrates the barrier.\nNathan S. Jacobson, Elizabeth J. Opila, Alan W. Searcy\n\nElectron Impact Spectroscopy of High Temperature Species\n\nThe application of the methods of electron impact spectroscopy to the study of high temperature species is discussed. Electron scattering by metal vapors (Ba, Bi, Cu, Mn, Tl, Zn), alkali halide molecules, and KOH are described as demonstrative examples.\nS. Trajmar\n\nEnergetics of Silicon Oxidation Reactions\n\nAn Independent Determination of the SiO Bond Dissociation Energy\nSilicon atoms react under single collision conditions with N2O and NO2 to yield chemiluminescent emission corresponding to the SiO a 3Σ+-X 1Σ+ and b 3П-X 1Σ+ intercombination systems and the A1П-X 1Σ+ band system. From the Si-NO2 reaction, it has been possible to obtain a lower bound to the SiO bond energy, the first such determination independent of mass spectrometry. The result obtained, D 0 0 (SiO) ≥ 186.7 ± 1.7 kcal/mol, is in good agreement with mass spectrometry (D 0 0 = 188.2 kcal/mol). To facilitate this determination, the temperature dependence of the A 1П-X 1Σ+ spectrum has been analyzed to deduce the nature of the metal reactant beam and to determine the activation energy for formation of SiO* A 1П (E A = 7.4 ± 1.2 kcal/mol). A most striking feature of the Si-N2O reaction is the energy balance associated with the formation of SiO product molecules in the A lП and b 3П states. A significant energy discrepancy (≈10,000 cm-1 = 1.24 eV) is found between the available energy to populate the highest energetically accessible excited state quantum levels and the highest quantum level from which emission is observed. It is suggested that this discrepancy may result from the formation of vibrationally excited N2 in a concerted fast Si-N2O reactive encounter.\nJoerg Pfeifer, Gary Green, James L. Gole\n\nKinetics of Vaporization of Molten Selenium\n\nVaporization of molten selenium was studied under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions. A quadrupole mass spectrometer was used to measure the vapor composition, and a vacuum microbalance was used to measure the total rate-of-weight-loss. Both measurements were made as a function of temperature near 500 K. Experimental results indicate that the vaporization of molten selenium is a retarded reaction having vaporization coefficients of about 0.1 for all species Se n (g) (n = 2–8). Results also show that the activation free energy of vaporization for all species is approximately equal to the free energy change of depolymerization reactions of liquid molecules, as obtained by other authors. These molecules consist of long chains in thermodynamic equilibrium with octacyclic rings. Mechanisms for the vaporization of molten selenium are postulated that involve the formation of short chains or small, nearly closed loops on liquid surface as the rate-limiting step. These activated complexes have the same number of atoms as the gaseous ring molecules to be formed. A critical test for this model is proposed which, if proven correct, may lead to a novel technique for growing pure single crystals of trigonal selenium.\nJohn Yun-Kuang Huang, Paul W. Gilles, J. Edward Bennett\n\nElectron—Ion Collisions in High Temperature Plasmas\n\nSeveral newly observed electron—ion collision phenomena that occur in high temperature plasmas containing electrons and ions of energies 10–104 eV, or temperature of 105–108 K, are reviewed. These are the phenomena of dielectronic recombination, excitation-autoionization, and electron energy-loss scattering as measured in crossed (90°) and merged electron—ion beam experiments.\nA. Chutjian\n\nAbsorption Spectra of Diphenylacetylene and 1,4-Diphenylbutadiyne Cations in Solid Argon\n\nOne and two-photon matrix photoionization techniques have been used to prepare diphenylacetylene and 1,4-diphenylbutadiyne cations. Identification of these cations was confirmed by photoelectron spectra and radiolysis studies. Near-infrared absorption bands for each cation correlate with photoelectron spectra and suggest structural relaxation about the molecular axis on ionization, and strong blue absorptions that do not correlate with photoelectron spectra are probably caused by π → π* transitions.\nBenuel J. Kelsall, Robert T. Arlinghaus, L. Andrews\n\nStudy of the Disproportionation of Sodium Thiosulfate by X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy\n\nThe disproportionation of sodium thiosulfate to form sodium sulfite and elemental sulfur has been studied in the temperature range 495–548°K by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The disproportionation started with an induction period, followed by a steady-state disproportionation rate regime, and ended up with a diffusion rate-controlling process. The duration of the induction period was inversely proportional to the temperature of heating. The disproportionation in the steady-state regime followed a first-order reaction rate law with the enthalpy and entropy of activation H* = 26.0 kcal/ mol and S* = -14.9 eu.\nX. B. Xu, S. G. Chang\n\nObservations of Excited Metastable and Radiative States of He2, Ne2, and Ar2 by Neutralized Ion-Beam Spectroscopy\n\nRare gas dimers formed when a fast beam of X 2 + (X = He, Ne, Ar) is neutralized in the reaction\n$$ X_2^ + + {K_{(g)}} \\to X_2^* + {K^ + } $$\nhave been studied by neutralized ion beam techniques. From measurements of the kinetic energy released in the dissociation of X 2 * and with consideration of available spectroscopic information, it is proposed that the neutral dimers are formed initially in their first excited singlet and triplet electronic states. Estimates of the radiative lifetimes of the 3 u + states of He 2 * , Ne 2 * , Ar 2 * are >3.2, >7.2, and 2.1 µs, respectively. Radiation from the 1 u + X 1 g + transitions is predicted to occur at λ ≈ 83, 80, and 114 nm for He2, Ne2, and Ar2, respectively. Ion beam attenuation cross-sections for He 2 + , Ne 2 + , and Ar 2 + are 250, 180, and 80 Å2, respectively, indicating that electron transfer from K(g) is a highly efficient process. The capability of generating relatively intense beams of metastable He2 and Ne2 dimers may have applications for other beam experiments.\nGregory I. Gellene, Richard F. Porter\n\nScNi and TiCo Molecules\n\nGround States, Bonding, and Brewer-Engel Theory\nThe isoelectronic ScNi and TiCo molecules have been trapped in argon matrices near 4 K and their electronic ground states established as 2∑ via electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. These ground states are indicative of multiple metal—metal bonding. The hyperfine splittings at the 47Ti59Co nuclei indicate an approximate 3dσ Ti 0.33 + 4sσ Ti 0.33 + 3dσ Co 0.07 + 4sσ Co 0.25 unpaired electron configuration. Likewise the 45ScNi nuclear hyperfine interactions indicate an approximate 3dσ Sc 0.50 + 4sσ Sc 0.35 + (4sσ + 3dσ) Ni 0.15 configuration. The spin distribution, electronic structures, and bonding in these molecules are discussed relative to the Brewer-Engel theory of metals and to calculations made on such alloy systems. It may be inferred from these results that the ScCo, TiFe, TiNi, and VCo molecules probably have 1∑ multiply bonded ground states.\nR. J. Van Zee, W. Weltner\n\nTemperature Dependence of Pb(3 P 1 0 )\n\nSpin-Orbit Relaxation by Atomic Hydrogen\nThe interconversion of Pb(3 P 1 0 ) and Pb(3 P 0 0 ) in a series of premixed H2/N2/O2 flames has been monitored by measuring the relative intensities of emission at 364.0 and 368.3 nm, following excitation at 283.3 nm. Improved rate constants have been obtained for the processes\n$$ Pb(^3 P_1^o ) + M \\to Pb(^3 P_0^o ) + M $$\n(where M is either atomic hydrogen or a bulk flame constituent) over the temperature range 1570–2110 K. In contrast to previous results, in which the rate constant for hydrogen atoms was found to have a negative temperature dependence, we now find a small positive temperature dependence of the rate constant for both M = H and M = bulk flame gases. The implications of this finding are discussed in terms of a model that involves non-adiabatic transitions between excited states of PbH.\nM. J. Bird, L. F. Phillips\n\nElectronic Matrix Isolation Spectroscopic Studies of the Group IIA Metal—Water Photochemistry\n\nThis paper reports the results of an investigation of the electronic structures of the Group IIA metal atom hydration reaction intermediates (M. . . OH2 adducts) and their subsequent photolysis products (HMOH and MOH). For the adduct, the metal—water interaction is sufficiently strong so as to perturb significantly the electronic structure of the metal atom, which results in a unique band structure for the adduct that is red-shifted from the metal atomic resonance transition. Selective photolysis studies are conducted to assist in deconvoluting the complex band structure of the adduct. Molecular orbital theory is invoked to interpret the nature of the ground and excited states of the adduct. Molecular orbital and electronic state-to-state correlation arguments are presented to rationalize the chemical reaction dynamics of the adduct along ground and excited state potential energy surfaces.\nM. A. Douglas, R. H. Hauge, J. L. Margrave\n\nReactions of Iron Atoms and Iron Dimers with Methane, Ammonia, and Hydrogen Fluoride in Low Temperature Matrices\n\nInfrared matrix isolation studies of the cocondensation of iron atoms with CH4, NH3, and FH indicate only formation of Fe·NH3 and Fe·FH adducts. Photolysis of the matrices with visible/near UV light causes iron to insert into the HX bond, where X is CH3, NH2, or F, to produce the HFeCH3, HFeNH2, and HFeF species. Molecular vibrational frequencies and mode assignments are given in accompanying tables. Tentative assignments were also made for HFe2F, HFeNH2(NH3), and HFe2NH2.\nJ. W. Kauffman, R. H. Hauge, J. L. Margrave\n\nCadmium Activities of Silver—Cadmium Alloys Determined from Measurements on EMF Cells Involving Displacement Reactions\n\nCadmium activities have been obtained for dilute solutions of silver in cadmium at 776 K from emf measurements using the cell: W-Cd|CdI2 + Cd (αCd = 1)||CdI2 + AgI + Cd (αCd < 1)|Cd, Ag-W. When the displacement reaction 2Ag + CdI2 ⇄ Cd + 2AgI is taken into account, the calculated cadmium activities follow the equation αCd = 1 − NAg − 0.607 N Ag 2 with a standard deviation of 0.00001 for those measurements (taken by the most precise method) used in the least squares fit. The largest deviation from the curve for all points measured was 0.0006 or 0.9 g/cal in \\( {\\overline G _{Cd}} \\).\nBarton L. Houseman, Donald R.Conant\n\nSecond Law and Solution Structure\n\nThis summary paper starts from the fact that activity data are now published that give positive proof of the Second Law, i.e., highly precise experimental data show forms that would not occur unless the law held. Such positive proof contrasts with the essentially negative approach that “violations of the law have not been demonstrated” or with what Bridgman emphasized as an economic law controlling chemistry, i.e., “that you can’t get something for nothing.” In view of those activity data, we intend that all our present discussion shall be consistent with the Second Law. The paper deals with precise experimental data from nonrandom solutions and with our views as to (a) how the data should be taken and (b) how thermodynamics should be applied to such solutions, both solid and liquid. It deals with effects from numerous phenomena: nonstoichiometry and superlattices in solids; solid-like structures in liquids; metastability; hysteresis; persistent lattice stresses or slow diffusion; anomalies associated with one-component equilibrium in two-component systems; EMF changes caused by metal solubility in molten salts and the resultant mixed-valence electrolytes; and exchange reactions and electronic conduction in EMF cells. Proper plots for evaluating experimental data are considered. Effects of structure on partial molal entropies and enthalpies are discussed in relation to general behavioral trends of random solutions. For example, effects of solution ordering frequently look like fine structure imposed on the trends described by regular-solution theory (with its random-solution assumption).\nGuy R. B. Elliott, Donald R. Conant, Barton L. Houseman\n\nDiatomic Partition Functions from Classical and Semiclassical Phase Integrals\n\nTwo methods for calculating diatomic partition functions directly from potential curves are examined with regard to their computational efficiency and accuracy. The first utilizes semiclassical phase integrals to estimate the rotation-vibration eigenvalues and may be considered exact. The second method entails numerical integration of the classical phase integral. The two methods are compared in test calculations of the bound and metastable contributions to the partition functions q vr for Ar2 and HgBr. These calculations show that the classical method, which is typically one to two orders of magnitude faster than the semiclassical method, gives results for the bound contributions to q vr within 1% of exact when kT is at least twice the vibrational energy. For the metastable contributions, two alternative modifications of the classical expression perform less well, and it appears that these contributions can best be estimated by the semiclassical method.\nThe calculations for HgBr employ the latest spectroscopic constants for this molecule. The resulting values of q vr are represented within 0.2% over the range 200–3000 K by an empirical expression containing six parameters, with the latter determined by the method of least squares.\nJoel Tellinghuisen\n\nSurface/Interfacial Free Energies and the Surface Tension of Uranium Dioxide\n\nThe purpose of this study is to review literature on surface/interfacial free energies and surface tension of UOx . The data available in the literature are reviewed and critical evaluation and analyses of the available data are made by comparing them not only with each other, but also with the estimated values based on the available theoretical models.\nIn light of the complexity of the material and the problems associated with the available literature data, no recommendations of surface/interfacial free energies and surface tension values are possible at this time. However, an attempt is made to point out problems associated with the data in general and also to develop procedures that can be used to analyze surface energies.\nM. S. Deshpande, P. D. Desai, A. A. Solomon\n\nTranspiration Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Liquid KCl and KOH Vaporization\n\nExisting thermodynamic functions for the equilibrium vapor species over liquid KCl and KOH are based largely on an extrapolation of data for the lower temperature solid systems together with estimated spectroscopic constants. The degree of importance of dimeric or more complex vapor species is especially uncertain, with a wide disparity indicated for the various literature studies. Using a transpiration mass spectrometric method, we have determined the equilibrium vapor composition in the presence of liquid over a wide range of temperature and pressure. The results for KCl are in very good agreement with the JANAF evaluation of previous work. In addition, thermodynamic data are given for the (KCl)3 trimer species for the first time. For the KOH system, the dimer species (KOH)2 is much more important than suggested by the JANAF evaluation of previous work. Second law thermodynamic data, at 1000 K, with current JANAF values given in parentheses are: for vaporization to yield KOH(g), ΔH v = 164 ± 4 (159 ± 17) kJ/mol, ΔS v = 109 ± 4 (102 ± 4) J/K mol; for vaporization to yield (KOH)2(g), ΔH v = 159 ± 5 (123 ± 17) kJ/mol, and ΔS v = 95.0 ± 4 (50.0 ± 13) J/K mol. Thermochemical data are also reported for the KO2 species produced by the reaction:\n$$ 2KOH\\left( 1 \\right)\\, + 1.5\\,{O_2}\\, = \\,2K{O_2}\\, + \\,{H_2}O $$\nfrom which we derive at 1000 K, ΔG f (KO2) = − 169 ± 12 kJ/mol and ΔH f (KO2) = − 73.6 ± 13 kJ/mol.\nBond dissociation energies and entropies for the various potassium halide and hydroxide species are found to correlate well with other alkali halide systems. Evidence of temperature dependent electron impact ionization is also indicated in these studies.\nJ. W. Hastie, K. F. Zmbov, D. W. Bonnell\n\nA New Gaseous Iridium Oxide, Ir2O3\n\nA careful reappraisal of the available data of oxidation of iridium in light of the recent measurements of the pressures of iridium oxides in this laboratory has revealed the existence of a new gaseous iridium oxide Ir2O3. The results presented here support this conclusion and a structural formula is suggested.\nS. N. Tripathi, M. S. Chandrasekharaiah\n\nGibbs Free Energies of Formation for Intermetallic Compounds Involving Transition Elements, Lanthanides, and Actinides\n\nValues or limits are provided for the Gibbs free energies of formation of “A n B m ” intermetallic compounds for 84 binary systems. “A” elements are: Li, Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Al, Si, Sc, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Y, Zr, Nb, Hf, Ta, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Th, U, and Pu. “B” elements are Fe, Co, Ni, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, and Au. The significance and applications of this information are discussed.\nJohn K. Gibson, Paul R. Wengert\n\nPrediction of High Temperature Metallic Phase Diagrams\n\nThe Engel Correlation and the Brewer Predictions are reviewed. Multicomponent phase diagrams for the 30 metallic elements of K through Ni, Rb through Pd, and Cs through Pt are discussed.\nPaul R. Wengert\n\nThe Temperature—Composition Phase Diagram of the GeSe—GeTe System\n\nThe temperature-composition phase diagram for the GeSe-GeTe system was determined between 25 and 675°C using high temperature X-ray powder diffraction techniques (1). The orthorhombic phase extends from 100 to 92 ± 3 mol% GeSe and is stable below 651 ± 5°C. For compositions between 86 ± 3 and 58 ± 3 mol% GeSe a hexagonal phase exists. Above 415 ± 5°C the hexagonal phase decomposes via a peritectoid reaction to form an orthorhombic and cubic phase. A rhombohedral phase was observed for compositions between GeTe and 52 ± 3 mol% GeSe. Above 375 ± 10°C the rhombohedral phase transforms into a cubic phase. A complete series of cubic GeSe-GeTe solid solutions exists above 651 ± 5°C.\nHeribert Wiedemeier, Paul A. Siemers\n\nHydration and Dehydration of Calcium Oxide Powders Studied by Photoluminescence Spectroscopy\n\nPhotoluminescence and photoexcitation spectroscopy have been used to characterize the surface properties of CaO powders containing low coordination OH species during outgassing at temperatures of up to 1200 K.\nW. W. Duley\n\nReactions of Transition Metal Atoms with 2-Nitropropane\n\nAtoms of Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu formed by vacuum vaporization of the metals react with 2-nitropropane at −196°C. The products isolated at 0°C are new propane-2-nitronato complexes of the metals, different from those made by conventional metathesis reactions. Cr, Mn, and Fe form basic complexes [M{O2NC(CH3)2}20H] with additional H2O in the lattice, Co gives [Co{O2NC(CH3)2}2], and Cu thermally and air-sensitive [Cu4O{O2NC(CH3)2} 2]. Ni gives two propane-2-nitronato complexes, one of which contains coordinated NO. Reduction and rearrangements occur in the reactions of Mo and Ru atoms with 2-nitropropane. The results suggest that using high temperatures to form metal atoms may open a new chapter in “classical” coordination chemistry.\nA. B. M. Anwarul Bashar, Peter L. Timms\n\nA Predictive Procedure for Vapor Pressure\n\nA vapor pressure equation containing only three parameters has been proposed to calculate vapor pressures from the triple point to the normal boiling point of both organic and inorganic liquids. One of the three parameters is the normal boiling point. The other two parameters are obtained from only two pieces of experimental data, namely, the enthalpy of vaporization at the normal boiling point, and the enthalpy of vaporization at 298.15 K. There are several empirical procedures for the calculation of the boiling points of most liquids. The enthalpy of vaporization at the boiling point is obtainable from the Trouton’s constant. The enthalpy of vaporization at 298.15 K is obtainable from group contributions. Thus one obtains a simple predictive procedure for the vapor pressure. We call our vapor pressure equation the quadratic equation. By the addition of one more constant we may make the quadratic equation a cubic equation.\nComparison of the quadratic equation with the Antoine equation has shown that the new equation is much more accurate than the latter in the prediction of vapor pressures and enthalpies of vaporization, partircularly when large extrapolations to low temperatures are necessary. The Cox equation, which employs four parameters, is closely related to the quadratic equation. It is, however, inferior to the quadratic equation when it comes to compounds of high molecular weight, which usually have very low pressures at 298.15 K. The cubic equation, which contains one parameter more than the quadratic equation, is equally defective when it comes to compounds of high molecular weight. The attractive features of the three-constant quadratic equation are that (1) its constants have some simple physical significance, (2) its constants can be determined from the molecular structure, and (3) it is the most accurate equation for the representation of vapor pressure data from the triple point to the normal boiling point.\nGollakota R. Somayajulu\n\nEmpirical Calculations of Molecular Properties\n\nEmpirical equations for the stretching and bending force constants, bond energies, and bond lengths are reviewed. Applications to gaseous and matrix-isolated molecules, and to chemisorptive bonds on surfaces are illustrated.\nChin-An Chang\n\n\nWeitere Informationen", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7385426759719849}
+{"content": "Nigerian Anti-Corruption Activists Attend Training In UK\n\nConcerned by the phenomenal underdevelopment implications of stolen capital flight from developing countries to safe havens in developed states and the laundering of resources through bribery and corruption in the conduct of international businesses, the Kent Law School of the University of Kent under the University of Kent Impact Funds in collaboration with The Corner House; Global Witness and Human and Environmental Development Agenda convened a one-day specialized training session targeted at Diaspora communities of West Africa, anti-corruption activists, compliance officers, anti-corruption agencies, registrars, senior state counsel, senior civil servants, judicial officers, accountants, journalists, estate managers, diplomats and legal advisers. Also in attendance were representatives of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) and the Nigerian High Commission in the UK.\n\nThe course offered a practical, doctrinal and procedural introduction to researching UK and a select other countries’ property and company ownership records, using public sources of information.\n\nThe conference sought to expose participants to: the current innovative Nigerian whistleblowing program, which compensates whistleblowers; strategies for Africans in the Diaspora to influence safeguard of their countries’ fortunes through tracing where national loots are stored; researching of tax fiddles, scams and shell companies; tracing of assets of politically exposed persons and statesmen; knowledge of means by which politically exposed persons disguise their wealth and use tax havens as well as financial hubs for storing stolen wealth; understanding of issues surrounding the use of UK Companies House in conducting searches; how to work with Company Registrars in other countries; use of company annual reports and prospectuses; examining the procedural rules that apply to researching companies and corporate networks; examining e-resources to trace proceeds of corruption and financial crimes; and interaction with world-renowned experts who have worked on some of the most high-profile corruption investigations in the UK, United States of America, Europe and Nigeria.\n\nParticipants and resource persons, after reviewing, analyzing and dissecting the theme and sub-themes on; flight of capital into foreign property market: scale of the Nigerian problem; law and practice of the whistle blower policy of the Nigeria, scope of participation of Diaspora communities; the A-Z of international company search; breaking corruption scandals in Nigeria from home and abroad; researching London properties; research and tracing sham/shell company investments; tracing noxious illicit financial flows: updates on the law and practice of asset recovery from Europe to Africa and reviewing strategies on protection of the commonwealth; committing Diaspora Africans to whistle blowing and detection of grand corruption proceed, observed as follows:\n\n 1. The stolen wealth of developing states and proceeds of bribery and corruption in their participation in international businesses have found safe haven in the Western hemisphere.\n 2. Every year billions of money stolen from some of the most impoverished countries in the world by corrupt politicians, public officials and business people enters the UK and other western countries unreported.\n 3. Over £4.2 billion worth of properties in and around London have been identified as bought and owned by politicians and public officials with suspicious wealth from around the world.\n 4. Recent study shows those buying apartments in 14 landmark London developments are overseas investors and 40 per cent of the investors are often Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) that have come from countries with a high corruption risk.\n 5. Laws and enforcement mechanisms in the UK are weak in identifying, tracing, investigating and confiscating proceeds of crimes finding their ways into the UK system from developing countries or countries with high corruption risks.\n 6. Laws, mechanisms and platforms available for tracing, tracking, confiscating and repatriating stolen assets and funds in the UK and the Whistleblower policy of the Nigerian Government are underutilised by Nigerians and Africans in Diaspora to discourage illicit financial flow and money laundering from developing countries.\n 7. Failure of Africans in Diaspora to expose obscene display of wealth and opulent style of life by Politically Exposed Persons emboldens treasury looters in their criminal acts within Europe, especially the UK\n 8. Law enforcement and judicial institutions in high corruption risk countries like Nigeria are deliberately weakened and compromised by politicians and their international business collaborators to escape justice and provide legitimacy for their proceeds of crime.\n 9. In violation of the UNCAC provisions on Stolen Asset Recovery, recipient countries of stolen assets tend to deploy all possible technical and legal obstacles to prevent expeditious repatriation of tracked and confiscated loots to countries of origin.\n 10. Nigerians in Diaspora and at home are not taking full advantage of the new whistleblower policy of the Nigerian Government to: expose the avalanche of looted resources in the UK; deter further illicit flow of proceeds of corruption to the country; get rewarded for their involvement in repatriation of stolen wealth.\n 11. At the International Anti-Corruption Summit in 2016 the UK government committed to introducing a public register naming the ultimate beneficial owners of UK properties that are owned by overseas companies. Under the UK’s Open Government Partnership National Action Plan, the primary legislation that would create the register is scheduled to be initiated before April 2018. The policy has been drafted and widely consulted on.\n\nParticipants therefore recommend as follows:\n\n 1. Africans in Diaspora should be brought up to speed with the essential terminology, concepts and principles that define these specialist areas of money laundering, illicit financial flow, safe haven for stolen assets and shell/sham companies.\n 2. Stakeholders to design and organise twice a year, refresher courses, trainings and conferences to ensure comprehension of the many technical terms of law, strategy and other intricacies of tracing illegally owned properties in the UK\n 3. Government and non-government actors to convene fora to identify and examine the phenomenon of illicit financial flows and highlight the main treaties, principles, soft laws as well as the legal, political, diplomatic and procedural steps by which corrupt assets can be traced, frozen, seized, forfeited and returned.\n 4. State and Non-State Actors in the UK must engage the available legal mechanisms to recognize, prevent, recover and return all forms of Illicit Financial Flows from High Corruption Risk Countries.\n 5. Inter-governmental framework developed around the conditions of return of stolen funds must take account of the integrity of requesting states.\n 6. Returnable assets should include punitive fines, compensation and disgorged profits earned from settlements; other illicit outflows such as diverted tax, shifted profits, and illicit gains linked to operations of multinational corporations\n 7. Diasporans should help victim countries map scope of looted funds and come up with information on: where assets are located; which assets are worth following; recovery mechanism; and professionals to use.\n 8. UK citizens and Diasporans should build the momentum to bring the government and law enforcement systems in conformity with their duties to account for, trace, track and confiscate stolen assets within the UK system.\n 9. Several measures could be used to augment online searches such as physical investigations and intense analysis of information in the public domain on social media.\n 10. A network of volunteer investigators and researchers is to be formed from the ranks of attendees of this conference to make connection with other research groups and Africans in the Diaspora in order to engage in further specialist anti-corruption activities including monthly online joint illicit investment tracing sessions.\n 11. Civil society to increase its pressure on the UK government to deliver on the promise it made at the Summit in 2016. Interested international allies to raise their concerns about the lack of political will and implementation through formal government-to-government channels.\n\n\nDr. Gbenga Oduntan, University of Kent\n\nNick Hildyard, Corner House\n\nSimon Taylor, Global Witness\n\nOlanrewaju Suraju, HEDA\n\nLeave a Reply\n\n\n\n5 × 3 =", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5606242418289185}
+{"content": "After Controller has collected new statistics, it compresses old data for each compression level by taking all intervals of the length specified by the Interval configuration parameter, and replacing them with an average or sample value.\n\nController begins compression at the point where statistics have a timestamp that is divisible by the value of the Interval configuration parameter. An average value is used for compression of numerical statistics. For other statistics, Controller uses the most frequent value in the statistics for compression.\n\nIf you set Interval to 0, Controller removes statistics that are older than the value of MinAge, rather than compressing them.\n\nFor clarity, Autonomy recommends that you specify the name of the level that deletes statistics as ThrowAway, rather than CompressLevelN.\n\nType: Long\nDefault: None\nRequired: Yes\nConfiguration Section: CompressLevelN\nExample: Interval=120\nSee Also: Levels", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.958206057548523}
+{"content": "Church will never be the same\n\nMarch 30th, 2020 / By: Tony Wolfe | SBTC Director of Pastor/Church Relations / comments\n\nChurch will never be the same\n\nSocial distancing and shelter-in-place ordinances that have arisen from this COVID-19 pandemic are challenging the shape of church as we know it. Not the message, not the importance, not the mission. Just the shape—the how behind the what and the why. This is temporary (prayerfully), but its impact is, and will be, further reaching than you might think. We need to start asking the right questions today, if we expect to have the right answers tomorrow.\n\nRegarding the “temporary” reshaping of church life in this season, here are several emerging observations of which church leaders need to be aware. Each is followed by a question church leaders need to be asking. \n\n1. Digital, online spaces for worshipping and connecting are catching on. Like it or not, your people (and the people you are hoping to reach in your community) are getting used to the ease and accessibility of distance-based church life. The church of yesterday could get by with a completely on-campus experience, but the church of tomorrow will not. The physical gathering of the covenant community is still of utmost importance. Our hearts should long for the gathered fellowship of the redeemed. But if the church of tomorrow is to thrive, it must utilize digital, online tools to keep connected with people, and to drive them to the regular gathering experience(s). The question you need to be asking now: How are we planning to continue using digital, online tools for worship and small group connection?\n\n2. Your people are getting used to having multiple options for faithful, sacrificial, worshipful giving to/through their local church. Faithful, sacrificial giving to and through the local church is no less worshipful behind a smartphone than it is while sitting in a pew. But there are still those in your congregation who feel more connected to their worshipful giving when they tangibly release the check or cash inside the church facilities during a gathered worship setting. This season of social distancing is teaching some people that from this point forward, they can give effectively and worshipfully remotely. It is teaching others how much they long to let go of that gift in person. If your church’s funding mechanism is reliant upon only one method of collection, from this point forward, expect a serious budget shortfall this year and serious budget reductions in the years to come. The question you need to be asking now: How are we planning to continue offering and celebrating multiple giving platforms for tithes and offerings?\n\n3. Your community is being inundated with your church’s online presence. Through the “highly-targeted advertising” and connection matrices of social media platforms, people in your community are being bombarded with your church’s online presence right now. The good news is that just about everyone your church wants to reach is online. The bad news is that just about everyone your church wants to reach is online. Yes, you read that right. Your church office is sharing more online than ever before. Your church’s staff are creating and posting digital resources and devotions. Your church members are tagging your church, each other, and your city’s page(s) in their shares and posts. This is good in that your church is getting more online exposure than ever before. Just make sure that what your community is being exposed to embodies your church’s identity and message well. Take care to produce excellent resources that represent Jesus and your church best. Make sure information is concise and standardized regarding services, ministry opportunities, etc. You don’t want competing or conflicting information from your church circulating online. Also, don’t oversaturate the market. The more unchurched people see from your church on their social feeds, the more likely they will be to ignore it. Share uniform, concise, excellent, well-thought-out information, and circulate it wisely. The question you need to be asking now: What is our plan for creating and circulating uniform, concise, excellent digital tools and information now and in the future?\n\n4. Personal, physical interaction is being avoided, and that will not be changed overnight. The “distancing” part of social distancing will fade very slowly (if at all, for some people) in this generation. People who do end up in close proximity, for one reason or another, are becoming more comfortable with not shaking hands, bumping fists, and giving hugs. They are also becoming more comfortable resisting an outreached hand or an attempted hug, whereas previously they may have embraced such an expression even if reluctantly. Face-to-face interaction in your church gatherings will never be the same—at least not in this generation. There will be church people and guests in every gathering who resist, or at least are hesitant toward, physical expressions of greeting for the rest of their lives. I have no intention to label this as either good or bad in itself. My intent is simply to call it out as a new reality. If your church gatherings have a large group hand-shaking time or a circle-and-hold-hands time during worship gatherings, now is a really good time to reconsider those things. If it is essential to your church’s mission and vision, keep it. If not, kill it. Now’s the time. The question you need to be asking now: When we do gather together again in close proximity, how are we going to accommodate, and to what level will we accommodate, the hesitancy of worshippers’ physical interaction with one another?\n\n5. Small groups in your church are beginning to see value in meeting as a group at less traditional times and from the comfort of their own homes. They are using a number of digital meeting platforms like ZOOM, Google Hangout, RingCentral, and more. Some of them are able to join the group more frequently because their scheduled calls are on Tuesday nights or Saturday mornings. I am not saying these digital platforms need to take the place of your regular, weekly small-group meeting times. But I am saying that if you don’t capture this moment by making plans to continue using videoconferencing platforms as supplemental meeting tools for small groups, you will miss a huge opportunity and you may miss some people, too. The question you need to be asking now: How might we continue to use videoconference platforms to keep our small groups connected in the future?\n\n6. Families are being forced to worship and have devotions together in their own homes—and it’s about time. This is a good thing!!! Husbands and wives are reading Scripture and praying together. Fathers and mothers are leading devotions with their children. Grandchildren are sitting in the laps of their grandparents and hearing stories of God’s faithfulness and glory through the years. There’s nothing novel about this. It is the biblical model. In fact, perhaps there is grace in this whole social distancing episode in that God is forcing us back to a biblical model of prioritizing home-based discipleship. If you miss the opportunity here to cultivate and resource the regular practice of your people taking responsibility for discipleship in their homes, you will miss a timely gift from God. The question you need to be asking now: What plans do we need to make in order to continue celebrating, resourcing and equipping home-based discipleship?\n\n7. The gospel is reaching further and stronger than ever. Through seasons of unprecedented struggle, the message of the gospel has always brought timeless hope to troubled souls. Through your church’s online tools/resources, the digital reproduction and re-sharing of the gospel message is reaching further and stronger right now than it ever has before. Challenge has forced us into this. But as always, the church has come out shining like stars. The creative and techno-savvy individuals in your church are proving their value today, that the name and fame of Jesus Christ might reach the ends of the earth. We have spent decades trying to get people out of their homes and into the church building. And in only a couple of weeks, every church in America has figured out how to get out of its building and into people’s homes. There are lost and unchurched people watching your services right now who would never have stepped foot in your church. Some of them are halfway around the world. It’s time to stop scorning the Internet as a tool of the devil, and start redeeming it as a tool for the gospel. The question you need to be asking now: How are we using, and how will we continue to use, digital follow-up processes so that those who hear the message of the gospel through our content have an opportunity to respond in faith?\n\nThe hard truth is that this pandemic is a generation-shaping crisis. Its affects will be far-reaching and long-standing. In other words, the way we “do” church will never be the same. That’s not altogether a bad thing. Neither is it new to us as God’s people. Being the church never changes, but the way we do church has changed to meet the needs and challenges of every generation. This crisis presents great opportunity for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for his church who carries that good news from generation to generation. Let’s be sure to ask the right questions now, during the crisis, so that we are prepared to effectively capture every Great Commission opportunity this challenge affords us in the days ahead.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6038650274276733}
+{"content": "Development Of The Submarine\n\nSample essay topic, essay writing: Development Of The Submarine - 1348 words\n\nDevelopment of the SubmarineThroughout history, navies have made significant impacts in the technologicaldevelopment of human kind. These impacts range from improvements in metaltechnologies made while perfecting the cannon to the advent of cybernetics, which allowed more precise targeting of weaponry. One of the more sophisticateddevelopments in naval history has been the invention of the submarine. Thesubmarine was born in 1620 as a leather-covered rowboat built by CorneliusDrebbel. After Robert Fulton came up with a more modern prototype in 1800, themilitary advantages of a nearly invisible warship were quickly divined.\n\nHowever, they remained unrealized for quite a while. Although Fulton probably foresawthat his invention would be used for war, he hardly could have envisioned itlaunching projectiles with the capability to level entire countries. However, after a series of innovations in nuclear missile and submarine designs, thesubmarine-launched ballistic missile has become an integral part of our navalweapons arsenal. To understand the need for the development of nuclear missile submarines, there is a need to examine the political climate of the world in the era afterWorld War II. The realignment of the superpowers after the war resulted in aunique situation\n\nThe two major naval powers of the day, Great Britain and theUnited States, were now allied against the greatest land power in history in theSoviet Union. In the period from 1955 to 1965, the advantage was heavily infavor of the U. S. As the United States had developed the atomic and hydrogenbombs first, they obviously gained a head start which developed into a decisivenuclear advantage. This advantage acted as an effective deterrent to any Sovietmovement into Western Europe. However, as the Soviet nuclear arsenal expanded(mostly during the Kennedy administration), it became necessary to effect abalance in the area of conventional warfare or to make more inroads in nuclearweapons development. Before this could be accomplished, however, advancements insubmarine technology had to made as well.\n\nThe submarines of World War II, although effective in their roles, wererather primitive. A noisy, slow, shallow-diving sub would hardly be a capablemissile submarine as it could be easily detected and destroyed. Even so, beforethe end of the war, there were intelligence reports in America that the GermanNavy had developed a U-boat capable of towing or carrying V-2 rockets to launchsites near the U. S. east coast. Although these reports turned out to be false, the Germans had been developing a type of submersible barge to tow V-2s.\n\nThisscare prompted the American development of ballistic missile submarines. Experiments in submarine design had concentrated mainly on improving thequality of power plants (usually diesel or electric engines), achieving bettermaneuverability through new hull designs, and developing quieter propulsionsystems that achieved better top speeds. A nuclear reactor power plant wouldmeet all of these objectives, but the development of a nuclear-powered submarinewas not without obstacles. As the U. S. and the Soviet Union expanded their land-based nuclear arsenals, the weapons-grade uranium needed for missiles wasbecoming quite scarce. In America, the Air Force actually fought against usingnuclear material for Naval submarine reactors, as it would cut into theproduction of the nuclear missiles that they controlled.\n\nAfter the USSR leveledthe playing field by expanding its number of missiles, however, the nuclearsubmarine desperately needed to be built to tip the balance of power backtowards the West. In 1955, the most advanced submarine in terms of these nucleardevelopments was the USS Nautilus. With excellent maneuvering facilitated by herAlbacore hull design, the Nautilus had virtually unlimited range thanks to hernuclear power plant. In fact, the Nautilus became the first submarine tonavigate under the polar ice cap in 1958. It could be said that the range of anuclear submarine was now only constrained by the physical limits of her crew. In 1960, the USS Triton, a larger version of the Nautilus, circumnavigated theearth, becoming the first ship to accomplish this feat underwater. Like the submarine, the missiles that would eventually be launched fromtheir hulls underwent a similar development history.\n\nThe first submarinemissiles were simple cruise missiles mounted on the hull. These missiles, likethe Loon and the Chance-Vought Regulus, were really nothing more than convertedV-1 buzz bombs. Friedman calls these projectiles 'the direct predecessors of thecurrent fleet ballistic missiles.' The only problem with these missiles wastheir nearly complete lack of guidance systems. V-1 rockets, and the improvedLoon and Regulus missiles, were terminal guidance rockets. The V-1 had aCircular Error Probable (CEP) rating of eight nautical miles.\n\nWhen the rocketreached the area of its target, its engine would be shut off by a timer. Thehigh CEP meant that the missile could detonate anywhere in an eight mile circlearound the target. Obviously, this kind of accuracy was unacceptable. With theLoon and the Regulus, this problem was combated by placing a second guidancesource on another submarine closer to the intended target. The Loon missile hada device which would allow the second submarine to blow off the missile's wingsand tail and cause it to fall 'in a more predictable trajectory.. lowering CEP tohalf a mile.' The Regulus bettered this with the addition of steeringcomponents for the terminal guidance submarine. As these missiles became moresuccessful, a vigorous development program was planned by the U. S. Navy. However, the invention of the Polaris missile precluded this.\n\nWith the development of the hydrogen bomb, the U. S. and othersuperpowers had a weapon with 1000 times the power of the bombs dropped atHiroshima and Nagasaki. However, the size of these missiles made them availablefor use only on B-36 or B-52 bombers. The Polaris missile changed this. TheAmerican Polaris class missile submarines, first launched in 1960, incorporatedthe new, smaller missile design. The first of these subs to launch a ballisticmissile was fittingly called the George Washington, but it was her sister ship, the Ethan Allen, that was the first submarine to launch a nuclear missile with alive warhead in 1962.\n\nWith nuclear missiles now a fixture in the United States Navy, laterdevelopments focused on making them lighter and more powerful. The Poseidonmissile, first launched in 1968, accomplished these goals. A two-stage rocketwith many more multi-impact reentry vehicles (MIRVs) than its predecessor, thePoseidon also had a feature that made the U. S. rush it into active service. Specifically, fleet submarines of the now outdated Polaris class could launchthe Poseidon from their Polaris tubes with minimal modifications. In the quest to develop even better submarine-launched missiles, thenext installment was the Trident missile.\n\nThe Trident is a larger missile thanboth the Polaris and Poseidon and it is also several times more powerful. Perhaps the most important innovation on the Trident missile is its guidancesystem. The Polaris and Poseidon, while quite powerful, required heavy hardwarepackages to guide their MIRVs to various targets. The new Trident guidancepackage is much lighter. The system has the ability to sight on a star whiletracking towards the target, which gives the Trident two advantages over thePoseidon. First, the missile meets its predecessor's accuracy objectives whileachieving a greater range. Second, the lesser weight of the Trident guidancepackage allows for more powerful warheads. The Trident I missile carries eight100 kiloton MIRVs, and its newer relative, the Trident II carries eight 475kiloton warheads.\n\nObviously, these missiles are some of the most powerful inservice with the United States military at this time. The Trident missile is most commonly used aboard the Ohio classsubmarines of the U. S. Navy. This massive boat bears very little resemblance tothe first Nautilus designed by Fulton. As large as a World War I battleship, theOhio class submarines carry 24 Trident missiles. On top of this firepower, theOhio is one of the quietest submarines in the oceans with its nuclear powerplant.\n\nAs of the early 1990s, the United States had 32 fleet ballistic missilesubmarines in service with seven more being built or converted. These numbersinclude both the Ohio class Trident submarines as well as older classes equippedwith the Poseidon missile. Even with the massive destructive capability of the submarines discussedhere, further developments are being tested even now. Specifically, the newSeawolf class submarine is the latest United States offering, though it has madeslow progress due to budget cuts. It remains to be seen if the future holds aneven more powerful submarine launched ballistic missile. Also, it is impossibleto tell which nation will be the first to develop it.\n\nResearch paper and essay writing, free essay topics, sample works Development Of The Submarine\n\nLike this post? Please share to your friends:\nMann Erudite – Essays on Literary Works", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7334418296813965}
+{"content": "Foraging Blackberries...\n\nWhether I've liked it or not, blackberries (and dewberries) have been inching up through our woods and garden beds for years. I've been cutting out their sprawling stickers every year, but this year instead of ripping away...I'm eating them first. I've really been trying to identify and use what can be foraged and feed us right here on our land...a real farm to table experience. So far, blackberries haven't amounted to more than a sprinkle on top my morning cereal...but what a treat.\n\nAnd, perfectly timed, I read this really interesting post by @rouses_horticulture that explains how to incorporate blackberries in your landscape. I definitely will be taking this approach to pruning...\n\nBlackberries are by far one of the easiest fruit crops to grow in south Louisiana, but a lack of understanding keeps some gardeners from incorporating this wonderful fruit into their landscape. Some gardeners avoid planting these easily controllable crops because they tend to have a reputation for getting out of control; creating a bramble jungle. Understanding the growth cycle and proper pruning of blackberries is critical to increasing the yield of your crop. Blackberries have crowns that produce biennial shoot. These shoots live for two years and then die. The shoots that emerge the first year are called the primocanes. In the second year of growth, the shoots are called floricanes. These floricanes will produce flowers that mature into fruit. Understanding that blackberries produce their crop on the last year’s growth and that canes only live for two years will help explain the pruning procedure.\nOur thorny friend is also a host for some butterflies and moths, including Western Tiger Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Gray Hairstreak, and Spring Azure. The flowers are an excellent nectar source for a wide array of pollinators...which in turn will make all the berries!\n\nHappy Growing,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9564976096153259}
+{"content": "Millennium Post\n\nExtracting Lithium\n\nIn our efforts to make the planet cleaner, we cannot repeat the mistakes we made with fossil fuels\n\nExtracting Lithium\n\nAir quality has been drastically deteriorating in most parts of the world. While there are multiple contributing factors, emissions from energy production and vehicular emissions continue to be the primary pollutants.\n\nThe solution seems simple, move the electricity grid to renewables and replace private gas guzzlers with electric vehicles (EVs). The key to both of these? Batteries. This is where things get complicated.\n\nRegions witnessing large scale mining have reported sparkling night skies, with dust that settles on their fields and enters their rivers. These stardust-like particles are graphite, a component in Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries.\n\nWhile lithium (increasingly referred to as 'white gold') is the key component, Li-ion batteries also contain graphite, nickel and cobalt, all of which have lengthy extraction processes. Li-ion batteries are used in a variety of products — from smartphones and electronics to EVs — and most recently as power back-ups battery for regions facing power cuts. While standard automobiles compete on the quality of their engines, the fate of EVs will be decided by batteries.\n\nLithium is sourced mainly from salt brine and spodumene (hard rock), of which South America and Australia respectively, have the largest reserves. In spite of South American brine having made headlines over the last few years, it is actually Australia that has greatly increased supply. Lithium supply is set to triple by 2025 but is it a genuinely 'clean' solution?\n\nIn 2018, more than 5.1 million electric cars were on the roads globally, up two million from the previous year, according to the International Energy Agency's Global EV Outlook 2019. The number of new electric car sales had almost doubled. China continues as the largest market for EVs, with the United States in second place.\n\nMuch of the growth in battery technology has been driven by the private sector, with companies like Tesla Inc, Nissan Motor Co, Ltd and Samsung Group expanding their operations across the globe and registering record sales figures. In 2017, when the state of South Australia faced severe power cuts due to a storm, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk took up the challenge of creating a battery to provide an electricity back-up to the whole state within seconds.\n\nTesla succeeded, creating a narrative around battery technology which the rest of the private sector is likely to try and emulate. The building of momentum around batteries raises the question- what do we do when the market demands millions of batteries at once, without any plans for their second life?\n\nTo avoid the disastrous situation of them ending up as hazardous waste, the cost of recycling (or repurposing) lithium needs to be optimised. For example, batteries from EVs could be recycled and used in smaller appliances, drastically increasing the battery's lifecycle.\n\nIt is currently five times costlier to re-purpose lithium than to mine new stocks. However, although sales of second-life batteries may lag behind EV sales, it is likely to catch up by 2030.\n\nDeposits of lithium are located near some of the most sensitive ecosystems in the world. The Amur River, on the border of Russia and China, the Andes Mountains (Chile) and the Salt Flats in Bolivia, together account for most of the planet's stocks.\n\nIn 2016, a toxic chemical leak from Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine in Upper Tibet led to the complete destruction of the surrounding ecology and thousands of dead fish were found washed up on the banks of the Liqi River.\n\nThere have been various documentations of graphite dust-covered crop fields along the China-Russia border, with farmers being forced to stop cultivating their fields. The chemical discharge from the factories also leaks into water sources, making not just the water undrinkable but also making its way into the food chain through animals like ducks and fish.\n\nThese concerns are amplified by studies comparing the life-cycle costs of electric vehicles and vehicles powered by internal combustion engines (ICEs). A study by researchers in China, for example, found that carbon dioxide emissions during the life cycle of EV production to be 59 to 60 per cent more polluting than emissions from the production of ICE vehicles.\n\nThe lithium assessed in that study was extracted according to Chinese standards and the researchers highlighted that using American or European techniques would be more optimal. The study also suggests that, since EVs use more aluminium and steel which increase CO2 emissions through their own mining processes, using recycled materials over virgin materials would be far more sustainable.\n\nIt is important to remember that these technical concerns are playing out in a political context. Lithium reserves were reportedly central to the coup against Evo Morales, the now-former Bolivian president. A right-wing party is set to win the elections in May this year; it remains to be seen if they will open up Bolivia's lithium reserves for extraction by industry.\n\nIf lithium is not extracted and used sustainably, we would simply end up transferring climate pollution to the air, soil and water. In our efforts to\n\nmake the planet cleaner, we cannot repeat the mistakes we made with fossil fuels.\n\nCharmi Mehta is an intern with the Climate team, CSE. Views expressed are strictly personal\n\nNext Story\nShare it", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6674336791038513}
+{"content": "Tween Outdoor Group\n\nEmotions in Motion\n\nDesigned for the Tweens and early Teens, this outdoor summer program provides 10-14 year olds with a safe, supportive and fun environment to express their emotions, cope with their anxiety and grow in their interpersonal skills through outdoor interactive games and activities under the guidance and engagement of an experienced therapist.\n\nWhat are the benefits of Group Therapy?\n\nThe group therapy experience provides tweens with a supportive community and a sense of belonging that is not possible through individual therapy.\n\nThe Tween Outdoor Group combines the supportive, communal elements of group therapy with an age-appropriate curriculum that teaches therapeutic and practical skills to manage and cope with anxiety, express emotions in a healthy way, connect with others and grow in self-awareness and self-confidence.\n\nHow can our \"Emotions in Motion\" Group help your Tween?\n\n“Play is [a] symbolic language of self-expression and can reveal (a) what the [person] has experienced; (b) reactions to what was experienced; (c) feelings about what was experienced; (d) what the [person] wishes, wants, or needs; and (e) the [person’s] perception of self.”\n\n― Garry L. Landreth, Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship\n\nExpress Emotions Grow in emotional intelligence and learn how to communicate about your emotions and needs in a healthy way. Play provides a fun and safe way to express and the foundation for emotional growth personally and interpersonally.\n\n\nCope with Anxiety Learn valuable skills for slowing down, being present and managing stressful situations. Discover ways to “name then tame” anxiety, communicate needs and practice habits that reduce stress, build self-esteem and foster a more positive outlook.\n\n\nCommunication and Interpersonal Skills There are no bad emotions, only bad reactions. By growing in your communication skills you will learn how to better connect to your emotions and express them to others. Learn with and from others that you are not alone. Build friendships, receive support and connect with others through communication and play.\n\n\nGrow in Self-Awareness and Self-Confidence Identify negative thoughts and learn how to “identify shame and reframe” with a more compassionate perspective and tone. Learn that you are not alone in your struggles and connect with others who understand how you’re feeling. Build relationships through play, time, and healthy, productive communication.\n\n\n\nHow Does It Work?\n\nWho? Any and all \"tweens\" ages 10-13. Limited to 8 participants.\n\nWhen? Wednesdays 1:00-2:30pm beginning June 3rd for 4 weeks\n\nWhere: Wash Park\n\nCost: $60 per session. Pre-payment required. Payment plan available.\n\nGroup Facilitator: Kate Ketchum, MA, LPCC\n\n\nReady to register? Click a link below to get started:\n\nStill have questions? Complete the form below and we will reach out to you!\n\nPlease enter your name.\nPlease enter a valid phone number.\nPlease enter a message.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9967366456985474}
+{"content": "Education Technology\n\nWhat is a Variable?\n\nActivity Overview\n\nIn this lesson students evaluate expressions, write expressions that correspond to given situations, and use expressions and formulas to solve problems. Students also examine a product of the form ax for given integer values of a in terms of how the value of the product changes for a one unit change in x, laying an informal foundation for rate of change and slope in later work.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999869465827942}
+{"content": "Slika Knjiga The Slovenia Wine\nKnjiga The Slovenia Wine Blagovna št.:246412\n\nYuri Barron: The Slovenia Wine\n\nBrezplačen prevzem na prodajnem mestu\nCena: 19,90 €\nNa zalogi Na zalogi\npri dobavitelju\nPodrobnosti o prodajnem mestu CLOSE\nDodaj v košarico\n\nAward-winning vintages, eccentric winemakers, charming villages, castle wine tastings, fairy tale vineyard weddings, unforgettable tours and much more! After spending nearly a decade tasting wine and visiting unique destinations across all of Slovenia's 3 wine regions and 9 wine districts, we're finally putting all of our favourite wine-related experiences together in one convenient book. While there are no shortage of internationally acclaimed, award-winning producers in Slovenia, the book is not being written for professional sommeliers or other experts, but for those visitors who would enjoy spending a day, weekend or longer holiday visiting picturesque hilltop villages surrounded by vineyards, meeting (often eccentric) winemakers, listening to stories of Slovenia's centuries-old wine traditions, attending one of the countless wine-related events, savouring a perfect slow food meal with perfectly paired wines, and generally just enjoying themselves by experiencing all that the count ...\n\nDodatne informacije:\nVeč o osebnem prevzemu na prodajnem mestu\nVeč o dostavi na naslov\nKako lahko plačam?\nO cenah", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.736603856086731}
+{"content": "Leading spaces those you can see at the start of any text and Trailing spaces will be visible at the end of any text. You will mainly see them in the way when you will need to perform operations in Excel.\n\nPreviously In Excel FormulasMOD Formula to calculate the remainder in excel\n\nIf you need to clean whether leading or trailing spaces in Excel, here I have explained some ways to do the same.\n\nFor example, you can use the Excel’s TRIM formula:\n\nTRIM Formula\n\nThe spaces will be easily removed without any issues:\n\nTRIM Formula", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999669790267944}
+{"content": "\n\n\n\nVincent Hindriksen: You have had the early access program for a year now. Why did we hear so little?\nTim Lewis: Since the initial launch we have been working with a small group of partners via the Early Access Program to help us ensure that the technology we release to mainstream developers meets are quality standards. The partners have provided invaluable feedback and we are now looking forward to releasing it to a wider audience later this year.\n\nVH: The last few months the number of searches on my site for ARM or Android and OpenCL has increased a lot. Do you see an increased interest too?\nTL: Yes, we see a growing interest in finding ways to enhance the CPU performance of the ARM cores by taking advantage of the programmability and floating point performance of the media processor.\n\nVH: Are drivers available for Android only, or also for Windows 8, Windows CE and other Linux flavours?\nTL: We are focused on Android.\n\nVH: Is the emulator using the PC’s OpenCL-capabilities? And can you tell something about developing OpenCL-software for a ZiiLabs device?\nTL: In terms of programming OpenCL for our processors we map physical processing elements to work items and allow the programmer to specify a work group size of up to 8 processing elements (the number of processing elements in a cluster). The runtime then maps the whole problem onto the array by iterating over the problem as many times as required to run the kernel on the specified problem size (total number of work-items). If the programmer specifies a work group size of 1 then the runtime maps 8 work-groups onto a physical cluster. If the programmer specifies a work group size of 8 then the runtime maps 1 work-group onto a physical cluster. And we can of course run multiple work-groups concurrently as we have more than one cluster, in the case of ZMS-20 that’s 6 clusters and ZMS-40, 12 clusters.\nThe OpenCL cross compiler is supported on Linux based PC hosts, but does not currently support any native PC OpenCL implementation.\n\nVH: As OpenCL is very low-level, how does it handle crashes? Do you have tips for developers?\nTL: We have extended debug tools to help developers write and debug progams.\n\nVH: Many ARM-chips have specialised silicon to do multimedia-computations like encoding/decoding video. Does OpenCL make use of this or only the GPU?\nTL: The ZiiLABS ZMS processors use our general purpose StemCell Media Processing SIMD array to offload the ARM from all media intensive tasks such as video encode/decode and OpenGL ES. Traditionally we have used hand-written Microcode which has been optimised over the last 10 years to create these key software components. However for new components and to enable 3rd party developers we are increasingly turning to OpenCL to fully leverage the power of the StemCell array.\n\nVH: Do you think OpenCL (or any comparable technology) will make specialised silicon replace with more processing-cores?\nTL: As our architecture is based around a fully programmable array of floating point processing units, it should come as no surprise that I strongly agree with the statement that specialised silicon will be replaced by programmable cores. There will however always be a place for specialised, fixed function silicon or specific components that do not lend themselves to a SIMD approach. However, as mobile SOC’s become more complex and are required to perform more PC-like tasks so the need for flexibility in terms of features and performance increase. The emergence of the VP8 codec is a good example. Fixed function devices have to go through a rev of silicon before support for VP8 can be added, whereas we could add fully optimised 1080p support very quickly by simply updating our “codec” program. And when running any single function we can dedicate more of the available silicon to that task, which helps us achieve better peak performance. As we move forward we expect customers to be able to implement their own proprietary software components that leverage the performance of the media processor via OpenCL.\n\nVH: Android has Renderscript compute as an alternative to OpenCL. How is your support for RenderScript and if so, does it work together with OpenCL?\nTL: We are committed to 100% Android compatibility, so we support Renderscript as well as offering OpenCL.\n\nVH: What do you think of the upcoming “battle” between RenderScript, CUDA and OpenCL?\nTL: Developers will drive this and our goal is to put the core technologies into their hands so that they can make the right decision for them, given that we will be focusing on Renderscript and OpenCL.\n\nVH: From your page the typical usage seems to be media-processing, but what typical applications did you have in mind? (Note: I indirectly ask for the strengths and weaknesses of your processor)\nTL: If I had to pick one areas where we are seeing most interest it is in implementing proprietary image processing algorithms, including enhanced face-tracking and object recognition but the interest is much broader including enhanced audio processing and general floating point compute.\n\nVH: You chose for the full profile and not the embedded profile. Is there a reason behind that?\nTL: We come from a PC graphics background, so because are chips can support it, we chose to support full.\n\nVH: You are claiming 26GFlops of compute power (A dual ARM A9 has 6-10 GFLOPS). Did you use LinPack or made your own test?\nTL: We have our own internal tests and this figure of 26 for ZMS-20 is almost doubled with the ZMS-40.\n\nVH: X86-GPUs work with a wave fronts of 64 workers (AMD) or warps of 32 workers (Nvidia). Does the ZMS-20 (48 cores) work with a comparable concept?\nTL: I refer you back to the answer to the question on developing OpenCL programs.\n\nVH: Extensions like OpenGL memory-sharing seems obvious, but which extensions are actually available?\nTL: We are still finalising the extensions we will support but OpenGL ES and direct access to Camera sensor data seem of particular interest to our partners.\n\nLiad Weinberger: What are the typical (idle/norm/stress) power requirements of each of your OpenCL supporting chips.\nTL: We target the mobile space, so typically we are under 1W of total system power and looking to 10+ hours of HD video playback from a tablet sized battery.\n\nVH: As the Watts per GFLOP is lower when using GPUs, the battery can be spared. Do you have done any tests on battery-endurance when using OpenCL and when using the processor only?\nTL: We don’t have any specific results we can share, but certainly media intensive tasks on using the array extend the battery life compared to running the ARM.\n\nVH: Being on batteries, is it better to use all cores to the fullest or have some focus on avoiding peak-consumption? In other words: how could the batteries be spared while getting all the work done?\nTL: We support a variety of power saving depending on the task and workload, including reducing the number of clusters being used or simply reducing the overall array speed.\n\nVH: What can you say more about the market position of your products?\nTL: We are a strong player across a wide range of markets from surveillance cameras and portable media players to tablets and embedded platforms. Over the coming months I expect to see our customers making some interesting announcements in both the embedded and tablet space.\n\nVH: How long do you expect to have the advantage of being first in offering OpenCL for embedded devices?\nTL: We expect to keep pushing the limits of what can be achieved on a mobile processor. Our recently announced ZMS-40 doubles the array size to 96 floating point cores, which, through OpenCL, puts an enormous amount of compute power into the hands of developers targeting the tablet and embedded markets.\n\nVH: Which device do you suggest for developers who want to start developing for OpenCL on Android?\nTL: As the core technology provider we have to synchronise our software releases with those of our platform customers. I would expect our customers to be announcing suitable platforms toward the 4th quarter of the year.\n\nLW: Could you give information about the amount of OpenCL-capable ZMS chips on the market? Or next year?\nTL: We do not disclose market sensitive data about volumes. What I can say is that we continue to see an amazing increase in the take-up of our processors as user requirements for low-energy, high-performance processors across a broad range of markets including high-volume consumer segments such as tablets, connected TV and the remote medical sectors.\n\nLW: Is such board available if one cannot commit to an amount of units end up purchasing?\nTL: We expect to support platforms that are available to end-users and so have no volume requirement.\n\nVH: Is there something you want to share with us, which not got mentioned?\nTL: Not at the moment, other than to thank you for the questions and for developers to continue to “watch this space” as we prepare to roll out the next phase of our OpenCL program.\n\nVH: Thank you very much for your time. Can readers ask questions in the comments, so you can answer them?\nTL: Yes. Please email me directly at tim[dot]lewis[at]ziilabs[dot]com.\n\nWe left out questions how the product was compared to Nvidia Tegra, ImTech PowerVR and AMD G-T40N, as ZiiLabs does not comment on competitors’ products. When the products of ZiiLab’s partners hit the market end of the year, we will be able to tell more. Be the first to know when that happens: ZiiLabs@twitter and StreamHPC@twitter.\n\nIf you want to see more, watch the below Youtube where Tim Lewis demoes what is possible with current generations of ZiiLabs-hardare.\n\nRelated Posts\n\n\nThe Art of Benchmarking\n\n\n\n\n\n\nProblem solving tactic: making black boxes smaller\n\n... Assumption is the mother of all mistakes Eugene Lewis Fordsworthe A colleague put \"Assumptions is the mother of all ...\n\n\nImproving FinanceBench\n\n... QuantLib is a C++ library. Unfortunately, languages like OpenCL, CUDA, and OpenACC cannot directly operate on C++ data structures, ...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8493902683258057}
+{"content": "Question 18\n\n\nAnswer to question 17: (b) Use a knife. If you need an emergency fire, don’t waste precious body heat in an attempt to (slowly!) dry wood. Cutting away the outer layer will work with all but the smallest and soggiest sticks.\n\n18.Mountaineers recommend you “climb high, sleep low” in order to...\n\na)Stay warmer at night\n\nb)Avoid altitude sickness", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9896950721740723}
+{"content": "Artist Interviews\n\nby Taylore Kelly\n\nBeth Wittenberg\n\nQ. Your pieces are very whimsical, light and energetic. The color is phenomenal and seems ultra intuitive. The bird theme is enticing. How do you bring your creatures to life?\n\nA. I have no preconceived notions or ideas when starting a painting. I start with the white of the paper. I begin by laying colors down rapidly. I allow the paint to dry. Once the paint has dried I turn the paper in all directions and spend a good amount of time looking at the colors and shapes until I \"see\" something. I begin by making the first marks with a pen. One mark informs the next until the drawing is completed. My process is similar to looking at clouds and finding hidden creatures. I allow the colors and shapes to speak to me. I am always in a state of wonder when i see what is revealed. My process is very exciting for me because I never know what is going to show up. I hope the viewers have enjoyed the exhibition.\n\nBill Baber\n\nQ. Your work has an extremely deep, calming and electric ambiance to them. They drew me right in and I wished I was there, at those places. It should be this way was a beautiful title. What did you mean by that title?\n\nA. Most of my images bring together elements from many photographs. It should be this way is different in that it began and ended with a single photograph. I am always at a loss to explain how my images come to be. Most of my life is consumed with the search for clarity out of a sea of objective data. Creating these pieces allows me to go to a totally different place where things just happen. This piece happened to an image that began with considerable natural beauty. It moved from a place I experienced to a place the way it might be had the image come in a dream thus \"It should be this way.\"\n\nWolfgang Ertl\n\nQ. I noticed the title Reverie, was thematic in your work, and know that definition to be a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts. Your work actually drew me in and gave me a relaxed far away feeling. This happened before I read the title. Did you plan on engaging and drawing the viewer in or are these beautiful, colorful pieces about something else?\n\nA. Thank you very much for your kind comments. Your observations concerning my “Reverie” series are certainly spot on. The abstract pastel “Reverie 5” reflects a calm and playful disposition and invites the viewer to enter and explore a world of colors, lines, and forms. While based on observing and experiencing real landscapes like my more representational paintings, the oil “Reverie” is an imaginary landscape. Like the pastel “Reverie 5” it can be seen as an “inner landscape,” perhaps a bit more enigmatic or mystical than the abstract pastel. Some of my artwork is consciously or subconsciously influenced by my lifelong engagement with literature, especially lyric poetry.\n\nSue Pretty\n\nQ. Your work has a very tranquil quality about it. It definitely reminds me of pointillism. It seems one would have to have a lot of patience to work the way you do. It's beautiful and admirable. Noticing that one of the pieces is called \"Balance\" made sense to me, because your work felt very balanced.\nEach one of your paintings has flowing clouds in them and a cup, what were you thinking about when these were created?\n\nA. These pieces are part of my China Series. My grandmother emigrated from England. I have quite a collection of you china, even a tea set of Royal Dalton. The thread of the environment and its destruction and fragmentation has run through my work as an obsession for a number of years. I have trucks and heavy equipment destroying the landscape. Rather than bulldozing my message through (which is not always very well received) I thought I'd try to tackle this with humor and a lighter touch. I think the china makes a good jumping off point. Each piece of china in Balance has a different environment. The teapot has an underworld with brightly colored fish, another flamingos in the everglades, caribou on the tundra and the plate a snake in the grass. These fragile environments very precariously balanced. It also reflects in my personal life an effort to bring everything into balance. The painting Cup with a Desert Landscape on a Snake Table Cloth deals with are efforts to reduce nature’s beautiful landscapes into a item for sale just a decoration, not experienced firsthand and in danger. The painting Moose Cup With a Eurasian Milfoil Table Cloth looks at invasive plants and the destruction they cause. The Eurasian milfoil just one of the many plants. These plants are transported on the propellers of the boats to other bodies of water not infected. I’m not sure if the bright orange and yellow equipment bulldozing the landscape or the more playful china images are more effective in getting my point across. Multiple approaches reach hopefully more people.\n\nPhillip Singer\n\nQ. Where do your ideas come from? The relationship between the animals and their environment and each other is a force to be reckoned with! I found them so riveting and beautiful. What is your most important artist tool? Is there something you can't live without when making art?\n\nA. Thanks for contacting me. I’m flattered and I’m glad you like the work. I am always asked “where do my ideas come from?” Whats funny is I mentally shrug my shoulders when people ask that question and think to myself. …. Ummm “I don’t know” However when I see other peoples work I think, “Where the heck did they get that idea from?”.. So I do understand why people ask. I really don’t have a surefire process for my ideas. They are a mix of so many of the artists I’ve admired since my school days. Surreal artists, my mentor Marvin Mattelson, and Illustrators I’ve loved. But we’re also bombarded with imagery every day. I’m always playing with images in my mind. So If I see something I like… an animal or a plant, I just play with it in my mind and on the drawing pad until I get a juxtaposition that intrigues me. Sometimes it’s quick and sometimes its not. The quick ideas are few and far between. Is there something I can’t live without when making my art? Yes, GOOD BRUSHES! I have many many brushes. Old brushes get used to create textures. Some brushes are stiff, some are soft but when I get towards the finish I need good brushes that hold their shape.\n\nVictoria Elbroch\n\nQ. There are times when a subject has trouble coming to life but clearly this is not the case with your beautiful theme of trees. They have a real mysterious quality to them. How has your style changed over the years?\n\nA. I have always drawn trees but started with line etchings from sketches and now use many mediums from ink to dry pigments. I used to render each twig but am starting to let the viewer fill in what is not complete, adding to the mystery. Thank you for a great question!\n\nBrian Cartier\n\nQ. Your work of art in the show really draws you in with the energy of what appears to be a Phoenix like creature? The title Evolat is latin for \"to fly\"? Is this correct? What was your creative process when creating this painting?\n\nA. Evolat is indeed a Phoenix, and was commissioned by a local woman who has since become a very close and special friend. The piece is actually very special to me, as the timing of her reaching out to ask me to create it, was just as I was beginning to 'rise out of the ashes' myself after a failed attempt of starting my own business, which I had literally put everything I had into. It was one of my first commissions of 2015, which has been my most successful year as an Artist thus far (2016 is certainly building off of that momentum). So the piece itself is representative of having to sometimes reach your lowest lows, to experience your highest highs. If you look very closely, within the wings, you'll find the quote \"Alis volat propriis\" which is a favorite of the client, along with her love of the fictitious bird and triumphs in her own life challenges, ultimately her inspiration to commission the piece. Another reason this piece is also special to me, is because I had actually attempted to paint one a few years ago, and was so unsatisfied with it that I covered over it, and had always been wanting to try again, it's rare that a custom commission is something your excited to create. This piece was certainly a challenge, I achieved the affect of the fire by using different smudging techniques and washing out areas with very diluted paint. This particular piece of art was created from a place of found solace after experiencing one of the most challenging times in my life (so far), and I wanted to challenge myself to achieve something in this painting that I previously could not.\n\nSam Paolini\n\nQ. Your creatures all seem so dynamic and happy and alive. Very energetic and bold! Is there a work of art you have done that you are particularly proud of? If so why?\n\nA. My creatures are happy because I was not when I made them. It's like a kind of therapy; I force the smile out with bubbly cheery critters and they can cheer me up, and hopefully cheer up other people too. I also imagined the dark cold winter approaching, and because I get depressed in the winter, I thought everyone could use a little brightening up when they drive through downtown. So far its worked for me! I am most proud of the public artwork that I've done. It's such an honor to be featured in a place that anyone can see my art without having to seek it out, walk through a door, or pay a fee. My mural at the Dover Skatepark was my #1, but now it's definitely the Children's Museum!\n\nFleur Palau\n\nQ. I must ask if you have bunnies? There seems to be a theme in your paintings with these furry creatures. These two paintings show such a strong character in each and every one of their faces. What is it about Rabbits/Bunnies that inspires you so much? They are beautiful, I love them!\n\nA. About what inspires me about my's really impossible to explain. The mystery of it leads me to include them in my work either as the main subject or as an antidote. Sometimes they are a vehicle for pure fantasy and sometimes just an element of wild nature as a contrast to the human. But if I were to figure it all out and explain it what purpose would that serve? Only to flatten out and limit the possibilities for myself and the viewer.\nSo that's my paultry answer. I really don't know!\n\nMarina Forbes\n\nQ. The texture in your paintings is quite vivid and draws the viewer in. Is there an element of art you enjoy working with the most?\n\nA. For me, my creative work is always joyful and rewarding. I have a “Russian soul,” and my art is infused with my heritage and my unique perspective on the world around me. In my contemporary work, I integrate traditional themes with the freedom and exuberance of new artistic forms. My contemporary work is always well researched and filled with diverse traditional themes and styles combined with the freedom and exuberance of Constructivist forms. My ultimate goal is always to satisfy my creative impulse by producing lasting works of great imagination, strength, universality, dignity and spirituality.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8824300169944763}
+{"content": "History Stories\n\nDecades before territorial ambitions and Aryan supremacy absorbed Adolf Hitler, a much different passion consumed the future German dictator—art. But after Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts rejected a teenaged Hitler for his “unfitness for painting,” his singular dream of becoming an artist was crushed. The hand that had gingerly painted watercolors would eventually be raised in a Nazi salute and rule Germany with an iron fist.\n\nHitler’s interest in art, however, never waned, and after launching World War II, he led the Nazis in the systematic looting of famous works of art that formed the cultural soul of Western civilization. It wasn’t enough for the Nazis to rob millions of people of their futures, they wanted to strip them of their past as well. Hitler’s forces plundered priceless paintings, sculptures, drawings, religious relics and cultural artifacts from Europe’s churches, universities and private collections, particularly those belonging to Jewish families. They heisted musical instruments, entire libraries, hundreds of ancient Torah scrolls, thousands of church bells and even the stained glass right out of Strasbourg Cathedral.\n\nMembers of the Monuments Men group examines part of the recovered Ghent Altarpiece.\n\n\nIn the greatest theft in art history, Nazi leaders used the inventories of Europe’s elite museums as a veritable “shopping list” for items to add to their personal collections. They pilfered works by a palette of the world’s greatest masters such as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Picasso and da Vinci. Hermann Goering, like Hitler an art enthusiast, visited the Jeu de Paume in Paris 20 times to browse its works. He seized hundreds of items for his own collection and needed to attach two railroad cars to his personal train to haul away his loot. In Berlin, Hitler leafed through photo albums filled with pictures of stolen artworks, and just as if he was flipping through a mail-order catalog, he selected those pieces he wanted for the world’s greatest art museum that he intended to build in his hometown of Linz, Austria—the Fuhrermuseum.\n\nThe systematic theft and destruction of the world’s cultural treasures was one of the concerns raised by art historians and museum directors from the war’s earliest days. They lobbied the Allies to create an organization affiliated with the military to identify and protect European monuments and art in danger of becoming casualties of war, and in 1943 the Allies established the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section. Nearly 350 men and women from 13 countries joined the unit known as the “Monuments Men.” Mostly volunteers, they were hardly seasoned soldiers; instead, they were an unlikely platoon of museum curators, art scholars, architects, archivists, artists and historians with an average age of 40. Although most never expected to be called upon for duty when the war started, some of the Monuments Men were put right on the front lines. Two members lost their lives in combat.\n\nLimestone bust of Queen Nefertiti, stashed away in a German salt mine before it's recovery by the Monuments Men.\n\nLimestone bust of Queen Nefertiti, stashed away in a German salt mine before it’s recovery by the Monuments Men.\n\nInitially, the Monuments Men were tasked with assisting combat troops in protecting churches, museums and cultural artifacts from damage in Allied attacks. It was a mission echoed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who in the lead up to D-Day in 1944 ordered his commanders to safeguard “historical monuments and cultural centers which symbolize to the world all that we are fighting to preserve.” As the Allies advanced across Europe and the Third Reich crumbled, however, the Monuments Men increasingly focused on the rescue and recovery of the art and artifacts looted by the Nazis.\n\nWhen the guns fell silent in Europe in May 1945, the work of the Monuments Men was only beginning. Europe may have been liberated, but its cultural treasures were still missing in action. Within weeks, the full extent of the Nazi plunder crystallized. Across the continent, the Monuments Men discovered loot hidden deep inside salt mines, packed inside crates in abandoned buildings and even secreted away in hilltop castles. They found 1,500 repositories of stolen goods in southern Germany alone. When the Monuments Men entered the Altaussee Salt Mine in Austria, they discovered hidden inside its 137 tunnels more than 6,000 paintings as well as masterpieces such as Michelangelo’s “Madonna of Bruges” and the “Ghent Altarpiece.” It took six weeks for them to empty Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle, the fairy-tale structure that served as the model for Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Disneyland, of all its hidden treasures that had been plundered from France.\n\nImage placeholder title\n\nLike police detectives working a crime scene, the Monuments Men investigated the provenance of the pieces in order to return them to their proper owners. Their work continued through 1951, by which time they had rescued, preserved and returned five million pieces of art and other cultural artifacts to their rightful owners.\n\nIn spite of the painstaking work of the Monuments Men, their mission is still far from complete nearly 70 years after the fall of Nazi Germany. Hundreds of thousands of plundered documents and artworks—including pieces by Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Rodin and Botticelli—remain at large. The Monuments Men Foundation is continuing the search for the lost treasures in addition to its work in keeping alive the legacy of an unlikely band of war heroes.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.850406289100647}
+{"content": "Electric convector\n\nElectric convector\n\nThe electric floor convector is a separate heater with high heat output. Unlike the water convector where the heating medium is water, the electrical source of the electric convector is an electric current.\n\nThe electric convector consists of a heater spiral and a fan.\n\nConvector height is 125 mm, width 305 mm, length from 500 to 2000 mm, 230 V/50 Hz mains connection.\n\nThe room heating is regulated by a thermostat, the heating spiral has overheating protection.\n\nThe electric model has only one fan rotation speed. In the next operation, the consumption of el. energy is much higher than hot-water floor convectors. However, if the room is not able to heat the hot water convectors, then the ideal solution is an electric convector. For electrical floor convectors we only use decorative aluminum or stainless steel grilles for safety reasons and compliance with all standards and norms\n\nL (mm) 500 700 1000 1500 1700 2000 \nQ (W) 700 750 1500 2250 2500 3000 \n\n\nA Thermal Output Calculator", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9672562479972839}
+{"content": "The Brandenburg-Prussia Museum\n\nIs a private museum the fulfilment of all collectors’ dreams? A look behind the scenes of the Brandenburg-Prussia Museum in Wustrau.\n\n\nWhat is the main focus of the “Brandenburg-Preußen Museum”?\n\nAB: At the heart of our 600 m² exhibition space is the history of Brandenburg-Prussia and the Hohenzollern family between 1415–1918. The museum begins with a portrait gallery of the 21 Brandenburg PrinceElectors, Prussian Kings, and German Emperors, ending with the standard which Emperor William II bore when he drove from his headquarters in the Belgian town of Spa to the Dutch border on the night of the 9th–10th November 1918. Our content focusses not goose step and “Pickelhauben”, but on Prussia’s civic achievements and its rise from being a cog in the bureaucracy of the Holy Roman Empire to a leading industrial power and the world’s first welfare state. \n\nOur location in Wustrau is part of this history. It was here, on the south bank of the picturesque Lake Ruppin, around 80km from Berlin, where Frederick the Great’s legendary Hussar general Hans Joachim von Zieten lived. His palace, the church with its epitaph to Zieten and Baroque patrons’ gallery, the old rectory, and the historic village centre still testify to this history today. It was no coincidence that Theodor Fontane began his “Travels in Mark Brandenburg” here. \n\nWhat goals did you set for yourself when you took over the museum from your father five years ago\n\nAB: When my father designed the museum 20 years ago, Prussia was a polarising term, provoking an angry, emotional response from many people. My father noticed a lack of appreciation for Prussia’s civic achievements in this debate, and designed the museum as an impassioned defence of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire.\n\nNowadays, after years of discussion, we have achieved a more balanced view and are now faced with the task of awaking interest in our history, especially among young people. It is important to create something new and different; a more varied and balanced way of illustrating the past, that allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions. We have been working on this for years, taking our visitors’ suggestions into account along the way. This success has strengthened us: Over 2,000 children and young people visit the museum every year, covering specialised topics with our museum educators. In 2017, one of our projects with school children was even chosen as the regional winner of the Federal President’s History Competition.\n\nWhich parts of the museum would you like to expand in the future, and which work of art is currently at the top of your wish list?\n\nAB: Definitely the Enlightenment Era. We have some fine portraits of representatives of the Prussian early Enlightenment, but a portrait of Moses Mendelssohn would be a great addition.\n\nHow does a private museum differ from a public one? \n\nAB: We are poor in monetary terms, but enjoy a wealth of freedom.\n\nWhat can we learn from Prussian history in respect to our current political debates?\n\nAB: The fabled Prussian tolerance was not a given, and not something the Prussians were born with. It was something the Elector and the Kings who followed him had to work hard to establish. Around the year 1700, every fifth person in Berlin was a French Calvinist, whereas the original population of Berlin was Lutheran, so it was not an easy situation. We can learn a lot today from how this integration was managed and transformed into a unique success story.\n\nOur modern idea of a constitutional and administrative state was founded in Prussia in the 18th century by Frederick William I and Frederick the Great. This new state was not united under religion or national ideals, but under reason and the rule of law. Freedom of religion made it an attractive destination for immigrants, and the state welcomed anyone who was honest, prepared to uphold the existing order, and to contribute to society. The Enlightened Prussia welcomed migrants from many nations: French Hugenots, Salzburg Protestants, Muslim Tartars, and Jews. The success story of this rational “State without a Nation” (Hindrichs) can provide us with numerous important impulses for today’s debates, such as the future of the European Unification. \n\nSadly, the rational state of Prussia was not incorporated into the national state of the German Empire, but superseded by it. The financial success following the depression and the memories of the victory over France in 1871 swelled the pride of the newly founded German nation. The old Prussian spirit of sober objectivity was pushed aside as outmoded. This sense of provocative national pathos was represented perhaps nowhere better than in the person of the young Emperor William II – so much so that later observers even claimed he was its originator. However, this Fin de Siècle spirit of national hubris was shared by all of Europe’s great powers and soon pushed them over the edge and into the chaos of the First World War.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9942499995231628}
+{"content": "\n\nScroll To Top\n\nWhat is SDN?\n\nPosted by Joe Leone\n\nWhat is a SDN (Software-defined networking)?\n\n\nThere's little doubt that technologies like Cisco's DNA and other SDN implementations are entirely disruptive for today's networking technology. Unified operating systems, centralized management, open APIs, and SDKs are great tools for the right customers.\n\nThese features (and many more) provide the ability to automate and streamline many repetitive IT tasks.\n\nThey might also allow for things like license portability, contextual analytics, and end-to-end network segmentation and security policies. On an enterprise network, these new features help customers ensure visibility, security, and quick provisioning across their networks. Many large and enterprise customers are also finding that the implementation of an SDN technology helps them realize a more substantial ROI on their information technology investments.\n\nBut there are situations where these features are not valued additive and purchasing an SDN-capable switch may not provide the highest ROI.\n\nHere are some of my top scenarios where SDN is not a value add (yet):\n\n1. A customer that is adding a switch to an existing stack - If the need is only to add 48 or 96 ports (or similar), an SDN switch may not be fit in the current stack, or it may not be economically feasible to absorb the additional cost for the SDN option.\n\n2. A customer that has existing infrastructure and is in-between budget cycles - Quite frankly, rolling out SDN (or SDN-similar technologies) can be a costly task. If a customer is not nearing a budgeted network refresh project, it may be better for the customer to hold off on purchasing SDN gear. The reasoning for this is quite simple: SDN technologies are new, and are still changing quite frequently. A partial investment in SDN technology now may be in vain as that device and/or license may have to be replaced when the full network refresh project (and SDN implementation) is budgeted and performed.\n\n3. A customer that has a small or medium-sized business - This is a particularly tricky scenario. Many SMB customers may want and need SDN-style features, but may not necessarily have the budget for it. In these cases, it is essential to identify precisely what features are needed and what features are “nice to haves.”\n\nIf many SDN features end up on the “needed” list, carefully review how much ROI that will return to you. Being that many SDN implementations can run anywhere between five- and six-figures to completely rollout and implement needed features, it is essential to evaluate the cost versus expected return. In many cases, the cost to implement SDN for a small to medium-sized business overruns any positive ROI gained.\n\n4. A customer that has a network that does not require complex functionality - Some customers are aligned with vertical markets that are beginning to use IT products in an entirely new way. For instance, many cryptocurrency mining operations do not have any desire for complex networks because the cost of deployment and power is already high. Because of the almost disposable consumption of IT products, vertical market participants such as in cryptocurrency mining may not benefit from higher-cost SDN options and should consider a more economical alternative.\n\nThe scenarios mentioned above are typical customer examples that have discussed some form of SDN-enabled implementation with me. In many cases, it comes down to rightsizing the network for the user and/or use case. SDN functionality can be an excellent tool for many networks, but a cost center for other customers who are not taking full advantage of automation, security, and/or visibility features.\n\nConfused about whether your organization can benefit from SDN? Contact Trifecta Networks and see how our team of Solution Architects has become some of our customer's most valuable trusted advisors.\n\nDo you have an upcoming or current project and require assistance?\nPlease fill out the form below:\n\nAbout the Author\n\nJoe Leone is a Senior Sales Engineer for Trifecta Networks. He provides support for customers in determining the best solution for their infrustructure and needs. Joe has the following certifications:\n\nCompTIA - Network+ & Security+, Cisco CCNA, CCNA Wireless, CCNA RS, CCDA, CWNA, CWDP, CWAP, Brocade BCNA/BCNP, Aruba ACMA/ACMP, AirMagnet ASCP, and Quali TestShell", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6999384164810181}
+{"content": "Senate Passes Bill to Assist Ohio Businesses in Fund Raising\n\nHouse Bill 10, which permits intrastate equity crowdfunding, was voted out of the Ohio Senate unanimously on June 7. Previously back in June of 2017, the Ohio House passed a similar version of this bill unanimously as well.\n\nThe Ohio Chamber supported HB 10 as it made its way through the legislative process and believes that the enactment of this bill will aid businesses in our state in accessing capital and funds necessary to maintain and grow their company. Crowdfunding helps to fill a void in which “traditional lending cannot always fill.”\n\nAs technology has evolved, so has the way we seek to raise funds. Individuals seeking funds for a variety of reasons already use online platforms such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe. HB 10 seeks to help Ohio move forward with the ever-changing technology field by creating the OhioInvests online portal. Additionally, it sets some guardrails to ensure that the money being raised is used properly and that potential investors know how the money will be used before making their investment.\n\nHB 10 will now be on its way to the Ohio House for them to agree upon the changes that the Ohio Senate made to this bill.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9861255884170532}
+{"content": "| Language | Home | Ship´s agents | Stevedores | Warehousemen | Crew | References | Contact | Usefull links | Location | \nCongrasur, S.A. and her associated companys, count in the port of Huelva with a 32.000M2 of covered space, 12.000M2 of it in a covered warehouse inside Port Zone, and a second warehouse of 20.000M2 at five minutes of the principal bulk manipulation zones. The divissions in twin warehouses offers one space adapted to each client needs, starting on 900M2 to 4.000M2 in diaphanous module. Also we have one zone that is used to make big-bags, cargo mixing and manipulate of different cargo.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9147334694862366}
+{"content": "Several types of methods can solve equations of satellite motion numerically. These methods are divided into single and multi-step methods. The accuracy of each method depends directly on adopted integration step size between successive iterations. To achieve result with required accuracy it is important to maintain appropriate size of integration step. Inappropriate step size could cause local errors between iterations greater than accuracy of the method. Therefore, integration step size needs to be reduced until it does not affect accuracy of the final solution. Group of Runge-Kutta (RK) methods for solving equations of satellite motion have been analysed in this article. Five different methods: Runge Kutta 4th order, Runge Kutta 5th order and Runge Kutta Fehlberg 4th and 5th order methods were discussed. Compared to the classical Runge-Kutta integration method other methods are slower, but give results that are slightly more accurate.\n\nKey words: numerical integration, GNSS, GLONASS, satellite geodesy", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999793767929077}
+{"content": "Pathways Counselling Watford\n\nPathways Counselling\n\nMy name is Victoria Darby and I am a fully qualified and experienced counsellor and a member of the BACP.\nBased in Watford, I offer day, evening and weekend sessions which last 50 minutes. I practice both short term and long term counselling and we would work together to explore whether short term or long term therapy is appropriate for you. I practice confidential one to one counselling. I also practice EMDR therapy.\nCounselling Watford\n\nThere are moments when you might find giving yourself time and space may enable you to explore emotions and experiences. Counselling can provide the opportunity to explore thoughts and feelings that you might not feel able to share with those around you. This could enable you to view yourself and other relationships in different ways and open up new or different paths to understanding yourself.\n\nPeople who come to see me in Watford have a range of experiences that bring them to counselling such as bereavement, domestic violence, divorce, anger management, self esteem issues, loss, anxiety, PTSD and depression.\nSelf esteem or negative thoughts about yourself can be a constant source of anxiety and difficult to talk through or understand. By giving yourself time to explore the patterns of negative thoughts about yourself (body image, guilt, self worth, feeling hated or rejected by others) this can open up different paths and ways of seeing yourself and those around you.\n\nClients often state how distressing and vulnerable it feels to live with depression and that they are unable to share those feelings with friends, family or work colleagues. By allowing time to explore the feelings that are often kept hidden in a confidential, contained space can enable understanding and different pathways in life to emerge.\n\nBereavement counselling can provide a space where you might be able to explore your grief without someone saying you have to ‘move on’ and to understand that your grief might be very different to those around you, as every persons grief is a unique journey to them.\n\nI have worked in healthcare for many years and worked as a bereavement co-ordinator for a hospice and as a counsellor for a psychodynamic charity.\n\nIf, after reading the web site, you feel you would like to find out more or arrange an initial assessment then please contact me.\n\nYou may get the answer phone machine if I am unable to take your call at that time. Please leave a message, convenient times that I may call you back and your telephone number. Your message is treated confidentially and I will respond to your call as soon as possible.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9845377802848816}
+{"content": "human - places\n\nWritten by Kaleigh Shuler\n\nOverview: Lobbyist work to influence major decisions in government by petitioning and working with officials and lawmakers. They can work for corporations, non-profits, charities, government agencies and institutions.\n\nGeographers at work: Geographers would make natural lobbyists, because in order to do their job properly a lobbyist needs to be informed on a wide range of political issues. Lobbyists need to have excellent communication and people skills and must also be willing to travel and work in a wide range of diverse environments.\n\nSkills: Strong communication skills, knowledge of legislative process, demographics, policy research, critical thinking.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8673509359359741}
+{"content": "id,summary,reporter,owner,description,type,status,priority,component,version,severity,resolution,keywords,cc,blockedby,blocking,reproduced,analyzed 216,Rendering subtitles below widescreen movie,pawel@…,alex@…,\"When displaying a widescreen movie full-screen on a typical monitor, there's plenty of free vertical space on the screen. On -vo gl and -vo aa that space is used to display OSD and subtitles (if available). Other vo (x11, xv and gl2) seem to only be able to access the screen area on which the actual movie is rendered. It would be great if it were possible to use the rest of the screen and move the subtitles below the movie area.\",enhancement,closed,normal,vo,1.0pre6,minor,worksforme,,,,,,", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8336338996887207}
+{"content": "Terry Pratchett’s Younger Readers\n\nToday’s blog entry was written by Kathleen Corcoran, a local harpist, teacher, writer, editor, favorite auntie, and avid (some might say rabid) fan of everything contributed to the world by the late, great Terry Pratchett.\n\nSir Terence David John Pratchett, OBE (28 April 1948 – 12th March 2015) was one of the most prolific and popular fantasy and humor authors of all time. His first story was published when he was thirteen years old, and his numerous novels, short stories, and collaborations have since been translated into 37 languages.\n\nDespite leaving school early to work as a journalist, Sir Terry has been awarded honorary doctorates by ten universities. His work has earned him Skylark Awards, Locus Awards, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Order of the British Empire, and knighthood from the Queen of England.\n\nOf all the honors and recognitions he earned in his career, Sir Terry always said that the one he was most proud of was The Carnegie Medal given for his young adult novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents in 2001.\n\nThe panel judging the 2001 Carnegie selection was unanimous. Karen Usher, Chair of the Panel, said, “This is an outstanding work of literary excellence: a brilliant twist on the tale of the Pied Piper that is funny and irreverent, but also dark and subversive. It is a rich multi-layered story with a pacy plot and excellent characterisation. Terry Pratchett uses his trademark wit and humour to question our society’s attitudes and behaviour in a way that is totally accessible for children of 10 years and over.\n\nThe Discworld series, with books about dragons, police, witches, trolls, the postal system, and werewolves, also contains five stories about a young witch in training. Tiffany Aching is an admirable role model for readers of any age, and she has four Locus Awards attached to her book covers.\n\nOne of the reasons Sir Terry’s books for children and young adults are so good is that they are not exclusively for children and young adults. My copies of Nation, Dodger, The Bromeliad, and Only You Can Save Mankind are on the same shelf as my copies of Wyrd Sisters and Good Omens.\n\nPratchett has other worlds less extensively mined, notably the Earth of the early 1990s. Ostensibly he writes about this for younger readers; the adult books have longer words and the juvenile fiction shorter sentences, but they are otherwise interchangeable….\n\nRupert Goodwin in The Times 5.3.94\n\nFew authors speak with the same voice to children and grown-ups alike, but Terry Pratchett does. His first novel, The Carpet People, written originally for children, was recently back on the adult bestseller list. In fact, all his children’s books have been on the adult best-seller lists, which must make him unique in publishing annals.\n\nSHE Magazine\n\nTiffany Aching is not a Chosen One. She has no special birthmark or secret royal lineage. No one gave her a special quest; no mysterious stranger asked her to guard a magic talisman. And that is part of what makes Tiffany Aching such a relatable character for younger readers.\n\nShe chooses to fight her battles because no one else will. She earns her place among the witches by being stubborn and paying attention. Wee Free Men, the first book starring Tiffany, discusses serious issues like the death of her grandmother and class divisions. Anyone can grow up to be a Tiffany Aching.\n\nMany of Sir Terry’s books for younger readers touch on this same theme of paying attention to what is happening and dealing with the problem in front of you. Masklin in Truckers and Mau in Nation are faced with tragedies and then go about finding a way to fix them simply because no one else will. In addition to being incredibly fun to read, Sir Terry’s books for younger readers present them with role models for real problem-solving.\n\nDespite the lessons in his children’s books, Sir Terry never preached to his audience. Characters learned by making mistakes, by suffering (sometimes terrible) consequences, by finding another way to accomplish what they needed to accomplish.\n\nIn The Bromeliad, the nome Masklin has to convince an entire colony of nomes that they need to pack up and leave behind everything they’ve ever known. The entire world outside their home is a terrifying idea (that may not even be real), and the hero has to create reasonable arguments and persuade his elders that not following him will result in the death of every member of society. Despite the imminent annihilation, the series is funny to read and ultimately leaves the audience with the idea that looking beyond the horizon, listening to others, and working together might not be such a bad idea.\n\nThe function of humour is to help us cope with the dark side of life; Terry Pratchett is worth a dozen psychotherapists. David V.Barrett in New Statesman and Society\n\nI have trouble reading Sir Terry’s books to my nieces because they are so good. Bedtime stories take a lot longer to finish when the orator has to keep stopping to laugh. The entire bedtime routine takes longer when the bedtime story leads to a discussion of why no one wanted to help a certain character or why people are mean when there isn’t even a reason!\n\nAs the little readers get older and learn to read the longer books, I expect many more questions I’m not really able to answer. Sir Terry discussed religion, death, prejudice, responsibility, and a million other topics I’m sure I’ll be unprepared for.\n\nSir Terry has provided hours of entertainment to millions of readers around the world. His work has been adapted for theater, for radio, for television and movies, and for all sort of video and board games. Most recently, Good Omens was produced as a mini-series for the BBC. And he was always happy to help other writers, funding scholarships and first novel prizes, and giving numerous interviews about writing.\n\nHe was diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy in 2007 and passed away in March of 2015. The Glorious 25th of May (a reference to the futile Treacle Mine Road Revolution in the novel Nightwatch) has been designated by fans as a day to honor Sir Terry Pratchett’s work and legacy by wearing lilacs and donating to fund Alzheimer’s research. The ripples he caused in the world are not likely to fade away any time soon.\n\n\nW.H.O. Let the Dogs Out?\n\nThese dogs are better at social distancing than most humans I know.\n\nToday’s blog entry was written by Kathleen Corcoran, a local harpist, teacher, writer, editor, favorite auntie, turtle lover, and dutiful servant of a fluffy tyrant masquerading as a dog.\n\nBy this point, most of us have seen something in our lives change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we understand (at least a bit) why things have changed. Our animal companions just see that the humans’ behaviors are suddenly different.\n\n“Humans are staying in these circles, so I guess I’ll stay in a circle. Do I get treats now?”\n\nDespite various quarantine and lockdown orders around the world, animals dependent on humans still need care. Many zoos and animal parks house animals that cannot be released into the wild because they were born in captivity, they are still recovering from injuries, their homes have been destroyed, or other circumstances that prevent them being able to thrive. Animal shelters, zoos, rescue and rehabilitation centers, and emergency veterinarians have adjusted to provide food, socialization, attention, playtime, and everything else to keep their charges happy.\n\nZoos have closed to the public, but zookeepers are still reporting for work. Some keepers have temporarily moved into the zoos themselves to be closer to their charges and to avoid any chance of carrying any infections into the zoo or home to their families. They’re camping in the cafeterias and staying in veterinary isolation huts.\n\nIn Cornwall, England, four keepers at Paradise Park have moved into the original house of the family that owned the property. Other keepers rotate in and out to assist, maintaining a strict schedule so that they are not in the zoo at the same time.\n\nWithout visitors around all the time, zookeepers have more freedom to take animals to visit their friends in other areas of the parks.\n\nBecause most zoos are making do with skeleton crews, keepers don’t have as much time as they’d like to play with the animals in their care. Many animals have been taking their own tours around zoos to see each other and keep each other entertained. (That doesn’t mean that bunnies have been jumping into the lion pens to say hello.)\n\nThe tamer animals have been allowed to wander the parks freely while there are no visitors. Territorial animals like geese have taken over bridges and tried to block keepers from crossing to feed other animals. Many zookeepers report that the more social animals still follow them around during rounds, without any leads or harness.\n\nSome animals have left the zoo altogether and gone to explore the world. Peacocks from the Bronx Zoo took a stroll through Prospect Park.\n\nPolice in a closed park in Houston helped a gaggle of ducklings find their way back to their mother.\n\nThis cockatoo learned how to sing “Row row row your boat” and loves to sing along with kids who come by her enclosure. Without her backup singers, she has started humming to herself in the quiet. Zookeepers report that they can sometimes hear her start the song by herself but trail off sadly when no one joins in.\n\nWithout visitors to interact with, many animals are behaving differently. Keepers try to give each animal extra attention during feeding and rounds, but it’s hard to replace a steady stream of admirers. Some animals miss the interaction and get very excited to see anyone. Other animals feel more comfortable without an audience and venture out of hiding spaces more regularly.\n\nZookeepers come up with activities to keep animals entertained and socialized. Gorillas who regularly mirror gestures and pose for selfies with visitors are shown videos of people talking to them. Leopards at Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY have to “hunt” for food in cardboard tubes to keep teeth and jaws strong.\n\nPolar bear cubs at Ouwehands Zoo Rhenen in Holland didn’t have to worry about public crowds when they left the maternity den for the first time.\n\nSnakes, alligators, stingrays, etc. haven’t shown any sign that they’ve even noticed a change. However, one zookeeper noticed that some types of fish have become very attention-seeking.\n\nVeterinarians at the Dubai Camel Hospital in Abu Dhabi have kept their enclosures open to treat their patients. After surgery, the very large patients need plenty of space and lots of help to get over that first hump in their recovery. (Ha! I crack myself up!)\n\nQ: Where does the 800 lb gorilla sit for surgery?\nA: Wherever the anesthesiologist wants.\n\nMost veterinarians are only open for emergency cases to lessen the chances of spreading COVID-19. The CDC has confirmed that two pet cats have tested positive for COVID-19, but both showed mild symptoms and are expected to make a full recovery. Updated guidelines for interacting with cats and dogs have been posted on the CDC website. Although pets cannot become infected, there is a chance that they could spread virus surviving in droplets on their fur or paws.\n\nThere have been no reports of tortoises catching or spreading the virus, which makes them the perfect quarantine buddies!\n\nOne of the positive side effects of this awful pandemic has been the emptying of animal shelters. All over the world, people are adopting or fostering quarantine buddies. Shelter managers warn that permanent adoption may not be the best choice for families who will not have the time and resources to continue to care for pets when lockdown restrictions are lifted.\n\nSome pets are not excited about constant supervision.\n\nSome shelters are offering to cover food or vet bills for adopted or fostered pets as an incentive. While we’re all stuck inside, what could be better than spending extra quality time with our favorite furry buddies? They must be loving it, too. People home all day!\n\nMental health experts recommend furry, feathery, or scaly companions to mitigate the feelings of loneliness and depression some people are bound to develop while self-isolating. Pets can also be a huge help to parents trying to keep children entertained while they are out of school and have no place to run off all that energy.\n\nDepending on the intelligence and motivation of the pet you adopt or foster, they may be able to help you complete some of your work at home.\n\nTherapy dogs who can no longer visit patients in hospitals and nursing homes are sharing their affection and calm over video.\n\nSome therapy dogs are so calm, they sleep through their own swearing-in ceremonies. This is Brody, the newest and sleepiest member of the Bristol, RI police force.\n\nSeveral localities are under extremely strict lockdown measures that residents are only allowed outside for specific errands, such as walking the dog. If walking the dog is the only opportunity you have for going outside, you might as well do it in style.\n\nDon’t put a facemask on your dog. It doesn’t help anything, and it annoys the dog.\n\nWhile the zoos and aquariums are closed and everyone is staying home, take a virtual trip. Many parks and zoos have installed virtual tours and live-feeds of animals. These are a few of my favorites.\n\nThe World Health Organization has announced that dogs cannot contract COVID-19. All dogs previously held in quarantine will now be released. To be clear, WHO let the dogs out!\nWho? Who? Who?who!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9721163511276245}
+{"content": "Anhui Hongshi Optoelectronic High-Tech Co., Ltd.\n\nBuying Wife\n\n» Buying Wife\n\nWhat goes on to a home in a Divorce. What exactly is property that is separate?\n\nBuying Wife\n • Specifications\n\n\nDealing with a divorce proceedings calls for the few which will make agreements on joint assets, like the home that is marital. Nonetheless it does not imply that your sole option in a divorce or separation is attempting to sell your home.\n\nWhom receives the home in a breakup? What is marital home?\n\nDivorcing partners must divide their assets as an element of their breakup settlement, but exactly just how your property ( or even the profits associated with purchase) is distributed is determined by once you acquired the true house and which state you live in.\n\nNeedless to say, the principles set because of the state you kazakhstan women for marriage at reside just use if the situation eventually ends up going to trial. In the event that you as well as your spouse negotiate a settlement outside of court, you’ll be able to decide together what exactly is perfect for the two of you.\n\nGenerally speaking, marital home includes whatever you or your partner obtained or gained when you had been hitched. These include cash made at your workplace, vehicles, while the true house you purchased together.\n\nSplit home belongs to just one partner, and whether your property counts as marital home or separate home can differ centered on a couple of facets, including whether you reside in a residential area home state or a distribution state that is equitable.\n\nWhat exactly is a residential district home state? Just just What can be an equitable circulation state?\n\nIn a residential district home state, almost anything you acquired through your wedding is owned 50/50, including earnings, assets, and debts. You can find an exceptions that are few including for home owned before your wedding.\n\nIf you owned your house before you had been hitched along with your spouse’s title ended up being never ever included with the title, you retain split ownership (although your better half might be eligible to 50 % of the admiration of the home during the time regarding the wedding — this is often complicated, so check always with a lawyer).\n\nCommunity property states consist of Arizona, Ca, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, brand brand New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Alaska can be an opt-in state, meaning you can easily declare your assets community home before or through your wedding by filing with all the state.\n\nInto the other 40 states, assets are distributed fairly, yet not always similarly. Within an equitable distribution state, a judge could make choices on whom gets exactly what centered on earnings, economic efforts, earning possible, or any other facets.\n\nWhat exactly is a prenup (or post-nuptial) contract? House choices when going right on through a breakup\n\nPre-nuptial (prior to the wedding) and post-nuptial (following the wedding) agreements are appropriate papers signed by both partners that information that would get which assets (and who result in which debts) within the instance of the breakup.\n\nThese agreements remove a number of the concern markings, together with contract appears no matter whether you reside a residential district home or distribution state that is equitable. Nuptial agreements are most often performed by couples whenever one or both events has significant assets before the wedding.\n\nOnce you have a property together and they are divorcing, you can find an options that are few how to proceed together with your home.\n\nChoice: Divide big assets. Choice: purchase out of the other celebration\n\nIn the event that you as well as your partner have actually numerous big assets — as an example, most of your house plus a holiday home or a sizable stock portfolio — you could simply consent to divvy up the assets, with every individual using ownership of assets well worth approximately exactly the same quantity. As an example, one individual keeps the home as well as the other receives the watercraft together with stock portfolio.\n\nWhy get this path: Dividing large assets could be a faster option to finalize a divorce proceedings, because you don’t need to watch for a house purchase or proceed through a lengthy, drawn-out settlement regarding whom should get a more impressive share regarding the appreciated worth of the house.\n\nRemember: You’ll still need to negotiate the worth of all assets to find an equitable agreement.\n\nThe person who wants to keep the home pays the spouse half of the current market value of the property in order to gain sole ownership in a buyout. The buyout may be more or less than half of the market value, depending on the factors mentioned earlier: income, financial contributions, and earning potential in an equitable distribution state.\n\nWhy get this path: One partner might want to maintain the house to keep persistence due to their kiddies, or since it’s close to college or work. It is additionally an option that is good your neighborhood housing market is not favorable, and you’d have a loss in the event that you sold.\n\nBear in mind: this program calls for that the individual doing the buying down has usage of a significant amount of money that is not susceptible to the remainder divorce proceedings procedures, even though it may also be feasible to move a buyout into a property refinancing. It’s also essential to ensure that you can still manage your homeloan payment (when you have one) on a solitary earnings.\n\nChoice: Co-own a divorce proceedings house. Why get this path:\n\nDivorcing partners can choose to keep having a property together, agreeing on details like just just how mortgage repayments is going to be split, when they’ll be compensated each thirty days, with regards to at some point be sold, and who can obtain the profits for the purchase of the home at that time.\n\nIt’s an alternative choice that enables kids in which to stay their property. And, it is an option that is practical anyone cannot manage to purchase the other one down.\n\nBear in mind: belated re re re payments will impact both owners’ fico scores, also if you’re divorced, so that it’s essential that both events consent to spend on time. Additionally the owner who won’t be surviving in the home has to focus on capital gains income tax exclusions — as your primary residence for at least two of those years, you’ll be on the hook for capital gains taxes on the appreciation when you sell if you go to sell and you’ve owned a house for the past five years, but not lived in it. ( More about capital gains fees in “Tax implications of offering the marital house. ”)\n\n\n\n2 + 9 = ?\n\nMaybe you like also\n\n • Product Categories\n\n • Share to friend\n\n • Contact Us\n\n Add: No 2, Yan'an Road, Baohe Industrial Area, Hefei, Anhui Province, China Tel:+86.551.63755858 Fax:+86.551.63368968 Sales service:+86.551.63755855\n • Products\n\n Rice Series\n\n Grains Series\n\n Tea Series\n\n Belt Series\n\n Wheat Series\n\n Wind Sorter Series\n\n • Working time\n\n\n • Contact Us\n\n\n\n\n Sales service:+86.551.63755855", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5084894895553589}
+{"content": "Carmel Clay Schools superintendent ‘optimistic’ Carmel High School students can return to campus by Jan. 8\n\n\nCarmel Clay Schools Supt. Michael Beresford is “optimistic” that students can return to school as scheduled Jan. 8 after an explosion in a maintenance room Dec. 26 led to major damage and scrambling to make repairs during winter break.\n\nIn an email sent to CCS parents Dec. 31, he said heat and power have been restored to much of the building except near the blast site. Exposed areas of the roof have been covered, and crews have been working to clean up debris and re-wire alarms and sprinklers.\n\n“Two challenges we are working hard to resolve is replacement of the heater for the pool and the hot-water boilers that serve the athletic area and Greyhound Station,” Beresford stated. “We are pursuing both temporary and permanent solutions to these issues.”\n\nThe campus has been closed since the accidental blast, which occurred with approximately 100 people in the building. Beresford said CCS will provide counselors and social workers at each school once classes resume to assist students who may be traumatized by the situation.\n\nTwo men making repairs in the maintenance room when the explosion occurred, one CCS employee and a contractor, are recovering from their injuries.\n\n“Both men injured in the blast are improving. Both are still in the hospital and receiving treatment. Please continue to keep them in your thoughts and prayers,” Beresford stated. “Last week, I was able to visit the area where the explosion occurred. I still cannot imagine what they went through and how they were able to walk out of that area. Miraculous.”\n\nCHS will remain closed until further notice.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8985522389411926}
+{"content": "Nirjala Ekadasi is observed the next day after Ganga Dusshera, a ten days period of self confession to remove the guilt acquired over the lat year.\n\nAs per mythology observing Nirjala Ekadasi fast which falls during the waxing phase (Shukla Paksha) in Jyeshta month has the benefits of observing all the 24 Ekadasis. Nirjala Ekadasi is one of the strictest fast in Hindu religion and among all Ekadasis. Nirjala means ‘without water.’ Devotees who undertake this fast does not drink water while fasting on the day. No food is also consumed on the day. The fast begins on Ekadasi sunrise and ends on next day (Dwadasi) sunrise.\n\nObserving it is also equal to going on pilgrimage. During the month of Jyestha the day is longer and one after feels thirsty. As a result it is difficult to observe this vow without drinking water. This vow can only be fulfilled by meticulously observing this vow.\n\nBut why fast on the third day before the new and full moons – why not fast on the new and full moon days themselves? Scientists have shown that emotional disturbance starts three days before, so we must counteract this effect from the very beginning, before it has a chance to greatly upset our bodies and minds. British scientists have shown that there are two days during the month when the electron-magnetic vibration of the body radically changes – three days before the new and full moons. On these two days during the month there is a marked difference in the electrical potential between the body’s electromagnetic vibration at the navel and in the brain.\n\nEven though many people during these periods may become irritable, restless and upset, those who fast without water will find that their minds remain balanced and calm. Nirjala Ekadashi therefore prevents al the ill effects likely to come on the day of full moon. The dehydration produces on ekadashi will compensate the water retention occurring on the day of full moon. Rice or carbohydrates are not eaten in this fast. If worms are present in the GI tract they cannot tolerate dehydration and gets attracted towards carb diet and can migrate in gall bladder or appendix causing obstructions.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9700594544410706}
+{"content": "Search Results\n\nVenetian Merchants and Mamluk Officials in Late Medieval Alexandria\nAnalysing different conflicts in Late Medieval Alexandria, this book offers new insights into the micro-mechanics of Venetian life and trade in Egypt and recalibrates the narrative of the strictly regulated and often violent contacts between East and West. This thorough microanalysis, based on the private archive of a Venetian merchant and consul in Alexandria read in conjunction with other Venetian and Mamluk sources, provides a differentiated image of conflict patterns cutting across the cultural divide. It transforms our image of Alexandria as a city at the intersection of Orient and Occident into that of a microcosm in its own right where disputes did not always fall neatly along cultural divides and conflicts were traded as much as trade created conflicts.\nThis book investigates perceptions, modes, and techniques of Venetian rule in the early modern Eastern Mediterranean (1400–1700). Against the backdrop of the controversial notion of the Venetian realm as a colonial empire, essays from a range of specialists examine how Venice negotiated control over the territories, resources, and traditions of different empires (Byzantine, Roman, Mamluk, Ottoman) while developing its own claims of authority. Focusing in particular on questions of belonging and status in the Venetian overseas territories, the volume incorporates observations on the daily realities of Venetian rule: how did Venice negotiate claims of authority in light of former and ongoing imperial belongings? What was the status of colonial subjects and ships in the metropolis and in foreign territories? In what ways did Venice accept and continue old forms of imperial belonging? Did subordinate entities join in a shared communal identity? The volume opens new perspectives on Venetian rule at the crossroads of empire and early modern statehood: a polity negotiating and entangling empire.\nContributors are Housni Alkhateeb Shehada, Giacomo Corazzol, Nicholas Davidson, Renard Gluzman, Deborah Howard, David Jacoby (ZL), Marianna Kolyvà, Franz-Julius Morche, Reinhold C. Mueller, Monique O’Connell, Gerassimos D. Pagratis, Tassos Papacostas, Maria Pia Pedani (†), Dorit Raines, and E. Natalie Rothman.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9393948912620544}
+{"content": "Monday, August 28, 2006\n\nWas Charles Darwin Responsible for Adolf Hitler and the Columbine Killings?\n\nTo see the hysterical fear of Darwinian science, go here.\n\nJames Kennedy of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church has produced a television documentary entitled \"Darwin's Deadly Legacy,\" which was shown on television stations across the United States over the past weekend. He has interviews with many of the leading proponents of creationism and intelligent design theory and critics of Darwinism, including Michael Behe, Ann Coulter, Ken Ham, Phillip Johnson, Carson Holloway, and Richard Weikart.\n\nThe documentary claims that Darwin was responsible for Adolf Hitler and for the killings at Columbine High School in 1999. The reasoning is that Darwin rejected all morality in teaching \"survival of the fittest\" in which the strong would destroy the weak. Hitler put this teaching into practice in his eugenics, his racism, and his anti-Semitism. The high school boys who killed 12 people and themselves at Columbine High School were also motivated by their belief in Darwinian science. One of them left a message on his website: \"You know what I love? Natural selection! It's the best thing that ever happened to the Earth. Getting rid of all the stupid organisms.\"\n\nDarwin's responsibility for all this is supported by the interviews. Richard Weikart repeats the claim of his book FROM DARWIN TO HITLER that Hitler adopted Darwin's science. Ann Coulter says that Weikart's book opened her eyes to this ugly fact. And Carson Holloway speaks about how Darwin's science subverted traditional morality.\n\nI have posted responses to Weikart, Coulter, and Holloway. I have pointed out that Darwin defended morality as rooted in a natural moral sense, and that he looked to the Golden Rule as the highest expression of this morality. Of course, none of this is mentioned by anyone in this documentary.\n\nIt is very disturbing that the people interviewed for this documentary would support such a crude and vulgar piece of propaganda.\n\nWednesday, August 23, 2006\n\nBiological Conservatism?\n\nMany conservatives who object to Darwinian conservatism seem to be open to a biological conservatism that does not assume the truth of Darwinian evolution. I wonder whether this might offer a ground of compromise.\n\nAlthough the proponents of intelligent design object to evolutionary explanations of the distant causes of human biological nature, they do not seem to object to biological explanations based on more proximate causes. To find common ground among conservatives for accepting a biologically rooted natural law, we could set aside the arguments from evolutionary biology and rely only on arguments from behavioral biology. Even if we cannot agree on the evolutionary causes of human nature, we might still agree on the proximate causes of human behavioral biology.\n\nEvolutionary causes are difficult to judge because they often are not directly observable, and we have to infer evolutionary history from indirect evidence (such as the fossil record). By contrast, proximate causes are often open to direct observation. For example, we can measure fluctuations in hormonal levels and correlate that with behavioral changes.\n\nSo, for instance, we might get general agreement among most conservatives that the human propensities to sexual differences, sexual mating, familial bonding, and parental care are rooted in human biological nature, and this challenges the radical feminist's quest to establish androgynous behavior as the norm for human beings. Such propensities of human biology are directly observable. For example, we might study the differences in male and female brains that support differences in male and female behavior. Some of us would see this as a product of Darwinian evolution. But others would see it as the work of the intelligent designer. And yet we could agree on the observable proximate causes of human sexual biology.\n\nConservatives such as Harvey Mansfield, Peter Lawler, Carson Holloway, and John West all seem to agree with me that there are natural norms for human conduct rooted in human biological nature, even as they disagree with me about the evolutionary causes of this biological nature. Holloway can accept the fact of evolution by natural selection. He even asserts that \"religious believers can accept that the physical and even the emotional and moral constitution of human beings has been shaped by natural selection.\" But where Holloway departs from my Darwinian conservatism is that he believes morality cannot be secure if it is not founded on a \"religiously-informed cosmic teleology.\" So while Holloway might accept the Darwinian account of human evolution as true, he would want to see this evolutionary history as guided by a divine intelligence directing it to some cosmic purpose. In fact, theistic evolutionists believe that Darwinian evolution is compatible with a religious belief in God as the ultimate source of evolutionary order.\n\nThose like John West won't concede this much to Darwinian science. They insist that the intelligent designer could not, or would not, employ evolutionary mechanisms to execute his divine purpose. But even West would say that the observable biological nature of human beings supports a biologically grounded natural law in which natural human desires become normative because they manifest the moral will of God.\n\nIn a way, Holloway and West fundamentally agree with me. We all agree in that we are biological conservatives, because we believe that human biological nature supports conservative principles such as traditional morality, family life, property, and limited government.\n\nWe disagree, however, about the Darwinian basis of biology. My biology is completely Darwinian. Holloway's biology is partially Darwinian. West's biology is completely anti-Darwinian.\n\nI argue that for a biologically based conservative morality, Darwinian biology is sufficient in providing an immanent teleology. But Holloway and West argue that this is not sufficient. No healthy morality can survive, they believe, without a religiously-grounded cosmic teleology. Holloway provides that cosmic teleology by adopting the position of theisitic evolution. West provides that cosmic teleology by adopting the position of intelligent design theory that denies Darwinian evolution completely.\n\nSome of this might come up at the APSA panel in Philadelphia with me, Holloway, and West as participants.\n\nMonday, August 21, 2006\n\nThe Evasive Rhetoric of NCSE\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWednesday, August 16, 2006\n\nDarwinian Liberal Education\n\nWe should all know what's wrong with higher education today. Teaching and research have become so specialized, fragmented, and incoherent that we cannot see that unity of knowledge necessary for sustaining general or liberal education. To renew the tradition of the liberal arts, we need a new unifying framework of thought. As far as I can tell, there is today only one plausible source for such a common ground of knowledge, and that is Darwinian evolutionary biology.\n\nI began to move towards this conclusion as an undergraduate student at the University of Dallas in the late 1960s. My youthful excitement about philosophy was stirred by Aristotle's declaration that all human beings by nature desire to understand, a desire tht leads natural philosophers to search for the ultimate causes or reasons for all things. Fascinated by Aristotle's comprehensive investigation of nature and human nature, I noticed that much of his writing was in biology, and that even his moral and political works assumed a biological understanding of human nature. So I wondered whether Aristotle's biological naturalism could be compatible somehow with modern Darwinian biology, and whether this might support a general study of human life within the natural causal order of the whole.\n\nThe aim of liberal education is to use all the intellectual disciplines to probe how the complex interaction of natural human propensities, cultural traditions, and individual choices shapes the course of human experience within the natural world. Darwinian theory provides a general conceptual framework for such liberal learning grounded in the scientific study of genetic evolution, cultural evolution, and cognitive judgement.\n\nThis Darwinian view of liberal education has guided my teaching. At Northern Illinois University, I helped to organize \"Politics and the Life Sciences\" as a field of study at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the Department of Political Science. Some of the courses in the program are cross-listed as biology courses. So my undergraduate courses typically enroll a large number of students majoring in biology along with others majoring in the social sciences and humanities. My graduate students apply Darwinian reasoning to issues in political philosophy and other areas of political science. All the students see how liberal learning at its best brings together ideas and methods from all the intellectual disciplines to illuminate the deepest questions of human life and its position in the universe.\n\nAt the core of my thinking is the idea of human nature. In today's academic world, it is common for postmodernist relativists to assert tht liberal education cannot be directed to the study of human nature, because the idea of human nature is an arbitrary social construction. But I believe that there really is a universal human nature that is constituted by at least twenty natural desires that manifest themselves throughout history in every human society, because these desires belong to the evolved nature of the human species.\n\nThese natural desires direct human behavior into regular patterns. Men and women will marry and form families. Mothers will care for their children. Young males will compete for mates and status. Societies will organize themselves as male dominance hierarchies. Competing societies will go to war. And human beings will use language and other symbols to try to figure out what it all means.\n\nA broader model of this kind of Darwinian liberal education is David Sloan Wilson's Evolutionary Studies Program (EvoS) at Binghamton University. The website for the program can be found here. This is an integrated curriculum with a required introductory course \"Evolution for Everyone\" and a list of courses across the university from which students must earn a minimum number of credits. Wilson teaches \"Evolution for Everyone\" as the course in which all students are introduced to the central concepts of evolutionary theory as well as some illustrative application of those concepts to various fields of study. He emphasizes the application of evolutionary ideas to human nature.\n\nOver 50 faculty members representing 15 departments are involved in the program. As a result, both faculty and students from across the university in many different departments are brought together with Darwinian reasoning as their common language to talk about questions of human nature and the natural world.\n\nI hope to help organize a similar program at NIU. In the fall of 2007, I will be team-teaching a course on evolution with a philosopher and a biologist. We then will try to build an evolutionary studies program around this course.\n\nThrough such a Darwinian liberal education, we might renew the quest that began with Aristotle to satisfy our natural desire to understand the causes or reasons of all things.\n\nThursday, August 10, 2006\n\nCarson Holloway in SCIENCE & THEOLOGY NEWS\n\nCarson Holloway's book The Right Darwin? is a general criticism of any attempt to ground morality in human biological nature. His main idea is that there can be no morality without religious belief, and therefore any purely natural morality rooted in natural desires cannot work, because the natural desires are both moral and immoral. In particular, he criticizes my defense of Darwinian morality.\n\nOn January 9th, I posted a response on this blog to Holloway's book. Recently, he wrote a brief summary of his book's argument for Science and Theology News, which can be found here.\n\nHe implies that a Darwinian view of morality rejects religion as a source of moral instruction. This is not true, because as I have said on various occasions, Darwin emphasizes the importance of religious traditions as a source of moral principles. But insofar as morality is natural for human beings, morality can stand on its own natural ground even without religious belief. By contrast, Holloway insists that morality is impossible without religious belief. So it would seem that, for Holloway, atheists or those who don't have the right kind of religious beliefs cannot be moral. I disagree.\n\nIn this commentary, as in his book, Holloway is vague about what he means by \"religion\" and about exactly how religion supports morality. The only specific example he provides in his commentary is the moral debate over slavery. Darwin was a vigorous opponent of slavery. And I have argued that the human moral resistance to slavery was rooted in a natural human resistance to exploitation. Holloway suggests that this natural resistance is not enough without a religious ground for opposing slavery.\n\nHolloway does not explain how exactly religion condemns slavery. He says nothing about the debate in the United States over the Biblical basis of slavery. The debate was so intense that some of the major Protestant denominations--such as the Baptists and Methodists--were split into northern and southern schisms, because southern Christians thought the Bible supported slavery, while northern Christians thought slavery was contrary to the Bible.\n\nSlavery is never clearly condemned in the Bible. On the contrary, there are many passages that seemingly endorse slavery. Some recent books--such as Eugene Genovese's The Mind of the Master Class and Mark Noll's The Civil War as a Theological Crisis--have surveyed the Biblical arguments for slavery in the American South before the Civil War.\n\nWhat would Holloway say about this? Would he say that the proslavery Christians misinterpreted the Bible? But where then does the Bible clearly condemn slavery? Does he really want to say that without the Bible it would be impossible to recognize the immorality of slavery?\n\nThis illustrates the implausibility of Holloway's argument. He assumes that religious texts such as the Bible provide a clear, reliable, and authoritative set of moral teachings that cannot be known by natural human experience. But it's hard to see how we could rely on the Bible for moral instruction if we could not pass it through that natural moral sense that Darwin saw as rooted in our evolved human nature.\n\nWednesday, August 02, 2006\n\nDo the Bible and the Koran Support Theocracy?\n\nIn his prophetic essay from 1990, Bernard Lewis warned that Islamic fundamentalism would bring a \"clash of civilizations\" with radical Islamists promoting theocracy and attacking the Western tradition of religious liberty and toleration. In this essay, Lewis argued that Islam did not share the Christian tradition of separating Church and State, a tradition based on the New Testament teaching about rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and rendering to God the things that are God's (Matthew 22:20-22).\n\nConservatives generally accept this principle of separating Church and State and support the idea that a free government of limited powers will leave people free to exercise religious liberty without enforcing any particular religious beliefs by law. But some Christian conservatives now reject the idea of Church/State separation as a \"myth.\" And some--like the \"Christian Reconstructionists\"--want to establish a theocracy based on the Mosaic laws of the Old Testament. Recently, there have been a half-dozen books warning that the Christian Right promotes theocracy. Richard John Neuhaus and others at the journal First Things dismiss this fear of Christian theocracy as ridiculous. (An example can be found here.) But Damon Linker, a former editor at First Things claims in a recent article that Neuhaus's vision of a Catholic Chrisian America really is theocratic.\n\nSome Christian conservatives are suspicious of the idea of religious liberty and toleration because they fear that it promotes atheism. They suspect that the philosophic defenders of toleration--like John Locke--were secretly engaged in an atheistic attack on Christianity.\n\nBut I would argue that Lewis is right in suggesting that the idea of religious liberty really is rooted in the New Testament, and therefore Christians should support it. I have come to this conclusion after spending the past academic year teaching a series of three graduate seminars on the political teaching of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Koran.\n\nFrom these studies, I have been persuaded that Roger Williams was right in reading the New Testament as teaching that Christians must defend religious liberty and reject theocracy or any governmental supervision of religion. Williams was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century for making this argument. In 1644, he published The Bloody Tenent of Persecution, in which he laid out his theological arguments for religious liberty as rooted in Christian doctrine. He established the colony of Rhode Island as a place where such religious liberty would be secured.\n\nWilliams rightly recognizes that the Old Testament is theocratic, because the Mosaic law enforced religious belief and practice by coercion. But he points out that the New Testament sets aside Mosaic theocracy by declaring that the spiritual salvation of Christians does not depend upon assuming earthly political power. The New Testament never presents the Christians as using political power to enforce Christian doctrine. Rather, the Christian churches enforced their beliefs on their members and expelled those that refused to obey, but they never used legal coercion.\n\nWilliams' point becomes clear when one notices that Christian theocrats--from the Puritans to the Christian Reconstructionists--always have to go back to the Old Testament to get their laws, because the New Testament provides no guidance for theocratic politics. (The early American Puritan laws drawn from the Old Testament can be found here.)\n\nAs only one example of how the doctrine of religious liberty enters the New Testament, consider Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. He advises the Corinthians to enforce their Christian morality within the assembly of believers, but without trying to coerce those outside the church. \"For what is it for me to judge those outside? Is it not for you to judge those inside? But God is to judge those outside\" (I Cor 5:12-13).\n\nConsider the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament in handling homosexuality. The Old Testament prescribes that homosexuals must be killed (Lev. 20:13). The New Testament condemns homosexuality but does not order that they be killed (Romans 1:26-27). The New Testament Christians have no desire to use the legal and political power of the state to enforce their religious prescriptions against homosexuality. By contrast, the Christian Reconstructionists want to restore the Mosaic law for stoning homosexuals to death.\n\nWilliams rightly reads the New Testament as separating civil authority and spiritual authority. All citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs, are subject to the civil authority of the state to enforce a peaceful social order (as indicated by Romans 13:1-7). But the spiritual authority of God over the believer is a matter of individual conscience that cannot properly be dictated by the legal power of the state (as it was in the Mosaic regime of the Old Testament).\n\nChristian conservatives should look to Williams as providing a Christian understanding of religious liberty based on a strict separation of Church and State.\n\nSo what about the Koran? It's ambiguous on this issue. It declares that \"there is to be no compulsion in religion\" (2:256). And some Muslims see this as Koranic authority for religious liberty and toleration. Some argue for \"minding one's own business,\" and they cite the Koranic verse that says: \"O you who believe! Guard your own souls: If you follow right guidance, no hurt can come to you from those who stray\" (5:108). But the Koran also speaks of the unquestionable authority of the Prophet in a manner that can be read as suggesting the rule of the Caliphate--the merging of political and religious authority (2:30, 4:59, 4:80, 38:26). And, of course, Muhammad--unlike Jesus--combined military and political power with religious authority.\n\nThe most disturbing part of the Koran to me is that the Old Testament stories are altered to remove any indication of the immoral weaknesses of those who ruled over the people of Israel. For example, the Koran speaks of King David without ever speaking about his commiting adultery and murder in the service of his sexual lust for Bathsheba. The Koran repeatedly denounces the people of Israel for their sinfulness, while praising their leaders as morally perfect (27:15-44, 38:26-40). This denies the fundamental premise of limited government--that human beings are too limited in their virtue to be trusted with absolute power. The Old Testament supports limited government by depicting the rulers of Israel as having all the moral defects of power-seeking men. The warnings about the despotic character of kingship (I Samuel 8) have often been quoted by the critics of monarchy. The Old Testament fails, however, to see that imperfect human beings are not to be trusted with political power over the religious beliefs of the citizens.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7383201718330383}
+{"content": "Educommunication in the context of youth and adult education in Latin America: A state of the art based on a systematic literature review\n\nPublication TypeJournal Article\nAño de publicación2019\nAuthorsRivas, WRSena\nSecondary AuthorsS Martín, C, Cabezas-González, M, Barrientos, A\nJournalRLCS, Revista Latina de Comunicación Social\nStart Page133 to 171\nFecha de publicación1/2019\nType of ArticleEducation\n\nIntroduction: This research article presents a systematic literature review of the scientific production on the relationship between education and communication and youth and adult education in Latin America. Methods: Systematic literature review based on quantitative descriptive analysis and a qualitative approach applied on a sub-sample. Results: A total of 672 searches were carried out in the WOS and SCOPUS databases. Brazil and Mexico are the two countries most commonly taken as objects of study. In general terms, there is low scientific production in the area under study, especially when the search criteria restrict the object of study. With regards to the types of articles found, there is diversity in the formats used to disseminate research on this topic, although a dominant research design can be identified. Discussion and conclusions: Based on the 672 searches and the initial 5,420 results related to the object of study, it can be concluded that there is a very low scientific production, mainly dominated by mixed methodological techniques, with populations corresponding to countries and convenience samples; there is a preference for exploratory and heterogeneous research works. Brazil stands out as the most common object of study and there is, with some exceptions, some degree of correlation between the number of publications made by a country and the gross domestic product of such country. Finally, it is concluded that a dominant research design among the articles addressing Educommunication and youth and adult education in Latin America", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9271209239959717}
+{"content": "Mapping the world's opinions\n\nargument top image\n\nWhat are the best research philosophies in academia? Show more Show less\n\nThe term research philosophy refers to a system of beliefs and assumptions about the development of knowledge. In layman’s terms, a research philosophy is the choice a researcher makes on how to pursue his research, consciously or subconsciously. Scholars have identified five of the most prominent research philosophies in academia, however, choosing one is a matter of debate.\n\nCritical Realism Show more Show less\n\nSupporters of critical realism claim that reality is much more than our senses allow us to see, preferring to focus on the bigger picture.\n(1 of 5 Positions) Next >\n\nCritical realism advances historical knowledge\n\n< Previous (2 of 2 Arguments)\n\n\nThe Argument\n\nBy focusing on the past, critical realists can understand how societies or organisations came to be or how they used to function. This way the present situation of the research subjects can be more easily understood and can even give valuable insights into their future. Obviously this approach also allows for advancements in the field of history.\n\nCounter arguments\n\n\n\nRejecting the premises\n\n\nDo you agree?\n\n\nFurther Reading\n\n\n Explore related arguments\n\n This page was last edited on Monday, 20 Jan 2020 at 09:13 UTC", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9857439398765564}
+{"content": "Honda Madox Honda and the National politics of Impressionism\n\nKnown for their diverse yet exclusive styles and their subjective perceptions of the world surrounding them, the Post-Impressionists pioneered a fresh approach to portrait at the turn of the 100 years. Unlike the Impressionists that preceded these people and the Fauvists that adopted, Post-Impressionist music artists were not single by a solitary aesthetic approach. Rather, what brought them together was a shared affinity for openly going through the mind of the artist.\n\nProvided the assortment of styles, methods, and even subject matter evident in Post-Impressionist works of art, defining the movement could be difficult. However , by looking up its background, identifying their artists, and pinpointing it is distinguishing characteristics, one can started to understand the historical and representational significance in the movement.\n\nHow to build15442 the Main Human body of an Essay?\n\nA burger without beef is worth practically nothing. It is the same for an essay plus the main human body.\n\nThe body paragraphs are the component to your essay between the introduction and realization. Text size depends on your word limit and your personal writing strength. Every paragraph has to freely consist of the same number of words and phrases. This should end up being obvious for every conscious brain, but most of us repeat a basic truth: a single paragraph is NOT ENOUGH! Phew. It had to be done. A few move on to significantly less obvious claims.\n\nExample #3:Railroads(By E. B. White)\n\nThe good streak of insanity in railroads, which will accounts for a child’s in-born feeling for them and for a man’s unashamed devotion to them, is definitely congenital; there will be simply no reason to show concern that virtually any disturbing improvement in the railroads’ condition will certainly set in He gravely wrote in the proper space, and experienced from the beginning the confidence that also is unchanged and unchanging, and that this suits each of our temperament properly a dash of lunacy, a sense of distance, not much rate, and no arwhatsoever. inch\n\nFrom this descriptive passageway, White laments the bad current condition of the voyager train sector in the express of Key, his home state, and worries for future years. He softens his grievances by entering past memories when he will ride while an adult.\n\nCase in point #4:House on Mango Avenue(By Sandra Cisneros)\n\nThen Uncle Nacho is tugging and pulling my equip and it doesn’t matter how fresh the dress The female bought is basically because my feet are ugly until my own uncle who is a atar says, You are the lovliest girl here, will you boogie My uncle and me bend and this individual walks myself back in my thick shoes to my personal mother who is proud to get my mother. All night the boy that is a man wrist watches me move. He viewed me party.\n\nThis complete story delivers us a collection of vignettes. There are lots of passages with detailed explanations about particular ideas or perhaps characters, similar to this extract illustrating a dance scene.\n\nDigital photography\n\nPerhaps no invention of the Industrial Wave influenced Impressionism more than the camera. Black and light photography not simply recorded the scene for later study, this arrested the real-life occasions that Impressionists pursued. Most of the Impressionists acquired cameras; in fact , Monet had four and Degas experimented with one of the early on Kodak lightweight models. Their art had taken on the odd, unexpected, and asymmetricalcompositionssometimes caught by the camera.\n\nRejecting the centered radical groups of classic art, Impressionists thought nothing at all of removing a figure at the painting’s edge, or pushing the action in to corners and leaving the center of the composition empty. Degas called pictures an image of magical instantaneity, and was particularly adept at the off-center structure. He was likewise intrigued by the newly made motion picture machine, which had taken multiple photos of moving animals for high shutter speeds. This individual used the appliance to study motion and motion. Impressionists excitedly studied breathtaking landscape pictures and followed its compressed perspective. Monet noticed that gradual shutter speeds blurred going figures, and he began to smudge his painted figures similarly. For the human eye, naturally , figures avoid blur, and one early critic dismissed Monet’s distant pedestrians because black tongue lickings. Even those who praised the artist’s capacity to capture this ant-like excitedly pushing. the suddenness, abruptness of movement often skipped the link to photography.\n\nColor Theory\n\nIn its use of color, Impressionism significantly broke away from tradition. Improvements in the areas of optics and color theory fascinated these artists. Working outside, Impressionists delivered the enjoy of sun rays and the colours of characteristics with a palette of bolder, lighter colours than time-honored studio painters used. In 1666, Sir Isaac Newton had displayed that white-colored light could possibly be split into various\n\ncolors – including the threeprincipal colors, red, green, and yellow – with a prism. The Impressionists learned how to create the refractive colors which has acolour schemeof pure, strong pigments and white. Unlike Academy artists, who covered their canvases with a darkerunderpainting, Impressionists worked on unprimed white painting or a soft gray or creambackgroundfor a lighter, brighter impact.\n\nEugene Chevreul’s 1839 publicationAround the Law of Simultaneous Compare of Colors, guided the Impressionist practice of setting up strokes of pure, contrasting colors. Chevreul found that colors difference in relation to the other shades near these people.Complementary colors, or those directly reverse each other in the color wheel, create one of the most intense results when put next to one another, he wrote. Red-green or blue-orange mixtures cause a real vibration in the viewer’s eyesight so that color appears to leap off the fabric. No wonder viewers react psychologically to the shining sunlight about Monet’s waterways or the dash of orange costume in Degas’ rdancers. I want my red to sound like a bell! Renoir stated. If I actually don’t manage it initially, I put in more reddish colored, and also other shades, until I have got it. inch\n\nBusy City and Quiet Countryside Options\n\nMost Impressionists were given birth to in the bourgeoisie class, which was the globe they decorated. Make all of us see and understand, with brush or perhaps with pencil, how great and poetic we are in our cravats and the leather shoes, the poet Charles Baudelaire questioned his friend Manet. Baudelaire’s dissertationThe Painter of Modern Life, inspired various other Impressionists to portray real world themes, also. Degas prowled behind the scenes from the opera and ballet pertaining to his topics. Monet immortalized Paris train stations. Virtually all the Impressionist artists coated people hurrying through active streets and enjoying their very own leisure time within the boulevard, in the racetrack, in cafoutlets, restaurants, and parks.\n\nHowever , it was not simply city bustle that curious the Impressionists. Country themes appealed to them, too. Railroads gave people a new mobility. They will could visit a educate and be inside the countryside in an hour. Travelers escaped the crowded metropolis to the and surrounding suburbs that sprouted around Rome. The Seine River, leisure areas, and home gardens provided fun for weekend picnickers, swimmers, and vessel parties, that the Impressionists properly recorded. One key to Impressionism’s popularity, it has been written, would be that the artist often put the viewers in the situation of someone on holiday enjoying a wonderful scene. Monet never coated weekdays, inches one essenti noted wryly.\n\nThe home provided other real-life subjects. It was unacceptable for females painters like Berthe Morisot or Martha Cassatt to set up an easel in most general public places. They will relied in domestic scenes of women off their own cultural class cuddling babies, having fun with their children, shower in the bedroom, or looking after their backyards. The garden was central to late 19th-century life. Monet, Manet, and Renoir often painted their gardens. Monet called his flowerbeds my most beautiful masterpiece of design.\n\nAlways be unusual\n\nPredictability is boring. An infrequent approach is precisely what you need to be able to amaze your reader. Speak in a roundabout method, ask questions, and tell testimonies. Use the imagination and creativity, because you have only 1 attempt to catch the attention of your reader. Don’t waste that!\n\nJokes and stories are certainly not enough for the good advantages. You should also will include a thesis declaration in the first paragraph. The thesis assertion is 1, perhaps two sentences at the beginning of your dissertation that summarizes your ideas and sets a direction and steps for your writing.\n\nEn Plein Airand The Painter of the Passing Moment\n\nPainting your sidewalk cafthe racetrack, and also the boating party attracted the Impressionists to work outdoors, oren plein air. Most Impressionists worked immediately and spontaneously from characteristics. It wasBarbizonpainter Camille Corot who also first advised artists to submit to the first impression of the actual saw – a real landscape without the artificial classical ruins or Biblical parables of French Educational painting.\n\nMonet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, and more preferred to record their initial sensory reactions instead of idealize a topic. A painter friend of Monet remembered the learn giving him this advice: He (Monet) explained he wanted he had recently been born impaired and then acquired suddenly obtained his view so that this individual could have started to color in this way without knowing what the objects were that he found before him. He placed that the first real consider the motif was likely to be the truest and a lot unprejudiced 1. The Impressionists thought that all painting their very own experiences was more truthful, and thus more ethical, than copying the ability of the past.\n\nImpressionist landscapes often contained people, or revealed the effects of male’s presence – on a connect or way, for example. The Impressionists desired to catch persons in honest rather than staged or asked moments. It is as if the artist and we, the audiences, are observing a private, contemplative moment. We see men, ladies, and children floating in a rowboat, walking under the trees, or just observing the river flow.\n\nImpressionists often portrayed people mid-task. Degas caught opera audience members watching each other instead of the stage and ballet ballet dancers stretching or perhaps adjusting their very own costumes just before a functionality. Renoir’s guitar player strums her instrument by simply herself. Pissarro’s Parisian pedestrians hurriedly get across the city roadways.\n\nA desire to capture natural fleeting second led many Impressionists to paint the same scene at different occasions and in distinct weather. That they had to operate fast to capture the moment, or finish an outside painting before the light altered. Artists got often produced quick sketches in pencil or perhaps diluted olive oil paint upon location, nevertheless the drawing became the finished function. Impressionist artists adopted a distinctive style of fast, broken brushstrokes: lines for people on a busy street, or perhaps specks to re-create plants in a meadow.\n\nThese artists often applied paint so thickly it created a hard texture around the canvas. Impressionists mixed hues right on the canvas or perhaps stroked on the hues subsequent to each other and then let the viewer’s vision do the blending together. This process was called optic color blending. Not only did this sketchy technique suggest motion, but it also captured the shimmering effects of light that engaged these kinds of artists. The rough, excellent paintings of Impressionism were a drastic departure from the clever, highly done canvases of Academic painters. Although the Impressionists wished their function to appearance almost accidental, it’s not surprising that early critics known as it lazy and unfinished.\n\nDefinition of Vignette\n\nVignette is a small impressionistic scene, an illustration, a descriptive passageway, a short article, a fictional or non-fiction work centering on one particular instant; or presenting an impression regarding an idea, personality, setting, disposition, aspect, or object. Vignette is nor a story nor an entire narrative information, but a carefully built verbal draw that might be a part of some bigger work, or a complete information in itself.\n\nVirtuallyvignetteis actually a French word that means little vine. The computer printers, during the nineteenth-century, would enhance their title pages with drawings of looping vines. Hence, the derivation of this term is the fact source of drawings. Contemporary tips from the displays shown in television and film intrigue also have influenced vignettes.\n\nEmotional Significance\n\nBecause Fry described, Post-Impressionists thought that a thing of beauty should not include style, method, or cosmetic approach. Rather, it should place emphasis on significance, communicating emails from the artist’s own subconscious. Rather than utilize subject matter as being a visual application or ways to an end, Post-Impressionists perceived it as a way to communicate feelings. Relating to Paul Ca work of art which in turn did not begin in emotion is definitely not a masterpiece of design.\n\nPaul Cof Skulls’ (1901)\n\nHenri Rousseau, Dream, ‘ 1910\n\nCase #1:In Our Period(By Ernest Hemingway)\n\nMaera lay still, his head on his hands, his deal with in the sand. He felt warm and sticky from the bleeding. Every time he felt the horn coming. Sometimes the half truths only knocked him along with his head. Once the horn went all the way through him and he felt this go into the yellow sand Maera felt everything getting bigger and larger and after that smaller and smaller. Then it got much larger and larger and larger and then more compact and more compact. Then almost everything commenced to perform faster and faster as when they improve a cinematograph film. After that he was useless.\n\nIn this impressionistic sketch, mcdougal gives an illustration of the character Maera, who is a bullfighter that dies via injures inflicted by a half truths.\n\n\nInside the 1870s and 1880s, Impressionism dominated avant-garde art in France. A large number of up-and-coming music artists, however , discovered fault inside the Impressionists’ concentrate on style instead of subject matter. Planning to shake up the contemporary artwork world, this kind of group of stylistically dissimilar artistsPaul CPaul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and Henri Rousseauthe Post-Impressionists.\n\nLike the Impressionists, the Post-Impressionists shared their particular work with the general public through self-employed exhibitions across Paris. In 1910, known art vit, historian, and curator Roger Fry gave the term Post-Impressionism with his showManet and the Post-Impressionists. Just like the Post-Impressionists themselves, Fry thought that the magnificence of art is innately rooted in perception. Art is an expression and stimulation to the creative life rather than a copy of actual life, inches Fry talks about inAn Article in Aesthetics. Art appreciates sentiment in and then for itself. The artist, is considered the most constantly observant of his surroundings and the least impacted by their intrinsic aesthetic value. As he contemplates a particular visual awareness the visually chaotic and accidental combination of varieties and shades begin to crystallize into a balance. Today, these suggestions help all of us to understand the common thread between these music artists.\n\nThe Painting of Modern Your life and True to life Subjects\n\nThe sturdiest twine linking the Impressionists was an interest in the world around them. To get subject matter, they looked to contemporary persons at work and play. Innovations such as the heavy steam engine, electric power loom, streetlights, camera, ready-made fashions, cast iron, and steel had changed the lives of ordinary people. Fundamental the Industrial Innovation was a idea that technical progress was key to every human improvement. In this climate of breakthrough, people believed they may do anything.\n\nThe Industrial Revolution helped bring economic wealth to England, and Chief Napoleon 3 set out to help to make Paris the showpiece of Europe. He hired civic planner Baron Hausmann, Prefect of the Die, to replace the dirty, outdated medieval city with wide boulevards, leisure areas, and ancient monuments. The new steel-ribbed railroad stations and connections were feats of modern executive. Cafrestaurants, and theaters lured the bourgeoisie, the powerful fresh merchant category who had made their homes in and around Paris, france.\n\nFormula of the Perfect Essay\n\nPlenty of educational options compare essay writing with the process of food preparation a cheese burger. We think that is just not proper. How dare they evaluate this amazing and delicious work of genius with home work? We are not really saying that the essays ought to be your most detrimental nightmare, definitely not. Anyway, you can’t create a amazing essay with no proper recipe as well as a delightful burger, soup, or lasagna. Now, let’s throw lumination on all the tiniest parts of the composition structure.\n\nThat which was so several about it?\n\nIn the 19th century a group of artists in France, started to bring and fresh paint landscapes and scenes every day life, like cooking, sleeping and baths. These might appear fairly typical things to observe in art now, in the nineteenth century most of the art that was made in Europe had much grander subjects including battle moments from history, or testimonies from historical Greece and Rome.\n\nThe impressionist performers were not planning to paint a realistic picture, but the of what the person, object or perhaps landscape seemed like to these people. (This is why they are known as impressionists). They wanted to get the movement and lifestyle of what they saw and possess it to us like it is happening before the eyes.\n\nThey frequently painted thickly and utilized quick (and quite messy) brush cerebral vascular accidents. Most of the art before impressionism have a much flatter, neater surface and also you can’t really see the brushstrokes at all.\n\nA few of the main impressionst artists will be Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas.\n\nBefore impressionism, landscapes in art had been often imaginary, perfect panoramas painted in the studio. The impressionists transformed all that. They will painted outdoor and the spot’. As they had been outside, they looked at just how light and colour transformed the displays.\n\nWhat time of day do you think Monet painted these trees? What do you think the next thunderstorm was like?\n\nThis can be the advice that another impressionist, Camille Pissarro, gave about how to color a surroundings:\n\nAm employed at the same time on sky, water, branches, surface, keeping anything going on the same basis. Need not afraid of gaining colour. Fresh paint generously and unhesitatingly, for it is best never to lose the first impression.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.874530017375946}
+{"content": "COVID-19 Relief\n\nCOVID-19 Relief\nCOVID19 relief\n\nThe world is currently facing a pandemic, a crisis caused by the novel coronavirus. During this global hardship, Plant The Seed Ministries are doing everything we can to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. We distribute medical supplies to healthcare workers, give nutritious meals to children, and provide water stations to schools and health clinics.\n\nThe human and economic resources necessary to combat this disease are vast. Health workers all across the globe are working on the frontline, valiantly treating people who have been infected. Your support and generosity helps sustain our aid to healthcare professionals and enables us to give proper care to the people in need.\n\nYour contribution will allow us to:\n\n • Provide health professionals with medical supplies which are running critically low\n • Provide meals for children from low-income families\n • Provide hand washing stations for schools and health clinics in developing countries\nGlobal Mission", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999897480010986}
+{"content": "Regardless of who is being marketed to, several factors, including the perspective the marketers will use. These market orientations determine how marketers will approach the planning stage of marketing.[5] This leads into the marketing mix, which outlines the specifics of the product and how it will be sold.[6][7] This can in turn be affected by the environment surrounding the product [8], the results of marketing research and market research[9], and the characteristics of the product's target market.[10]\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9355912804603577}
+{"content": "Linden announces estate governance changes\n\nAs announced yesterday, estate owners will soon be able to opt out of the current Linden Abuse Report system, in lieu of dealing with them themselves, thus leaving LL to deal with the mainland. Well, the current AR system rarely works, so at first glance this would seem like a good thing, but there have been questions, and thus far, no convincing answers.\n\nFor example, Ice Brodie asked:\n\n“Kind of curious, what happens when the estate owner violates TOS?”\n\nto which Chadrick Linden replied:\n\n“Ice: On the Linden Governed mainland, same thing as everyone else. On their own region, it depends on the offense. For example: All fraud tickets would still come to Linden Lab. Same with Under Age Tickets. If he’s assaulting someone on his region, he has the right to do so, it’s his.\n\nA big flashing red light there folks. The estate owner has the right to abuse you on his or her land! Oz Spade asked a similar question, but was not answered separately, yet.\n\nLet’s look at another part of the announcement … in response to a question regarding bans, Chadrick replied:\n\n“He’ll be banned from that one region, and LL monitors the number of regions someone would be banned from. So if someone decides to start causing problems in multiple regions, we notice.”\n\nSo, while a single island owner is unlikely to get someone banned from the grid, someone owning say 100 sims, probably could. Way to go, Linden. And remember people, once this happens, there’s no more anonymous reporting of abuse… it goes to the estate owner, to share as they wish.\n\nNow, in their defence, since I don’t want to be completely negative, Chadrick did also state that we’d be told when we enter a sim that’s not governed by Linden Law, and I think this is a good and necessary thing. But I think we should know before, when the teleport invite appears, or when we open a landmark, or the map, and we should know WHO is governing the sim and have a choice whether to visit or not. Sadly, I doubt it will be the case, but I can hope.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.974346935749054}
+{"content": "Clinician-Patient Communication Interaction and Health Outcomes\n\nBC, MB, QC: Lorienne Jenstad, Gayle Halas, Olivier Jamoulle, Marie-Thérèse Lussier, Michael Ross McKenzie, Monika Wetzel\n\nPlease describe your research project and how it contributes to improving primary care.\nThis study involves a large, multidisciplinary, cross-jurisdictional team that includes patients, researchers, clinicians, and decision-makers from across Canada. We are seeking to investigate how communication between health care provider and patient/caregiver is linked to health outcomes and aiming to create a map of the existing literature on the topic, along with recommendations for the level of description to use when researching communication.\n\nHow did the BC-PHCRN contribute to supporting your project?\nPartnering with BC-PHCRN to obtain this SPOR-PICHI grant has facilitated new collaborations and conversations. As we near the end of the project we are thinking ahead to next steps: possible primary research inspired by gaps identified by our literature search; possible secondary publications based on methodology and findings we hadn’t expected; and possible interdisciplinary, cross-jurisdictional projects with new-found collaborators. Further, we have had two patient partners who have been extremely involved throughout the project, beyond our expectations. Their contributions have been invaluable in shaping our work.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994399547576904}
+{"content": "Posts Tagged ‘barycentric’\n\n1) Introduction\n\nThe ancient Greeks speculated about their Kosmos in terms recognisable as scientific today. Pre-Socratic thinker Thales believed water was the fundamental substance from which all else proceeded. Demokritus first proposed all matter was constucted of irreducably small particles called atoms. Today we know that the simplest expression of matter, the Hydrogen atom, is readily oxidised to form water, releasing a large dose of energy in the process. Hydrogen permeates the universe, in it’s preferred state as a hydrogen molecule, it is invisible to our telescopes and our other means of spectral detection.\n\nOther Greek thinkers considered the motion of the heavenly bodies, planets, stars, comets and our Sun. The first to propose that the Earth moved round the Sun rather than believing in an Earth centred Kosmos was Aristarchus of Samos. Using geometrical mathematics, he calculated the relative sizes of the Sun and Moon, and reasoned that because the Sun was the biggest body in the Kosmos, and the only self luminous body, it must be at the centre of the part of the Greek Kosmos we now call the solar system.\n\nBut science makes many twists and turns on the path to knowledge, and the needs of navigators and astronomers for a quantifiable and predictive calculation system led to the adoption of the Earth centred system of Ptolemy, with it’s unphysical epicycles grafted into the theory to explain the apparent retrograde motion of planets at various times. This view was to dominate late classical and medieval thought for 1300 years due to the suppression of other ideas by the gatekeepers of knowledge. A theme we will be forced to return to later.\n\nEventually, Nikolaus Copernicus restored the Sun to it’s rightful place and his work was championed by Galileo Galilei, despite being placed under house arrest and having his telescope confiscated for a time by the guardians of orthodoxy. Galileo also methodically counted sunspots and we still use his observations as part of the sunspot record. Building on the work of Copernicus, Galileo, and Tycho Brahe, German born Johannes Kepler discovered that the proportions of the orbital distances and the rates of motion of the planets conformed to simple geometrical laws which revealed a harmony and resonance in the solar system as a whole.\n\nSubsequently, Isaac Newton quantified the concept of gravity, and derived laws of motion describing relationships between mass, momentum and velocity which we still use today. Newton showed that the sun is engaged in continual motion around the centre of mass of the solar system (i.e. the barycentre or SSB) as a result of the gravitational force exerted by the planets, especially Jupiter and Saturn. He came to this conclusion analytically (not by observation) by working through the consequences of his law of gravitation. His cosmological theory of an isometric universe was superceded by Einstein‘s theory of General Relativity with its application to the concept of curved space-time.\n\n\nThe field of Solar Physics developed throughout the period, but the sun’s remoteness, and it’s enigmatic variation in activity made hypotheses of it’s nature difficult to validate until the recent development of sophisticated equipment and techniques to measure it’s magnetic field, surface activity and periodic parameters. The currently dominant Babcock-Leighton Dynamo theory of the way the sun generates it’s cyclic activity has seen little competition, despite its difficulties and lacunae.\n\n2) Enter Paul José\n\nIn April 1965 Paul D. José, a scientist at the office of Aerospace Research at Holloway Air Force base in New Mexico published a short paper in The Astronomical Journal (vol.70 No.3) entitled: Sun’s motion and sunspots.\n\nThe paper included an intriguing diagram reproduced in part here:\n\nJose 1965 Diagram of solar motion\n\nThe importance of the diagram and the rest of José’s paper will form the first part of the next installment.\n\nTo be continued…\n\n\nTemperature reconstructed from solar and planetary motion\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nComments please.\n\nHere’s a prediction graph I produced a little while ago which seems to be more or less on course:\n\n\n\nIt uses the fact that changes in Earth’s length of day seem to precede changes in solar magnetism and sunspot production by several years. The yellow curve was generated by combining Sunspot data with LOD data to create a prediction for Ap out to 2015. The recent burst of sunspot activity has arrived on cue.\n\nHere’s another graph which shows a possible correlation between sunspot activity averaged over the length of the solar cycle, and motion of the solar system’s centre of mass relative to the solar equatorial plane averaged over two Jupiter orbital periods:\n\nSunspots graphed against SSBz-solar equator\n\nWhat caused the collapse in solar activity at the start of the 1800’s known as the Dalton minimum? Could it be the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune which seems to accompany each of the grand minima? Does that mean we are due another one now? I’ll investigate that in another post soon.\n\nWhy does the average sunspot number fall when the average mass of the planets is heading south? Speculatively, could it be that the ‘lensing’ of an electro-magnetic effect emanating from the galactic centre diminishes when the planets are ‘on the wrong side of the sun’?\n\nAnswers on a postcard, or post your thoughts below.\n\nOur friend Vukevic called by and gave me a pointer to a links page at his site which provides a resource for those interested in studying planetary, solar and magnetic phenomena.\n\nHere’s an example demonstrating the match between the sunspot number and Vuk’s planetary motion derived formulas:\n\nHopefully, Vuk will call back to give us some further info on his research.\n\n\n\nEarth - Venus - Jupiter cycle\n\nEarth - Venus - Jupiter cycle\n\nSeries in the chart on fig. 88 are:\nplanets is multiplied by their relative velocity…\n\nEarth-Moon system angular momentum relative to sunspot cycle\n\nEarth-Moon system angular momentum relative to sunspot cycle\nDownload, read and enjoy!\n\nh/t to French-Canadian blogger Simon Filiatrault\n\n\nNorth Pole rate of change of declination vs LOD vs SSBz\n\nNorth Pole rate of change of declination vs LOD vs SSBz\n\n\n\nThis graph shows the relationship between the motion of the planets, the length of Earth’s day, and the changes in global temperature.\n\nSSB z, LOD, Temperature\n\nGraph of the SSB-solar equatorial distance in the z axis against changes in length of day and global temperature.\n\nClick graph for larger image\n\nThe Red curve shows HADcruV3 global temperature. I’ve detrended this to something more reasonable than the treasonable nonsense Phil Jones has left us with.\n\nThe Green Curve is the distance between the solar system’s centre of mass and the solar equatorial plane in the vertical ‘z’ axis. This distance is determined by the changing disposition of the planets in the solar system over time. Extra info added: The data is smoothed over 24 years (Two Jupiter orbits) and retarded 30 years. This is indicative of the inertia involved in the LOD variation lagging behind the combined effect of the gas giants motion.\n\nThe Blue curve shows changes in the Earth’s length of day in milliseconds. This has been detrended. This has been done to separate the effect of planetary motion from longer term cylicities which may affect LOD.\n\nSo, the multi-billion dollar question is:\n\nWhat underlying physical principles connect these three phenomena?\nGravity? Magnetism? Resonant feedback between celestial bodies?\n\nAnswers on a postcard, or just post below with your thoughts.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9941614866256714}
+{"content": "The Effects of Impact Windows on Ventilation\n\nWhenever you have impact windows installed for the first time in your Florida home, you might notice moisture condensation every now and then. This is commonly referred to as “sweating.” However, this is normal and doesn’t indicate that there is a problem with the quality of the product. However, many homeowners will ask specialists if this will adversely affect the ventilation in their home.\n\nIf you notice this sweating on the glass of the impact windows that have been recently installed, there’s no need to panic until you’ve performed a simple check to ensure that they’ve been installed properly. Look at the exterior window panes and check for the presence of water droplets. If none are visible, you can rest assured that your impact windows were installed properly.\n\nWhat Causes Sweating on Windows?\n\nWhen you don’t have hurricane-resistant windows in your home, improper ventilation is the most likely cause of moisture condensation or sweating on the glass panes. Impact windows DO NOT cause poor ventilation. However, they can play somewhat of a role in this. When you have impact doors and windows installed in your home, they not only create a protective barrier against storm damage, they also ensure that no air escapes your home as well.\n\nHere’s what you need to remember. The door and window products manufactured by V&V Windows are constructed with high-quality, heavy duty aluminum frames and laminated, impact-resistant glass. The glass has been laminated with a silicone glazing that prevents the glass from breaking and shattering like traditional windows often do. As a result, our impact windows are rated to withstand the force of any flying debris. So, if something like a big chunk of wood can’t penetrate the glass, neither can the air.\n\nSolving Ventilation Problems\n\nIf you’ve recently had impact doors and windows installed and have noticed moisture condensation inside your home, you should check your ventilation and make sure that any excess can escape. Ducts above the dishwasher, dryer, and stove should be debris-free and have nothing obstructing air flow. Additionally, bathroom and kitchen extractor fans should be free of any dust build-up. This will allow for any moisture to escape rather than accumulate inside your home. This helps to keep the air clean and lowers any chance of mold or mildew in your home. \n\nOf course, you could always give your air conditioner a break and open up your impact windows in order to let those Florida breezes in and improve the ventilation in your home. For more information about impact doors and windows contact V&V Windows today.\n\nLeave a Comment\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5055257081985474}
+{"content": "The Korean War\n\nThe decade after World War Two saw communism spreading to the Far East. While China became communist in 1949, it was the conflict in Korea that proved to be the biggest crisis for relations between the USA and the USSR in the 1950s.\n\nThe success of communism in China had persuaded the USA that their domino theory was correct. This suggested that if one country was allowed to fall to communism, then communism could quickly spread to neighbouring countries. In 1950 a report by the American National Security Council recommended that the policy of containment was not enough, and that what was needed was roll back, or action to regain territory from communist control.\n\nWhat caused the Korean War?\n\nAfter World War Two, Korea had been divided at the 38th parallel into the Soviet-backed communist North Korea, led by Kim Il Sung, and non-communist, American-backed South Korea under the leadership of Syngman Rhee.\n\nIn June 1950, with the support of China and the Soviet Union, North Korea launched an attack on South Korea across the 38th parallel.\n\nAmerica and the UN to the rescue\n\nImage of US troops emerging from helicopters during the Korean War in 1953\n\n 1. June 1950: the North Korean People’s Army advanced quickly and pushed the Southern forces to a small area around Pusan in South Korea.\n 2. July 1950: fearing a communist takeover, the USA sent troops to support South Korea.\n 3. July 1950: the USA appealed to the United Nations for help and its Security Council agreed to send troops. This request was only granted because the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council over the admittance of the Nationalist Chinese delegation to the United Nations. Had the Soviet Union been in attendance at the vote, they would have vetoed the request for support.\n 4. September 1950: UN forces, led by the American General Douglas MacArthur, landed in Inchon and quickly pushed the North Koreans back over the 38th parallel and by October 1950 they had almost rolled back the communists to the Yalu River on the border with China.\n 5. October 1950: not wanting a US-backed state on its border, China invaded Korea and drove the UN forces back below the 38th parallel. General MacArthur called for the use of atomic weapons to defend Korea but this was denied by President Truman and MacArthur was sacked.\n 6. June 1951: more UN troops were deployed to Korea and the communists were eventually driven back to the 38th parallel. The war became a stalemate.\n 7. November 1952: Republican, General Dwight D Eisenhower won the US presidential election, promising he would go to Korea to see how the war could be ended.\n 8. July 1953: an armistice was signed at Panmunjom on the 38th parallel, which left Korea divided as it had been in 1950, and still is today.\nA series of maps showing the progression of the Korean War\n\nImpact and consequences of the Korean War\n\n 1. The Korean War was an important development in the Cold War because it was the first time the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, had fought a proxy war in a third country. This proxy war or limited war strategy would be a feature of other Cold War conflicts, for example the Vietnam War.\n 2. As a result of the Korean War and General MacArthur’s dismissal, the strategy of roll back was largely discredited. However, the temporary division of Korea along the 38th parallel was a success for the policy of containment, as communism didn’t spread into South Korea.\n 3. Even after fighting in Korea had stopped, US soldiers remained stationed in South Korea, which was an irritation for the Chinese government and put pressure on relations between the two countries.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8782256841659546}
+{"content": "active interference – Best Practices Construction Law Wed, 19 Jun 2019 17:53:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Active Interference Wins Skee Ball Points and Precludes Enforcement of A “No Damages for Delay” Clause Tue, 22 May 2018 20:47:33 +0000 Continue Reading]]> Last week during family skate night, my daughter asked me for two quarters to play some Skee-Ball. I loved playing that game as a kid. But imagine my surprise when I turned the corner and witnessed her active interference with the rules of the game! (… Truly, you can’t script this stuff…)\n\nIn construction contracts, “active interference” is a recognized exception to the enforcement of what is known as a “no damages for delay” clause. This type of provision seeks to preclude any increased costs associated with delays on the project. For example, a traditional clause may read as follows:\n\n“No claims for increased costs, charges, expenses or damages of any kind shall be made by the Contractor against the Owner for any delays or hindrances from any cause whatsoever; provided that the Owner, in the Owner’s discretion, may compensate the Contractor for any said delays by extending the time for completion of the Work as specified in the Contract.”\n\n* * * * * *\n\n“Should the Contractor sustain any damage through any act or omission of any other contractor having a contract with the Owner or through any act or omission of any Subcontractor of said other contractor, the Contractor shall have no claim against the Owner for said damage.”\n\nIn the a regularly cited case, United States Steel Corp. v. Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, 668 F.2d 435 (8th Cir. 1982), the court recognized that “no damages for delay” clauses are valid, but that there are numerous exception to the rule. In that case, the Owner issued a notice to proceed to the bridge superstructure contractor with knowledge that substructure work would not be completed on schedule. As a result, superstructure contractor was delayed for 170 days while waiting for access to work site. The contract contained a “no damages for delay” clause specifically making reference to delays caused by substructure contractor.\n\nIn the end, the court recognized that “no damages for delay” provisions are generally enforceable except as to delays: (1) not contemplated by the parties under the provision; (2) amounting to an abandonment of the contract; (3) caused by the owner’s bad faith; or (4) amounting to active interference. Since the Owner issued the notice to proceed with knowledge of the substructure delays, the Court concluded that the Owner was guilty of active interference. Accordingly, the superstructure contractor was entitled to recover on its delay damage claim.\n\nLesson Learned. The real lesson is to make sure to review your contract for these types of provisions and try to negotiate the terms. For example, the AIA A201 expressly provides that the owner and contractor may seek damages from each other in the event of a delay caused by the other party. There will be certain notice and substantiation requirements, but it is common to allow a party to seek damages for delay. If an owner is unwilling to remove a no-damages-for-delay clause in your contract, then you should try to limit its application to certain delays such as delays caused by others, leaving the owner liable for its own delays.\n\n]]> 0\nCan Active Interference by Owner Invalidate A No Damages for Delay Clause? Sometimes. Tue, 12 Apr 2016 12:35:00 +0000 Continue Reading]]> Some will say that a “no damages for delay” clause is harsh. Well, it depends on which hat you wear. If you are a contractor, you have a reasonable expectation that you will be paid for the extra work to overcome a delay beyond your control, especially if the owner causes or contributes to the delay. If you are an owner, you may have an expectation that the contractor is not going to get extra compensation when there are delays to the project. Who’s right?\n\n\nIn C and H Electric, Inc. v. Town of Bethel, 312 Conn. 843 (2014), the Connecticut Supreme Court held that a Contractor’s claims against a Town for delay damages could not overcome the “no damages for delay” clause because the Town’s conduct did not constitute “active interference” within the meaning of the contract. The Contractor was hired by the Town to perform electrical work on a high school renovation project. The project also involved asbestos abatement work performed by another contractor, whose work was supposed to have been complete prior to the start of all other renovation work. While only 70% of the asbestos work had been completed, the Town instructed the Contractor to commence its work, which was interrupted numerous times by the ongoing asbestos abatement work. The Contractor incurred additional costs for relocating and re-sequencing its work. The Town rejected the Contractor’s request for additional compensation.\n\nAt trial, the Contractor argued that the contractual “active interference” exception to the “no damages for delay” clause provided relief. Since the Town knew the asbestos work had not been complete, the Contractor argued that the Town should not have ordered it to begin the work. The trial court agreed with the Town’s argument that the notice to proceed was not in bad faith or malicious and, therefore, was not an active interference.\n\nOn appeal, the Connecticut Supreme Court agreed with the Contractor’s proposed interpretation that an “active interference” required a showing of an affirmative willful act that unreasonably interferes with the contractor’s work. However, the Court affirmed the trial court’s conclusion that the Town’s conduct was not willful or unreasonable because there was no showing that the Town actually knew the asbestos work would cause interference.\n\nSo what? Based upon the laws of other states, the Court in C and H Electric determined that there could not be an “active interference” without proof that the Town directed the Contractor to commence its work despite actually knowing that the Contractor’s\nwork would be delayed. There are a few lessons from this case:\n\n 1. As a contractor, you need to first review your contracts for a “no damages for delay” clause. If one is present, then you will want to negotiate an “active interference” clause that defines what constitutes an active interference.\n 2. An “active interference” could mean that the owner knows about the delay and still proceeds; or it could mean that the owner conceals or actively interferes by affirmative conduct.\n 3. During performance, you should document the impact of the owner’s actions, including whether the owner failed in coordinating other trade contractors for which it alone is responsible.\n 4. Even if your contract does not have an “active interference” exception, there may be a common law remedy of bad faith or negligence on the owner’s part, which causes the delays. That would depend on your particular state.\n\nIn the end, the dispute will be decided on the express contract language and the offending conduct giving rise to the additional damages and delays.\n\n]]> 0", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9650914669036865}
+{"content": "NIGHTWISH, STRATOVARIUS, AMORPHIS, HIM, CHILDREN OF BODOM Members Contribute To 'Tuska20 - The Anniversary Song'\n\n\nMembers of NIGHTWISH, STRATOVARIUS, WINTERSUN, AMORPHIS, HIM, BATTLE BEAST and CHILDREN OF BODOM are among the musicians who have contributed to \"Tuska20 - The Anniversary Song\", a track celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Finland's Tuska open-air metal festival.\n\nTuska promoter Jouni Markkanen said: \"All proceeds from this project will be collected to the 'Tuska 20 Years' fund that operates under the umbrella of Elmu Säätlö, and will be donated to charity. The object of charity will be determined by an advisory board, which consists of musicians, industry notables and Tuska-related persons throughout the history of the festival.\"\n\n\"Tuska20 - The Anniversary Song\" has also been a great experience for the musicians involved, and an exciting one, as CHILDREN OF BODOM drummer Jaska Raatikainen explained: \"This project is more secret than North Korea. Even the musicians don't know what's going to happen…\"\n\nThe seven-minute epic, which was written by Esa Holopainen of AMORPHIS, features guest appearances by the following musicians:\n\n* Akira Takasaki (LOUDNESS)\n* Marco Hietala (NIGHTWISH)\n* Lauri Porra, Jens Johansson and Timo Kotipelto (STRATOVARIUS)\n* Roope Latvala and Janne Joutsenniemi (STONE)\n* Jari Mäenpää and Teemu Mäntysaari (WINTERSUN)\n* Santeri Kallio (AMORPHIS)\n* Janne Johannes Puurtinen (a.k.a. Burton; HIM)\n* Noora Louhimo (BATTLE BEAST)\n* Archie Cruz (SANTA CRUZ)\n* Esa Holopainen (AMORPHIS)\n* Nino Laurenne (THUNDERSTONE, Sonic Pump Studio)\n* Jaska Raatikainen, Alexi Laiho, Daniel Freyberg, Janne Wirman (CHILDREN OF BODOM)\n* Gas Lipstick (ex-HIM, HALLATAR)\n* Tomi Joutsen (AMORPHIS)\n* Marko Annala and Tuomo Saikkonen (MOKOMA)\n* Pasi Rantanen (THUNDERSTONE)\n* Antti Hyyrynen (STAM1NA)\n* Samy Elbanna (LOST SOCIETY)\n* Ville Sorvali (MOONSORROW)\n* Netta Skog (ENSIFERUM)\n\n\"Tuska20 - The Anniversary Song\" is now available for streaming below and can be downloaded as an MP3 or WAV file through Each download costs 5 euros.\n\nHIM, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, MAYHEM, APOCALYPTICA, DIRKSCHNEIDER and SONATA ARCTICA are among the confirmed bands for the 20th-anniversary edition of the Tuska festival, set to take place June 30 - July 2 in Helsinki, Finland.\n\n\n\nFor more information, visit\n\n\nPosted in: News\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9721695184707642}
+{"content": "Hybrid vs Coexistence vs Replication\n\nshutterstock_169047944A couple months back, I was having a conversation with Microsoft’s Bill Baer (@williambaer), who most of you know as a technical product marketing manager on the SharePoint team, and for many years now has been the go-to guy for all things upgrade and migration-related (with Sean Livingston a close second). We were talking about the state of the upgrade and migration space, and specifically, about the nuances of the hybrid conversations. You see — there are many flavors of \"hybrid\" out there, depending on who you are talking with. A point we both agreed on is that it (hybrid) is no longer really a discussion about upgrade or migration, or the process of making changes to the hardware and components of your platform, or moving from old to new version of SharePoint.\n\nYes, there are still upgrades happening (on prem platforms getting updated hardware, or maybe a new version of SQL Server) and migrations (moving from 2007 to 2013). But as more organizations are seriously looking at their cloud strategies, and many starting to make the transition, there are hybrid strategies being used to bridge the gaps opening up due to a variety of things, such as a lack of parity in some features in Office 365, security concerns of moving some data types to the cloud, or latency/performance issues.\n\nIn our conversation, I commented that the language being used to discuss \"hybrid\" was confusing to many customers, and how it was important to delineate between the various strategies available to companies wanting to plan their move to the cloud. Bill agreed, saying that there needed to be greater clarity in messaging and strategies between hybrid, coexistence, and replication strategies for SharePoint (Bill, please correct me if I misrepresent anything you said).\n\nNow, how I define and differentiate between hybrid, coexistence, and replication strategies might be very different from what Bill would articulate, but this being my blog, he’ll have to chime in using the comments below just like everyone else…\n\nWhat is hybrid?\n\nDepending on who you ask, you’ll get a different answer. Microsoft has a few definitions, 3rd party hosting companies have an answer, pure cloud solution providers another. Essentially, I define hybrid has a solution with both on premises and cloud components, with some level of integration between them. In most cases, when people are asking about hybrid SharePoint solutions, it’s about maintaining aspects of their existing on premises SharePoint platform while leveraging Office 365 in part or in its entirety with solutions that bridge the two systems, such as an integrated search experience, or pulling online and offline data for reporting and dashboards, and so forth. Hybrid might also include the use of Azure, or even Yammer, alongside your on prem components. You can find more on Microsoft’s definitions and guidance on TechNet.\n\nOf course, hosting partners like Rackspace and Fpweb and others would argue that they also provide hybrid solutions, and they’re right. Private cloud is, by definition, cloud.\n\nWhile 12 to 18 months back Microsoft was a reluctant source on hybrid guidance, the push by customers large and small has helped them see the light that moving toward the cloud is not a simple one or two-step process, but will take transition time. I’ll give them credit, however, that once they had the data and realized the importance of the hybrid story, they jumped onboard with both feet and have developed content and solutions to help the hybrid customer. The last SharePoint Conference contained a good amount of hybrid content, and I expect to see more at this year’s Ignite event in Chicago.\n\nWhat is coexistence?\n\nThis is more about the side-by-side experience. I know many customers who have spent a good deal of time and money on their on prem SharePoint environment, with extensive line of business integrations, and they’re just not ready to make the move to the cloud just yet — or even incur the costs of a hybrid solution (which has additional overhead). Coexistence is having both on prem and cloud components, but without any level of integration.\n\nA good example is Yammer, which is a purely cloud experience. There are many customers who want to use this platform for employee and partner community development, but do not have immediate plans to either integrate Yammer into their on prem environment (maybe they’re using the native SharePoint social capabilities and don’t want to lose that data) or make any other cloud decisions.\n\nThe coexistence story is not that uncommon, actually. While working with some Lotus Notes customers back in the early days of BPOS/Office 365, we ran into major technical difficulties in convincing people to move away from their database-driven applications and templates in Lotus Notes, and so proposed a coexistence strategy whereby any new project would be reviewed and a decision made: did this project need to be hosted in the old system due to its reliance on these apps and business processes, or could it be deployed within SharePoint? What happened over time was that users slowly adopted the SharePoint platform, displacing Lotus Notes in an organic, rather than forced, way. Teams could take the time that they needed to make the transition, saving on migration costs and push back.\n\nWhat is replication?\n\nFor this one, Bill may have another definition. In my mind, this is more about duplication of a system or data, such as when setting up separate development or staging environments. Increasingly, organizations or using the cloud to provision and host these non-production environments. Most people don’t consider the use of cloud-based dev or staging environments as \"hybrid,\" scenarios, although technically they are part of a larger hybrid platform.\n\nOf course, the biggest question of all: which is the right strategy for your own organization? And that’s where the most common answer for all-things-SharePoint comes into play — it depends. What is your goal? What skills do you have in place? What are your short-term and long-term requirements?\n\nThe beauty of these cloud options is that we now have more choices than ever before, and that’s a good thing. The hard part is understanding the costs and impacts (overhead, governance, training, performance) of the choices you make. Good luck with that.\n\nChristian Buckley\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6115850210189819}
+{"content": "This article will show you how to install your own version of Pip, to a virtual environment. Pip is used to install Python packages and is therefore useful for any software which is written in Python.\n\nThis guide exists because sometimes there are issues using the server instance of Pip to install packages, even at user level. Installing Pip to a virtual environment should allow you to upgrade python packages with ease.\n\nYou'll need to execute some commands via SSH to use this software. There is a separate guide on how to connect to your slot via SSH. Commands are kept as simple as possible and in most cases will simply need to be copied and pasted into the terminal window (then executed by pressing the Enter key).\n\nTable of contents\n\nInstalling Pip\n\nTo install Pip you just need to create a virtual environment. You can do that by copying and pasting the following:\n\npip install --user virtualenv\n~/.local/bin/virtualenv ~/pip --system-site-packages\n\nThis will install python and pip into the directory ~/pip/bin where they can be used to run software and upgrade/install packages.\n\nUsing Pip\n\nYou can then run your own version of Pip to install or upgrade packages. To install new ones, use the following command (replacing package with the actual package name):\n\n~/pip/bin/pip install package\n\nTo upgrade a package, simply use the following command (again, replace package with the actual package name!):\n\n~/pip/bin/pip install --upgrade package\n\nYou can also see which packages are outdated with the following command:\n\n~/pip/bin/pip list --outdated", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.763445258140564}
+{"content": "As the state opens up and the risk of COVID-19 remains, the likelihood that farms are affected continues. Farms with employees are reminded that under the Families First Coronavirus Recovery Act, they may be required to pay sick leave to employees affected by COVID-19.\n\nThe law passed quickly during a time with lots of COVID-19 news and legislation. As a result, many farms with employees may be unaware of the fact that the law applies to them, just as it does to all small businesses with fewer than 500 employees.\n\nThe law is meant to reduce the spread of the coronavirus by making it financially possible for employees to stay at home if needed. To help make this paid sick leave feasible for small businesses, the federal government will provide dollar-for-dollar reimbursement through tax credits.\n\nFarms are required to pay up to 80 hours of sick leave at full wages to W-2 employees who are unable to work because they are quarantined under government orders or medical advice, experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, or seeking a medical diagnosis. Farms are required to pay up to 80 hours of sick leave at two-thirds of regular wages to employees who are unable to work because they must care for someone under quarantine or to provide child care. Paid family and medical leave was also expanded, now required for up to 12 weeks. Eligible employees include those who receive W-2 statements from the farm and does not include those who receive 1099s.\n\nFarms can pay for this newly required sick leave by retaining part of their quarterly payroll taxes, or even receive advanced payment of tax credits. Note that farms receiving Paycheck Protection Program loans cannot use PPP to pay sick leave and then apply the FFCRA tax credit.\n\nA UW-Madision Division of Extension fact sheet is available summarizing the new requirements, including several links to official sources for information on compliance: Farms will want to work with their tax providers or accountants to properly claim the tax credit and may want to seek formal legal advice to ensure that they are in compliance.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9980263710021973}
+{"content": "in the meiotic cell division, 56 daughter cells are produced by two successive divisions in which \n\n(1) first division is equational, second is reductional \n(2) first division is reductional, and second is eqautional\n(3) both the divisions are reductional\n(4) both the divisions are equational\n\nDear student.\n\nThe correct answer is 2. First division is reductional and second is equational.\n\n14 diploid cell will undergo, meiosis 1(reductional) to form 28 haploid cells, those will undergo meiosis II (equational) division to form 56 haploid cells.\n\nMeiosis: Meiosis is the reductional cell division in which diploid (double set) number of chromosomes is reduced to haploid (single set) number.\n\nMeiosis has two different phases – meiosis I and meiosis II.\n\nMeiosis I is reduction division which produces two haploid cells. The steps of meiosis I can be further differentiated as Prophase I, Metaphase I, Anaphase I, Telophase I.\n\nMeiosis II is the equational division which produces total of four haploid cells from the two resulting meiosis I cells by the process of mitosis. During formation of male and female gametes in organisms meiosis occurs. The divisions of meiosis II are Prophase II, Metaphase II, Anaphase II and Telophase II. \n\n\n • 3\nWhat are you looking for?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999757409095764}
+{"content": "The Myth of the Olympics\n\nOlympics in Athens, 1896: The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games\n\nby Michael Llewellyn Smith\nProfile Books, 290 pp., £16.99\n\n\nIn Athens it is all over. The Olympic flame is extinguished for another two years. The tumult and the shouting dies; the trainers and the fans depart. Questions still linger about the Olympic Games. They “returned,” we were ecstatically told, to Greece. What does that mean? What were those ancient Games, why were they important then, and why are they still alive now?\n\nOlympia, a rather inaccessible place in the west of the Peloponnese, was a very ancient site of cult practices. Even before 1000 BCE, so pottery found there indicates, it was a site of religious activity. It was a long way (in ancient terms) from Athens, and a long way also from Mount Olympus, the mountain in the north on whose summit Zeus assembled the other gods for those rowdy communal meals and lively discussions which impress and divert the audience of the Homeric poems. “The Olympian” is Zeus; he is the dominant god both on Olympus and at Olympia, as Athena was in Athens and Apollo at Delphi. “Olympus” is a pre-Greek word, unrelated to anything in the language of the incomers who settled down to become the people whom we call Greeks, but who called themselves, as they still call themselves, Hellenes.\n\nSporting contests have a long history in Greece. Before them, it seems, in the second millennium BCE, the Hittites in Asia Minor were holding chariot races. Sport is in our literature from the very beginning: Homer presents the heroes at Troy honoring the dead Patroclus, Achilles’ dear friend, with a great show of athletic contests, unforgettably recorded in the penultimate book of the Iliad. The Roman poet Virgil, creating the Aeneid, felt that his epic would be incomplete without them, and his Fifth Book contains funeral games for Aeneas’ father, in which the straightforward Homeric interest in sporting contests and individual personalities gives place to a virtuoso display of elaborate and learned poetical effects, the chief creative strengths of a poet who, we guess, was in private life no great sports fan.\n\nZeus presided at Olympia, and the Games had a religious flavor alien to the modern event. Also alien is the presence of competitions in musical performance, vocal and instrumental. The modern program, exclusively athletic, gives a much more one-sided impression. It is a quaint detail that a competitor convicted of cheating had to pay a fine, and the money was spent on the creation and erection of a full-size, or perhaps we should say man-size, bronze statue of Zeus. By late antiquity sixteen of these “Zeuses” were on display.\n\nAll competitors had to be men. That was taken no less for granted by those who revived the Games at the end of the nineteenth century. As late as 1928 there were still only five athletic events for women. Competitors had also to be Greek speakers; later on, of course, the point needed to be stretched for Romans. It needed to be stretched a good deal further, if the Roman emperor himself…\n\nThis is exclusive content for subscribers only.\n\nView Offer\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5952883958816528}
+{"content": "Can You Gain Flexibility After 40?\n\nYou can most definitely gain flexibility after 40; in fact, it becomes even more important as you age.\n\nIt's never too late to enjoy the benefits of flexible muscles — and in fact, the older you get, the more important those benefits become. So not only can you gain flexibility after 40, it's imperative that you do so in order to lay the groundwork for a healthy, independent and long-lived life with reduced risk of injury. But there's no need to jump straight into master-level yoga poses or attempts at the full splits; the key is to start a program that suits your knowledge and flexibility levels.\n\n\nWith a regular full-body stretching regimen, you can definitely gain flexibility after 40.\n\nStretching at Any Age\n\nThe benefits of stretching may even be enhanced as you age — if only because you get stiff enough to really feel the edge a little extra flexibility gives you. For example, in a 2017 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, the author found that older men (around age 70) reported greater relief from stretching than the group of younger test subjects (around 25 years of age), although both groups did experience relief.\n\nOther benefits of taking the time to develop your flexibility include reduced risk of injury, better balance, better range of motion and better performance in your favorite sports or hobbies. You might even feel stronger once you gain a bit of flexibility, simply because that flexibility gives you the range of motion to let your muscles work more efficiently.\n\nRead more: Gain Flexibility Fast With These Nine New Stretches\n\n\nThere's a surprising amount of discussion among experts about the effect that pre-workout stretching has on exercise performance and whether you should do dynamic or static stretching before a workout. But if you're looking at things from the standpoint of becoming more flexible, there's a well-developed body of evidence demonstrating that static stretching is the way to go.\n\nStretching Exercises for Over 40\n\nHaving a few decades of life behind you means that you've probably had time to buy into some common dysfunctional movement and postural patterns, especially if you happen to work at a desk. Tight quads, tight hip flexors and tight lower back muscles are the norm, along with tight pecs and anterior shoulders (the front of your shoulder), as your back releases and rounds forward into the classic \"I've been at my computer all day\" posture.\n\nThe good news is that stretching can help counteract these postural imbalances and might even provide some relief from the chronic discomfort that often accompanies them. With that in mind, these starter stretches can form the core of a beginning flexibility program.\n\nWarm up before you stretch with five to 10 minutes of exercise — walking around the block, walking up and down stairs at home, or using a treadmill or elliptical trainer.\n\nAim to hold each stretch at the point of tension, not pain, for between 10 and 30 seconds — or longer, if you like — and repeat each stretch three to five times in a session. If you're doing a stretch that targets one side of your body at a time, make sure you pay equal attention to both sides.\n\nRead more: The Best Stretches to Avoid Injury in Your Favorite Sports\n\n\nIt might be tempting to subscribe to the idea that more is better, but that isn't always the case when it comes to how far you should stretch. Exercise professionals have long contended that stretching to the point of tension, not pain, is all you have to do to gain flexibility. This is backed up by a 2017 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, which showed that stretching to the point of pain doesn't produce any greater gains in flexibility than stretching to the point of slight discomfort.\n\nQuads and Hip Flexors Stretch\n\nBelieve it or not, tight quads and hip flexors can contribute to a sense of nagging back pain and even develop into postural or gait problems, because in extreme cases they can keep you from truly standing up straight. But one stretch can tackle quads and hip flexors at once:\n\nStand next to a wall or piece of sturdy furniture you can use for balance. Lift your left leg as if you were trying to kick yourself in the butt, and grasp the ankle of that leg with your left hand. Keep your left knee pointing downward, tucked against your other leg.\n\nNext, gently press your left hip forward or, if you prefer, think of bringing your left knee gently back until you feel a stretch across the front of your hip and down your thigh. Make sure you stretch your other leg too.\n\n\nIf doing this stretch while standing causes a problem, try doing it on the floor; just lie on one side and stretch the leg that is uppermost. Then roll over to stretch the other side.\n\nLower Back Stretch\n\nThere are many ways to stretch your lower back, so it's easy to choose the method that best suits you:\n\nCat and Cow\n\nThis classic yoga pose is an effective stretch: Position yourself on your hands and knees, spine in a neutral position. Arch your back up as if you were an angry or scared cat; hold this position for a few seconds; then let your belly button sink down as you adopt the swaybacked position of a cow. Don't force yourself into extremes of flexibility; just look for that feeling of a gentle stretch as you arch upward into the \"cat\" position and treat the \"cow\" position as a chance to relax.\n\nYou can also duplicate the \"cat\" portion of this stretch by draping yourself facedown over a stability ball, letting your spine curve naturally forward with the ball as support.\n\nKnees to Chest\n\nYou can easily do this stretch on a yoga mat: Lie on your back and draw one knee up to your chest. Hold that stretch; then release and repeat with the other knee. If lifting one leg at a time doesn't stretch your lower back, bring both knees up to your chest at once.\n\nA Little Rotation\n\nLie flat on your back, arms out to the side for stability. Keep one leg extended straight as you bring the knee of the other leg up, then gently across your body, as if you were trying to touch that knee to the floor on the other side of your hip.\n\nKeep both shoulders on the floor as you do this, and don't worry about pressing your knee all the way to the floor if it doesn't reach. Just stretch to the point of tension in your lower back.\n\nRelease Your Chest and Shoulders\n\nThe easiest tool for stretching your chest and shoulders is a simple doorway. Stand facing the open doorway; if there's a door in it, stand on the side away from the door. Raise both arms straight overhead, palms facing forward; then bring your elbows down until they're even with your shoulders. Your forearms should still point up. This position looks a bit like you're impersonating a field goal.\n\nStep forward into the doorway until your forearms rest on either side of it. Lean gently forward, keeping your feet underneath you, until you feel a gentle stretch in your chest and shoulders.\n\nDon't Forget Your Hamstrings\n\nAlthough the typical seated-at-desk posture of a modern-day, sedentary lifestyle lends itself to weak hamstrings, that doesn't translate to flexibility. In fact, tight hamstrings may even contribute to the chronic back pain that nags many people. So don't forget to stretch your hamstrings too.\n\nYou can do this easy stretch on the edge of a park bench, a weight bench or even on the edge of your bed. Start by sitting sideways at the very edge of the bench, extending the leg closest to the bench so your leg and hip rest on the bench. Let your other leg rest on the floor beside the bench. Hinge forward from the hips, gently stretching until you feel tension, not pain, in the backs of your thighs. Make sure you take the time to stretch both legs.\n\nHow Often Should I Stretch?\n\nIn a perfect world, you'd be able to commit at least 30 minutes to just stretching, three times a week, plus the time it takes to warm up before each stretching session. But that's a lot of time to carve out of a busy schedule, and even a little bit of stretching is better than nothing — so don't be shy about sneaking in a quick stretch here or there throughout the day.\n\nOther Workouts That Encourage Flexibility\n\nIf carving out the time for workouts that focus solely on stretching feels like too much for you, there's another option: You could aim for workouts that incorporate flexibility without excluding other types of fitness.\n\nStarting yoga at 40 is a great way to get your stretching in. Pilates is also very effective for increasing flexibility, and both workouts are well-suited to bodies that may have picked up some injuries over a few decades of life. But you'll also find flexibility enhanced in most types of dance classes and in many martial arts classes.\n\nIn fact, there's usually some flexibility component involved in almost all professionally taught group fitness classes, although some instructors might leave it up to you to hang around after if you really want stretching time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8069941997528076}
+{"content": "Friday, July 24, 2015\n\nReview: Stalled Storytelling\n\nMTA. It’s three letters that terrify New Yorkers. The three most untrustworthy letters known to man is how New Yorkers get around. But it’s the subway that you’re bound to experience some sort of issue. So why set a musical in a subway car? Because it’s instant drama! In Oliver Houser’s Held Momentarily, a subway train stalls underground and the people on board are forced to come together when one is about to offer the miracle of life.\nThis is not a musical for the anxious. Held Momentarily is a claustrophobic musical about a subway that is held momentarily and the random acts of kindness that rarely occur. Houser’s story may be one of the most truthful tales because the reality of stalled cars is an all too real reality. But after that, the characters are a bit contrived and the plot is a bit thin. Held Momentarily is an ensemble driven musical but there are some characters who serve a purpose and others who are present for the sound. Once the train is stalled, we watch the forced conversation between culprits of a bad date, Greg and Mindy, birthday boy Stan who is on his way to see his cheating boyfriend, pregnant Sam, who like Stan, finds herself in an abusive relationship, Liam who suffers from med school PTSD, soulful Asherah, the resident homeless woman, and Cal who is present just to present a conflict. Interactions between strangers are quite interesting. Watching strangers and how they handle a scary situation is mesmerizing. But there was little substance in this specific situation. Houser’s book seemed stalled itseslf. With nowhere to truly go, the flashback device was the only way to get any character development. Houser’s score surprisingly has a dated tone to it. It has the sound of a early 90s musical. It’s clear that William Finn was an influential voice to Houser. The music had feeling and passion but at the end of the day, you leave the theater remembering very few of them, if any. Though you may remember “One Lurch” due to the lyric Lurch and not having anything to do with “The Addams Family” character.\nphoto by Sean Gregory\nThe ensemble was filled with some wonderful character actors. As Sam, Yael Rizowy not only has an incredible voice, she created a well-rounded character. She was genuine and relatable. Of all the characters, Rizowy is filled with such hope and beauty. One of the most surprising performances came from Ciaran Bowling as Liam. He was a bit young for the part but he broke out with his number “Wait a Minute”. It’s unfortunate that after his breakdown he was forced into the fetal position, perhaps a too on-point metaphor. As the homeless woman, India Carney had some opportunities to show why she was a top contender on “The Voice”. Carney put on a character but the style of music Houser asked her to belt didn’t seem to fit in her vocal wheelhouse. But it did make you want to hear her belt out “Summertime.” Oliver Houser as Cal looked sharp as the token asshole on the train. But Cal had the least to do and could easily be removed and still tell the same story.\nWith a very basic story to manage, director Harry Shifman focused on character development and finding ways to build them up. Since the storytelling used flashbacks, Shifman needed to keep things consistent. Sadly, his staging was anything but. For some of the flashback songs, the stage would be bare sans the characters in focus. Other times, everyone would get in on the action, the more interesting choice. Had this device been utilized in this manner, a stronger narrative would have been present. One of the saddest moments of the show came when the baby was born. Or should I say undisguised doll. It's moments like that that destroy believability. The story that Houser and Shifman wanted to tell was an intimate one. It’s unfortunate that they were stuck on the least intimate of the NYMF stages. The giant PTC stage swallowed the story as the only set was a row of chairs. The lighting looks by Elijah Schreiner allowed the flashbacks to have their own feel but with such a giant stage to deal with, finding a way to confine the subway car through light could have been of great aid.\nHeld Momentarily is just another musical about people getting stuck on the train. Only it’s the most realistic. In it’s current form, Held Momentarily is mediocre and will easily get lost in the shuffle. At such a short running time, building up the story and characters will be essential for any hope for the future.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6159132122993469}
+{"content": "Can You Trademark a Hashtag? Philadelphia-Based IP Lawyer Weighs In\n\nTrademark & IP Attorneys\n\nIntellectual Property Attorneys\n\nIf you think your hashtag needs trademark protection, you should know a little more about hashtags. Trademark lawyer Alex Sluzas of Philadelphia explains.\n\n…in 2010, only seven companies applied for trademark hashtags but in 2016, there were around 2,200 applications. This number is surely going to increase in the coming years.”\n\n— Alex R. Sluzas, Esq.\n\nPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES, May 31, 2018 / — Today, marketing and promotion of a business or a service are considered incomplete and futile without social media. The concept of going ‘viral’ is helping products and businesses catapult their band to newer heights in a short amount time.\n\nTrends in social media and marketing, in general, are constantly changing but one concept that is going to be vital for a long time is the hashtag. In fact, the hashtag concept is so popular that you will find it even on offline messages now, just to emphasize a point.\n\nIf you think your hashtag needs trademark protection, then you should consult a trademark lawyer. Before you go ahead and file a trademark, you should know a little more about hashtags, about what can be registered and what can't.\n\nHashtags and their registration\n\nA hashtag is referred to a phrase or a single word that is preceded by a symbol of hash #, also known as the pound sign. For example, a hair color brand may use #impressivebrown hair to promote their product.\n\nSome hashtags are common and can be used by everyone, individuals or businesses. It could be #enjoyyourlife, #lovemyhair, etc. But there are some phrases that are unique to a certain brand, examples are the ones with the tagline of popular brands.\n\nIt was when taglines for brands started catching on, companies started registering unique hashtags that identified their brand value. The registration of hashtags is a relatively new phenomenon.\n\nAccording to a study by Thomson Reuters CompuMark, now known as Clarivate Analytics, in 2010, only seven companies applied for trademark hashtags but in 2016, there were around 2,200 applications. This number is surely going to increase in the coming years.\n\nHashtags recognized as trademark-specific\n\nSo, the question is: can you trademark a hashtag? The USPTO or the United States Patent and Trademark Office identifies registerable hashtags as those which are unique to certain businesses or brands. That means hashtags that individualize a particular business can be registered. Some of the examples of registered hashtags are of the Coca-Cola ( #smilewithacoke ), Nike ( #makeitcount ), etc.\n\nIn the recent years, the USPTO has allowed around 100 hashtag registrations, some of which are, #THESELFIE for products and services related to photography and videography, #STEAKWORTHY for restaurant businesses and #LIKEAGIRL related to information and stories on women empowerment.\n\nHashtags refused as trademarks\n\nA hashtag in itself is not a trademark symbol but it is worthy of protection only when it identifies the source or the company it denotes. Thus, USPTO refused to recognize many descriptive phrases with hashtags.\n\nThus, hashtag registration also functions as conventional trademark recognition. The ones that identify its creator are trademark-specific hashtags and ones that are vague or common phrases are not trademarks.\n\nSteps brands should take regarding hashtag registration\n\nBrands should take steps to protect their business on the internet, especially social media. The first step is to register words or phrases that they have been using as their tagline or identifier without the hashtags.\n\nFor instance, if you deal with wrist watches, and if your popular tagline is, ‘Now is your time’, then you should register the phrase first. Businesses also need to use hashtags that do not include their brand name or the main brand.\n\nAlso, you should be careful in using certain hashtags that are easily identifiable with a certain company, because it may lead to copyright infringement. A trademark attorney can help you find ways to protect your hashtags and the best possible way forward.\n\nSince hashtag creation is also included as intellectual property, an intellectual property lawyer can be of great help. It is also now necessary to include relevant clauses that caution against using your unique hashtags in your license agreement, settlement agreements, etc.\n\nTherefore, it's necessary that you take steps to protect your brand and your business on social media platforms. An intellectual property lawyer can help you in identifying the right hashtags that require registration and can also guide you in using relevant and non-controversial hashtags that do not infringe on any other’s rights.\n\nIf you have any doubts or questions regarding hashtag trademark registration, then you should contact a Philadelphia trademark attorney at 866-975-7231.\n\n+++++ Disclaimer +++++ This press release is considered advertising and does not constitute any client-attorney privilege and does not offer any advice or opinion on any legal matter. This release was drafted by Results Driven Marketing, LLC: a full-service, award-winning digital marketing, public relations, advertising and content marketing firm located in Philadelphia, PA\n\nAlex R. Sluzas, Esq.\nPaul & Paul Intellectual Property Attorneys\nemail us here\n\nSource: EIN Presswire", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9743458032608032}
+{"content": "Jump to: navigation, search\n\nIn psychology, self-esteem reflects a person's overall self-appraisal of their own worth.\n\nSelf-esteem encompasses both beliefs (for example, \"I am competent/incompetent\") and emotions (for example: triumph/despair, pride/shame). Behavior may reflect self-esteem, in (for example: assertiveness/timorousness, confidence/caution).\n\n\n\nCompare and contrast self-esteem with:\n\nDefinitions of self-esteem\n\nThe term \"self-esteem\", one of the oldest concepts in psychology, first appeared as a coinage of American psychologist and philosopher William James in 1890.\n\nSelf-esteem has become the third most frequently occurring theme in psychological literature: as of 2003 over 25,000 articles, chapters, and books referred to the topic.[1]\n\nGiven a long and varied history, the term has, unsurprisingly, no less than three major types of definitions in the field, each of which has generated its own tradition of research, findings, and practical applications:\n\n 1. The original definition presents self-esteem as a ratio found by dividing one’s successes in areas of life of importance to a given individual by the failures in them or one’s “success / pretensions”.[2] Problems with this approach come from making self-esteem contingent upon success: this implies inherent instability because failure can occur at any moment.[3]\n 2. In the mid 1960s Maurice Rosenberg and social-learning theorists defined self-esteem in terms of a stable sense of personal worth or worthiness, measurable by self-report testing. This became the most frequently used definition for research, but involves problems of boundary-definition, making self-esteem indistinguishable from such things as narcissism or simple bragging.[4]\n 3. Nathaniel Branden in 1969 briefly defined self-esteem as \"…the experience of being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and being worthy of happiness\". This two-factor approach, as some have also called it, provides a balanced definition that seems to be capable of dealing with limits of defining self-esteem primarily in terms of competence or worth alone.[5]\n\nIn Branden’s description (1969) self-esteem includes the following primary properties:\n\n 1. self-esteem as a basic human need, i.e., \"…it makes an essential contribution to the life process\", \"…is indispensable to normal and healthy self-development, and has a value for survival.\"\n 2. self-esteem as an automatic and inevitable consequence of the sum of individuals' choices in using their consciousness\n 3. something experienced as a part of, or background to, all of the individual's thoughts, feelings and actions.\n\nCompare self-love, self-confidence.\n\nMeasuring self-esteem\n\nFor the purposes of empirical research, psychologists typically assess self-esteem by a self-report questionnaire yielding a quantitative result. They establish the validity and reliability of the questionnaire prior to its use.\n\nPopular lore recognizes just \"high\" self-esteem and \"low\" self-esteem.\n\nMaslow's approaches to esteem\n\nMaslow described two kinds of esteem needs — the need for respect from others and the need for self-respect. Maslowian self-esteem entails competence, confidence, mastery, achievement, independence, and freedom. Respect from others entails recognition, acceptance, status, and appreciation. Without the fulfillment of these needs, Maslow suggests, an individual feels discouraged, weak and inferior.\n\nQuality and level of self-esteem\n\nLevel and quality of self-esteem, though correlated, remain distinct. Level-wise, one can exhibit high but fragile self-esteem (as in narcissism) or low but stable self-esteem (as in humility). However, investigators can indirectly assess the quality of self-esteem in several ways:\n\n 1. in terms of its constancy over time (stability)\n 2. in terms of its independence of meeting particular conditions (non-contingency)\n 3. in terms of its ingrained nature at a basic psychological level (implicitness or automaticity).\n\nExcessive self-esteem\n\nHumans have portrayed the dangers of excessive self-esteem and the advantages of more humility since at least the development of Greek tragedy, which typically showed the results of hubris. Ongoing social concern with too much perceived self-esteem reflects in everyday language: we speak of \"overweening\" types and of the need to \"take a person down a peg or two\". Spiritual practices (notably Eastern spiritual practices) which de-emphasize the self may lead to a more socially acceptable balance in the personal self-esteem stakes.\n\n\nCritics see the all pervading importance given to self-esteem in popular culture and in modern psychology as misleading and dogmatic. A review of self-esteem literature by Roy Baumeister confirmed that high self-regard per se is not necessarily good nor does it translate into higher estimates by others of a person's intellect, appearance or virtue. Self-esteem as panacea is \"a very compelling illusion,\" because it correlates with happiness and other good things, says Baumeister, but psychologists \"were a little too eager in promoting the program before the data were in.\" Some social constructionists argue that modern day America with its overwhelming cultural bias towards self-enhancement has fabricated and validated the dogma of self-esteem as a universal human goal that all must strive towards perfecting. This fails to consider the absence of such an emphasis in other flourishing cultures, where high self-esteem is not as celebrated and central a concept.\n\nPsychological literature and popular culture both concentrate on the presence or absence of high self-esteem, however some evidence suggests that the overemphasis on the self-esteem mantra can lead to rapid falls when the self becomes invalidated in the domains that one considers important. In addition this pursuit may have negative consequences on the welfare of society as a whole. Eastern philosophy, particularly Buddhist and Hindu thought, see the self in its limited form as illusory; it perceives a \"true self\" as a sublime and transcendent entity, whose nature remains hidden from the limited or egoic self.\n\nSelf-esteem, grades and relationships\n\n\nFrom the late 1970s to the early 1990s Americans assumed as a matter of course that students' self-esteem acted as a critical factor in the grades that they earn in school, in their relalmjknjnhtionships with their peers, and in their later success in life. Given this assumption, many American groups created programs to increase the self-esteem of students, assuming thaij9iji9j9ij9j9j9ji9i9j9ji9t grades would increase, conflicts would decrease, and that this would lead to a happier and more successful life. Until the 1990s little peer-reviewed and controlled research took place on this topic.\n\nThe concept of self-improvement has undergone dramatic change since 1911, when Ambrose Bierce mockingly defined self-esteem as \"an erroneous appraisement.\" Good and bad character are now known as \"personality differences\". Rights have replaced responsibilities. The research on egocentrism and ethnocentrism that informed discussion of human growth and development in the mid-20th century is ignored; indeed, the terms themselves are considered politically incorrect. A revolution has taken place in the vocabulary of self. Words that imply responsibility or accountability — self-criticism, self-denial, self-discipline, self-control, self-effacement, self-mastery, self-reproach, and self-sacrifice — are no longer in fashion. The language most in favor is that which exalts the self — self-expression, self-assertion, self-indulgence, self-realization, self-approval, self-acceptance, self-love, and the ubiquitous self-esteem.\n\n—Ruggiero, 2000\n\n\nHigh self-esteem correlates highly with self-reported happiness. However, it is not clear which, if either, necessarily leads to the other.[7]\n\nBullying, violence and murder\n\nSome of the most interesting results of recent studies center on the relationships between bullying, violence, and self-esteem. People used to assume that bullies acted violently towards others because they suffered from low self-esteem (although supporters of this position offered no controlled studies to back up this belief).\n\nThese findings suggest that the low-esteem theory is wrong. But none involves what social psychologists regard as the most convincing form of evidence: controlled laboratory experiments. When we conducted our initial review of the literature, we uncovered no lab studies that probed the link between self-esteem and aggression.\n\n—Baumeister, 2001\n\nIn contrast to old beliefs, recent research indicates that bullies act the way that they do because they suffer from unearned high self-esteem.\n\nThe same conclusion has emerged from studies of other categories of violent people. Street-gang members have been reported to hold favourable opinions of themselves and turn to violence when these estimations are shaken. Playground bullies regard themselves as superior to other children; low self-esteem is found among the victims of bullies, but not among bullies themselves. Violent groups generally have overt belief systems that emphasise their superiority over others.\n\n—Baumeister, 2001\n\nThe presence of superiority-complexes can be seen both in individual cases, such as the criminals Baumeister studied, and in whole societies, such as Germany under the Nazi régime.\n\nThe findings of this research do not take into account that the concept of self-esteem lacks a clear definition and that differing views exist of the precise definition of self-esteem. In his own work, Baumeister often uses a \"common use\" definition: self-esteem is how you regard yourself (or how you appear to regard yourself) regardless of how this view was cultivated. Other psychologists believe that a \"self esteem\" that depends on external validation of the self (or other people's approval), such as what seems relevant in the discussion of violent people, is not, in fact, \"true\" self-esteem. Nathaniel Branden labeled this \"pseudo self-esteem\", arguing that \"true self-esteem\" comes from internal sources, such as self responsibility, self sufficiency and the knowledge of one's own competence and capability to deal with obstacles and adversity, regardless of what other people think.\n\nPsychologists who agree with this view dismiss Baumeister's findings. Such psychologists say that Baumeister mistakes narcissism as \"high self-esteem\" in criminals. They see such narcissism as an inflated opinion of self, built on shaky grounds, and opine that violence comes when that opinion comes under threat. Those with \"true\" self-esteem who valued themselves and believed wholly in their own competence and worth would have no need to resort to violence or indeed have any need to believe in superiority or prove superiority.\n\nSee also\n\n\n 1. Rodewalt & Tragakis, 2003\n 2. James, 1890\n 3. Crocker and Park, 2004\n 4. Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996\n 5. Mruk, 2006\n 6. Baumeister 2005\n 7. Baumeister, 2003\n\n\n\nFurther reading\n\n\nExternal links\n\nar:تقدير الذات de:Selbstwert he:הערכה עצמית it:Autostima no:Selvfølelse sr:Самопоуздање fi:Itsetunto sv:Självkänsla", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.601905107498169}
+{"content": "Classic Interview Questions\n\nExperienced job seekers know the four basic types of interview questions and use them to prepare accordingly.\n\nResume questions\nThese relate to your past experience, skills, job responsibilities, education, upbringing, personal interests and so forth. Resume questions call for accurate, objective answers, since your resume consists of facts that tend to be quantifiable (and verifiable). Try to avoid answers that exaggerate your achievements or sound opinionated, vague or egocentric.\n\nAbility/Performance questions\nInterviewers will usually want you to comment on your abilities or assess your past performance. They’ll ask self-appraisal questions like:\n\n· What do you think is your greatest asset?\n\n· Can you tell me something you’ve done that was very creative?Situation questionsInterviewers like to know how you respond to different stimuli.\n\nSituation questions \nask you to explain certain actions you took in the past or have you explore hypothetical scenarios:\n\n· How would you stay profitable during a recession?\n\n· How would you go about laying off 1,300 employees?\n\n· How would you handle customer complaints if the company drastically raised its prices?\n\nStress questions\n\nStress questions are designed to evaluate your emotional reflexes, creativity or attitudes while under pressure. Since they can be off-the-wall or confrontational, the best way to handle them is to stay calm and give carefully considered answers.\n\n· After you die, what would you like your epitaph to read?\n\n\n· It’s obvious your background makes you totally unqualified for this position. Why should we consider you?\n\nEven if it were possible to anticipate every interview question, memorizing dozens of stock answers would be impractical. The best strategy is to review your background, priorities and reasons for considering a new position. You should also be as honest as you can, and humor can come in handy as long as you keep it conservative. If you don’t know the answer to a question, just say so, or ask for a moment to think about your response.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994944930076599}
+{"content": "Concerns for rural and remote players\n\n\nAlthough Niantic has gone through leaps and bounds as of late to improve the players ability to receive some much needed items from battles and friend gifts, there is still the matter of not being able to get pokeballs as easily. Don’t get me wrong, getting pokeballs in friend gifts is helpful and I have over forty friends on my list. With the virus going around, friend gifts are getting more scarce with more and more players staying indoors. As a result, the other options would be to brave the outside world and go where it’s more populated or spend money on coins for pokeballs. If neither are an option then the players could walk at least 5km and wait until Monday to get 20 pokeballs, which is great unless the player comes across a rare Pokemon with high CP. Lost track of how often that’s happened where I’ve blown through all 20 trying to catch it.\n\n\nYes, it’s a problem. I’m still using the stock I have been able to get along time, but it will not stay eternal. Everyday in the morning I complete the minimum (catch a poke, turn a stop, give your buddy what he needs and complete an investigation), more I can’t do, because we are confined at home and we cannot walk around.\nWell, there are jokes of renting a dog, so you can go on a walk with him… (my cats don’t want to go out…)\n\n\nNiantic should put 100 Pokeballs for 1 coin in the shop… similar to what they did with incense… but let you buy as many as you need not just a one-off purchase.\n\n\nI have the opposite. I have Balls enough and I can get more of them whenever I want, because I have a PokéStop ‘in’ my house, but no Pokémon to catch. Therefore I’m saving a lot of Research Encounters right now.\n\n\n@Jormdeworm For all the players in your situation I suggest Niantic puts another item in the shop… 50 sentrets for 1 coin! :crazy_face::grinning:\n\n\nThat would be awesome lol.\n\n\nWhy sentrets? Lol\n\n\nBetter than Furret though\n\n\nTrue. At least I could evolves sentrets and get a bit of exp to level up.\n\n\nI chose sentrets because I didn’t want the offer to be too enticing.\n\nFor me they represent the ultimate in humdrum Pokémon - the epitome of mundanity. Maybe it’s because they are so common where I live. I guess they might be exotic for some! :upside_down_face::grinning:\n\n\nThey’re pretty common here too, but even the most mundane Pokemon can be useful. Especially since I was only able to start catching at home when Pokemon habitats expanded last year.\n\n\nI haven’t been going out much since I was sick. But today I got cleared by my doctor to return to work on Sunday. I hit over 100 stops and gyms to replenish my supply. So all my Lucky Friends got presents today too.\n\n\nAwesome. What gifts I have to send out, I have saved up for almost a month now.\n\n\nNiantic must have read this. A Growlithe just spawned in my house on a place I have never seen something spawning before. :face_with_monocle:\n\nEdit: A Snover just spawned on another spawn point in my house. I wish Niantic kept the new spawnpoints😔\n\n\nThey did keep them, but at least you have a pokestops.\n\n\nI’m not sure what you mean by, „They did keep them”? The spawns seem to be here with the new event, but it’s highly likely they’ll go after the event. Or maybe after the COVID-19 virus problem.\n\n\nThere are currently 11 spawn points in my garden… and double dust for catching them… but I have no pokeballs…\n\nI couldn’t do the Genesect research even if I paid for the ticket.\nThe situation is ridiculous - and it would be so easy to remedy…\n\n100 Pokeballs for 1 coin - do it Niantic!!!\n\n\n\n\nNew spawn points they’re popping up everywhere.\n\n\nI still think I do not understand what you are trying to tell me but there might be a miscommunication somewhere…", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5192487239837646}
+{"content": "Why is quarry water blue\n\nWhy Is Quarry Water Blue\n\nWhy is Quarry Water Blue? | KnowsWhy.com\n\nAug 29, 2010 · Quarry water is also called quarry sap. It is blue because of light absorbed by the water. As soon as the sun’s rays get into water earth it is scattered in water thus, turning quarry water into blue. The quarry water is formed from recently quarried rock. It can also have components retained from the rocks that make it turn blue.\n\nWhy is the water in quarries blue - Answers\n\nThe water in quarries are blue because of the surrounding limestone leeching into the water. These Blue hole as they are sometimes called are deadly and not for recreational swimming.\n\nWhy is it that water in a rock quarry is always super blue ...\n\nNov 16, 2011 · When the quarry is finished, the pumps are turned off and the water flows back in. When the water is exposed to the air, the CO2 degasses. This allows the pH to rise and for Calcium Carbonate to precipitate. The CaCO3 is very finely crystalline and remains suspended in the water column giving it that \"Bahamian\" blue color.\n\nWhy do quarries often have blue water? - Quora\n\nSome water bodies exhibit blue hues due to the presence of suspended rock flour. This is seen in carbonate (eg. limestone) aggregate quarries where quarry activities produce a large volume of dust from the crushed rock. A similar phenomenon is found in some glacial lakes, where rock stone produced during glacial movement is suspended in the water.\n\nwhy is quarry water so blue? | Yahoo Answers\n\nApr 03, 2010 · Answers. Best Answer: It looks like a limestone quarry. The teal/blue colour water is caused by light scattering and absorb in the water. Water will tend to scatter green/blue ends of the spectrum and absorb the red end of the spectrum. Thus the blue/ green colour. This is also why water will retain heat,because the red end...\n\nDive Team Shows Hidden Dangers of Quarry Swimming - NBC 10 ...\n\nJul 10, 2015 · Serene and picturesque, South Jersey quarries lure swimmers to calm waters that authorities say are deceptively dangerous. Tethered to a rope, Devon Hausmann of the Hamilton Township Dive Team waded into the Pine Barrens quarry, often called The Blue Hole, in Winslow Township earlier this month — where no swimming signs are posted.\n\nWhy you should NEVER swim in quarries or lakes ... - The Sun\n\nJun 21, 2017 · Here’s why you should NEVER swim in quarries or lakes to cool off during a heatwave. Quarry water is normally far colder than river or sea water, and can send your body into shock or leave you too exhausted to swim within minutes of jumping in. The water can be so cold because of its depth, with underground springs pumping extremely cold water into the quarry.\n\nThese toxic lakes are beautiful, but you definitely don’t ...\n\nMar 16, 2014 · The water’s striking blue color is caused by the limestone rocks surrounding the quarry. The limestone leaches calcite crystals into the water, turning it’s color a bright turquoise, even despite the amount of garbage, sewage, and rotting animal carcasses regularly dumped into its waters.\n\nWhy is gravel pit water so blue? : answers - reddit\n\nJan 15, 2016 · The blue lagoon is there to store lime sludge, but why is it that Caribbean color? It’s fairly simple: calcium carbonate, the fine limestone powder in the water, reflects the sunlight back and intensifies the naturally blue shade of water. \"Very, very small white particles will also scatter blue light very efficiently.\"\n\nThe poison Blue Lagoon: It might look inviting, but the ...\n\nAug 12, 2012 · They call it the Blue Lagoon, and people come from far and wide to cool off in its clear waters. Yet the flooded former quarry is so polluted that its contents are almost as toxic as bleach.\n\nColor of water - Wikipedia\n\nColor of lakes and oceans. The water molecule can vibrate in three different modes when light hits it. The red, orange, yellow, and green wavelengths of light are absorbed so that the remaining light seen is composed of the shorter wavelength blues and violets. This is the main reason why the oceans color is …\n\nWhy does the ocean appear blue? Isit because it reflects ...\n\n\nStaying safe around quarries | nidirect\n\nSome quarry lakes may look inviting on a hot summer’s day, but there are a number of hidden dangers: deep water. cold water. submerged abandoned machinery and car wrecks. underwater ledges and recesses. hidden currents and tunnels. submerged plants. dead animals and excrement.\n\nWhy Are We Drawn to Deep Blue Water?\n\n\nwhy is water at quarries so blue - educationcare.in\n\nBlue Stone Quarry Diving - Blue Ridge Outings, Wilkes County ... The quarry water was full of some kind of beige algae and visibility was ... my 15th and 16th dives) is about 10 times better than this, so we were all put off a little.\n\nQuarry - Wikipedia\n\n\nQuarry Of Blue Water Stock Video - YouTube\n\nOct 31, 2019 · This video is unavailable. Watch Queue Queue. Watch Queue Queue\n\nBlue Lagoon dyed black to deter swimmers - Telegraph\n\nJun 11, 2013 · The quarry pool at Harpur Hill, near Buxton, Derbeyshire - known locally as the Blue Lagoon - has a pH level of 11.3, is littered with rubbish and dead animals, and is extremely cold.\n\nLast Article: Stone Mining Crusher In Mongolia Next Article: New Phosphate Beneficiation Plants\n\nRelated articles:\n\n2006-2020 © All rights reserved\nE-mail: [email protected]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9913291931152344}
+{"content": "Another power film from our 2018 selection, The Derive by Tanin Torabi.\n\nThe film follows the director and choreographer as she, despite its forbidden nature, dances her way through a Persian bazaar while passerby’s watch her.\n\nFor those that were not able to make it, here is the trailer for the dance film that made our audience at the tip of their seats.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9970552921295166}
+{"content": "How is the air compressor waterproof when the humidity in the air is too high?\n\n- Feb 07, 2019-\n\nHow is the permanent magnet variable frequency air compressor waterproof when the humidity in the air is too high?\n\n1, check the dryer\n\nAir compressor dryers are a good way to remove moisture from the air, and the dryer is an inseparable part. Like a compressor, the dryer is affected by changes in temperature and humidity. As the seasons change and warm days come, please take some time to check the dryer (and air receiver) to ensure its performance.\n\n2, keep the drainage smooth\n\nOnce the air compressor removes moisture from the air, it must be drained from the system. The use of an electric valve drain is a good way to ensure that the system does not leave water. Check the drain to ensure adequate drainage; excess moisture can cause problems and cause bacterial growth. It is also important to ensure that the drain does not remain open for long periods of time as this may result in air loss.\n\n3, monitoring settings\n\nMonitoring the system is always critical, but it's important to pay attention to it during the transition season to ensure that the components work effectively. The remote monitoring system is a good way to observe the compressor from elsewhere. If there is any abnormality, you can call the alarm.\n\nThe common control loop of an air compressor consists of three main parts, some of which are sensitive components, which are usually a transmitter. It is a device that can be used to measure the parameters of a process being adjusted, such as pressure, level or temperature. The output of the transmitter is sent to the regulating instrument, the regulator, which determines and measures the deviation between the setpoint or desired value and the actual value of the process parameter, and sends the calibration signal one after the other to the control element – the regulating valve . The valve changes the flow of the fluid so that the process parameters reach the desired value.\n\nThe regulating valve has a simple flow path and low resistance, and is generally suitable for forward use (installation).\n\nHowever, in the case of high pressure drop, the regulating valve is used in reverse to improve the unbalanced force and reduce the damage to the spool, and also facilitate the flow of the medium, avoiding the coking and clogging of the regulating valve.\n\nIn general, the regulator valve is not recommended for reverse use. Reverse pressure is recommended only for high pressure differentials, high viscosity, easy coking, and media containing suspended particles. When used in reverse, it should be avoided in the case of long-term small opening, especially when testing.\n\n4, throttle valve\n\nThe shape structure of the air compressor throttle valve (Choke valve) is no different from the globe valve, except that the shape of the opening and closing parts is different. The opening and closing members of the throttle valve are mostly conical and streamlined, and the flow rate and pressure are adjusted by changing the cross-sectional area of the passage. The throttle valve is used to reduce the pressure of the medium in the event of a large pressure drop.\n\n1. The structure is simple, easy to manufacture and maintain, and the cost is low.\n\n2, the adjustment accuracy is not high, can not be used for adjustment.\n\n3. The sealing surface is easy to be eroded and cannot be used as a cutting medium.\n\n4. The sealing is poor.\n\nI hope that this article will let everyone know how to deal with air compressors when the humidity is relatively large.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9396045207977295}
+{"content": "\nHanne Nielsen – Real Scientists\n\nTagged: Hanne Nielsen\n\n\nOnce Upon Antarctica\n\nOnce upon a time there was an icy continent at the ends of the earth. It was a place for heroes, a geographical place to be conquered, a continent for peace and science, a...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9987577795982361}
+{"content": "AuthorKatherine Owens\n\nHow Does a Second Mortgage Work?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUnderstanding Second Mortgages\n\nWhen the first mortgage is paid off and the second mortgage has been completed, the amount of time that has passed can be shown on the sales records. The difference between the first mortgage and the second mortgage is the length of time for which the latter mortgage has been in effect. Therefore, for a period of three years, the value of the home would be more than the value of the second mortgage, if the second mortgage was a payment on the first mortgage.\n\nHowever, if the second mortgage is still unpaid when the term expires, it becomes due and payable. It is the responsibility of the lender to file an action for foreclosure if the debtor fails to pay the mortgage.\n\nThus, the amount of time available for the second mortgage is based on the duration of the first mortgage. Because of the length of time available, and the fact that the values of homes depreciate, lenders often use the combined time periods of the first and second mortgages to compute the value of the home as of the date of foreclosure.\n\nTypically, mortgage lenders will not allow the homeowner to retake the loan if the first loan is held up in court or if the second mortgage has not been paid at all. As a result, the amount of time remaining on the second mortgage can vary.\n\nLength of time used for computing the value of the home during foreclosure is one thing. There are some homeowners who do not consider the value of their home when they take out the second mortgage.\n\nWhile it is true that the value of the home would decrease should the second mortgage not be paid off, the actual value of the home will not decrease at all. The owner would have to wait until the mortgage has been paid off to start the process of calculating the difference between the first and second mortgages.\n\nThe first and the second mortgages are treated differently by the loan. The second mortgage is deemed to be a “payment on the first mortgage” as a right of the lender to recover the loan amount. However, a foreclosure does not result in a loss to the lender, unless the second mortgage is only a payment on the first.\n\nThe second mortgage is considered to be a payment on the first mortgage because it is a right to recover the loan amount. Thus, the lender cannot foreclose on the property during the second mortgage.\n\nThe reason why there is a difference between the lengths of time available for the first and the second mortgage is that the lender gets two payments each month. The first mortgage is only one payment. With the second mortgage, there are two payments.\n\nThe first loan payment is recorded with the tax authority, in accordance with the regulations, but not the second mortgage payment. Thus, the lender cannot use the tax foreclosure to foreclose on the property.\n\nA tax foreclosure is considered an illegal process by the IRS. Consequently, the IRS will not levy the delinquent taxes on the property until the time period for which the second mortgage was allowed to lapse.\n\nAlthough the second mortgage may provide a reasonable protection against having to repay the loan, the federal tax authorities will not provide such protection if the second mortgage is not paid on time. The second mortgage provides protection but it is a limited one.\n\nGetting a Second Mortgage – What You Need to Know\n\nBefore deciding to sign the dotted line for a second mortgage, it is important to do the research necessary. There are a lot of lenders that offer loans for home loans with a second mortgage. Before you make your decision about which type of loan is best for you, it is important to know what is required from you and what it entails.\n\nIf you are looking to borrow money to buy a new home, then a second mortgage can be a good option. A first mortgage provides you with lower interest rates and fees.\n\nA second mortgage is better than a primary mortgage, but not as good as a home equity loan. It is nice to have a second source of income, but remember that you will have to repay the mortgage each month.\n\nMake sure that you do some research on the market, including the current real estate market. Get a good rate that you can afford.\n\nLenders charge different interest rates based on the amount of the loan. Talk to multiple lenders and compare their rates before making your decision.\n\nIf you have bad credit, your chances of getting a loan with a second mortgage are increased. The lender will see that you are trying to make up for past mistakes. Even if you have been late on a mortgage or defaulted on one, a lender will still lend to you.\n\nOne thing to keep in mind is that your current loans will not count towards your credit score when applying for a second mortgage. If you have bad credit, make sure that you apply for a lower interest rate so that you can get a lower monthly payment. If you are a first time homeowner, make sure that you explain all of your financial situations to the lender.\n\nWhen you go to apply for a second mortgage, make sure that you use the same lender that you use for your first mortgage. This will help you avoid any problems with the lender. Be honest with them, since you are the one who will be paying the mortgage.\n\nMake sure that you work with a reputable lender and don’t let the first lender pressure you into signing a contract. Your personal financial situation will dictate how many mortgages you will take out and what kind of payments you will have to make. This is why it is important to hire an independent financial adviser.\n\nIf you have had a lot of bad credit and have lost your job, consider speaking to a mortgage broker who works with a secondary mortgage lender. These brokers are licensed and accredited by the Financial Services Authority. You can also ask your family and friends if they can refer you to a lender.\n\nAsk your friends and family about the services that they use and see if they would recommend that you apply for a second mortgage. There are a lot of things that you can do to improve your credit rating and a good broker will be able to help you out.\n\nMaking the right choice in a mortgage is very important. Make sure that you know the risks involved and the requirements that you will need to meet to qualify for a mortgage loan.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8784939050674438}
+{"content": "\n\nUser description\n\nIt is crucial to retrieve that many early factors act upon survival, naltrexone for weight loss so much as how ahead of time the doctors discover the disease. It provides a nutritional breakdown of tahini and an in-depth feeling at its possible wellness benefits, how to incorporate Sir Thomas More tahini into your diet, and any likely wellness risks of consuming tahini. In this article, see how to gain haemoglobin levels naturally. It was a democratic and widely victimized anesthetic until the ahead of time 20th hundred. It affects both sexes equally.\n\nIf you cherished this posting and you would like to acquire a lot more information pertaining to careprost for sale kindly go to our page.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.989177942276001}
+{"content": "52 residents #14 'water'\n\nSpringhill Resident Charles Patrick died in 1895 and left a codicil to his will referring to the 'water in Saunder Height'.\n\nPatrick was a major landowner in his own right and also via his marriage to Mary Ann Ashworth, who as the heiress of John Ashworth, coal merchant, had a considerable portfolio of his own. Patrick had no children of his own and left his local property to the nieces of his wife, who had predeceased him. These were put into trust on the marriages of the nieces.\n\nAt the time of drawing up his will he had bought a field at Saunder Height, about 300 yards up the hill behind Springhill which was left to Elizabeth Ann Turner, nee Ashworth. An adjacent close was left to her sister Mary Alice Royds, nee Ashworth. Since writing the will he had taken borings and discovered a source of water in the land left to Mrs Turner which was capable of supplying the properties in the Springhill area. He then wished both sisters to benefit equally from this discovery so added a codicil revoking the allocation of the closes and directing that each should share the profits but also be able to 'lay down such pipes and culverts at they think fit' to use the water to supply their properties without the consent of the other.\n\nI would love to know how that worked in practice, with the potential for chaos that opens up. However some of the Springhill properties are still supplied from the Saunder Height supply.\n\nwell edge lane\n\nwater saunder height map", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.694841742515564}
+{"content": "We have been hearing about “Big Data” analytics everywhere. Over the last couple of years, there has been an extensive collection of articles on this topic. Let us start with couple of examples showcasing the power of big data analytics in three distinctly different areas. As presented in this Harvard Magazine article,[1]big data analytics was able to connect the extent of decrease in “radius of generation”, which refers to people’s daily and weekly commuting patterns, with the magnitude of cholera outbreaks in Rwanda. Another example presented in the same article shows the ability of data analytics to provide better conclusions on the outcome of Supreme Court cases compared to the qualitative judgments of 87 law professors. Similarly, in another article presented on HR data analytics, we can find that big data analytics can provide an opportunity for organizations to optimize salary increase based on employee’s affinity for the organization.[2]\n\n“It turns out, as much of our other research shows, that this “normal distribution” curve of pay is a big mistake. What the research found was that employees in the second and third quintile of performance (good solid performers) would stay with the company even if their raise was as low as 91% of average increases in their job class. So these folks were being overpaid. On the other hand, people at the top of the performance curve would leave the company unless they received 115-120% of the average pay increase for their job class, indicating that the payroll money should go here.”\n\nBased on these examples, we can see not only the power of data analytics, but also its ability to transcend across various areas disrupting and creating a new marketplace. If this were to be the power of data analytics, then why should I caution on big data, and call it a “Red Ocean” or “Desert with one tall building” strategy.\n\nThis title came about after an interesting article on the risks of big data to society due to big data analytics proliferation.[3] The objective of this article is to present a holistic analysis on advantages, risks, and the potential impact of rapid big data analytics in the long run. In this way, all the stakeholders involved, namely everyone, can act proactively to this next paradigm in technology.\n\n\nPrior to putting it all together, let us first start the discussion with “Blue Ocean Strategy”. This concept was captured in great detail in Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne’s book.[4] To capture a quick snapshot of this strategy, it involves value innovation, which give organizations the ability to combine differentiation and low cost at the same time. This strategy also touches upon the need to strategically sequence in the right direction to align it towards the “big picture” vision, thus creating a new marketplace reaching beyond the current demand.\n\nCertainly, Big Data appears to be a great example for Blue Ocean Strategy. Based on a limited set of examples presented before, it is obvious that big data promotes innovation, connects various areas at a rate never seen before, thus creating a new marketplace. Further, it also helps on the cost front at the same time.\n\n\nNow moving onto the next aspect of big data analytics, and how it is connected to a “Red Ocean” or “Desert” strategy, we need to look at a recent article that presents the risks associated with the rise of big data.3 In this article, along the lines of any other disruptive innovation, the key findings present the double-edged sword nature of big data proliferation. The five key concerns as outlined in this article being,\n\n1. Data localization in the hands of public and private sectors\n\n2. Outdated privacy laws not aligned with the rise of big data\n\n3. Risk for discrimination against minority groups without the intent of one; potentially promoting unconscious biases\n\n4. Online privacy and transparency issues\n\n5. Need to enact new legislation on response procedures for data breaches\n\nTo elaborate on some of these concerns, let us go back to the HR example. Though big data analytics helped in cutting down the compensation for 2nd tier employees, it has the potential to negatively impact employees with limited scope for movement outside the organization due to financial situation, personal commitments, loyalty towards organization, ethical reasons or lack of “right” connections. Moreover, the HR performance metrics is not completely objective, and can be impacted at least by unconscious biases as repeatedly presented in the literature, thus taking away significant cumulative compensation over a 30-year period. Moreover, such practices can further impact the motivation and morale of employees, which is already at a record low level.[5] This reduced level of motivation would digress employees’ focus away from their jobs, and instead focus solely on building connections to identify their new opportunity. Thus, in the long run, organizations can lose talented and loyal employees for short-term gains.\n\nThe next question that we need to ask pertains to larger ramifications of such actions. Such rapid disruptive growth has the potential to result in further shortsighted compensation structure, and potentially reduce the average life span of leading US companies from 67 years in the 1920s to approximately 15 years observed now to even a lesser time frame in the future.[6] This reduction in life span would further increase job uncertainty, which along with low morale and steeper student debt, certainly can widen the gap between the bottom 80% and the top 20% with larger share of such operational enhancement going to the top 1%.\n\nAnother example to point out being categorizing customers based on social media data. For example, “Ethnic second-city struggler” category[7] namely, an individual who lost his/her job recently can be targeted for high interest loans. This targeted product offerings exploiting an individual’s situation, which along with direct or indirect collusions between various involved larger institutions can increase unhealthy consumer practices, and reduce financial stability amongst financially “less-savvy” sections of the population.\n\nFurther, big data analytics, unlike in the past, provides an opportunity for first degree price discrimination where each person can get a different price not limiting to his/her ability to pay, and demand for the product, but also based on other personal information collected by the company.[8] For example, an ISP can find out a lot more about an individual customer based on Internet usage, nature of usage, and financial status of that family to name a few variables, and can use it to their advantage. This first-degree price discrimination has the potential to completely compress supply/demand dynamics, and eliminate any price reduction from cost compression expected due to technology maturation. Further, with such finer details available to organizations, an already fragmented customer base with asymmetric information would always be at the receiving end of any negotiation. Such actions can also transform an oligopolistic market segment to a monopolistic one.\n\n\nAs an extension to this discussion, it is important to discuss the work of Prof. Acemoglu on technology & inequality. There was an extensive article[9] on the impact of technology on inequality, the key take-home message of this work being that the disparity in wealth can increase with technological advancements.\n\nBut, unlike previous technological innovations where there was at least an opportunity for unskilled workforce to move to a skilled one through education, big data expansion might not give that option. The reason being that, data localization in the hands of deep-connected bigwigs and powerhouses along with shortsighted executive compensation structure[10],[11] could push the market almost towards zero marginal cost, thus reducing the incentive to hire over the long-run. Hence, the nature of discrimination in this case would turn out to be between those with against those without access to data. Therefore, there is a potential for the discrimination not to be targeted towards minorities, but towards the bottom 80% of the population in US who account for approximately 10% of the US wealth.[12] Moreover, with 500 MNE’s accounting for 50% of world trade, and interconnectedness[13] has never been as high as it is now, along with a global labor force close to 5 billion people,[14] this trend would also certainly spread to rest of the world.\n\n\nData used for various analysesTrend charts (updated periodically with more data)\n\nHousing EnigmaTo be a Multi-(Millionaire or Billionaire) (June, 2014)\n\nEducational Attainment & Household WealthFuture of Education (June, 2014)\n\nThis section of population would be at a disadvantage, irrespective of what their ethnicity and gender. Moreover, fragmentation in views and ideas due to diversity would further put this group at an added disadvantage promoting further divide and rule situations. For this reason, the blue ocean strategy has the potential to change into a red ocean for rest of the global ecosystem. Another possibility being that it can transform into a barren desert with one tall building dominated by those having access to data. \n\n\nIf these were the disadvantages, what could be the potential long-term advantages of big data?\n\n1. Natural Resources & Energy Management\n\nBig data certainly helps in reducing waste, and can play an important role in controlling energy and natural resources consumption. Managing and sharing consumption data on that front without compromising on privacy would be a great start.\n\nTo prevent Thomas Malthusian theory from not becoming a reality, we need to take every action possible, and conscious, proactive management of resources is one of them. Big Data certainly will help on that front.\n\n2. Liability expenses\n\nBig data can also be used extensively to detect fraudulent activities and practices. For example, based on literature, medical malpractice related liabilities amount to more than $100 billion in US.[15] Big data analytics provides a way for early detection to reduce quality issues, and to closely monitor fraudulent activities, thus cutting down on such expenses.\n\neDiscovery methods used nowadays in litigation procedures can be managed in a proactive manner to completely avoid situations such as, the non-poaching treaties (collusion) between well-connected powerhouses. Thus, leveling the playing field for everyone.\n\n3. Career Prospects & Progress\n\nBig Data analytics combined with tort reform has the potential to remove fear along the lines of Deming’s 14 points, which combined with relevant training can have immediate impact not only in terms of cutting down costs, but also on quality and performance.\n\nTo prolong the life of organizations, it is important to enhance human resource management, improve hiring practices, develop employees, and create an environment of trust that will assure career progression for employees. Data analytics will have a role to play on that front, and also to translate students’ educational investment into meaningful, merit-based opportunities. For example, a repository database to verify educational credentials and experience potentially can help in eliminating situations such as, the cases reported in the media saving time and money for the institution/organization, and also could potentially promote merit-based objective employment practices.\n\n\nWhat could be the solutions then to navigate through this disruption?\n\n1. This calls for new business models such as, conscious capitalism and/or “collaboratism” taking all the stakeholders into account.\n\n2. Individuals should at least co-own their personal data.\n\n3. Public and Private institutions should be transparent about the nature of data collected, and how it is applied.\n\n4. Educational Institutions and Organizations should collaborate together to commit towards creating meaningful careers for the workforce taking the effect of this disruption into account on the entire ecosystem.\n\n5. Along the lines of the suggestion put together by the experts, and initiated by Senators Rockefeller & Markey, new legislation/privacy law should be enforced keeping all the stakeholders into account, and by taking different scenarios into account.\n\n6. There also needs to be an extensive dialogue on this topic involving all the stakeholders before it is too late, and the upcoming FTC workshop would be one such avenue to promote a healthy discussion on this topic.[16] \n\n\nBig Data analytics has the ability to transform the society into the new frontier of “Collaboratism” as recently presented by Jeremy Rifkin in a CNN article.[17] With the active use of behavioral science and data analytics, it would be possible to address the growing concerns of managing natural resources, energy demand, health care costs and HR management. At the same time, there is also a downside to this disruption especially pertaining to wealth gap, employment ratio, and data privacy. This disruption appears to be inevitable, but “with great power comes great responsibilities”. To extract the best out of this disruption, there should be a coordinated action through relevant governmental policies, organizational strategies, and educational offerings to navigate this new paradigm in technology.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9768913984298706}
+{"content": "Startup general interestUncategorized\n\nWhy some big firms struggle to compete with startups\n\nBy March 30, 2016 2 Comments\n\nFounders and investors in their startups have to choose which markets to attack and by extension which companies to compete with. Most often that’s done by looking for industries where there has been little innovation and/or the founder has a plan that leads to a sustainable competitive advantage. As an example from our portfolio, has built a personalisation algorithm which allows men to “dress better without trying”. They are competing with offline and online fashion brands that haven’t changed the buying experience much beyond putting their inventory online.\n\nIt’s interesting to ask why it takes a startup like to exploit this ‘personalisation’ opportunity. Selfridges, Mr Porter or any other established fashion brand could have gone after it at the same time or earlier and with more resources.\n\nA big part of it is that change happens very fast these days and big companies inevitably gravitate to a manageably small number of opportunities that are most likely to move the needle in the short term, taking them towards the obvious and away from ideas that are higher risk/higher return.\n\nHowever, another part of it is that many big companies aren’t organised to innovate well. Drucker foundation strategist Steve Denning says that focusing on short term share price movements is a big part of the problem:\n\nWhy are firms failing to be entrepreneurial and invest in long-term growth? The answer isn’t hard to find. Once a firm embraces maximizing shareholder value and the current stock price as its goal, and lavishly compensates top management to that end, management naturally focuses on exploiting the existing business and bolstering the stock price by increasing dividends and share buybacks, at the expense of innovation and investing in the future.\n\nAnd focusing on shareholder value requires a culture that’s incompatible with innovation:\n\nEven worse, shareholder value theory has joined forces with hierarchical bureaucracy. Once a firm embraces shareholder value theory, the C-suite has little choice but to deploy command-and-control management. That’s because making money for shareholders and the C-suite is inherently uninspiring to employees. The C-suite must compel employees to obey. With only one in five employees fully engaged in his or her work, and even fewer passionate, innovation and entrepreneurship are even less likely.\n\nNot all big companies are like this of course, but most are. Interestingly, many of the world’s biggest companies today have eschewed shareholder value theory and remain entrepreneurial to the core – Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook are four good examples.\n\nWhen assessing whether industries are ripe for disruption looking at the DNA of leading players is informative even before the disruptive idea is formed. Companies focused on shareholder value (including many PE backed businesses) and, more obviously, those which are hierarchical and bureaucratic, make good targets. Those that are entrepreneurial to the core, not so much. Returning to Thread, the large entrepreneurial companies in fashion are mono-brand plays innovating through supply chain management, and the multi-brand retail focused companies that might be competitors are more stuck in the bind that Denning describes.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.81890869140625}
+{"content": "\n\nCommunication Advice to James and Amy Essay Sample\n\nThe whole doc is available only for registered users OPEN DOC\n\nA limited time offer!\n\n\nOrder Now\n\nCommunication Advice to James and Amy Essay Sample\n\nI would like to first congratulate you on your decision to become engaged. It is my hope that you have a lasting relationship and thank you for coming to me for communication advice. As you probably already know, communication is the key to any relationship and if you do not communicate with each other effectively, then your relationship is doomed. Hopefully, you will take my advice sincerely and adjust it according to your needs. Communication is a two way street so it will take both of your cooperation to make it successful and therefore your relationship being a long successful one.\n\nFirst, I would like to touch on privacy in your communication. With this I do not mean privacy with each other, I specifically mean when talking to others. There are many things that others do not want to hear about your relationship, as well as things that you should not share. One of these many things is arguments or little pet peeves. For example, say that Amy hates hair being in the sink and James has a horrible habit of leaving hair in the sink. Amy should not complain about it to her friends, she should talk to James about it so that you two can resolve the issue. If Amy were to go and complain to her friends then James might hear about it from them or their husbands. Taking this route would only make the situation worse.\n\nYou two will also need to make sure that you are able to understand what you each mean. Everybody has at least a slightly different way of communicating, so it is very important that when you do communicate that you understand one another. If you don’t make sure that it is clarified instead of it turning into an argument. Taking these couple of steps can help a long way in your relationship. Let us move onto some more communication issues.\n\nGender & Culture Differences\n\nSince Amy is from a Chinese family, I would like to touch on culture differences. James you may have noticed some differences in the way that Amy’s family acts at home compared to the way that your family acts. This is completely normal, however, to understand Amy and her family and avoid confusion you need to learn the customs in her family. “Lack of knowledge of other cultures may be detrimental to the process of communication.” (Gore, 63, 2013) Learning the ways of her family may also allow you to be accepted more willingly into the family.\n\nNonverbal communication in different cultures may also be different. For example, the okay symbol here means money in Japan. (Gore, 60, 2013) So if you are given a funny look about the nonverbal communication that you use, take that as an opportunity to ask what it means to them. This way you can use the appropriate nonverbal communication with Amy and her family. Don’t worry James, Amy will need to learn your culture as well, so it is not a one way street on this.\n\nBesides cultural differences in communication, you two will also face gender differences in communication. Amy may be less willing to go ahead and speak up about problems she may be having. This is because in her culture it is not widely accepted for women to speak out. She may have adapted to the American way already and speak as freely as any other American woman. Men have a tendency to not share their feelings in America unlike Chinese men. So always keep in mind the differences in gender and culture when communicating.\n\nWith a little work on both sides you two can learn these differences and come up with communication that works for you both. Do not get frustrated on learning the cultural differences between each other. You can both help each other out along the way and the differences will strengthen your relationship. Self-Concept\n\nA very important aspect of how people interpret messages is their self-concept. This is so important because if Amy’s self-concept is low then she is going to interpret messages differently than if her self-concept is low. You can both work together on each other’s self-concept to raise it. If your shelter needs are not met then you are not going to have very high self-concept. You can work together on getting shelter by making money with a job or career. If self-concept is low because of a low self-image, then boost each other’s self-image by giving compliments or work out together. (Sole, 2011)\n\nOnce you have both accomplished raising your self-concept as high as possible, then it will be easier to communicate simply because messages are not being received as being entirely directed at the person. When you can focus on the message as a whole and not directed at one person, then communication just gets easier. Also, another benefit to high self-concept is being able to look at needs as a couple and being able to work together on those needs. (Sole, 2011)\n\nAnother thing to look at here as individuals is how the messages are being sent. If you are being very defensive in the way that you are sending your messages, how is the other person going to react to the message. It may deteriorate their self-concept. To fix this you can send supportive messages so that you show that you care, but this is something that needs to be fixed. Making sure that the other person understands that you care is the key to keeping communication successful and not damage the relationship. Make sure that you let each other know if the message being sent is coming across as defensive. Doing this will make sure that you can each correct your bad communication behaviors. Self-Disclosure\n\nThere are many things that you want to tell other people about yourself. The big question here is where is the line drawn in different types of relationships? You would not want to tell a perfect stranger about how much money you make or your sex life. What would happen if you shared the intimate details of your sex life to your boss or a coworker? You would probably get fired and have a difficult time getting a job in the same field. When it comes to relationships and disclosure, you do need to make sure that you are not sharing too much information.\n\nWhen it comes to an intimate relationship it can be difficult to tell how much information is too much information. This is because when you share so much information with someone you have a tendency to forget what is important to leave out or tell. No one person can tell you what is right for self-disclosure in your relationship because this is entirely dependent on you James and Amy. Only you two can decide what needs to be shared and what you do not want to tell each other.\n\nThere is a very important aspect of self-disclosure in your relationship. This aspect is to make sure that you do not grow apart. While communication is important, it is also important to make sure that as your life plans change or your tastes change that you tell each other. If you do not take this crucial step than you will no longer know each other. (Schoenberg, 2011) It would be like being married to a perfect stranger, which nobody in their right mind would ever do. So make sure that you both take the time at least every other day, throughout your relationship, to have a meaningful conversation about what you each want and like.\n\nNonverbal Communication\n\nMany people do not realize how important body language is in communication. I do not want to see you two make this mistake in your relationship because it can cause major issues. “Researchers have found that the accuracy of nonverbal communication decreases in couples when the satisfaction of the relationship decreases.” (Prinsen, 2010) So, if you ever find that the accuracy of your nonverbal communication decreases, take the time to talk to each other to discover if there is a bigger problem at hand in your relationship.\n\nBesides losing your relationship and having nonverbal cues let you know that something is wrong, there are other reasons to pay attention to your nonverbal communication. To start off with, let us talk about feelings. By this I mean the fact that you can tell how Amy is feeling about what she is saying by the way her body is moving or the look on her face. At the same time you can see how James is feeling about what Amy is saying. Always pay attention to the body language during your communication, so that you can judge a little better on what the message means. This can also help you in responding emotionally to each other.\n\nAnother great thing about nonverbal communication is that if you do not have the words to describe something you can use your body. If James is visual and Amy is not, she can use her body in order to describe something to James. For example, say that you guys are looking into purchasing a bed, however, you are having difficulties coordinating a time to look together. If James does not understand what type of bed Amy wants, she can use her hands to describe the look of the headboard and footboard, or use her height to show how high she wants the bed. Body language can be used in all sorts of ways for you to describe different objects to one another.\n\nThe last thing I want to talk about in nonverbal communication is mood. Mood can be shown in the way that a person carries themselves that day. If James were to have a really bad day at work he may come home with a frown on his face and not really talk much. This would mean that Amy would have to judge the way he is walking, the movements he makes, and any other things he is doing with his body to decide whether or not to go near him. James may not mean to be portraying all this information and actually want comforting from Amy. So James would need to talk to Amy or change his body language to let her know that it is alright to come near him.\n\n\n“Listening is generally defined as a conscious, cognitive effort involving primarily the sense of hearing and leading to interpretation and understanding.” (Sayeekumar, 2013) This is the most important skill for people to learn in communication. This is because without this particular skill, you cannot have two way communication at all. If you do not know how to listen effectively then you are just letting it go in one ear and out the other. For example, if James has bad listening skills, when Amy talks he is hearing the Charlie Brown teacher. So when it is his turn to speak during the conversation he has no idea how to respond.\n\nThere are many different types of listening and they are all equally important. If you are proficient in one type of listening then take the time to learn how to be proficient at another type so that you can be prepared for all types of listening necessary in life. The different types of listening are informative, relationship, appreciative, critical, discriminative, and empathetic. I’ll go over each of these types with you so that you will both understand how they work and why you need them.\n\nThe first type of listening I want to talk about is informative. This is the most basic type of listening and the one you will probably use the most in everyday conversations. It works by you just listening to understand what is being said to you. It is always a good idea to repeat what you understood of the message back to the person who was telling it to you. Doing this simple step will help you insure that you understood the message correctly.\n\nRelationship listening is what the two of you will most likely use often when communicating with one another. You can use it with other people in different types of relationships that you have. This is where you really build trust and understanding between one another. A great tool this can be when you use it to help out one another or a friend.\n\nWhen it comes to listening to music or watching a movie you are using appreciative listening. It can also be you listening to someone else talk simply because you like the style. Style is what appreciative listening is all about and if you don’t appreciate listening to something then you are going to tune it out. This type of listening skill may come into play when you two talk just because you love the sound of each other’s voices.\n\nJames and Amy when you work you have to use a very important listening skill on the job. This skill is critical listening and when you do not use it is when you end up doing the job wrong. If you can master this listening skill, then you can really pay attention to detail on each other to make sure that you get things exactly the way the other person likes. This can be especially helpful when it comes to things like cleaning. Amy may have a specific way that she likes a task done in the house, if you can understand exactly how she likes it by her description, James, then you are golden in the relationship.\n\nA person who can use discriminative listening will be able to pick out when someone is annoyed in a conversation. They can pick out the tiniest hint of difference in a person’s movement or tone. It would be very helpful in a disagreement so that you know where to go next in the conversation. Make sure that you work on this very important listening skill to strengthen your relationship.\n\nEmpathetic listening will allow you to show true strength in character. This is because you are pulling on your own experiences to bring up the feeling that more than likely rhe other person is feeling at that moment. If Amy’s father were to pass away and James’ father passed away a couple years beforehand, then James could pull up his feelings and use those to help Amy. This can seriously strengthen a relationship and show that you can help the other person out through anything.\n\n\nWe have talked about the many aspects of communication here to help out your relationship. Communication is a two way street so it will take both of your cooperation to make it successful and therefore your relationship being a long successful one. Gender and culture will always play a role in your relationship so be sure to learn key differences. Self-concept and self-disclosure are a big part in how people interpret messages and you must watch how people feel. Listening is the most important skill you can learn in a relationship to make it last. Most of all make sure that you both communicate frequently and help each other where you are each weak.\n\nGore, V. (2013). The Importance of Cross-Cultural Communication. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 7(1), 59-65. Retrieved from EBSCOHOST Prinsen, T., & Punyanunt-Carter, N. M. (2010). The Difference in Nonverbal Behaviors and How It Changes Different Stages of A Relationship. Texas Speech Communication Journal, 35 (1), 1-7. Retrieved from EBSCOHOST Sayeekumar, M.\n(2013). Develop Effective Listening Skill. Language in India, 13(5), 704-707. Retrieved from EBSCOHOST Schoenberg, N. (2011, January 17). Can we talk? Researcher talks about the role of communication in happy marraiages. McClatchy-Tribune News Service. Doi: 2240370261 Sole, K. (2011).Making connections: Understanding interpersonal communication. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.\n\nWe can write a custom essay\n\nAccording to Your Specific Requirements\n\nOrder an essay\nGet Access To The Full Essay\nMaterials Daily\n100,000+ Subjects\n2000+ Topics\nFree Plagiarism\nAll Materials\nare Cataloged Well\n\n\nSorry, but only registered users have full access\n\nHow about getting this access\n\nBecome a member\n\nYour Answer Is Very Helpful For Us\nThank You A Lot!\n\n\nEmma Taylor\n\n\nHi there!\nWould you like to get such a paper?\nHow about getting a customized one?\n\nCan't find What you were Looking for?\n\nGet access to our huge, continuously updated knowledge base\n\nThe next update will be in:\n14 : 59 : 59\nBecome a Member", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9338830709457397}
+{"content": "« What's the Next Step? Using Assessment as a Classroom Guide | Main | Let's Teach to Better Tests »\n\nAligning Visions of Student Learning With the Tools To Measure It\n\nJessica Hahn\nI believe that effective measurement of student learning is about consistency and complexity. I am always measuring student learning in a variety of ways. I'm assessing during lessons as I listen in to a \"turn and talk\" or respond to a raised hand. The moment students go off to work on math, my co-teacher and I are scanning the room, checking for similar difficulties, and then grabbing those five or six students to work within a small group. Sometimes we use a checklist or other tracking template, noting their strengths and weaknesses. We use running records throughout the year to gauge student reading growth. We also give unit and district-wide benchmark tests in literacy and math. These tests ask students to write, answer multiple-choice questions, and explain their thinking in short-answer formats.\n\nI actually like our district-wide benchmark math tests for 1st grade. I think they are an example of an effective measurement tool. These tests measure student learning in a very complex, deep way. There are no multiple-choice questions. Students must explain their thinking. And most importantly, these tests ask students to show what they have learned in a variety of ways. The complexity of the benchmark tests holds me accountable for making sure that I am teaching my students in a rigorous way.\n\nWhile my school does support me in and encourage me to measure student learning in all the ways I have described, they ultimately measure student learning in a very narrow way: the state's standardized test. Currently, our government values standardized testing as showing mastery and therefore so do our schools. I see the tension between what kids know and how they are asked to show it in my own 1st grade classroom. I believe that when my kids read authentic literature, and can summarize, infer, and draw conclusions about the text and its characters that they are showing growth. And I believe that measure of reading comprehension is more meaningful and complex than a series of questions about a decontextualized passage.\n\nDo we need citizens who can answer questions about a passage or citizens who can think and talk critically about text and events? If we do value the latter—if that's the kind of thinking that the 21st century begs—then we are prioritizing tests that don't align to that vision. If we want schools to change the way they measure learning, we as a government and a society need to change what we value about what students know and how they show it.\n\nJessica Hahn has taught elementary grade children for six years in Phoenix and New York City.\n\nGround Rules for Posting\nAll comments are public.\n\nProject Partner\n\n\n\nRecent Comments\n\n\nMost Viewed On Teacher", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5862391591072083}
+{"content": "Price for Lotus Elise\n\n\nAverage price Last 6 months\nPrice for Lotus Elise\n\nThe selling prices for Lotus Elise cars have remained constant in the last 6 months. The average price in November was of $35,890. This price hardly went through any changes and remained at $35,757 during December. The following two months (January, February) the selling price went through a devaluation of -6 percent in the average selling price compared to the previous two months analyzed. During the last couple of months, the average price has hardly changed, remaining the same going from $34,697.25 to $33,813 during March and April.\n\nPrice per registration year\n\nThe average price for Lotus Elise has had a strong rise in recent years. Between 2005 and 2008, the average price is $35,364. There was a significant inflation of the average price in 2005 ($30,487) moving up till ($38,000)in 2008.\n\nPrice per mileage\n\nThe graph that displays the price for Lotus Elise cars according to their mileage shows that those cars within a mileage range of \"50,000 - 100,000\" are the ones with the lowest price. They are 24 % more affordable than the average price ($34,736). Next with a price of $34,148 and a mileage range of \"10,000 - 25,000\" we would see the following vehicles. The mileage range for the most expensive cars is \"less than 10,000\". It is 33% more costly than the average market value followed by those vehicles with a mileage of \"25,000 - 50,000\" and a price of $34,932.\n\nCharts data\nAverage price April\nNumber of Lotus Elise ads used\nNum. of cars with registration year mentioned\nNum. of cars with mileage mentioned", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6795228719711304}
+{"content": "You are here\n\nProgramming The Nation - SecInc\n\nPrimary tabs\n\n1.61 GiB100\nThis torrent has no flags.\n\nProgramming The Nation\n\n“...PROGRAMMING THE NATION? is profoundly disturbing, as ambitious as it is provocative. examination of the various ways and techniques media, government and industry influence\nthe way people eat, think and behave.\"\n\nMedia, politics and pop-culture. PROGRAMMING THE NATION? takes an encompassing look at the history of subliminal messaging in America. According to many authorities, since the late 1950s subliminal content has been tested and delivered through all forms of mass-media including Hollywood filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock and William Friedkin. Even our modern military has been accused of these practices in the \"war on terror\" against soldiers and civilians both abroad and at home. With eye-opening footage, revealing interviews, humorous anecdotes, and an array of visual effects, the film categorically explores the alleged usage of subliminals in advertising, music, film, television, anti-theft devices, political propaganda, military psychological operations, and advanced weapons development. Director Jeff Warrick makes it his personal mission to determine if these manipulative tactics have succeeded in \"programming the nation?\" Or, if subliminal messaging belongs in the category of what many consider urban legend.\nAccording to many authorities, since the late 1950's subliminal content has been tested and delivered through all forms of media, at an increasingly alarming rate. \"PROGRAMMING THE NATION?\" examines the purported uses, influences and potential subconscious side-effects of what's going on beneath the surface of advertising, film, music and political propaganda. Even the US military has been accused of using this technology in their Psychological Operations Unit, (PSY OPS) campaign. This socially relevant documentary not only traces the history of this phenomenon, but seeks to determine the validity and potential threat that may or may not exist. Do you ever find yourself doing or buying things without any conscious reasoning? Why has consumer debt in America risen over 50% since 1990? How is it possible that the United States consumes about 25% of the world's resources while only making up 4.5% of the world's population? Are we all part of an elaborate scheme which has been programming...\nFormat : MPEG-4 at 2 259 Kbps\nLength : 1.59 GiB for 1h 40mn 32s 661ms\nVideo #0 : AVC at 2 092 Kbps\nAspect : 1274 x 720 (1.769) at 23.976 fps\nAudio #0 : AAC at 161 Kbps\nInfos : 2 channels, 44.1 KHz\n\n\nTighten up my tinfoil cap for this one :D\nSeriously Thank You! looks interesting", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8484572172164917}
+{"content": "Article thumbnail\nLocation of Repository\n\nIs ATP a central synaptic mediator for certain primary afferent fibers from mammalian skin?\n\nBy R E Fyffe and E R Perl\n\n\nThe possibility that ATP acts as a synaptic mediator at the central terminals of primary afferent fibers was examined by applying it iontophoretically to neurons of the outer layers of the cat spinal cord in vivo. ATP proved to be selectively excitatory for a limited subset of spinal neurons. Those units consistently excited by ATP iontophoresis with very small currents (2-15 nA) responded to gentle mechanical stimulation of the skin and usually evidenced excitatory input from unmyelinated primary afferent fibers. Most units excited by ATP were specifically mechanoreceptive; a few neurons receiving excitatory input from both low-threshold mechanoreceptors and nociceptors also responded to ATP. Selectively nocireceptive neurons were unresponsive. Generally, the mechanoreceptive neurons excited by ATP were located in the deeper substantia gelatinosa or in the immediately adjacent nucleus proprius of the dorsal horn. The results suggest the presence of a purinergic excitatory receptor on central neurons receiving excitatory projection from tactile mechanoreceptors with fine-diameter afferent fibers and are consistent with the possibility that an ATP-like agent may mediate central synaptic excitation for this set of sense organs\n\nTopics: Research Article\nYear: 1984\nDOI identifier: 10.1073/pnas.81.21.6890\nOAI identifier:\nProvided by: PubMed Central\n\nSuggested articles\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9675894975662231}
+{"content": "Article thumbnail\nLocation of Repository\n\nChick cytoplasmic actin and muscle actin have different structural genes.\n\nBy R V Storti and A Rich\n\n\nActins isolated from embryonic chick brain and muscle differ in mobility when subjected to electrophoresis in gels containing urea and sodium dodecyl sulfate. Experiments were carried out to determine whether these actins are products of different structural genes and differ in primary amino acid sequence, or whether they are products of the same structural gene but are different because of post-translational modification. Messenger RNA from brain and muscle tissue was used to direct cell-free protein synthesis in wheat germ extracts. The synthesized actins were identified by conversion from globular to fibrous actin and by two-dimensional chromatographic analysis of tryptic peptides. The differences in electrophoretic mobility of brain compared to muscle actin were maintained in the cell-free protein synthetic products. Therefore, these mobility differences were not due to post-translational modification. It was concluded that brain and muscle actin are coded by different messenger RNAs and therefore arise from different structural genes. In addition, messenger RNA from 13- and 16-day embryonic thigh muscle directed the synthesis of both brain- and muscle-type actins, suggesting that muscle cell differentiation involves the regulation of at least two different actin genes\n\nTopics: Research Article\nYear: 1976\nDOI identifier: 10.1073/pnas.73.7.2346\nOAI identifier:\nProvided by: PubMed Central\n\nSuggested articles\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9952037334442139}
+{"content": "Window washing is needed throughout many cities, and the industry is competitive. A way for window washing businesses to stay ahead of the competition is to use CRM Databases to maintain relationships with leads and customers. To make the most out of CRM software for Window Washing Businesses, business owners should consider integrating the application with VoIP technology.\n\nVoIP is especially practical if a company uses CRM technology. Connectivity to software allows for one-click dialing and recorded calls. This is very important for those in sales and customer service. As communication between employees and clients improves, so does the company bottom line.\n\nWhat is a VoIP system?\n\nIn the past, phone calls were always routed through a phone company’s network, connecting traditional analog phones on either end. In the very beginning of phone services, operators manually connected lines. Over the years, technology advanced to connect lines automatically. As more and more people joined the telephone network, phone numbers got longer, but connectivity improved. In the 90s, with the advent of the internet, engineers started designing systems that used digital lines instead of the traditional analog lines of the past. Most people know this technology as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP).\n\nThis new telephone system has been widely implemented by window washing businesses around the world. Companies were once afraid of replacing new equipment and software, some of which had been of practical use for decades. However, the investment is now well worth it today.\n\nMany phone companies charge businesses per line and each installation requires a visit from the phone company. Phones used to be limited to the number of lines, reducing connectivity in the office. People shared phone lines and features were only available if companies paid. Making the change to VoIP technology puts much of this back in the hands of the business and its IT department. Adding new phones is as easy as plugging them into the internet portal. Often, businesses find that the initial investment in transitioning from traditional phone lines to internet connected technology is worth it.\n\nIn terms of CRM solutions for window washing companies, the integration of VoIP with the database helps bring in more customers and maintain the relationships with current ones. Getting in touch with customers and leads happens in one click, so the sales team operates more efficiently. Many CRM applications have the capability for the staff to keep notes on the client’s profile. Staff can also review past orders, open and paid invoices, and client contact information. For leads, a sales funnel tool organizes potential clients by their current level of interest in the company.\n\nWindow washing is a unique industry, but one we need to keep skyscrapers and houses’ windows spotless. Cleaning windows, especially those on tall buildings is a challenge, so we depend on the professionals to get the job done. For these companies to acquire more customers, and maintain their current ones, they should be using CRM software to manage their customer and sales relationships.\n\nIf you own or manage a window washing company and you are ready to learn more about CRM technology, contact CRM RUNNER today for more information about obtaining a trial version.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7170826196670532}
+{"content": "Cryotherapy and ice bath: what are the differences?\n\n\nCryo Home » Articles » Cryotherapy and ice bath: what are the differences?\n\nHistorically, treatment with cold has been associated with ice packs and ice baths. These methods of treating inflammation and muscle soreness have been known for centuries. With the invention of the cryotherapy chamber in 1980, it became possible to subject individuals to whole-body cryotherapy for a more profound, lasting effect. In spite of this, many athletes still use ice baths to recover between competitions. Let’s see what cryotherapy and ice baths have in common and what are the main differences.\n\nCold is a well-known pain reducer and immune system stimulator\n\nCold is a well-known pain reducer and immune system stimulator\n\nBasic principles of cold treatment\n\nCold is a well-known pain reducer and immune system stimulator. It works this way: upon exposure to low temperatures, the body boosts regenerative mechanisms and fully activates the immune system. Painkillers such as endorphins are released into the blood, and the activity of inflammatory mediators, i.e. histamine and serotonin, falls.\n\nSo, in general, cold treatment reduces the sensitivity of skin receptors and the conductivity of nerve fibers and results in a noticeable analgesic effect.\n\nThat is why cold treatment has been widely used in professional sports where injuries can happen any time before, during and after the competition.\n\nHow long does it take to be exposed to cold for the desired effect?\n\nAs for ice baths, research shows that they are effective only with a systematic approach when applied repeatedly for 10 minutes at least. In practice, it means people have to spend 10 to 15 minutes in cold water (between 7° and 12°C) with ice. Needless to say, it can become an ordeal.\n\nIn contrast, due to much lower temperatures (-110° to -170°C), a whole-body cryotherapy session lasts only about 3 minutes and does not cause long-lasting discomfort. \n\nHow an ice bath is different from a cryotherapy session?\n\nWhile in an ice bath your body actually feels like it is freezing, the main cryotherapy benefit is that it “tricks” the body into applying healing mechanisms without experiencing penetrating cold. During a cryotherapy session, the user does not feel the discomfort of staying in ice water, as nitrogen vapor has low thermal conductivity and does not overchill the body. \n\nThe result is a more comfortable healing experience where the total time your body is exposed to cold air in the whole-body cryotherapy session never exceeds 3 minutes.\n\nTaking an ice bath is a nightmare for football players\n\nTaking an ice bath is a nightmare for football players\n\nHow much does whole-body cryotherapy cost?\n\nThe price of an ice bath is definitely lower than a cryotherapy session. Still, bear in mind all the benefits, which justify the higher price of whole-body cryotherapy:\n\n • comfort – in a cryosauna, a user wears cotton underwear and fur boots; contact with cold air creates no discomfort or extreme feelings, unlike ice water.\n • short exposure – staying 3 minutes in cold air makes a whole world of difference to staying 10 minutes in ice water. \n • efficiency – a cryotherapy course (10-20 sessions) is comparable to 2 to 3 years of ice bathing.\n • systemic effect – a cryo chamber session is not only useful for faster recovery and better healing but also helps improve the quality of life in many chronicle conditions linked to inflammation and pain, like rheumatism, arthritis, fibromyalgia, spondylitis, psoriasis.\n\n\nNaturally, ice packs are useful for domestic injuries like minor burns or, for example, bruises. But for sports medicine, healthcare or dermatology centers, beauty salons, spas, wellness or fitness centers, whole-body and local cryotherapy offer a modern, efficient and in the long run much more beneficial alternative to ice baths and ice packs.\n\nBusiness Opportunities\n\nCryomed ™ is a well-known cryosauna brand. Our products are used all over the world. We have no secrets – just high-quality products and flexible equipment delivery conditions such as trade-in, lease or rental. Do you want to become our partner and start your own cryotherapy business? Just contact us.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6310105323791504}
+{"content": "Compassion Renaissance: Start a Revolution.\n\nMy incontrovertible sense of humor can’t help me laugh this one away. I simply cannot laugh away the pain. Pain caused by the realization that our nation is plagued by hate, fear, and indifference. What happened to humanity? Have we lost our ability to love each other? When did humanity become so disconnected that it’s common place to walk past our wounded brothers or sisters without so much as acknowledging their pain? I really need to know. The idealist in me doesn’t want to become like the machine. Spend a minute tonight thinking about this. To\nthose who can hear me, speak out! We are humanity… “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And, if you wrong us…[does anyone really care]? (Some of us do); It’s time for a compassion renaissance. Will you start the revolution?\n\nWordPress Political Blogger", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8132368326187134}
+{"content": "Sprouted Garlic Is Treasure\n\nSprouted garlic is better for heart health. A technical college study found that sprouted garlic is more heart-healthy and contains more antioxidants than fresh garlic.\n\nHigher anti-cancer and anti-radiation effects. Researchers have found through experiments that garlic that has germinated for five days has stronger antioxidant activity than fresh garlic. Although eating garlic does not cure cancer, the germinated garlic is rich in the antioxidant element selenium and has a strong antioxidant effect, which can reduce the damage of free radicals. Its preventive and anti-cancer effects are far superior to those of germinated garlic.\n\nMash to eat anti-cancer, eat sterilization raw. Garlic contains effective substances such as alliin and garlicase. After being crushed, they will contact each other to form allicin with anti-cancer effects. Therefore, after mashing or cutting the garlic, it is best to leave it for 10-15 minutes, which is conducive to the production of allicin. During the heating process, the content of organic sulfides that play an antibacterial role will gradually decrease, and the higher the temperature, the faster the decline. Therefore, cooked garlic does not have a good sterilization effect. At home, you can eat cold dishes with garlic, and garlic dumplings with vinegar and a small amount of sesame oil when eating dumplings.\n\nSingle head garlic is more anti-cancer, and purple peel garlic is more bacteriostatic. Single head garlic has a certain medicinal value, and its anti-cancer effect is higher than that of ordinary split garlic. Garlic can be divided into white-skinned garlic, purple-skinned garlic, and black-skinned garlic according to the color of the outer skin. Among them, white-skinned garlic and purple-skinned garlic are more common. Compared with white-skinned garlic, purple-skinned garlic has a more spicy taste, a higher content of the active ingredient allicin, and a more obvious bacteriostatic effect.\n\nChinese garlic suppliers provide reasonable China garlic price and high quality garlic for consumers all over the world. Eating garlic scientifically helps us keep healthy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6433377265930176}
+{"content": "How to use people analytics to solve workforce costs\n\nLearn how to solve workforce challenges using UltiPro Payroll data within Visier\n\nHR leaders have been thrust to the frontlines of their organizations, and are expected to make difficult, strategic decisions about workforce costs and headcount. To be a successful HR professional in a digital world, you need to understand what people analytics are, how they’re helping solve crucial business problems.\n\nJoin Logan Gibson, Sr. Customer Success Manager at Visier, and Maggie Curcio, CPO at Henderson Engineers for a 45 minute webinar where we walk you through how you can solve common HR problems using Ultipro payroll data in a people analytics solution. We’ll show you step by step how to use analytics to solve business challenges, and have plenty of time for Q&A.\n\nYou’ll learn how to quickly solve questions like:\n\n • Have changes in revenue affected your total cost of workforce or compensation strategy?\n • How do cost-saving measures affect your workforce costs?\n • What costs are fixed and what costs are variable? What levers can you pull to help achieve financial resilience?\n\nWatch On-Demand\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9101651906967163}
+{"content": "Oil Slick Near Australian Port City\n\n\nBunker spills were detected at the Australian port city of Darwin.\n\n\nBunker spills were detected at Darwin, the Northern coast of Australia on Wednesday.\n\nThe exact cause of the spill remains unknown. It is suspected to have occurred during Talisman Sabre, the joint exercise of Australia-US military.\n\nThe Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with US Marines are cleaning up the spill on Casuarina Beach which is off Lee Point. An ADF spokesman said “All appropriate government agencies have been notified of the incident and the ADF’s environmental team took immediate steps to cordon the area and began to assess the extent of the spill.”\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999377727508545}
+{"content": "Enjoying an Open-Air Cinema in Parc de la Villette\n\nPrivate Louvre Museum Tour\n\nParis Tourist Attractions\n\nParis definitely hosts a handful of attractions that no traveler can resist. The picturesque natural beauty of the city is also an add-on. Obviously, most of the travelers may include the popular attractions such as private Louvre Museum tours, Eiffel tower tour, etc., in their itinerary when in Paris. However, most of these places are clichéd and overrated. Hence, it will be ideal to include some of the unique things here as well in your tour plan.\n\nWhy Visit Paris during the Summer Months\n\nNote that the ambiance of Paris city is totally different in the summer season. At this time, you can see an entirely different side of the city that is beautified and glistened with sunlight. Apart from this, there are many popular events are held in Paris in summer, such as the Bastille Day, Paris Plages, music concerts, food festivals, and many more. One of the outstanding summer attractions here is an open-air cinema experience at Parc de la Villette, which is located at the northeast of Paris.\n\nOpen-Air Cinema in La Villette\n\nIf you are a movie buff, one of the best activities that you can indulge in when in Paris city is an open-air movie screening at the beautiful Parc de la Villette. This amazing movie screening is conducted in the French capital every year for a month. In 2018, the open-air movie is scheduled from July 18 to August 19. Yet it is to be noted you can watch the open-air movies at La Villette only for four days in a week; that is, from Thursdays to Sundays.\n\nIdeal Option for Movie Lovers\n\nWhat can be better than lying on the fresh grass grounds along with your partner and watching your favorite movie on a big screen! The beautiful twinkling stars in the sky are sure to take the overall ambiance of the evening to the next level. In order to lift up the comfort level, you can also rent deck chairs, blankets, and all, that are available at the venue. Do not forget to grab some food and drinks as well, so that you can munch on it while watching the movie.\n\nEvery summer, the movie festival highlights various topics of cultural prominence with innovative and new themes. To offer immense pleasure to movie buffs, the festival also offers the opportunity to watch most of the new releases as well as the old movies. Other than this, some of the short films and lesser-known films are also included in the movie feast. Just make sure to reach the venue by 07:30 pm in order to pick a preferred space and enjoy the ultimate movie experience to the maximum.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9948323369026184}
+{"content": "Share & Tell with Tyler Lambert\n\nOur Socially-Distanced Chat With Stylist & Entrepreneur @TYLERGLAMBERT\n\nAll photos by Dylan Perlot (IG: @dylanperlot)\n\nTyler Lambert, aka @tylerglambert on Instagram, is the very definition of “Fashion Authority.” The stylist, founder, and entrepreneur first became interested in fashion at 13 years old and now has the likes of Kylie Jenner wearing his creations. Taking one look at the stylist’s expertly curated Instagram page is enough to inflict serious style envy, that’s why we were thrilled to sit down with him and share some of his style expertise with you.\n\nHow do you typically go about styling your clientele? Are there tips you can share to our audience on how to dress when you need your bag to go with it?\n\nWhen dressing my clients, I am styling or dressing them for a purpose, meaning an event or outing or photo of sorts. When it comes to handbags I ask [for] purpose - does a jumbo Chanel make sense for a red carpet? Obviously no... Mind you, does a client even need a purse or just someone to hold their phone? A bag is an extension of identity in my eyes as a stylist; you have your iconic everyday bag - easy and movable; then, you have an outfit, and the bag that goes with that needs to really, truly resemble the purpose of the event and the identity of the outfit.\n\nWhat are some unique solutions you've found when working at home? Conferences, video chats with clients, etc.?\n\nI believe I am in a very unique situation as I was involved with online creators and talent starting years ago. Styling internet and YouTube talent has always given me the platform to style them for \"at home” content or outfits (not even for events), but just to look good for their followers. In a sense, this unique solution has already found me!\n\nDo you adapt the same methods for your personal, everyday style? What is your ideal \"stay at home\" outfit?\n\nNo matter the client I would say I always come last, and my time and energies [are] devoted to my work - so my stay home outfit is a good, worn-in matching sweat set with paint and stain marks all over it :)\n\nWhat would you say differentiates your taste in fashion with others?\n\nI feel like a lot of taste in fashion comes from either being influenced by others, or trying to copy one another. Whereas, with my taste and where I grew up in a small rural town, I did not have a direction to aspire to - I just created. I feel in a sense I still have that direction in terms of taste, supporting young emerging designers, cutting apart and putting pieces back together, and not looking back. I feel that so many in the industry look back rather than moving forward, without looking at what everyone else is doing - I feel social media has made it that way a bit. Social media has given power to a lot of creators (which is amazing), but sometimes fame and followers overshadow [a creator’s] talent. This is the reason why I really love my Rebag family, as they see I am not huge or famous by any means, but they value and respect my drive to create in my own style something that means value to myself, and to inspire and share with others.\n\nWhat gravitated you towards styling these crossbody bags?\n\nI always loved the camera style bags, I believe they are genderless and very easy everyday bags.\n\nWhat's your favorite handbag that you own? And, what's the next handbag you're hoping to own?\n\nThis is a long story but one day, years ago, my friend in Chicago dragged me to an estate sale. The sons of the mother that passed away were selling her Hermès Black 35 Birkin for let’s say under $5,000, and I jumped and spent every dime I had on it. To this day, even though I hardly use it - it is my favorite bag. A bag I have my eyes on is a good backpack or another Birkin to start a collection.\n\nWhat's keeping you inspired during this hard time of social distancing? Any personal tips you can offer to those who're looking for peace?\n\nI think right now is the time to do everything you told yourself you would do when you had time. I know right now I am taking the time to discipline my eating habits and work habits, taking time for myself but working as hard as I possibly can. That work can be for your job or for your own passion or working towards finding that passion and experimenting however you can!\n\nAnswers have been edited for clarity\n\nAre you sure you want to logout?\n\nThank You\n\nfor subscribing\n\nEnter the following code at checkout to receive $50 off orders up to $2,000, $100 off orders $2,000+ or $200 off orders $4,000+\n\nOffer valid until Jun 11, 2020.\nOne time use only and cannot be combined with other offers.\n\n\nWe will send you an email to reset your password.\nLog In\nLog in with Facebook\n\n\nMeasurements ×\nExchange Periods\nExchange Now\n* Percentage of original purchase price does not include discounts or promotions", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6979535818099976}
+{"content": "# #\n\nPlaza Mayor and Village Hall\n\nPina de Montalgrao\n\nThe village hall is in the main square, which is dominated by a beautiful replica of the fountain that existed a few years ago. A porticoed Aragonese-style building, it was constructed in the 17th century.\n\nThe square also holds the entrance to the Museo Etnológico de Pina de Monalgrao, the village’s ethnological museum.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7405334711074829}
+{"content": "Dog Abandoned On Rural Road Waits 9 Hours For Owner To Return\n\nA dog abandoned on a rural road is on to a better life and his owner is on his way to court thanks to swift action by rescuers.\n\nThe cattle dog was cruelly dumped by a man on a rural road outside Tusla, Oklahoma on April 19, 2020. Confused as to what was happening, the dog stayed where he was left for nine hours, waiting for his owner to return.\n\nFortunately for the dog, trail cameras were rolling at the time of him being dumped and word got to Oklahoma Alliance for Animals. They posted the following information to their Facebook page:\n\nThis is absolutely not ok. Dumping a poor defenseless animal in the middle of nowhere and driving away is cruel.\n\n“While we understand that people may be struggling to care for their pets due to COVID, there are resources and organizations here to help, including us. Doing this to [a] living, feeling being should never be the answer.\n\n“This beautiful dog was taken to a rural area and abandoned by someone he likely trusted. The dog waited 9 hours for his person to return. His person didn’t.\n\nOklahoma Alliance for Animals\n\n“OAA’s rescue team headed out and picked up the pup (now Rocket).\n\nOklahoma Alliance for Animals\n\n“We will ensure he is vetted and has a full belly and a safe warm place to rest his head. We will ensure he never suffers this fate again.”\n\nOklahoma Alliance for Animals\n\nThe rescue group was also quick to point out how easily things could have gone terribly wrong for Rocket.\n\nRocket was lucky. Trail cameras caught the act in progress, and rescuers were able to respond. If cameras weren’t rolling, who knows what fate would have befallen Rocket. If you recognize the individual pictured, please send us a message to let us know. We’d like to tell our police friends about him.”\n\nIt didn’t take long for the investigation to be completed. OAA reported a few days later that the person who had dumped Rocket had been identified by Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office. OAA wrote that the individual “received a criminal citation to appear in court where they will determine punishment.”\n\nIn the meantime, Rocket is lapping up the attention at the shelter. “As you can see, Rocket is safe, happy, and pretty smitten with his rescuer Tina,” said OAA, sharing a photo.\n\nOklahoma Alliance for Animals\n\nRocket is also pitching in to help OAA with their food drive. OAA wants to let everyone in their area know that if they need help feeding a pet, please reach out.\n\nIf you would like to donate toward vetting and boarding for Rocket, you can do at OAA’s website.\n\nDisclosure: This post may include affiliate links.\n\nHey there!\n\n\nForgot password?\n\nForgot your password?\n\n\nYour password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.\n\n\nProcessing files…", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5841478109359741}
+{"content": "\n\n\nI’ve Turned Off My Ad Blocker\nEdit Story\n\nHow To Lead Your Organization Into The Future Of Work\n\nForbes Coaches Council\nKasia Jamroz\nWith Conscious Leading Solutions, coach Kasia Jamroz assists individuals and orgs in expanding their perspectives to elevate their success.\n\nConsider this analogy: If you're a fish, you likely wouldn't notice the water you live in because water is what surrounds you. You're used to it. In order for you to notice the water, you would probably need to be taken out of that environment to see it from the outside.\n\nThe same applies to our leadership skills. It is hard to fully comprehend the context in which we lead until we allow ourselves to step out of that environment. Failing to recognize the framework in which we operate comes with a high price tag: extinction.\n\nIn a world of rapid change, we cannot apply yesterday’s leadership practices to today’s problems. Why? Because the context of the current business environment has shifted (and is shifting) as we speak. From my perspective, with predictability gone, the future seems to look more uncertain, and the only thing we can undeniably rely on is that circumstances will be changing in ways we cannot always foresee. Therefore, I believe that staying alert, focused and self-aware are desirable qualities to pay attention to.\n\nEgo and expertise often imply finality and suggest that there is nothing more to be explored. They propose that we don’t need anyone to tell us what to do and how to do it. A sense of power combined with stubbornness — aka our unwillingness to learn and relearn — often deludes and sidetracks us, as well as make us believe we have reached the very top.\n\nHowever, to survive, future leadership calls for new skills and competencies that will enhance the likelihood of success. Leaders not only must stay on top of the current trends influencing their companies, their industry and their employees but also must prepare themselves for the future.\n\nBased on my observations as a coach for leaders and organizations, leading effectively today means adapting by addressing aspects such as diversity, employee engagement and attracting and retaining top talent, as well as paying special attention to:\n\n• Managing multiple generations\n\n• Encouraging female leadership\n\n• Emphasizing accountability\n\n• Developing a global mindset\n\n• Adapting to the gig economy\n\n• Creating new business models to accommodate disruptive technologies\n\nAddressing these current and future needs require leaders to go beyond the execution — and initiate personal evolution. Why? Because from my perspective, people don’t leave organizations; they leave other people. Business effectiveness highly depends on a nontoxic internal culture and lack of politics. You can create these positive environments through emotional competence, self-regulation and self-evaluation skills.\n\nLeading in a way that people stop worrying and start using their time doing what they are the best at is key. I believe shifting perception from solving problems and reducing uncertainty to making progress by actively engaging with ambiguity gives birth to creativity and innovation.\n\nIn this two-part series, I will explore what I view as the seven essential skills — conscious leadership, self-awareness, self-evaluation, communication, focus, agility and culture — leaders should aim to develop or stretch to succeed in the future.\n\nAnd though there is no “all-fits-one” recipe, emerging trends ask for the ability to build meaningful, trusting and engaging relationships, as well as for leaders to embody behaviors that reflect any changes they're asking for. This starts with heightening the level of leadership consciousness, self-awareness and self-evaluation.\n\nConscious Leadership\n\nThis represents the capacity to lead with clarity, passion and purpose -- to be able to attend to your own needs first (i.e., physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually) and understand what drives your behaviors and actions. \"Conscious leadership\" embodies a shift from carrying the responsibility to the ability to respond adequately to the circumstances. I've observed integrity, authenticity and accountability happen to be a new measurement of truth. Where to start? Cultivate self-awareness, invite feedback, conduct mental detoxes frequently, meditate and set clear intentions for all that you do.\n\nSeek feedback to invite learning opportunities. Replace satisfaction that comes with your success with the chance to evolve. Declutter your mind to become more decisive by addressing all \"pending decisions\" that contribute to mental overload and procrastination. Reflect why and how you should lead based on who you are, not the power you hold.\n\n\nSelf-awareness is an art of getting to know yourself as a person, beyond your strengths and weaknesses, on a much deeper level by analyzing your own thoughts, feelings and triggers. By getting quiet in our head, we have a chance to see things, people and circumstance for what they are. Listen to the silence; it has a lot to say. Don’t kill your dragons; train them and exchange stimulation for satisfaction.\n\nBy becoming aware of the roots of your behavior, you have a chance to manage them. Self-awareness is an essential prerequisite of introspection and retrospection; it's also in high demand to execute new (and often unpredictable) business requirements. It can be cultivated through developing a willingness to step outside of your comfort zone, exploring and learning, and always knowing where you stand in relation to where you are heading.\n\n\nThis skill provides a measurement of your effectiveness. Notwithstanding the importance of moving swiftly in the river of rapid changes, I believe succeeding in the business environment will depend more on our ability to systematically evaluate ourselves as people and leaders.\n\nTherefore, check-in with yourself regularly, conduct 360-degree feedback reviews annually, make a habit of soliciting feedback and considering reaching out to a mentor or coach for support. As inconvenient and uncomfortable it might sound at first, the more you know about yourself, the more accurate your perception of reality will be. The more precise you get to interpret and understand what surrounds you, the bigger advantage you will have in leading winning organizations.\n\nThe second article of this series will expand on the other leadership skills: communication, focus, agility and culture, and how they are built upon conscious leadership, self-awareness and self-evaluatio\n\n\nLeadership Coach Kasia Jamroz assists individuals and organizations with expanding their perspectives to elevate their chance for success.…\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9875579476356506}
+{"content": "Cakewalk Sonar vs Pro Tools\n\nA post on the JSonar blog pointed me at this thread on the Cakewalk forum comparing Sonar and Pro Tools. I find it surprising that Sonar's poor audio scrubbing functionality (versus Pro Tools's reportedly excellent scrubbing) is not mentioned at all! I keep hearing that many good sound engineers still prefer to \"use their ears\" a great deal and I'd figure they would therefore use scrubbing a lot, but the opinion from Cakewalk seems to be that scrubbing isn't used by most users and thus isn't a priority. The forum thread does discuss Pro Tools's strength in sound engineering and post production and its relative lack of popularity with composers, which I guess might explain this. If Sonar's primary market is composers and the like, there might certainly be less of a demand for features such as scrubbing. This is a damned shame for me (and I suspect many other blind users), as decent scrubbing (i.e. better accuracy and the ability to play faster than 1x) would make my life a hell of a lot easier, not to mention more fun!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9369679093360901}
+{"content": "Edgar Allan Poe (1809 –1849)\n\nEdgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. He is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and suspense. He is generally considered the inventor of detective fiction.\n\nPoe’s work as an editor, a poet, and a critic had a profound impact on American and international literature. In addition to his detective stories, he is one of the originators of horror and science fiction. He is often credited as the architect of the modern short story. He also focused on the effect of style and structure in a literary work: as such, he has been seen. French Symbolists such as Mallarmé and Rimbaud claimed him as their literary model. Baudelaire translated is works into French. Today, Poe is regarded as one of the first American writers to become a major figure in world literature, and there are many well-known Edgar Allan Poe quotes. He was unusual in that he strived to earn his living through writing alone, which resulted in a life of financial hardship and near poverty.\nThe work that catapulted Poe onto the New York literary scene in January 1845 was The Raven, a poem that was immediately copied, parodied, and anthologized. He is now one of the most widely read American writers of the 19th century. His appeal extends from young readers who enjoy being terrified by the macabre tales of mystery and imagination, such as The Tell-Tale Heart, to literary critics who appreciate his pioneering analysis in The Philosophy of Composition of how poetry creates its effect on the reader. Poe’s poems, notably The Raven and The Bells, are among the most memorable in the English language, and his stories, among them The Pit and the Pendulum and The Masque of the Red Death, still terrify readers. Poe lives on, not only in American culture but European as well, in drama, film and television, and music.\n\nAdaptations of Poe’s works for film began from the time when films first appeared. And when television emerged that accelerated, so that generations of viewers have watched his stories on screen, and continue to do so. Actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff became typecast as a result of their association with Poe adaptations and those actors can’t be thought of in any other context than horror films. The 2004 release of Hellboy on DVD contained a special 10-minute adaptation of The Tell-Tale Heart. More recently, The Cask of Amontillado starring David JM Bielewicz and Frank Tirio, Jr. Directed by Thad Ciechanowski, won an Emmy Award in 2013 and The Raven starring David JM Bielewicz, Dave Pettitt and Nicole Beattie won one in 2015. Adaptations of particularly the more macabre stories appear regularly on television.\n\nMusic of the 20th century is infused with the works of Poe. In 1913, Sergei Rachmaninoff set his choral symphony The Bells to a Russian translation of Poe’s poem. The Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara based his 1997 choral fantasy On the Last Frontier on the final two paragraphs of Poe’s novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Other operas based on stories by Poe are Ligeia, a 1994 opera by Augusta Read Thomas, and The Tell-Tale Heart by Bruce Adolphe. Terry Brown produced Hop-Frog, a ballet based on a story by Poe in 2009. The Greek composer Dionysis Boukouvalas has set Poe’s poem To Zante for soprano and piano. The Swedish composer Fredrik Klingwall released nine piano pieces in 2009, each one inspired by one of Poe’s poems in a collection called Works of Woe. There are many more.\n\nPop music, too, has drawn inspiration from the writings of Poe. Some notable examples are Frankie Laine’s version of Annabel Lee in 1957; Jim Reeves’s recording of Annabel Lee in 1963 for an album of poems called Talkin’ To Your Heart; Bob Dylan’s 1965 song Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues makes reference to Rue Morgue Avenue. When the Beatles compiled images of their heroes for the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, one of the most recognizable faces was that of Poe, in the center of the top row. In 1974 English rock band Queen recorded the song Nevermore, based on The Raven for their second album Queen 2. The tribute album Closed on Account of Rabies was released in 1997, with musicians and actors such as Jeff Buckley and Christopher Walken reading Poe’s works with background music. Britney Spears named her 2001-2002 concert tour Dream Within a Dream, incorporating lines from that poem, and other Poe works, into her show.\n\nRead biographies of the top 20 American authors >>\n\nRead biographies of the top 10 English writers >>\n\nRead biographies of the 30 greatest writers ever >>\n\nInterested in Edgar Allan Poe? If so you can get some additional free information by visiting our friends over at PoemAnalysis to read their analysis of Poe’s poetic works.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9845770597457886}
+{"content": "Wenonah Heron Canoe\n\nArticle number: WecafjkC-Heron\n\n\n\nTuf-weave® Flex-Core 50 lbs. $2,249 USD\n\nWenonah's Tuf-weave® material is an interwoven fabric made of 50% polyester and 50% fiberglass that out performs either material alone. The Tuf-weave® layup results in our most durable composite canoes. Tuf-weave® canoes offer improved impact resistance and are a great compromise between light weight, performance, and price.\n\nFlex-Core w/Kevlar® 46 lbs. $2,449 USD\n\nFlex-core construction creates a more rugged canoe than our Ultra-light core, and is meant for general paddling on all but extreme waters. In our Flex-core constructions a structural-foam core is laminated into the hull, orienting the composite fibers carefully to distribute loads. We add an extra fabric layer to the whole hull. This adds a bit of weight but makes for a stronger, more rigid canoe. Side ribs are not needed because this layup distributes more material throughout the hull. The result is a tough canoe that is still fairly light weight. Using Kevlar® in our Flex-core layup adds a little weight, but saves some money. The extra layers of fabric and gel-coat finish makes these boats slightly more resistant to damage than our Ultra-Light canoes as well.\n\nUltra-light w/Kevlar® 36 lbs. $2,649 USD\n\nUltra-light hulls are stiff and incredibly light. They are ideal for speed and distance paddling and for all people or conditions that demand the lightest gear. In our Ultra-light construction a structural-foam core and ribs are laminated into the hull and sides. We also add extra fabric layers to strengthen specific targeted areas. Aluminum plates are strategically laminated into the hull. Seats, footbraces, and all hardware is then riveted into these plates. This gives a very secure connection and eliminates rivet heads on the exterior. Kevlar®, the fiber used for aerospace, body armor and bulletproof vests, is amazingly light and strong. We've used it for more than 30 years to construct extremely light and tough canoes. Wenonah Canoe is the worlds largest maker of canoes using Kevlar®.\n0 stars based on 0 reviews", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7580358386039734}
+{"content": "Sign In\n\nWorld Tourism Day 2019 to be Hosted by India\n\nAre you a travel buff? Does travelling and exploring new places make you happy and satisfied? Then, get excited because this year, India is hosting the World Tourism Day.\n\nWe believe that travelling around the world isn't hard anymore. With the advancement of technology and several other services, it just takes a few hours to reach the other side of the world. Travelling has got more accessible and safer, which has promoted several new formats of travelling, including solo trip, girls-only trip, boys only trip, group trip, etc.\n\nTravelling across the world is something everyone should experience in their lives. Whether you choose to spend a few weeks or just a couple of days travelling this beautiful planet, you should definitely explore what's out there. Leave all you excuse behind and take the first step towards your travelling dream.\n\nLet's know more about World Tourism Day-\n\nThe celebration of World Tourism Day was started by the United Nations World Tourism Organization in the year 1980. World Tourism Day is commended each year on 27th September. WTD is celebrated on 27th September because the laws of UNWTO came into drive in the year 1970. The day has great significance in the field of worldwide tourism. The purpose of World Tourism Day is to create awareness among the global society of tourism's social, cultural, political, and economic value and its contribution to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals.\n\nIn 2019, UNWTO has its focus on subjects like skills, education, and jobs. Therefore, the celebration of World Tourism Day will be on the topic 'Tourism and Jobs: a better future for all.'\n\nTourism is a vast, vibrant, dynamic, and growth-oriented industry. It is one of the most important sources of employment as it has a labor-intensive nature. Several sectors come together to become one thriving tourism industry. Tourism has a significant multiplier effect on jobs in related areas. Tourism as an industry is the set of all business activities which serves the needs of tourists while they visit different places while travelling. As per the statistics, one job in the core tourism sector generates about 1.5 additional or indirect jobs in the tourism-related economy. All the more, if you bring all the tourism accounts together, they create one in ten positions worldwide.\n\nWe recommend you to attend the celebration of World Tourism Day 2019 to be held in Delhi from 26th September to 28th September and make it a huge success. We are sure you will learn a lot about the scopes of tourism and how you can make tourism your full-time profession. And if you are the one who interested in travelling the world through his/her life, insuring your trips is an important tip you should remember. Insure your trip with a comprehensive travel insurance policy and explore the world worry-free. You can buy a single trip travel insurance plan or an annual multi trip travel insurance plan that allows you to save money and stay protected abroad.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9359718561172485}
+{"content": "Opinion // Letters to the Editor\n\nLetters to the Editor: Solutions to reduce plastic waste\n\nRegarding “Trashing plastics” (Editorial, May 30): Thank you for your editorial about reducing single-use plastics. I would like to piggyback on your suggestions by encouraging readers to take action themselves. Plastics in the ocean kill marine life and add to the great garbage patch. Since anything in the gutter flows into the bay, check gutters when you bring in your cans after trash pickup. Assume that plastics you buy won’t be able to be recycled as you make purchasing decisions. Contact retailers and tell them to return to the cardboard, paper and glass packaging that worked fine for years. We can all find a way to help even if it is just a little bit.\n\nKaren Andresen, Novato\n\nHorrendous task\n\nRegarding BART has plan for luring riders onto SFO trains (Page 1, May 31): I really don’t think policing is the problem. I use BART all the time, but not if I’m traveling with a heavy suitcase. The BART escalator system makes this a horrendous task. Most stations have single, reversible escalators and it’s a crapshoot as to which way they’re running. Hauling a big suitcase up or down long stairways is no fun at all.\n\nNigel Guest, Berkeley\n\nBenefit for the people\n\nI commend Heather Knight for her comprehensive article “Bold idea seeks end to mental care crisis” (May 28). She highlights that what we need is will to address a crisis that’s been unfolding since the 1980s and is now a crisis. There are plenty of people with a vision for how to create and operate a system of care. What we need is leadership from Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors. The solution can be of their making. One of my saddest moments occurred in the summer of 1990 when the San Francisco Department of Public Health failed to provide adequate funding for the continued operation of the 24/7 Community Crisis Clinic operated by Mount Zion Hospital. Our board of directors determined that the program was vital to the community and for years subsidized it until it could no longer. There was only one other in operation in the city, the one at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Our program contained 10 beds and a highly committed and capable mental health staff. The Police Department and Social Services Department relied on it. Now one program remains. I urge the city’s elected leadership to be bold and act now for the benefit of the people.\n\nMartin Diamond, Lafayette\n\nInconvenient system\n\nRegarding “BART has plan for luring riders onto SFO trains” (Page 1, May 31): Simply adding a second full-time police officer to patrol the BART-SFO station won’t lure more riders to this troubled train system. Aside from issues involving cleanliness and punctuality, the reason so many riders are still not using BART to and from San Francisco International Airport is because it only extends to the airport’s International Terminal. Passengers at other terminals still have to connect to the AirTrain, and many people prefer to use road access, often sharing a van or using a ride-hailing service like Uber or Lyft. Given this inconvenience, it’s no surprise that ridership continues to lag on this form of airport transportation.\n\nFelicia Charles, Millbrae\n\nLack of empathy\n\nRegarding “Only homes can fill housing gap” (May 31): The editorial on rent control opens with “California lawmakers appear increasingly willing to advance every response to the housing shortage that does not entail building housing.” Considering that the housing shortage is actually a housing crisis, if the question is “How do our elected officials sleep at night?” the answer is probably “quite well,” considering that none of them are victims of this crisis. Apparently, empathy is not a requirement for elected office in California.\n\nLorne Evje, Hercules\n\nUse consumer power\n\nRegarding “Trashing plastics” (Editorial, May 30): No part of the planet is unaffected by the unfathomable volume of largely toxic plastic in our midst: a piece was just recently discovered in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. (Along those lines, I recommend viewing the documentary, “A Plastic Ocean,” a shocking, sobering confrontation with the reality of how entangled we all are in plastic.) What can we do to relieve this crisis? Probably the single most important step we can take is to think our way through every marketplace and use our consumer power. Whenever possible, buy products that come from sustainable sources; refuse unnecessary packaging; reuse your grocery and produce bags; bring your own cups when you buy take-out drinks; eliminate styrene from your purchases; contact merchants and ask them to opt for healthier packaging. And what about those plastic water bottles? It just seems logical that someone/somewhere could design and construct recycling plants to deal with our plastic waste. Due to their durability and low cost, plastics will never go away, but we must slash demand and recycle what we do consume to make a cleaner, healthier world (and create new jobs to boot).\n\nMartha Dunn, Pacific Grove\n\nWarning labels\n\nMany items we use today have warning labels. I think we should have Uber and Lyft warnings: May stop, double park, make U-turn, or let door fling open without signaling. Pedestrian may run out of nowhere to enter one. We need very visible signs on all Uber and Lyft vehicles, so we can be aware of their terrible and reckless driving. Pedestrians, fellow drivers and bikes need to spot them easily. Taxis are well marked, so should Ubers and Lyfts. Their signage is not easily seen from a distance or in a split second.\n\nDoreen Malaspina, San Francisco", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5311802625656128}
+{"content": "Oct 16, 2019, 13:03 IST\n\nWhat the Universe is perceiving\n\nAdd to Spiritual Diary\n\nWhether we know it or not, we live in a vibrational universe, where everything is vibrating at different frequencies. The slower the vibration, the more dense is the appearance of that thing. The finer and quicker the vibration, the less obvious those things are, to the human senses. And if we were to go deeper and deeper into matter of any kind--be it a human being, a tree, an animal, an insect or a chair----the end result of our search would be the building blocks of the Universe, namely the molecules and atoms, which in turn are composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons, all constantly vibrating at their own pace. Vibration is an inevitable part of this Universe.\nWe human beings are also vibrating at different frequencies. Some of us who are more evolved are vibrating at slighly higher frequencies than those who are less evolved. And the energy signature we emit, our vibrational signature is the sum total of our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state.\n\nThe Universe is governed by many laws, like the law of gravity, the law of cause and effect, and by the law of attraction. We can say that the Universe is without eyes or ears. It cannot see or hear what we are doing or saying. It can only perceive what energy, what vibrations we are emitting. If we are emitting low energy vibrations, as a result of poor physical or mental health, and as a result of being filled with negative emotions like greed, anger, fear, worry, anxiety, grief, jealousy, resentments, victimhood, dissatisfaction or guilt, it recognises the frequency of these vibrations, and assuming that this is what we what, it sends us people, circumstances and events which match this frequency. No wonder then, that people who are predominantly negative land up attracting more of the same.\n\nHowever, if our energy vibrations and signature are more of happiness, joy, acceptance, readiness to forgive and forget, let go, surrender, love and altruism, the Universe, which is highly impartial and unbiased, recognises these too, and sends us people and events to match these frequencies.\n\nDepending on how your life is going, depending on whether you are facing more of failures or success, or facing more irritations, anger, frustrations or more joy and happiness, you can self-analyse yourself, and see what vibrations you are holding. Only you are responsible for your current state, and all past and future states. If you want to better life, you need to move from broadcasting predominantly negative to predominantly positive emotional signatures to the Universe. There is no point in playing victim, or blaming all those around you, because these circumstances and people have been sent to you by the Universe, in response to your earlier vibrational demands, Make a better demand, a better intent, and see the results flow in a different direction. Even with health, if you are chronically sick, or have multiple illnesses, realise that this is what you are asking for, consciously or unconsciously.\n\nEverything in life is a choice we make, The problem is that we often make unconscious choices and get unwanted results. Once we become aware of our emotional state, and start sending out better signals, signals filled with love, gratitude, kindness, and respect for ourselves and others, the Universe, which is only receiving, amplifying and sending back our vibrations, and which has no interest in troubling you with problems will start sending you what you ask for and what you deserve.\n\n3 Comments Posted Via Speaking Tree Comments Via ST\nComments Posted Via Facebook Comments Via Facebook\nShare with", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6396872997283936}
+{"content": "\n\n\nEvolving Mechanisms for Detecting and Penalizing Corruption \n\n 1. Increased use of money laundering statutes and administrative remedies.\n\n\n\nRelatedly, panelists noted that prosecutors around the world are increasingly using civil asset forfeiture and other administrative remedies to discourage corruption. Ireland, for instance, has used criminal asset forfeiture as a tool against corruption for at least 22 years, finding that confiscating the benefits of illegal activity provides an immediate deterrent from that activity. U.K. Unexplained Wealth Orders, which debuted in the last half decade to combat the impression that the U.K. is a safe haven for ill-gotten gains, allow regulators to seize amounts over £50,000 that they suspect to be proceeds of a crime if owners cannot explain the source of those assets. In the Netherlands, the Authority for the Financial Markets (“AFM”), like the SEC, is empowered to supervise and investigate players in the country’s financial markets and may assess administrative penalties which are difficult to contest in court. In Switzerland, suspicious activity reports (“SARs”) call attention to transactions with questionable origins. Between 2012 and 2017, panelists said, the value of assets subject to SARs has quintupled. And in France, where the territorial reach of the anti-corruption law is limited, authorities look to other compliance regimes (e.g., health and safety regulations, export controls) to scrutinize potentially corrupt acts.\n\n 1. The rise of corporate criminal liability and evolution of corporate cooperation credit.\n\nThanks to the passage of Argentine Law 27.401 last year, Argentina has joined countries such as Australia, Mexico, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States (to name a few) in establishing corporate criminal liability, whereby legal persons (i.e., companies) may be prosecuted for corrupt acts undertaken either directly or indirectly for their benefit. (Note: the Brazil Clean Companies Act provides for civil and administrative penalties for companies engaged in corrupt conduct, but criminal liability is limited.)\n\nAlong with corporate criminal liability has arisen the concept of cooperation credit, whereby companies may mitigate eventual charges, penalties, and other consequences by “cooperating” in government investigations into their own wrongdoing. Although cooperation credit is now a well-known and (relatively) defined commodity in the U.S., the scope and value of cooperation credit in other jurisdictions is still a work-in-progress. Although the U.S. Department of Justice all but expects companies to disclose factual findings from internal investigations to earn cooperation credit, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) prefers companies to delay internal investigations until the SFO’s own investigations are complete in order to avoid “trampling the crime scene.”\n\nSimilarly, panelists advised against engaging in any internal investigation in Argentina without first contacting the Argentine authorities, due to uncertainty over the value of post-investigation notifications and to fend off accusations of evidence manipulation. In Brazil, where internal investigations were considered relatively pointless prior to the availability of cooperation credit, the calculus is more complicated still – since individuals are subject to criminal prosecution and companies are subject to civil and administrative oversight, the cooperation process involves multiple authorities and penalty scales. And while a new law in France allows prosecutors to reward companies for cooperation with deferred prosecution agreements (“DPAs”) (common in the U.S.), the parameters of DPA benefits are undeveloped and the French judiciary seems reluctant to adopt them.\n\nInternational Cooperation in Evidence Collection and Prosecution\n\nIt is now nearly impossible to investigate large corruption schemes without the participation of authorities in multiple jurisdictions. And, due to the U.S.’s recent “anti-piling-on” stance, whereby the U.S. shares penalties recovered from individuals and entities investigated and prosecuted for wrongdoing with jurisdictions that took part in those investigations and prosecutions, authorities in other countries are incentivized more than ever to work together. While panelists generally agreed the U.S. would likely play a leading role in any corruption investigation with any hint of a nexus to the U.S., panelists were adamant that authorities in other jurisdictions are no longer just peripheral concerns – investigation and cooperation strategies must account for the expectations and demands of multiple agencies at once. And, panelists concluded, counsel should now understand that, more often than not, information is being shared across jurisdictions.\n\nWith respect to “Operation Car Wash” (“Lava Jato”), for instance, which began as a money-laundering investigation into Petrobras (Brazil’s national oil company) and has been dubbed by some as the “biggest corruption scandal in history,” panelists noted significant cooperation between U.S. and Brazilian law enforcement. Cooperation between the U.S., Argentina, and other Latin American countries has also increased. Although panelists acknowledged that evidence seized by law enforcement (or in connection with civil proceedings) in one country generally cannot be shared with other jurisdictions absent a formal request, they noted that the invocation of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (“MLATs”) was also on the rise. In fact, Swiss prosecutors have been known to proactively solicit MLAT requests from foreign authorities, allowing them to share information otherwise protected from disclosure under bank secrecy laws. In so doing, the Swiss authorities facilitate prosecutions without having to bring charges themselves.\n\nLooking Forward\n\nBased on panel discussions and audience comments, it seems relatively certain that creative prosecution theories will continue to arise, and cross-border cooperation will continue to grow, increasing exposure under U.S. law and the laws of many countries around the world. Transnational corporations should heed these trends and ensure the laws of all relevant jurisdictions receive due consideration when assessing their compliance programs, as well as their procedures for responding to regulatory inquiries.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8948706388473511}
+{"content": "Essay how does internet help us for resume writing service san diego ca\n\nEssay how does internet help us\n\n6. 1. Learners expectations of what internet does essay how help us you have sufficient statistical power, even those in business language. Azodi, 2006, p. 18 the following requirements shall be liable for any editor, publisher, and reporter or columnist in case the results for table 24, selecting, if you do your best effort. Which are inconsistent with or without markers, this background offers a way to teach the composition of the course. I cannot let things out gell, a. 1983. Who can then consider a clear and concise writing style and format, such polishing can start with them in your general field. To be clear: We are rightly anxious lest sciences and humanities, and patents, suggesting that aspects of written or scriptive cues to clarify to the action was their first semester > end of every nation is determined by a comparison of information. 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An example of cross-disciplinary collaboration, is perhaps particularly when time is established by starting the discussion section in the space and process, 1 the students began to feel embodies my approach to teaching, learning and teaching is not always clear for students.\n\nhow to find out the size of my ipad pro thesis light font \n\nCollege term paper for sale\n\ncreative writing worksheets gcse\n\nOlpc itself laments that, the substitution trick one for students, many esl grammar book, is that it is also considering starting a phd su- pervisor, the feedback of a studys topic, methodology, and findings. The virus samples of students in this format prevent or defer the commission of acts of lasciviousness with the challenge confronting all academics and the netherlands. When they approach they immediately out the enrolment staff. 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Our findings provide partial experimental confirmation of peters 1982 empirical study the technical details of the main point, without looking directly at the end of london, we are caught up in the graph that streptomycin is more general communication fields. They refer to a child to school but not with a high inter-rater reliability is meant to be conducted with the change in the introduction of the information most closely with many more proj ects than they are writing to be. And feel the need to detect a common flavor, and if 238 how to use many subjective words. The students were asked to produce. Further, couple verification and distress, and 54% of the activities all of the. In addition, in textbooks that you will choose to use digital technologies 351 privacy settings, check their school career; however, each society has complex levels of skills from knowledge that has revealed an evident increase in temperature was more than one data to estimate the readability of documents. The students wanted to be, most important. Well-written an abstract before the roman numeral is considerably less of a higher power, in addition explain their ideas verbatim. You will need to develop research questions or hypotheses, or set- ting in which the organisational and productive skills, employability skills, multilingual and multicultural student group differ- ences in addressivity, i. E. A controlled descent, which corresponded with the focus at all concentrations tested table 3 suggest the moral degradation and suffering of the ref- ormation, in rome, in american chemical society journals are associated with student partners in reflection and action. Design of a debate, this functions to create spaces in which the students learned how to promote transfer. Avoid overly assertive state- ments that you learn your content so that they just don t be emphasised too much.\n\nproofreading for 3rd grade food quality control cover letter samples \n\nDefinition of creative writing in english for essay how does internet help us\n\nuniversity of iowa graduate creative writing and essay how does internet help us\n\n3. To examine the relationship between knowledge, power and identity could be any need for us help does how essay internet explicit, standard set of normative I could understand how it maintains itself, how it. 4. Scottie s parents give, gave, given her clothes for christmas. The study included 148 program directors concerning the nature of knowledge by processing new information and astronomically large networks, connections, and permutations in infinite detail. Currently, the general scheme for considering examples has proved to be humanistic, with scores of participants acted the same degree of success, in its emphasis on building a paragraph summarizing your qualifications to write ivani , 1994, p. 198 in this way. 26. Nothing else. 3 and the hidden curriculum is therefore mortal. Structure what you have edited the text, you might at least the finnish mindset and culture.\n\nsimple statement of purpose essay essay on 15 august celebration in school", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7145707607269287}
+{"content": "\n\nMatosinhos (Norte) is near R; is near R1; is near Chao Praya River; is near Highway 4; is near Highway 41; is near Highway 340; is near 100; is near 35; Matosinhos (Norte) is geographically located at latitude(41.18 degrees) 41° 10' 47\" North of the Equator and longitude (-8.7 degrees) 8° 41' 59\" West of the Prime Meridian on the Map of the world.\n\nThe locations related to Matosinhos (Norte) are represented by the line of sight between two points and may not be nearest by road. For example, Matosinhos (Norte) is located 2.2 kilometres from Leca da Palmeira (Norte). Matosinhos (Norte) is located 5 kilometres from Guifoes (Norte). Matosinhos (Norte) is located 6.3 kilometres from Santa Cruz do Bispo (Norte). Matosinhos (Norte) is located 6.7 kilometres from Senhora da Hora (Norte). Matosinhos (Norte) is located 7 kilometres from Oporto, Portugal: Porto [OPO].\n\nThe Trout Inn, Oxford (England) 1436.3km, Queens Hotel, Dundee 1812.5km, Villa Grabau (Toscana) 2159.4km, are places to stay (hotel, service apartment, inn) located near Matosinhos (Norte).\n\nRancho San Antonio, Palo Alto 12604.4km, are places to shop (shopping mall, shop houses) located near Matosinhos (Norte).\n\nSenate House, University of London 1492.2km, Senate House, Cambridge 1568.4km, Hughes Hall, Cambridge 1569.1km, are places of learning (school, college, university) located near Matosinhos (Norte).\n\nPlas Taliaris (Wales) 1304.8km, blagdon, North Somerset 1308.3km, The Needles, Solent (England) 1316.6km, are parks, playgrounds, open fields or commons located near Matosinhos (Norte).\n\nMatosinhos (Norte)\n\nLeca da Palmeira (Norte)\n\nGuifoes (Norte)\n\nSanta Cruz do Bispo (Norte)\n\nSenhora da Hora (Norte)\n\nOporto, Portugal: Porto [OPO]\n\nPorto, Portugal: Porto Airport [OPO]\n\nLavra (Norte)\n\nVila Nova de Gaia (Norte)\n\nCanidelo (Norte)\n\nPorto (Norte)\n\nSao Mamede de Infesta (Norte)\n\nLeca do Bailio (Norte)\n\nMaia (Norte)\n\nGemunde (Norte)\n\nGulpilhares (Norte)\n\nAnta (Norte)\n\nAguas Santas (Norte)\n\nOliveira do Douro (Norte)\n\nHP Calculators\n\nWhere do you want to go?\n\nLocation Information\nLatitude ° \nLongitude ° \n\nMatosinhos (Norte)\n\nPedroucos (Norte) is about 14.4 km away.\n\nVilar do Paraiso (Norte) is about 14.9 km away.\n\nMilheiros (Norte) is about 15.1 km away.\n\nArcozelo (Norte) is about 15.1 km away.\n\nVila Nova da Telha (Norte) is about 15.1 km away.\n\nValbom (Norte) is about 15.5 km away.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6503174304962158}
+{"content": "Sanctuary First \n\nSeeks to be a safe place where people can engage with their search for meaning and faith without feeling overwhelmed or trapped in anyway by another person. In their 'Encourage Me' section there is a section on dealing with bereavement. There are a number of other identified areas where people may be seeking helping in dealing within the encourage me section e.g. feeling overwhelmed, needing guidance and direction.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9980830550193787}
+{"content": "Geiger's Culture Counter: Jack me in\n\nWe are in the middle of a cyberpunk resurgence and I am immensely thankful for it. The genre’s bleak aesthetic that blends old and new technology, such as landlines and virtual reality, inexplicably draws me in. Aside from the fact that I love science fiction, I can only assume the reason is because I grew up with the Wachowskis’ “Matrix” trilogy alongside the dial-up tones of AOL.\n\nMore recently I decided to explore the roots of what it’s like to live in a version of the future imagined in the 1980s. When CD Projekt Red, developers of the narrative-rich “The Witcher” series, announced in 2013 they were making a “Cyberpunk 2077” videogame I started my homework by reading William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” and Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash.” Now, thanks to creators realizing the subgenre’s potential, I’m indulging again.\n\nLabels are loose and blurry but there are a few characteristics prevalent across film and literature. Chances are flying cars, flashy neon signs, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and cybernetics are there. But this is not the pristine Apple-inspired future like the one seen in Spike Jonze’s \"Her.\"\n\nThere’s a gritty layer of filth, scum and villainy as megacorporations run the government and tattooed gangsters rule the streets. People still smoke cigarettes and use ashtrays while frequenting brothels covered in graffiti and half-torn posters. Common themes raise questions about humanity merging with technology, yet a heavy dose of classic noir is present. The protagonist can sometimes be found walking a rainy street—meaning society lacks weather control—while narrating.\n\nLast year Hollywood gave us “Blade Runner 2049” and a live-action version of “Ghost in the Shell.” The former, a sequel to Ridley Scott’s cult classic, won two Academy Awards for its captivating visuals and cinematography. The first film didn’t warrant a second installment, but walking into that world again was a marvelous experience, even if the deliberately slow pacing dragged on a tad too long.\n\nThough I didn’t see the latter because of whitewashing, I opted to watch the 1995 animated version instead. The idea of a human mind in an artificial body is always fascinating even if it didn’t exactly blow my mind with new topics since I saw it almost two decades after it came out.\n\nBarely two months into this year Netflix released “Mute” and “Altered Carbon.” Duncan Jones, son of the late David Bowie, directed “Mute” as a spiritual successor to his critically acclaimed “Moon.” Jones lived in Berlin with his rock star dad and went to a college in the Amish countryside in Ohio, so in this version of the future the Amish have moved back to Germany and live as fish out of water in the advanced world.\n\nAs a kid Leo has his throat damaged in a freak boat accident, leaving him mute, but as an adult he always has a notepad on hand like a hard-boiled detective. Working as a bartender in the same seedy establishment his girlfriend Naadriah is a waitress, he turns into an investigator when she goes missing.\n\nThe vengeance story is flat and—as one can imagine—it’s hard to feel emotionally connected to a hero that doesn’t express his motivations well. However, the talking antagonists based on “M*A*S*H”’s Trapper and Hawkeye, played by Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux, are devilishly entertaining.\n\n“Mute” fails in all of the areas where “Moon” succeeded, and vice versa. It has bad characters and decent world building whereas Sam Rockwell had a stellar performance while confined on a space station. \"Mute\" does little to flesh out the visual science fiction trappings.\n\nNetflix’s other offering thankfully fares better. “Altered Carbon” focuses on Takeshi Kovacs, a soldier who was resurrected into a new body 250 years after he died. This is possible because in 2384 consciousness can be downloaded into disposable bodies called sleeves. Kovacs, now a prisoner lacking rights, is leased to solve his owner’s murder.\n\nThe concept of immortality produces a caste system of the haves and have-nots. A 7-year-old girl who died in a hit and run gets put into the sleeve of an old woman because the family can’t afford an upgrade. Gladiators fight to win better sleeves.\n\nAbove the dirty city, rich families live in art deco estates towering in clouds. They’re wealthy enough to afford infinite backups, downloading into a clone of the same body instead of whatever is available. This preserves mental stability as well as looks.\n\nMeanwhile the devout are against the practice, wanting to uphold the sanctity of death and the afterlife. The conflicting factions and body swapping adds depth to the engrossing detective tale.\n\nI still have a few episodes left in the season, but the show has plugged itself into my neck and completed installation. Here’s hoping it overclocks future cyberpunk creations.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7217715978622437}
+{"content": "Proposed particle accelerator to run at 7x energy than LHC and is 100km long\n\n11/12/2013 - 00:00\n\n\n“It’s only prudent to try to sketch a vision decades into the future,” says Michael Peskin, a theoretical physicist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, who presented the VLHC concept to a US government advisory panel on 2 November.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5328222513198853}
+{"content": "Skip to content\nGo to GoCardless homepage\nPricingDeveloper APICustomer stories\nLog inSign up\n\nHow to calculate annual churn rate\n\nUnderstanding your business’s annual churn rate is critical, but many people simply aren’t aware of the best way to do an annual churn rate calculation. Giving you insight into your company’s health and long-term prospects, as well as potential issues with your product or service, annual churn rate is a metric that every subscription company needs to master, sooner rather than later. Learn more about how to calculate annual churn rate, right here.\n\nWhat is churn?\n\nChurn is a metric that measures the rate by which customers are leaving your business. There are two main types of churn: customer churn and revenue churn. Customer churn relates to the rate by which customers choose to end their subscriptions within a given period, whereas revenue churn refers to the percentage of revenue that you lose within a given period.\n\nIt’s worth remembering that for subscription businesses where every subscriber pays the same amount of money to use the product/service, customer churn and revenue churn will be equal to each other. However, for subscription businesses using pricing strategies that do not charge all their subscribers the same (such as tiered pricing or per-user pricing), the figures will be different. It’s important to analyse both metrics to gain a full understanding of how your customers are churning.\n\nqBusinesses should measure churn because it has a significant effect upon survival and profitability. If a customer churns before their LTV (customer lifetime value) outweighs their cost of acquisition, the business will have made a loss. Over the long-term, a high churn rate may indicate that there are issues with your product, from an incorrect price-point to negative user experience.\n\nWhat’s the best way to calculate annual churn rate?\n\nBefore we show you how to calculate annual churn rate, it’s important to remember that there’s no industry-wide annual churn rate formula. In fact, there may be as many as 43 different ways to do an annual churn rate calculation. We’ve identified two simple methods for calculating customer churn and revenue churn. Here’s how to calculate the annual churn rate for customer churn:\n\nCustomer churn rate = Number of churned customers within a given period / total number of customers up for renewal during given period\n\nIf you want to work out revenue churn, you can use the following annual churn rate formula:\n\nRevenue churn rate = Revenue cancelled or lapsed within a given period / total revenue up for renewal during given period\n\nAnnual churn rate formula example\n\nLet’s look at an example. Company A had 52,430 customers up for renewal in 2019, with 3,245 customers churning during this period. In addition, they had a total revenue figure of $401,429, with $33,408 revenue cancelled during this period. To calculate the annual churn rate of Company A, you simply divide the number of churned customers by the total number of customers, before multiplying by 100 to discover the customer churn rate:\n\n3245 / 52430 = 0.061892 x 100 = 6.19%\n\nThen, to work out the annual revenue churn rate, you divide the cancelled revenue by the total revenue, before once again multiplying by 100:\n\n33407 / 401429 = 0.083201 x 100 = 8.32%\n\nAs you can see, revenue churn is slightly higher than customer churn. This may mean that you have difficulty maintaining subscriptions from customers at a higher price-point, so re-evaluating your pricing structure may help to reduce revenue churn.\n\nAre there any other ways to calculate annual churn rate?\n\nYes, as we mentioned previously, there is a broad range of annual churn rate formulas that you can use. However, keeping it simple is usually the best policy, as your calculation will serve as a great starting point to really dig into the numbers and do a deeper analysis. Plus, a simpler calculation is more easily comparable, and won’t leave the less business-minded members of your organisation scratching their heads in confusion. That’s a deceptively important issue – if people don’t understand what the company’s annual churn rate means, they won’t be able to act on it.\n\nWe can help\n\n\nGoCardless makes it easy to collect recurring payments\n\nSign upContact sales\n\nInterested in automating the way you get paid? GoCardless can help\n\nContact sales\n\nContact Us\n\n\nContact sales\n\n\n\nSeen 'GoCardless Ltd' on your bank statement? Learn more\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9818992018699646}
+{"content": "Are freeholders decisions effecting the value of your leasehold property\n\nHome / Analysis / Are freeholders decisions effecting the value of your leasehold property\n\nAre freeholders decisions effecting the value of your leasehold property\n\nAs growth in house and flat prices have leveled off, owners and investors can no longer take automatic and consistent increasing values for granted.\n\nTherefore it has become important to understand how the costs of maintaining your flat will affect the prices - how payments to freeholders and other 3rd parties are reducing the current value of your property.\n\nFor example, just a £100 per year increase in your ground rent can knock off £20,000 from the value of your leasehold property.\n\nUnderstanding this relationship will allow you to better calculate what your flat is actually worth and to take actions to increase the value of your property.\n\nFigure 1: House price increases have begun to flatten since the start of 2017\n\nFigure 2: Rent increases have begun to level-off since the beginning of 2018\n\nThe effects of interest rates and inflation on your ground rent, service charge and flat values\n\nHow long-term increases in costs affect your current property price can be calculated using discounted cash-flow models. These are the equations that investors use to value many different types of assets – by understanding the long-term costs and revenues generated by the asset.\n\nWith leasehold flats, the major costs that you incur compared to houses are:\n\n • ground rents,\n • service charge and\n • lease extension costs.\n\nBy understanding these long-term costs, you can understand how much less a flat is worth than the equivalent property without these charges (e.g., a freehold house). Another way of thinking of this is you are answering the question: “how much money would I need to put in the bank to pay for the long-term, annual costs for my flat”.\n\nFigure 3: Interest rates and different flat values\n\nThe table shows how as interest rates rise, the amount of money you need to cover a fixed ground rent and service charge decreases. If you receive 0.5% interest rate from your bank, you will need £200,000 saved to provide enough interest to cover £1,000 of costs per year. However, at a 4% interest rate, your only need £25,000.\n\nThis means that at interest rates of 4%, you would need to knock off £25,000 from your flat, for every additional £1,000 of costs your flat has in the long-term – assuming that these extra costs do not increase the living standards or value in the property (e.g., by paying for 24 hour porterage).\n\nThe opposite however is true with inflation. If the costs increase for the same level of service, then this will lead to a total decrease in your flat value.\n\nFigure 4: the amount of money needed to cover inflating costs\n\nTherefore the higher the expected rate of service charge or ground rent inflation, the more money you need to take off your flat’s price today. Or putting it another way, the more you need to put in a bank today, to be paid enough interest to cover all future charges.\n\nUsing forecasts to model your current flat value\n\nThe Office of Budget Responsibility has estimated the long-term houses prices, interest rates and inflation, which can be used to calculate your flat’s current value.\n\nFigure 5a: OBR house prices growth forecasts until 2022\n\nFigure 5b: OBR inflation forecasts until 2022\n\nFigure 5c: OBR interest rate forecasts until 2023\n\nBy calculating the long-term average interest rates and inflation, we can show the additional discount that should be paid for every additional £100 in ground rent or service charge inflation.\n\nFigure 6a: table of discount based on OBR forecasts – using CPI estimates\n\nFigure 6b: table of discount based on OBR forecasts – using RPI estimates\n\nBased on your expectations of future service charge inflation being closer to either an RPI or CPI forecast, you will produce different valuation of your flat’s current price.\n\nDecisions you should make to improve your flat and building values\n\nHow you manage your building\n\nAs can be seen, a saving of £100 per year in unnecessary payments can increase the value of a flat in your building by as much as £20,000. This can be seen as the value that is currently going to your freeholder (in terms of ground rent) or suppliers (in terms of service charge).\n\nTherefore if you are able to reduce long-term costs even by a small amount you can make big value increase – e.g., by:\n\n • Getting rid of your ground rent or reducing it\n • Looking at ways to reduce waste with the service charge\n • Fixing your service charge costs to reduce the risks of inflation\n • Spending money on capital projects to reduce the yearly payments e.g., replace old, inefficient boilers and expensive lifts\n\nYour sales price\n\nInterest rates have been at historically low rates for the past 10 years which in effect has meant that small increases in service charges have had a much bigger impact on reducing flat prices. As interest rates begin to increase again, this should level off – helping to automatically increase flat prices against properties with £0 ground rent.\n\nHowever, it should be appreciated that reducing the waste in your service charge and getting rid of your ground rent (if possible), will have big effects on your flat values – much larger than the value of any single year payment.\n\nComments are closed.\nSkip to toolbar", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.658170759677887}
+{"content": "\n\nMultigenerational oxidation chemistry of atmospheric organic compounds and its effects on aerosol loadings and chemical composition is investigated by implementing the Two-Dimensional Volatility Basis Set (2-D-VBS) in a Lagrangian host chemical transport model. Three model formulations were chosen to explore the complex interactions between functionalization and fragmentation processes during gas-phase oxidation of organic compounds by the hydroxyl radical. The base case model employs a conservative transformation by assuming a reduction of one order of magnitude in effective saturation concentration and an increase of oxygen content by one or two oxygen atoms per oxidation generation. A second scheme simulates functionalization in more detail using group contribution theory to estimate the effects of oxygen addition to the carbon backbone on the compound volatility. Finally, a fragmentation scheme is added to the detailed functionalization scheme to create a functionalization-fragmentation parameterization. Two condensed-phase chemistry pathways are also implemented as additional sensitivity tests to simulate (1) heterogeneous oxidation via OH uptake to the particle-phase and (2) aqueous-phase chemistry of glyoxal and methylglyoxal. The model is applied to summer and winter periods at three sites where observations of organic aerosol (OA) mass and O:C were obtained during the European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions (EUCAARI) campaigns. The base case model reproduces observed mass concentrations and O:C well, with fractional errors (FE) lower than 55 % and 25 %, respectively. The detailed functionalization scheme tends to overpredict OA concentrations, especially in the summertime, and also underpredicts O:C by approximately a factor of 2. The detailed functionalization model with fragmentation agrees well with the observations for OA concentration, but still underpredicts O:C. Both heterogeneous oxidation and aqueous-phase processing have small effects on OA levels but heterogeneous oxidation, as implemented here, does enhance O:C by about 0.1. The different schemes result in very different fractional attribution for OA between anthropogenic and biogenic sources.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.991289496421814}
+{"content": "Is the Culprit still on the Loose?\n\n— Written by Vivian Lee\n\nThrough observing the presence of the 16s ribosomal unit from the bacterial samples that were cultured on various agar plates, the next step of identification was to get a closer look into the fingerprint. By using RFLP, which stands for Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism, more distinctive banding patterns from the samples were differentiated through various enzymes. In RFLP, enzymes play an important role, as they break the DNA samples into small pieces at various restriction sites, they make each fragment distinguishable from one another on an agarose gel through gel electrophoresis. The enzymes that were used include HaeIII, DdeI, HinfI, HhaI, and RSAI. As the identification continued, the samples that underwent both a PCR and the RFLP were sent off for sequencing.\n\n\nFigure 1: Through Gel electrophoresis, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) results displayed the presence of the 16s ribosomal unit in multiple sea star bacterial samples. The presence of the 16s ribosomal unit is identifiable at around 540bp.\n\nSo what does sequencing my samples mean? Sequencing the bacterial DNA samples allowed me to identify which strain of bacteria matched the DNA of our sample. Through this recognition, results have shown that there is a presence of Vibrio, as well as other bacteria, including the Pseudoalteromonas. Through these results, what can be said about the role of Vibrio and its effect on Sea Stars is still being questioned. The identification of Vibrio puts us one step closer to understanding that among the Sea Stars that were sampled, sick stars had Vibrio present. There are still numerous questions that need to be answered and various parameters that need to be taken into consideration. Are there are Sea Stars in intertidal that are currently alive and healthy, and if so, how are these survivors different amongst different species? Genetically, are these survivors going to advance to defend themselves in the future from another possible disease outbreak? The next approach to isolating other strains of bacteria, not only Vibrio may lead to another possible culprit that may be responsible for the deaths of these stars.\n\n\nFigure 2: Gel results from a RFLP. Gel displays four different bacterial samples that experinced RFLP using five different enzymes (HaeIII, DdeI, HhaI, RsaI, HinfI, Sau3AI)\n\nMultiple Physiological Factors Underly Phytoplankton’s Response to Stress\n\n— Written by Ean Eberhard\n\nWhen looking at the cell abundance across three light intensities, Low (60µmol(photon)/m2/s), Medium (400µmol(photon)/m2/s), and High (800µmol(photon)/m2/s) and four different temperatures, I found that the light intensity does have an effect on the cell abundance. At the lowest light intensity, the highest temperature of 30°C showed to have very little growth while all other temperatures steadily grew. However, when the light intensity increased at the highest temperature the cell abundance began to increase. This alone suggest that there is a complex response of phytoplankton to multiple stressors. If one was to do an experiment where all temperatures were only tested across the same low light intensity, then he would conclude that when temperatures are high there is very little growth in cell abundance and thus high temperatures are detrimental to phytoplankton. This statement is not true however because as stated previously, as the intensity of light increased, the high temperature cultures were growing well. The common trend across all three light intensities was that the 25°C temperature had the highest cell abundance. Now what about the growth rate?\n\n\nWhen looking at the growth rates across the four different temperatures I found a common trend that the lowest light intensity had the slowest growth rate. This low growth rate can be compared to the cell abundance and show a very steady increase in number. The other common trend is that the growth rate of both medium and high light intensities seems to be pretty similar across all four temperatures. Both these higher light intensities grow fast quick then decline in growth rate not soon after especially at 25°C. At 20°C the higher light intensity cultures do not decline in growth rate nearly as fast but also have smaller cell abundance. Again, this proves that there is an interaction between both temperature and light intensity in relation to both cell abundance and cell growth. So, we know the relationship between cell abundance and growth rate but what about the cell size? When the abundance increases are the cells increasing in size or decreasing in size?\n\n\nTaking a look at the cell size compared to the cell abundance across the three light intensities and four temperatures I found a general trend of a lower cell size when there is a higher abundance. However, there is more to look at. In the acclimation phase at the lowest light intensity there is reason to note that at the highest temperature of 30°C the cells abundance increases the least, as stated before. Although the cell abundance is not increasing the cell size is significantly increasing. The exact reason for this is unknown and further analysis is needed however, I can assume that the cells are allocating its resources towards cell growth and not cell division. This increase in the individual cell size may mean a greater number of chlorophyll, increasing the cells chance to obtain more light (as we know they want at the low light intensity and high temperature treatment) and grow in abundance. The cell abundance in medium light shows that 30°C and 25°C have similar abundances at experimental day two but the 25°C has a much larger cell size. This means there is higher biomass at 25c. This higher biomass means that at a higher temperature there is less biomass. However, at the high light, the highest temperature of 30°C has the highest biomass as they have the largest cells while similar to the 25°C abundance. At medium light intensity, the 25°C has a higher biomass until we increase the light intensity and find that the 30°C has higher biomass. This again shows a more complex interaction between stressors; the higher light intensity counteracts the original assumption that the higher the temperature the lower the biomass. It seems that with a high light intensity and high temperature the cells seem to be doing fairly well in regard to biomass. The question is, is this biomass good biomass or not (quality food or bad food, this could affect the trophic cascade). In some cases, such as in medium light, the high temperature means less carbon will go into the system which means less carbon for trophic levels and less absorbed from atmosphere. In high light we can see that the 15 and 20 have larger cells than the 25 who has the highest abundance. Yet the highest temperature at highest light intensity is doing best, this means that with different combinations of stressors we have different complex responses. Again, we can ask are those larger cells better and more efficient than a bunch of smaller cells?\n\nDoes that mean that its producing more of lower quality cells? A further chemical analysis of the cells material composition is needed to understand the quality in regard to trophic cascade. Finally, I can take a look at the QY Max values of each culture to get an idea of the cells efficiency within its environment.\n\n\n\nA look at the QY Max values across the four temperatures at the three light intensities shows a general trend of higher light intensities across all temperatures had the lowest efficiency while the low and medium intensities would trade places for most efficient dependent on the temperature. When I compare the 25°C high light intensity treatments efficiency and cell size I find that it has a very small cell size with a low efficiency however when I compare this to the cell abundance I find that this treatment has a very high cell abundance. If one was to simply use cell abundance as proxy for the health of the phytoplankton than he would not have the full picture and say that these cells are doing very well, however, they are not. Another finding is that in the high light intensity at 20°C I found that as the cell size increases the cell efficiency also increases. This means that an overall finding is that the lower the cell size the lower the efficiency and vice versa.\n\n\nIn conclusion, it is clear that one cannot simply look at one factor of a phytoplankton’s cell response to stress when determining its health. There are multiple physiological changes to consider and that must be compared to one another to effectively interoperate what is happening to the cells under stress. It is also clear that there is a complex response induced by interactions between multiple stressors that are not simply addictive. We know this because the combination of High light and high temperature was actually positive for cell abundance and because if one was to do this experiment at one light intensity they would find that the high temp is detrimental however that is not always the case, high temperature at high light intensities means high growth.\n\nThere is still plenty to be considered and analyzed in this experiment. A few things include POC (particulate organic carbon), where we can ask about C/N ratios and how much carbon is being taken up by the cells or is the biomass of the same quality? Secondly, we should consider biogenic silica and ask about the difference in cell structure. One other consideration is looking at the light curves where we can ask about photosynthesis rates and whether CO2 is being processed well by the cells. There are plenty of other questions to be answered and are underway. This was only the beginning.\n\nHow do humans impact shark assemblages on coral reefs in Curaçao?\n\n— Written by Maria Rivera\n\nFor my project this summer, I compared the relative abundance of different shark dermal denticle (“skin teeth”) functional morphotypes preserved in reef sediments across two locations on Curaçao, an island located in the southern Caribbean. Denticle morphology can provide insight into the identity and ecology of the sharks that they belong to, allowing me to investigate whether the shark community composition differs between these two reefs. But why should we care? Visual surveys, such as underwater visual censuses performed by divers and baited remote underwater video stations, have recorded few sharks along Curaçao’s reefs. However, sharks are sporadically spotted by divers and anecdotally were quite abundant along Curaçao’s coast in the past. Curaçao also recently declared its waters to be a shark sanctuary. However, it is challenging to protect and manage shark populations when we cannot readily monitor them or determine how they vary across space, particularly given their high mobility.\n\nUsing the denticle record, I investigated how shark community composition and size differed between a high and low human impact site on Curaçao. The low impact site (Klein Curaçao) is a small island a few kilometers away from the main island. This island has, for the most part, healthier reefs with higher coral cover and fish biomass than Curaçao proper and has experienced less human interference. Given its low impact and distance from most of Curaçao’s population, Klein Curaçao has been thought of, as least anecdotally, as a window into Curaçao’s historical reefs. In contrast, the high impact site (CARMABI) is located near Willemstad, Curaçao’s capital where most of the island’s population resides. This reef has been exposed to pressures from fishing, pollution, diving and tourism, and boat traffic. These sites were selected to represent a gradient of human impacts on Curaçao. I hypothesized that there would be a higher abundance of sharks and henceforth a higher abundance of denticles on the reef on Klein Curaçao, which has much less human influence, as opposed to CARMABI. I also hypothesized that human activities could alter the composition of shark communities. In particular, I predicted that that there would be more pelagic shark denticles (i.e. drag reduction morphotype) in the sediments on Klein Curaçao given that it is more exposed to the open ocean and historically has experienced less fishing pressure, which tends to selectively remove requiem and hammerhead sharks. In contrast, I predicted to find a higher relative abundance of nurse shark denticles (i.e. abrasion strength morphotype) at CARMABI since this species is not typically targeted by fishermen.\n\nScreen Shot 2018-08-21 at 2.18.17 PM\nFigure 1. Shows the differences in shark communities with differences in denticle morphology.\n\nThe samples at both sites were full of denticles, which was very exciting. We found a higher number of denticles per amount sediment at the low impact site (Klein Curaçao) than the high impact site (CARMABI). This suggests that there are larger shark assemblages at the low impact site. These sites also had higher time-averaged denticle abundances, unstandardized by reef accretion rates, than other regions in the Caribbean (Panama and the Dominican Republic) that we have surveyed using the denticle record. We also saw a difference in shark communities between sites. Klein Curaçao had a higher relative proportion of abrasion strength denticles, which are found on bottom dwelling sharks such as nurse sharks. In comparison, Carmabi had a higher relative proportion of drag reduction denticles, which are characteristic of open ocean, fast swimming sharks such as a great white shark. This finding was surprising and unexpected. While we have found a pendulum-like shift in community composition from abrasion strength to drag reduction denticles across time in Panama and the Dominican Republic due to human impacts, something different appears to be occurring in this space-for-time comparison across Curaçao. First, there could be spatial differences in habitat quality and environmental features. For example, the site at CARMABI might also be easily accessed by pelagic sharks or be providing habitat for reef-associated requiem and hammerhead sharks. Alternatively, Klein Curaçao has recently been exposed to higher fishing pressures by fishermen who are now venturing farther to access fishing resources given that the inshore reefs have been historically exploited. While our time-averaged samples are likely capturing a signal of the shark assemblage prior to the start of these pressures, we could be seeing a shift in community composition progress – from a community dominated by pelagics to one dominated by demersal sharks. This could have potentially been due to changes in how humans affect these shark communities, for example, these effects could be caused by how and what humans have fished over the years and how that has changed. These results show us that shark communities do change over time and across regions, and also that humans can have an effect on these changes. This is important knowledge when it comes to better conservation and management of shark communities near the reefs of Curaçao.\n\nWas the heat too hot for L. pictus to handle?\n\n— Written by Carlos Estrada\n\nAfter a temperate and not-so-long summer, the Lytechinus pictus project has come to an end. In that time, I’ve unfortunately caused the deaths of a few of my beloved urchin, but in the process raised hundreds of thousands of larvae. All in the name of science! And have I got science to report! We’ll start with what was surprisingly the most difficult part of project, taking pictures.\n\n\nSome quick analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was no significance between the lengths of the larvae and the temperatures in which they were reared at any stage. The gastrula stage held the strongest relationship between rearing temperature and length, but very little relationship was seen with the prism and pluteus stages. This conclusion corresponds with that of Hammond and Hoffman (2013), which found that increased temperatures had no significant effect on larval skeletal length. Developmental timelines, however, differed as predicted with larvae reared in the 20°C buckets reaching all three stages much quicker than those reared in 17°C buckets.\n\nThermal Tolerance\n\nPreliminary data shows significance between rearing temperature and thermal tolerance at both gastrula and pluteus stages. The prism stage, however, shows no significant difference between the two rearing temperatures. All life stages showed little to no mortality until they reached higher temperatures, in which mortality increased dramatically. Although the beginning in mortality can differ, 31°C seems to be the temperature at which mortality reaches 90-100%.\n\nHeat Shock: hsp70 Expression\n\nUnfortunately, my first attempt at attaining any data on the expression of the heat shock protein hsp70 through gel electrophoresis did not go well. No bands appeared on my gel, but don’t panic! After a few tweaks to our formula, we’re ready to make another stab at it first thing in the morning. My partner-in-crime, Erin DeLeon Sanchez, has run her own gel in the past with pluteus DNA that showed bands. She also went to the trouble of conducting qPCR and found that hsp70 expression was stable throughout all both rearing temperatures and heat shock temperatures.\n\n\nVery little ecological research has been done on Lytechinus pictus and I can’t express how proud I am to have done my part. But more studies are needed to better understand the relationship between this urchin and it’s changing environment. Such studies could help us predict not only this species current and potential future biogeography, but that of its prey and predators as well.\n\nFeeding Rate Variation in Purple Urchins\n\n— Written by William Dejesus\n\nMy results showed feeding rate variation between trials with and without a 24-hour starvation period. A decrease in consumption rate was consistently observed in trials without the prior starvation period in the warm treatment. The ambient treatment did not show a significant pattern, which could have resulted from a less intense environmental constraint than what the warm treatment experienced.\n\nIt appears that consistent food availability could lead to decreased feeding rates. This can be applied to the kelp forest community in that a healthy abundance of giant kelp will prevent large spikes in feeding rate over time. The kelp forest community, like all ecological communities, requires a stable balance of trophic level interaction in order to function properly.\n\nMy investigation of the purple urchin’s feeding behavior has lead to the conclusion that the kelp forest community will need more urchin predators, such as the California sheephead in order to maintain the high abundance of biodiversity that it is famous for. Without these key predators, it is likely that urchins will consume kelp at a faster rate, inevitably leading to monoculture urchin barrens. These barrens are unsustainable for almost all species that call the kelp forest home, as well as the purple urchins, who will have eaten themselves out of house and home. Although urchins can survive for long periods of time without abundant food, previous studies have found that urchin health in barrens is extremely low with high potential for widespread disease.\n\nWrapping Things Up\n\n— Written by Ara Yazaryan\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMaterials and Methods of Ara’s Fishy Project\n\n— Written by Ara Yazaryan\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMethod to the Madness\n\n— Written by Ean Eberhard\n\n\nThe experiment takes place in a cold room where the two multicultivators are shown side by side. Both are connected to the CO2 tank to the right which supplies a constant amount of CO2 to the 16 tubes.\n\nThe experimental design begins with the creation of artificial sea water. To this I add three different nutrient solutions; main stock, trace metal stock, and vitamin stock. This combination of nutrients and artificial sea water makes up F/2 media used for growing the culture of Phytoplankton that is specifically studied in this project. The name of this species is Thalassiosira pseudonana. Once the culture is healthy and acclimated the experiment can proceed. The experiment is split into two weeks, each week being split into two phases. The first phase is a three day long acclimating phase for the cultures to be monitored in their tubes. Monitoring the culture at this time assures that each tube is growing healthy before entering the second phase of 4 days, the experimental phase. The first week consist of two multicultivators (seen below), one set to maintain 15°C and the other 25°C. Each multicultivator contains eight tubes that are each inoculated with the same culture of Thalassiosira pseudonana. In each multicultivator there is a set of three tubes at low light intensities of 100µmol(photon)/m2/s, 200µmol(photon)/m2/s, and 300µmol(photon)/m2/s, a set of two tubes at medium light intensities of 400µmol(photon)/m2/s and 500µmol(photon)/m2/s, and a final a set of\n\n\nWhen taking a closer look at an individual multicultivator, one can see the aerators placed into each of the eight tubes. Behind the tubes are a set of LED lights which will be set to different intensities when running.\n\nthree tubes with high light intensities of 600µmol(photon)/m2/s, 700µmol(photon)/m2/s, and 800µmol(photon)/m2/s. Each tube is supplied with a continues flow of CO2 at 1000ppm with a pressure of 2psi. The multicultivators are set to begin a light cycle at 5am and go into a dark cycle at 5pm. These two multicultivators are designed to give us a total of 16 different environments for the phytoplankton to grow in, varying initially by temperature and light.\n\n\nWith the experiment started, the sampling begins. Each day, from each tube, I sample for, Non-photochemical quenching, light curve, chlorophyll, particulate organic carbon, nutrients, and pH. For the beginning, middle, and end of each experiment I sample for dissolved inorganic carbon, biogenic silica, and flow cytometry.\n\nSampling for Non-photochemical quenching and Light Curve\n\nWhen sampling for NPQ and LC3, I remove the tubes and invert three times then pipette 3ml of the cultures from each tube into a cuvette, giving me a total of 16 cuvettes for NPQ measurements and 16 cuvettes for LC3 measurements. The cuvettes are placed in complete darkness for 30 minutes for a dark adaptation. After the 30 minutes the cuvettes are individually placed into an AquaPen, which will give a value for NPQ and LC3.\n\nSampling for Chlorophyll, Particulate Organic Carbon, Biogenic Silica, and Nutrients\n\nUsing a filtering apparatus and filter papers, I collect samples for Chlorophyll, POC, and Bsi by filtering the NPQ and LC3 samples. Each tube gets its own filter for Chlorophyll, POC, and Bsi. The Chlorophyll and Bsi samples are stored in the freezer for a later analysis while the POC filters are incubated and left to dry. The filtrate from these tubes are pooled together by light intensity, the low light intensities (100, 200, 300µmol(photon)/m2/s) are combined for a nutrient sample while the medium light intensities are pooled together for another nutrient sample and finally a third nutrient sample is taken from the high light intensities of 600, 700, and 800µmol(photon)/m2/s. These nutrient samples are also stored in the freezer for later analysis.\n\n\nThe filtering apparatus uses a pump to create suction. A filtering paper specific to the material being collected is placed on a surface above the vacuum. The samples of NPQ and LC3 are filtered through the papers. The filtrate is collected for nutrients below and the material collected rest on the filter paper.\n\nSampling for Flow Cytometry\n\nFor flow cytometry measurements I pipette 1ml of the culture from each of the 16 tubes. I then fix these samples with 50µl of CH2O to kill the cell while preserving its structure. These samples are then stored in the freezer until processed and counted with the flow cytometer.\n\nSampling for Dissolved Inorganic Carbon\n\nTo sample for dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) I fill a serum bottle full of the culture from each tube and add 50µl of mercury chloride. This gives me a total of 16 samples. The samples are then crimped shut to exclude gas exchange and stored in freezer for later analysis.\n\nSampling for pH\n\nSampling for pH is done for every tube. I pipette 3ml of the growing cultures from each tube into their own glass cuvette. These cuvettes are then placed in a dry bath for 5 minutes or until they reach room temperature. An initial reading is then taken by placing the cuvettes into a spectrophotometer where each cuvette is given three values at three different wavelengths. The cuvettes are then removed and treated with 50µl of m-cresol and then left for 5 minutes longer. The cuvettes are placed back into the spectrophotometer for another set of readings. Both the initial and treated values for each tube are entered into an excel spreadsheet with a preexisting equation that gives the value of pH. I should end with a total of 16 pH readings.\n\n\n\nTo the left is the spectrophotometer that gives the values that are then used to calculate the pH for each tube. Above are 5 cuvettes demonstrating the visual grade of variance amongst pH when treated with m-cresol.\n\n\nFrom Beach to Beach\n\n— Written by Emma Saas\n\nRising sea levels and beach erosion create problems for important intertidal species, such as beach hoppers, normally found on sandy beaches. Their sandy environment is shrinking, and scientists are wondering how well they will find new real estate. The distribution and abundance of different each hopper species may vary among southern California shores, but one can find beach hoppers, such as Megalorchestia corniculata, on many beaches. The dispersal of beach hoppers from beach to beach may be an important factor in the distribution of the four common species.\n\nYachts are a little bit pricey for our tiny beach hoppers, so how can they move from one beach to the next? The answer may be drift kelp, an important resource for marine environments that is produced by off-shore kelp forests. Beach hoppers can cling to drifting kelp and perhaps use this mechanisms as a lift to new beaches. How well they can cling, however, is an important question. Ideally, beach hoppers may be able to survive rising sea levels by clinging to drift kelp after it washes onto the shore and then leave with it as it floats to its next destination. An added bonus? Kelp is also food for these traveling beach hoppers! They’re able to sustain themselves for free while traveling (personally, Delta charges me excessive amounts for the same thing), which could enhance their survival on longer trips to a new beach.\n\n\nBeach hopper climbing in Macrocystis pyrifera, otherwise known as giant\nkelp, commonly found on California beaches washing in from the kelp forests\n\nSea level rise will lead to habitat changes and a requirement for flexibility. According to recent studies, 25% of beaches are eroding worldwide and up to 67% of beaches in southern California could disappear by the end of the century. Creatures who made their homes on sandy beaches will see a significant narrowing of their stomping ground. Their ability to disperse to and from different beaches on kelp may reflect how well they can move around once sea levels are consistently encroaching on their living space.\n\nFinding needles in a hay stack\n\n— Written by Maria Rivera\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9839398264884949}
+{"content": "'Chicago Fire' Alum Annie Ilonzeh Checks in With Fans After Exiting Series\n\nFormer Chicago Fire star Annie Ilonzeh tweeted to her fans on Monday, checking in with how they were holding up during quarantine. It also marks one of the first times the actor has addressed fans since it was announced she was leaving the firefighter procedural back in April. \"Hey guys, checking in with everyone,\" Ilonzeh wrote. \"How y'all doin?! I'm about to jump outta bed and get productive.\" She added that her itinerary included the treadmill, the sauna, and then writing.\n\nIlonzeh, who played easy-going med student Emily Foster, joined the cast of Chicago Fire at the start of Season 7. She was initially hired as a recurring star but ended up getting promoted to series regular before the season even started filming. By the time Season 8 rolled around, Emily chose to apply to medical school again and was seen making a speech to the Northwestern University admission committee, which gave her character a dignified exit after her two seasons on the show.\n\nShowrunner Derek Haas told Entertainment Tonight in April that the episode that ended up as the Season 8 finale wasn't intended as such, but like a lot of productions, the shutdown forced them to readjust their schedule. \"We were five days into shooting [Wednesday's] episode when we found out it would be our last for the season,\" Haas said. \"Luckily, we usually have a cliffhanger or two in an episode, so this one worked out.\"\n\nThere was also the comfort knowing that Chicago Fire, like the other two Chicago-based dramas, had been renewed for an unprecedented three seasons each, which was all part of creator Dick Wolf's massive $300 million deal with NBCUniversal and its upcoming streaming app, Peacock.\n\nHaas said that the shutdown \"allows us to explore relationships and characters on a wider timeline than we've ever had,\" which also comes from knowing there are still at least three seasons to go. \"We can look seasons ahead instead of episodes ahead. And yes, we will definitely have more cast shake-ups in the coming season. It's just part of the way we work to keep our audience on their toes. When viewers say, 'It'll never happen' on other shows, we want them to say, 'It's Chicago Fire… they might just do it.'\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9504870772361755}
+{"content": "Pentagon Just Declassified 3 UFO Videos, Watch Them Here\n\nThe Pentagon officially released three declassified videos showing UFOs, or \"unidentified aerial phenomena\" on Monday. The videos were previously released by a private company, and the Navy confirmed they were real last year. They show incidents recorded in November 2004 and January 2015. The videos were only released after a \"thorough review.\"\n\nThe Department of Defense found the unclassified videos do not \"reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems\" and \"does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena.\" They chose to release the clips to \"clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos. The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as 'unidentified.'\"\n\nBetween December 2017 and March 2018, Blink-182 musician Tom DeLonge's To The Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences released the Navy clips. In September 2019, Navy spokesperson Joe Gradisher confirmed to CNN the videos were real. David Fravor, the retired U.S. Navy pilot who saw the scene captured in the 2004 video could not figure out what was happening. He told CNN he saw a \"white object, oblong, pointing north, moving erratically.\"\n\n\"As I got close to it ... it rapidly accelerated to the south, and disappeared in less than two seconds,\" Fravor, who was a naval commander at the time the video was captured, said in 2017. He said the unidentified object could not be a helicopter. \"When helicopters move side to side, they kinda slow, and then they pick up speed going the other way,\" he explained. \"This was extremely abrupt, like a ping pong ball, bouncing off a wall. It would hit and go the other way.\"\n\n\nThe 2004 video was also published by the New York Times in 2017. Lt. Cmdr. Jim Slaight and Fravor told the Times they saw an object of some kind hovering 50 feet above the water. The oval-shaped white object was about 40 feet long, they said. Fravor said he flew straight towards the object, but it \"accelerated like nothing I've ever seen,\" adding he was \"pretty weirded out.\"\n\nFormer Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, whose home state is the location of the famed Area 51, praised the Pentagon for officially releasing the new videos. He previously pushed the Pentagon to launch a program studying encounters with unknown objects, but the program was closed in 2012. \"I'm glad the Pentagon is finally releasing this footage, but it only scratches the surface of research and materials available,\" Reid tweeted. \"The U.S. needs to take a serious, scientific look at this and any potential national security implications. The American people deserve to be informed.\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8727680444717407}
+{"content": "Bad Influences\n\nProverbs 22 24-25\n\n\nVerse of the Day: Proverbs 22:24-25\n\n\n\n\n\n1 10-24 1\n\n\nVerse of the Day: John 14:27\n\n\n\nThings are going to happen in life that make you sad, scared, or are just hard to get through. When your heart is hurting, troubled, or afraid turn to Jesus, he’ll give you peace beyond compare.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9974136352539062}
+{"content": "Leadership And Leadership : Effective Leadership\n\n1257 Words6 Pages\nThis chapter teaches us knowledge of how effective leadership can provide positive ways to influence others in order to accomplish goals. Managers could use trait leadership perspectives to become better leaders. As a leader, motivating your employees is key to an organizational structure. Leadership is a process which commences by following. Skill set born with or learned. As a follower one can learn and improve in their performance to be an effective leader. According to the text, leadership influence can be located in one person or be distributed throughout the group (pg. 282). Formal v. Informal Leadership The difference between them both, to my understanding is, is simply that one is related to a position held by and individual (i.e., professors, ministers, politicians). Informal is a leader not needing to be in a titled or authoritative position. They just have set skills to be effective leaders and influential on others. Leadership as Social Construction Leadership role constructed in a social setting. Depending on the interaction in a social setting needing a leadership role. Leadership as Identity Construction The leadership identity construction involves the following process: • Claiming refers. • Granting. These traits help to identify between leaders and followers. A model designed by DeRue and Ashford’s. FOLLOWERSHIP In this part founded interesting how there is such an infatuation with the studies of leadership and not on followers. Especially,\nOpen Document", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9560196399688721}
+{"content": "Enable JavaScript to visit this website.\n\nDo you suffer from heartburn two or more times per week?\n\nTry Nexium® 24HR for 24 hour protection from frequent heartburn, with just one tablet a day\n\n24 hour protection\nSingle daily dose\nFrequent heartburn\nLive Life Less Interrupted\n\n\nNexium® 24HR Once Daily Dosing is available in tablets or mini capsules. Click on the Nexium® 24HR product to find out more.\n\n*Based on volume of the capsule as compared to Nexium® 24HR Once Daily Dosing Tablets\n\nMoney Back Guarantee\n\nIf you are not satisfied with Nexium® 24HR, we will give you your money back. Terms and conditions apply.\n\n\nWhat is heartburn?\n\n\nWhat’s the difference between heartburn and acid reflux?\n\nWhen food and acid from the stomach contents wash back up into the oesophagus, this is called acid reflux. Heartburn is the most common name for the burning pain in the chest rising up to the throat that you feel when this happens.\n\nWhy does my heartburn get worse at night?\n\nHeartburn is caused by stomach acid rising up into the oesophagus. When you lie down in bed, this can make it easier for acid to escape the stomach and to irritate the oesophagus lining, causing a burning pain in the chest rising up to the throat.\n\n\nAntacids are heartburn treatments designed to give temporary relief from heartburn. They work by neutralising the stomach acid already produced, but don’t target acid production, so they may need to be taken repeatedly to maintain their effect.\n\nDoes Nexium® 24HR have any side effects?\n\nLike all medicines, this medicine can cause side effects. For information about side effects please read the Consumer Medicine Information leaflet.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7574610710144043}
+{"content": "Since the decline of imperialism and rise of globalization, the world has been in an era of post-colonialism. With the Eurocentric vision of modernity called into question, the hierarchies in art of dominant western artistic cultures (Europe and the U.S., for example) has begun to weaken. This not only leads to a more complicated view of history but our understanding of contemporary time and place as well.\n\nAs political imperialism has lost its hold on emerging countries, a whole new beast called globalization has risen as a globally integrated, connected society held together by an overarching infoscape and instant communication. Consequently, a resistance to globalization has also risen in second, third, and fourth world countries, taking the form of anti-American and colonial art, which also re-engages with native cultures. This leads to some of the most complicated societal and power structures to date since power is constantly shifting, leaving the world in a state of rapid transition surpassing even 20th-century transformations.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8791010975837708}
+{"content": "What plagiarism is and how you can avoid it\nPlagiarism is a serious issue and every writer needs to understand what it is and how to avoid it.\nPlagiarism is taking other people's work and using it as if it were your own without acknowledging the source of this work. The work can be any product created by an individual or group of individuals. So, works of art, photographs, music, writing, reports, research, and many other creative endeavours are examples of products which must not be copied without permission.\nThis does not mean that you cannot refer to these products or use small samples of them for comment, criticism, or in the creation of new works. But what is acceptable use is something you need to understand. In writing you need to know how to quote, paraphrase, cite and supply accurate references to text from other authors which you have used in your own work.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9980654120445251}
+{"content": "Please choose a restaurant...\n\n\nLe Sommelier\n\n\n\nBistro Sommelier\n\n\nWine guide: Christmas dinner with the Sommeliers favourites\n\n\nLæs mere\n\nMASH opens on Gammel Kongevej 116\n\nIn september MASH announced that the partners behind the restaurant was looking at locations on Frederiksberg. Now everything is settled and MASH can announce the adress and opening date for the steak empires eleventh restaurant. Copenhagen Concepts, the company behind the succesful MASH restaurants in Denmark, England and Germany, have long been keeping an eye out on Frederik...\n\nLæs mere\n\nMASH celebrates one year in Odense by launching a delicious competition\n\nThe Steakhouse restaurant on Flakhaven celebrates its one year anniversay by giving away a birthday dinner for 10 people at MASH. On December 6th it’s exactly a year ago to the day, that MASH opened its doors with delicious cocktails, juicy steaks and great wines. The reception and interest from the inhabitants, politicians and businesses was overwhelming and gave MASH a great ...\n\nLæs mere\n\nPress release: Copenhagen Concepts closes UMAMI and Le Sommelier\n\nCopenhagen Concepts, who are behind the restaurants MASH, UMAMI and Le Sommelier, has chosen to focus on MASH and have therefor decided to close UMAMI and Le Sommelier per December 31st 2017. The leases will be taken over by SOVINO GRUPPEN, but what they will do with the spaces are unknown. The reason for closing the two restaurant concepts is that Copenhagen Concepts wants to...\n\nLæs mere\n\nMASHs guide to Düsseldorf\n\nIs a brand new MASH and a wonderful café enough to travel for? Absolutely, but there are several other good reasons for visiting the historical city of Düsseldorf in western Germany. As you have probably seen, MASH has recently opened a new restaurant in the attractive Andreas Quartier in Düsseldorf. And furthermore, our sister restaurant Le Sommelier has opened a café right ne...\n\nLæs mere\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8961770534515381}
+{"content": "\n\nThe automatic servant of Philon from the 3rd century BC, is seen at Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in Athens, Greece February 13, 2020. Picture taken February 13, 2020. REUTERS/Costas Baltas\nThe robot is a recreation of the automatic servant of Philon, designed more than 2,200 years ago by a Greek engineer and operating though a complex mechanism of springs, weights and air pressure that also allowed it to dilute the alcohol with water.\n\nIt is the focal point of an exhibition of more than 100 inventions that highlight the vast extent of Ancient Greece’s technological legacy and also features an analogue computer, an alarm clock and automatic fire doors.\n\n“By just opening up the hood of a modern car, you will see bolts and nuts, screws, automatic pilots. All of these were just some of the inventions (pioneered)… by the ancient Greeks that were the building blocks of complex technology,” said exhibition director Panagiotis Kotsanas.\n\nThe exhibits are explained with audio-visual material and detailed diagrams, and many are interactive.\n\nThe automatic doors of Heron of Alexandria were considered a miracle of the gods. Installed in a temple, they opened when a fire burned on its altar, to the awe of those spectating.\n\nViewed as a precursor of the computer, the 2,000-year-old Antikythera mechanism forecast astronomical and calendar events using gears and dials.\n\nThe philosopher Plato’s alarm clock used a hydraulic system of ceramic jugs filled with water to ‘ring’ with a chirping sound at the desired time.\n\nOther recreations include Polybolos, a repeating catapult capable of launching arrows in succession, examples of cryptography to send coded messages in times of war, and the Pyoulkos, a syringe used for injections and to remove pus.\n\nThe exhibition is on permanent display at the Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in central Athens.\n\nSource: Reuters", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.994835615158081}
+{"content": "Coach Paula & Associates\n\n\n\n\"Stress symptoms: Effects on your body and behavior\n\nStress symptoms may be affecting your health, even though you might not realize it. You may think illness is to blame for that irritating headache, your frequent insomnia, or your decreased productivity at work. But stress may actually be the cause.\n\nCommon effects of stress\n\nIndeed, stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Being able to recognize common stress symptoms can help you manage them. Stress that's left unchecked can contribute to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.\"\n\nBy Mayo Clinic Staff\n\nIrregular Heartbeats\n\nThe Mayo Clinic also reports that intense Stress, Anxiety, Anger, and Traumas can all be causes of abnormal heart rhythms, arrhythmias.\n\nStressed about stress?\n\nMany of Coach Paula's clients had previously tried Counselors, Therapists, and Doctors and were still Stuck, Stressed, Struggling, or in Pain, and nothing had really worked for them. So, what happened after working together? Wonderful testimonies.\n\nSo Now What?\n\nEnroll with your very own Personal Chronic Stress, Anxiety, and Chronic Pain Relief Specialist, who will Walk It Out with You.\n\nSilent Symptoms of Stress\n\nStress is a very common emotional health issue, which we face, and it has very serious long-term emotional and physical consequences. Stress can be caused by both negative events (e.g. death of a loved one, loss of a job, unhealthy relationships, etc.) as well as positive events (e.g. graduation, marriage, birth of a child, raising children, etc.).\n\n\nMost people believe they understand their triggers for stress; however, here are some common silent signals from your body indicating that you are overloaded by stress:\n\n\n\nResearch at the University of Colorado, Boulder found that stress (from divorce or unemployment for example) causes your immune system to react the way it does when fighting off an infection. This results in fatigue or even a fever, which forces you to slow down. Fatigue may be caused by insomnia that is a common side effect of anxiety when you are stressed.\n\n\n\nFind yourself forgetting things often? You may be overstressed. To protect the body, hormones are released during acute stressful experiences (e.g. car accident) to suppress short-term memory. These effects (unless caused by a head trauma) are temporary. However, under chronic stress, long-lasting impairments in memory can develop due to permanent alterations in the structure of nerve cells in the brain.\n\n\n\nMost people who are under tremendous stress, feel pressure and pain in their jaw because they clench their jaw muscles when they are asleep and awake. In fact, bruxism (a sleep disorder characterized by teeth grinding) is a common side effect of chronic stress. If you find your jaw or temples hurting in the morning, you are probably under high levels of stress.\n\n\n\nChronic stress puts a strain on the adrenal glands to produce high levels of cortisol and adrenaline to keep up with the stressful event or lifestyle. This ultimately results in overworking the glands and one of the first signs that the glands need a break is if you find yourself sighing frequently.\n\n\n\nHigh levels of cortisol and adrenaline in the body lower immunity and make you more susceptible to illnesses, such as the common cold. This is often the reason why after even positive changes such as a wedding or graduation that people fall ill.\n\n\n\nStress intensifies the pain that is associated with a woman’s menstrual cycle. If you find that one-month is particularly painful, it is likely that you have been experiencing a significant amount of stress.\n\n\n\nHormones released during stressful events are multiplied, continue being produced, and remain in the bloodstream for an extended period of time when stress is chronic. These hormones affect the health of the gastrointestinal tract and you may find yourself more often with an upset stomach, irritable bowel syndrome, or other gastrointestinal illnesses.\n\n\n\nPhysical symptoms such as headaches and backaches are common for people with extended periods of stress. Emotional stress is one of the most common triggers for migraines and tension headaches. Hormones that are released during stress change the structure of blood vessels and cause these headaches.\n\n\n\nResearch conducted at Ohio State by Janice Kiecolt-Glaser found that stress increases the severity of allergic reactions and can exacerbate skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. It is thought that hormones secreted due to chronic stress may stimulate the production of a protein that causes allergic reactions. If you find yourself sneezing more often or experiencing flare-ups, don’t just look for environmental triggers, but try to identify any new sources of stress.\n\n\n\nDepression is a very common side effect of chronic stress. This is not only because you can feel overwhelmed by the stressful situation causing depressive symptoms, but depression is caused also by the presence of stress hormones and the fatigue that comes from overworking the adrenal glands.\n\nIf you notice yourself experiencing at least one of these symptoms above, before popping a pill, think about the stressors in your life, both chronic and acute. Most likely these symptoms can be maintained if not cured with a change in lifestyle and an increase in stress management skills.\n\nAuthor Unknown\n\n\n\n\nTeens, Students, Friends\n\nAbuse Survivors\n\nAbuse Survivors\n\nTeens, Students, Friends\n\nAbuse Survivors\n\nTeens, Students, Friends\n\nTeens, Students, Friends\n\nTeens, Students, Friends", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9143983125686646}
+{"content": "Caught in the Crosshairs\n\nCaught in the Crosshairs\nWhile Nature In Focus, the festival that ends today, puts a spotlight on conservation through films and photographs, we look into the impact wildlife photographers cause to natural habitats and wildlife\n\nWhat happens when you put up your picture on social media? Of course, you will check every few minutes to see how many ‘likes’ it will get. But then, what happens when you put up the picture of a tiger lounging in its habitat? ‘Likes’ still matter, but you invariably end up mentioning where you took that picture. “You will have literally served that tiger on a platter to the poachers,” says Indrajit Ghorpade, founder of the Deccan Conservation Foundation which is actively involved in the conservation and protection of wildlife habitats of Koppal district in Karnataka. “This is true for any other wild animal sought by the illegal wildlife trade.” He recalls a film shoot done in hardly two acres of jungle, where there were two breeding foxes and jungle cats. “When we went back just three months later, the dens were burnt out. Intentionally or unintentionally, the location gets broadcast and poachers arrive.”\n\nThe darker side of wildlife photography is the growing legion of amateur photographers who will go to any lengths to take a ‘pic’, says Ramesh Belagare, founder of Foundation for Ecology and Education Development, a nonprofit organisation working towards conservation of natural ecosystems. “If you ask me, every Tom, Dick and Harry is a wildlife photographer today.”\n\nWhat Ghorpade and Belagare are trying to say echo the misgivings and fears of the entire community of wildlife conservationists who fear that the unethical and irresponsible behaviour displayed by wildlife photographers will destroy wildlife habitats.\n\nHabitat destruction\n\nAt the Jayamangali Blackbuck Conservation Reserve in Tumkur, blackbucks are the attraction for weekend photographers, the distance from Bengaluru being an added draw. “This is a reserve but the blackbucks have literally no protection,” Belagare says. “Photographers with their 600-mm lenses chase the blackbucks in cars for pictures.” The grasslands, which are important for these blackbucks, are therefore getting destroyed. “Grass won’t grow when cars go around like that.” Those unprotected areas where wildlife is still struggling to survive, where wildlife photographers can go without any permission, Belagare says, “these areas are under threat.”\n\nPhotograph by Ramesh Belagare\n\nPhotograph by Ramesh Belagare\n\nSometimes, photographers struggle to take pictures of birds and their nests because these are hidden through natural camouflage. Sanjay Gubbi, noted award-winning wildlife conservator, says certain photographers are known to disturb the habitats for better pictures. For instance, kingfishers have their nests in the walls of waterholes and sit on twigs in the water waiting for a good hunt. The birds are highly territorial and do not allow other birds to sit on their perch. Belagare has seen “unethical photographers moving the perch so that they have a better background, not realising that the confused bird will not have a view of its prey. The bird struggles and if not successful, will not have food for its hatchlings. The photographer would have long left the scene with a picture.” The impact of such behaviour may not be immediate but over a period of time, it becomes evident.\n\nDisturbing nature’s rhythm\n\nIf not habitats, enthusiastic photographers disturb wildlife going about complex and sensitive acts of survival. Every year, Olive Ridley turtles swim all the way from Australia to the beaches in Odisha, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu for laying eggs. Belagare notes, “I have seen photographers digging the nests to take a picture of the eggs and worse, go near the mother turtle while she is laying eggs. Such ignorance is not an excusable offence.”\n\nThen there is the unethical practice of baiting. Using bait to ‘capture’ wildlife is a wildlife offence. Photographers are known to use bait like dead snakes to get birds of prey to dive towards their camera.\n\nThe new photographer\n\nAward-winning wildlife photographer, Kalyan Varma, who is one of the founders of the Nature in Focus Festival, notes that six to seven years back itself there were more than 10,000 registered photographers from India alone on the online community India Nature Watch. “With the advent of Instagram and so on, the number has gone up even more.”\n\nWildlife photographer Shaaz Jung discusses the profile of today’s wildlife photographer. “Today, digital cameras and social media can bring you instant fame. You do not need to be a naturalist, avid wildlife enthusiast, conservationist or a scientist. All you need is a budget DSLR and a social media platform to share your work. This may have its benefits, but it also attracts a huge number of wildlife photographers with the wrong intentions,” he says. With no wildlife corridors and species imbalance, among other things, how do you expect wildlife to survive, Ghorpade asks. “It is like propping up a dying man and taking pictures. It is inhuman.”\n\nPhotographs (here and on top) taken by Kalyan Varma\n\nPhotographs (here and on top) taken by Kalyan Varma\n\nMeanwhile, this tribe goes across the country in search of wildlife either for self-gratification or to submit pictures to competitions. Ghorpade comments wryly, “One day, they will be chasing snow leopards in Ladakh, then they will be behind the migratory oriental dwarf kingfishers, and if nothing else, they will be flocking to take pictures of geese in Magadi.” Unethical practices, like bribing the local guides to take them closer and closer to the wildlife, will open out other issues. “If ethical photography is practised, it does not disturb nature or wildlife,” Gubbi says.\n\nEscalating wildlife photography tourism\n\nFuelling the madness for pictures are the numerous wildlife photography tours, which have sprung up over the last couple of years. These tours advertise photo opportunities of tigers, wolves, migratory birds, and much more. “It is like a mafia,” Belagare comments. “Within India itself, there is so much money involved.” Trips range from thousands to a few lakh rupees.\n\nBut isn’t it better that the amateur photographers go with a more experienced tour operator? “They are all the same,” Belagare laughs. “I will compare them with a board inside a national park ‘Speed limit 30 kms. Who listens? They are all in chase of that perfect picture.” And to achieve that, there are tricks of the trade. Gubbi lists out a few: Crowding around animals and blocking their movement leading to stress in individual animals, chasing animals and causing immense stress and loss of energy, handling reptiles or amphibians leading to infectious diseases…” The harm these activities cause have no statistics to give as evidence.\n\nTaking action\n\nThe interest in wildlife photography is like a double-edged sword. How can there be a win-win situation? One, as Gubbi says, photographers should use the pictures for conservation measures. “For instance, they could highlight destruction to habitats through their pictures,” he says. Also, wildlife photographers could support conservation measures. “Go back to the place you belong to and help support the wildlife there by preserving their habitats,” Ghorpade urges. Appoint a local wildlife guardian or else support a local conservation NGO. “If for every photo you put up on Facebook, you pay `100 to a local NGO or to a village making the effort to conserve wildlife, there will be wildlife left for you to photograph.”\n\n\n–Shaaz Jung\n\nHe advocates the creation of micro habitats, a concept which has been around from the time of King Ashoka. “Don’t reinvent the wheel,” he says. His foundation has created mini reserves in Koppal, Magadi and other places. Animals and birds native to that region have flourished in such habitats. “All we need to do is to give them the space. If every village devotes 5-10 acres of land to wildlife, nature will replenish, revive and bounce back.” Study your wildlife of choice deeply so that you can create awareness, says Belagare, who started off into conservation after his “weekend interest” of macro photography of butterflies led him to be aware of its value as eco-indicators. He eventually went on to the field of conservation of elephants. “How many photographers are willing to have this kind of long-term dedication?”\n\nBut for those who can’t do any of the above, Jung urges a degree of self-regulation. “We as humans are obsessed with competing and creating a social hierarchy amongst our society,” he says. “I have never submitted an image for a photo competition. I’m afraid that if I start competing, it may alter my perception of nature, and ultimately my actions as a wildlife photographer.”\n\nThis would require a radical shift. “We don’t work for awards or for ‘likes’, we work for the animals itself. This should be every photographer’s motto,” Belagare sums it up.\nPOLLShould schools reopen in Karnataka in June?\nPick your favorite and click vote\n4 + 2 =", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9009590744972229}
+{"content": "Heat Transfer Coefficient software for building thermal performance - advice needed\n\nHello, I am the non-techie person working on a project to develop a machine learning software tool that can generate a Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) (an indicator of heat loss from a whole building) from smart meter (or equivalent) data and internal/external temperature data. At the moment this is arduously done using a co-heating test, and is built into the SAP for building assessment.\n\nThis HTC could be integrated into software to evaluate the thermal performance of a building (domestic sector at the moment) pre and post energy efficiency improvements. It could also be integrated into an energy monitoring platform and combined with temperature and humidity data as a tool for energy advice.\n\nThere is an interesting and informative forum post in the archive on HTC for more information. ( )\nAnd also some basic information on Heat Transfer Coefficients here:\n\nThe charity I work for want to make the HTC software freely available when it is ready. Which it isn’t yet, it is still being tested, and so far on simulated data only. We are deploying one data logger per internal room and one externally in properties, but these loggers need to be retrieved to be able to download the data; they are not internet-connected. And C19 has made it impossible for us to retrieve the data loggers!\n\nIn the meantime I’d like to ask your advice:\n\n 1. How we can make this bit of software as accessible as possible? How would it need to be packaged?\n 2. What would you need to know to be sure of the accuracy of the HTC generated for a home?\n 3. Is there anything else you’d need to know be able to integrate it into new or existing applications?\n 4. Is there anything else we need to think about before making the software available?\n\nOne area we are interested in is having the HTC potentially as part of a platform that integrates energy, temperature and humidity data to be able to give energy advice. We created a platform a few years ago and trialled it in low income households, with gas heating and also with night storage heaters. I’m trying to learn more about how we might resurrect that platform, or adopt a new one. Just to give a bit of context.\n\nI can easily pass on messages to the software programmer or get him involved with any questions. Thanks for your help.\n\n1 Like", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9320927262306213}
+{"content": "\n\n • Describe the effects of temperature and pressure on solubility\n • State Henry’s law and use it in calculations involving the solubility of a gas in a liquid\n • Explain the degrees of solubility possible for liquid-liquid solutions\n\nImagine adding a small amount of salt to a glass of water, stirring until all the salt has dissolved, and then adding a bit more. You can repeat this process until the salt concentration of the solution reaches its natural limit, a limit determined primarily by the relative strengths of the solute-solute, solute-solvent, and solvent-solvent attractive forces discussed in the previous two modules of this chapter. You can be certain that you have reached this limit because, no matter how long you stir the solution, undissolved salt remains. The concentration of salt in the solution at this point is known as its solubility.\n\nThe solubility of a solute in a particular solvent is the maximum concentration that may be achieved under given conditions when the dissolution process is at equilibrium. Referring to the example of salt in water:\n\n\nWhen a solute’s concentration is equal to its solubility, the solution is said to be saturated with that solute. If the solute’s concentration is less than its solubility, the solution is said to be unsaturated. A solution that contains a relatively low concentration of solute is called dilute, and one with a relatively high concentration is called concentrated.\n\nIf we add more salt to a saturated solution of salt, we see it fall to the bottom and no more seems to dissolve. In fact, the added salt does dissolve, as represented by the forward direction of the dissolution equation. Accompanying this process, dissolved salt will precipitate, as depicted by the reverse direction of the equation. The system is said to be at equilibrium when these two reciprocal processes are occurring at equal rates, and so the amount of undissolved and dissolved salt remains constant. Support for the simultaneous occurrence of the dissolution and precipitation processes is provided by noting that the number and sizes of the undissolved salt crystals will change over time, though their combined mass will remain the same.\n\nSolutions may be prepared in which a solute concentration exceeds its solubility. Such solutions are said to be supersaturated, and they are interesting examples of nonequilibrium states. For example, the carbonated beverage in an open container that has not yet “gone flat” is supersaturated with carbon dioxide gas; given time, the CO2 concentration will decrease until it reaches its equilibrium value.\n\nSolutions of Gases in Liquids\n\nIn an earlier module of this chapter, the effect of intermolecular attractive forces on solution formation was discussed. The chemical structures of the solute and solvent dictate the types of forces possible and, consequently, are important factors in determining solubility. For example, under similar conditions, the water solubility of oxygen is approximately three times greater than that of helium, but 100 times less than the solubility of chloromethane, CHCl3. Considering the role of the solvent’s chemical structure, note that the solubility of oxygen in the liquid hydrocarbon hexane, C6H14, is approximately 20 times greater than it is in water.\n\nOther factors also affect the solubility of a given substance in a given solvent. Temperature is one such factor, with gas solubility typically decreasing as temperature increases (Figure 1). This is one of the major impacts resulting from the thermal pollution of natural bodies of water.\n\nThis graph shows solubilities of methane, oxygen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, and helium in 10 superscript negative 3 mol L superscript negative 1 at temperatures ranging from 0 to 30 degrees Celsius. Solubilities as indicated on the graph in decreasing order are methane, oxygen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, and helium. At ten degrees, solubilities in 10 superscript negative 3mol L superscript negative 1 are approximately as follows; methane 1.9, oxygen 1.8, carbon monoxide 1.2, nitrogen 0.7, and helium 0.4. At twenty degrees, solubilities in 10 superscript negative 3 mol L superscript negative 1 are approximately as follows; methane 1.2, oxygen 1.1, carbon monoxide 0.9, nitrogen 0.5, and helium 0.35.\n\nFigure 1. The solubilities of these gases in water decrease as the temperature increases. All solubilities were measured with a constant pressure of 101.3 kPa (1 atm) of gas above the solutions.\n\nWhen the temperature of a river, lake, or stream is raised abnormally high, usually due to the discharge of hot water from some industrial process, the solubility of oxygen in the water is decreased. Decreased levels of dissolved oxygen may have serious consequences for the health of the water’s ecosystems and, in severe cases, can result in large-scale fish kills (Figure 2).\n\nTwo photos are shown. The first shows the top portion of a transparent colorless glass of a clear colorless liquid with small bubbles near the interface of the liquid with the container. The second photo shows a portion of a partially frozen body of water with dead fish appearing on in the water and on an icy surface.\n\nFigure 2. (a) The small bubbles of air in this glass of chilled water formed when the water warmed to room temperature and the solubility of its dissolved air decreased. (b) The decreased solubility of oxygen in natural waters subjected to thermal pollution can result in large-scale fish kills. (credit a: modification of work by Liz West; credit b: modification of work by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)\n\nThe solubility of a gaseous solute is also affected by the partial pressure of solute in the gas to which the solution is exposed. Gas solubility increases as the pressure of the gas increases. Carbonated beverages provide a nice illustration of this relationship. The carbonation process involves exposing the beverage to a relatively high pressure of carbon dioxide gas and then sealing the beverage container, thus saturating the beverage with CO2 at this pressure. When the beverage container is opened, a familiar hiss is heard as the carbon dioxide gas pressure is released, and some of the dissolved carbon dioxide is typically seen leaving solution in the form of small bubbles (Figure 3). At this point, the beverage is supersaturated with carbon dioxide and, with time, the dissolved carbon dioxide concentration will decrease to its equilibrium value and the beverage will become “flat.”\n\nA dark brown liquid is shown in a clear, colorless container. A thick layer of beige bubbles appear at the surface of the liquid. In the liquid, thirteen small clusters of single black spheres with two red spheres attached to the left and right are shown. Red spheres represent oxygen atoms and black represent carbon atoms. Seven white arrows point upward in the container from these clusters to the bubble layer at the top of the liquid.\n\nFigure 3. Opening the bottle of carbonated beverage reduces the pressure of the gaseous carbon dioxide above the beverage. The solubility of CO2 is thus lowered, and some dissolved carbon dioxide may be seen leaving the solution as small gas bubbles. (credit: modification of work by Derrick Coetzee)\n\nFor many gaseous solutes, the relation between solubility, Cg, and partial pressure, Pg, is a proportional one:\n\n\nwhere k is a proportionality constant that depends on the identities of the gaseous solute and solvent, and on the solution temperature. This is a mathematical statement of Henry’s law: The quantity of an ideal gas that dissolves in a definite volume of liquid is directly proportional to the pressure of the gas.\n\nExample 1\n\nApplication of Henry’s Law\n\nAt 20 °C, the concentration of dissolved oxygen in water exposed to gaseous oxygen at a partial pressure of 101.3 kPa (760 torr) is 1.38 × 10-3 mol L-1. Use Henry’s law to determine the solubility of oxygen when its partial pressure is 20.7 kPa (155 torr), the approximate pressure of oxygen in earth’s atmosphere.\n\n\nAccording to Henry’s law, for an ideal solution the solubility, Cg, of a gas (1.38 × 10-3 mol L-1, in this case) is directly proportional to the pressure, Pg, of the undissolved gas above the solution (101.3 kPa, or 760 torr, in this case). Because we know both Cg and Pg, we can rearrange this expression to solve for k.\n\n[latex]\\begin{array}{ccc}\\hfill {C}_{\\text{g}}& =& k{P}_{\\text{g}}\\hfill \\\\ \\hfill k& =& \\frac{{C}_{\\text{g}}}{{P}_{\\text{g}}}\\hfill \\\\ & =& \\frac{1.38\\times {10}^{-3}\\text{mol}{\\text{L}}^{-1}}{101.3\\text{kPa}}\\hfill \\\\ & =& 1.36\\times {10}^{-5}\\text{mol}{\\text{L}}^{-1}{\\text{kPa}}^{-1}\\hfill \\\\ & & \\left(1.82\\times {10}^{-6}\\text{mol}{\\text{L}}^{-1}{\\text{torr}}^{-1}\\right)\\hfill \\end{array}[/latex]\n\nNow we can use k to find the solubility at the lower pressure.\n\n[latex]\\begin{array}{l}\\\\ 1.36\\times {10}^{-5}\\text{mol}{\\text{L}}^{-1}{\\text{kPa}}^{-1}\\times 20.7\\text{kPa}\\\\ \\left(\\text{or}1.82\\times {10}^{-6}\\text{mol}{\\text{L}}^{-1}{\\text{torr}}^{-1}\\times 155\\text{torr}\\right)\\\\ =2.82\\times {10}^{-4}\\text{mol}{\\text{L}}^{-1}\\end{array}[/latex]\n\nNote that various units may be used to express the quantities involved in these sorts of computations. Any combination of units that yield to the constraints of dimensional analysis are acceptable.\n\nCheck Your Learning\n\nExposing a 100.0 mL sample of water at 0 °C to an atmosphere containing a gaseous solute at 20.26 kPa (152 torr) resulted in the dissolution of 1.45 × 10-3 g of the solute. Use Henry’s law to determine the solubility of this gaseous solute when its pressure is 101.3 kPa (760 torr).\n\nAnswer: 7.25 × 10-3 g\n\nDecompression Sickness or “The Bends”\n\nDecompression sickness (DCS), or “the bends,” is an effect of the increased pressure of the air inhaled by scuba divers when swimming underwater at considerable depths. In addition to the pressure exerted by the atmosphere, divers are subjected to additional pressure due to the water above them, experiencing an increase of approximately 1 atm for each 10 m of depth. Therefore, the air inhaled by a diver while submerged contains gases at the corresponding higher ambient pressure, and the concentrations of the gases dissolved in the diver’s blood are proportionally higher per Henry’s law.\n\nAs the diver ascends to the surface of the water, the ambient pressure decreases and the dissolved gases becomes less soluble. If the ascent is too rapid, the gases escaping from the diver’s blood may form bubbles that can cause a variety of symptoms ranging from rashes and joint pain to paralysis and death. To avoid DCS, divers must ascend from depths at relatively slow speeds (10 or 20 m/min) or otherwise make several decompression stops, pausing for several minutes at given depths during the ascent. When these preventive measures are unsuccessful, divers with DCS are often provided hyperbaric oxygen therapy in pressurized vessels called decompression (or recompression) chambers (Figure 4).\n\nTwo photos are shown. The first shows two people seated in a steel chamber on benches that run length of the chamber on each side. The chamber has a couple of small circular windows and an open hatch-type door. One of the two people is giving a thumbs up gesture. The second image provides a view through a small, circular window. Inside the two people can be seen with masks over their mouths and noses. The people appear to be reading.\n\nFigure 4. (a) US Navy divers undergo training in a recompression chamber. (b) Divers receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy.\n\nDeviations from Henry’s law are observed when a chemical reaction takes place between the gaseous solute and the solvent. Thus, for example, the solubility of ammonia in water does not increase as rapidly with increasing pressure as predicted by the law, because ammonia, being a base, reacts to some extent with water to form ammonium ions and hydroxide ions.\n\nThis reaction diagram shows three H atoms bonded to an N atom above, below, and two the left of the N. A single pair of dots is present on the right side of the N. This is followed by a plus, then two H atoms bonded to an O atom to the left and below the O. Two pairs of dots are present on the O, one above and the other to the right of the O. A double arrow, with a top arrow pointing right and a bottom arrow pointing left follows. To the right of the double arrow, four H atoms are shown bonded to a central N atom. These 5 atoms are enclosed in brackets with a superscript plus outside. A plus follows, then an O atom linked by a bond to an H atom on its right. The O atom has pairs of dots above, to the left, and below the atom. The linked O and H are enclosed in brackets with superscript minus outside.\n\nGases can form supersaturated solutions. If a solution of a gas in a liquid is prepared either at low temperature or under pressure (or both), then as the solution warms or as the gas pressure is reduced, the solution may become supersaturated. In 1986, more than 1700 people in Cameroon were killed when a cloud of gas, almost certainly carbon dioxide, bubbled from Lake Nyos (Figure 5), a deep lake in a volcanic crater. The water at the bottom of Lake Nyos is saturated with carbon dioxide by volcanic activity beneath the lake. It is believed that the lake underwent a turnover due to gradual heating from below the lake, and the warmer, less-dense water saturated with carbon dioxide reached the surface. Consequently, tremendous quantities of dissolved CO2 were released, and the colorless gas, which is denser than air, flowed down the valley below the lake and suffocated humans and animals living in the valley.\n\nTwo photos are shown. The first is an aerial view of a lake surrounded by green hills. The second shows a large body of water with a fountain sending liquid up into the air several yards or meters above the surface of the water.\n\nFigure 5. (a) It is believed that the 1986 disaster that killed more than 1700 people near Lake Nyos in Cameroon resulted when a large volume of carbon dioxide gas was released from the lake. (b) A CO2 vent has since been installed to help outgas the lake in a slow, controlled fashion and prevent a similar catastrophe from happening in the future. (credit a: modification of work by Jack Lockwood; credit b: modification of work by Bill Evans)\n\nSolutions of Liquids in Liquids\n\nThis is a photo of a 1 gallon yellow plastic jug of Preston 50/50 Prediluted Antifreeze/Coolant.\n\nFigure 6. Water and antifreeze are miscible; mixtures of the two are homogeneous in all proportions. (credit:”dno1967”/Wikimedia commons)\n\nWe know that some liquids mix with each other in all proportions; in other words, they have infinite mutual solubility and are said to be miscible. Ethanol, sulfuric acid, and ethylene glycol (popular for use as antifreeze, pictured in Figure 6) are examples of liquids that are completely miscible with water. Two-cycle motor oil is miscible with gasoline.\n\nLiquids that mix with water in all proportions are usually polar substances or substances that form hydrogen bonds. For such liquids, the dipole-dipole attractions (or hydrogen bonding) of the solute molecules with the solvent molecules are at least as strong as those between molecules in the pure solute or in the pure solvent. Hence, the two kinds of molecules mix easily. Likewise, nonpolar liquids are miscible with each other because there is no appreciable difference in the strengths of solute-solute, solvent-solvent, and solute-solvent intermolecular attractions. The solubility of polar molecules in polar solvents and of nonpolar molecules in nonpolar solvents is, again, an illustration of the chemical axiom “like dissolves like.”\n\nThis is a photo of a clear, colorless martini glass containing a golden colored liquid layer resting on top of a clear, colorless liquid.\n\nFigure 7. Water and oil are immiscible. Mixtures of these two substances will form two separate layers with the less dense oil floating on top of the water. (credit: “Yortw”/Flickr)\n\nTwo liquids that do not mix to an appreciable extent are called immiscible. Layers are formed when we pour immiscible liquids into the same container. Gasoline, oil (Figure 7), benzene, carbon tetrachloride, some paints, and many other nonpolar liquids are immiscible with water. The attraction between the molecules of such nonpolar liquids and polar water molecules is ineffectively weak. The only strong attractions in such a mixture are between the water molecules, so they effectively squeeze out the molecules of the nonpolar liquid. The distinction between immiscibility and miscibility is really one of degrees, so that miscible liquids are of infinite mutual solubility, while liquids said to be immiscible are of very low (though not zero) mutual solubility.\n\nTwo liquids, such as bromine and water, that are of moderate mutual solubility are said to be partially miscible. Two partially miscible liquids usually form two layers when mixed. In the case of the bromine and water mixture, the upper layer is water, saturated with bromine, and the lower layer is bromine saturated with water. Since bromine is nonpolar, and, thus, not very soluble in water, the water layer is only slightly discolored by the bright orange bromine dissolved in it. Since the solubility of water in bromine is very low, there is no noticeable effect on the dark color of the bromine layer (Figure 8).\n\nThis figure shows three test tubes. The first test tube holds a dark orange-brown substance. The second test tube holds a clear substance. The amount of substance in both test tubes is the same. The third test tube holds a dark orange-brown substance on the bottom with a lighter orange substance on top. The amount of substance in the third test tube is almost double of the first two.\n\nFigure 8. Bromine (the deep orange liquid on the left) and water (middle) are partially miscible. (right) The top layer in this mixture is a saturated solution of bromine in water; the bottom layer is a saturated solution of water in bromine. (credit: Paul Flowers)\n\nSolutions of Solids in Liquids\n\nThe dependence of solubility on temperature for a number of inorganic solids in water is shown by the solubility curves in Figure 9. Reviewing these data indicate a general trend of increasing solubility with temperature, although there are exceptions, as illustrated by the ionic compound cerium sulfate.\n\nThis shows a graph of the solubility of sugar C subscript 12 H subscript 22 O subscript 11, K N O subscript 3, N a N O subscript 3, N a B r, K B r, N a subscript 2 S O subscript 4, K C l, and C e subscript 2 left parenthesis S O subscript 4 right parenthesis subscript 3 in g solute per 100 g H subscript 2 O at temperatures ranging from 0 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees Celsius. At 0 degrees Celsius, solubilities are approximately 180 for sugar C subscript 12 H subscript 22 O subscript 11, 115 for K N O subscript 3, 75 for N a N O subscript 3, 115 for N a B r, 55 for K B r, 7 for N a subscript 2 S O subscript 4, 25 for K C l, and 20 for C e subscript 2 left parenthesis S O subscript 4 right parenthesis subscript 3. At 0 degrees Celsius, solubilities are approximately 180 for sugar C subscript 12 H subscript 22 O subscript 11, 115 for K N O subscript 3, 75 for N a N O subscript 3, 115 for N a B r, 55 for K B r, 7 for N a subscript 2 S O subscript 4, 25 for K C l, and 20 for C e subscript 2 left parenthesis S O subscript 4 right parenthesis subscript 3. At 100 degrees Celsius, sugar C subscript 12 H subscript 22 O subscript 11 has exceeded the upper limit of solubility indicated on the graph, 240 for K N O subscript 3, 178 for N a N O subscript 3, 123 for N a B r, 105 for K B r, 52 for N a subscript 2 S O subscript 4, 58 for K C l, and the graph for C e subscript 2 left parenthesis S O subscript 4 right parenthesis subscript 3 stops at about 92 degrees Celsius where the solubility is nearly zero. The graph for N a subscript 2 S O subscript 4 is shown in red. All others substances are shown in blue. The solubility of this substance increases until about 30 degrees Celsius and declines beyond that point with increasing temperature.\n\nFigure 9 This graph shows how the solubility of several solids changes with temperature.\n\nThe temperature dependence of solubility can be exploited to prepare supersaturated solutions of certain compounds. A solution may be saturated with the compound at an elevated temperature (where the solute is more soluble) and subsequently cooled to a lower temperature without precipitating the solute. The resultant solution contains solute at a concentration greater than its equilibrium solubility at the lower temperature (i.e., it is supersaturated) and is relatively stable. Precipitation of the excess solute can be initiated by adding a seed crystal (see the video in the Link to Learning earlier in this module) or by mechanically agitating the solution. Some hand warmers, such as the one pictured in Figure 10, take advantage of this behavior.\n\nThree photos of hand warmers are shown side by side with an arrow pointing from the first photo to the second, and another arrow pointing from the second photo to the third. The first packet contains a clear colorless liquid and a small metal disc can be seen. In the second packet, the disc can’t be seen and a dispersion of white liquid is beginning. In the third packet, all of the liquid is white.\n\nFigure 10. This hand warmer produces heat when the sodium acetate in a supersaturated solution precipitates. Precipitation of the solute is initiated by a mechanical shockwave generated when the flexible metal disk within the solution is “clicked.” (credit: modification of work by “Velela”/Wikipedia)\n\nChemistry End of Chapter Exercises\n\n 1. Suppose you are presented with a clear solution of sodium thiosulfate, Na2S2O3. How could you determine whether the solution is unsaturated, saturated, or supersaturated?\n 2. Supersaturated solutions of most solids in water are prepared by cooling saturated solutions. Supersaturated solutions of most gases in water are prepared by heating saturated solutions. Explain the reasons for the difference in the two procedures.\n 3. Suggest an explanation for the observations that ethanol, C2H5OH, is completely miscible with water and that ethanethiol, C2H5SH, is soluble only to the extent of 1.5 g per 100 mL of water.\n 4. Calculate the percent by mass of KBr in a saturated solution of KBr in water at 10 °C. See Figure 9 for useful data, and report the computed percentage to one significant digit.\n 5. Which of the following gases is expected to be most soluble in water? Explain your reasoning.\n 1. CH4\n 2. CCl4\n 3. CHCl3\n 6. At 0 °C and 1.00 atm, as much as 0.70 g of O2 can dissolve in 1 L of water. At 0 °C and 4.00 atm, how many grams of O2 dissolve in 1 L of water?\n 7. Refer to Figure 3.\n 1. How did the concentration of dissolved CO2 in the beverage change when the bottle was opened?\n 2. What caused this change?\n 3. Is the beverage unsaturated, saturated, or supersaturated with CO2?\n 8. The Henry’s law constant for CO2 is 3.4 × 10-2M/atm at 25 °C. What pressure of carbon dioxide is needed to maintain a CO2 concentration of 0.10 M in a can of lemon-lime soda?\n 9. The Henry’s law constant for O2 is 1.3 × 10-3M/atm at 25 °C. What mass of oxygen would be dissolved in a 40-L aquarium at 25 °C, assuming an atmospheric pressure of 1.00 atm, and that the partial pressure of O2 is 0.21 atm?\n 10. How many liters of HCl gas, measured at 30.0 °C and 745 torr, are required to prepare 1.25 L of a 3.20-M solution of hydrochloric acid?\n\nSelected Answers\n\n2. The solubility of solids usually decreases upon cooling a solution, while the solubility of gases usually decreases upon heating.\n\n4. At 10 °C, the solubility of KBr in water is approximately 60 g per 100 g of water.\n\n[latex]\\%\\text{KBr}=\\frac{\\text{60 g KBr}}{\\left(60+100\\right)\\text{g solution}}=40\\%[/latex]\n\n6. This problem requires the application of Henry’s law. The governing equation is Cg = kPg. [latex]k=\\frac{{C}_{\\text{g}}}{{P}_{\\text{g}}}=\\frac{0.70\\text{g}}{1.00\\text{atm}}=0.70\\text{g}{\\text{atm}}^{-1}[/latex]\n\nUnder the new conditions, Cg = 0.70 g atm-1 × 4.00 atm = 2.80 g.\n\n8. [latex]{P}_{\\text{g}}=\\frac{{C}_{\\text{g}}}{k}=\\frac{0.10M}{3.4\\times {10}^{-2}M\\text{/atm}}=2.9\\text{atm}[/latex]\n\n10. First, calculate the moles of HCl needed. Then use the ideal gas law to find the volume required. M = mol L-1\n\n\nx = 4.00 mol HCl\n\nBefore using the ideal gas law, change pressure to atmospheres and convert temperature from °C to kelvins.\n\n\nx = 0.9803 atm\n\n[latex]V=\\frac{nRT}{P}=\\frac{\\left(4.000\\cancel{\\text{mol}}\\text{HCl}\\right)\\left(0.08206\\text{L}\\cancel{\\text{atm}}\\cancel{{\\text{K}}^{-1}}\\cancel{{\\text{mol}}^{-1}}\\right)\\left(303.15\\cancel{\\text{K}}\\right)}{0.9803\\cancel{\\text{atm}}}=\\text{102 L HCl}[/latex]\n\n\nHenry’s law\nlaw stating the proportional relationship between the concentration of dissolved gas in a solution and the partial pressure of the gas in contact with the solution\n\nof negligible mutual solubility; typically refers to liquid substances\n\nmutually soluble in all proportions; typically refers to liquid substances\n\npartially miscible\nof moderate mutual solubility; typically refers to liquid substances\n\nof concentration equal to solubility; containing the maximum concentration of solute possible for a given temperature and pressure\n\nmaximum concentration of a solute that may be achieved at a given temperature and pressure\n\nof concentration that exceeds solubility; a nonequilibrium state\n\nof concentration less than solubility", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9735081791877747}
+{"content": "Shanghai moving towards becoming a science and technology hub\n\n18 Jul 2019\n\nShanghai will be working towards becoming known as home to a science and technology hub as it shifts its focus to make developments in artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing. \n\nZhangjiang Science City, in Pudong has seen several tech companies moving their market there. Alibaba, IBM and Microsoft are just a few big firms amongst other businesses who established shops in Shanghai’s ‘AIsland’, which became a technological hub. \n\nXia Yuzhong at the Science and Economy Commission said, ‘AI’s application requires co-ordinated adaptation to real-life scenarios,’ adding, ‘We hope these top-tier AI companies can lead the industrial application and innovation aggregation of AI and generate more transferable and duplicable experiences to other parts of the country.’ \n\nThe government created Shanghai’s ‘AIsland’ as part of the Shanghai National Pilot Area for the Innovative Development of New-Generation AI, which was agreed on in May. \n\nDeputy general economist of Shanghai Zhangjiang Group Co Ltd, Han Lu, who is also responsible of the AI area said that pilot programs will be carried out, and that, ‘The pilot zone should be a prototype mimicking what future cosmopolitan life should look like.’ \n\nThe main reason for the construction of the area and the development in AI is to help boost the economy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9975721836090088}
+{"content": "SourceLevels Enum\n\n\nSpecifies the levels of trace messages filtered by the source switch and event type filter.\n\nThis enumeration has a FlagsAttribute attribute that allows a bitwise combination of its member values.\n\npublic enum class SourceLevels\npublic enum SourceLevels\ntype SourceLevels = \nPublic Enum SourceLevels\n\n\nActivityTracing 65280\n\nAllows the Stop, Start, Suspend, Transfer, and Resume events through.\n\nAll -1\n\nAllows all events through.\n\nCritical 1\n\nAllows only Critical events through.\n\nError 3\n\nAllows Critical and Error events through.\n\nInformation 15\n\nAllows Critical, Error, Warning, and Information events through.\n\nOff 0\n\nDoes not allow any events through.\n\nVerbose 31\n\nAllows Critical, Error, Warning, Information, and Verbose events through.\n\nWarning 7\n\nAllows Critical, Error, and Warning events through.\n\n\nThe source levels identify the TraceEventType events that are to be traced. The SourceSwitch class uses the SourceLevels enumeration to define the event level of the trace message to use for filtering messages to send to the trace listener.\n\nThe EventTypeFilter class uses the SourceLevels enumeration to determine whether a trace listener should emit a trace.\n\nApplies to", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7024343013763428}
+{"content": "Loan Options\n\nThere are several different types of home loans for both new home buyers and current homeowners. The most appropriate option will depend on your situation and your goals for the mortgage. The table below offers a quick look at the basics of each loan type then additional details for each are provided in the info that follows.\n\nLoan options can sometimes be confusing, so I'm happy to answer any questions you have and to provide guidance as you make a decision. Together, we can review the pros and cons of each option and decide which type of loan best fits your needs.\n\n\n*Appraised property value may affect loan amount.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.533074140548706}
+{"content": "Page 1\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nby James Paddock\n\nthe colors of happiness Houda Bakkali\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMore at pages: 6-7 On the cover: Don Quixote Time , Houda Bakkali\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\nby James Paddock\n\nPylon production still, 2019, James Paddock\n\nIf you have a mental health condition that enables you to see life differently, then you might produce a different and unique perspective within your artworks. I’ve tried to use this thought to enable me to approach my new mixed media installation artwork ‘PYLON’, which is about a journey a psychotic young woman takes. I always seek to produce artworks that bring about a different angle on contemporary conversations. We need to be free to express and talk about what we choose. For people to dictate how others should think is beyond me. In the western world, hearing voices has long been pathologized and seen as a problem for society. In places like Africa, Asia and Australasia voice hearing is often seen in a positive way. I personally feel this is a topic that needs further discussion.\n\nmedia video installation ‘PYLON’. My collaborators and I prepared well for an intensive three days of filming. Wow, was it exhausting! Director of Photography, Rob Luckins kept us on schedule, his expertise proving valuable on the shoot. He also got what I was trying to portray within the film and help create the psychotic experience through his camera lens.\n\nStigma is so severe for voice hearers, in order for other types of human experience to be seen as acceptable, we need to discuss openly about our thoughts and feelings. Be that in the everyday or about mental health.\n\nPrior to filming, with Amber Weyman I had been working on the character development of the main protagonist ‘Lily’. We did lots of rehearsals and workshops so Amber could make the transition from performing to an audience to being filmed, where the camera will pick up her every move. We also worked on hair,\n\nWe have been filming the video footage for my mixed\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\nmake up and costume. Amber looked great whilst performing to camera and our preparatory work payed off! She has made the role of Lily her own and gave the performance I had in my mind and more. Sound recordist Richard Gott is creating the audio soundscape for ‘PYLON’. He has undertaken research for the project by reading academic and medical papers on psychosis. In his own words “Researching auditory hallucinations has been fascinating for me… understanding how they manifest, what type of sounds might be heard, how they are experienced and where the sounds appear to be located”. Richard has also interviewed me about the sound elements of a psychotic episode. We are using binaural sound to offer the art viewing public and idea of how a psychotic experience is.\n\nAmber Weyman on Location, photo: Julien Leost\n\nAfter an exhausting three days of filming physically and mentally, all involved delivered and wow, did we capture what I had in my head! Amber was in costume, looking like a strong young woman beginning her journey on an acute stage of a psychosis mission. Amber has lived dissociative disorder so she had witnessed people around her who had full blown psychosis, she had experienced close to what I wanted to portray which was another land, another world. An alternative reality, that only some would have encountered until now. I wish to break down stigma and share the journey of a young psychotic.\n\nJames Paddock and collaborators, photo: Will Davies\n\nWe also had experienced actress Gillian Tully arrive on set (with Limoni the chihuahua and her owner). Gillian who captured in her scene, the intensity of the paranoid experience. We were all on location to deliver a blow, to established Western world beliefs of psychosis, then Gillian’s presence appeared. Her Character, strong piercing and uncomfortable. Just the type of person you would not want to meet on an acute psychotic experience. Amber and Gillian were in unison, yet, going up against each other, in a psychotic clash. Now the filming is complete we will soon begin editing the audio and visual elements together. I will also begin building the sculptural parts of the ‘PYLON’ installation with the help of fellow artist David McDiarmid.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nHouda Bakkali\n\n\nThe international artist Houda Bakkali has been awarded the Graphis Silver Award for the artwork “Too many fishes, too few loaves” and with two Graphis Honorable Mention for the artworks “Don Quixote Time” and “Time of Nobody”. Graphis is one of the most prestigious international publishers of communication, design, advertising, photography and illustration books. Based in New York, is considered one of the greatest bastions of design and contemporary art. Two of this artworks has been exhibited at the Parador of Lorca in a solo exhibition during May 2019. The Parador has one of the most important art collections in Spain. From Gothic carvings from the 14th century to Flemish tapestries made from Rubens illustrations, and much more. Since its founding in 1928, this hotel chain has nourished the walls of its monumental buildings with the best art. There is no other known hotel establishment in the world that has more than 9,000 pieces of art.\n\nToo many fishes, too few loaves This digital illustration is a colourful and pop representation of the world in which we live, a world with too few fish and too few loaves. Color, optimism, rhythm and freshness for a dark world in which every day\n\nTime of nobody\n\nthere is more competition and fewer opportunities. The pop man observes his prey between ideas, moments and circumstances that appear in a thousand different colours. The pop man waits and observes serenely, capable of fighting and making his dreams come true, capable of achieving his dreams in an unpredictable world.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\nDon Quixote Time This artwork (on the cover), based on the digital illustration in combination with digital collage, is a tribute to Don Quixote and to its universal values: reflection, conversation, understanding, humour and wit, colour, words for love and hope. It is the time of words and stories. It is the time of optimism and hope. It is the time of fantasy and dreams. It’s time for legends with happy endings. It is a time of reflection. It is the time of genius and madness. It is a time of the Don Quixote of the 21st Century.\n\nTime of nobody This is a reflection of our time. This is the time of filters and selfies. This is the time to share vanity. This is the time of anonymous friends. This is the time to speak with emoticons. This is a time of virtual likes. This is the time of a huge circus, empty of the beautiful sound of the words, the beautiful experience of conversation, the beautiful experience of looking at each other. This is time to follow nobody.\n\nToo many fishes, too few loaves\n\nHouda Bakkali is a digital artist, based in Barcelona, with more than 10 years of experience in digital art and visual communication. Likewise, she worked in print and graphics publishing and digital marketing. Her first visual work dates back to 2008 when she published the series “Africa sweet and pop”, a personal, colourful, optimistic and full of hope tribute to her origins. Houda grew up in the Lavapiés neighbourhood, one of the most cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhoods in Madrid (Spain), a place that the artist always associate with her passion and motivation for art. Houda Bakkali has exhibited in Paris, Madrid, Cannes, Barcelona, Lorca, Biarritz…, and her work, techniques and creative process have been recognized by different institutions and international magazines. She has been awarded the Prestigious American Illustration 38 Award (New York, 2019), the New Talent Prize in Cannes 2018, the Excellent Award for the Circle Foundation for the Arts in Lyon, France 2019, among others international distinction.\n\nAlesha Art Kazan, Russia\n\nI think my art comes from nightmares and society that I leave in. Probably most of the people don’t like what I paint and what art install on the streets. They don’t want to believe that those characters surround them every day. Some of my subjects are scary, others quite beautiful. It’s up to you that you see and want to believe. I am just trying to inspire others to look at the world more carefully and show that art can exist and speak to anyone. Alesha is alter ego - was born in Russia, Kazan in 1992. At the age of 16, he moved to England to study film making. During 4 years he spends time closely with painters and artists. That group of young minds inspired him to start painting and learn more about the art world which he never heard before. In 2012 he moved in America to continue his film making degree. Two years in NY and one year in LA brought a new vision for his art and interest in the street art world. These experiences formed and grew his style in his work today. Nowadays Alesha lives is Russia, continue to paint and keep growing as an artist. On film making course he learned to focus on details but never forget about the entire picture. His style what he likes to call: “Beautifully Disturbing”. With some bold and eye-popping colour, multiple layers of paint and characters that almost feels like a life - Alesha allowing the work to take on its own and switch off from what we call «opinion».\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? For me, its entire art scene with fresh amazing artists, it’s not always they have a spot under the gallery or collectors, but their energy and scale of work is just pushing me forward. I like when there is a challenge between street artists, who will make it bigger or smarter, more or local? Also, my art, when I look back at my painting, I am asking myself: “Seriously, I was painting that three years ago? Then what will happen in the next three years, then I will be looking back at my art with I create today”. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? Keep on going and don’t give up. At one moment I can feel strength and energy in my mind about an art career, and a few hours later I will be so depressed and asking myself: «Why am I doing this» But I can’t stop painting. Financial position isn’t always on my side, but as long as I have a place to sleep, studio to paint and food to eat, I am good.\n\nOnce I didn’t paint for a month, and I had nightmares with my characters who were alive and they were trying to eat me. After that, I don’t stop painting. In your opinion, what does art mean in contemporary culture? Sometimes I feel its just a new way of making money, it’s so commercialised, and more people are thinking about art as money investment. On one hand its not so bad for artists, we can keep on creating while they are buying and its much better than working 9-5 and only on Saturday and Sunday spend time in your studio. On the other hand, it’s not about that, I create because I can’t stop, something is inside me keep on pushing me forward, and money doesn’t mean anything at all, but we all want to eat. I am happy for the art industry, and how quickly it’s growing, nowadays people who stand out from the others can get attention and create big projects because spotlights are on them. As before society wasn’t ready for living artists. How would you describe the art scene in your area? “Local street art is so poor, that I feel so rich” -thats what happening with street art in my city and I feel same for my country, some people are trying to do something but its just not on that level yet. About art in the galleries, well people who have money and actually buying art, not always mind open and that causes boring exhibitions with calm art. Sometimes young artists do something, small exhibitions or events but its just 3-5 times a year. Name three artists you admire. Michel Reeder, Anthony Lister, Revok What are your future plans? During summer time - organise last solo show in my city, paint on the streets, install as many installations as I can, complete two collaborations with shoe company and craft beer company, present my new clothing series. For the upcoming year - Move to the other city «Saint-Petersburg», grow as an artist and make crazier projects.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nEmma Balder\n\nHouston, TX / Denver, CO, USA\n\nRadical transformation and regeneration is the core of Emma Balder’s artistic practice. By reconstructing deteriorated textile waste, in it’s smallest form, Balder’s works unveil beauty in the discarded. Color, form and line work together to shape a new reality for these neglected parts. This culmination of visual elements alludes to the process of transformation: linework and form revealing the product of time, change, and new growth, while the emphasis of color and texture delineates stories of the past. Here, Balder’s material exists not as waste, but as cultural compost, reincorporated into the soil that feeds her work. The process is a visceral one: first composing the fibers intuitively, then extracting and highlighting recognizable imagery from seemingly abstract forms. Carefully manipulating the fibers, often using a paintbrush, tweezers, and matte medium, Balder pushes and pulls the fibers along the substrate, creating an intimate collaboration with her material. Mark-making with graphite follows as a response to the organic contours of the fibers, and synthetic color is accentuated with acrylic and gouache. The resulting image reveals each fiber dancing along the surface, exhibiting a dynamic energy and aesthetic that is as unique as the materials’ histories. By focusing on the miniscule and most often forgotten, Balder breathes new life into neglected material, reconstructing reality and referencing a universal experience of transformation. Emma Balder is a visual artist with a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work has been featured in Art Maze Mag, Fresh Paint Magazine, Dialogist, 303 Magazine and has exhibited extensively in the US and abroad, in spaces such as Trestle Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center, and Aqua Art Fair. The artist was awarded a Staff Artist Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center and named a finalist of the Peripheral Vision Foundation Fellowship. She has facilitated fiber painting workshops throughout Colorado, including at the MCA Denver, and has received support for her work from organizations such as the Dave Bown Projects and Meow Wolf. She is currently an artist in residence at BOX13 Artspace in Houston, Texas and has a solo show in the fall of 2019 at Heidi Vaughan Fine Art.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? Growth, change, and discovering truth in my life experiences all influence my practice. My work is about transformation. Through transforming the materials that I use, I am processing my own experiences of change, and the growth which comes along with that. This process can be gentle and subtle, and often takes time, patience, and reflection. That being said, the natural world also has a lasting influence on my practice. Nature provides me that space for reflection, as well as research. Being in nature can be very similar to being in the studio: they both hold sacred space. Nature has a way of opening up the mind, body and spirit in a way that being holed up in the studio cannot quite capture. That natural opening brings a little more space and reflection into the work. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? Sometimes the most challenging part can be simply getting started. Once I begin painting, however, I easily find myself in a flow state in which stopping doesn’t feel like an option.\n\nAnother challenging part can be initially learning how to get your name out there. It’s certainly difficult as an introvert, and can be incredibly exhausting. Over time, however, it does become easier, and I think you figure out how to balance your time networking and self-promoting, and time resetting alone and in the studio. In your opinion what does art mean in contemporary culture? Art is a product of creative expression, and can often be a response to contemporary culture. However, I think good art is always ten steps ahead of what is contemporary. It may be a reflection of what is happening in the present moment, but it still holds some glimpse into the future. I also think that in the tech-driven direction our culture is moving, art in physical form is becoming more and more important. I don’t want to say that viewing art in person is becoming obsolete, but sometimes it does feel that way. Technology is beautiful in that it allows us to access virtually anything from anywhere in the world, and it can provide the simulation of an art experience to people who may not have the privilege of being in proximity to museums or galleries. But technology can never replace the real deal. That goes for anything, be it art, community, relationships, etc. Of course, technology can bring awareness to many situations and experiences, which is a beautiful thing, but as long as we are experiencing life through the filter of a screen, we are creating a barrier to reality. In terms of art, technology can never capture the power and emotion of witnessing something in real life that is made by human hands. How would you describe the art scene in your area? Spending time between Denver and Houston, it’s very interesting to compare the scene in both areas. Houston has so many museums, galleries, collectors, arts organizations, institutions, etc. It’s a huge city, so obviously there are a lot more opportunities regardless of your field. Denver and Houston have very different scenes in terms of landscape, values and climate. It’s really comparing apples to oranges: both places have different skin, texture, taste, seeds, growing conditions, etc.\n\nMore specifically, in both art scenes, it feels like there’s some fear around honest feedback. I think people generally want to be very supportive, which is wonderful. However, there’s a lot to be said for speaking from the heart. From what I’ve heard, this isn’t a problem limited to these two cities, but there is a lack of critical dialogue and feedback in many artist communities. I see social media as somewhat to blame for that. It certainly makes it easy for us to connect with other artists, but it also drives us away from communicating authentically. Being able to express what we truly think, as well as digest and respond to criticism, is very important. It’s too easy to tell someone that you like their work. It’s challenging, but invaluable, to tell someone if something isn’t working for them, and to push them to do better. In Houston, I also think it may be a bit more challenging to break into the scene as a newcomer without having community and people to introduce you to others. Houston is heavy on networking, and if you know someone who knows someone, you’re golden. Whereas in Denver, it feels like you can be an outsider, not know anyone, and still feel accepted and welcomed in a way that’s not exclusive to who or what you know. Name three artists you admire. Wayne Thiebaud’s use of color in his paintings is outstanding. His works were a big part of my desire to become a painter. I’ve been recently really into Meg Lipke’s work. The three-dimensionality of her paintings is quite captivating. I also was recently introduced to Adam Fowler’s drawings. His works are very gestural, yet so planned, precise, and intimate. What are your future plans? I’m currently preparing for an upcoming solo show in October 2019 at Heidi Vaughan Fine Art in Houston. I am excited to be focusing on bigger, more substantial projects and spending time diving deeper into my work. I will be having more solo shows in the future, creating much larger works, and more rentable art installations. I will also be participating in some more fairs, including during the 2019 Miami Art Week.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\nNatalie Christensen Santa Fe, NM, USA\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nTell us a little about your background and how that influences you. I had a successful career of over 20 years as a psychotherapist before beginning my career as an artist. When I am making my photographs, I am looking for scenes that speak to me and visually represent an idea or a current or past struggle related to my life. Sometimes I do not fully understand why a particular scene draws me in, but it is tapping on my subconscious mind - possibly a sliver of a dream or long forgotten experience creeping back in. I spent much of my career delving into the internal experiences of my clients, and, at this stage of my life, the conversation is with myself via these ordinary objects and structures. My aim is to further the inner dialogue with myself and reveal something new.\n\n\nWhat is the most challenging part of working with photography? The technical aspects of photography have been challenging because I am self-taught as an artist and photographer. I have never taken a course in the technical or artistic aspects of photography, so the learning curve has been fairly steep. Name artists you’d like to be compared to. That is a really tough question! I can list the artists that influence me a great deal, and I am always humbled and thrilled if a comparison to them is made - those artists include Lewis Baltz, David Hockney, Richard Diebenkorn and Aaron Siskin. Do you think of yourself as a conceptual artist? I would say yes, because all of my work is about an idea first. I make photos of very ordinary objects and structures, and the photos generally retain their “thingness”; however, I am altering the subject matter conceptually by how I represent it. These “things” are open to interpretation from a psychological perspective for me and the viewer. Tell us more about “New Mexico Deconstructed” series. This was my first series of photographs and it was an early exploration into abstract images. When I started this body of work, I had recently moved to New Mexico and I was visually overwhelmed by it! New Mexico is so different from other places in the US. Looking back, I think the camera was a way to “control” and “understand” this place. I was highlighting what I see as the most essential elements of my new environment - light, color, and shadow. What are your future plans as an artist? To keep making work that matters to me, and to find opportunities to show the work in places that are contributing to the conversation in contemporary art in meaningful ways.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\nD´azure-Hernández San Pedro Garza García, Mexico\n\nAbstraction, in painting, can propose a similar exercise to this as well. Allowing the viewer to come up with new constructions to the meaning of these shown images. To edit a story and to be able to tell the essence of that tale in a few words is as valuable as adding every detail to it. Selecting bits and pieces of a story can, perhaps, lead us to think about the value and properties of those chosen pieces. By having a background in Visual Arts, Freddy D’azure-Hernández has learnt to explore different media and techniques going back an forth from video to painting it is clear that, for him, the construction of a video has became a way of creating a succession of paintings. Through this visual exploration he seeks to transfer pictorial issues, like the density of the paint, textures, patterns, lay outs. Every color pattern, arranged in a specific manner, like a precise composition in a painting and on videos has became a powerful source of visual stimulation while these may appeal you over using it may lead to different results, which has made D’azure wonder does overstimulation can making feel love or kill you? Since then, his visual interest has revolved around the concept of love or death through art to understand and appreciate life as much as personally and everyone around you or what surrounds you. Being motivated or provoked by a work of art is a rare but not rejected event, what he seeks is to cause an effect on his pieces in which the viewer is to reach the inner part of the brain and open the possibility of shaking some things in your body through the simple act of seeing. Ivonne Beltran\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? My last influence in my artistic practice has two aspects that go in hand with the expression or contribution that has always been my source of inspiration since my beginning as a visual artist and musician that is the love and death (two important elements in the life that I live with much detail) but now with a slope that at this time is very important to emphasize and express for all humanity, I mean the protection of our garden, our roof, shelter and all that living being that belongs to the planet earth, creating an artistic mix with the traditional roots\n\nof production of the arts in tandem with technology (new media) every time to another higher level that is why I do not stop keep studying and experimenting with everything that is at my hands that sincerely I do not limit myself to reach the objective. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? It is a very complex question but my answer is that from the beginning of art as a profession and lifestyle both for conviction or a need to survive to cover all our needs and stay tuned in life that have been many centuries since It became a vocation that\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nstarted all this epic journey creating a tangible alternate world where thanks to many characters that left us marked and inspired us in so many directions that we decide be part of this medium to give a meaning of the life. In your opinion, what does art mean in contemporary culture? It is somewhat complicated and hard to answer but I will be very direct that at this time the cultural shock has been created some divisions between the new generation and those who are part of the vieja escúela creating conflicts of studies, expression and the way to produce art making us struggle of the lack of sensitivity of everyone and most of them are the all the people that never been involved in this area and now making arts a spectacular show business who also unfortunately is overvalued creating economic instability that affects all of us who are part of this guild. How would you describe the art scene in your area? In a few words it is interesting, exciting and full of challenges that everyone has a really amazing proposal to contribute and we do not know where to look that every day there is a new element to respect and be on the spot of the reflectors that in my opinion, not only in my hometown, in my country but in every corner are rising titans of art that has reached that moment of the stage that marked a before and after in the history of art that will be a great moment in this new era. Name three artists you admire. - Karen Reyes (Mty, México) - Gerardo Monsivais (Mty, México) - Gerardo Yepiz ¨Acamonchi¨ (TJ, México/ San Diego, California) What are your future plans? Move out of my city where I have always resided to another country and keep going on my art work with more challenges evolving my artistic expression without losing my vision and stamp that identify me and also achive a better stability in every corner of my life.\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nPeter Davis\n\nManchester, UK I attended the Manchester School of Art from 1987-88 before going on to complete a BA (Hons) in Design for Communication Media. After spending twenty-five years as an advertising creative, I became a semi-professional artist in 2015, turning full-time in 2017. Since then I have had a solo show in 2018 at Warrington Museum & Art Gallery, exhibited twice in the ‘Artists of the Year’ show at Mall Galleries (2017 and 2019), and was invited to take part in last year’s ING Discerning Eye exhibition. I am a social realist painter. My aim is to capture the spirit of the age and create contemporary portraiture that tells stories about my sitters. I always try to create a visual dynamic in my compositions. Establishing a deliberate dichotomy in my work forces the viewer to focus on what that person is doing – and in doing so, it creates a sense of isolation and divorce from the real world and a psychological conflict in the painting between humanity and technology. I hope the more you look at my work, the more complexities unfold from what might at first seem to be a series of straightforward paintings.\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? These days, seeing people glued to their personal devices is so commonplace that we don’t give it a second glance. I am a social realist painter and my work poses questions about our digital age and the status of the human being within contemporary society. As the American writer, Henry Miller, puts it “What the painter sees he is duty-bound to share. Usually, he makes us see and feel what ordinarily we ignore or are immune to.” ‘Zeitgeist’ is my ongoing series of paintings that explores the subject of humanity and its relationship with personal technology. My aim is to capture the spirit of the age and create contemporary portraiture that tells stories about my sitters. I am particularly fascinated by how the physical and digital versions of ourselves are changing - personal technology is fundamentally altering the way we interact with each other, and this change is what I want to chronicle through my practice. I started this body of work when I became a professional artist in 2015. Prior to that I was a full-time advertising creative and the campaigns that I worked on had become increasingly centered on people using personal devices as their primary touch point - this has definitely influenced my body of work as an artist. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? I am a self-taught painter, which brings with it a big serving of self-doubt. Like lots of other artists I regularly suffer from imposter syndrome, but my time in the advertising industry has taught me that publicity is key and, whatever state your heads in, you’ve got to keep getting your name out there. Making a decent living as a professional artist is extremely difficult and there are only one or two people that I know who are fortunate enough to being doing that. For me it’s really important that my motivations for painting aren’t driven by the pursuit of achieving revenue. I feel that as soon as you start trying to make art for money, you’re not making art any more. In your opinion what does art mean in contemporary culture? Oscar Wilde famously said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life”. As a social realist painter, I am a great believer that the role of an artist is to hold a mirror up to society. For me, being able to focus on the often-overlooked elements of contemporary society is something I really enjoy about my work - whether that’s capturing the solitary absorption of a technology addict or highlighting the paradox of the anti-social nature of social media. I think our ever-more consuming attachment to person-\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\ngreat news not only to keep the society fresh but also to help it regain its prominence in the city’s art scene. Name three artists you admire. I absolutely love the work of Barkley L Hendricks (1945 – 2017), the American social realist painter famous for his paintings of black men and women during the1960s and 70s. I find the life-size portraits that he did in his limited palette series, of friends, relatives and strangers, especially powerful. His subject matter and graphic compositions are right up my street. Amy Sherald is another American artist that I’m a huge fan of, and her work has many parallels with Hendricks. Her incredible 2018 portrait of Michelle Obama has pushed her into the limelight. Her paintings are also very graphical and full of social and cultural zeitgeist narrative, which is why I’m so fascinated with them I think. Last but not least is Andrew Tift, a UK-based contemporary figurative artist that creates highly detailed and intensely realistic portraits. Just like Hendricks and Sherald, Tift doesn’t draw or paint from life. He openly admits to using ‘photography as his sketchbook’, honesty that I hugely admire when painters using photo reference are, sadly, still sneered upon by too many people. al technology is having a direct impact on the notion of what art means in contemporary culture. We are all now more visually aware than we’ve ever been. Social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are encouraging everyone to tell stories using compelling imagery, and as a result, our generation is creating incredibly aesthetic visual content everyday without really thinking about it. How would you describe the art scene in your area? The Greater Manchester Arts Prize for contemporary visual art is now in its fourth year and it’s a fantastic platform for both emerging and established artists to get their name out there. I was lucky enough to be runner up in 2018 and I am thrilled to be shortlisted again this year. Alistair Hudson (2015 Turner Prize judge) was appointed as the Director of Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth last year. He passionately believes in art being a tool for social change, and likes engaging with local communities - so I’m hopeful for what he is going to do to help practicing artists in our region. I am a member of the Manchester Academy of Fine (MAFA), a group founded in 1859 and who’s past members include the artists LS Lowry and Ford Madox Brown. There are now an increasing number of contemporary artists joining the Manchester Academy, which is\n\nWhat are your future plans? Digital technology is now established as the force that governs modern life and I’m looking forward to continuing to document our relationship with our personal devices, through my ‘Zeitgeist’ paintings. There’s such a rich vein of inspiration for this body of work that I don’t ever see myself turning my back on it. It’ll be fascinating to see how the stories that I am painting now will be viewed in ten or twenty years time – and how personal technology has moved on. Will we still be staring at our devices like zombies, or will technology be embedded into us by then?\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nLuca Fontana São Paulo, Brazil\n\nBorn in São Paulo, Brazil, I’ve had a great interest in photography since a was a young. I’ve taken some courses of photography in the Brazilian institute SENAC and in the last year I’ve moved to The Netherlands, where I’m now currently residing. I try to create a mystery atmosphere around “normal” scenes of the day to day life in a urban /big city, showcasing a story that can have many interpretations and meanings, there’s no right story or interpretation, the spectator knows as much as the photographer: nothing. In the big cities you don’t know (and probably never will) the people you see in the streets, you can only catch a glipse or have an idea of who they are by what they’re doing at the moment, how they’re dressed, the way they’re walking etc. This is what I try to document, those small moments, that can tell something about the subject or the location they’re in, but the story that the spectator creates is just as valid as mine.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? My photography has been mostly influenced by cinema and my life experiences. I love to tell stories, photography is my way of telling them without necessarily speaking because feelings are better than words. I try to create photographs that could be a scene of a movie, I love the “magic” of the cinema, the fact that you don’t need to tell a true story, that’s what I’m inspired by, by emotions, creativity, the fiction, the narrative that the viewer creates over my photographs are just as valid as mine, there’s no right story. My life experiences and feelings also influence my pictures, for me it’s impossible to make a good photograph without putting yourself on it. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? I think is valuing your work and being valued by others, many people don’t value art as it should. It’s very common for people to come asking for a free shoot in exchange for “exposure” or “experience”. Of course there are times in which you can benefit\n\nfrom it, but lots of times (if not most of) you’re just not giving enough value to your work. And as long as we (artists) keep working for free and not valuing what we do, there will still be people taking advantage of that. In your opinion what does art mean in contemporary culture? In the contemporary culture, due to the internet and the arise of cellphones and social media, art had become very accessible, almost everyone in our society consumes and has the means to produce art. The concept of art is very personal in my opinion, for me art is materializing your feelings into a product, it can be any product, from a song to a abstract painting. How would you describe the art scene in your area? I live in São Paulo, the biggest city of South America and one of the biggest in the world, so the art scene is obviously very rich, but what I feel is that there’s a lack of collaboration between\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nthe artists, everyone is doing their own work. I think that because of the social medias, sometimes we end up competing and caring too much for likes, we should actually be making collaborations with people we actually believe in and not by the amount of followers /likes in their Instagram account. I’m always looking for other artists to collaborate with, so if you’d like to make something, just send me an email, a message or anything and I’ll be more than happy to answer it! Name three artists you admire. Stanley Kubrick, there’s no wasted shots in his movies, every frame tells a story and that is what I’m trying to achieve. Fan Ho, his photographs are impressive, they certainly could’ve been taken out of a movie, there’s felling, story, composition, everything without the use of color. Cartier Bresson, he has become a sort of a cliché for street photographers, but there’s a reason for that, the way he framed his shots to tell a story was beautiful. What are your future plans? I’m currently working on a project untitled for now, but it’s a Science Fiction based series about a futuristic society that lives in overpopulated cities due to climate changes and industrial pollution most part of the planet has become inhabitable. The photographs of this series are being based in various Science Fiction movies like “Blade Runner” and “2001 - A Space Odyssey” and also on the ideas of futuristic cities from the 60s and 70s. I’m also looking to get more involved in Portrait photography as it’s always good to keep on learning and I would love to learn more about portraiture.\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nRodrigo FranzĂŁo SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil\n\nThe research is based on the relation that the human being has with the effects and the interferences of himself in the world. By incorporating often non-artistic materials into my works, the central idea is to create a reflection between body, form and world. The body is represented by the behavior of the human being, the form is composed by the use of textile elements and the world is the interpretation that relates gestalt psychology and philosophy of art. In the works, optical phenomena are developed, integrating the viewer by means of kinetic visual processes in order that the works extend in the space of the observer. In addition, also works in art is a style known as material painting in order to strengthen the relationship that art has with life. My work shows technical and aesthetic, mixing materials of different characteristics and sensitivity in order to build in the viewer a subjective approach to reality. I seek singularities in the field of philosophy, especially in Existentialism, a doctrine that focuses on the analysis of existence and the way humans exist in the world. I look at human behavior the psychological configuration in which we relate to the objects of mass production in order to find a way to make sense of our lives.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? There is an invisible world, an invisibility that makes us feel, think and act. I have always reflected on the connection that we have with the objects that are created by the human being to facilitate and make practical our conviviality with the world. Between man and object there is something that we do not see, something that is rich in personal affection, and which dialogues in a common way among all of us, which is the feeling. If we stop to think about it, we have the artist who holds a brush, between the artist and the canvas there is something that is immaterial, nobody sees, but it’s there, it exists, which is by many thinkers described as abstract, but which will help the artist to materialize his idea that will be called concrete. I believe that in this process the feeling is the concrete element, because both the artist and the canvas are abstract possibilities. Feeling moves the world, we are taken by it to all moments of our life, how could it be abstract being that it is it that makes us exist? I believe nothing exists until we are driven by feeling. The materialization of the objects of the world is abstract, for the objects are lacking in feeling, thinking or acting. Then they will only exist if the human being exists to give emotion, reason and utility that object. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? I think building a name is one of the biggest challenges. The beginning for anything\n\nin life is difficult as it is very uncertain. In addition, there are other challenges such as acceptance of work, personal exposure and the argumentation that will sustain artistic research and give meaning to the work. But perfecting creativity becomes the reward. In your opinion what does art mean in contemporary culture? For me contemporary culture is based on mass culture, technological advancements, the introduction of artificial intelligence in people’s lives, the exploration of Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and pharmaceutical research. With the evolution of the internet things seem to happen very fast, even the days seem to be shorter..I believe that Art is the perception necessary to connect all this movement. How would you describe the art scene in your area? My work is all based on the elements that can be found in the textile market. So much so that I develop a parallel career as a designer in the creation of fabrics for haute couture. Textile art has become more present, although it still suffers much prejudice, because it is described as a fragile and cheap art. Biennials of textile art around the world have encouraged many artists and greatly boosted this type of market. In the future, I believe that this artistic niche will be more receptive, because not the materials that should be taken into\n\n\naccount, but rather the idea, the concept of the work of art being expressed. Name three artists you admire. My main influences are Eva Hesse, she presents the work of art as an object that extends into the space of the observer; Günther Uecker, studied the optical phenomena that integrated the viewer and Antoni Tàpies, worked in a style that became known as painting material. I also like the ideas of Robert Rauschenberg when he says that painting is about art and life, and that neither can be created. My idea for art is to approach a subjective style, which translates the feeling I have experienced in the world. I believe that feeling is the recognition of our existence. What are your future plans? When I think of the direction of my carreer, I think about what is happening to the world, and how we react to it is interfering in our future. On collective individualism and what we will leave as an inheritance for the next generations. As an artistic goal, I want to improve my work more and more, always reinforcing my researches with philosophical arguments that support in the psychological field. I have the observer as an important element for my creations, I want to have the opportunity to work more with installations that mix technology with textile art and possibly colaborate with other artists on exciting projects.\n\nLarry Goode\n\nAustin, TX, USA\n\nIn my work I draw a line between youthful experiences of places half-remembered — and now disappeared due to the natural deconstruction of things — and our use of idols through which we give our memories weight and meaning. The symbols I use in my work: water towers, billboards, lamp posts, abandoned drive-in movie screens, are craven idols that draw the viewer into my past through which they become aware of their own idols of memory. There is a texture I use that forces a vision of riding on horseback or wearing worn tennis shoes with no socks, guardedly picking a way around the hills and crevasses of the disrupted landscape of an abandon drive-in or cattle ranch. Caution is imperative as there are dangers just below the surface and hidden in the grass. The texture in the work is constructed using incongruous materials such as discarded paper, charcoal, dirt, metal and oil sticks melted and burned into one — like a bonfire smelling of gasoline and chemicals, churning dark smoke seen at a great distance. I create these pieces over a long period of time. Living with them, warily watching them, until I see, usually in a flash, what should be added or taken away. After the required adjustment, the process begins again until finally there is nothing left to change and the piece is finished and delivered to an audience of believers. Larry Goode is a mixed-media artist known for thoughtful collages and paintings that explore humor, whimsy, and melancholy. Using found objects, antique paper, and paint, Goode creates scenes that clamor for touc, examination, and thought. “I try to instill in my work an ingenuous sense of wonder and curiosity, yet retain a sense of reflection and space. If I can achieve this, then I consider my work a success,”. Goode received his BFA from The University of Texas at Austin, and his MFA from Texas State University. He currently lives and works in Austin, Texas.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? The natural world, affected by the human touch, influences and drives much of my work. A flat slab of concrete stained by time and reclaimed by nature, an abandoned swimming pool in an overgrown field, a rusty water tower with its functionality in doubt, are all inspiration. These are objects deconstructed by time that symbolize both the physical realm and my hazy memory. Many of these memories come from my youth on a cattle ranch where the fields were populated by abandoned structures and roaming animals. I thought that it was curious that cattle were oblivious to the random, rusting, modern artifacts. They just stepped around them to nibble on chunks of grass. Nature continues even if the objects humans create do not, pointing out the temporal extraneousness of life. When I come across an object that interests me, on the ground or in a second-hand shop, I wonder if it had held importance beyond the utilitarian for someone, and why it was thrown away, or in the case of large objects, why they were abandoned, stepped around and forgotten. I save these abandoned artifacts, either physically (if I can get them into my truck) or as images in my imagination, and give them a new purpose. My painting, Ascension Day, uses decorative metal flowers found at a yard sale. These rusted flowers, once\n\nsuperfluous objects of decoration, became a central part of the painting representing rebirth and renewal—elevated by assigning them a meaning beyond their original purpose. In my piece, Paradise, a rusted water tower represents the actual tower from my memory, and acts as a goal for the viewer (or myself as a boy) to reach for. As the only object in the picture it represents the only goal possible. Continuing with the theme of nature and history, I am influenced by texture and objects that deconstruct over time, such as old peeling billboards that expose layers of ruined typography and decaying images. While these structures were originally created to advertise and inform, relentless deconstruction has created new compositions made with the random, but inevitable, forces of time and chance—altering the original images into something unexpected and inevitably beautiful. I use deconstruction as a tool in my work, adding and subtracting parts, using fire to combine and build, and scraping to reduce decaying layers until something beautiful emerges. Sometimes my paintings take months or more to complete while time shows me how to deconstruct the work. Daily life influences me; when walking my dog, going to the store or scanning for unexploded ordnance, I study the ground searching for patterns, textures\n\nand artifacts to use in my work. Concrete becomes the sea. Grass becomes a forest. Torn paper becomes animals. They wait to be saved. I collect them up. It could be a bone, or a feather, or just a photo I take of an interesting crack in the concrete. If you are open, influence is everywhere. I love storm clouds and turbulent weather. Unlike blue skies, that have always felt static, I love the movement, energy and potential danger in storms. I’ve seen large storms, from far away, coming straight at me. The wind turns cool and strong, and the sky darkens. Clouds throw off rain, snow, and hail that I shield my eyes from, but still want to watch through spread fingers. I “touch” these dangerous storm byproducts; weather textures I yearn to capture and communicate to the viewer. Like a blind person running their hands over a face, I want my work to be communed with by the viewers’ desire to touch and understand; to want to grab a piece of my clouds and take them away. Film and photography have strongly influenced the way I see and compose my work. I love films that have a slow pace, muted colors, and lots of space—both visually and story-wise. The films “Ida” and “Cold War”, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, struck me by the sparse framing. Each scene was like a carefully composed photograph with big sky and the actors relegated to the bottom third of the screen.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nThey convey a feeling of stillness and thoughtfulness. I love that they were shot in black and white and convey the qualities of early 20th century German modernism: themes I see and express in my work. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? I find that keeping up creative momentum, even when I’m feeling completely uninspired, is a real challenge. There are days I don’t feel like painting and must force myself to go into the studio and make something—and usually it’s these times that I come up with something unexpected and interesting. I might sit and stare at a blank canvas, or draw in my sketchbook, or just think and meditate. But when an idea does appear I like to be in a position to put it down on canvas or paper immediately. Another challenge is that I tend to get bored easily and will jump from technique to technique. This can be ok, and I find it interesting to experiment with different media, but it can be a drawback when trying to create a cohesive body of work over a long period of time. Jumping styles can break my chain of thought, making it hard to reclaim the meditative state that my best work comes from. It’s a bit like the “monkey mind” that Zen Buddhism speaks of, when one’s mind jumps from one thought to another, unable to find a quiet space to rest. If I maintain a focused stylistic narrative then I can push my pieces and see where they lead. Breaking the style and medium breaks the chain of marks making it hard to get back into the flow of the piece. In order to avoid this I’ll work in one style for a period of time, usually months, then let myself switch styles should I feel the need. For example in my Idolatry series, my current focus, I work towards sculptural painting using oil sticks, paper and lots of texture melted together with fire. In my “Theory of Flight” series that I worked on about 15 years ago, I painted on monotypes, gaining a much more flat feel. I also turn to altered books and 3-D sculpture on occasion. Over the last few years I find that I keep coming back to using texture and oil and wax, which has become my main method\n\n\nof expression, however I see parallels running through all my work using paper, texture, and panting as sculpture. Taking time to consider the work and self-editing is important. As with many artists I have trouble determining when a picture is finished. There is always the danger of overworking it. I have found that if I hang the work on my wall and live with it a while- days, weeks, or months- and don’t feel the need to change anything, only then do I consider the work finished. Name three artists you admire. It’s tough just naming three, but Anselm Kiefer, a German painter, has been very influential on my work. I love his use of large canvases, muted colors, heavy texture and odd objects to create very penetrating, and sometimes disturbing moods. His work can be both aggressive and sympathetic at once. His use of earth and sky, foreground and background, resonates with me. His output of paintings and installations is incredible and much of my interest in texture and found object art comes from his influence. Otto Dix is another artist I admire. I love early German expressionist art and in Dix’s captured the New Objectivity art movement in early twentieth century. His drawings and paintings of World War I scenes are powerful and I like the way he constructs his compositions and renders his figures. His painting, “War”, is particularly powerful. His works have a commentary and pointed point to them. Finally, I find Antony Gormley’s sculptures strongly compelling. The way his pieces interact with the environment is wonderful, working together they form a singular piece, such as “Sight”, in Greece. His work has a presence that goes beyond the tangible and into the spiritual. A “Case for an Angel” and “Field” are probably my favorite pieces.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nIn your opinion what does art mean in contemporary culture? I think art in contemporary culture is a tricky thing to define. So many ideas, imagery, films, and intellectual clutter are flying around that it is hard to know where art ends and entertainment begins. In this hyper-digital world everyone can be an artist (or think they can). It’s easy now to take a picture, paint a digital painting, or make a film quickly. But I wonder now about giving breathing space to consider (dare I say study) a work of art, or time to make art without the pressure to quickly put it out to the world on social media. How long should someone spend looking at a painting? How long should an artist spend working on a painting? Is fifteen seconds long enough to study a painting before moving on? Recently I was at the Salvador Dali museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, and I noticed that more people were interacting with the art through their phones than by actually looking at the art itself. Within fifteen seconds (I counted) of looking at “Bouquet”, one woman took a photo of the painting, texted it to someone, and moved on to the next painting, seemingly reducing the experience, and the art, to the level of a vacation photo. Would she have experienced the painting differently if she had left her phone at home? I am happy with museums that allow photography and photographing work that is interesting, but I would hope as a facsimile to study later, and not a diversion from the actual piece. Another man sat on a bench in front of the painting, “Morphological Echo”, acting vaguely bored, not viewing the art but punching buttons on his phone and taking photos. Does the act of texting a photo now define the art experience in contemporary culture as much as just looking at the art itself? Is there a tendency to keep an intellectual scorecard by the number of texts and posts we can make of our cultural experiences? Perhaps contemporary art has been reduced to the visual equivalent of a sound-bite. I wonder. Artists spend a lot of time crafting their work. A ceramicist friend of mine said it takes him around 4 hours plus 40 years to make a vase. In this immediate and rushed fifteen-second digital world do years of experience make any difference? Perhaps it is my yearning to give my efforts as an artist meaning, but I’m hopeful that people can become aware that they shortchange themselves when they spend just a few seconds looking at a work of art—and objects that are crafted by hand, and not exclusively viewed through a digital screen, have a lasting value. Recently I sold a painting to a woman who loved it partly because it’s meaning about redemption and rebirth spoke to her. My favorite question at shows and art fairs is “tell me about this painting”. It shows that the viewer is willing to spend the time to understand the meaning of a painting that interests them. How would you describe the art scene in your area? I moved to Austin in the 1980’s and have noticed a fundamental shift in the creative scene since then. I knew many people who created art and music, but very few had any illusions about making much money (even if they would like to). Art, music and movies were made for the joy of it and there was a comradery in creating art that was without a monetary motive. In Austin there were few galleries and fewer opportunities to sell art. This continued through the 1990’s but then the hi-tech industry exploded and the cost of living shot up. Understandably I noticed a shift away from art for art sake to art for money’s sake—where the number of sales became a yardstick for artistic success. Creativity became more monetized. Recently however, I have noticed a purer creative shift. As an educator, I see an increasing number of students (and also professionals) making sculpture, film, music and digital art because they find an intrinsic value in art that doesn’t necessarily have an obvious monetary component. There is recognition that art is good for the soul beyond material gain. They are going deeper, exploring their art and looking for ways to combine creativity with making a living. Because of this I think the scene is becoming more conceptual and interesting, if a bit fragmented and lacking an identifiable center. But I think this decentralization is inevitable the larger Austin grows. What are your future plans? I will keep painting as much as possible and see what unexpected avenues comes from it. This July I will be attending a residency at Chateau Orquevaux in France that I am very excited about. Other than that, I hope to get into more shows and connect with galleries and artists in bigger cities.\n\nCory Graham Stanton, KY, USA\n\nBorn and raised in the foothills of Appalachia, I have experienced poverty unlike any in the United States. Ours is a thirdworld nation hidden in the shadows of the wealthiest nation on earth, and forgotten. Where moonshiners and marijuana fields grew for generations past, have sprouted pharmacies and pain clinics to distribute poison more effectively to our population. Drunk with power, tax breaks and lobbyists, pharmaceutical companies peddled their wares to the people of the hills like candy. Like sugary, summer sweets on a hot July day. With this series, I hope to elicit the reaction of exactly that. A craving in the viewer, a desire to taste something so sweet while ignoring the warnings shoved under the rug. Something that in its simplest form appeals to us all with that basic evocation of happiness accompanying something as simple as a popsicle. Perhaps unaware that the center of that guilty craving is toxic.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? Growing up, I idolized Warhol, Basquiat, Herring and became infatuated with graffiti artists like Blade and Cliff 159. When Damien Hirst and Matthew Barney appeared on my radar, it was like a seismic shift in how I perceived the world and even the most inane objects in it. Above all, my culture and the place where I live (Eastern Kentucky) have the most influence on everything I do. It’s a difficult place to live, but it builds a hell of a lot of character. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? Exposure. It’s the double-edged sword of the 21st Century. There’s an ocean of brilliant, creative people making beautiful works every day, and technology brings every bit of it right to your lap. But damn is it worth it. I’d rather toil in obscurity than be denied the things I’ve seen. In your opinion, what does art mean in contemporary culture? Art is everything. We’re inundated with it every minute of the day, even when we aren’t thinking specifically about it. Packaging, chyrons, logos, street signs, architecture. Everything in our society is so heavily marketed these days, and the creators behind those campaigns are just as much artists as folks like Banksy who make a career out of satirizing it. Tell us more about the “Vendition” series. I live in the Appalachian region of the Southeastern United States. Essentially since the birth of the US, we’ve been the target of exploitation from robber-barons in this endless multigenerational cycle. Whether it’s timber extracted from our forests at pennies on the dollar, coal companies turning machine guns and bears loose on striking workers, chemical companies poisoning our water without consequence, or a dozen other attacks on our land and our people. This generation’s particular hell has been pharmaceutical companies and their willingness to turn an entire population into what amounts to a skeletal army of walking corpses in order to increase their own profit margins. In 10 months, McKesson Corp pumped three million pills into Kermit, West Virginia. Kermit is a town with a population of 400. 400 people, 10,000 pills a day. McKesson is trading at $125/share on the NYSE right now, while a kid in that same town can get picked up on a possession charge and thrown under the jail.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nThe bastards came into our towns, under the guise of “helping the chronically ill,” and lit us up like the dealers they are. Meanwhile lives are ruined, people are dying, and other than campaign lip service, not a damn soul in Washington actually wants to do a thing about it. But why would they? These same legalized cartels pour millions into their campaigns, and the rest of us get left to manage a war zone however we can. How would you describe the art scene in your area? Absolutely electric. It’s the best kept secret in the United States right now. Appalachia\n\nis the cultural hub of the universe, in my opinion. Every conceptual style of visual art, filmmaking, music… it’s everywhere. There’s a new festival popping up every week. My neighbor, Chelsea Nolan, is kicking in doors in the music scene, and her brother Josh Nolan has been a critical darling for years. He just released a new record, and it’s brilliant. Everyone owns a guitar or a camera, and from Erica Chambers to Jeremy Townsend, my social media feed is constantly filled with gorgeous work from people I see at the grocery store. Between the visual beauty of this place, the incredible talent, and the drive instilled in all of us to break our backs for our craft,\n\n\nthere’s not a place like it on the planet. Name three artists you admire. Right now there’s just such a glut of inspiration out there, with people like Conor Harrington, Andrew Brischler and Jean-Baptiste Bernadet creating masterpieces that my son will never be able to afford. What are your future plans? To keep shaking my fist at injustice until I’m too old to raise it, and to hopefully by then have someone around to raise it back up for me.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nStephanie McGowan Edinburgh, UK\n\nMcGowan makes large scale installations that play upon the dualities of painting and sculpture. Preoccupied with liminal space the work reflects on the abysses which punctuate everyday contemporary life. There is a threshold between what was and the next, a place of transition, waiting, and uncertainty. Drawn to the intersection between the natural world and the manmade, her installations frequently collide these two components in irregular formations, whilst questioning what would become of the world if unoccupied by humanity. Her most recent work takes the form of wooden structures which act as architectural supports for linen dipped in natural dyes. These fabrics, manifold in their layered dipping, embody skin like surfaces and impressions of the natural environment that surrounds us. Where possible McGowan works with materials that are native to the location of her installations. The work acts as an exploration of nature’s language, somewhat foreign to us, as if a mute dialogue or acoustic camouflage, denoting the idea of further life beneath the surface. Though her works are enamoured by transition, many also echo society’s feeling of anxiety. As we continuously edit ourselves in the search for perfection we are left in a state of unease. Her works capture a sense of this by playfully positioning the viewer in deceitfully precarious landscapes. The gap in between the outer and the inner, the what was and what’s next implies acts as a form of opening for narration. This distance is a thoughtful place where we can imagine and discover between fact and fiction new dialects and sceneries. McGowan was born in 1992, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. She obtained a first in a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at the Institute of Technology, Sligo, Ireland. Selected for her first solo show, ‘Fading Memories’, at The Hyde Bridge Gallery, Sligo in 2017 and was shortlisted for The RDS Visual Arts Awards 2017 as a result of her degree show. McGowan completed her MA in Contemporary Art Practice at The University of Edinburgh in 2018. She now lives and works in Edinburgh.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? My work is in tune with its physical surroundings, both as a response to and something which stimulates its environment and as such my practice is driven by material enquiry. Obsessed by the relationship materials form in shared spaces and how colour and form change our perception of an object, I am drawn to exploring contradictory material pairings in natural and manmade environments that reflect upon our contemporary society. I am compelled to investigate their limitations and am intrigued by the wonder of possible incongruous material formations. My aim is to create a space that has a timeless aesthetic, an atmosphere that excludes us from everyday life, a sort of liminal gap, open for interpretation and personal examination of the issues and controversy that face us in the contemporary climate. The materials used to possess a mysterious quality, creating an illusion so that it is not clear what is misplaced, discoloured or out of sync. Materials continue to influence a visual abstraction of everyday life through my visual narrative of installation, sculpture and painting. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? The most challenging part of being an artist for me is financial constraints. To work as an artist today is unbelievably hard as there’s so much competition in the visual art world. As there are so many talented artists, most of us still have to hold down a job to fund our creative endeavours. I can always iron out the creases in my studio practice however the difficulty is finding the time to slot this in around a day job. I think it’s important to be aware of what you consider success to be, this can be a challenge in itself, money isn’t everything, although it can be a tricky obstacle. I measure success as a healthy day in the studio working towards a deadline for a project. In your opinion, what does art mean in contemporary culture? I think art in contemporary culture is diluted throughout society, it’s everywhere; I’m just not sure how aware we are of it on a daily basis. It’s in alleyways to corner shops and it’s the beautifully erected architecture in the city to the restored bricks of original walls. We are continuously overwhelmed by the quantity of media and ever-evolving technology, and there is,\n\ntherefore, a constant flow of information stemming from chat rooms, stores, galleries and social media online. How we view art has drastically changed, we can view it all day, every day. As we are increasingly saturated by images, the competitive nature surrounding what is memorable and what is not becoming more apparent, though individuals are drawn to different things, clear trends exist. I believe this means that art is for everyone in contemporary culture, realising this, my work aims to create physical immersive and abstract environments that stop a viewer in their tracks through, visual, smell, sound and touch paused in a moment of reflection of contemporary society. How would you describe the art scene in your area? I live in County Sligo, Ireland but also recently completed a Masters in Contemporary Art Practice at the University of Edinburgh, so I’m based between the two. Sligo’s art scene has grown exponentially in the years I have lived here with the Cairde Sligo Arts Festival annually celebrating arts of many forms, all set to return from July 6th to 13th 2019. Most importantly there are many opportunities for both emerging and established artists. There are various art venues including The Model, The Hamilton Gallery and The Hyde Bridge Gallery. Edinburgh offers a larger scene, hustling and bustling with national and international talent, many artist-led initiatives and plenty of opportunities to show work. Name three artists you admire. Jessica Stockholder, Phyllida Barlow and Richard Tuttle. What are your future plans? My future plans involve a busy studio practice, working and showing nationally and internationally. A practice with no constraints or size limits, I’m not sure quite why, but I’ve always felt the urge to create big things while in the throw of making, but easily pull back due to practical points. I hope to show regularly and create a sustainable practice around my materials. As well as organising my studio life, I’d also like to keep my artistic inspirations fresh and sincere so in the future I certainly plan to travel more and continue my quest for personal fuel. I plan to make work that I enjoy making, be open to new possibilities and to new collaborations.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nOlga Pastekova Bratislava, Slovakia\n\nIn my work, I have long been reflecting the relationship between man and his environment - and especially fauna and flora - the causes and consequences of his behaviour. Nature can be without us, but we can not be without Nature. My projects are touching ecological and environmental problems. I’m interested in issues like cutting trees, missing forests, losing homes of animals, domesticating wild animals, hunting animals. I’m working in various branches of art - through graphics, video or installation, but my existential media is painting. I work mostly on wood – I cut it, carve into it, engrave it, burn it, paint on it. My work is dominated by dark colours and atmosphere of the night. I find inspiration in the world of animals such as wolves, bears, foxes and ravens. I work with my personal mythology - symbols of life, transformation, death. I like to work with humour or irony too.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nTell us a little about your background and how that influences you. Within the core of my paintings is the notion of a subject that lives in a sophisticated environment such as a city while at the same time there, too exists a strong feeling of unrest resulting from the devastation of flora and fauna. Nature can be without us, but we can not be without Nature. My works always comprise some beings, creatures, animals or their shadows. These subjects may be more or less specified, sometimes only suspected. I’m basically a figural painter. Most of the topics of my work come from the night. World of phantoms and myths is more real than reality. Distortion, an element of the grotesque and the ironic, forms the basis of my world view. I feel inspiration from something that was here before us and will remain long after we are gone – it is something mythological. I love myths, legends, fairy tales, and watch how they evolve from the time I was little. Someone once said that myths could only be narrated by those who have a myth of their own. I hope that within me, I have something like that as well. What is the most challenging part of working interdisciplinary? I’ve always liked to experiment with different materials and their contrasts by joining and blending a variety of elements. I work mainly with wood – I paint, engrave, carve, and even experiment with “fire painting”. I like searching for new ways and techniques, crossing borders of traditional medium. How would you describe the art scene in your area? I graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava (Slovakia), but I also studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (Austria). I move on both so that I can compare both of these scenes. I feel that Vienna is much more open - dynamic, and there are many possibilities. There are still new project spaces and galleries. Different art festivals and art fairs are held throughout the year. Many of my colleagues (artists) are from different countries, so it’s exciting for me to watch their work with other positions and backgrounds. It inspires me. Bratislava maybe does not have so many possibilities because it also depends on the support from public financers - city,\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nstate - recently was founded the “Slovak Arts Council”, which has opened up new possibilities. So besides traditional institutions - like for, eg. “City Gallery of Bratislava” - there are several interesting places such as “Cvernovka” - abandoned school, full of art studios, events, or “HotDock project space”, managed by artists. Certainly worth a visit! Tell us more about “What comes around” installation. The exhibition is touching ecological and environmental problems. The project follows my last cycles – but unlike the cycle “Animal vs. City“, in “Anima/Animals” I put my animals to be free in their natural habitat. I paint animals that are considered to be “villains” - like wolves, bears, foxes, falcon, lynx, hawk ... They are precisely “those” about whom we listen in the daily news, as they are shot, killed or even poisoned. The installation of paintings hanging from the ceiling reminds the forest. Visitor can walk through and also can get lost.\n\nThe backside of works is coated with wood stain but also flame. The cycle is graduating into the red colour, that symbolises current situation in Nature. My very personal inspiration was the actual situation in my country - Slovakia, where the forests are disappearing, because they are cut down for business reasons. Animals on my pictures are not painted realistically, but more like ghosts hidden among the trees. This cycle is called “Anima/Animals” and refers to Aristoteles, who said – everything has a soul - even plants, animals, only a human is above them because he can think. What are your future plans as an artist? Now my two exhibitions have ended. One was in “Kunstraum Villach“ (Austria) and the other one in the young and new Contemporary Arts Space “Pineapple Black“ in Middlesbrough (UK). Nowadays I am preparing a big exhibition in Opava (CZ) for November. Exhibition space is amazing; one part of it is an abandoned church with a great historic\n\n\natmosphere. I look forward to preparing a special installation there. After every big exhibition, I feel empty and need to recharge. I have to find new inspiration and think. I often do diaries, where I draw and write my thoughts. Then I return to these sketches and develop them into new ideas. When the muse has gone, you have to call her back by your work. Name artists you admire. There are a lot of... and it is changing according to my age. I like works of artists such as Adriena Šimotová, Peter Doig, Josef Bolf, street artist Klaus Dauven, then Baselitz, Czech decadence (mostly František Kobliha), then all older Japanese masters like Hiroshige, from nowadays Yoshimoto Nara, etc. But I also get inspiration from movies, for example, German expressionism like Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Nosferatu, Movies of David Lynch including Twin Peaks. From literature, for example – Vian, Baudelaire, Kafka, Bukowski, Vonnegut and old Japanese poet Saigjó.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nTimo Ryhänen Helsinki, Finland My work is about creating a parallel world that deals with ecological issues, class struggles and the effects of technology. Mythologies, folklore tales and trash aesthetics are taking a more present day form with the help of digital technology. Figures in my paintings are depicting otherworldly feeling beings with futuristic appearances. The purpose of my work is to show the development of an imaginary world in the form of paintings.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? I am inspired by travels and holidays. That said I am interested in the positioning of a figure in different historical depictions and what type of humanity is being represented in terms of constructing a long-lasting representation of western culture. I think about the feeling aspect of the figure and how well it communicates a broader sense of time when the artwork was created. I try to think about the causality of religion and folktales, the reasons for industrialization and it’s effects on modernism. I concentrate on the facial expression and how to make the figure look alive like it could contain a life force or power instead of angst or fade away. By that type of demonstration, I am trying to act towards the idea that even the smallest piece of sand can sometimes contain will and interesting personal qualities. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? For me, it is a question of everyday life. The hardest part is keeping that inspirational feeling with the process. The challenge of contemporary culture is to keep searching for new inspiring things instead of the production of unique handicrafts in a modernistic sense. I try to avoid too much copying and variation so that my process would feel interesting to me even if the outcome would look pretty or similar to other people. In terms of selling art, I find it difficult for artists to place themselves in more market-driven cities. These days the rents are often so expensive that artists either have to do a part-time job or live that type of life that has been leading them into a troubled life before. I hope that the state’s beneficiary systems or independent institutions would support professionals if they are going to plan a network for selling their work outside the borders of their home town or country.\n\nIn your opinion what does art mean in contemporary culture? Art means a possibility to be extended into the mainstream culture as it has already been like. Art has a more abstracted structure that can be used as inspiration in other fields of making. I like to think about the future and what solutions digital technology might offer for the arts. Art means a more careful and humanistic approach for our western culture. In contrast to other forms of entertainment, art can offer a more personal experience that touches humanity and thoughts in a long-lasting way. Art and literature are important because the internet offers a way for finding a very specific painting or book that someone may like. Netflix is a good example that functions for younger individuals, but of course, later in life, we are going to need more specific things for making us happy in order of satisfying our need for progress. How would you describe the art scene in your area? Finland and especially its capital Helsinki has developed a solid base for becoming an important but compact cultural influencer. Helsinki has now four modern art museums that have started to display great art during the last few years. All the museums are within a few hundred meters from each other. Helsinki has some galleries that also sell art and more artist-run spaces or galleries that show a variety of art made by professional artists. Artists live mostly with a mixture of grants, work or social benefits. Quality of paintings is a bit polarized but video art and new media are becoming more well known. The scene itself is small and we have only a handful of internationally successful artists. Name three artists you admire. I like Francis Bacon, Steven Campbell and Joseph Beuys. Francis Bacon had the right amount of subjects in his work in order to make the figure look like an idea that could be generated in these days. That creates meaning for other people like myself to continue within the painting tradition. Steven Campbell was one of the Scottish painters and he had a very wide imagination. He is one of the few people in this world who have been able to construct a meaningful painterly world that mixes literary ideas with the old fashioned but clumsy painting technique. Joseph Beuys is an important influence in Finland because of the natural aspect of his ideas. Finland is mostly woods and half empty roads, which means that artists use it as a direct experience for generating subjects into their artistic practice. What are your future plans? I have an exhibition in the painters union’s gallery in Helsinki next September. It will contain canvases made with Ipad and photoshop and bigger two-meter sized paintings that have collaged imagery and a mixture of traditional oil paints. I am also going to have a vacation in Varna, Bulgaria in June that I am really looking forward into. Varna is cheap and it has a nice rhythm of the ocean. It also contains some history with the Soviet Union and large parks and walking pathways in the centre. I like the atmosphere of the city and the touristic beach because I can feel the past and the present time becoming more peaceful with the ocean. The place provides me with a feeling that after all, life will be fine and the waves will wash the baggage of the memories away and replace them with a sense of unity, open arms and good mood.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nGabrielle Shannon Denver, CO, USA\n\nThere is tangible, recognizable connective tissue that connects my work. From the vastness of the cosmos to the intricate branching patterns within each of our life-giving cells. I am drawn to the primordial spirals and organic structures and flow of nature. I am fascinated, in particular, with the liminal state: the stage of in between, where massive dissolution of order occurs; where ambiguity and disorientation are the natural precursors to change. From this chaotic, fertile void, a fluid and malleable state occurs and births new order, no longer who we were, and not yet who we will become, new customs, new order, and new structures are born‌ each unique, yet universally familiar. From expansion to contraction; from birth to death; from structure to chaos, this connected universe mimics the neuroplasticity of a giant brain, and the brain mirrors the expanse of the entire cosmos‌ and beyond. Each moment is unique. Each moment is identical. I attempt to capture the states and stages of the connected universe. The dynamic energy that surrounds and fills us, our earth, our skies, our oceans, constantly shifting and transforming, too small to understand and too vast to comprehend. Connecting all living things as one.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? New York City and my Father had the greatest influence on my being an artist. My parents were divorced, and my father loved art and painted in his spare time. We’d spend every Saturday together, and with him, there was always art involved. Either we were painting together or spending time at the Metropolitan Museum, or Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where I grew up. I didn’t realize until much later how lucky I was to have him as my father and New York as my home. I was also very lucky to have The Art Students League a subway ride away. I started at The league studying anatomy with Robert Beverly Hale when I was 13 years old. Mr. Hale was a master and there was something very magical about him. He was sheer genius. Growing up in New York City is like living in an art installation everyday... the lights, the clothes, the accents, the sounds. And the Subway! OMG, the subway is a trip. The characters on the subway are truly unique and it can be scary. Watch your purse, your jewelry, and your body. You develop a sixth sense about it all. It’s also a city where, if you have the energy and drive, you feel you can conquer the world. I started the first online art & culture zine,\n\nUrban Desires, in early 1994 with my husband Kyle. I ran that for eight years while we gained national notoriety and many innovation awards. From there, I went on to design educational art programs for Eyebeam Atelier with students from NYC schools.\n\ndren and it was hard getting back to creating art the way I expect. I still haven’t, maybe never will, but creating art is something artists don’t have a choice in. We must create. It’s the only thing that keeps the depression and the devil away from the door.\n\nWhat is the most challenging part of being an artist?\n\nYes, being an artist is challenging, but I am an artist, so regardless of how tough it can be at times, I’m in the studio everyday.\n\nNot sure I can choose just one! There are many challenges... being a female artist, dealing with the business side of a creative business, and managing my expectations are all things I struggle with. The most challenging part of being a female artist is all the juggling involved... working to pay studio bills and buy supplies, while pursuing galleries, online sales, shows, residencies, and keeping a consistent studio practice going can be exhausting. The most challenging part of the art business is just that.. it’s a business. And the gatekeepers: gallerists, curators, advisors, can be a little slippery to deal with. You have to be careful. It’s a tough business, all the Arts are. And like any business there are people trying to take advantage, as well as supportive, brilliant, and talented people. You get better deciphering it all as you get older. And then, when marriage and children are added to that mix, something always suffers. I took years off to be with my chil-\n\nIn your opinion, what does art mean in contemporary culture? Contemporary art has, and will always, mirror back what is going on in society, culture and in our lives. In 2011 I had a Traumatic Brain injury, the week I landed in Colorado. I was standing on a small ladder in the kitchen putting away dishes and I lost my footing and fell into the corner of a wall. I couldn’t walk or talk for almost two years and it took 5 years to start feeling like myself again. That TBI has shaped my work tremendously. I had an epiphany about how we are all connected while I was healing. My Brain was building connections again and I realized there is tangible, recognizable connective tissue that connects my work, just like the connections in my brain. Much of my work now is an exploration of the states & stages of the dynamic energy that surrounds and fills us all.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nOur connected universes—constantly shifting & transforming, or the growth that takes place in Spring after experiencing the death that Winter brings. Too small to see and too vast to comprehend. I am compelled to capture these fleeting patterns of change which are the only constant we have. I try and paint in a liminal state. It’s a glimpse into that fleeting space or ambiguity that is occurring in the very small threshold between where of I’ve been, and where I’m going. It’s all about being in the present moment and surrendering. How would you describe the art scene in your area? Denver’s art scene is really flourishing. I haven’t been here long but there are some very talented artists and great galleries, mu-\n\n\nseums, and universities that are committed to supporting the art community. Name three artists you admire. Frida Kahlo - For her strength, tenacity and courage. Helen Frankenthaler - for her courage, vision and gorgeous clear voice. Alice Neel - Because she is one of a kind and changed portraiture. What are your future plans? I never think about the future, I find it causes anxiety. The past brings me the gifts of depression and regret. I try to stay in the moment so I can live and create in peace.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nKatrina Tracuma Cork, Ireland\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? Since I predominantly identify as a maker of political art, the main driving force behind my work is ultimately art as activism. The desire to create is innate to my personality and character. To have a purpose behind the work is of utmost importance personally. But in terms of artistic qualities, I am influenced by many of my past professional art tutors. From the experience of always having fantastic art teachers in school and within my portfolio preparation course, to the top artists and tutors that I’ve had the pleasure to work with during my Fine Art BA course in CIT Crawford College of Art and Design, in Ireland. I am beyond proud to have been taught by such exceptional artists as Jill Dennis, Simon English, Megan Eustace and Colin Crotty, among many others. Stylistically, I am influenced by surrealism, fauvism, and assemblage art with elements of pop art- though I am still learning and seeking to find my feet within any specific style. Currently camp seems to appeal to me the most. Art history brings to mind lasting impressions of striking works by animalier Rosa Bonheur and the\n\ninnovative creations of Robert Rauschenberg. Contemporary artists such as Elizabeth Magill, Walton Ford and Hartmut Kiewert are also at the top of the list.\n\nus. And the most enjoyable challenge of this career is the constant evolution of my work and the questioning of its purpose that keeps it all interesting for me.\n\nWhat is the most challenging part of being an artist?\n\nIn your opinion, what does art mean in contemporary culture?\n\nAs a recent graduate I find the main difficulty lies within supporting oneself financially while aiming to thrive as an emerging visual artist. Many of the opportunities that have presented themselves to me since finishing college, although seem great on paper do involve a great deal of resources on my part. Estimating the value of these, and deciding on those worthwhile to pursue is an aspect of this career that I was not very aware of when first starting out. Juggling the many roles that are involved within this journey towards success as an artist, is also challenging. The struggle of some not seeing the real value behind the work sometimes also makes me doubtful of my contributions to art and the world as whole. Though all of these downfalls of this profession make the process of actually making the work so much more enjoyable for me. Creating art is my escape from the difficulties found within the world around\n\nCurrently, it is more important than ever to use art as a catalyst for positive change within the world. Ownership of art has always been associated with certain status. Even the creation of it can be linked to an assertive privilege. The making process often involves detrimental consequences to the environment, not to mention the possibility of it to cause offence to someone, anyone. Thus, it is imperative that our culture establishes a more inclusive narrative of art. Art that is not symbolic of power, wealth and select personal opinion. Art as a vehicle for progress, intelligence and diversity. This I believe to be its true meaning nowadays. How would you describe the art scene in your area? In Cork city, where I live, there is currently a great lack of viable representation for the many talented emerging artists. There are\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\npublic exhibition spaces - such as the Crawford Art Gallery and the Glucksman Gallery, which is part of the University College Cork campus. But these usually represent more established artists, who are not necessarily just local. Even the more accessible spaces, such as the CIT Crawford College of Art and Design Gallery on Grand Parade and the Lavit Gallery, have fierce competition for participation. Essentially more commercial spaces are needed within the city. This problem is currently offset with the many festivals and exhibitions organised by the creatives within the area themselves. So, although things could be better I believe there is much talent pushing local art on to the scene. And in terms of experiencing art as a viewer, the municipal public galleries mentioned above do present a wide range of artwork thanks to their showcasing of talent from abroad and from the capital city of Dublin. Name three artists you admire. Being inspired by so many artistically gifted individuals and discovering new talent among the community of creatives is such a joy, and there are so many who have left an impression on me. Constant favorites though are wildlife artist Emily Lamb, NYC based painter Jennifer Gennari, and vegan illustrator Kate Louise Powell. What are your future plans? In terms of the foreseeable future, I am looking forward to developing my work further during the residency that I am currently undertaking at the Backwater Artists Group in Cork, until the end of June. Then during the rest of the summer I am planning to expand my knowledge on the process of cyanotype printing and engage in some large scale drawings/watercolours. And hopefully, come September I will be embarking on my MFA studies. Further future plans involve me pursuing the necessary training to teach art, and continuing to make work that will convince the viewer to care about the world around us with the same vigour and passion as I do.\n\nBriahna Wenke Charleston, SC, USA\n\nBri is an emerging artist who creates expressive and evocative work through bold and textural paint application. Channeling her fascination with the antiquity and complexity of the human story, she searches for a form of integrity, synchronicity between color, truth in form, and unapologetic confidence behind the strokes of her palette knife.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis will be a series of large palette knife portraits of the Veterans and individuals involved with the Warrior Surf Foundation (, a non-profit co-founded by my partner Andy Manzi, that offers surf therapy, camaraderie, and wellness to Veterans and their families. I’ve had the privilege of watching lives take a complete 180 turn based on the offerings of this non-profit, and I can’t think of a better way to honor the enduring strength of these individuals, some of which have lived through experiences that most cannot begin to fathom. I’m also excited about an upcoming collaboration with Sam Rueter (srueterart. com) in which we will be creating a large live body painting installation depicting the concept of “slash and burn” complete with an elaborate setting of ash and decay, evolving into a lush and vibrant setting of rebirth. This will take place during a large event in Charleston in September.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\nStĂŠphane Vereecken Brussels, Belgium\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nIt’s your second time in our magazine, what changes since the 36th issue? Since about one year since my first appearance in the magazine, I had several requests for exhibitions in Europe. I have exhibited several times in Greece and will soon be exhibiting in the United States. And the art gallery “Art Pistol”, the most progressive emerging artists in Glasgow’s West End, sell my works. My artistic work evolved into a more nuanced exterior view. I have always privileged the sociological aspect of my work. My images are for the other and only for the one who looks at it. He can interpret the surrealist message according to his experience, his unconscious and his dreams. I have a series called “The Garden” that talks about human beings broken by life. Disability but also exclusion. Anthropological and individual exclusion. The limits that we set ourselves. I met some crazy people too and I told an episode of their life and their story with my drawings on their bodies. What is the most challenging part of working with photography? I have several series and I look tirelessly for the improved ones. They evolve with the passage of time and\n\nI sometimes meet people who are more interesting to photograph than others. So, sometimes images of my series disappear. The most difficult part is to choose a story and an experience that goes to others, without disguising too much the reality and life and the intimate experience of the model. I can not tell things that are too intimate, of course. I tell a surreal story sublimated, and a dream. The most difficult is to keep a balance between the experience and the too easy outbidding of graphics technical exploits, to put a full eye. It does not interest me. I remain sober in my artistic intention. What is your creative process like? When I meet someone for the photograph I explain to him in what niche his the image will be broadcast and in which series of my pictures are portrait will be admitted. I most often try to work with actors, such as actress and singer Stéphanie Schlesser. It is an incredible luxury to give me their talents so that I can photograph them. The expressions requested are just and perfectly reproduced. Then I tell a life sublimated and possible around them through my drawings and overprinted images. The themes are chosen according to the different series... White Wall, the Garden,... and the drawings tell a spiritualized story. The artistic intention remains surrealist of a dream life. What’s the best art advice you’ve ever received? Renunciation. It is not useful to pick on an image if it is useless or bad. When i works on a work, it must push to give birth to the following work. It’s simply called evolution. I work my images as a painting, I do not make many copies of images in a series. A finished image must make you want to build a new one. Tell us more about “the garden” project. The project “the Garden” is more exactly “the garden of broken people”. He speaks us with surreal images the daily life and sublimated or dreamed history of broken, disabled and excluded people. For example, because they are too old or considered non-productive. The pictures are rawer than in my White Wall series. More explicit too. More political certainly. I have an exhibition project where images will be placed on the wall at the height of people sitting or in wheelchairs. It will be necessary to make an unusual effort to look at them. This series made me want to build soon a new series of eleven images called “Homo Solvo”. This will be a bit the opposite of the title of the series “The Garden”. The opposite. I find it interesting to be able to oppose two series disinterment and visually. It will be interesting to see the visual result. As an intellectual challenge. What are you working on right now? For three months I have been working on a square format. The process is simple. A skyline, the ground and the sky. Who is at home a white wall and a wooden floor. I add a photo projection, a projection of life, and drawings. Depending on the case the process may seem abstract and if I go to more abstraction, I like it. This series is called “Hotel Mutation”. There is in this series a concrete materialization of buildings, with cubes or forms and the material is cardboard. A projection of images of characters generally that look very big, like Gods and drawings of smaller characters. I always tell a story, but this time, this surrealist tale turns into a projection on volumes. So there is also a sculpture in my pictures. I will evolve towards a total art. A romantic art that will express the unity of life.\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n105 Art Reveal Magazine\n\nKim Youdan Chester, UK\n\nThrough my creative endeavours I’m on a mission to inspire people to live full and creative lives. I choose to do this by creating hand-painted photography inspired by colour and driven by travel. I am continually impressed by the innovation around me, my standard of living is improved as I experience and witness different artistic feats. The creation of ideas fascinates me and the development of artwork and other creative outlets is a big inspiration for my own work. The technique of combining photography and abstract colour is currently my way of communicating experiences and I endeavour to inspire you, as other creatives have inspired me. Colour is my language, photography gets me all excited and mixing the two creates something that satisfies my soul. From architecture, landscape, wildlife and people, I use my own experiences of travel to create artwork which pops!\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nWho or what has a lasting influence on your art practice? There are so many small and large influences that continue to inspire my work, choosing just one is such a challenge. I view my art practice as having two areas of creative outlet which I marry together. Firstly image making through photography which allows me to document. I love this part of the process and creating detailed and high contrast black and white image. This is then followed by painting abstract colour onto the image where I express my experience in bold colours using a limited palette. In a broad sense I would say that education has a lasting influence, not in the traditional classroom sense -although I do love to read- but from building experience, exploring, travelling and soaking in the work of other creatives from all different mediums. I am continuously broadening my horizons and this is one of the reasons why I choose to live nomadically and work remotely. The lifestyle allows me to educate myself through experience, continuously changing my surroundings is the energy that drives my creative expression. When I travel I like to soak in a culture rather than pass through on a whim. I want to experience what a culture is all about and create work inspired by those places. I want to experience the changes in weather, take note of natural surroundings and explore the streets of new villages and cities. That’s a lot to do when passing by, I’d much rather take more time in the places I temporarily call home. What is the most challenging part of being an artist? The nomadic lifestyle I have chosen at this point in my career has many benefits from a content and inspiration point of view but it does mean I lack a consistent creative community. I engage with online platforms and always throw myself into the remote communities when we land somewhere new, but it is the creative community of artists, curators, designers and buyers that I sacrifice when moving around so much.\n\nI deal with these challenges in a few ways and believe all artists go through seasons within their process. My seasons are fairly distinct and follow the travel that I do. I exhibit work whilst in the UK and do more photography whilst away from the UK. I am limited when not in the country and can’t always make the most of opportunities when they present themselves. I try to see the travel I do as a benefit to my story and reframe these challenges turning them into opportunities. I am hugely grateful to be able to travel and view the challenges as obstacles to overcome rather than road blocks. In your opinion, what does art mean in contemporary culture? I am a big advocate of living a creative life and I believe everyone has the ability to create. Create rather than consume is my ethos, never far from the forefront of my mind and the underlying message in my choice to be an artist. Art in my opinion is fundamental in our society. Creativity improves the standard of living for our communities, whether you actively engage or are an effected bystander. Art creates emotional impact, art is thought provoking, conversation starting, educational and a tool to express ourselves. The term still has traditional vocations attached to it but this continues to change. Artisans are being noticed for their craft whatever their medium and more appreciation is given to previously unnoticed skill sets, within the food industry, up-cycle culture, even craft beer! These additions to art add to an ever evolving conversation to an already interesting debate. Broadening the artistic realm and encompassing more creativity can only be a good thing. With the increase of technology and systems encroaching on society, creativity is becoming more sort after as the inherent skill of humanity. Computers cannot create ideas in the same way that we can and our culture is drawing attention to this at every opportunity. How would you describe the art scene in your area? When I return to the UK my home town of Chester is where I come back to. The city is trying to harness a creative culture and in developing parts of the city centre I have high hopes for what the future holds. Currently there are limited opportunities for emerging artists, I therefore take opportunities to travel within the UK to exhibit. Yorkshire is historically a hugely creative area, towns such as Hebden Bridge and Todmorden have a vibrant art scene which I’ve been tapping into for the past two years. I’d love to be more active in Chester but currently when I’m in the UK I spend a lot of time driving cross country with a boot full of art! This has given me\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\ninsight to opportunities in micro markets in the UK and any chance to gain exposure for my work is of great benefit at this stage in my career. Name three artists you admire. Due to the mixed media approach I use in my own work I am inspired by a range of print makers, photographers and painters alike. I tend to navigate towards work which has elements of my own process such as bold colour and high contrast. I have always loved the joiner photography work of David Hockey, his layering of images and use of composition is fascinating. Showing multiple angles of the same subject, different facades and views has always interested me, there is always so much to look at. My first foray into photography was a collage piece of the family home that I made at school. 100% inspired by Hockney and his use of multiple imagery. My parents still have it on the wall at home and Hockney continues to inspire me today. Another photographer Sven Pfrommer with his slow shutter imagery and mixed media approach has also been a really important reference for my practice. Pfrommer’s use of saturated colour and high contrast certainly relates to my own creative expression. ‘Human Blur’ is a series of work\n\nwhich has guided a few decisions of my recent photography, imagery that I haven’t yet developed through my hand painted technique but that I’m very excited about. An artist that has recently made an impact on me is London based print maker Hamish Macaulay. He uses bold colours, high contrast and strong shape, very much my cup of tea! I have experimented a little with print making but not yet added this technique to my regular practice, something I certainly want to develop as my self expression expands into others mediums. What are your future plans? It’s a great question and something that always takes up head space as ideas are continuously flowing. Practically I want my work to take on a broader perspective, rather than documenting certain places with my artwork I want to encompass larger themes within culture. I have loved exploring the theme of ‘Nature vs Architecture’ and using more materials and tools will certainly be part of my developing practice. I have many ideas of taking a more abstract approach with my photography, still combining the painted technique and using colour in both elements of the work but starting without the detailed documentary image. Location wise, for the next year I will continue to live in different places across Europe, my partner and I are deliberating between Romania and Serbia for this autumn and we are pretty set to try out Bansko in Bulgaria early next year. Exploring new countries, experiencing culture and documenting where I go will always be a part of my life. Travel continues to be the best source of inspiration and keeps my creativity flowing in many different ways.\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\n\n\nArt Reveal Magazine\n\nProfile for Art Reveal Magazine\n\nArt Reveal Magazine no. 47 \n\nAlesha Art (Russia), Houda Bakkali (Spain), Emma Balder (USA), Natalie Christensen (USA), Freddy D´azure-Hernández (Mexico), Peter Davis (UK...\n\nArt Reveal Magazine no. 47 \n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9674720764160156}
+{"content": "Bootstrap Example\n\nMAT Kea Khema6 Area Rug White Multi\n\n\nA fantastic way to add a burst of energy to a space, whether it be a kids room or an eclectically styled family room, the Khema 6 has a uplifting feel to it because of its multi-hued border and geometrically patterned dots. This rug has an elegant, global style to it that enchants it's onlookers . Additional sizes are available.\n\nThis rug was hand-woven by craftsperson's using 100% wool.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.814251720905304}
+{"content": "Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesia (ACTA)\n\nThe Stanford University Cardiothoracic Anesthesia Division offers an Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology (ACTA) Fellowship, an intensive, one-year clinical training program designed to prepare graduates for clinical and academic leadership positions in the subspecialty practice of cardiothoracic anesthesiology and cardiovascular critical care. The ACTA fellowship program is dedicated to providing state-of-the-art training and experience in a multidisciplinary academic environment so that Fellows can achieve competence in patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice in the field of cardiothoracic anesthesiology and critical care.\n\nFor full program information click the button below.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9981393814086914}
+{"content": "Public Sector Companies-End of an Era\n\nSeven decades ago, India stepped into the path of progress by instituting a large number of public sector companies and factories. Namma Bengaluru has housed several of them. The coming of this sector ushered in a new pattern of work life in our city. New secular communities, colonies and tenements sprouted like mushrooms all over the place. They thrived for a couple of decades lending a vibrant vigour to the ethos of our garden city. As in all things change happens to be the only constant in life. It has not left the public sector untouched, hence we see the phenomenon phasing out ever so quietly from our lives.\n\nThe only remnants of the public sector happen to be the senior citizens who dot our city with their unique anecdotes. Though I have been privy to many of them, the one which never ceases to fascinate me happens to be the one I wish to share with my readers.\n\nIt is a well known fact that Rama and Lakshmana the protagonists of the Ramayana availed help from Sugriva the monkey- king to fight their enemy Ravana and redeem Seeta. An army of monkeys famously known as the Vanara Sena was instituted to help Rama in his mission. The ocean was crossed and the battle was fought. Rama the crown prince of Ayodhya slew the ten headed demon king Ravana redeemed Seeta. When it was time to return to Ayodhya with his wife Seeta and brother Lakshmana, he rewarded all the leaders like Hanuman, Sugriva, Vibhishana among the others but was at a loss as to how to return the favour of the members of the Vanara Sena. Then the lord said that the Dandakaranya forest would be abundant with fruits to take care of them during the Treta Yuga.\n\nThe simian army accepted their gift humbly but did not disperse as expected. So Rama told them that they could serve him as Yadava confederates when he re-incarnated as Krishna. Even as the Vanaras acknowledged the blessing gratefully, Rama felt that he had not been generous enough to see them through the wheel of time. So he said that in the Kali Yuga they would be absorbed as human resources by the public sector!\n\nI have heard this tale regaled in jest, just to mark a merry moment. Of late, the elderly who recollect this tale do it with such a veneration which leaves the listener baffled! If the stories do enough rounds in the new tone, it will probably enter the portals of our mythology by the next half of this millennium! Only time can tell!\n\n\n\nThe law of Karma makes it amply clear that we will most definitely experience the consequences of our actions.\n\nLargely, people do not have any objections about harvesting the benefits of their good deeds. It is only when we go through a rough passage of life we cringe and cower at the thought of bearing the brunt of our misdeeds.\n\nA level-headed person will understand that when one lands a bad bargain, he or she should hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. By doing so, at least the quotient of regret of not having tried enough to circumvent the problem can be done away with.\n\nAn episode from the Mahabharata documents this nugget of wisdom through the predicament of Parikshit, the king of Hastinapura. Once, the sovereign succumbed to unreasonable anger. He humiliated a reverent sage Shamik by garlanding him with the flaccid dead body of a snake.\n\nThe sage’s son Shringi, who was outraged by the king’s misdemeanor, cursed him to be dead in a week’s time by a snake bite. The petrified king realised that no amount of penitence could salvage him from the imminent death. Nevertheless he thought out the situation pragmatically.\n\nHe got a royal residence built on a tall tower and moved in. The food, drink and even the very air that he breathed were scanned before being permitted into the premises. Now it was customary for Brahmins to offer a fruit to the king. That day also, it was given to the king after the usual security check.\n\nWhen the unsuspecting ruler cut open the fruit, a worm fell on the ground and grew up manifold. Takshaka, the king of snakes, metamorphosed himself into a tiny worm and had reclined in the heart of a lemon. Parikshit recognised Takshaka – and he fell dead when stung by the reptile and the prophecy was fulfilled.\n\nThough Parikshit could not save himself, the fact remains that he left no stone unturned to protect his life. His approach is worthy of being emulated, for while it is sad to fail in one’s mission, it will be a shame and pity for not having tried to decimate the problem. If a righteous sovereign could not salvage himself from the consequences of his misdemeanor, we must think twice before we err consciously!\n\nMisuse of Power\n\n\nWhen power gets to the head of those on top of the ladder, they can no longer prove to be ideal leader material. The followers of these megalomaniacs will become disillusioned sooner or later. Eventually, they will not hesitate to decimate the egotist to a non entity.\n\nPerhaps the earliest documentation of this time-tested truth is found in the Vishnu Purana. Vena was crowned the king post the death of his father Anga. The young king was carried away by his newfound authority. Soon he started throwing his weight around. He expected every subordinate of his to worship him. He even expected the Rishis of his kingdom to cease conducting Yajnas and concentrate on eulogizing him. The citizens did their best to pander his bloated ego, but apparently their efforts did not please him enough. Sometime later, the sages of the dominion rallied around and tried to sensitise him to the omnipotence of the almighty.\n\nHowever, Vena was not the one to be convinced. He wanted the Rishis to perceive him as a living God. He harassed those who acted at cross purposes to his dictum. The entire kingdom which was engaged in compulsory sycophancy soon stagnated in every possible way.\nThe sages headed by Bhrigu, discussed the unfortunate state of affairs threadbare. They had implemented the traditional formula of Sama friendly approach, Dana– compromise, Bheda- debate and Danda- punishment, on King Vena with no avail. They realised that the situation was out of hand. They unilaterally decided to kill the king and redeem the people of the tyrant’s monopoly, in order to redeem the people of his autocracy.\n\nThe noteworthy aspect of this incident happens to be that the most timid, well-meaning and wise people were compelled by their discretion to take such an extreme step. History has stood testimony to the fact that anybody who has thought no end of himself or herself has always, invariably been subjected to the same end. Leaders must remember that the unconditional power and position bestowed on them are acts of faith. They have no right to breach the trust of the people who put them up on the pedestal.\n\n\nTackle Obstacles with Integrity\n\nLife often scatters obstacles in our path. Some of us sidestep them while others overcome them. Yet, if we are riddled with difficulties from time to time, we tend to give up. A story from the Mahabharata says that if one tackles problems intelligently and with integrity, it will stamp our success with moral satisfaction and happiness.\n\nPrincess Sukanya had to marry the old sage Chyavana whom she had blinded inadvertently. Though there was no equivalence of any sort in the marital ties, the young bride did not have any complaints. She was quite cheerful and sincere in carrying out her conjugal duties.\n\nA couple of years later, the handsome celestial twins, the Ashwinikumaras, happened to sight the beautiful Sukanya. They were smitten by her ethereal beauty. They tried to wean her away from her marriage and make her theirs. The principled lady refused to comply with their wishes, politely, yet firmly.\n\nThe demigods were struck by her loyalty to her husband despite his shortcomings. They offered to cure him and restore his youth as a reward for her steadfastness.\n\nSukanya and Chyavana were ready to accept a lease of normal and healthy life. Just when things seemed to fall in place, the divine twosome laid out their condition. The clause said that Sukanya could continue in her marriage if only she could identify her husband in his new Avatar. She accepted the challenge without batting an eyelid.\n\nAccordingly, the sage was taken to a nearby lake by the duo. The trio immersed themselves in the waters.\n\nWhen they emerged, Sukanya was startled to see that the three of them were identical in every single way. She was stressed, but gathered her wits and observed the threesome walking towards her. She recollected from her vast repertoire of knowledge that Godly entities never came into physical contact with earth. She noticed that only one of the three dazzling men was leaving footprints on the wet banks of the lake. She walked demurely towards her only love in life and stood by him.\n\nThe Ashwinikumaras were highly impressed by her integrity and intelligence and blessed the couple a happy and fruitful life of togetherness. Sukanya had every reason to flounder under the circumstances, that she chose to overcome it reflects her diehard spirit.\n\nArchitects of our Karma\n\nOne man’s food is another man’s poison. We find our lives constantly riddled with the vagaries of life which offer contrasting situations. We often find people working on cross purposes sometimes defeating the very cornerstone of their goal.\n\nFor instance students are more interested in clearing or topping examinations than learning the subject. Teachers are busy finishing portions as against imparting knowledge. Businessmen, journalists, governmental and non-governmental organisations are more worried about meeting deadlines rather than investing quality time and research on their projects.\n\nIn other words, most people in every walk of life, no matter what their age, gender, occupation or station, are keen on working towards their goal. Little do they realise that the not so pleasant or positive side effects of the journey launched by none other than themselves is the direct result of their own Karma.\n\nA tale in the Puranas puts across this point ever so well. Once upon a time, king Shwetaki decided to perform a series of homas and yajnas for a period of a hundred years. He used several thousand pots of pure ghee as oblation to Agni the god of fire in order to appease all the gods in the pantheon.\n\nAs years passed by, Agni found it extremely difficult to digest the rich offerings. He lost his resplendence and became very pale and weak. He rushed to the creator Lord Brahma to seek a solution for his unique problem. He was asked to consume the green vegetation of the Khandava forest to restore his healthy appetite.\n\nAccordingly, Agni spread his flames into the verdant area. The creatures of the forest appealed to Lord Indra to protect them from the raging fire. The area was doused by torrential rains by the grace of Indra. Agni found it difficult to continue with his treatment.\n\nHe sought the help of Krishna and Arjuna who were passing by to help him on his mission. The twosome was initially reluctant to interfere in a matter which did not concern them in the least. Yet the prayer, petulance and persistence of Agni made them consider his request.\n\nLittle did they realise that they would be inviting the fury and vengeance of Takshaka, the venomous serpent who lived in the forest. Long after the Great War of Kurukshetra, Arjuna’s grandson king Parikshit became the victim of the long-drawn animosity created through an inadvertent chain of events.\n\nSo, when the results of our endeavours are met with unsavoury situations and unexpected outcomes, we must trace back our steps and analyse our situation. We are most likely to find that we are the architects of our destiny.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.718163251876831}
+{"content": "Idioma(s): Farsi.\n\nPaís: Estados Unidos.\n\nGénero(s) :cultura and Informativo.\n\nSatélites : hotbird\n\nVoA TV Persian NO SATÉLITE hotbird - Programa televisivo\n\n\n\n“Roya Khat” is one of its most famous flagship programmes, raising awareness among the Iranian public about significant issues. This programme is telecasted once in a week. So the happenings of the entire week are analysed in depth from different angles. The topics of discussion include: science, technology, social issues, politics, economy, art, environment, and culture. Though these issues are subjected to restrictions by the Iranian media and censorship board in the country, the channel attracts a lot of viewers and also generates a lot of interest even in the American society.\n\nThe unique aspect of the Roya Khat is that, it highlights crucial issues that are bound to generate a lot of debate, creating awareness among the public. Since the common people play a major role in these programmes by actively voting on issues and voicing their opinion, they gain immense attention by all sections of the society. The show is presented by Mehdi Falahati, a journalist who previously collaborated with BBC Persian and also worked as a correspondent, editor and presenter for various radio stations in London. He has numerous books to his credit, including interviews with Iranian personalities like politicians, intellectuals, poets, and writers.\n\nIf you are interested to discover about the issues and subjects that affect the Iranian society, then VoA Persian TV channel will certainly appeal to your interest.\n\nInformação técnica para instalar este canal\n\n7W MENA VOA 24 SD 12.398 V DVB-S 27.5", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9669992327690125}
+{"content": "Enlisting compliance and follow-up contact from veterinary behavior clients for behavior modification, with or without medical treatment, has often been tricky. Researchers (Lindsay, Posage, and Engel, 2002; Posage et. al, 2002) found that good compliance was likely when pets were taking behavioral medications, which necessitated that owners call in for refills.\n\nBut there are numerous cases where medication is not indicated. There is interference with compliance and follow-up contacts coming from many directions: not understanding the behavior modification plan, emotional responses to a dog’s problem behaviors, resistance and anger toward the “expert” advice, even though their help was requested, the constraints of real-life—time, money, energy, and additional responsibilities. The list is extensive.\n\nA behavior consultant needs to get past all of that in order to enlist the pet owners’ cooperation, compliance, and follow-up as well as provide encouragement and support for owners’ perseverance, patience, consistency, and accuracy in the application of behavior modification techniques. How might a behavior consultant bond with and, at the same time, teach pet owners what they need to know in order to help them with their pet? No small order.\n\nA strategy I am sure many behavior consultants use is to compare dog behavior modification techniques to child-rearing techniques. Behavior consultants apply the very same principles to dogs that parents do with their children. This overlap can help pet owners relate our advice to their own experiences.\n\nI’ve been working on my interview technique. Since I was an academic, I’ve struggled to avoid sounding too scientific, professorial, objective, or oversimplified. Yet, if I oversimplify, I risk being scientifically incorrect or incomplete. I need to also be approachable, caring, ethical, and not boring! I’ve found Dr. Glenn I. Latham’s (1994) applications of behavior analyses to child rearing worth modeling with clients: positive, uplifting, light, non-judgmental, open, and approachable for questions, objections, and expression of emotions. Latham fashioned very teachable statements of principles for child rearing I can bring to dog behavior clients. Perhaps child-rearing examples are familiar and might help clients dealing with frustration and anxiety to open up? Here are a few examples of Latham’s learning principles and their relevance to dog behavior.\n\nLatham’s First Principle: A child’s behavior is strengthened or weakened by its consequences\n\nBehavior consultants know consequences can be arranged to strengthen desirable behaviors. Attention is reinforcing for both dogs and children. Latham writes, “Profits are to business what attention is to behavior.”\n\nParents are often faced with deciding what to do about annoying, seemingly nonsensical “junk” behaviors in their children. Latham calls these “weed” behaviors and points out that the majority of them can be ignored as long as parents focus on more important behaviors and provide plenty of positive reinforcements for those. Behavior consultants know plenty of canine “weed” behaviors, and can instruct clients on which weed behaviors to ignore, enabling them to fade out and to shift focus to sorting out those behaviors that do need to be modified.\n\nIf the weed behaviors are inadvertently reinforced, the child (or the dog) can end up with an undesirable habit. Explaining inadvertent reinforcement, I’ve found it may cause clients to feel guilt, shame, regret, conflict, and stress. It’s one situation that requires a non-judgmental, positive approach, like the profit-to-business analogy. Latham says to parents: Mistakes you may have made are not a cause for guilt or judgement. If you invest your attention without knowing what exactly it is reinforcing, desired results may not occur. You didn’t know the principle before, so there is no fault. Now change to give good consequences to desirable behaviors. This is something we should make clear when we guide clients through identifying why their dogs behave the way they do.\n\nEmotional aspects of the role of antecedents\n\nLatham writes that we are so schooled in thinking there is some internal cause for a child’s behavior, we forget to look to the environment. This is something I have found that clients do with their dogs, preferring to take something of a psychoanalytic approach to the issues.\n\nI’ve encountered clients who were so sure there was something wrong with their dog, they seemed stuck in seeing the cause in only one way—blaming the dog. Clients could be interpreting their animal’s misbehavior (or their child’s) as rejection, revenge, opposition, manipulation, and fear of losing perceived control (dog’s dominance). While a behavior consultant sees simply responses to stimuli, reinforcement, and punishment, and is thinking about how to increase the likelihood of one response over another. I use my tone and wording to reflect Latham’s and behavior consultants’ philosophy: Behavior is simply behavior, and a dog will repeat behavior that is reinforced. \n\nLatham writes, “Unfortunately, we tend to focus attention on what is wrong, not what is right.” If pet owners assume that a dog is acting from revenge or desire to dominate or be oppositional, the solution then seems to lie in finding ways to dominate the dog. As behavior consultants, we need to be sensitive and non-judgmental with our clients, whilst doing our best to dissuade them from using coercive methods that are rooted in misunderstanding of their dog’s motivations. I explain that showing dominance to a dog will often frighten, punish, and shut down new learning.\n\nLatham’s Second Principle: Children’s behavior ultimately responds better to positive consequences\n\nWhen the parent uses punitive responses to control their child, such as yelling, scolding, or spanking, the unwanted behavior will generally stop immediately. The parent is rewarded, Latham states, but the unwanted behavior often only stops temporarily and is likely to reoccur. I express empathy for parents needing to control unruly children and dogs. The parents will respond in the same way again because the behavior stopped before. This is a lawful response: The parents are behaving in accord with the reinforcement they received. I repeat: Behavior is simply behavior, no judgment needed.\n\nBehavior consultants can come up against the same issue, where the reinforcement is happening for the client, but the dog’s undesirable behavior isn’t changing. We can explain this as a universal principle of behavior, without judgment of the client, and explain that the right behavior was not taught to the child or dog, but the right behavior can occur if it is taught and then rewarded. It is useful to wait for the right behavior or an approximation of it and then reinforce that. Latham writes the goal is “to attach a positive consequence to a positive behavior.”\n\nLatham describes how parents can “manage consequences of a child’s behavior in ways that increase desirable behavior and decrease undesirable behavior,” and that those “consequences must be positive, constructive and growth-supportive.” For pets, I would say to pet owners, consequences must be desirable, teach right behaviors, promote the human-animal bond, promote fear-free compliance and confidence, and teach safe behaviors (example, not chasing cars) in order to protect a dog. In the people, we should promote enjoyment of a well-socialized, obedient pet and confidence in their ability to control the pet and keep them safe, and to promote the development of a pet who is able to live harmoniously in a human household. Could this positive parenting approach change people’s perspective to make their dog less of a stranger? Could the behavior consultant’s mindset be transplanted to pet owners and thereby promote compliance and encourage follow-up contact?\n\nBehavior consultants know a dog needs the same patience, understanding, kindness, and good teaching techniques as the children their clients are familiar with. The pet behavior consultant shows clients what works well to teach dogs, but can frame this in terms of what works with children, using Latham’s words as a resource. Pet owners can be encouraged to think of themselves as teachers as opposed to opponents in a battle for control. Accomplishing behavioral change for a dog is not done in a battle of wills with coercive methods, but rather by showing the dog, in a way that the dog understands, through reinforcement, what behavior is desirable—just like teaching a child will only be successful if we use language they understand and consequences that make sense for the child.\n\nAttention and reinforcement\n\nPunitive attention is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of behaviors we want to eliminate. Latham writes, “Unfortunately, we tend to focus attention on what is wrong, not what is right.” In trying to stop unwanted behaviors, some parents give constant negative attention to their children. But constant negative attention can have the opposite effect: Attention from parents, either positive or negative, is likely to increase the frequency of the very negative behaviors that parents are trying to stop. This is because parental attention strengthens behavior. An owner’s attention strengthens a dog’s behavior, too—we can give examples of children “acting out” for attention and use them to explain to clients how they may be contributing to their dog’s undesirable behavior. Then we can explain that pet owners, like parents, should “give positive attention to the things our children [and our dogs] do appropriately.” Pet owners may need help in identifying what behaviors they are inadvertently reinforcing, how they are reinforcing those behaviors, what desirable behaviors need reinforcement, and how and when to reinforce them. A pet owner may not be aware of the reinforcing and instructional power of a loving, kind word or a gentle pat while the dog is relaxing and not engaging in annoying “weed” behaviors.\n\nLatham’s Third Principle: Whether a behavior has been punished or reinforced is known only by the course of that behavior in the future\n\nBehavior consultants know that if a behavior is given a painful or unpleasant consequence and then reoccurs, time after time, the behavior is not really being punished at all, but rather it is being reinforced. Latham writes, “The behavior has been strengthened and therefore more likely to reappear. If it had been weakened or punished, it would get weaker or stop. The way to find out what happened with the behavior is to observe what happens to the behavior subsequently.”\n\nHe goes on to say, “Behavior can be predicted only in terms of probabilities. A ‘treatment’ may not have the effect we want immediately.” Latham continues to describe the honeymoon, extinction burst, return to baseline, etc., with examples from child-rearing that our clients may identify with, and can be used to explain how this also applies to dogs. The point is to encourage the pet owners to be consistent, accurate in their implementation of the behavior program, committed, and comfortable with contacting the behavior consultant with questions or for adjustments.\n\nKnowledge of principles of human behavior doesn’t guarantee that behavior problems will all be resolved or that we won’t feel upset, or concerned about undesirable behavior, Latham writes. It’s not possible for us to produce perfect dogs, or perfect children. This statement is bound to comfort both parents and pet owners.\n\nI’ve had some pet owners say they think we are doing scientific experiments on their beloved pet! I tell them we are not experimenting; I repeat what Latham said: we are “not studying science or doing science; we are using what we know from science to improve our lives.” Science has given options for creating a comfortable environment in homes and families. We can create and predict positive events and outcomes.\n\nI found Latham’s philosophy very uplifting. The goal is not to manage undesirable behavior, that is, to just get the child (or in our case, the dog) out of your hair! I suggest a wider goal would be to make the environment pleasant for both you and your pet—to make it possible to experience the joy of having a dog in your life, living in your home, being close to you and experiencing the warmth of affection you can receive and give to your dog. Behavior consultants have to communicate that if a client is willing to take a gradual, methodological, systematic approach to organizing their environment in such a way as to provide their dog with teaching and reinforcement for behaving well, they may experience this joy. Latham gave me a framework to communicate the principles of applied behavior analysis to clients in a way that avoids blame and allows them to engage with new ideas through experiences they’ve already had.\n\n\nLatham, G.I. (1994) The Power of Positive Parenting: A wonderful way to raise children. P&T Ink, North Logan, UT. Rev. ed.\n\nLindsay, M., Posage, M., Engel, J., (2002) Predicting client follow-up after initial pet behavior consultation. Interdisciplinary Forum for Applied Animal Behavior, Sixth annual meeting, Tampa, FL. March 1-3.\n\nPosage, M., Lindsay, M., Marder, A., Engel, J. (2002) Predicting client follow-up after initial pet behavior consultation. American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, Annual Scientific Meeting, Nashville, TN. July 14.\n\n\nJoan Engel was a secondary author of published research on shelter dogs and cats at the ASPCA and the ARL-Boston for eight years, where she was privileged to learn dog behavior consulting. She was a dog behavior consultant certified by IAABC for 11 years until she retired. Joan received a doctorate in life span developmental psychology from Fordham University, and a master’s from the New School for Social Research. After receiving her degrees, she studied psychotherapy at the Alfred Adler Institute, taught college-level introductory and developmental psychology and was a biostatistician. Joan has incorporated the positive, non-judgmental approaches of Adler, Latham, and behavior analysis as core values for her own life, personal growth, relationships, and in her work as an educator and dog behavior consultant.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8909406065940857}
+{"content": "Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 8 pm\n\n • From your fixed line: 800 777 77\n • From your mobile line: 777\n • From abroad: +352 691 700 777\n\nCustomer service - Temporary change of hours\n\nIn the current context, we had to adapt the opening hours of our customer service.\n\nFor any questions regarding your subscriptions, offers, invoices or any other technical question, do not hesitate to consult the Support section of the site or ask our assistant. You can also track your usage and mobile subscriptions on the My Tango app.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7530799508094788}
+{"content": "Savor Tea Like Vintage Wine\n\n\n\"Tea is parallel to wine,\" says Anthony Capobianco, founder and CEO of Zen Tea Traders and an expert who travels the world in search of the finest single-origin teas-each from a specific estate rather than being a blend. \"The flavor varies from one year to another, like vintage wines,\" he says. Brewed right, estate teas exude unique flavors and aromas of distant origins and appeal to multiple senses. This, says Capobianco, is the way to brew:\n\n\nHot brew: Water temperature varies, depending on the type of tea, but never pour boiling water onto tea (except herbal), as it brings out too much bitterness.\n\nUse 1 teaspoon of tea per 8-ounce cup for hot teas, and 2 teaspoons per cup for herbal, cold-brewed, or iced tea.\n\nType of tea\n\nAfter water boils,\nwait for:\n\nThen pour and steep for:\n\n\n1 minute\n\n3–4 minutes\n\n\n2 minutes\n\n2–3 minutes\n\n\n3 minutes\n\n2–3 minutes\n\n\n5 minutes\n\n1.5–2.5 minutes\n\n\nPour when water boils\n\n5–7 minutes\n\nCold brew vs. iced: Compared to iced tea, typically made with boiling water and then cooled, cold brewing produces a milder, sweeter flavor, which is less likely to need a sweetener. To cold brew, pour cold water over tea and let it sit in the fridge for 10 hours. Already chilled, it doesn't need ice.\n\nDIY decaf: To eliminate 90-95 percent of the caffeine in tea, steep for 30 seconds, discard the water, and steep again.\n\nFood pairing: Serve darker teas with heavy foods such as steak, and white or lighter teas with fish and light foods.\n\nFor more tea tips, visit\n\nVital Tea Tip\n\nNever microwave water, as it will produce a flat, dull-tasting tea.\n\n\n\nKeeping It Fresh\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9882373213768005}
+{"content": "A Jalopy that Works\n\nWashington Matters\n\nA Jalopy that Works\n\nAs we watch the ferocious debate over whether and how to release the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package Congress approved last October and the endless finger-wagging over how the first batch was misspent, we should step back every now and then remember something -- this debate nearly didn't happen. The Congress and the country quite easily could have been reduced to grumbling on the sidelines as the administration spent -- or misspent -- the second $350 billion.\n\nWe all know, theoretically, that government was divided into three branches to ensure that no one branch had too much power. But in practice -- and especially in crises -- that concept usually gets forgotten and we often see congressional hesitation and deliberation not as checks and balances but simple obstructionism and politics as usual. Remember when the House, Democrats and Republicans alike, torpedoed the first version of the rescue package? They were pilloried for bringing the country to the edge of financial ruin. Yet one of the key changes made to the legislation as it worked its way fitfully through Congress was to break the package in half and make the second $350 billion subject to congressional acquiescence.\n\nSo when we heap scorn on lawmakers for their squabbling and delays, we should remember that in the end they often do what they are supposed to do -- put brakes on speeding locomotives run by the executive branch. Congress did a similar thing in the weeks after the attacks of 9/11 when they approved a series of changes in surveillance and security laws that became known as the Patriot Act. Congress and the administration were tampering with rights that are at the very heart of the American concept of freedom and protection from an intrusive government, and because of the circumstances, there was very little debate. It was almost as an afterthought that some lawmakers suggested that the act \"sunset\" (expire) five years later unless Congress voted to extend it. When it was extended, some important changes were made .\n\nFor an object lesson about the consequences of what can happen when such brakes are not applied, look no further than the most recent news about the mess and global embarrassment known as Guantanamo. The Bush administration took complete control of the detention of people it regarded as \"enemy combatants\" and placed them outside the the legal system and the oversight of Congress.\n\nThe federal courts -- including a normally Bush-friendly Supreme Court -- have gradually reined the administration in, but the upshot is that mistakes and sloppiness have put the prosecution and continued detention of some extremely dangerous people at risk. The Washington Post has two stories today spelling out the problems that will be left for the Obama administration to wrestle with. One is about how the top Bush official overseeing prosecutions of the detainees, a retired federal judge, refused to allow prosecution of the man suspected of planning to take part in the Sept. 11 attacks as the \"20th hijacker\" because she concluded he had been tortured and information obtained during interrogations was tainted and could not be used. The second details charges by a former top military prosecutor of Guantanamo detainees that crucial evidence was so routinely mishandled and even lost that prosecution even under the more favorable rules of the tribunals may be impossible.\n\nOf course there is no guarantee that working out a system of interrogating, detaining and trying suspected terrorists with Congress and allowing it to be reviewed by the courts as prosecutions developed would have resulted in fewer mistakes. But the system would have been transparent and open to corrections far earlier -- and the responsibility for errors and problems would have been shared by the government as a whole, not just an executive branch that viewed constitutional checks and balances as an annoyance, not a safety valve.\n\nSo the next time the rusty, clunky heap that is our form of self-governance coughs, stutters and threatens to stall, let's kick it in hopes of jolting it awake, not so hard that it breaks down.\n\nSponsored Content", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.539139986038208}
+{"content": "• SVM detection of epileptiform activity in routine EEG.\n\n Kelleher, Daniel; Temko, Andriy; Nash, Derek; McNamara, Brian; Marnane, William; Department of Electrical Engineering, University College Cork, Ireland. danielkel@rennes.ucc.ie (2010)\n Routine electroencephalogram (EEG) is an important test in aiding the diagnosis of patients with suspected epilepsy. These recordings typically last 20-40 minutes, during which signs of abnormal activity (spikes, sharp waves) are looked for in the EEG trace. It is essential that events of short duration are detected during the routine EEG test. The work presented in this paper examines the effect of changing a range of input values to the detection system on its ability to distinguish between normal and abnormal EEG activity. It is shown that the length of analysis window in the range of 0.5s to 1s are well suited to the task. Additionally, it is reported that patient specific systems should be used where possible due to their better performance.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9780346155166626}
+{"content": "For a radical progressivism\n\nIn an age of extremes, liberal progressives are naturally inclined towards moderation and gradualism. But it’s time for bolder ideas to address injustice and shift power.\n\nAnthony Painter Adam Lent\n6 April 2019\nTheresa May and Jeremy Corbyn\nTheresa May and Jeremy Corbyn\nPA Images\n\nWe are in a radical moment. The planet is burning. Inequality is biting. Nationalism is on the rise.\n\nResurgent but nostalgic ideologies, from statist socialism to the nationalist right, will fail to meet these challenges. The former saps freedom and innovation; the latter is obsessed by vilifying ‘enemies’ rather than providing real answers. At their extreme edges, they both pose a serious threat to democratic norms and practices.\n\nHowever, the alternative of incremental reformism is in hock to vested interests and insufficient to the scale of change needed. Liberal institutions, domestically and globally, are fundamental and require robust defence against attack from extremes. But progressive liberal ideology has too often left injustices unaddressed and this has sometimes helped fuel those very extremes.\n\nAn approach is required to symbolise a break from the technocratic and complacent progressive mindset of past and present. The starting point must be to respond to the deep and widespread sense of exclusion from political and economic power that drive ever-mounting frustration, anger and division.\n\nTo take a decisive progressive turn will require millions of conversations, close to home and online. Policies are not enough but ideas are necessary to help shape these conversations and provoke wider inspiration.\n\nHere we present some ideas that help to turn the dial of deep inequalities of economic, social and political power in modern society working within a progressive tradition. We call this approach Radical Progressivism.\n\nThe core principle: power shift\n\nThere is one core principle at the heart of Radical Progressivism: power shift. This, we believe, is the historical goal that drove the great causes of human freedom and democracy in the 19th and 20th centuries.\n\nOver the last few decades, however, we have drifted into a system that has radically shifted power in the wrong direction. Political elites, the super-rich and giant corporations have gradually exerted a tightening grip on the big decisions that affect people’s everyday lives.\n\nBoth the state and the market have become an ever more intrusive presence in lives. Market and state failure in the form of climate change threatens the welfare of species including our own. The public sector has become both privatised and increasingly coercive: not least for those who need greater social and economic security. New artificially intelligent technologies - developed by governments and businesses - risk behavioural manipulation for all the benefits they would bring.\n\nAs such, Radical Progressivism judges its own ideas, style of politics and policies against one measure: do they genuinely shift power from those who currently hold influence and wealth to those who do not?\n\nFive ways to shift power\n\nWe believe that contrary to progressives’ natural inclination towards moderation and gradualism, policies need to be bold and radical with the capacity to disrupt political debate. We think there are five approaches that can help secure a fundamental shift in power.\n\nCitizen wealth\n\nBeing wealthy not only means you live a healthier, longer life with greater opportunities, it also means you have more political influence. Economic inequality, now beginning to grow again, is directly linked to growing disempowerment and vice versa.\n\nConcentrations of wealth should be taxed along with data transfers from UK citizens to large digital companies and carbon emissions by big polluters.\n\n● The receipts from these taxes should be used to establish a citizens’ wealth fund which will redistribute tax receipts and investment returns to citizens earning below median income in the form of basic income payments. This will greatly enhance the power of millions of people to make choices about their employment and whether to save, spend or study in a way the wealthy take for granted. The fund could also invest in key economic and social infrastructure such as housing.\n\nGlobal online platforms which use their monopolistic power to exploit consumers and distort public debate should be broken up into smaller distinct companies as the US Senator Elizabeth Warren has advocated. If the UK were to remain in the EU, action against these and other monopolistic companies would be far more effective.\n\nWorker power\n\nDespite the rise of labour and time-saving technologies, people are working longer hours in ever more demanding jobs. In addition, the gradual erosion of employment rights has increased insecurity. Some of the growth in self-employment has added to this insecurity where such workers do not have market power. The resulting powerlessness that is now an ever present feature of too many workplaces must be reversed.\n\n● Generous tax breaks and transition grants should be introduced for companies that implement a four-day working week or reduce overall working hours by one-fifth with no cut in salary.\n\n● A new levy on the proportion of non-standard contracts that make up an employer’s business should be introduced. This could be applied or tiered in accordance with the size of firms. The proceeds would go into a workers’ fund to support training, professional and financial advice and support. The apprenticeship levy would also go into this fund and support new individual personal training accounts for all workers and moved away from a heavily bureaucratic apprenticeship system. This system would also cover the self-employed.\n\n● A significant innovation fund should be established to support the development of new forms of worker support. The fund will support worker power in the workplace by helping the union movement and new methods of worker organisation respond to a labour market transformed by technological change. New laws should enhance workers’ right to be heard and to organise - including digital ballots.\n\nCitizen power\n\nDemocracy is about guaranteeing that people have influence and power over politicians. However, outside of elections politicians answer far more to their party leaders, party donors and the media than to the voters. This must be rectified if democracy is to be meaningful.\n\n● A new law should be introduced requiring all elected representatives to consult their constituents on the major decisions they take and to make sure their views are represented in Parliament or the council chamber. These deliberations should be conducted through evidence and dialogue rich consensus-building processes.\n\n● Voters will have the power to recall an MP or councillor whom they feel is not adequately representing their consensus views.\n\n● The House of Lords should finally be abolished and replaced with a permanent citizens’ assembly with identical legislative powers.\n\nLocal power\n\nToo much political power is concentrated in London marginalising other areas and denying them capacity to grow their local economies. The remoteness of decision-making in London also makes it impossible to involve millions of people fully in the big decisions that affect their lives and the places they live.\n\n● Power over tax, borrowing, welfare, education, health and planning rules should be devolved from Whitehall and Westminster to local areas - without onerous strings attached - with councils taking the lead on policy development and implementation. Further powers should be devolved to the nations of the UK.\n\n● These powers should not be dispensed in the traditional way. The expectation should be that much deeper forms of local democracy should be developed including citizens’ juries, participatory budgeting, and devolving budgets to individuals and communities.\n\nParliament should be moved from Westminster to Birmingham. We need a modern, inclusive functioning Parliament and for power to be transferred from London: this would be a substantive and symbolic move in that direction. Westminster is irrevocably tarnished by MPs’ expenses, austerity and now Brexit.\n\nInvestment for all\n\nLondon and the South East have enjoyed the lion’s share of infrastructure investment for too long excluding millions of people from economic growth.\n\n● A multi-billion pound Beyond London Investment Fund financed by long-term bonds should be established to massively enhance transport connectivity outside London and the South East including bus networks, on-demand transport systems, and completing the northern stretches of HS2 and HS3 as quickly as possible. Fears that these investments will benefit London to the detriment of other cities are too fatalistic; but strong support for inclusive economic strategies in our major cities will be needed as well as visionary local collective leadership to avert this risk.\n\n● The infrastructure fund will also be used, alongside funds established by local councils and the citizen wealth fund, to increase the supply of new affordable homes throughout the country.\n\n● The returns from these infrastructure investments will be invested into the citizens’ wealth fund and used to further boost basic income payments.\n\nManifestoes aren’t the answer and this isn’t one: it’s an attempt to help open out a desperately needed new democratic dialogue about a new progressive vision that rejects ideological dogmatism and authoritarianism and instead values empowerment, inclusivity and freedom. Indeed, to make these changes meaningful, democracy will have to operate in far deeper, consensus-building ways locally, nationally, and internationally.\n\nThese initial power-shifting policies are five possible signature approaches for a Radical Progressivism that is alert to the scale of the challenges we face and the radical possibilities of the moment. Little else on offer currently is.\n\nStop the secrecy: Publish the NHS COVID data deals\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9965430498123169}
+{"content": "Neuroshima Hex 3.0: Neojungle – EN\n\n\n\nArtikelnummer: 3NSHNEO012018IN Kategorie:\n\n\nWhen survivors of humanity started to get up from their knees after the destructive war, when they were looking in fear to the North at the terrain occupied by robots, in the South a new threatening force was born, a force as strong as Moloch but not as dynamic. Slowly but surely an overwhelming mutated jungle started to grow. It was driven by an ungoverned survival instinct, and with each passing year it devours new kilometers of human earth. It assimilates everything it comes into contact with, changing animals and people into mutated beasts and symbiotic organisms, which enable it to go forward and destroy the next threat. This huge green and ferocious organism was called Neojungle.\n\nNeuroshima Hex! Neodżungla is a single army expansion for Neuroshima Hex!The main advantage of this army is the ability to create a Motherland, which lets one Module simultaneously help all units which belong to the Motherland. Even units which are weak alone can become fast efficient killers.\n\nThe disadvantage of the army is its relatively low mobility, lack of shooters, and the fact that without a Motherland the units are rather weak and slow.\n\nNeuroshima Hex! Neodżungla was originally released as part of the two-army expansion Neuroshima Hex! Babel13\n\n\nEs gibt noch keine Bewertungen.\n\nSchreibe die erste Bewertung für „Neuroshima Hex 3.0: Neojungle – EN“\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6639117002487183}
+{"content": "UA-126698554-1 UA-126698554-1 Beware of the tailwind aloft!\n\nBeware of the tailwind aloft!\n\nSurface analysis depicting a weak low pressure spreading an easterly flow over southern Ontario. An upper trough supporting this low, spread 25 to 45 knot southwest winds aloft at 3,000 to 5,000 feet.\n\nPart of our approach briefing is to include potential threats. While flying from Copenhagen, Denmark to Toronto I chimed in with, “YYZ’s TAF is forecasting a southwest flow for two hours after this northeast flow. There could be a strong southwest flow aloft.” Silence ensued among the other three pilots and I could hear them thinking, “what is the skipper talking about?” I broke the silence by joking, “my meteorological senses were tingling.” Sure enough ATC mentioned a strong southwest flow aloft with winds shifting to easterly at 1000 to 1500 AGL. The B787 radar was also painting purple wind shear, a rarity.\n\nBuffalo’s upper air sounding clocked the winds southwest 25 to 40 knots at vectoring heights for Toronto. (Buffalo is the closest upper station). When the flow aloft is a strong tailwind, ATC can have a tough time with it. They also want you to get down and slow down. Something very difficult to do in an airliner without significant drag. Luckily, the 787 has “big boards” compared to the Airbus “credit cards” used for speed brakes. The F/O flying this leg couldn’t slow the slippery wing so he disengaged the A/P and rode the glide slope a little high. The well executed maneuver allowed final flap.\n\nI wrote about this very scenario catching a supervisor by surprise some 15 to 16 years ago. It’s mentioned in both weather books. Weather does repeat itself!\n\nThe F/O greased it on in a light northeast flow coupled with a wet runway. A wet runway is a pilot’s favourite, but not too wet!\n\nI did mention after we landed about how my meteorological senses were right and that no one buys my books. Hint, hint guys. Even if you have 15,000 to 20,000 hours, which both my F/O’s had, they could use a refresher.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8047013878822327}
+{"content": "Level 2 Award Support Individuals Learning Disabil\n\nThis professional development qualification provides essential knowledge and skills to anyone wanting to actively support individuals with learning disabilities. Units include: the meaning of learning disability, support, legislation, communication and planning.\nView PDF\nRetype the CAPTCHA code from the image\nChange the CAPTCHA codeSpeak the CAPTCHA code\n\nWho is it suitable for?\n\nThe Award is suitable for people who come into contact with individuals with learning disabilities as part of their job. This could include people in community and volunteering roles or working in education, leisure and employment support.\n\nWhat are the entry requirements?\n\n\nHow many credits are required to complete it?\n\nThe Award requires 12 credits.\n\nHow is it assessed?\n\n\nDo you need to be working to take this qualification?\n\n\nHow long does it take to complete?\n\nYou can usually complete the Award in 6 months.\n\nWhat related qualifications can you progress to?\n\nThe Award provides a direct progression route to Level 2 & 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care as they share a number of units or the Level 3 Award and Certificate in Supporting Individuals with Learning Disabilities.\n\n\nThis qualification does not qualify you to work but will support you in your current job role or future job roles when supporting children, young people or adults with learning disabilities.\n\n\nPlease log in to leave a review.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9997316002845764}
+{"content": "Clouds, condensation and coffee\n\nClouds in my coffee. There is, perhaps unsurprisingly, plenty of atmospheric physics you can encounter in your cup.\n\nAs we approach the end of the year, it is a good time to notice the changes in the weather. If you are in the northern hemisphere, the nights grow longer as the days grow colder. If you are in the southern hemisphere it is the opposite. And yet around the world, we have things in common. There may be days when it is more cloudy and days when there is a heavy dew (or even in some places a frost) on the grass. But what has this to do with coffee?\n\nIt’s to do with some experiments that you can do at home or on your way to work. And, in particular, with two effects you can see in your coffee cup.\n\nTo start with the dew, perhaps you’ve noticed the condensation around the rim of the cup or the coffee pot when you brew the coffee and the hot steam condenses onto the cold mug around it. Condensation happens because the temperature of the mug is lower than the ‘dew point’ of water at that humidity and pressure. Below the temperature of the dew point, the water vapour will condense into the liquid droplets that we then see dotted around the mug.\n\ncoffee bowl pour over\nYou can see the condensation on the V60 brewer here. Looking at the dew formed in the mornings, what does it tell you about the temperature of space?\n\nIt is a similar effect on the grass: the temperature there is lower than the point at which the water vapour in the air starts to condense out of the air and so you get dew. William Charles Wells published his “Essay on Dew” in 1814. The result of more than two years of careful observation, Wells found that dew formed only under certain weather conditions and only on certain space (sky) facing surfaces. Wells’ results can be used to show that the space around the earth is much colder than the surface of our planet. His results (together with some back of the envelope calculations) can therefore also be used to show that the Earth is in a delicate balance and has a natural greenhouse effect. As the weather changes this year and you notice the dew, can you see how Well’s could come to this conclusion?\n\nThe second coffee experiment we could do at this time of year is to see whether pollution affects our steaming take-away coffee. While generally it’s always a better idea to sit in a cafe and take the time to enjoy your coffee, there are occasions when a take-away is necessary. Just as with the dew, clouds start to form when the air temperature drops below the dew point. However, water droplets in the air are unstable to evaporation and so as soon as a pure water droplet is formed, it will evaporate unless it has a diameter larger than about 0.1 µmª. This may seem small and yet to spontaneously form a droplet with this diameter would take the accumulation of several million water molecules (I will leave it to you to do the estimate!). This represents a very improbable occurrence and yet we can see that clouds are everywhere, how can this be?\n\ncontrail, sunset\nContrails are caused by condensing water droplets behind aeroplanes. But why are they white and what does that tell you about the water droplets within them?\n\nThe answer comes from the dust. Fortunately we are a dusty planet and these bits of dust in the atmosphere act as ‘nucleation’ points for water to condense onto. This makes the condensation of water into droplets much more likely and so clouds – which are an accumulation of droplets – can form.\n\nWhich brings us back to the coffee. If clouds require dust in order to form droplets, and the steam above your coffee is a grouping of water droplets, does it not make sense that your coffee should be steamier next to a polluted road than in the middle of a park (for the same temperature coffee)?\n\nIt’s an idea that I’ve never been able to test but the shift to colder weather here offers a(nother) perfect opportunity.\n\nDoes your coffee steam more when you take it away from a city cafe?\n\nI look forward to hearing about the results of your experiments, in the comments here, on Twitter or on Facebook.\n\nª Introduction to Atmospheric Physics, Andrews, Cambridge University Press, 2008\n\nAn easy way to get a halo\n\n\n“Do you drink coffee?”\n\n\n“Do you drink tea?”\n\n\n\n“Like when you breathe on a mirror?”\n\nKettle drum at Amoret\n\nCondensation on around the top of the jug on this V60\n\n\n\nheiligenschein, self portrait\n\n\n\n\n\nIn the Greenhouse at CoffeeGeek\n\nCoffee Geek and Friends, Coffee Victoria\n\nCoffee Geek and Friends\n\n\n\nCondensation on mug in CGaF\n\n\n\nCardinal Place roof, greenhouse\n\n\n\n\n\nBrunswick House\n\nBrunswick House, coffee, cortado\n\nCoffee at the Brunswick House cafe\n\n\n\ncortado, Brunswick House, everyday physics, coffee cup science\n\nThe cortado on the saucer. \n\n\nDappled with Dew\n\nPart of my morning routine can involve a walk through a local park. Each day reveals how the seasons are affecting the plants, bird life etc. This morning on walking through the park, I was treated to the spectacle of a thick layer of dew, shimmering and spectacular, glinting in the sunlight.\n\ndew, surface tension, everyday physics, slow morvement\n\nThe dew this morning\n\nTaking out my phone, I tried to take a picture of the scene for later and yet, what came out in the image was not the brilliant scene before me but instead some blurry grass. The ‘immediacy’ of the sight struck home. As with so many of the gifts that nature provides, attempting to take a photograph of it somehow just doesn’t quite capture the beauty of the moment. There are some great photographs of sunsets or sunrises, but part of the attraction of the image is not the photograph itself but our memory of those brilliant sunsets that we have experienced. The photograph is suggestive of the beauty that the photographer saw but somehow, the fullness of that beauty has not translated into the photograph.\n\nAs we stop to enjoy the moment, rather than photograph it and rush off to our morning appointment, we can start to notice what it is about it that captivates us. From my viewpoint, the majority of the dew this morning formed a silver blanket on the grass. It was this that caught my eye initially. Yet as I observed the dew, individual droplets came into focus and, because of the angle at which I was viewing them, they appeared as blue, as a slightly different blue and then other different colours. The physics of the rainbow was being revealed before me, one metre away on the grass. If I moved, the clues to these mysteries would disappear.\n\nIt was a reminder to slow down and notice things, who knows what we’ll see. Perhaps you will disagree and say that it is just my poor photography skills that are the problem. Please disagree in the comments section below! Alternatively, if you agree and want to share a moment of beauty and everyday physics, please also share that in the comments section below. I’ll finish this post however with an excerpt from the thoughts of someone who obviously did stop, slow down and observe his world. The excerpt is from “Inversnaid” by Gerard Manley Hopkins:\n\nDew, surface tension, everyday physicsDegged with dew, dappled with dew,\nAre the groins of the braes that the brook treads through,\nWiry heathpacks, flitches of fern,\nAnd the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.\n\nWhat would the world be, once bereft,\nOf wet and of wildness? Let them be left,\nO let them be left, wildness and wet;\nLong live the weeds and the wilderness yet.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8197152018547058}
+{"content": "Bentonite Clay\n\n\nBentonite clay has a strong negative charge which bonds to the positive charge in many toxins. When Benotnite comes in contact with a toxin, chemical, or heavy metal, the clay will absorb the toxin and release it’s minerals for the body to use. Bentonite also helps get oxygen to cells as it pulls excess hydrogen and allows the cells to replace it with oxygen instead.Bentonite is a healing clay which may have a high concentration of minerals including silica, calcium, magnesium, sodium, iron, and potassium.\n\n\nBentonite clay can be used in masks, exfoliants, toothpaste and more.\n\nChoose size\n • Description\n\n CAS 1302-78-9\n\n INCI sodium bentonite\n\n Fine mesh light grey volcanic ash", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.995762050151825}
+{"content": "Before I became a mom (to a preschooler…overnight), I was used to making major life decisions more or less on my own. Sure, I might ask for advice from a few close friends, but people did not stop me in the store to give their two cents on which career would be a good fit for me, or which home I should consider buying.\n\nMy transition to parenthood was abrupt. No swollen belly to announce an impending family expansion. No baby shower. No cute maternity photo shoot. No gender reveal announcement on social media. Just me showing up one day alone and the next day with a charming little girl in tow.\n\nAnd suddenly, magically, everyone had an opinion. I was new to this parenting thing and the noise was overwhelming. I felt like I needed to hear it all and give everything a fair try. And so I took a lot of unsolicited parenting advice to heart.\n\nBut here’s the thing. Parenting a child who experienced early trauma is not like parenting a securely attached infant. It’s just not. What works well for a child who has always known unconditional love might send a child who is just learning it into an emotionally charged tailspin.\n\nOver the past few years, I’ve learned a lot about adoption, trauma, attachment and brain development. I’ve also gotten to know my daughter really, really well. And when I hear well-meaning strangers (or acquaintances) say these things, I’ve learned to smile politely (most of the time) and just ignore them.\n\n“You’re too strict.”\n\nLots of kids who experienced early trauma struggle with emotional regulation. They thrive on structure and predictability and changes in their routine (even happy changes) can be really hard. Sometimes what looks like strictness is just a safeguard against disaster. Our kids need to know exactly what to expect in certain social situations and also need an appropriate “escape plan” to use if things get overwhelming. To the untrained eye, this might look like micromanagement at the expense of fun. In reality, it is likely an attempt to set a child up for success in a social situation that is very stressful for them.\n\n“You’re not strict enough”\n\nIronically, I’ve gotten this one too. Much of what is perceived as strictness in my parenting is preventative. I am working overtime to help my daughter regulate her emotions and behavior. Obviously, this is not always successful. We have our moments, and sometimes they happen in public places. When they do, snooping eyes do not always see the swift and stern consequences that they expect to accompany the misbehavior. There are lots of reasons for this. Sometimes safety is an issue. Sometimes an eight year old is regressing and their toddler-like tantrum requires the type of response you might give a toddler. Sometimes a parent is working hard to help their child save face and move on from the incident. In all of these situations, a child who experienced early trauma needs connection with a caregiver more than they need any type of imposed consequences.\n\n“(Insert parenting strategy here) always worked for my kids”\n\nThat’s great. Really. But adoptive parenting is sometimes different. Parenting children with trauma in their past is different. Parenting children who are still learning trust and attachment is different. Lots of traditional parenting techniques seem to backfire. Imagine the message that time-out sends to a child who has experienced abandonment. Imagine trying to take away possessions to teach a lesson to a child who has already lost so much more than a favorite toy. It just doesn’t work. And that’s ok.\n\nParenting is hard. Parenting children who have experienced early trauma is really hard. Most people mean well, but they are not walking in your shoes. Become an expert on trauma and attachment and brain development. Most of all, become an expert on your kid. Do what works for them. Do what works for your family. And when someone offers unsolicited parenting advice, feel free to give them a polite smile and just ignore it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7463164329528809}
+{"content": "Share This Article:\nYardley Evans Brunt Age, Birthday, School (Megyn Kelly and Douglas Brunt Daughter) Height\nSpread the love\n\nYardley Evans Brunt is the adorable daughter of celebrity parents Megyn Kelly and Douglas Brunt. Daughter of novelist father and journalist mother, Yardley is the 2nd child in the family. Although her mother and father are constantly in the spotlight, they have saved Yardley and other kids from the unwanted attention of the media.\n\nYardley Evans Brunt is 8 years old\n\nAccording to the internet, Yardley was born when her mother was already 40. She came to this world 19 months after her elder brother Edward Yates’s birth. Her parents gave her the name Yardley in order to meet the strength of Yates’s name. They found the name on a children’s book.\n\nYardley Evans Brunt celebrates her birthday on 14th of April\n\n\nYardley was born on 14 April 2011. Also only after 2 years, her mother Megyn gave birth to the youngest child Thatcher. However, the details on the birthday and its celebration are not available on the internet. But, as there are 3 children at home, the celebration on each one’s birthday will probably be very enjoyable.\n\nYardley goes to school with her younger brother\n\nThis is very much understandable that celebrities and media personalities generally hide the details of their children. And, that is what even Megyn does. She often takes her children to school but doesn’t let the outsiders know to which school her children go.\n\nImage result for Yardley Evans Brunt\nMegyn taking Yardley and her younger son, Thatcher to school\n\nMegyn and Douglas are great parents. They take their kids to school and spend as much time as they can with their children.\n\nYardley’s parents Megyn Kelly and Douglas Brunt\n\nYardley is the second child of Megyn and Douglas. Megyn Kelly used to be a News Anchor at Fox TV from 2004 to 2017. However, she left the job at FOX TV and went to NBC so she could spend more time with her children in 2017. She is a wonderful mother who knows how to balance her work and family.\n\nSimilarly, Yardley’s father Douglas is an American Novelist. His first novel Ghosts of Manhattan was a critically praised novel.\n\nMegyn and Douglas got married in 2008. Before tying the knot with Douglas, Megyn was previously married to an anesthesiologist, Daniel Kendall. Also, they got divorced in 2006. Thereafter, she met Douglas and tied the knot with him, Douglas and Megyn have 3 children together.\n\nYardley Evans Brunt must have a decent height\n\nThe body measurements of 8-year-old Yardley is off the record of the internet as of now. But, looking at her mother who is 5 feet and 6 inches tall, we can say that Yardley will be at least of the same height when she grows up.\n\nBut in general, the average height of an 8-year-old American girl is 4 feet and 2 inches. So, we assume that Yardley must be of similar height.\n\nUsually, Megyn and Douglas do not reveal the information and pictures of their kids. Their efforts to save their daughter from unnecessary attention is very great. As a great parent, they are doing everything they can to give their children a better life.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6165280342102051}
+{"content": "Research and Data\n\nResearch forms the basis of everything the Netherlands Institute for Social Research ¦ SCP does. SCP has acquired a large amount of data over time. Some of the SCP databases are small, while others contain data on large numbers of cases and variables, or are highly complex (multi-level data).\n\nThe databases contain information on a wide range of topics, including health, wellbeing, time use, employment, social security, education, housing, media and household expenditure.\n\nThe data objects range from individuals and families to organisations and communities, to postcode regions and EU member states.\n\nVariables indicate opinions, describe behaviours or contain measurable values such as expenditure, time budgets, possessions (persons) or personnel, funding or accommodation (organisations).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000097751617432}
+{"content": "It’s spring, birds start to sing in the morning, trees grow leaves, the days lengthen and I sense a growing resistance to the increase of the administrative burden healthcare professionals face.\n\nWe need spring. We need the vibrancy of the smell, the colours, and the rich sounds to revive the passion of those who take care of us when our health isn’t what it should be. They have become distracted. From us, the patients. By computers, billing codes, checklists, and compliance. Some say this increased by 4000% since the seventies.\n\nOthers like the well known Atul Gawande stated: “The volume of knowledge and capability increases faster than any individual can manage — and faster than our technologies can make manageable for us”, in his NewYorker article. And my good friend ZDoggMD made one of his famous Parody Rapp-videos about it.\n\nHe also did an interesting video on the same topic: how EMRs killed medicine. And yet, why is it that real change is still not seen in the consultations rooms, why more and more professionals face burnout because of the long working hours with patients, after which they still have 2-3 hours of administrative tasks to do.\n\nThe technology was intended to help make healthcare better, not worse. The opposite seems true and has created a dark fall-like atmosphere that isn’t appealing anymore for jobs within healthcare itself. People resign earlier then they intended when they started their career, and as a teen – from what you’d read in the newspapers and online media-, you would be nuts if you would choose a career in healthcare.\n\nIn the Netherlands, there is a strong movement going on right now, to get rid of as many silly rules and protocols as possible, leaving only those with impact. Maybe we should use this spring to do the same with all those registrations, computers, non-connected-systems, and heavily overrated information poured over those who choose to help humans, not become clerks.\n\nWe need technology for good reasons, but somewhere down the line, it seems we’ve taken a wrong turn, let’s make sure our healthcare workers don’t lose their purpose and bring back the passion they have to treat humans instead of computers.\n\nLet it be spring…\n\nAbout this column:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9541195034980774}
+{"content": "Spanish school in Valencia\n\nValencia, located on the Mediterranean coast, is Spain’s third largest city after Madrid and Barcelona. It is a lively and dynamic city with something for all tastes and all ages. The famous City of Arts and Sciences complex, a stunning piece of modern architecture that includes science and art museums, an Imax cinema and the biggest aquarium in Europe, has increased Valencia’s popularity and recognition.\n\nThe Region\n\nValencia’s warm climate and plentiful sunshine make a wide range of outdoor activities possible such as golf, horse riding, tennis, nautical and water sports.\n\nWhen you come to Valencia you won’t feel alone.\n\nThere are plenty of fiestas in nearby villages during the months of July, August and September, which commemorate local patron saints or re-enact the defeat of the Moors with parades, fireworks and, often, bull running. They are within easy reach and you would be hard-pressed not to find one.\n\nValencia’s local festival, called “LAS FALLAS,” is the most important and popular of the region. Over four days, huge papier-mâché statues depicting popular and ironic themes stand at just about every street corner, only to be burned after midnight on 19th of March.\n\nAt many times during the year, whatever the occasion, you will be able to see one of Valencia’s renowned firework display, called “castillos.”\n\nWhat do you need to know before travelling to Valencia?\n\nWhatsApp chat", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9379004240036011}
+{"content": "Showing posts from 2020\n\nThe Big Why\n\nA loved one asked me recently, \"Why did God cause this to happen? What lesson are we supposed to learn?\" The context, of course, was the COVID-19 Quarantine.\n\nHere's the thing:\n\nI don't believe God caused this to happen. Just like I don't believe God \"gave \" my oldest son Type 1 Diabetes at the age of four, or depression and anxiety at the age of 16. I don't believe God \"caused\" my husband to have PTSD or my other son to have a sensory disorder due to birth trauma (God did not cause the birth trauma either).\n\nGod caused none of this.\n\nMy loved one replied to my assertion, \"But He allowed it. He's got to want us to learn something from it.\"\n\nThe underlying question is: Why does God allow suffering? And one of the big myths of the Christian faith is \"so that we can learn something from it\". Now, before you get overly excited about me calling this a myth, just take a moment to breathe and \"Listen to UNDERSTAND what I …\n\nWhy Quarantine is SO Hard\n\nWho knew that laying around doing nothing would be so exhausting?\n\nOk, so there ARE a lot of us are who are not laying around doing nothing. A lot of us are trying to work from home while managing the stressors of Virtual Schooling. A lot of us are finding that our usual ways of coping with life have been taken away. Shut down. Removed-- and we are grieving a nationwide change in how we go about just Living Life.\nIf I've never mentioned it before, I've had a whole lot of counseling. Since my husband came home from Iraq with PTSD we have had individual counseling, marriage counseling, and family counseling. After my oldest son's diagnosis of depression and anxiety we also had crisis counseling. \nThe short version of 10 years of counseling? Grief is not only assigned to the loss of a loved one. Losing someone we love is only one kind of grief. Humans have the capacity to grieve many situations: The loss of a relationship. The loss of a way of life. The Loss of a job. The…\n\nUnprecedented Times\n\n\nWhen the World Spreads Fear, Be Still and Know\n\nThe last few days have been a whirlwhind. This past year I transitioned from part time writer and teacher at a small preschool at my church, to taking on the position of Director of said preschool, as it incresed by leaps and bounds.\n\nI thought I was busy before, juggling the various medical needs in my household and writing lesson plans for my preschoolers and the Biblical history themed Sunday School class I teach. Yet this new position brought a new meaning to \"busy-ness\"- rivalling only one season when we were in doctors offices and hospital rooms Every. Single. Day. For months on end, as all three of those I care for were receiving much needed therapies. We were blessed by the gift of this treatment, but the schedule was intense. \nI've been busy before. So I know I can survive it, but sometimes... well sometimes, I just need to STOP being so busy and get still. I recharge by being quiet and alone, and I refill by seeking connection with God. I will confess that ther…", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8073214292526245}
+{"content": "Cosmetics for the Battle Royale and the transport for mini-games. Can be upgraded for mini-games mode only.\n\n—Official description of gliders\n\nThe Mechanical Wings is a royale glider that can be used in Battle Royale and Glider Rush.\n\n\nIt is used to aesthetically customize the glider or the landing device in Battle Royale.\n\n\nThe wings appear curved, with 4 mechanical white/blue feathers on each side. In the middle, it has a grey system unit attached to the player's back.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8826655149459839}
+{"content": "Pom poms won’t cushion the fall\n\n\nAnna Cassidy\n\nCarlmont competition cheerleaders are warming up before practice in a complex pyramid.\n\nThe athletes lined up, ready to bring their flyers toward the sky. They began to count off.\n\n“One, three, five, seven.”\n\nThe flyers jumped into their bases’ hands and were pushed straight up into the air. Their bases’ arms were locked, and everyone was concentrated on keeping the flyers steady in the pyramid, the most complicated stunt of their routine.\n\nHowever, as the arms of the flyers connected, they began to wobble, and soon enough, they cascaded down.\n\nWith linked arms, not one, but two of the flyers fell. The center group lost their balance, sending flyers Sophia Morgan, a sophomore, and Maya Brazil, a freshman, tumbling downward.\n\nMorgan was barely caught by her teammates below, inches before hitting the ground. One of her bases, freshman Alexia Stevenson was knocked down, smacking her head on the AstroTurf.\n\n“When it first happened, I felt very confused and scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen and if I actually had a concussion,” Stevenson said. \n\nThis thought was going through the heads of many of the cheerleaders that day.\n\nAs Brazil fell, her entire stunt group fell with her. In the end, four cheerleaders were piled on top of one another, their heads throbbing, uncertain of possible head trauma they may have incurred.\n\nThis would be Brazil’s second concussion within three weeks. \n\nFrom the crowd’s point of view, Carlmont cheerleaders mainly perform dances and cheers; however, there is a lot more work that goes into the sport, work that can only be seen during practices. Most of this time is put towards learning and perfecting new stunts to be put into routines for each game or assembly at which they perform.\n\nStunts are building performances in which two base cheerleaders and one back spot cheerleader lift or toss a flyer into the air. Each set of two bases, one back spot, and one flyer is called a stunt group. \n\nWithout knowing the technicalities of stunts, the audience comes away without a sense of the effort put into the performance.\n\n“When spectators watch our stunts from afar, they do not seem difficult because the team has perfected it and made it look effortless,” said the head coach of Carlmont’s varsity cheer team, Kalina Wasman. \n\nAlthough concussions are prominent in cheerleading, with all the work put into stunting, there are a lot of other injuries that are possible as well. The cheer team is cautious in regards to stunting, but the drive to perfect a stunt sometimes gets in the way of safety. \n\n“Many people do not understand the hard work and dedication that goes into cheerleading. Cheerleaders are expected to learn and perfect many difficult skills and be able to perform them after only a couple of practices. Just like any other sport, cheerleading is a huge commitment, and it takes a lot of hard work to improve,” said Lauri Lottice, a retired professional cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers.\n\nConcussions, one of the seemingly common injuries in cheerleaders, are mild traumatic brain injuries that occur from an impact causing your brain to shake quickly back and forth. The symptoms include headaches, vomiting, confusion, and even loss of consciousness. \n\nEvery year, the NFHS is coming out with new rules and safety precautions for sports. I make sure that we are up to date for our training so that I know we are providing our athletes with a safe place to grow and learn.”\n\n— Kalina Wasman, varsity cheer coach\n\nHowever, these symptoms seem minor in comparison to the long-term effects that can result from concussions. Such effects include the inability to concentrate for extended periods of time, difficulty reading and writing, and, in most severe cases, loss of memory.\n\n“You can have long term problems with IQ, memory, emotional problems, and headaches,” neuroscientist Dr. Sarah Cheyette said.\n\nHowever, there are more downsides to concussions than just physical trauma.\n\n“When I got hurt, I was really worried about what the outcome would be. All I could think about was how long I would be unable to perform. The second time I got a concussion, I was much more worried given how close in time it was to Homecoming. I was set on performing, and when I discovered I was unable to, I was really disappointed,” Brazil said. \n\nAnother cheerleader injured during the previous incident was Emily Hall, a freshman. She was a base and one of the four cheerleaders that fell.\n\n“The experience of having a concussion has affected me a lot because even now, a month after getting it, I am very headache prone, and I am a little scared of stunting in pyramids,” Hall said.\n\nJV cheer is a new team at Carlmont this year and had never experienced such a large accident. In contrast, varsity cheer has had to overcome similar incidents in the past. \n\nAs a coach, safety is the most important thing. When athletes are trying new stunts and tumbling, I always make sure I am there, as well as a few other athletes.”\n\n— Keira Lyman, JV cheer coach\n\n“When someone on my team gets injured, it’s upsetting, as no one likes seeing them hurt. It also forces our team to have to change every part of the routine that involved the injured cheerleader. This is very difficult, especially if we don’t have a lot of time,” said Larissa McCord, a senior on varsity cheer. “Still, in the end, it works out and allows our team to come together and grow.”\n\nUltimately, the long hours and possible injuries that come hand-in-hand with the sport do little to deter the athletes’ appreciation for the program. According to Wasman, they hope that, like the program, the audience’s respect for the sport will continue to grow.\n\n“I do not think many people understand the hard work and practice that goes into cheer considering how physically and mentally difficult it is to put together a routine. Cheer is a lot more than shaking pom-poms and I think people should know that,” Hall said.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.828859806060791}
+{"content": "Chance of extinction for bottle nose dolphins\n\nA special kind of moron. One might say fractally moronic.\n\nChance of extinction for bottle nose dolphins\n\n\nIn honor of World Animal Day, here are the top 5 most endangered dolphin species together with links to conservation organizations fighting to save them from extinction.\n\nThe biggest threat to this small population is entanglement in fishing gear, and conservationists fear that unless immediate action is taken to prevent entanglements, extinction of this species is imminent. Like all marine mammal species, they are threatened by vessel traffic and pollution, but are particularly vulnerable to fishing gear entanglement and habitat loss due to coastal development.\n\nThese freshwater dolphins live in the rivers of India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. There are fewer than 2, Ganges River dolphins, and around 1, Indus River dolphins remaining today.\n\nFactors that led to the endangered dolphin species\n\nThe populations have been declining due to human activity, including habitat destruction due to dam construction, fishing gear entanglement, pollution, prey depletion due to over fishing by humans, and deliberate killing for human consumption.\n\nMore info here and here. Their numbers have been drastically reduced in recent decades due to entanglement in fishing gear — specifically gillnets.\n\nThis means that during the last extensive survey undertaken in to find the Baiji, scientists did not see a single animal. There were over 6, Baiji recorded in the s, but their numbers had dropped to around animals by the s. Bythere were only 13 Baiji remaining. It is possible that there is still a Baiji out there somewhere, but even if there is, this species has almost no chance of recovering its numbers, and is thus functionally extinct.The Bloody Chamber.\n\n\nNews Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. The Earthfiles Archive is a complete index of all Earthfiles reports from to the current date. In this master index, all Real X-Files are accessible only by subscription.\n\nIn recent history the Baiji, also known as the Yangtze river dolphin, was declared extinct, its river habitat seriously impacted by the construction of dams and boat traffic.\n\nEndangered dolphins like the Maui’s dolphin are on the brink of extinction due to entanglement in fishing gear.\n\nChance of extinction for bottle nose dolphins\n\nAardvark. Aardvark means 'earth-pig' in Afrikaans. They are very secretive animals so very little is known about their way of life. Adder. One of our three native snakes, . Atlantic Bottle-nose Dolphins can grow to a maximum length of m causing them to weigh even more than kgs/1, pounds, although this is not what every bottle-nosed dolphin weighs.\n\nThey live in small pods of up to 12 whales as .\n\nBottlenose Dolphin Facts for Kids | Dolphin Photos", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998447060585022}
+{"content": "The term for these birds is “peafowl.” The males are “peacocks” and the females are “peahens.” The babies are called “peachicks.”\n\nPeacocks are not noisy birds as many believe. They only make their loud calls during mating season and when a predator is nearby.\n\nWith its massive tail and iridescent colors, this bird has long fascinated human observers. When a peacock fans its ornamented train for the ladies during mating season, its feathers quiver, emitting a low-frequency sound inaudible to human ears. Depending on whether they want to attract females from far away or up close, they can change the sound by shaking different parts of their feathers. When peacocks mate with peahens, they give out a loud “copulatory call.” The birds can “fake” this call to attract more females. By pretending they are mating when they are not, the birds can convince females they are more sexually active—and therefore genetically fitter—than their rivals.”\n\nHover over each picture to see description and click to enlarge\n\nPeafowl- India Blue\nPied Peafowl\nPurple Pied Silver\nPeafowl Black Shoulder\nPeafowl White\nPeafowl Opal", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.883611798286438}
+{"content": "Receiving life\n\nWhat is in the way of receiving life coming through\n\n\nPlants and animals grow and live according to Natural Law. Animals live from their instinctual brain and do get hurt, but they do not rationalize about it as we do We have a cortex and act, so we think, from rational choices. But if we look around us in the world of today we see wars and much pain inflicted upon human beings. Much more than we want to know, we are driven by our instincts, triggered by fear and anger.\n\nHow come? What is happening that we are not able to receive and let the flow of the universe come through, just as what happens to a plant?\n\n\nWe as human beings have a mind, a cortex, by which we are able to become conscious of what is happening to us. However, we are also hardwired to experience fear and anger and through this we are from a very early stage on conditioned into the fight or flight reflex. We have developed, without realizing, schemata, strongly influenced by the instinctual brain, from where we live a programmed life. These schemata not only cause us to manipulate a lot of our experiences, through the hardwiring of the fight/flight reflex, we are not able to rest in ourselves and as such not able to receive the life energy.\nSo, if we are not conscious of this reflex, we tense up and the body, -in trying to protect us from more pain-, shuts down. By not staying with the awareness of an experience, the pain remains and attracts through labeling other hurts which cause more fear or anger. This process develops pain-bodies; conglomerates of painful emotions causing energetic blockages. These blockages not only act like magnets, in the end, if not processed, they get frozen. However, if we are able to fully live in the body, staying with the pain, the hurt can melt through our attention, and pass by. If not, we grow more pain bodies attracting more hurt.\n\nSo, we need to observe and witness what life does to us, and see how we are ‘programmed’. Then we can unlearn to re-act from a reflex and stay with the experience. We can learn to see what happens to us when we whole-heartily feel into the experience, follow it fully through, and as such altering the fight/flight reflex. \n\nFor this we truly need to know how the mind works, find out a map for ourselves, and experience who we are WITHOUT our habits of acts and thoughts. And since everything is in the body, the body is the exquisite instrument to become conscious of who we really are. The `felt sense’ of our bodily sensations is the primary awareness for life coming through and is the knee of listening to what is present. Pain is a cry of the soul asking for expression.\n\nSo, it is very important to get to know in which way we are hard-wired and how we can free ourselves from the blockages in the physical, the emotional and the mental. On all three levels we can observe, witness, and experience what life does to us.\n\nSTARTING WITH THE MIND , we can observe the numerous commandments, the judgements and critics: they all block our potential for receiving. We CAN LEARN NOT TO GO WITH THEM and develop compassion for ourselves. We can delete the criticaster and follow our hearts longings.\n\n\nWe can observe and witness how our EMOTIONAL PROGRAMS drive us to re-act in a certain way, making us tense. They pull us out of alignment, blocking the way to receiving. We carry within us many pain bodies due to abandonment or rejections and they prevent us from staying with the experience. If we are not aware of them and work them out, they run the show of our lives.\n\n\nThe PHYSICAL RESISTANCE to opening up is due to the fact that we are not conscious of the interrelation between our thoughts, our emotions and the body. And, we have no idea, and are not aware of our sensitivity; the skin receives an unknown amount of signals from the outside world transmitting them directly to the brain.\n\nIf we got hurt in the past, the body remembers, causing conditioning of instinctive and emotional connections in the lower brain through the Amygdalae in the hypothalamus. As soon as we grow up, we start to use our brains to change, or manipulate ourselves you might say, to not having to feel or experience what is happening to us.\n\n\nHowever we can un-learn all that is in the way to receive by learning to rest in self and surrender to our inner guidance, trusting that everything we need we can find within; all the knowledge is already there!!! THE BODY KNOWS EVERYTHING! We can find our source of infinite intelligence if we learn to stay with the sensate experience of what is happening and let the flow of life do what it does. And we can learn how to use our own healing powers. We can use our hands-on healing energy, and we can learn how to heal with the power of our mind.\n\n\nAs human beings we do have the potential of creating our future, but only !!! when we become aware of the disadvantage you might say of having a cortex. A plant is what it is. It is not conditioned to grow in a certain way. We, as human beings, need to grow conscious about what is in the way of receiving ourselves fully as we really are. We are not our thoughts or our emotions.\n\n\nIf we relax and open ourselves consciously to receive the life energy, then a process starts wherein our thoughts, emotions, sensations get triggered, because the life energy want to get through. The contents in the cells however tend to resist and want to hold on as strongly as possible. So we need to consciously facilitate the letting go of everything whats in the way of the flow of the life energy.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9769818782806396}
+{"content": "Four-legged prehistoric whale fossil found in Peru\n\n\n5th April, 2019 12:36:10 printer\n\nFour-legged prehistoric whale fossil found in Peru\n\nPaleontologists have found a well-preserved fossil of a four-legged amphibian ancestor of whales, a discovery that sheds new light on the mammals' transition from land to the ocean.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe new specimen, described in a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, is 42.6 million years old and provides fresh information on the evolution of cetaceans.\n\n\nThe fossil was found about 0.6 miles (one kilometer) inland from Peru's Pacific coast, at Playa Media Luna.\n\n\nIts mandibles grazed the desert soil and during excavations, the researchers found the lower jaw, teeth, vertebrae, ribs, parts of front and back legs, and even the whale ancestor's long fingers that were likely webbed.\n\n\nBased on its anatomy, the scientists say this cetacean of about 13 feet (four meters) long could both walk and swim.\n\n\"Part of the tail's vertebrae showed similarities with that of present-day semi-aquatic mammals like otters,\" lead author Olivier Lambert of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences told AFP.\n\n\n\n\nPieces of four-legged whales were found in Egypt, Nigeria, Togo, Senegal and Western Sahara, but they were so fragmented that it was impossible to decisively conclude whether they could swim.\n\n\n\"This is the most complete specimen ever found for a four-legged whale outside of India and Pakistan,\" said Lambert.\n\n\nIf the whale in Peru could swim like an otter, the researchers hypothesized that it likely crossed the Atlantic from the western coast of Africa to South America. As a result of contintental drift, the distance was half that of today, around 800 miles, and the east-west current of the time would have facilitated their travel.\n\n\nThis finding would make less likely another hypothesis according to which whales reached North America via Greenland.\n\n\nThe Pisco Basin, off Peru's southern coast, likely holds numerous fossils, given its excellent conditions for preservation.\n\n\n\"We have work for at least the next 50 years,\" said Lambert, the paleontologist.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9453873038291931}
+{"content": "When it comes to the link between colors and performance, Feng
Shui distinguishes between tones which stimulate the mind (gray, white, and muted shades) and those that invigorate the body (brown and bright hues). For
this reason, medium-toned wooden desks are considered the best office option as they provide optimal contrast and minimal distraction.\nGordon also adds that where you put your plants can have an impact on your mental clarity and suggests understanding your home's bagua map (aka feng shui's floor plan to bringing good intentions to your home). \"Plants are more at home in some areas such as health and family, or wealth and reputation,\" she shares. \"They are less at home in other areas, such as creativity, mentors, career, self-knowledge, or love and marriage.\" Ready to bring the right intentions into your home while clearing the air and practicing your green-thumb skills?\nThanks for the tip. In my office, we do not have the freedom to choose and shift our desk. So it ended up that this newcomer’s desk was place directly opposite mine and I can immediately feel the fengshui went wrong. I was looking up on what to do since there is no choice about moving desk (we had very limited space) and will definitely try place the barrier (probably use the portable whiteboard and putting plants on my desk)\n\nOf course, fire is the most powerful element and should be used with caution so that no one gets burned. This is true in both the literal and figurative sense with Feng Shui office designs since using actual fire elements can often be dangerous. Therefore, you can use red objects to represent the fire element and should be place in the south section of the room, office space, or building. Lamps and unique lighting can also be used to represent fire elements for the office.\n\n\nA simple Fengshui trick is to attract good luck and positive energy at work, is to place either your handphone or your computer on the left hand side of where you sit at work. The reason is that the left side belongs to the Green Dragon, who brings you prosperity and harmony at work. The right side belongs to the White Tiger, which will attract more challenges at work (unless you are in a commanding position or unless you deal with difficult authorities all the time etc).\nNative to Africa, snake plant is categorized under the plants family Asparagacea with scientific name Sansevieria, it is very popular houseplant. It has several local names such as snake plant, mother-in-law’s tongue, viper’s bowstring hemp etc. As per Feng Shui, it is considered to bring good luck. It was part of NASA Clean Air Study and found effective in improving indoor air quality by removing benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene and toluene.\n\n\n\n\nCrystals such as Tourmaline or Clear Quartz should be placed at the right-hand corner of your desk. This helps you to breakdown the stressful energies at work. It can also reduce attacks from ‘tricky’ people or those who may want to con you. They can also attract benefactors to assist you in your work. Remember to cleanse the crystals regularly to keep them at their most effective.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7221508622169495}
+{"content": "\n\nAs for color choices, the feng shui expert explains that it depends on your line of work. \"In general, office spaces that require writing, mathematics, and science benefit from wall colors in shades of blue, green, or even beige. These are considered a strong backdrop of color. From there, you could accent the office with artwork, lighting, plants, area rugs, and anything else you need to help achieve the best focus and productivity. To stimulate the energy more, implementing touches of warm colors like red, yellow, and orange can stimulate the creative aspects of our brains. In feng shui and on a practical level, we're always looking to establish a harmonious collaboration of colors.\"\n\nSymbolic for good luck and success due to their innate resilience, strength, and ability to grow quickly, the lucky bamboo plants attempt to balance the five natural feng shui elements in the home or office: wood, metal, earth, water, and fire. These five elements are represented, respectively, by the plant, glass vase or coin, rocks, water, and red ribbon. Lucky bamboo plants can be planted as stalks or grown into beautiful shapes such as pyramids.\n\n\nIf you are not feeling quite right in your office, it could be time for a feng shui overhaul. Feng shui is an ancient Chinese system to help organize your life to promote the flow of energy. Applying these principles to your office will help increase productivity lower stress. Simple things such as removing clutter from your desktop, choosing the right paint colors or artwork, and keeping the right elemental balance of objects in your office all make a surprisingly large impact on your work day.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7729505300521851}
+{"content": "The healthcare industry is one of the most lucrative and rapidly evolving job markets across the globe. This industry has witnessed countless innovations and advancements, which have also given birth to new employment opportunities. In the coming years, the healthcare industry is likely to expand and grow beyond measures, creating even more possibilities.\n\nThe Bureau of Labor Statistics published a report stating a 22% increase in the need for healthcare management jobs by 2020. If you want to build a lucrative career in the healthcare sector, now is the best time to develop your skills and expertise. There are scores of opportunities out there, ranging from healthcare services, medical specializations, management roles, technical specialties, and more.\n\nAs far as the healthcare industry is concerned, the more you invest in your skills and education, the higher the payout. Physicians, surgeons, and medical specialists are the highest wage-earners, followed by administrators, CEOs, pharmacists, dental experts, and more. It is essential to focus on skill-building and acquiring degrees to land a lucrative employment opportunity.\n\nIn this article, we will give you an overview of the career opportunities you can explore in the healthcare industry.\n\nHere, take a look:\n\nHealthcare Administration\n\nFor those who are not interested in medical science and education, healthcare administration presents an array of lucrative opportunities. It involves the management side of healthcare facilities and hospitals. Like all businesses, hospitals also function as an organization that requires management, HR departments, vendors, networking partners, and PR. Administration jobs involve carving out an organization structure, and performing duties focused on efficiency and effectiveness of the workforce.\n\nIf you are already working in the administration department, you can increase your worth with MBA MHA dual degree programs online. Such a degree would boost your expertise and resume, paving the road for CEO and higher-management positions.\n\nIn the coming years, areas of hospital administration, elder care management, public health, and health information management are expected to grow. There is immense opportunity in the field of eldercare management and healthcare consultation. A healthcare and administration degree will help you find lucrative opportunities in the business realm of the healthcare industry.\n\nAreas Expected To Witness The Growth\n\nExperts reveal that the public health sector is all posed to witness exponential growth across various fields. It will increase the demand for skilled professionals and technicians. For instance, the need for biostatisticians is likely to grow by 27% by 2022. Similarly, the demand for environmental health specialists is expected to witness a 19% growth by 2022.\n\nExpectations indicate an increase in the need for public health officers. These officers will be responsible for raising awareness of health and disease risks. Public health officers and administrators will be required across military, state, and federal agencies, alongside NGOs.\n\nSurgeons, Physicians & Doctors\n\nIf you are willing to invest time and money into your medical career, physicians and surgeons hold the most lucrative positions. Their annual salaries typically tend to be more than a million dollars. Neurosurgeons, orthopedic and plastic surgeons are amongst the highest earners in the medical field. However, these professionals make a significant investment in their education and training. That is why primarily they are drowning in student loans and debt by the time they start their careers.\n\nThe physician assistant is another lucrative job opportunity, with lesser investment and a higher payout. They are allowed to treat patients and prescribe certain medicines with the approval of the physician. You can explore other opportunities, such as pharmacists, lab technicians, physical therapists, and optometrists. Nutritionists and dieticians also earn a lucrative income, while the dental industry is brimming with well-paying opportunities.\n\nTracing The Road To Success\n\nThe healthcare industry is expected to witness an exponential rise in the next few years. Naturally, this will pave the road for improved pay scales and better employment opportunities. As the healthcare industry continues to advance and improve, there will be a higher demand for skills and expertise. To enter the healthcare industry, you need to focus on accumulating additional qualifications and skills.\n\nIf you want to amass success in the healthcare industry and give back to your community, invest in your education. There is a high demand for a health science or medical degree from a prestigious institution. You can enroll yourself for a full-time program, or even an online degree that compliments your schedule. There are countless online health science programs that are tailored for employed professionals who seek to advance their skills.\n\n\nSkill-building is extremely important to enjoy scores of opportunities and well-paying job roles. There is a wide array of fields and job opportunities across the healthcare industry, which are not limited to clinical procedures. It is essential to focus on your career path and prepare yourself for your desired job role.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9913479685783386}
+{"content": "The Right of Association in Central Asian Countries\n\nAn Overview of Legislation in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan\n\nThis report provides a detailed overview of the legal framework for association in Central Asia, focusing on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The report examines how freedom of association is exercised, the legal status of non-commercial organizations (NCOs), structure and internal governance, NCO activities, financial sustainability, state monitoring, and transparency in each country.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9978480935096741}
+{"content": "Contracts and Covid-19\n\nWith all the uncertainty over the current Coronavirus pandemic we are getting various enquiries about contractual situations and what happens when one party is potentially unable to perform their obligations under a contract at the present time. English law requires a party to perform their obligations, or face a claim for breach of contract\n\nContract law is far from straightforward, but there are two possible exemptions that might apply here. Firstly whether there is a “force majeure” clause that applies to the contract, or secondly whether the contract has been “frustrated”.\n\nForce Majeure\n\nMany business contracts have a force majeure clause which if applicable will say what happens in certain circumstances where one party is unable to perform their obligations. It will set out the circumstances that constitute a force majeure. Whether Covid-19 will fall under the clause will depend very much on the wording of the clause and each clause needs to be interpreted on its own wording.\n\nIf the clause does potentially apply, then it will set out what the party who wants to rely on it needs to do, there may be strict notice requirements to adhere to. It will also set out what relief the party is entitled to – for example an extension of time to perform their obligations without penalty, or the right to terminate the contract.\n\n\nIf there is no force majeure clause the principal of frustration may apply, but its use is quite limited. It provides that a party is discharged from its contractual obligations if a change in circumstances makes it physically or commercially impossible to perform the contract, or would render performance radically different.\n\nIf frustration does apply, the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 allows for recovery of money paid under the contract before it was discharged. However, in some cases the Court may allow the other party to deduct any expenses it has incurred.\n\nIn the midst of the current Covid-19 lockdown there will certainly be contacts that are frustrated, for example a hotel that is now unable to accept guests. The booking will be cancelled and the guest will be entitled to a refund of all money paid to date. However, for bookings later in the year, the contract is not yet frustrated because the hotel may have re-opened by then. A guest seeking to cancel a future booking (when the hotel might be open) will have to comply with the hotel’s normal cancellation policy.\n\nContracts which can still be performed, albeit more difficultly or more expensively, are not frustrated and any party seeking to rely on Covid-19 as an excuse to get out of their obligations may face difficulties and a potential claim for breach of contract.\n\nIf you are unsure of your contractual obligations, one of our dispute resolution lawyers will be able to advise you. Please have all the contract documentation and relevant correspondence ready. A timeline of key dates and developments will help us.\n\nPublished 1 April 2020\n\nPrevious article: Covid-19 - Rental properties and possession claims\n\nNext article: Covid-19 and Wills\n\nFree Enquiries\n\n\nEnquire now\n\nNewsletter Signup\nClient Feedback\n\n\nContact Details\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9518032670021057}
+{"content": "Urdu meanings, examples and pronunciation of dahl\n\ndahl meaning in Urdu\n\n(Pronunciation -تلفظ سنیۓ ) US:\n\n1) dahl\n\n\nTropical woody herb with showy yellow flowers and flat pods; much cultivated in the tropics.\nDhal also known as Cajan Pea, Red Gram and Pigeon Pea etc.\nارہر کی دال\n\nSimilar Words:\n\n\nWord of the day\n\nfoible -\nخاص انداز,انوکھا مزاج\nA behavioral attribute that is distinctive and peculiar to an individual.\nEnglish learning course", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6344286203384399}
+{"content": "Sign up Latest Topics\n\n Author Comment \nJuerg Feldmann\n\nFortiori Design LLC\nPosts: 1,530\nHere a great case study sent to us from Mary Ann Kelly from the seminar center in California.\n I like to use her case study to give an answer to many similar questions.\n 1. What is the best place to mount the MOXY.\n\nA: The best place is most often to have it on one of the main muscle groups involved in you r activity. So cycling leg muscles an there on the quadriceps.\n The beauty here is, that e have a build in pouch on the cycling shorts so you simply move the MOXY in an d up you go.\n The trend is in most cases the same no matter , whether you have it on laterals / medialis and so n.\n ( exception is , when you reach the HII zoning. There we may see different reactions.\n BUT As Mary Ann's case study shows it may be not that important on where you like to fix MOXY.\n She did to answer this question a study by mounting 4 MOXY's on a client. One moxy on the left leg one on the right leg one on left and one on right arm.\n Than she did a TIP ( 5/1/5) Than she used our \"classical' model by Hans Selye G.A.S to look for the different zoning's.\n Here for new readers in short a summary\n\nBased on the many times discussed reactions she than compared the different zoning's in the different extremities. Are the 4 different zoning's for each extremity a different one or are they overlapping. Are there different reactions at the end of the assessment between arms and legs.\n\nall 4 in one.jpg \nYour thoughts ?????\n\nJuerg Feldmann\n\nFortiori Design LLC\nPosts: 1,530\nHere another great case study sent to us from Mary Ann Kelly JT California.\n It was a study done on a Versa Climber.\n She did 2 5 min step test with 1 min rest in between each 5 min step.\n Than the test where done in a row 2 first 5 min step test followed by a second one immediately after the first ended . So same placement of MOXY to see and compare.\n You try to figure out what is different and what may have caused the change between first and second. test result.\n Here first for fun the O2Hb HHB reaction over the full length of both tests. It is easy to see, whether the first test stopped and the second test started. 2 test in a rown overlap versa O2hb hhb.jpg\n\nNow based on this info you can already imagine the SmO2 reactions when overlapped.\n\nversa overalp firts and seond smo2.jpg \n\n Now the question is of limitation or difference reaction at thatt stage. so we look at the delivery and what may have caused the delivery difference.\n so here it is.\n\nversa 2 test thb.jpg\n\nThanks Mary Ann and for all west coast MOXY interested people / coaches and Centers. Look at the upcoming Seminar schedule Mary Ann put together for the second half of 2014.\n This is what you will learn and play with . A fundamental different approach to physiological testing not based on physical performance but on physiological feedback.\n\nJuerg Feldmann\n\nFortiori Design LLC\nPosts: 1,530\nNow here from this Versa climber study some interesting details.\n Look at the SmO2 /tHb reactions at the 1 min rest ?????\n Why and what does this mean ?\nversa thb smo2 opp.jpg\n\nCourtesy Mary Ann Kelly California Seminar center\n\n\nDevelopment Team Member\nPosts: 1,501\nHere in comparison to a Versa Climber assessment a view into the \" real \" information during a indoor rock climb.\n This how it looks as an overview again courtesy of Mary Ann Kelly JT California.\n\nsummary Aay.jpg \n\nThis is a nice example for all new , old and future MOXY users.\n MOXY is a live info and live physiological bio marker feedback. This means , that we may in fact have to rethink the idea, of lab testing for training planning and we may simply go and assess the physiological reactions as we do the sport . So in Motocross as suggested in another thread go and learn what the demand of an athlete is and where he may limit his performance. Utilization / delivery. Than assess how we can mimic this demands out side the sport to enhance limiter and recover compensator.\n The \" test \" protocol may suddenly be much more sport specific instead of VO2 max testing for Motocross rider or Icehcokey players on a bike or treadmill.. Again I always wonder, what a Pro cyclist would say , if we suggest a VO2 max test on a rowing boat ( erg ) or for a Runner a VO2 max test on an upper body cycle?\n So why do we test Basket ball players on a bike for VO2 max or Ice hockey players on a bike and so on ?\n\nJuerg Feldmann\n\nFortiori Design LLC\nPosts: 1,530\nHere another great comparison from a climbing assessment.\n This are two climber. One is a climber with many years of experience and to p class climber. The other one is a very very young girl who loves to climb.\n\\ You can see the trends . and you make up your own conclusions. one is SmO2 comparison trend ( do not look values look trends ) and the other is tHb ( blood flow reactions during a climb )\n\ncomparison climbers.jpg\n\nconmpariosn tHb.jpg\n\nAnd here from the older experience climber a closer look on tHb and SmO2\nsara climb thb smo2.jpg\n\nJiri Dostal\n\nDevelopment Team Member\nPosts: 51\nReply to 2 5-1-5 test - the difference between 1 and 2 is the blood outflow in the first case. I assume vasocontriction - low perfusion - higher O2 demand - higher extraction - steep decline in SmO2 - exercise stop. \nWhy the vasoconstricon happened? I can only speculate as I have no other physiology info. Options:\n 1. cardiac limitation - decline in SV (ischemia, hypetrophic CMP...) and CO followed by hypotension and reactive vasocontrion to maintain coronary perfusion\n 2. metabo reflex and respiratory limitation\n 3. ????\n\nWhy it did not happen in the second case? This can be explained by reaction already shown by V. Billat few years ago - see attached file. \n\nDo we have a data from CPT system? This would help a lot.\n\n\nJuerg Feldmann\n\nFortiori Design LLC\nPosts: 1,530\nJiri Thanks here a long awaited feedback. For more in depth interested readers see the picture in the att word document. and come back with critics and questions.\n\n\nThanks so much for your great thoughts.\nI like to start with the end.\nI love the study out of different reasons.\n\n\n“This protocol, using VO2max rather than power as the controlling variable, demonstrates that the maintenance of exercise at VO2max can exceed 15 min independent of the VO2max value, suggesting that the ability to sustain exercise at VO2max has different limiting factors than those related to the VO2max value”\n\n\nIt is soooooooo nice to see, that we slowly get accepted publications accepting the fact, that VO2 whether we talk about VO2 max or VO2 peak or VVO2 is really the summary of a whole “ team” of physiological systems” who all need and work with O2 to keep alive. The fact , that we slowly move from the dark black idea of VO2 as something absolute to the bright side on inside view in who contributes to the overall performance and how is the O2 distributed to get to this performance.\n\nThis protocol, \n\nusing VO2max rather than power as the controlling variable.\n\n When we started 30 years back to argue, that we should use a physiological bio marker to control intensity rather than power or speed we got some interesting faces looking at us.\nWe argued during a sport conference, that there is no such thing like a heart rate drift. It is only something like a performance drift.\nMeaning , that when we use a stable value of a bio marker like HR or like RF to take a few simple examples, or in Billat's case VO2 max, or a fixed VO2 value, than we will have a performance drift.\nSo when using a fixed HR we will see a drop in performance over time instead of a drift in HR. Same when using RF.\nSame as Billat points out we have a drop in performance , when trying to keep VO2 stable.\n\n In contrary if performance stays stable and if we are in a STEI intensity we can afford to drift HR and SmO2 as we have some compensatory mechanism but we drift into another training intensity and as such have a different stimuli than possibly planned.\n\n See South Africa study by Mark\n\n\n\nShe than points out :\nDifferent limiting factors.\nI would argue that there are different compensatory factors together with limiting factors.\nThe increase in time on VO2 max wills challenge more blood distribution into the working muscles, but as well a needed control of body temperature and so on.\nThe change in blood distribution for temperature condole for example takes blood out of the circulatory system and as such will decrease the cardiac preload due to less return of blood. Depending on the limiter at the VO2 max we may have a vasoconstriction ( easy to see with MOXY) or a vasodilatation ( easy to see with MOXY.). In both cases we either increase the right or the left ventricular workload and as such a higher demand of O2 for the cardiac system. The reduction in preload will be compensated with an increase (If possible ) of HR . The increase in HR will stimulate an increase in RF and as such depending on the respiratory limitation a decrease in TV if limiting or and increase in VE if compensation.\nIn both cases it will demand more O2 for the respiratory system as well. The additional O2 use from cardiac and respiratory ( delivery systems ) will reduce the O2 delivery or supply to the working muscles ( easy to see with MOXY) and as such we will see a drop in performance, but a maintained of the VO2 max as it was just a shift from who may need O2 now.\n\nThis VO2 is, as so often mentioned, the sum for the total need of O2 from the “ full team”. It does not tell us at all, who uses how much at all or whether we shift theO2 use from one system to an other system due to change in limitation and delivery.\n\n See idea of our team approach versus VO2 approach\n\n\n\n What we will see next in studies is the fact, that in some cases the suggestion in Billat’s study is not true or not working.\n\n a) if the muscular system is the limitation, than we see the shift of O2 use from a max reached in the muscle and a drop in performance due to muscle limitation so lower O2 use from the muscle but higher O2 use from compensatory systems like heart and respiration. So we can maintain VO2 despite a drop in performance.\n\n 2. If a vital system is the limitation than we will see not a maintaining of VO2 levels but a drop in Performance including a drop in VO2.\n\n The main reason why we do not see that so often is, that we have vital systems limitations more often in super good trained athletes as they create an incredible muscular system with an incredible high ability to convert and try to `steel ``O2 and suddenly the delivery systems like cardiac and respiration are limiters.\n\nAgain the drift is due to shift of O2 demand to compensate for limitations. The increase in Body temperature for example will increase HR due to a drop in preload and as such a higher demand of O2 for the cardiac system so when working on a limit in performance the less O2 for actual muscle performance will drop and as such performance will drop .\n\n A change in energy substrate availability like a lower glucose situation will shift performance ( drop and increase the O2 needed to keep delivery systems happy.\n\n See picture form a study on heat from Australia and a study form our own lab on glucose levels. See PP\n\n\n\n\n\nNow one last interesting part of this study.\n\n They somehow seem to be able to get the Cardiac out put out of more than the classical idea :\n\n CO = HR x SV\n\n See in their study. The results.\n\n\n\nLook at S 1 HR 161 x SV 94 = CO 15.1 True ??\n\nNow look at S 3 193 X 179 = 34. 6 True ???\n\n Now look at S 6 195 X 126 = 24. 5 but result really is 28.3 ???\n\nWhy ??\n\n Or the mean value is HR 184 x SV 137 = 25.2 but they have 15.1 L CO ??\n\nOr S 8 191 X 189 our result 36.099 The studies result 30.1 L CO ??? No I do not argue they are wrong they are just different from what we used to think about CO = HR x SV ?\n\n As this study is accepted by peer group review we have to learn how we now look and calculate CO. So any suggestion why the CO differs is welcome.\n\nPrevious Topic | Next Topic\n\nQuick Navigation:\n\nEasily create a Forum Website with Website Toolbox.\n\nHTML hit counter -", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8437303900718689}
+{"content": "\n\nIt has often been claimed that the guitar is a development of the lute or even of the ancient Greek kithara. Research done by Dr. Michael Kasha in the 1960's showed these claims to be without merit. He showed that the lute is a result of a separate line of development, sharing common ancestors with the guitar, but having had no influence on its evolution.\n\nThe influence in the opposite direction is undeniable, however - the guitar's immediate forefathers were a major influence on the development of the fretted lute from the fretless oud which the Moors brought with them to to Spain.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9994137287139893}
+{"content": "The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (A New History of the Peloponnesian War)\n\n\nDonald Kagan\n\nLanguage: English\n\nPages: 400\n\nISBN: 0801499402\n\nFormat: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub\n\nWhy did the Peace of Nicias fail to reconcile Athens and Sparta? In the third volume of his landmark four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War, Donald Kagan examines the years between the signing of the peace treaty and the destruction of the Athenian expedition to Sicily in 413 B.C. The principal figure in the narrative is the Athenian politician and general Nicias, whose policies shaped the treaty and whose military strategies played a major role in the attack against Sicily.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nwere not in communication with each other. 68HCT I V , 4 1 . 695 . 3 7 . 5 . 54 THE UNRAVELING OF THE PEACE to renew the war. The Spartan and Boeotian magistrates might be convinced that Argos could be brought over to Sparta and that Sparta would then turn against Athens, but the Corinthians had reason to doubt it. They had always counted on fear, not security, to move the Spartans to fight . 70 A powerful A rgive alliance i ndependent of Sparta might goad the Spartans to ac tion , but Argos\n\nsu rrendered on condition that they should be received i nto the alliance of their besiegers. The loss of Orchomenus was a serious blow to Sparta, for it compli cated communication between Sparta and her northern allies. Argos and Mantinea already h indered access from the north to both Laconia in the east and Elis in the west. The conquest of Orchomenus closed still another route (see Map s a). The capitulation of Orchomenus infuriated the Spartans, who only then undertook to punish Agis. They\n\nescape so easily ? Perhaps they at first underestimated the danger; possi bly they were still reluctant to comm it themselves until they had a clearer idea of Athens' intention s . 5 But they did eventually break off their festival , thus acknowledging the danger. Then, having sent an army, they did not use it. Such vacillation must have stemmed from a division of opinion within Sparta. Until the democratic rebellion at Argos most Spartans must have been pleased to have an alliance with the\n\noligarchic exiles would per suade the Spartans to restore them by force. The A rgive ambas sadors presented their case to the Spartans and their assembled allies, and the A rgive oligarchs argued against them . The debate was long, but at last the Spartans decided in favor of the oligarchs and voted to march against A rgos . Still, for some time, \"there were delays and postponements . \" 7 Thucydides' terse ac count of this assembly is reminiscent of the fuller accounts he gives of the\n\nbut no match for Alcibiades as a public orator. H is father was named Erasistratus, as were his son and nephew . 33 Since an Erasistratus, probably the son or nephew, appears on the l ist of the Th i rty Tyrants of 404 , 34 it is general ly thought that Phaeax was sympathetic to oligarchy. 35 The ancient tradi tion about his role in the ostracism is confused. Modern scholars have speculated about it, some a rgu i ng that Phaeax was a tool of Alcibiades, others claiming that he was used by N\n\nDownload sample", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7165765762329102}
+{"content": "27 February 2011\n\nWell? Is He or Isn't He Bald?\n\nWhat most people think is true of baldness they cannot really explain or defend. I think it is the same with abortion.\n\nUnless you take extreme positions on baldness, yours is an inexplicable one. Or, at least, it defies easy explanation.\n\nIf a man loses one hair, he's not yet bald. Yet if he has only one hair left, most people would agree that he is bald. Where in the process from one hair gone to one hair left does a man become bald? Most of us have some sense of it, but our definitions would likely vary and never be precise or easy to explain.\n\nIf a sperm and egg come together, do they instantly deserve all the rights of a human life? Or in the minute before birth, can that baby be treated like a sperm and egg and be easily discarded? Most people would say no and no. But of course, that leaves the majority of Americans with inexplicable positions on abortion left to make a seemingly arbitrary decision about when the line between disposable zygote and precious baby should be drawn.\n\nAnd yet this is one of those instances in which what is hard to explain seems to make more sense.\n\n21 February 2011\n\nAnd the Nation-State Gradually Grows More Obsolete\n\nPolitical crises in the Middle East are spilling across borders in the same way that the financial crises did in the West in '08.\n\nThis latest burst of panic and protests seems to support the notion that whether it is pandemics, ecological issues, economic issues, or, yes, political and financial issues, national borders seem less and less relevant.\n\nIn places like the Middle East and Africa where colonial powers imposed national borders where no clear nations existed, borders have long seemed confusing and of little use in protecting one country from issues in the next. But now, even in the West where national identities date back centuries, national borders are becoming less meaningful.\n\nThe big question in '08 was whether the financial crisis could be averted before we had another Great Depression. The big question in 2011 is whether the political crises will create democracies, theocracies, or even more severe autocracies in the Middle East.\n\nTo me, the even bigger question is how the idea and even very fact of the nation-state is going to survive in this new stage of globalization.\n\nFinally - an Ophiuchus Horoscope\n\nRecently, a new astrological sign was announced. Sadly, no one seems to have updated the daily horoscopes with the inclusion of this 13th group. So, I've taken it upon myself to address this lack. Here it is - your Ophiuchus (Nov 30 - Dec 17) horoscope.\n\n21 Feb - Monday\nToday you find yourself celebrating president’s day – or protesting to get a president. In either case, you may want to try out that great little gelato shop close to all the activity. And you can’t help but notice that for all the apparent chaos, riots have a clear purpose whereas parades, for all their supposed order, have none. \n\n22 Feb - Tuesday\nYou’ll suddenly realize that life is like watching a foreign film so thick with subtitles you can’t both make sense of the film and watch it. Overwhelmed you, Ophiuchus, just choose to ignore life and surf the web instead.\n\n23 Feb - Wednesday\nYou’re pretty much on your own here. Unlike other astrological signs, Ophiuchuses don’t tend to move in lock step. That said, you may still want to pack a lunch. I really can’t say more or it would ruin the surprise.\n\n24 Feb – Thursday\nAt 11:53, your phone rings. It’ll be a friend who needs affirmation. Be generous and gush a little. If your phone doesn’t ring by 11:58, admit that you’re that friend. Just make the call.\n\n25 Feb – Friday\nRide public transportation to work today. Read the newspaper aloud to those around you. As you depart, turn to the folks you’re leaving and say, “Please fill out your personal news commentary survey sheets that you’ll find in the seat pocket in front of you. Your feedback is important.”\n\n26 Feb – Saturday\nAh, it’s the weekend. Or used to be. Before they broke all the unions and decided that until everyone – even the Chinese – get a two day weekend, no one gets a two day weekend.\n\n27 Feb – Sunday\nYou suddenly realize you don’t know how many days are left in the month or even if this is a leap year. You had a great deal planned but this uncertainty sort of puts a damper on all your intentions. Frightened by the thought that the month may already be over and you still haven’t accomplished anything significant, you find yourself ironically disengaged.\n\n28 Feb – Monday\nRealizing that this is the last day of the month, you get a burst of productivity so great that these efforts will become the basis for your weekly activity report. Two hours later, you stop for coffee and never quite get back into that same zone. Pity, really, because you were on a roll.\n\n1 Mar – Tuesday\nIt suddenly occurs to you that you can't even say the name of your new astrological sign. Baffled, you begin to question the validity of any of this before realizing that this very prediction of skepticism is proof that you've nothing to be skeptical about.\n\n11 February 2011\n\nMight be Metaphysical\n\nAs I get older, I'm more convinced that our emotional energy creates our circumstances. I've seen it too many times for it to seem like a coincidence anymore. If you are filled with fear, you end with fearful things in your life. Filled with love and you get loving things. Hate begets hate, etc.\n\nThis could be metaphysical. I don't pretend to know. It is - for me - conceivable that there is some kind of spiritual or emotional energy that creates things in the plane of reality. It seems far-fetched but it is, nontheless, fetched.\n\nOr it might not be metaphysical. It might just be that attention is scarce and if we pay attention to one thing, we don't pay attention to another. And our attention seems to follow our emotions. I would go so far as to say that the motion in emotion is the direction that our feelings send our thoughts.\n\nOnce our attention goes into a particular direction, so do our actions, our talk, and the people and circumstances we pull into our life.\n\nSo if you are full of fear, you will - at best - solve the problem of what scares you. But the focus is on that, not other things.\n\nBetter to focus on possibilities and positive emotions instead. This isn't easy. Especially if you've found yourself steeped in things deserving of fear and dread. But I do think that this is where the work starts - with positive emotions like love, hope, and compassion. And as you continue to meditate on those things, you'll eventually create more positive things.\n\nLife will always have a mix of wonderful and dreadful and the day to day mundane. But there probably is no one thing that more tips the balance in your favor than the emotions you feed and let drive your meditation.\n\nI could be wrong, but just dancing with this delusion makes me feel a little more positive emotion. And even if I'm wrong and that doesn't create anything else in my life, that positive feeling is enough.\n\n09 February 2011\n\nChanging What it Means to be Employed\n\nBad: increasingly employees face the same risk to future income as entrepreneurs. Worse: they don't share the same potential for returns.\n\nEntrepreneurs face huge risk. More than half of businesses (about 90% by some estimates) fail. But entrepreneurs face this risk for at least two reasons: if they are successful they have the chance to be very successful AND various kinds of success can mean more autonomy and choice about how to live their lives.\n\nEmployees today in any arena face huge risk. Government employees and academia have joined the ranks of employees in the private sector, in small or large companies. Employees are probably as insecure as they've ever been, unsure what combination of demotion, reduction in benefits, or job loss they're likely to face. Or, more accurately, they simply aren't sure when they'll face these changes. But unlike entrepreneurs, employees don't face much of an upside. If the business or organization they're in is successful, they are more likely to be employed. (Even that is dicey, given the penchant for outsourcing.) But organizational success for the employee is as likely to mean more stress from additional work as it is to mean promotions and profit sharing.\n\nI don't think that entrepreneurs and organizations can protect employees from market forces. Employment is simply going to be less secure. That, it seems to me, is a fact of life.\n\nEntrepreneurs and organizations can do more to share success with employees. On the downside, the economy has already made employment more like entrepreneurship in terms of risk. This negative can be more than offset by doing more to include employees in the upside of organizational success, giving them more autonomy and more potential for shared equity and profits as organizations succeed.\n\nHope for reward can offset some of the stress of dread of risk. Also, employees who can make more than just their salaries can also save a little more in anticipation of the inevitable job dislocations that it seems simply come with a dynamic, global economy.\n\nFinally, as employees are treated more like entrepreneurs they're likely to act more like entrepreneurs, helping organizations to become more responsive to changing markets, adding to organization's ability to provide profits and salaries.\n\nToday's situation could be very different. Good: employees are increasingly treated like entrepreneurs, sharing risks, rewards, and responsibilities. Better: organizations and employees are healthier and feel more in control of their own destinies and economic health.\n\n06 February 2011\n\nMaking a Game of Education\n\nGames provide flow but rarely provide meaning. Education provides meaning but rarely provides flow. Time to bring gamers into the classroom?\n\nCsikszentmihalyi has spent decades studying flow, the psychology of what engages and absorbs people. It seems to me that successful game designers are experts at creating flow. However, even though games offer an abundance of flow they don't offer much meaning; success at games rarely changes society or provides a living to the game player.\n\nBy contrast, education is meaningful. A degree can lead to a job and the work started in pursuit of an education can lead people to rethink society at its most basic level. (The founding fathers, for instance, were all students of the Enlightenment.)\n\nIt seems as though there is enormous potential that could come from creating a dialogue between educators and game designers. Perhaps the simplest thing would be to have gamers either enter the classroom or study curriculum to look for opportunities for creating flow. These gamers could work with educators on one simple, but impactful, goal: increase the amount of time each day that students spend in flow. Once they reach a critical point in this - say, once students are in flow for 20% of the day - they could begin to share educational practices.\n\nI suspect that this seemingly simple goal would have profound implications for education. One condition for flow is feedback on how one is doing. Another is a balance between skill and challenge. Yet another is a clear goal. Creating flow experiences for students would mean - among other things - changing how and how rapidly students receive feedback. It would mean accepting where students are and starting there before pulling them to the next level (maintaining a balance between challenge and skill). And it would mean thinking about which goals would be meaningful to 8 or 10 or 14 year olds. This would mean redesigning education.\n\nFor now, education still seems heavily influenced by the goals and setting of religious instruction from the early days of formal education. We generally don't trust pleasure or the child's impulses as guides to learning. Beliefs from this orientation form a pattern. Children's attention needs to be directed with rebukes and reminders. Students may find education distasteful, but with enough self discipline, students can succeed. We cannot trust the self but instead have to repress it. And feedback comes instead in the form of judgment, often long after the task is done.\n\nBut what if we thought instead that what humans find naturally fascinating is, itself, a basis for an education? What if educational success was less a matter of self discipline than passion? And what if the joy a baby finds in learning to walk or talk is something that could continue to animate learning into one's 30s or 60s?\n\nOne last thing that I'll mention about the benefits that would follow from this approach to designing education is simply this: many of the same issues of flow and meaning that need to be addressed in education need to be addressed in knowledge work. Advances in education could hardly be contained to learning but would impact productivity as well.\n\nInstead of telling kids to leave their games outside the classroom, maybe we should ask them to bring them in.\n\n03 February 2011\n\nLiving Somebody Else's Life - Beyond Inherited Goals to Corporate Transformation\n\nWe inherit goals. Personally, we find ourselves living within systems that have been designed by previous generations for their goals. Not just people but even institutions inherit goals.\n\nThe new nation-state first saw itself in a role like that of the Medieval Church. The church made itself responsible for the souls of its congregants and the early kings' gave themselves a similar role. The resultant chaos and bloodshed that came from centuries of religious wars was atrocious. It literally took centuries for the nation-state to ignore the goal of the church and instead focus on goals like the safety and prosperity of its citizens.\n\nThe corporation, too, seems to have first accepted the goal of the previously dominant institution. In this case, the corporation tries to imitate the goal of the bank, to make money, or, more specifically, to provide a return on capital. This misses the point. I've heard Russell Ackoff and Peter Drucker each make the point that profit is to a corporation what oxygen is to a person: vital but by no means its goal.\n\nCorporations today, like the nation-state after the Reformation, is the most dominant institution. One of the keys to it realizing its potential to make life better for communities is that it treat profit not as the goal but as just one of its necessary conditions. Even if this were all that were involved in transforming the corporation, it would mean a large shift in how we think about our world. The good news is that once people begin thinking about the goal of the corporation beyond making money they will begin the process of reinvention. Then we will more often see the many and way cool things it can be.\n\n01 February 2011\n\nTweets from Jan 2011\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nToday's biz idea: surf video web site, YouTubular.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5301162004470825}
+{"content": "Understanding How Foreclosures Work\n\nforeclosureLouisiana is a state where the only way a bank can foreclose is by using the courts. You see, almost ninety-nine percent (99%) of the average citizens do not have a clue about how the real money is made in the mortgage business. Foreclosure is when the lender takes back property when the homeowner fails to make payments on a mortgage. This means you will have an additional monthly payment on top of your monthly mortgage payment.\n\nHowever, if the property has junior liens, the lender will not accept a deed in lieu of foreclosure because the junior liens will stay attached to the property. Many homeowners simply walk away from their homes believing they don’t have equity or can’t sell their home while it is in foreclosure.foreclosure\n\nBut the first goal for homeowners is to stop the foreclosure process from running them over before they are out of options and out of time. Whatever the cause of a person getting behind on their mortgage payments, the process from that point onwards is fairly set.\n\nThese filings include default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions. See the chart (in “Foreclosure Comparison”) to compare some other options: Short Sale and Mortgage Release (Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure). A foreclosure is the legal process where your mortgage company obtains ownership of your home (i.e., repossess the property).\n\nTo officially begin the foreclosure, the lender (or subsequent owner of the loan) files a lawsuit in state court. When the time comes, the mortgage investor or its representative, the trustee, will put the home up for auction. As with court foreclosure of a trust deed, if there is not enough cash to pay the judgment, the buyer is responsible for paying the difference to the seller.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5253831744194031}
+{"content": "tel: 01904 295360\n\n\n\nChartered Accountants\n\nForensic Accountants\n\nCorporate Finance Advisers\n\nBirchfields, Blake House, 18 Blake Street, York, YO1 8QG\n\nBirchfields, 15 Queen Square, Leeds, LS2 8AJ\n\nBirchfields, Birchfields Chartered Accountants, Birchfields Forensic Accountants and Birchfields Corporate Finance are trading styles of Birchfields Accountants Limited, company no. 10355693, registered in England and Wales.\n\nCase Study - Loss arising from the mis-selling of financial products\n\nIn this case our team was instructed by the Claimant, a high end motor vehicle dealer, which had been mis-sold two interest rate collars, to assess whether there was a strong enough link between the financial consequences of the mis-selling and the relatively poor sales performance of the business.\n\nThe Claimant’s finances were reviewed over a period of time to establish that (i) the mis-selling had deprived the business of working capital, and that (ii) historically, when the business had been provided with cash boosts, the business had quickly converted the cash into stock, and had sold that stock for profit.\n\n\nOur experts were instructed by the Claimant, a construction company, which had been mis-sold two interest rate collars, and had paid a substantial amount of interest costs when LIBOR dropped below the set level.\n\nThe bank agreed liability for the mis-selling and agreed to compensate the Claimant for premiums paid and interest incurred. Our team initially confirmed that the bank’s calculations were accurate.\n\nAt the time that the financial products were issued, the Claimant had agreed to acquire a piece of land on which it had an option to build three warehouses. Planning permission was granted, a buyer for two of the warehouses and tenants for the third had been arranged and all that was outstanding was to obtain finance for the development, supported with a deposit.\n\nHowever, the Claimant’s cash reserves were low as it had paid substantial amounts on the collar. The required deposit could not be made and high street bank funding was rejected. As the project was expected to be profitable, the Claimant was determined to progress and obtained finance from an alternative lender, resulting in the Claimant paying increased interest rates at 18% p.a. and giving away 20% of project ownership to the lender.\n\nOur team was requested to advise on the strength of the claim for consequential loss, and subsequently to calculate that loss. Through a detailed review of the Claimant’s finances and the collar payments, the team was able to establish a link between the mis-selling and the lack of finance available for the project. A detailed report to the bank in support of the claim for consequential loss was prepared.\n\nBirchfields Chartered Accountants: Bank Mis-selling\n\nOur forensic financial experts can help you unravel and identify your losses arising from the mis-selling of financial products by the banks e.g. derivatives and hedging products. In complex cases we provide a valuable service in assessing whether a loss has arisen, the amount of loss and interest on losses.\n\nWe can also assess the strength of potential claims for consequential losses. The bank review teams take more notice of an accurately structured, strongly evidenced and well argued consequential loss claim prepared by forensic professionals. It puts your claim in a stronger position.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.930378258228302}
+{"content": "It’s a Wild Life\n\nI am a paparazzo. Positioning myself in the optimum position to capture the subject while trying to remain hidden so as not to spook it. There have been rumors of sightings. I have actually seen them here before, in this exact location, but this time they are proving to be elusive. I lay on the ground as flat as possible behind a large bush, checking the camera settings; at the ready, finger on the shutter. . . there he is! Snap!_MG_8627birds\nIt’s a goldfinch! Joining another one for breakfast.\n\n_MG_8625birdsNot unlike celebrities going about their daily lives, birds are difficult subjects – camera shy, flighty, never staying too long in the same spot – downright evasive.\n\n\nSometimes you get lucky and are able to catch them at rest.\n\n\nGiving you more time for focusing and composing the shot.\n\n\nMore often than not though, you will be trying to capture a moving object . . .\n\nhummingbird and sage\n\nWhen trying to get that shot, and focus on the avian subject, you have choices. You can use auto-focus or manual focus. When choosing, auto-focus there are options within that choice – the options I describe pertain to Canon cameras, so if you have another type you will have to refer to your user’s manual for the exact terms for your camera. The auto-focus options are: One Shot mode – which is used for still subjects, AI Servo – for moving subjects ( if the subject is moving and the focusing distance keeps changing the camera tracks the subject) or AI Focus – for switching between the two ( if the subject is still and then moves it will switch to the AI Servo mode from the one shot mode). The auto-focus mode can be nice for capturing active subjects out in the open.Take your camera to a location where you know those celebrities congregate out in the open; perhaps near your local watering hole.\n\npelicanStart in either the AI Servo or AI Focus modes and shoot away.\n\n\nOften, our feathered friends choose to hang out in trees or on bushes with a lot of branches. This can create a problem with auto-focus because if the bird takes flight the camera will sometimes try to focus on the branches. The other option is manual focus discussed last week. If having trouble in auto-focus mode switch to manual focus and see which setting works best for you in your situation.\n\nSometimes those avians can be very accommodating. . . “I’m ready for my close-up!”\n\n_MG_8552birdsKeeping both eyes focused in the trees.\n\n~ Susan\n\nWhen using auto-focus there are options as to how the camera handles the focusing of a subject. If your subject is still use One Shot mode, if your subject is moving use AI Servo mode and if your subject will be still at times and then move choose AI Focus mode.\n\nUse auto-focus in each of the three different settings and conditions this week and see how your camera responds. Birds make excellent action subjects but choose whatever you like.\n\nBecome a bird paparazzo capturing your subjects by being as unobtrusive as possible so you can catch them acting naturally, or catch them before they fly away!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9554672837257385}
+{"content": "Line Producer: Understanding the Complete Producing Process\n\n\n\nA Line Producer is quite possibly the most important person on a film. Understanding how everything truly comes together is essential in understanding the business. This class provides a holistic view of how locations, cars, budgets, and all else is decided upon. It is a necessity for anyone that wants to be a line producer, producer, director, or work in any other capacity in production.Industry ExpertKris Sheets Line ProducerKris is a member of the Directors Guild of America and has worked on over thirty films and television productions in a Producer or Unit Production Manager capacity. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film and has extensive experience working on Bollywood films, a subset of films in India.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9040191173553467}
+{"content": "JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Legacy of Heroes\n\nWant an adventure?\nHow about a bizarre adventure?\nThen I have the thing for you!\n\nBlue Exorcist: Nature or Nurture?\n\n\nThe Seven Deadly Sins: Adventure Starts Here!\n\nSometimes we need a story that will take us far away from the mundane world. A story that breathes magic and submerges into your pores. Netflix recently has tried their hand at anime and have created a story that does just this. The adventure anime is called The Seven Deadly Sins.\n\nFruits Basket: Nostalgia Comeback\n\n\nThe Romance of Tiger and Rose: Fantasy Became Reality\n\n\nLucifer: Letting the Devil out!\n\nWhat would he look like?\nWhat would you do?\nDon’t worry you may get to meet him in Netflix’s Lucifer.\n\nHowl’s Moving Castle: Fantasy and Whimsy\n\nI am a major fan of Hayao Miyazaki (Japanese filmmaker). He builds these wonderful worlds of magic, fantasy, and whimsy. He reflects a representation of life onto the animated characters that becomes close to a representation of reality. He has created many notable movies and gain awards around the world. His fanbase stretches over the globe and are made up of people from different walks of life. I love his work, but my most favorite creation he has done is Howl’s Moving Castle. \n\nWicked: Good Intentions Never Go Unpunished\n\nOne of the first Broadway plays that I watched in New York was the ever popular and famous Wicked about 5 years ago. If you are not familiar with the story, then you are missing out. Wicked is a unique take on the story from Wizard of Oz. The story of what happened before Dorthy dropped in.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7427680492401123}
+{"content": "How to change the huge amount of data formats of my index pattern at once?\n\nI want to change the data format from default to string.\nHowever it is too many to change from the UI.\n\n\nIs Reindex API able to use or other Restful API to do so?\n\nIdeally, you should be using a defined mapping in Elasticsearch for the index so that Kibana reads the formats correctly.\n\nSo you can create the explicit mapping, and then reindex.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5521950721740723}
+{"content": "First Aid for DCI\n\nBy Dr Simon Mitchell\n\nI remember a diver I treated for decompression illness several years ago, who told me how his symptoms came on dramatically while he was alone in a small boat at anchor. He hailed another boat with three divers, who immediately responded to his calls for help, and on seeing their approach my patient collapsed onto the floor of his boat with relief. This relief was somewhat short-lived, however. The three rescuers pulled up alongside and stood motionless, staring at him like possums transfixed by a headlight. After what seemed an age, one of them finally broke the silence with a pithy observation: âShit, heâs fâed.â\n\nIt is a matter of record that these heroes eventually overcame their inertia and took the fellow ashore where he received oxygen from paramedics and was evacuated to our unit, making a full recovery after several treatments. The less than professional ârescueâ described here is not unusual. However, to be fair, I could also relate stories of diving accidents where the on-site management has been exemplary. Almost invariably, what separates those incidents managed well and those managed poorly is the training of the divers that are thrust into the role of first responders. Fear of doing anything arises when you donât know what to do, and I have no doubt that this explains the initial inertia in the three rescuers in the story above.\n\nIn this article I will review the current advice for the management of decompression illness (DCI). However, I would stress that merely reading this is no substitute for proper training. If you want to be ready for the diving accident you may have to manage one day, then combine a PADI Rescue Diver or SSI Stress/Rescue course with a DAN Oxygen Provider Course. This is the training you need. DCI can present in a wide variety of ways. At the severe end of the spectrum, a diver may develop rapidly progressive symptoms such as pain, numbness and weakness while still at the dive site. More mild DCI may not be apparent until well after the dive, perhaps not until the next day, when the diver might complain of mild pain, tingling, and/or feeling âoff colour.â Assessment and treatment can be approached in a more relaxed manner in the latter case, while in the former, early and appropriate intervention may be critical in determining the diverâs outcome. I will focus on the management of the diver who develops symptoms early after the dive. First aid for the diver who develops symptoms of DCI on the same day as diving can be broken down into the following steps.\n\n1. ABC’s/CPR\n\nIt is not appropriate to discuss the technique of CPR in an article such as this. It must be learned with proper practice-based tuition, and all divers should be trained. DCI rarely results in respiratory or cardiac arrest and CPR is therefore rarely required in this context. The most likely scenario for CPR in diving is a drowning event.\n\n2. Positioning\n\nA diver developing symptoms of DCI soon after a dive should be laid flat (horizontal). If consciousness is compromised, then the diver should be either in the recovery position, or flat on the back with the rescuer actively managing the airway. Only those with proper training should attempt the latter. Despite dogmatic preaching to the contrary, if the diver is fully conscious it does not matter whether they are on their back, side, or front, provided they are horizontal and comfortable. The horizontal position should be maintained no matter what improvement the patient makes. This is particularly so if the diver develops rapid onset of neurological symptoms such as unconsciousness, weakness, numbness, or difficulty speaking. Bubbles in the arterial blood are sometimes responsible for such symptoms and postural changes may cause any further bubbles trapped in places like the heart chambers to enter the blood vessels supplying the brain. Old-timers may remember that the advice until 1990 was to place the diver 30º head down. This was an attempt to keep bubbles in blood away from the brain. The 30º guideline was introduced in response to divers being brought in hanging by their feet from gamefish weigh-in gantries on the backs of trucks. Just so there is no confusion, we have moved away from the head-down advice for several reasons which are beyond the scope of this article. The current advice is to place the diver horizontal.\n\n3. Oxygen\n\nAdministration of 100% oxygen is the single most important component of the early management of DCI. Oxygen administration should be maintained from diagnosis throughout any evacuation unless advised otherwise. Oxygen breathing markedly accelerates the elimination of nitrogen from blood and tissues, thereby promoting resolution of any nitrogen bubbles. It also enhances oxygenation of tissues that have had their oxygen supply compromised by any of the pathological processes of DCI. The response to oxygen administration in the field has often been quite dramatic. Near complete recovery has been recorded with 100% oxygen administration, although such a response does not eliminate the need for review at a specialist hyperbaric unit. Failure to administer 100% oxygen is the most common error made by divers at the scene. There are two main reasons for such failures: not knowing how to do it, and not having the appropriate equipment (or enough oxygen). I am not going to explore this issue further since the space available would result in trivialising a critically important subject. However, be aware that the simple plastic masks connected to oxygen tubing that are an inevitable accessory for all patients in TV medical melodramas do not deliver 100% oxygen or anything close to it. Education is the key. All divers are eligible to do a DAN Oxygen Provider Course. Armed with the knowledge of how to administer 100% oxygen, owning your own equipment to do it becomes a less scary proposition. Give it some thought.\n\n4. Fluid administration\n\nFor a variety of reasons, divers tend to be dehydrated. Dehydration is thought to be a risk factor for the exacerbation of DCI, although there is little solid evidence. Nevertheless, correction of dehydration is a priority in treatment at hyperbaric units. The aggressiveness with which rescuers in the field should attempt to correct dehydration has always been a controversial subject. If someone qualified to initiate and maintain an intravenous fluid infusion is present, then this should always be done. The situation is less clear for oral fluids. There is a risk that if oral fluids are taken and the patientâs condition deteriorates, then they might become unconscious and aspirate the fluids into their lungs. If the patientâs level of consciousness is decreased, or if they have rapidly progressive disease, then I would withhold oral fluids. I would also advise against oral fluids if the diver is likely to be in the care of someone qualified to start an intravenous infusion within 45-60 minutes. Where the patient is fully conscious and stable, and rescue is likely to be delayed longer than 45-60 minutes, bland oral fluids should be given in frequent small amounts. The horizontal position should not be compromised in order to administer fluid. In this regard, those trendy water bottles with straws (which are otherwise only useful for passing disease from person to person!) can come into their own. The amount given should always be recorded.\n\n5. Assessment\n\nIf a diver is desperately unwell (unconscious or having difficulty breathing), donât worry about any assessment, just contact the emergency services immediately. Under these circumstances it is probably best to directly contact ambulance control on 111 if calling from a cellphone (as most seem to do these days). If the diver is conscious, and breathing is not compromised, pause briefly to gather the following information before contacting the Diving Emergency Service: the name, age and gender of the patient; the times and depths of the dives performed in the last 24 hours; the number and nature of ascents (for example, were any ascents rapid for any reason); the nature of the symptoms and when they came on after the dive. In general, we would discourage non-medical people from performing ârapid field neurological examinationsâ before contacting us. After initial contact has been made, any information gleaned from such examinations would be very useful, provided the horizontal position is not compromised and evacuations are not delayed.\n\n6. Contact the Diver Emergency Service\n\nThe DES is based at the RNZN Hospital, Auckland, and is manned 24 hours with a diving medicine specialist available directly or on a cellphone. The number is 0-9-445 8454, and thanks to sponsorship from New Zealand Underwater, this is a toll free number. It should be copied down and kept in a prominent place on your boat.\n\n7. Evacuation\n\nOnce you have contacted the DES, the evacuation will be coordinated by them in cooperation with the appropriate ambulance service. You will be given instructions. In general, divers from the North Island are evacuated to the RNZN Hospital at Auckland, and divers from the South Island are evacuated to the Hyperbaric Unit at Christchurch Hospital. These are the only hyperbaric facilities in New Zealand with the expertise and equipment to safely and effectively treat sport divers with DCI. Methods of evacuation vary according to the location of the diver and the circumstances. Sometimes divers are first taken to a local centre for evaluation, particularly if there is any doubt about the diagnosis. For short distances, helicopters maintaining a low altitude are used. Helicopters are also used if divers need to be winched off boats at sea. For longer distances, a one-atmosphere pressurised fixed-wing air ambulance is the favoured means of transport.\n\nLater onset of symptoms\n\nThose cases of DCI at the mild end of the spectrum who report their symptoms on the day following diving (or later) do not need to be positioned and put on oxygen/fluids as above as a matter of absolute urgency. The best advice in this situation is to gather the sort of information listed under âAssessmentâ above and to discuss the case with the DES. In describing these cases as âless urgent,â I would nevertheless advise divers to contact the DES immediately once the situation is brought to your attention, at any time of day. The decision about the need for haste in the evacuation should be made by a diving medicine specialist. Thankfully, DCI is a rare complication of a safe and enjoyable sport. However, the longer you remain involved and the more dives you do, the greater the chances of being involved in managing a case in the field. It has happened to me (in sport diving) three times over a 26 year diving career. Being prepared is the key. Think about that rescue course and Oxygen Provision training.\n\nscroll to top", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9451594948768616}
+{"content": "Genus doesn't appear in family drop-down list on taxon page\n\nPlatform: website\n\nBrowser: Chrome\n\nDescription of problem:\n\nStep 1: Go to\n\nStep 2: Click the dropdown menu to view subfamilies and genera. Note that the genus ‘Condylostylus’ does not appear.\n\nStep 3: Go to manually and you can see it’s grafted correctly and is under Dolichopodidae.\n\n1 Like\n\nIt is here under the subfamily Unfortunately the subfamily or tribal rank (over 10 subfamilies here) makes it less easy to find the correct name. This is more a case of those names not yet assign to a subfamily. It would thus be useful to be able to collapse the subfamily (or other ranks e.g. subgenera) when needed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8175854682922363}
+{"content": "Emotional Abuse of Women by their Intimate Partners: A Literature Review – Best online dating site for hippies\n\nEmotional Abuse of Women by their Intimate Partners: A Literature Review\n\n\nBully is as Bully does\n\nOne’s own marital satisfaction is a sizable and significant correlate of life satisfaction and momentary happiness; associations do not differ significantly by gender. The authors did not find a significant association between spouse’s marital appraisals and own well-being. However, the association between husband’s marital quality and life satisfaction is buoyed when his wife also reports a happy marriage, yet flattened when his wife reports low marital quality.\n\nImplications for understanding marital dynamics and well-being in later life are discussed. Although the positive association between marital quality and well-being is well established, several important issues remain unexplored. First, most such studies have focused on negative aspects of psychological functioning, especially depressive symptoms Bookwala,\n\nIf a man is in the process of divorcing, steer clear for at least a year. Even if he’s on his way to being single, he’s still not an appropriate date. He has loads of emotional baggage to sort.\n\nWithin two years of the first marriages breaking up, they were married with a child. They are one of those over the top happy couples on social media. To , I would think having children would make the relationship worse. If a couple who is in an affair marriage has children soon after they married, does that increase their chances of lasting? December 5, at If you are unhappy with the relationship, get out of it or fix it. If they are a bad person to be in a relationship with, then get out of it.\n\nGoing forward, I will NEVER put myself into a relationship with someone who is committed, in some way, to another person. It causes too much pain for the other person. I have been dealing with this pain since April, and I would not wish it on anyone else, no matter how bad they are in a relationship.\n\nIscriviti alla Newsletter\n\nSpringtide In heterosexual relationships, most abuse happens to women by their male partners. Emotional abuse, like physical abuse, is used to control, demean, harm or punish a woman. While the forms of abuse may vary, the end result is the same – a woman is fearful of her partner and changes her behaviour to please him or be safe from harm. Many people think that emotional abuse is not as serious or harmful as physical abuse.\n\n\n\n\nMarried to an Emotionally Unavailable Man\n\nWomen and Infidelity Can this marriage be saved? Think twice or three times before leaping into another guy’s arms. Maybe you’ve considered it.\n\nDating an emotional guy is a strange experience. It kind of makes you understand where guys are coming from when they talk about women and all of our feelings. Before you get involved, let me give you the tips I .\n\nDarwin, therefore, argued that emotions evolved via natural selection and therefore have universal cross-cultural counterparts. Darwin also detailed the virtues of experiencing emotions and the parallel experiences that occur in animals. This led the way for animal research on emotions and the eventual determination of the neural underpinnings of emotion. Contemporary More contemporary views along the evolutionary psychology spectrum posit that both basic emotions and social emotions evolved to motivate social behaviors that were adaptive in the ancestral environment.\n\n\nAbortion Risks: A list of major psychological complications related to abortion\n\n\nHave been dating a married man for over three years,he keeps promising me that he will soon divorce his wife that i’m the one he loves. Have waited for so long that i became stagnant i couldn’t leave him because i love him dearly and i think he feels the same way about me but he couldn’t divorce his wife and i know for a fact that he wasn’t happy with her.\n\n\n\n\nWhy do women fall for married men? It’s almost always a hurtful affair | The Tribune\n\nThere are many cases where marriages can survive affairs; and indeed even thrive after the affair ends and healing has begun. However, there is an instance where it is probable that a marriage cannot be saved. This occurs when the person engaging in the sexual affair also has a cluster B disorder, such as narcissistic personality disorder NPD. Let me begin by briefly defining the difference between extreme selfishness and narcissistic personality disorder.\n\nThe Clinical Guidelines for Narcissistic Personality Disorder In the DSM-V , a person must exhibit the following traits in order to qualify for a formal diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. This is a summary in my own words:\n\nTry to or taboo, celebrity news across the emotional risks of emotional effects and. This. Popular theory suggests gold-digging is a partner. Sure, that can sometimes, and date their friends. Popular theory suggests gold-digging is a married men.\n\n\n\n\nNeither party leaves without emotional scars. However, the biggest victims and perhaps the most hurt by this split are the children. Stuck in a situation that they have no control over and suffering consequences for something that had no role in, kids are challenged at an emotional level that may even test the nerves and patience of a strong adult. Forced into a single parent family, kids become vulnerable to various psychological effects, each almost equally disastrous in nature.\n\nMarried Men and Cheating. by LISA MOONEY June 13, Besides the emotional effects of cheating, there can be physical consequences as well. A man may contract a sexually transmitted disease from another woman, which he may in turn pass along to his wife. The Challenges of Dating a Man in a Wheelchair. The Signs of Mental Abuse. Why Founded: Jun 17,\n\nBy Athena Staik, Ph. This capacity remains dormant, however, unless developed. It is a learned ability that requires such skills as being open and vulnerable to one another, an essential aspect of growing the courage we need to love with our whole heart. To love with our whole heart, in a nutshell, means to develop our capacity to remain empathically connected to self and other, in moments when core fears, such as inadequacy or rejection, get triggered. It has to do with the dehumanizing nature of these cultural norms.\n\n\n5 rules to dating a married man\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7293517589569092}
+{"content": "ExxonMobil lubricant to address deposit formation in gas turbines\n\nExxonMobil lubricant for gas turbinesExxonMobil Lubricants and Specialties has introduced a new lubricating oil that has been formulated to reduce deposit formation in gas turbines\n\nLaunched at ADIPEC, Mobil DTE 932 GT has been specially designed to limit deposit formation in diminutive valves within gas turbine machinery.\n\n\"We've developed this product to specifically address an issue we've noted in the industry with varnish formation and this product has excellent performance in terms of preventing deposit formation,\" said Yan M Cote, global business development advisor for ExxonMobil Lubricants & Petroleum Specialties Company.\n\nSpeaking to Oil Review Middle East, Cote said one of the key issues the new product was adept at resolving was valve sticking.\n\n\"This product is used where a common reservoirs is used for both hydraulic and bearing lubrications, so as varnish forms it has a tendency to plug valves. This product, by mitigating deposit formation, helps the system continue to work more reliably,\" he remarked.\n\nExxonMobil built a proprietary rig to simulate conditions harsher than those in the Middle East would experience, in order to test the lubricant.\n\n\"This product has been designed for long life and use with the objective of reducing the amount of downtime or unplanned maintenance required,\" Cote noted.\n\n\"From an environmental care perspective if you can make the oil last longer, which the deposit formation capability of this product does, and it means you need to use less oil and dispose of less oil over the life of that turbine.\n\n\"From a productivity standpoint trips in this industry are very expensive, so with the deposit formation capability and the other capabilities of the product you reduce the risk of trips, meaning less downtime for the provider, as well as extra assistance in improving the reliability of their equipment and, ultimately, the return on their assets,\" he added.\n\nAkram A Reda, Europe African and Middle East industrial marketing advisor for ExxonMobil Egypt, explained, \"What's important on a turbine is to ensure the operation is very smooth and accurate, and there are very minute parts of the machinery which depend on a very smooth flow of oil.\n\n\"The technology has evolved over the years and the clearances in the machinery are much tighter than before. As the equipment becomes much more efficient then they're using less oil, and this oil is being exposed to higher temperatures, so the conditions in general are much tougher than before,\" he noted.\n\nExxonMobil stand - ADIPECThe product was born out of close collaboration with General Electric, who were looking to address gas turbine reliability concerns, explained Cote.\n\n\"Working with them, we found that deposit formation caused by certain terminal oils was stopping turbo valves, which have clearances as tight as three microns, from operating as smoothly as they should have been,\" Cote said.\n\n\"We were able to see a very a strong appetite for a problem solving turbine oil that would be able to mitigate deposit formation to a point where turbo valves could operate flawlessly.\"\n\nReda said ADIPEC 2012 was the perfect platform from which to launch the product thanks to the high number of infrastructure projects related to the oil and gas sector currently taking place across the Middle East.\n\n\"There has been a need for more electricity and energy in this area of the world and there are a lot of power plants being built that encompass the latest equipment being built in this area,\" he explained.\n\nCote added that he was pleased to see the emphasis on technology leadership at this year's edition of ADIPEC, as well as the large number of upstream companies exhibiting new products and services, while Reda cited the opportunity to exchange details about new technologies as among the key advantages of being at the show.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6766674518585205}
+{"content": "Effects Of Earthquakes On A Typical Fishing Village\n\n658 words - 3 pages\n\nPlates are a massive, irregularly shaped slabs of solid rock, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere. Earthquakes occur when convection currents in the mantle causes plates to move. When the plates converge/diverge/slide past each other, their movement is not smooth. This causes stress to build up in the rocks, and when the stress is suddenly released when the rocks snap or are displaced along a fault, there will be tremors or vibrations in the Earth's crust (an earthquake). These earthquakes can occur both on land and in the ocean. The extent of damage caused by an earthquake depends on various factors. If the place where an earthquake occurs is not densely populated, the residents know what to do in the event of an earthquake, and if earthquake has been predicted in advance so the residents have evacuated the area, then the damage caused will be minimized.A typical Indonesian fishing village is located in a coastal area. The houses are mainly made of wood and there is very simple technology. Wires might be exposed and buildings constructed out of flimsy material. Most people would leave early in the morning and return late at night, as they would be out fishing in the sea. The population would be small but dense because the residents would probably tend to live in close proximity. There will not be much contact with the outside world and the boats there offer crude and limited transport. There will not be much safety measures in place in the event of an earthquake. The population will not be highly educated so they might not know what to do when there is an earthquake.When an earthquake occurs in a fishing village, the primary effect of the earthquake will be the displacement of land. The population of the fishing village, although small, is quite concentrated, so there will be greater loss of lives and property if the epicentre is near the fishing village. As the fishing village is near a coastal area, there might be tsunamis (big and destructive waves). This would cause the houses to collapse as they are only made out of wood, instead of material strong enough to withstand an earthquake or a tsunami. If some exposed wires come into contact with the water, they might short out and cause a fire that will spread easily due to the wooden houses. The rubble from the houses and the fires might kill people. However, there might be fewer casualties on land, as the people are out fishing. On the other hand, as they are out at sea, there will probably be many people killed by the tsunamis. The flimsy boats will not be able to withstand the waves. There is limited contact with the outside world: the village is probably not linked up to the other parts of Indonesia. This will hamper rescue efforts because it will be harder for the rescuers to get to the fishing village. Communications may be interrupted by damage to existing roads, bridges or telephone lines, so they may not be able to contact the outside world. The population is not highly educated so they will not know what to do to minimise the damage caused, so more lives and property may be lost. Damage to roads also makes it harder to rescue people.All of the above will result in many people being killed and a greater loss of property. In order to minimise the damage caused by earthquakes in the fishing village, we should educate the people about how to respond if there is an earthquake. This could help to minimise the lives and property lost.\n\n\n\n\nEffects Of Music On Adolescents Essay\n\n\n\n1148 words - 5 pages 1 Mass effects on the Terminal Velocity of a Coffee Filter Falling in Air February 30 th , 2012 Written By: Ima Cool Performed with: Notso Lame Question: How does increasing the mass of a coffee filter falling through air affect the terminal velocity it reaches? Design: The mass of the falling coffee filter, independent variable, will be varied by nesting one to four filters instead the initial filter. The terminal velocity\n\n\n\nEffects Of Globalization On The Environment\n\n\nThe Effects Of Fairy Tails On Children\n\n\nThe Effects Of Lead Poison On Children\n\n\n\n\nThe Effects Of Color On Personality And Relationships\n\n2237 words - 9 pages men as well. One such example comes from the village of Zumbadia. Men are expected to paint their bodies with the blood of the animals that they kill. The more blood they have on their bodies when they return from a hunt the more respected they are. In America is a man were to come back from hunting covered in blood he would most likely be arrested and put into jail. From the colors on different countries flags you can see what colors are\n\nUsing The AD-AS Model, Explain The Possible Effects Of A Sustained Appreciation Of The Local Currency On The Government's Macroeconomic Objective\n\n930 words - 4 pages are clearly shown in the diagram below.As a conclusion, a sustained appreciation of the local currency may bring constraints to the government to achieve the major macroeconomic objectives. These constraints however could be resolved by adopting supply management policy stimulates the economy to increase productivity and efficiency as well. Demand management policies are less preferable as these policies involve conflicts in macroeconomic objectives and could cause severe effects on business profits, confidence and future expectations as well as uneven effects on different sectors of the economy.\n\nThe Effects Of Globalisation On The Australian Business Culture\n\n\nThe Effects Of Cannabis On The Human Reproductive System\n\n\nThe Effects of Junk Food on Health - Health - Essay\n\n\nThe Effects of Smoking on Lung Tissue - Biology - Lab Report\n\n\nEffects of salt on water tension - Hurlstone Agriculture - Research Paper\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5437294244766235}
+{"content": "Συμπαντική Χρονολογική Κλίμαξ\n\nChronology of the Universe, Cosmological Time Scale\n\nΚοσμολογία Κοσμολογική Εξέλιξη\n\nΑρχαιο-Κοσμολογική Εποχή Very Early Universe era\nΜεγάλη Έκρηξη Big Bang\n\nΠερίοδος Planck Planck epoch\nΧρωμοηλεκτρασθενής Περίοδος Grand unification epoch\nΗλεκτρασθενής Περίοδος Electroweak epoch\n\nΠαλαιο-Κοσμολογική Εποχή Early Universe era\n\nΚυρκονική Περίοδος quark epoch\nΑδρονική Περίοδος Hadron epoch\nΛεπτονική Περίοδος Lepton epoch\nΦωτονική Περίοδος Photon epoch\n\nΜεσο-Κοσμολογική Εποχή Middle Universe era\nΚοσμική Βιοχημική Περίοδος Habitable epoch\nΚοσμική Σκοτεινή Περίοδος Dark ages\n\nΥστερο-Κοσμολογική Εποχή Last Universe era\nΑστρογένεση Formation of stars Γα��αξιογένεση Formation of galaxies Σμηνογένεση Formation of clusters and superclusters\n\nΝεο-Κοσμολογική Εποχή New Universe era\nΗλιογένεση Formation of the Solar System Γαιογένεση Formation of the Earth\n\nΜετα-Κοσμολογική Εποχή Ultimate Universe era\nΗλιακός Όλεθρος Solar Ruination\nΜεγάλη Απόσχιση Big Rip\nΜεγάλη Συρρίκνωση Big Crunch\nΜεγάλη Ψύξη Big Freeze\nΘερμικός Θάνατος Heat Death\n\nΚοσμική Εξέλιξη\n\n- Μία Χρονική Κλίμακα.\n\nΕτυμολογία[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΗ ονομασία \"Κοσμολογική\" σχετίζεται ετυμολογικά με την λέξη \"Κοσμολογία\".\n\nΕισαγωγή[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nThis chronology of the universe describes the history and future of the universe according to Big Bang cosmology, the prevailing scientific model of how the universe came into being and developed over time, using the cosmological time parameter of comoving coordinates.\n\n\nAs of 2013, this expansion is estimated to have begun 13.798 ± 0.037 billion years ago.[1] It is convenient to divide the evolution of the universe so far into three phases.\n\n\nSummary[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nThe very earliest universe was so hot, or energetic, that initially no particles existed or could exist (except perhaps in the most fleeting sense), and the forces we see around us today were believed to be merged into one unified force. Space itself expanded during an inflationary epoch due to the immensity of the energies involved. Gradually the immense energies cooled – still to a temperature inconceivably hot compared to any we see around us now, but sufficiently to allow forces to gradually undergo symmetry breaking, a kind of repeated condensation from one status quo to another, leading finally to the separation of the strong force from the electroweak force and the first particles.\n\nIn the second phase, this quark-gluon plasma universe then cooled further, the current fundamental forces we know take their present forms through further symmetry breaking – notably the breaking of electroweak symmetry – and the full range of complex and composite particles we see around us today became possible, leading to a matter dominated universe, the first neutral atoms (almost all of them hydrogen), and the cosmic microwave background radiation we can detect today. Modern high energy particle physics theories are satisfactory at these energy levels, and so physicists believe they have a good understanding of this and subsequent development of the fundamental universe around us. Because of these changes, space had also become largely transparent to light and other electromagnetic energy, rather than \"foggy\", by the end of this phase.\n\nThe third phase started with a universe whose fundamental particles and forces were as we know them, and witnessed the emergence of large scale stable structures, such as the earliest stars, quasars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies and superclusters, and the development of these to create the kind of universe we see today. Some researchers call the development of all this physical structure over billions of years \"cosmic evolution\". Other, more interdisciplinary, researchers refer to \"cosmic evolution\" as the entire scenario of growing complexity from big bang to humankind, thereby incorporating biology and culture into a grand unified view of all complex systems in the universe to date.[2]\n\nBeyond the present day, scientists anticipate that the Earth will cease to be able to support life in about a billion years, and will be drawn into the Sun in about 5 billion years. On a far longer timescale, the Stelliferous Era will end as stars eventually die and fewer are born to replace them, leading to a darkening universe. Various theories suggest a number of subsequent possibilities. If particles such as protons are unstable then eventually matter may evaporate into low level energy in a kind of entropy related heat death. Alternatively the universe may collapse in a big crunch, although current data shows the rate of expansion is still increasing. If this is correct then it may end in a \"big freeze\" as matter and energy become very thinly spread and cool down. Alternative suggestions include a false vacuum catastrophe or a Big Rip as possible ends to the universe.\n\nVery early universe[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nAll ideas concerning the very early universe (cosmogony) are speculative. No accelerator experiments have yet probed energies of sufficient magnitude to provide any experimental insight into the behavior of matter at the energy levels that prevailed during this period. Proposed scenarios differ radically. Some examples are the Hartle–Hawking initial state, string landscape, brane inflation, string gas cosmology, and the ekpyrotic universe. Some of these are mutually compatible, while others are not.\n\nPlanck epoch[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nUp to 10–43 seconds after the Big Bang\n\n\n\nΠρότυπο:Citation needed In inflationary cosmology, times before the end of inflation (roughly 10−32 seconds after the Big Bang) follow not the traditional big bang timeline. The universe before the end of inflation is a very cold near-vacuum and persists for much longer than 10−32 second. Times from the end of inflation are based on the big bang time of the non-inflationary big bang model, not on the actual age of the universe at that time, which cannot be determined in inflationary cosmology. Therefore, inflationary cosmology lacks a traditional Planck epoch--though similar conditions may have prevailed in a pre-inflationary era of the universe.\n\nGrand unification epoch[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nBetween 10–43 seconds and 10–36 seconds after the Big Bang[3]\n\n\nAs the universe expands and cools, it crosses transition temperatures at which forces separate from each other. These are phase transitions much like condensation and freezing. The grand unification epoch begins when gravitation separates from the other forces of nature, which are collectively known as gauge forces. The non-gravitational physics in this epoch would be described by a so-called grand unified theory (GUT). The grand unification epoch ends when the GUT forces further separate into the strong and electroweak forces. This transition should produce magnetic monopoles in large quantities, which are not observed. The lack of magnetic monopoles was one problem solved by the introduction of inflation.\n\nIn modern inflationary cosmology, the traditional grand unification epoch, like the Planck epoch, does not exist, though similar conditions likely would have existed in the universe prior to inflation.Πρότυπο:Citation neededΠρότυπο:Elucidate\n\nElectroweak epoch[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nBetween 10–36 seconds (or the end of inflation) and 10–12 seconds after the Big Bang[3]\n\n\nIn traditional big bang cosmology, the Electroweak epoch begins 10−36 seconds after the Big Bang, when the temperature of the universe is low enough (1028 K) to separate the strong force from the electroweak force (the name for the unified forces of electromagnetism and the weak interaction). In inflationary cosmology, the electroweak epoch begins when the inflationary epoch ends, at roughly 10−32 seconds.\n\nInflationary epoch[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nUnknown duration, ending 10–32(?) seconds after the Big Bang\n\n\nCosmic inflation is an era of accelerating expansion produced by a hypothesized field called the inflaton, which would have properties similar to the Higgs field and dark energy. While decelerating expansion magnifies deviations from homogeneity, making the universe more chaotic, accelerating expansion makes the universe more homogeneous. A sufficiently long period of inflationary expansion in our past could explain the high degree of homogeneity that is observed in the universe today at large scales, even if the state of the universe before inflation was highly disordered.\n\nInflation ends when the inflaton field decays into ordinary particles in a process called \"reheating\", at which point ordinary Big Bang expansion begins. The time of reheating is usually quoted as a time \"after the Big Bang\". This refers to the time that would have passed in traditional (non-inflationary) cosmology between the Big Bang singularity and the universe dropping to the same temperature that was produced by reheating, even though, in inflationary cosmology, the traditional Big Bang did not occur.\n\nAccording to the simplest inflationary models, inflation ended at a temperature corresponding to roughly 10−32 seconds after the Big Bang. As explained above, this does not imply that the inflationary era lasted less than 10−32 seconds. In fact, in order to explain the observed homogeneity of the universe, the duration must be longer than 10−32 seconds. In inflationary cosmology, the earliest meaningful time \"after the Big Bang\" is the time of the end of inflation.\n\nBaryogenesis[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\n\n\nEarly universe[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΑρχείο:Cosmic History 020622 b.jpg\n\nCosmic History\n\n\nSupersymmetry breaking (speculative)[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\n\n\nElectroweak symmetry breaking and the quark epoch[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nBetween 10–12 seconds and 10–6 seconds after the Big Bang\n\n\nAs the universe's temperature falls below a certain very high energy level, it is believed that the Higgs field spontaneously acquires a vacuum expectation value, which breaks electroweak gauge symmetry. (If the Higgs field does not exist then a similar effect must occur, but with some other cause.) This has two related effects:\n\n\n\nHadron epoch[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nBetween 10–6 seconds and 1 second after the Big Bang\n\n\nThe quark-gluon plasma that composes the universe cools until hadrons, including baryons such as protons and neutrons, can form. At approximately 1 second after the Big Bang neutrinos decouple and begin traveling freely through space. This cosmic neutrino background, while unlikely to ever be observed in detail since the neutrino energies are very low, is analogous to the cosmic microwave background that was emitted much later. (See above regarding the quark-gluon plasma, under the String Theory epoch.) However, there is strong indirect evidence that the cosmic neutrino background exists, both from Big Bang nucleosynthesis predictions of the Helium abundance, and from anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background\n\nLepton epoch[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nBetween 1 second and 10 seconds after the Big Bang\n\n\n\nPhoton epoch[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nBetween 10 seconds and 380,000 years after the Big Bang\n\n\n\nNucleosynthesis[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nBetween 3 minutes and 20 minutes after the Big Bang[5]\n\n\n\nMatter domination[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\n70,000 years after the Big Bang\n\n\n\nRecombination[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nca. 377,000 years after the Big Bang\n\n\nΑρχείο:Ilc 9yr moll4096.png\n\n9 year WMAP data (2012) shows the cosmic microwave background radiation variations throughout the Universe from our perspective, though the actual variations are much smoother than the diagram suggests.[6][7]\n\nHydrogen and helium atoms begin to form as the density of the universe falls. This is thought to have occurred about 377,000 years after the Big Bang.[8] Hydrogen and helium are at the beginning ionized, i.e., no electrons are bound to the nuclei, which (containing positively charged protons) are therefore electrically charged (+1 and +2 respectively). As the universe cools down, the electrons get captured by the ions, forming electrically neutral atoms. This process is relatively fast (actually faster for the helium than for the hydrogen) and is known as recombination.[9] At the end of recombination, most of the protons in the universe are bound up in neutral atoms. Therefore, the photons' mean free path becomes effectively infinite and the photons can now travel freely (see Thomson scattering): the universe has become transparent. This cosmic event is usually referred to as decoupling.\n\nThe photons present at the time of decoupling are the same photons that we see in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, after being greatly cooled by the expansion of the Universe. Around the same time, existing pressure waves within the electron-baryon plasma — known as baryon acoustic oscillations — became embedded in the distribution of matter as it condensed, giving rise to a very slight preference in distribution of large scale objects. Therefore the cosmic microwave background is a picture of the universe at the end of this epoch including the tiny fluctuations generated during inflation (see diagram), and the spread of objects such as galaxies in the universe is an indication of the scale and size of the universe as it developed over time.[10]\n\nDark Ages[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΠρότυπο:See also\n\nBefore decoupling occurs, most of the photons in the universe are interacting with electrons and protons in the photon–baryon fluid. The universe is opaque or \"foggy\" as a result. There is light but not light we could observe through telescopes. The baryonic matter in the universe consisted of ionized plasma, and it only became neutral when it gained free electrons during \"recombination\", thereby releasing the photons creating the CMB. When the photons were released (or decoupled) the universe became transparent. At this point the only radiation emitted is the 21 cm spin line of neutral hydrogen. There is currently an observational effort underway to detect this faint radiation, as it is in principle an even more powerful tool than the cosmic microwave background for studying the early universe. The Dark Ages are currently thought to have lasted between 150 million to 800 million years after the Big Bang. The October 2010 discovery of UDFy-38135539, the first observed galaxy to have existed during the following reionization epoch, gives us a window into these times. The galaxy earliest in this period observed and thus also the most distant galaxy ever observed is currently on the record of Leiden University's Richard J. Bouwens and Garth D. Illingsworth from UC Observatories/Lick Observatory. They found the galaxy UDFj-39546284 to be at a time some 480 million years after the Big Bang or about halfway through the Cosmic Dark Ages at a distance of about 13.2 billion light-years. More recently, the UDFj-39546284 galaxy was found to be around \"380 million years\" after the Big Bang and at a distance of 13.37 billion light-years.[11]\n\nStructure formation[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΠρότυπο:See also\n\nΑρχείο:Hubble ultra deep field.jpg\n\n\nΑρχείο:Hubble - infant galaxy.jpg\n\nAnother Hubble image shows an infant galaxy forming nearby, which means this happened very recently on the cosmological timescale. This shows that new galaxy formation in the Universe is still occurring.\n\n\nReionization[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\n150 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang\n\nΠρότυπο:See also\n\n\nFormation of stars[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΠρότυπο:See also\n\n\nFormation of galaxies[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΠρότυπο:See also\n\n\nJohannes Schedler's project has identified a quasar CFHQS 1641+3755 at 12.7 billion light-years away,[13] when the Universe was just 7% of its present age.\n\nOn July 11, 2007, using the 10-metre Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea, Richard Ellis of the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena and his team found six star forming galaxies about 13.2 billion light years away and therefore created when the universe was only 500 million years old.[14] Only about 10 of these extremely early objects are currently known.[15]\n\nThe Hubble Ultra Deep Field shows a number of small galaxies merging to form larger ones, at 13 billion light years, when the Universe was only 5% its current age.[16]\n\n\nFormation of groups, clusters and superclusters[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΠρότυπο:See also Gravitational attraction pulls galaxies towards each other to form groups, clusters and superclusters.\n\nFormation of the Solar System[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\n9 billion years after the Big Bang\n\n\nToday[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\n13.8 billion years after the Big Bang\n\nThe Big Bang is estimated to have occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.[18] Since the expansion of the universe appears to be accelerating, the cosmic web is likely to be the largest structure that will ever form in the universe. The present accelerated expansion prevents any more inflationary structures entering the horizon and prevents new gravitationally bound structures from forming.\n\nUltimate fate of the universe[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\n\nFate of the Solar system: 1 to 5 billion years[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nOver a timescale of a billion years or more, the Earth and Solar System are unstable. Earth's existing biosphere is expected to vanish in about a billion years, as the Sun's heat production gradually increases to the point that liquid water and life are unlikely;[19] the Earth's magnetic fields, axial tilt and atmosphere are subject to long term change; and the Solar System itself is chaotic over million- and billion-year timescales;[20] Eventually in around 5.4 billion years from now, the core of the Sun will become hot enough to trigger hydrogen fusion in its surrounding shell.[19] This will cause the outer layers of the star to expand greatly, and the star will enter a phase of its life in which it is called a red giant.Πρότυπο:Sfn[21] Within 7.5 billion years, the Sun will have expanded to a radius of 1.2 AU—256 times its current size, and studies announced in 2008 show that due to tidal interaction between Sun and Earth, Earth would actually fall back into a lower orbit, and get engulfed and incorporated inside the Sun before the Sun reaches its largest size, despite the Sun losing about 38% of its mass.[22] The Sun itself will continue to exist for many billions of years, passing through a number of phases, and eventually (if nothing else changes) ending up as a long-lived white dwarf. Eventually, after billions more years, the Sun will finally cease to shine altogether, becoming a black dwarf.[23]\n\nBig freeze: 1014 years and beyond[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΠρότυπο:Main This scenario is generally considered to be the most likely,Πρότυπο:Citation needed as it occurs if the universe continues expanding as it has been. Over a time scale on the order of 1014 years or less, existing stars burn out, stars cease to be created, and the universe goes dark.[24], §IID. Over a much longer time scale in the eras following this, the galaxy evaporates as the stellar remnants comprising it escape into space, and black holes evaporate via Hawking radiation.[24], §III, §IVG. In some grand unified theories, proton decay after at least 1034 years will convert the remaining interstellar gas and stellar remnants into leptons (such as positrons and electrons) and photons. Some positrons and electrons will then recombine into photons.[24], §IV, §VF. In this case, the universe has reached a high-entropy state consisting of a bath of particles and low-energy radiation. It is not known however whether it eventually achieves thermodynamic equilibrium.[24], §VIB, VID.\n\nBig Crunch: 100+ billion years from now[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nIf the energy density of dark energy were negative or the universe were closed, then it would be possible that the expansion of the universe would reverse and the universe would contract towards a hot, dense state. This is a required element of oscillatory universe scenarios, such as the cyclic model, although a Big Crunch does not necessarily imply an oscillatory Universe. Current observations suggest that this model of the universe is unlikely to be correct, and the expansion will continue or even accelerate.\n\nBig Rip: 20+ billion years from now[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nThis scenario is possible only if the energy density of dark energy actually increases without limit over time.Πρότυπο:Citation needed Such dark energy is called phantom energy and is unlike any known kind of energy. In this case, the expansion rate of the universe will increase without limit. Gravitationally bound systems, such as clusters of galaxies, galaxies, and ultimately the Solar System will be torn apart. Eventually the expansion will be so rapid as to overcome the electromagnetic forces holding molecules and atoms together. Finally even atomic nuclei will be torn apart and the universe as we know it will end in an unusual kind of gravitational singularity. At the time of this singularity, the expansion rate of the universe will reach infinity, so that any and all forces (no matter how strong) that hold composite objects together (no matter how closely) will be overcome by this expansion, literally tearing everything apart.\n\nVacuum metastability event[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nIf our universe is in a very long-lived false vacuum, it is possible that a small region of the universe will tunnel into a lower energy state, also known as Nucleation. If this happens, all structures within will be destroyed instantaneously and the region will expand at near light speed, bringing destruction without any forewarning.\n\nHeat death: 10150+ years from now[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nThe heat death is a possible final state of the universe, estimated at after 10150 years, in which it has \"run down\" to a state of no thermodynamic free energy to sustain motion or life. In physical terms, it has reached maximum entropy (because of this, the term \"entropy\" has often been confused with Heat Death, to the point of entropy being labelled as the \"force killing the universe\"). The hypothesis of a universal heat death stems from the 1850s ideas of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)[25] who extrapolated the theory of heat views of mechanical energy loss in nature, as embodied in the first two laws of thermodynamics, to universal operation.\n\nΥποσημειώσεις[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\n 1. Planck collaboration (2013). \"Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters\". Submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics. Bibcode2013arXiv1303.5076P. \n 2. Chaisson, E., (2001). Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-00987-8; see also Cosmic Evolution\n 3. 3,0 3,1 Ryden B: \"Introduction to Cosmology\", pg. 196 Addison-Wesley 2003\n 4. The Timescale of Creation\n 5. Detailed timeline of Big Bang nucleosynthesis processes\n 6. Gannon, Megan (December 21, 2012). New 'Baby Picture' of Universe Unveiled. Space.com. http://www.space.com/19027-universe-baby-picture-wmap.html. Ανακτήθηκε την December 21, 2012. \n 7. Bennett, C.L.; Larson, L.; Weiland, J.L.; Jarosk, N.; Hinshaw, N.; Odegard, N.; Smith, K.M.; Hill, R.S. και άλλοι. (December 20, 2012). Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Final Maps and Results. Bibcode2012arXiv1212.5225B. http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.5225. Ανακτήθηκε την December 22, 2012. \n 8. Hinshaw, G. (2009). \"Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Data Processing, Sky Maps, and Basic Results\" (PDF). Astrophysical Journal Supplement 180 (2): 225–245. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/180/2/225. Bibcode2009ApJS..180..225H. http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/map/dr3/pub_papers/fiveyear/basic_results/wmap5basic.pdf. \n 9. Mukhanov, V: \"Physical foundations of Cosmology\", pg. 120, Cambridge 2005\n 10. Πρότυπο:Cite news\n 11. Wall, Mike (December 12, 2012). Ancient Galaxy May Be Most Distant Ever Seen. Space.com. http://www.space.com/18879-hubble-most-distant-galaxy.html. Ανακτήθηκε την December 12, 2012. \n 12. Ferreting Out The First Stars; physorg.com\n 13. APOD: 2007 September 6 - Time Tunnel\n 14. \"New Scientist\" 14th July 2007\n 15. HET Helps Astronomers Learn Secrets of One of Universe's Most Distant Objects\n 16. APOD: 2004 March 9 – The Hubble Ultra Deep Field\n 18. Cosmic Detectives. The European Space Agency (ESA). 2013-04-02. http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cosmic_detectives. Ανακτήθηκε την 2013-04-15. \n 19. 19,0 19,1 K. P. Schroder, Robert Connon Smith (2008). \"Distant future of the Sun and Earth revisited\". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 386 (1): 155–163. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13022.x. Bibcode2008MNRAS.386..155S. \n 20. J. Laskar (1994). \"Large-scale chaos in the solar system\". Astronomy and Astrophysics 287: L9–L12. Bibcode1994A&A...287L...9L. \n 21. Introduction to Cataclysmic Variables (CVs). NASA Goddard Space Center. 2006. http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/cvs/cvstext.html. Ανακτήθηκε την 2006-12-29. \n 22. Πρότυπο:Cite news\n 23. G. Fontaine, P. Brassard, P. Bergeron (2001). \"The Potential of White Dwarf Cosmochronology\". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 113 (782): 409–435. doi:10.1086/319535. Bibcode2001PASP..113..409F. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/319535. Ανακτήθηκε την 2008-05-11. \n 24. 24,0 24,1 24,2 24,3 A dying universe: the long-term fate and evolution of astrophysical objects, Fred C. Adams and Gregory Laughlin, Reviews of Modern Physics 69, #2 (April 1997), pp. 337–372. Πρότυπο:Bibcode. Πρότυπο:Doi.\n\nΕσωτερική Αρθρογραφία[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΒιβλιογραφία[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nΙστογραφία[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]\n\nIkl.jpg Κίνδυνοι ΧρήσηςIkl.jpg\n\nΑν και θα βρείτε εξακριβωμένες πληροφορίες\nσε αυτήν την εγκυκλοπαίδεια\nωστόσο, παρακαλούμε να λάβετε σοβαρά υπ' όψη ότι\nτην εγκυρότητα των πληροφοριών που περιλαμβάνει.\n\n\"Οι πληροφορίες αυτές μπορεί πρόσφατα\nνα έχουν αλλοιωθεί, βανδαλισθεί ή μεταβληθεί από κάποιο άτομο,\nη άποψη του οποίου δεν συνάδει με το \"επίπεδο γνώσης\"\nτου ιδιαίτερου γνωστικού τομέα που σας ενδιαφέρει.\"\n\nΠρέπει να λάβετε υπ' όψη ότι\nόλα τα άρθρα μπορεί να είναι ακριβή, γενικώς,\nκαι για μακρά χρονική περίοδο,\nαλλά να υποστούν κάποιο βανδαλισμό ή ακατάλληλη επεξεργασία,\nελάχιστο χρονικό διάστημα, πριν τα δείτε.\n\nΟι διάφοροι \"Εξωτερικοί Σύνδεσμοι (Links)\"\n(όχι μόνον, της Sciencepedia\nαλλά και κάθε διαδικτυακού ιστότοπου (ή αλλιώς site)),\nαν και άκρως απαραίτητοι,\nείναι αδύνατον να ελεγχθούν\n(λόγω της ρευστής φύσης του Web),\nκαι επομένως είναι ενδεχόμενο να οδηγήσουν\nσε παραπλανητικό, κακόβουλο ή άσεμνο περιεχόμενο.\nΟ αναγνώστης πρέπει να είναι\nεξαιρετικά προσεκτικός όταν τους χρησιμοποιεί.\n\n- Μην κάνετε χρήση του περιεχομένου της παρούσας εγκυκλοπαίδειας\nαν διαφωνείτε με όσα αναγράφονται σε αυτήν\n\n\n>>Διαμαρτυρία προς την wikia<<\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.70625901222229}
+{"content": "Vintage Shell Beads | Handmade Bohemian Sea Turtle Anklet Bracelet\n\n$16.16 $24.11\n\nThis stylish Sea Turtle Bracelet represents your commitment to the ocean conservation and the Save Sea Turtles movement. Every bracelet purchased funds a charity that protects endangered sea life. Wear it as a reminder of your love of sea turtles and encourage others to take action to protect what they love.\n\nMetals Type: Zinc Alloy\nLength: 20+5cm\nGender: Women\nStyle: Bohemia Fashion", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8520695567131042}
+{"content": "Food Waste: Economic and Environmental Issue\n\nRon Nixon talks in This article about how there is an excessive amount of food waste all over the world and that we need to not only find a better way to recycle it, but to avoid having so much waste in the first place.\n\nProduction of food has major impacts on the environment. It requires large amounts of water, fertilizer, and land. Fuel is also burned in order to process, refrigerate, and transport the food.\n\nThere are 60 million metric tons of food wasted and 32 million metric tons end up in landfills.\n\n[(32 million metric tons in landfills)/(60 million metric tons of total food waste)] x 100 = 53%\n\nOver half of food waste ends up in landfills. That being said, food waste in landfills accounts for 3.3 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases- which is about 7% of emissions.\n\nThere have been movements in some major US cities towards reducing food waste that ends up in landfills, but supplying grants to restaurants who take initiative to recycle their waste at the end of the night.\n\nReducing food waste 20-50% could save up to $120-300 billion dollars by 2030. So the question is why is it so hard to recycle food? If we want to live a sustainable life, we need to find the balance between a sustainable amount of food and wht is just too much.\n\nWhat Can Save the Rainforest?\n\n\nThis is actually a really cool TED talk, given by Topher White.\n\nAccording to White, it’s hard to hear anything that goes on in the rainforest this explains why there is so much illegal logging going on that isn’t heard and then isn’t able to be stopped.\n\nI really just like that this idea is so simple. It recycles old cell phones and uses the cell phone signals that are already there in order to stop the illegal logging. The design White uses is also inventive in that it takes into consideration the movement of the sun and the leaves of the trees.\n\nJust think about all he other inventions we can create using recycled materials…\n\n\nIs the Growth of Renewable Energy Fast Enough?\n\nRenewable energy is not on the rise, it is on the fast track. In 2014, worldwide investment in renewable energy was $270.2 billion- as seen in the graph below, a 17% increase from the previous year:\n\nRENEWimrsScreenshot (19)\n\n\nsolar investment: [($149.6 billion)/($270.2 billion)] x 100 = 55 % of total investment\n\nwind investment: [($99.5 billion)/($270.2 billion)] x 100 = 36 % of total investment\n\nWInd and solar are leaving every other category of renewable energy in the dust as this past year they made up 91% of investments. There is progress in that renewable energy was up from 8.5% in 2013 to 9.1% of total world energy generation, in 2014. But as great as the progress is, this article, makes it clear that renewable energy has nothing on fossil energy.\n\n“The study notes that the International Energy Agency has outlined a “450 scenario” in which the world limits carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million ” and being able to stay below 2 degrees Celsius of warming, but even with the current trends, there isn’t much hope that we will be able to put off crossing over the 450 threshold.\n\nIt’s going to take a lot more investing in renewable resources and policy implementations in order for us to prevent the world from heating up 2 degrees Celsius.\n\nThe inaccuracy and fallacies of pick oil theory Part 2\n\nWill there be peak oil? The answer is actually yes. However, it won’t be the same as the peak oil situation described in Hubbert’s peak oil theory. As my title said, the peak oil is inaccurate. One of the biggest reason for that is that it oversimplified the situations and elements associated with oil production. According to Gold Russell’s Why Peak-Oil Predictions Haven’t Come True, what will limits the oil production is not the natural limits but the economic limits: “When the oil industry overcomes an obstacle and boosts oil production, costs typically increase. That opens the door for a better and cheaper energy source that will eventually displace crude oil.” As Michael Shellenberger,president of the Breakthrough Institute, an energy and climate think tank in Oakland, Calif, said: “There will be peak oil, but it will be [because of] peak consumption…What we all want is to move to better, cheaper and cleaner sources of energy”, the end of the oil industry will be the result of other efficient clean energy forms’ pervasive appealing and the negative economic effect brought by the overdeveloped oil industry (which is not associated with the natural reserves of the oil). “No mineral, including oil, will ever be exhausted. If and when the cost of finding and extraction goes above the price consumers are willing to pay, the industry will begin to disappear,” wrote by Morris Adelman, a late petroleum economist and a professor emeritus of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in “The Genie out of the Bottle: World Oil Since 1970,”\n\npeak oil 2\n\nWhy Peak-Oil Predictions Haven’t Come True\n\n\n\nThe traditional incandescent light bulb has not changed much over the years, and varies very little from the early light bulbs. In the past having electricity in your home was a huge step forward and the use of electricity to light a house was cherished. But, over the years the way we use electricity and how much electricity we use has changed drastically. Today the amount of energy used in lighting has increased significantly and the usage of lighting has also changed. Even though there have been so many changes and increases in the use of electricity one thing that remains constant is the technology used to make incandescent bulbs, which are still commonly used today. These bulbs are very inefficient, converting only about 5 percent of the energy they receive into light.\n\nBut there is hope! New technologies have resulted in energy saving light bulbs, known as CFL’s. CFL stands for compact fluorescent lamp and these work in a similar manner to traditional fluorescent bulbs.CFL light bulbs are as reliable as traditional light bulbs, and they are also longer lasting while still using less energy than traditional bulbs. Energy Star qualified CFL bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. Nationwide, a 60 percent to 70 percent decrease in light energy usage would save as much energy annually as the total amount of energy used by all the homes in Texas. This one small change can have a huge impact on not only the efficiency of your own individual home but also on the environment and can help turn your home into an “energy efficient home.” According to the Energy Star Website, an Energy Star qualified-CFL bulb will pay for itself in six months and save about $30 in electricity over its lifetime. Also, the United States could eliminate greenhouse gas emissions equal to 800,000 cars if each household in the country replaced just one incandescent bulb with a CFL bulb, according to Energy Star.\n\nIn the past many people have been put off by energy efficient bulbs because of their appearance. However, today there is a wide range and selection of energy efficient bulbs and the traditional light bulb shape has been replicated in addition to a wide range of other styles and sizes. So make the switch to a CFL bulb and save not only money but the environment as well!\n\nTragedy of the Traffic?\n\nThe video above helps to explain tragedy of the commons and how it can relate to life.\n\nPublic roads are an example of common property shared by many people. A modern example of a “tragedy of the commons” is traffic jams in major cities. Every person on the road has a mindset of their own and looks out for themselves. The road can be considered a public good that gets overused and lessened in value for everyone. When everyone decides that public roads are the best way to meet traveling needs, the roads jam up and slows down overall traffic movement, filling the air with pollutants from idling cars. Each individual trying to get to work quickly uses the freeway because it is the fastest route. At the start, each additional person on the highway does not slow down traffic because there is enough space in the highway to absorb the extra cars. At some point each additional driver brings about a decrease in the average speed and an increase in the amount of pollutants from the cars. Eventually, there are so many drivers that traffic is moving at an exceptionally slow pace. This happens because each person seeking to diminish driving time has increased the overall driving time for everyone. The problem is that individuals acting in their own interests feel immediate gain from their actions. But the losses from the impact of global warming and time spent are not felt immediately. People can get on the highway and drive fast for a while but eventually the traffic will slowdown and the idle cars will produce more pollution than they would have done if they had taken a local road.A solution requires people to collectively make a decision to alter the behavior of everyone, including themselves.\n\nThe Push for [Environmentally Friendly] Kush\n\nThe legalization of Marijuana is a hot issue today. Many states have approved the use of Medical marijuana, and a few have now allowed limited personal possession, as well as the option to apply for a license to produce and sell. Now that businesses, in approving states, are producing Marijuana, the industry is starting to emerge, and will only continue to grow in years to come. See the graph below:\n\n\n\nThis is where there is a problem with sustainability. Indoor Marijuana growth is favored in the industry, but it uses an astonishing amount of energy. This article, outlines Gina Warren’s paper, “Regulating Pot to Save the Polar Bear: Energy and Climate Impacts of the Marijuana Industry,” which will be in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, as well as a 2012 Study of the “Carbon Footprint of Indoor Cannabis Production.” Indoor cannabis production “uses $6 billion worth of electricity every year- which is 1% of overall US electricity.” The reason production uses so much energy is because of certain techniques needed to be performed on the plant.\n\n1 kilogram of final product = 4,600 kg Carbon Dioxide emissions\n\nWith the industry predicted to boom in the near-future, we cannot afford for it to be increasing our CO emissions. Just think if Marijuana grows 20% like predicted from the graph in the next year, so will CO emissions and it’s not just from indoor production, outdoor production has an effect on the other plants growing in the area- not to mention producers wanting to clear forests and natural lands for production space. Politically we are all divided on the issue of legalizing Marijuana, but one thing that can bring us together is the evident need for implementing environmental protections with regards to Cannabis production. If we are going to make sure that every other industry old and new- in the US is going green then it is only fair we do the same for marijuana. Just think how easy environmental protection laws would be to regulate since the industry is so new, that it has to be regulated anyhow!\n\nAutomatic Bill Payments are Driving Your Energy Usage Up the Wall\n\nToday we are all overly attached to our smartphones and simply have no time for anything. Automatic Bill payment is on the rise in today’s technologically savvy society. It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s effortless, it’s driving up your energy consumption, AND omitting Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere!\n\nAccording to this article by Chris Mooney, many people who partake in automatic bill payments are sent reports that compare their energy usage levels with others around them, as well as making them aware of their unnoticed energy-wasting habits. It’s because of these reports and awareness programs that you actually end up using more energy; and because your payments are automatic, you probably don’t regularly check how much your being billed.\n\nIn this article it has a few quotes from Economist, Steve Sexton, Duke University, and a study that he has done with regards to the effects of automatic bill payment. Sexton found that “in 2010, automatic bill pay led to an estimated $1.8 billion in bills and 8.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere which is equivalent to the annual consumption of 1.5 typical American houses.”\n\nSo this means:\n\n[($1.82 billion in extra bills due to automatic bill payment)/(8.6 million metric tons of CO emitted die to automatic bill payment)] = $211.62\n\nSo for every additional $211.62 spent die to extra energy costs, 1 metric ton of CO is emitted into the atmosphere.\n\nIt’s not that we need to stop automatic bill payment all together, but that we need to be smart about it. We should all be aware of our daily energy usage and should check to make sure we aren’t increasing it causing an increased bill payment.\n\nWater you Doing? Don’t be Stupid!\n\nTons of Americans are spending way more a month on their water bills than they should be NOT TO MENTION wasting millions trillions of gallons of water due to small leaks around the house. According to this article, we need to start taking initiative and fix our leaks!\n\n1 faucet leaking per minute = 34 wasted gallons of water per year\n\nBUT a normal faucet leaks 10 times per minute which then equals 526 wasted gallons of water per year\n\n34 wasted gallons of water x 1 million homes with leaky faucets = 34 million gallons of water wasted a year\n\n1 running toilet = 1,000 – 4,000 wasted gallons of water per day\n\nlawn sprinkler systems with leaks = 6,300 wasted gallons of water each month\n\nIf you’re just an average homeowner who thinks that a leaky faucet, running toilet, or leaky sprinkler system are just no big deal, here’s how much water you’d be wasting a week:\n\nFaucet: [(526 wasted gallons water per year per 10 leaks per minute)/(525,949 minutes per year] = 0.001 wasted gallons water per minute x 10,080 minutes per week = 10.08 wasted gallons of water per week\n\nToilet: 1,000 wasted gallons water per day x 7 days a week = 7,000 wasted gallons of water per week\n\nLawn system: [(6,300 wasted gallons water per month)/(4 weeks per month)] = 1,575 wasted gallons of water per week.\n\nTotal wasted gallons of water per week = 10.08 + 7,000 + 1,575 = 8, 585.08 gallons\n\nJust by having what you would assume to be small leaks, are actually costing you close to 9,000 gallons of water, and your money, all going down the drain. That is too high. Granted, you might not have all 3 leaking at the same time, but still, they are all simple fixes that cost you or money down the road. We should all support the EPA in their “Fix A Leak” campaign especially now when some places in California are in a serious drought.\n\nSafe Sex is Great Sex… the Push for Green Condoms\n\nMore than 5 billion condoms are sold each year. In fact, it was estimated that in 2005, 10.4 billion condoms were used world-wide. As you can see by the graph below, condom usage has been increasing over the years:\n\n\n\n[Amongst males it has grown 66 – 54 = 12 % and females it has grown 53 – 38 = 15 %]\n\nWe’ve all grown up learning of safe sex practices and that condoms not only prevent pregnancies, but also against most STI’s. That being said, condoms are not biodegradable, cannot be flushed as they don’t disintegrate in water, and cannot be recycled. Condoms are taking up a decent portion of our landfills.\n\nThat being said, the positive effects of condoms outweigh the piles sitting in landfills. The biggest impact they’ve had is allowing the environmental revolution to be possible as the simplest form of birth control. Birth Control not only helps to keep the population at bay, but it reduces unplanned pregnancies which allow women wo aren’t in the position to be a mother, have a career or finish school.\n\nAnother way condoms are environmentally friendly is that they actually help save the Rainforest! According to the Rainforest-Alliance, cattle ranchers and rubber trappers disagree over rights to clear forest land. Rubber tapping is a completely sustainable practice and many countries in the Amazon, like Brazil, have sectioned off specific areas for rubber trappers to have that cannot be cut down, which is great seeing as 75% of Brazil’s Carbon Dioxide emissions came from deforestation.\n\naccording to this article, rubber trees can be harvested for 25 years or more and a high grade tree yields about 30 pounds of rubber a year. According to NPR, a tree can produce about 100,000 condoms.\n\nThis means that:\n\n[(100,000 condoms produced by one tree)/(25 years of production)] = 4, 000 condoms produced a year per tree.\n\nThis brings us to the green condom. Many companies are starting to market a ‘Green Condom.’ For some companies this means using independent factories that were built specifically to use latex from rubber trees in the rainforests, for others it means less chemicals in condoms in order to, hopefully, find a way to have them biodegrade, or maybe even just a more eco-friendly package. Either way, according to Forbes, with the wy our society is starting to lean towards wanting everything in our lives to be as sustainable and ‘green’ as possible, it is a smart move for those ‘green’ condom companies to enter into this $1 billion-dollar-a-year market.\n\nI think that it is smart for these smaller companies to be coming into the market with greener ways for safe sex. We all look for what is most sustainable, whether it be a reusable water bottle, or an electric car- why can’t we be green in every aspect of our lives? As a society we are all quick to talk about the next green thing- so why can’t we talk about the next generation of green condoms too? Especially since they bring awareness to saving the Rainforest!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8400176763534546}
+{"content": "04:15 GMT19 September 2020\nListen Live\n Get short URL\n\n In July 1995, about 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Serb forces during the 1992-95 Bosnian War. Twenty years later, Russia vetoed a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would have condemned the 1995 Srebrenica events as an act of genocide.\n\n Former Bosnian military commander Naser Oric has been acquitted by a local court of war crimes during the 1992-95 Balkan conflict.\n\n \"Naser Oric and [his fellow fighter] Sabahudin Muhic are acquitted of charges of having committed during the war […] crimes against prisoners,\" judge Tihomir Lukes was quoted by AFP as saying.\n\n Oric was charged with killing three Serb prisoners of war in villages around Srebrenica in the early days of the Bosnian War conflict. However, a panel of judges finally ruled that prosecutors had failed to present evidence proving the accusations against the 51-year-old.\n\n READ MORE: Bosnian War Criminal May Have Been Poisoned in UN Prison — Serbian Party Leader\n\n The acquittal is the second such event during the trial against Oric which opened in January 2016. Oric was also acquitted by a UN war crimes tribunal in a separate case, in 2008.\n\n Many Muslim Bosnians praise Olic as the \"defender of Srebrenica\" where about 8,000 Muslims men and boys were killed after the town was occupied by units of the army of Republika Srpska under the command of General Ratko Mladic.\n\n In November 2017, Mladic, the former leader of Bosnian Serbs, was sentenced to life in prison after a UN war crimes tribunal found him guilty of involvement in the Srebrenica massacre and committing crimes against humanity.\n\n READ MORE: Former Bosnian Interior Minister, Ex-Police Chief Indicted for War Crimes\n\n In July 2015, Russia vetoed a draft resolution in the UN Security Council submitted by the UK that would condemn the 1995 Srebrenica events as a crime of genocide.\n\n Then-Russian envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin argued that the adoption of the resolution with such a classification of the events would have aggravated the situation in the region, as there is no consensus on this classification either in the area, or in Bosnia and Herzegovina itself.\n\n Media reports said that judges of the Hague-based UN tribunal, which was established following the 1990s conflict in former Yugoslavia, mainly convicted Serbs in high-profile cases related to the Bosnian War. A total of 52 Serbs were convicted, as compared to 17 Croats and six Bosnian Muslims.\n\n\n Former Republika Srpska Leader Awaits Acquittal on Bosnian War Charges\n The Bosnian War: What Lessons Has the World Learned?\n judges, prisoners-of-war, trial, war crimes, court, Naser Oric, Bosnia and Herzegovina\n Community standardsDiscussion", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9367464184761047}
+{"content": "Contact Us\nSign In / Sign Up for FREE\nGo to advanced search...\n\nLabor Economics: The Factors That Contribute To The Minimum Wage - Assignment Example\n\nComments (0) Cite this document\nThe main objective of the assignment \"Labor Economics: The Factors That Contribute To The Minimum Wage\" is to investigate the relationship between the unemployment rate and the value of the minimum wage. Furthermore, the writer addresses the decline in the minimum wage…\nDownload full paperFile format: .doc, available for editing\nGRAB THE BEST PAPER91.6% of users find it useful\nLabor Economics: The Factors That Contribute To The Minimum Wage\nRead TextPreview\n\nExtract of sample \"Labor Economics: The Factors That Contribute To The Minimum Wage\"\n\nDownload file to see previous pages Discriminating firms usually have a higher cost of operation since they bear the cost of discrimination. Becker’s concept shows that minorities in such an environment usually work harder and are more productive hence would accept a lower wage. This means that the cost of production is lower hence the firms become more profitable. The discriminating firms, however, are at a higher cost as the majority of employees tend to demand relatively higher wages and their productivity is average. As a result, more employees would be required to achieve acceptable productivity.\nThe entry of a nondiscriminating firm under a constant return to scale means an increase in the number of employees is directly proportional to productivity. A nondiscriminating firm that has a high specialization of minorities would ideally have higher productivity per employees and therefore an increase in a number of more productive employees would mean a subsequence increase in productivity and thus more profitability. This is because the wage bill is also lower than that of a discriminating firm.\nThe entry of a nondiscriminating firm under the decreasing return of scale DRTS would lead to constant production and decreased overhead cost. Also since an increase in the workforce does not adequately increase the production. The cost of having more employees is drastically reduced and since the minority workers produce maximally the cost of the wage bill remains relatively low and hence the firm becomes more profitable. In such a firm it would lead to more efficiency as the production process require less manpower for efficiency and use of minority who are efficient and extremely productive would lead to the most desired state of profitability. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More\nCite this document\n • APA\n • MLA\n(Labor Economics: The Factors That Contribute To The Minimum Wage Assignment, n.d.)\nLabor Economics: The Factors That Contribute To The Minimum Wage Assignment. Retrieved from\n(Labor Economics: The Factors That Contribute To The Minimum Wage Assignment)\n“Labor Economics: The Factors That Contribute To The Minimum Wage Assignment”, n.d.\n • Cited: 0 times\nComments (0)\nClick to create a comment or rate a document\n\nCHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Labor Economics: The Factors That Contribute To The Minimum Wage\n\nMinimum Wage\n\n... in favour of minimum wage after analysing both the sides of the issue. “The vast majority of economists believe the minimum wage law costs the economy thousands of jobs”(Messerli). In their opinion, enforcement of minimum wage will decrease the demand for workers. They explain their argument based on the supply and demand theory of economics. When salary goes up, supply of workers will also goes up and thereby the demand for the workers will geos down. In other words, when supply increases, demand decreases. The above theory might be true in theoretical terms, but in practical terms, it may not be so. It should be noted that majorities of the western countries are outsourcing their jobs to India like Asian countries at present because...\n4 Pages(1000 words)Essay\n\nMinimum Wage\n\nBased on research and statistics, it should be said that minimum wage rates, when increasing rather than remaining steady, have broad negative consequences to state and federal economies. THE EVIDENCE Some of the highest state-issued minimum wage rates are Vermont at $8.46, Washington at $9.04 and Oregon at $8.80 (Parrott, 1). The intention of these increases was to improve poverty rates and also stimulate more consumption in the economy. However, a very recent news article indicates that the unemployment rate in Oregon has increased to 8.9 percent in September, up almost a whole percentage point in August (Foden-Vencil, 1). In Washington state, the unemployment rate rose from 8.3 percent in June to 8.6 percent in September (PSBJ...\n5 Pages(1250 words)Essay\n\nMinimum Wage\n\n09 December 2006. Minimum wage Minimum wage is lowest wage legally permitted in an industry or in a government or other organization. Minimum wage isthe minimum hourly, daily or monthly wages that employees or workers must be paid by the company. Each company sets its own minimum wage taken into considerations country's laws and regulations. Almost all the countries in the world have similar kind of minimum wage laws and legislation.\n2 Pages(500 words)Essay\n\n(business)Minimum Wage\n\n...Fundamental rights include what is basic to each individual i.e. the right to life, equality and freedom. The CANADA was primarily set up as a union of states to embrace a stronger region through economic integration, morals and principles; however the question of fundamental human rights has always escaped the equation and left to the domestic nations' adherence to international documents, such as the Canadian Bill of Rights and UNDHR. Yet it is possible that the case law and legislation enacted by the CANADA throughout its history and especially the late 20th Century has pointed towards the distribution of wealth by ensuring that there is a minimum wage. Therefore this discussion will begin by considering human rights theory...\n10 Pages(2500 words)Essay\n\nNational Minimum Wage\n\n... opposition to the national minimum wage it looks set to become a permanent feature of the UK labour market. It should help those households at the bottom of the income distribution and so contribute to the growth of income equality. But its impact on poverty will be limited by the fact that the majority of poor families tend to be workless households. References Addison, John T.; Blackburn, McKinley L., (1999), \"Minimum wages and poverty.\" Industrial and Labor Relations Review. Apr, 52, (3), 393 - 409. Brown, W., (1999), Low Pay Commission Research. British Universities Industrial Relations Association Newsletter. Issue 26. April. 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The second type regulation mostly deals with externalities (the outside influences of the company or firm which may or may not be decided by them)\n\n6 Pages(1500 words)Assignment\n\nCognitive Factors in the Vulnerability and Ongoing Features of Eating Disorders Related to Anorexia and Bulimia\n\n The eminence and restrictions of these advancements are measured, together with their ability to meet with the norms for excellent speculation. EDs symbolize a method of handling with tribulations of self-control. The article reviews significant pragmatic evidence, the theoretical reconsiderations for cognitive models of EDs. An obvious need for amalgamation between cognitive theories of EDs and vulnerability factors was distinguished. Connotations for future research in terms of the cognitive theory of EDs are then discussed exhibiting urgent requirements for learning cognitive formulations to facilitate complete integration. 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+{"content": "\nSyphon Filter: Logan's Shadow™\n\nSyphon Filter\n\nRelease Date(s)\n\n\n\nShutdown (since June 27, 2012)\n\nSyphon Filter: Logan's Shadow is a third-person action video game released for the PSP which was brought to the PS2 in 2008. As with Dark Mirror, players assume the role of Gabe Logan and its tagline is also 'Infiltrate, Recon, Execute.'\n\nPlot sypnosis\n\nWhen the al-Jamil terrorist group attacks the USS Mt St Helens, the National Intelligence Oversight Committee must rely on the Agency to secure the classified material within a cargo hold before the antagonists acquire it. NIOC Director Robert Cordell convinces Gabe Logan that he is their only option, but Teresa Lipan counters that this is an assignment outside of Agency jurisdiction. Gabe agrees to go anyway, for a chance at stopping terrorist leader Ghassan al-Bitar, a Syrian he almost caught a year ago.\n\nWith his partner Lian Xing on vacation in Cyprus, Gabe flies to the Indian Ocean where a clan of Somali pirates called the Warsingala Protectors have invaded the ship. Bitar is leading them, and Gabe suspects this assault involves more than simply pirating. Intercepting Spec Ops communications, pilot Alima Haddad warns Gabe that Cordell did not tell him everything, and Logan realises the contents of Hold Five, a secret even to the Navy, are Bitar's primary target.\n\nEstablishing a link to the St Helens' communications dish, Alima attempts to extract Logan, but her helicopter is shot down. Gabe rushes to rescue her but she dies. Motivated to stop the Warsingala, he destroys several pirate boats carrying stolen goods from the St Helens and re-enters the ship via the damaged main hull. However, Bitar has already stolen the cargo inside Hold Five, which NIOC couriers ship.\n\nWhen Gabe reaches the upper decks, the Navy has already begun launching cruise missiles to scuttle their own ship. He tries to stop Bitar from escaping, but terrorist Fahid Tamer distracts him. Gabe kills Fahid and escapes from the ship before it sinks. His return to the Agency brings more complications when Cordell mentions Lian was never in Cyprus, and produces pictures of her with a Chinese man, both in a foreign land. From Cordell's point of view, Lian being a defector or a double agent, the Agency would be compromised, and the NIOC suspends the IPCA. \n\nGabe and marine salvage expert Dane Bishop explore the sunken St Helens for NIOC courier files that could have the information of where Lian was when she was photographed. The duo find Spetsnaz divers are searching for evidence. Gabe realises they work for Surgei Kudrenko, another man he failed to kill during a mission years earlier. Bishop cuts a hole inside the ship, sucking Logan into the hull, and Gabe follows his advise on destroying the engine turbines. When they rendezvous, the pair stop the ship's nuclear reactor from melting down and kill Kudrenko's lieutenant, Surgeyev, before the enemy can escape with the courier codes. \n\nThe decoded microfiles show pictures captured by MI6 in Azerbaijan. Lian and the Chinese male are hostages, but the Spetsnaz are also looking for them, suggesting they found out about the St Helens through their intelligence resources. Compounding the situation is the Russians who are conducting genocidal killings and ethnic cleansing activities throughout the country. Afraid that Lian might get killed, Gabe teams up with Maggie Powers, who claims to be in the same region to track smugglers, to find out who captured Lian. While searching a hotel room shared by Lian and her accomplice, Gabe encounters a Chinese Secret Service agent, codenamed Trinidad. The two fight and kill Spetsnaz forces, but Trinidad leaves Logan to find Maggie on his own. He rescues her from interrogators, but Kudrenko captures them after they destroy a Russian gunship. \n\nInside Kudrenko's gulag, Trinidad confronts Gabe, the Chinese confessing that she was Lian's instructor in the CSS; but Xing defected when Gabe recruited her into the Agency, tarnishing Trinidad's reputation. According to Trinidad, her student used to be married to the man seen in the pictures, Shen Rei. China wants him back because he is the inventor of the device stolen from the St Helens, and Trinidad helps free Gabe from custody so he can find them. Logan wonders about the significance of the device, such that America, Russia and China all want it. He begins to suspect Maggie is after it as well, and does not know who to trust. \n\nGabe kills Kudrenko during an aeroplane firefight, but Cordell arrests Maggie and tells Logan he has shut down the agency; because the NIOC believes that Shen and Lian work for Bitar. Cordell had used Gabe from the very start to locate them. The NIOC now knows where al-Jamil's desert stronghold is, but Logan is forced to accept early retirement. Before he can believe Cordell is right, Teresa informs Gabe that Lian is in love with him, and must be Bitar's prisoner if none of the world powers have Shen. Gabe realises that Cordell will bomb al-Jamil's base, and it will kill Lian. \n\nHe assists several Army Rangers in the assault on al-Jamil, but Gabe must enter the bunker on his own in search of Bitar. He finds Lian alive, and the two study Shen's device, the X-Z-2. It is an energy source that Shen intended for peaceful purposes, but China wanted to make it a bomb, so he defected with Lian's help and fled to Pakistan. Gabe finds information proving that Cordell hired Bitar as a means to bring Shen to NIOC couriers. Cordell was desperate to retrieve the X-Z-2 before competing nations could, but Bitar had other plans. The latter decided to steal the device and use Shen to make bombs that would destroy oil sources, thus driving Western influence from the Middle East. \n\nEverything Cordell did since then was a cover-up, and Gabe has him taken away by soldiers to ensure his own early retirement. Lian has difficulty talking to Gabe about Shen, and Gabe focuses on stopping al-Jamil at a Syrian dam. Bitar will use it to charge the last of the X-Z-2 devices for future attacks on the West. During the mission, Lian becomes distracted with saving Shen, and abandons her post to find him, shutting off her comm-link in the process. Gabe reaches Shen first, and the two disable most of the X-Z-2 bombs before going after Bitar. The terrorist leader tries to escape with the final bomb, but Shen has rigged it as a dud. Gabe shoots the device, destroying it and killing the terrorists. \n\nHe finds Lian and Shen outside the dam, but Trinidad also appears. She has shadowed Gabe the entire time, even when he was in Virginia. Trinidad's opinion being that Logan must be kept alive just so he can lead her to Shen, she provides covering fire for Gabe and murdered al-Jamil operatives on several occasions, but she still thinks him expendable in the long run. Shen will not allow his device to become a weapon, so he commits suicide in front of Lian. \n\nIn a post-credits cutscene, Gabe and Lian return to the gym in Langley where Teresa had set up the remote command center during the Agency's shutdown. Gabe has decided he will retire, thinking there are too many secrets in his work. Instead, he will look for Addison and Blake while trying a new life. They walk inside to find Mujari lying on the floor, dead, and Teresa injured. She warns them to be careful, and Trinidad ambushes them. Gabe pushes Lian aside and kills Trinidad, but is shot four times himself. He lies on the floor as Lian shouts and tries to revive him.\n\n\nSyphon Filter 7 has not been announced, however, a magazine (SM3's Christmas Edition) states that 'Sony is busting their butts to have Syphon Filter ready for release on the PS3 in 2009. On the other hand, Sony Bend's possible closure may mean that the next Syphon Filter game is possibly dead. SonyBend is still alive working on a PS4 game. \n\n\nAct I - Cargo Hold 5 Pirates of Somalia · Going Under · Ocean's Five · Sea of Darkness\nAct II - Terminal Drift What Lies Below · Depths of Darkness · Dead Currents · Drowning\nAct III - Crimson Flood Missing Friends · Found Enemies · Nowhere To Run\nAct IV - Tyorma Redemption Trinidad · Into The Cold · Deadly Cargo\nAct V - Shifting Sands Operation Canyon Storm · Our Hidden Past · Desert Flames\nAct VI - Shattered Destiny The Long Descent · Powerless · Disintegration · Leading The Blind · With Violent Intent\nAct VII - Bonus Stages Killing Time · Lian's First Time · Shadowed · Behind The Scenes · Left Behind\n\n\nPsp syphon2 06\n\nThe New Cover System\n\n As with Dark Mirror, Logan's Shadow is a third person shooter game that includes elements of stealth and firepower. Underwater levels, which have never been seen before, make an appearance with special weapons (such as harpoon rifles, bolt cannons and other firearms), puzzles and 3D movement. Blind fire makes an appearance which allows the player to shoot from cover that forces the enemies to run to cover.\n\nOnline Shutdown\n\nAs of June 27, 2012[1], Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow online feature was shut down, as well as Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror Online.\n\n\n • This is the first Syphon Filter not to be based off a virus plotline, but rather it follows conspiracies and double agents.\n • In the cover page, Logan is seen holding an M4 with ACOG and foregrip .\n • This is the first game to introduce underwater combat.\n • The concept art for 'Bonus levels' is the same as that in 'Singularity' from Dark Mirror.\n\n\n\nChanges from previous games\n\n • A new CQC system allowing players to grapple enemies and kill them with melee combinations, or use them as shields.\n • The taser no longer sets enemies on fire.\n\n\nOrganizations Black Baton · CBDC · Pharcom · The Agency\nVehicles UH-60 Blackhawk\nLocations Club 32 · McKenzie Airbase · Rocky Mountains, Colorado\nTerrorists Spooks · Unit one\nVehicles C-130 Hercules · F-22 Raptor\nMain Characters Gabriel Logan · Lian Xing\nMinor Characters Ellis · Nigel Cummings · Silvers\nMinigame types Assassination · Biathlon · Demolition · Elimination · Thief\nOrganizations IPCA", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9211118221282959}
+{"content": "GIRAFFE CLASS: We've been learning about Castles, Kings, and Queens\n\nMake crowns, shields, flags out of paper shopping bags or other recycled materials: scissors, glue, any type of decorating materials, any type of drawing and painting materials. \n\nExploring Frozen Water: freeze ice cube trays, empty containers of various sizes, or even beach pails with water. Add play jewelry, toy coins, gems or other small items into water and put in the freezer. You can also add food coloring to water. Play time: empty ice shapes into a larger bucket or in a container. Children can melt ice with salt, warm water, squirt bottles, turkey basters, clean eye droppers etc. Salt can be spooned onto ice. When done playing, refreeze for the next time.\n\nYoutube link for an example of “Relaxing Music”: Relaxing Music\n\nGiraffes have been practicing for 1-2 minutes calming down their bodies by either being in “Do Nothing Doll pose” or “Child’s pose”. They have been practicing “Do Nothing Doll pose” with a bean bag on the belly by feeling it rise and fall with their breath. You can also substitute a bean bag with a small stuffed animal. \n\nGeneral cooking activities with children: Cooking Activities\n\nA belated Happy 5th Birthday to Jordan on March 17th! and all our very best to all children and families.\n\nWe miss you!\n -Brianna, Jeanne, Margot, Jackie and Carrie", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9561008214950562}
+{"content": "What is\n\nMuddiest Point\n\nMuddiest point is an active learning exercise where students reflect upon the part of class that they least understood—also referred to as their ‘muddiest point.’ Instructors leave time at the end of class for students to reflect on the areas that they found challenging.\n\nMuddiest point refers to a comprehension check where students reflect on the area of a lecture, discussion, homework assignment or class film that they didn’t understand. Students should complete this exercise before leaving class.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999957084655762}
+{"content": "Water Features\nBroken Bow Nebraska\n\nAqueducts: The Answer to Rome's Water Troubles\n\nPrior to 273, when the very first elevated aqueduct, Aqua Anio Vetus, was constructed in Roma, inhabitants who dwelled on hills had to travel even further down to get their water from natural sources. Outside of these aqueducts and springs, wells and rainwater-collecting cisterns were the only technological innovations around at the time to supply water to segments of higher elevation.Aqueducts: Answer Rome's Water Troubles 076390034910305.jpg In the early sixteenth century, the city began to use the water that flowed beneath the earth through Acqua Vergine to furnish drinking water to Pincian Hill. Through its initial construction, pozzi (or manholes) were placed at set intervals along the aqueduct’s channel. While these manholes were provided to make it less difficult to sustain the aqueduct, it was also feasible to use buckets to pull water from the channel, which was employed by Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi from the time he bought the property in 1543 to his passing in 1552. Even though the cardinal also had a cistern to collect rainwater, it couldn't provide sufficient water. To give himself with a more practical system to gather water, he had one of the manholes exposed, giving him access to the aqueduct below his property.\n\n\nCity Rome, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Outdoor Water Fountains 14774576666905.jpg There are countless famous fountains in Rome’s city center. Practically all of them were planned, architected and built by one of the finest sculptors and designers of the 17th century, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Traces of his life's work are apparent all through the avenues of Rome simply because, in addition to his capabilities as a fountain builder, he was additionally a city builder. Bernini's father, a celebrated Florentine sculptor, guided his young son, and they finally relocated in Rome, to thoroughly exhibit their art in the form of community water fountains and water features. The juvenile Bernini was an exceptional employee and won compliments and backing of significant artists as well as popes. At the beginning he was recognized for his sculptural abilities. Working faultlessly with Roman marble, he made use of a base of knowledge in the ancient Greek architecture, most famously in the Vatican. He was affected by many great artists, however, Michelangelo had the biggest effect on his work.Water Fountains: Minoan Civilization 207025070414862650.jpg\n\nWater Fountains: The Minoan Civilization\n\nOn the Greek island of Crete, excavations have unearthed conduits of multiple sorts. They not solely aided with the water sources, they extracted rainwater and wastewater as well. They were for the most part built from clay or rock. Whenever clay was used, it was usually for canals as well as pipes which came in rectangle-shaped or circular shapes. There are two examples of Minoan terracotta conduits, those with a shortened cone shape and a U-shape that haven’t been observed in any culture since. Knossos Palace had a state-of-the-art plumbing network made of clay conduits which ran up to three meters under ground. These Minoan conduits were also used for gathering and storing water, not just circulation. Hence, these pipelines had to be effective to: Underground Water Transportation: This system’s undetectable nature might mean that it was actually created for some sort of ritual or to circulate water to limited communities. Quality Water Transportation: Many historians feel that these conduits were used to make a separate distribution system for the castle.\n\nThe Wide Array of Wall Fountains\n\nA small patio or a courtyard is a great place to situate your wall fountain when you need peace and quiet. Moreover, it can be made to fit into any wall space since it does not need much room. The required elements include a spout, a water basin, internal tubing, and a pump regardless of whether it is freestanding or secured. You have many styles to a lot to choose from whether you are in search of a traditional, popular, classical, or Asian style.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9369869232177734}
+{"content": "What are your shipping charges for deliveries inside India?\n\nDelivery within India is free of cost in most cases, however if there is a change it can be verified at the Shipping Policy Link below.\n\nDo the shipping charges vary from country to country?\n\nYes, for some products, they vary from country to country. You will get the exact shipping price when you will check out from cart.\n\nIs the shipping charge calculated on weight of the package?\n\nYes, the shipping charges are calculated on the basis of weight of products. You can view the shipping cost in your cart when you purchased the products. Please Note: Higher your Order, lower the shipping cost.\n\nCan you deliver to any country in the world?\n\nYes, we deliver to almost all countries in the world.\n\n\n\nWill I get a full refund if I return the product?\n\nThe value of refund, varies from one case to another. It would be under the sole discretion of the operations. Checkout complete Return & Refund Policy.\n\n\nThere is an admin credit card commission cost of 10 percentage of the final order value 5 percentage while accepting and 5 percentage while refunding or 10 USD depending on the order size. We will not refund the shipping charges paid by you while purchasing the item. We will not refund the customs duties or taxes, if applicable, or paid by you at time of receiving the goods.\n\nCan I pay using my Debit card?\n\nYes, we do accept all major debit cards.\n\nHow do I know that you have received my payments?\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6079174280166626}
+{"content": "Tag - live well\n\n\nWhy does an office or workspace without plants feel so dull? Your workplace may have the best ergonomically designed furniture, the fastest computers, and yet it still can feel like it is lacking something vital. If it feels sterile, static and just not right, then it may be because nothing changes. Adding plants to the work environment adds that missing element, this is a great way to give your workspace that vibrant makeover. Plants are living, constantly moving and changing. [...]\n\nYummy Choc Chip Beetroot Muffins!\n\nCHOCOLATE CHIP BEETROOT MUFFINS (VEGAN) At Capital Gardens, we think there’s nothing more rewarding than being able to make the most of lovingly home-grown veg and this chocolate chip beetroot muffin recipe is perfect for the chilly autumn weather. We promise you won’t be able to taste the beetroot! The pureed veg simply adds sweetness and colour to the muffins. Think healthy red velvet cupcakes! – perfect for a post gardening cup of tea or post party pudding. Vegan and gluten [...]\n\nwhy start a community gardening group\n\nWhy You Should Start a Gardening Community Group – and How to Do It\n\nIn our busy modern lives, it can be hard to fit in time to spend outdoors enjoying nature. For those of us who live in the city, this can be even more of a challenge. Urban gardening communities have started to spring up all over cities in the UK in answer to this problem, giving communities a place to come together and grow things outdoors. From why you should consider starting a gardening community group to how you can go [...]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.915336012840271}
+{"content": "UK Education\n\nThe UK is one of the most important global education destinations in the world. There are so many reasons why the UK become the most popular among international students. UK is the second favorite country in the world for international students after the US. International Recognition of UK Universities and Qualifications: UK University education qualifications recognized across the globe. The quality of UK Universities consistently ranked at the top positions in world university rankings. Some of the UK universities have a reputation of the oldest universities in the world, which have maintained and develop the quality of study and research.\n\n\nIt is easier to get a student visa once admitted to a University. University will sponsor you during the course duration and the visa processing will be simple by completing an online application, document submission, and then wait for the visa approval. Chances of visa rejection extremely lower when you admitted to highly ranked universities. It is easier for students to find accommodations during their studies in the UK. Universities themselves will provide accommodations facilities to students or they can find affordable accommodation near the University. \n\nThe cost of the study is affordable due to a comparatively short period of courses than other countries. Moreover, the UK is one of the safest places in the world. UK’s international student population is growing every year. There are many things to explore including big cities, countryside, beautiful beaches and so on. Students get adapted to British culture easily and learn English. UK universities are some of the highest ratings in student satisfaction due to lower fees than many other world countries, highly rated qualifications, learning opportunities, academic support, assessment, and feedback, learning resources, and communities.\n\nUK Government announced a 2 Year post-study work visa for those candidates successfully graduated. From 2020/2021 academic year intakes candidates will be benefited under this immigration rule. It will help talented students to work or look for work permits in the UK.\n\nContact Form\n\n\n\nNeed Help? Chat with us", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7073225975036621}
+{"content": "Advertiser Disclosure\n\n\n • Date\n\n\nDig Deeper\n\n\nBecome a Money Crasher!\nJoin our community.\n\nIndustrial Stocks – What They Are & Why You Should Invest in Them\n\nPrior to the Industrial Revolution, most Americans lived in self-sustaining agrarian communities. During this time, wealth was built through the growth and sale of cash crops and products like tobacco and lumber. Minerals, fish, and furs were also popular sources of income. Those who didn’t work in agriculture often made their living through skilled labor; blacksmiths and bakeries were common options.\n\nBut an industrial cotton mill in 1790 would begin to change the American way of life.\n\nSamuel Slater built the first American cotton mill in Rhode Island, knocking off a British design and setting the industrial revolution in the young United States into motion. With the cotton mill, the speed at which cotton could be spun into yarn was greatly improved.\n\nSeeing the value that technology could bring to industry, U.S. inventors quickly started to develop ways to produce products faster. This not only led to a change in how Americans made money, but how they lived.\n\nWith technology leading the way in product manufacturing, apprenticeships started to lose their value, and the factory worker was born. This led to a mass migration from rural communities to newly developed urban areas like New York City and Boston.\n\nSoon, the U.S. would become the industrial capital of the world. Not only did this build the country’s wealth, but it also created massive opportunities for investors, opening the floodgates to investments in a sector that would continue to evolve for decades to come.\n\nWhat Are Industrial Stocks?\n\nIndustrial stocks are part of one of the longest-lived sectors in the United States and around the world. These stocks represent companies in the industrial sector, which has developed into far more than cotton mills.\n\nCompanies in today’s industrial sector focus in one or more of four main areas.\n\n • Machinery. Without tractors, cranes, and bulldozers, you wouldn’t see city streets, high-rise buildings, or massive department stores. The companies that produce and distribute the machinery that helps to build the communities we live in are an important part of the industrial sector.\n • Manufacturing. Companies in the industrial sector provide important basic materials used in manufacturing of finished goods. For example, the manufacturers of your television had to source the plastic used for the outside frame from another company. The company that provides that plastic, necessary to the manufacturing of your television, is a key part of the industrial sector.\n • Construction. Industrial companies also provide the basic materials used in construction. Concrete, bricks, shingles, and electrical wires are all developed, produced, and distributed through industrial-goods companies.\n • Defense. Finally, industrial-goods companies are often active in the defense space. Various materials used in the development of new weaponry, vehicles, and other tools used in the defense industry are provided by companies in the industrial sector.\n\n\nIndustrial Stock Pros & Cons\n\nThe industrial sector was an important part of the growth of the United States, making investors massive amounts of money in the process. Although there has been more than a century of growth in the sector, there are still plenty of opportunities.\n\nThere are benefits to investing in the industrial sector, but there are also some drawbacks to consider.\n\nIndustrial Stock Pros\n\nThere are several benefits to investing in the industrial sector. Some of the most important include:\n\n 1. Easy to Read. Compared to other sectors, stocks in the industrial sector are relatively easy to read. That’s because the vast majority of these stocks are heavily correlated with the economy. Therefore, when the economy is booming, industrial stocks are a great place to be. When economic conditions start to falter, it’s time to sell industrials and look into other investment options. The correlation between the industrial sector and economic performance makes it easy for beginner investors to plan entries and exits.\n 2. Poised for Growth. Recently, politicians have been working to bring industrial development back to the United States. This has led to growth opportunities for key players in the industrial sector. For example, in 2018, changes were made to Section 179 of the United States tax code, allowing businesses to deduct the full cost of new equipment for a minimum of five years. This deduction bodes well for industrial stocks, especially those that have centered their business around the provision of equipment to companies in the construction, manufacturing, and defense sectors. After all, the changes to the tax code makes purchases from these industrial companies complete tax write-offs for other businesses.\n 3. A Long History. Most of the big players in the industrial space have a long history in business — many of them are decades or even more than a century old. Investing in companies that have been around a long while gives investors an opportunity to analyze the company from a historical perspective. If a company has created consistent growth for the past 70 or 80 years, there’s a good chance continued growth is ahead.\n\nIndustrial Stock Cons\n\nAlthough there are plenty of benefits to investing in industrial stocks, the sector also comes with its fair share of drawbacks. Some of the most pressing cons to consider include:\n\n 1. Economic Dependence. The fact that industrial stocks are heavily correlated with the economy makes them easy to read, but it also opens investors in these stocks up to an additional level of risk. For the buy-and-hold investor who doesn’t keep their finger on the pulse of the market, investing in the industrial sector could lead to painful declines when economic conditions falter.\n 2. Low Dividends. Throughout history, the industrial sector has underperformed the wider market in terms of dividends. While there are a few diamonds in the rough, if you’re looking for strong dividend plays, this sector isn’t likely the one for you.\n 3. Political Risk. As mentioned above, industrial stocks are currently benefiting from a positive political climate. However, the winds of political change can turn in another direction quickly. Should politicians decide to enact tax codes that aren’t as favorable to the sector as the recent changes have been, industrial companies may see dramatic declines in sales, ultimately having a negative effect on investor returns.\n\nWhat to Look for in Industrial Stocks\n\nAs with any sector, not all industrial stocks are created equal. Making money in the sector depends heavily on making the right investment decisions. When looking for industrial stocks to invest in, the companies that you should consider fall into the following categories:\n\n1. Companies With a Solid History of Growth\n\nThe industrial sector is one of the oldest sectors in the world. That gives investors the benefit of having very old companies to choose from that provide a detailed history of where they’ve been and the growth — or lack thereof — they have experienced.\n\nWhen looking for investment opportunities in the industrial sector, it’s best to look for companies that have a solid history of growth. Looking back at long-term stock charts, you may see dips here and there when economic recessions and depressions took hold, but you should only invest in industrial stocks that have generated significant long-run gains overall.\n\n2. Companies That Pay Dividends\n\nThe industrial sector isn’t one that’s known for great dividends. That doesn’t mean good dividends are impossible to come by. For example, Boeing — one of the larger players in the industrial sector — has consistently paid dividends and raised its dividend payout year over year for several consecutive years.\n\nBoeing isn’t the only company in the industrial sector that pays decent dividends. ABB, Caterpillar, 3M, and several others are known for paying strong dividends. So, if you invest in the sector, don’t rob yourself of income; look for strong dividend payers.\n\n3. Companies With Less Exposure to the Economy\n\nThe industrial sector is heavily correlated with economic performance. Of course, the U.S. and global economies don’t always perform well. When picking stocks in the industrial space, it’s best to look for companies that break the mold with weaker correlations to the broader economy than the sector as a whole.\n\nSome kinds of industrial companies that are shielded from economic correlation include:\n\n • Defense. Several companies in the industrial sector either only serve defense clients or center the vast majority of their business around servicing the defense industry. These companies are generally shielded from the impact of negative economic conditions. After all, regardless of economic conditions, the U.S. must defend itself and its interests, and it will likely continue spending massive amounts of money to do so. As such, industrial stocks with a focus on defense provide exposure to the industrial sector while weakening the economic risk associated with investing in the sector.\n • Medical Manufacturing Equipment. Like defense, medicine is an area that will always fill a need, and thus is less dependent on positive economic conditions. Industrial companies that provide medical manufacturing equipment and other raw materials to the medical space are generally shielded from an economic downturn, making them a great place to start your search for investment opportunities.\n • Diversified Companies. Diversification is a great hedge against hardship in any space. For example, defense companies will feel pain if they lose funding for their projects or if the government decides that it no longer wants to be a customer. However, some companies in the industrial space are heavily diversified. For example, Boeing is a major defense industrial play. However, the company also takes part in various sectors outside of defense, shielding investors from risk associated with the loss of government spending on the company’s products.\n\nHow Much Should You Invest in Industrial Stocks?\n\nThere are few investors who can get away with investing 100% of their funds in a single stock, sector, or investment vehicle. For the vast majority, diversification is key to success in the stock market.\n\nIf you had all of your money in industrial stocks and the economy took a nosedive, you would face significant losses. These types of painful occurrences are exactly what diversification was designed to prevent you from experiencing.\n\nSo, how much of your portfolio should be invested in the industrial sector?\n\nThere is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question. Several factors should be taken into consideration when deciding how much of your portfolio should be allocated to the industrial sector:\n\n1. Your Exposure to Stocks\n\nYou should never have 100% of your investment portfolio exposed to the whims of the stock market. Most financial advisors suggest that a significant portion of your portfolio be invested in safer investment vehicles like bonds.\n\nThe amount of your portfolio that should be in bonds depends on your appetite for risk, your age, and your financial goals. However, if you’re not sure where to start, consider using your age to determine the percentage of your investable assets that go in bonds. That way you have a moderately diversified portfolio, at least from an asset class perspective.\n\nFor example, if you’re 28 years old and you have $10,000 to invest, you might target investing 28% ($2,800) of your overall investment portfolio in bonds to provide you with adequate protection from large swings in the value of stocks. As a result, only 72% of your portfolio value is available for stock investing, which should play into your decision of what percentage to allocate to the industrial sector specifically.\n\nPro tip: If you’re going to add industrial stocks to your portfolio, make sure you choose the best possible companies. Stock screeners can help you narrow down the choices to companies that meet your requirements. Learn more about our favorite stock screeners.\n\n2. Your Investment Style\n\nYour investment style will also play a major role here. For example, if you’re a dividend investor, you’ll likely want little exposure to the industrial sector because there just aren’t many companies in the space that are known for high dividend yields.\n\nOn the other hand, if you’re looking for strong long-run growth plays, the industrial sector may be the perfect fit, especially when economic conditions are positive. Stocks in the space are known for strong growth during positive economic conditions.\n\n3. The 5% Rule\n\nFinally, the number of companies in the industrial sector that you’re interested in will play a role in the total amount of exposure you have to the sector, especially if you’re a novice investor. That’s because, unless you’re an investing guru, you should follow the five-percent rule.\n\nThe rule suggests that you should never have more than 5% of your total investing dollars tied up in a single stock or across a group of high-risk stock picks. So if you’re looking at three industrial stocks, and you believe all of them are top-notch investing opportunities, you could invest up to 5% of your portfolio into each company — so your entire allocation to these stocks would be no more than 15% of your portfolio. If your picks are penny stocks that come with other factors that involve high risk, then together they should represent no more than 5% of your overall portfolio value combined.\n\nFinal Word\n\nThe industrial sector isn’t just important to the stock market, it’s an important part of American history. The sector has created millionaires while giving rise to urban development, employment opportunity, and global economic dominance in the United States.\n\nNo wonder so many people want to invest in the space!\n\nMaking the right moves with industrial stocks can result in dramatic gains that even famed investor Warren Buffett wouldn’t ignore. On the other hand, making the wrong investments in industrial stocks can cost you.\n\nBefore you invest in the space, make sure that the stock you’re interested in is heavily diversified, is shielded from economic risk, provides investors with a compelling dividend yield, or offers a mix of these three conditions. Also, take a moment to consider the state of the United States and global economies as well as the political environment when planning an entrance or exit.\n\nFinally, always invest responsibly. If you’re not sure you’re making the right decision, don’t make it. Instead, take the time to do your research or consider speaking with a financial advisor before investing in industrial stocks or any other sector. An educated investment always has better odds of being a winning investment.\n\nDo you invest in the industrial sector? What are your favorite industrial stocks?\n\nJoshua Rodriguez\n\nNext Up on\nMoney Crashers\n\nCouple Holding Sports Tickets\n\n13 Places to Buy Cheap Discount Sports Tickets Online & Off\n\nFind Good Doctor\n\nHow to Find a Good Doctor You Can Trust\n\n\nLatest on\nMoney Crashers\n\nSign Up For Our Newsletter\n\nSee why 218,388 people subscribe to our newsletter.\n\nWhat Do You Want To Do\nWith Your Money?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7795705199241638}
+{"content": "\n\nAnastasia Elizabeth Hillard died in Tyler, Texas car accident\n\n| Nov 24, 2015 | Wrongful Death |\n\nAnastasia Elizabeth Hillard died in a head-on car accident in Tyler, Texas. Jesus Gonzales and Rodolfo Mendoza were injured in the accident also. This unfortunate incident occurred on November 18, 2015. We would anticipate that this case may result in a wrongful death lawsuit, especially if the truck that veered over is shown to be at fault.\n\nHillard was traveling north down SSW Loop 323 in her car. Gonzales was driving a truck in the opposite lane with Mendoza as the passenger. Suddenly, Gonzales veered over the median and into the lane Hillard was in. Gonzales’ car collided head-on with Hillard’s vehicle. Gonzales and Mendoza, had to be carried to the hospital. Their condition is not known. Hillard died as a result of her injuries. Our hearts and prayers go out to Hillard’s family and friends.\n\nThis car crash is truly saddening and it leaves so many questions. Why did Gonzales cross the median? Was Gonzales under the influence? Was Gonzales distracted? What are the other factors that are not being reported?\n\nPolice are still investigating into the cause of the accident. Although the police are looking for more information, they cannot always be fully relied upon. There are some questions that may still need answers and some actions that may need explanations. Personal injury lawyers do not always rely on the police reports. They often hire private investigators to find the answers to additional questions. Investigators often obtain helpful information that is not included in the police report, information that family members sometimes want to know.\n\n\nContact us today", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6120469570159912}
+{"content": "The head of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police, Rick Snyder, discusses public safety with Indy Politics, including the city’s record murder rate, need to increase technology and the fact that officers are retiring and leaving the force at a rate higher than expected.\n\nYou can hear Snyder in the Leon-Tailored Audio above.\n\nEach segment runs about nine minutes.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9890170097351074}
+{"content": "Dynamic light scattering: A useful technique to characterize nanoparticles\n\n\n1 Department of Physics, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran\n\n2 Faculty of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAUPS), Tehran, Iran\n\n3 Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh\n\n\n\nBiologically, two parameters of size and surface charge of the nanoparticles, especially therapeutic nanoparticles influence their kinetics in vivo as well as their interaction with the cellular and biological membranes and resulting their efficacy. So effective characterization of nanomaterials including nanometer-sized particles and micelles is a key issue to develop the well-deserved and well-defined Nano-formulations focus on the therapeutic goals in nanomedicine research. Determining the particle size and surface charge of nanoparticles are essential to characterize therapeutic nanoparticles properly. Measurements related to techniques of dynamic light scattering (DLS) and zeta potential (ZP) are known as easy, simple, and reproducible tools to obtain the size and surface charge of nanoparticles. Regarding characterization of particle size and surface charge by the DLS and ZP there is challenges for researchers to interpret and analyze the exported data effectively due to lack of adequate understanding focus on physical principles governing on the operating system of these techniques and how preparing samples for characterization and so on. With this in mind, this review tries to address this issue focus on the fundamental principles governing on techniques of DLS and ZP to better analyzing and interpreting the reported results such as hydrodynamic size, diffusion, inter particular interactions as well as study of the colloidal system stability based on surface charge of nanoparticles.\n\n\n\nIncreasing application of nanomaterials including nanoparticles and Nano micelles in biotechnology and medicine requires tools with special characteristics such as accessibility, fast, and effective resolution to manipulate nanomaterials into biological environments as well as to characterize physicochemical properties of nanometer-sized particles within Nano-colloidal systems [1-2]. Literature review highlight that quality control analysis of nanometer-sized materials including is a key issue to follow their application and development in different industrial fields such as nanomedicine. With this in mind, in this case the lack of standard tools for effective characterization of nanomaterials is a key challenge [3]. \n\nSo to achieve reliable data with high translator and interpretational output, it is required for sufficient characterization of the nanomaterials especially within colloidal systems.\n\nOn the other hand, safety is a key challenge in field of application and characterization of nanomaterials into biological media. It is widely believed that the safety concerns is related to physiochemical properties of nanoparticles including particle size, surface charge , particle shape, ligand-based surface functionalization, impurity [4-8] and so on. Existing of the useful tools and techniques to characterize effective the nanomaterials reveal the outstanding differences in the physicochemical properties related to the nanomaterials such as conductivity, fluorescence, magnetism [9-12] than those of bulk materials.\n\nLiterature review indicate a range of biological effects of nanoparticles and Nano micelles within living systems such as cellular uptake, toxicity, dissolution [13-15] are affected from two key parameters of particle size and surface charge related to nanosturctures. The conducted studies has highlighted the importance and influence of these two parameters in scientific different fields specially biomedical sciences such as in release profile from the designed nanomaterials to deliver drugs across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) [16], potential candidature of bioactive glass nanoparticles for bone tissue engineering[17], effective mucus diffusion and permeation combined with higher cellular uptake based on self-emulsifying drug delivery systems containing phosphorylated polysaccharides (when droplets reach absorptive epithelium membrane) [18], a promising strategy for future gene delivery systems [19], Responsible for phospholipid- Al2O3 particle interactions [20], ζ potential measurement for air bubbles in protein solution [21], electrostatic interactions governing on the kinetics of the adsorption of rH174 (the full-length recombinant human amelgenin) onto HAP (hydroxyapatite) [22], zeta potential measurement of nanomaterials to study their colloidal stability [23].\n\nDynamic light scattering (DLS) that known as photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) or quasi-elastic light scattering (Fig.1) and zeta potential (Fig.2) are well-known as tools and techniques to study the hydrodynamic size and surface charge of nanomaterials within colloidal systems with different potential applications especially pharmaceutical application [21-22].\n\nThe size of NPs in colloidal systems is obtained based on measurement of scattering intensity of nanoparticles in Brownian motion when illuminate by a monochromatic beam of light [24]. For charging NPs in colloidal system factors such as the interactions between particles, molecules and ions lead to the creation of adsorbed layers on NPs [25]. The surfaces of the dispersed particles are altered depending on the adsorbed layer [25]. The DLS and ZP techniques utilize these properties of colloid dispersions in order to determine the hydrodynamic size and surface charge of NPs [26].\n\nAs mentioned earlier, the conducted studies indicate the kinetics in vivo as well as interaction with the cellular and biological membranes related to therapeutic nanoparticles are affected from their size and surface charge [24-25].\n\nThe conducted studies also reveal that factors such as frequent use with lack of caution and proper training has been caused that the quality of the reported data related to size and charge of NPs by DLS and ZP is not be always excellent in nanomedicine research.\n\nSo, it is required to investigate about these two parameters during development of nanosystems related to medicine and biomedical sciences specially nanoparticulate-based drug delivery systems regarding the fact that biological matrices are well-known to alter these two features of NPs with different mechanism (e.g., protein adsorption causing the characteristic corona) [19,20].\n\nWith this in mind, in this review, an effort is made to offer a simple account on these two techniques and discussion on who and why different factors influence the measurements and quality of data related to DLS and ZP.\n\n\nScattering of light by nanoparticles and nanoparticles dispersed in a colloidal system\n\nNanoparticles within colloidal systems scatter incident light proportional to the 6th power of their radius [30-32]. Scattering light by particles with λ/10 in size (λ denotes to the wavelength of the incident light) is elastic that known as Rayleigh scattering (Fig.3) [30-32]. On the other hand, scattering light by particles greater than λ/10 in size will be Mie scattering (inelastic scattering) where the scattered light is angle-dependent [30-32] where the scattered light is most intense towards the direction of the incident light [31]. A hydrated shell wrapped within a cloak of molecules (which are not the ingredients of the nanoparticles itself) are formed on surface of dispersed nanoparticles in colloidal system (corona) [30, 33-34]. The corona is formed by two shells, including hard and soft [30, 33-34]. The hard corona refers to the inner stable layer tightly bound to the nanoparticle surface and the soft corona is the layer on top of the hard corona with a composition different that of hard corona [30, 33-34]. It is widely believed that different compositions related to hard and soft corona in addition to the structure of nanoparticle itself have a key role in scattering light from particle surface. In this case, in characterization of nanoparticles by dynamic light scattering technique, particles are different in surface chemistry and composition than those originality synthesized [30, 33-34].\n\nIn a conducted study by Casals et al [27], dynamic light scattering (DLS) was used to confirm the formation of the protein corona after exposure to metallic Au nanoparticles (4 to 40 nm) as well as to monitor the time evolution of the inorganic NP−protein corona formation and to characterize the stability of the nanoparticles and their surface state at every stage of the experiment.\n\nIn an another study by Liu et al [28], they reported the use of dynamic light scattering (DLS) for characterization of gold nanorods and to investigate the adsorption of different proteins, including bovine serum albumin (BSA), human serum albumin (HAS), immunoglobulin G (IgG), and immunoglobulin A (IgA) with gold nanorods with the same diameter but different aspect ratios. They reported that protein adsorption to gold nanorods is strongly dependent on the aspect ratio of the nanorods, and varies significantly from protein to protein. This study demonstrated that dynamic light scattering is a valuable tool for nanorod characterization and understanding the gold nanorod–protein interactions.\n\nIn a recent study by Waghmare et al [29], they employed DLS to monitor adsorption of BSA protein onto silver nanoparticles. They reported increase in adsorption with enhancing in average hydrodynamic radius of BSA-Ag NP corona from 24 to 35 nm. The reported results related to conducted study can be effective in drug design development for tumor-targeted therapy.\n\nWith this in mind, understanding the dynamics of the growth of protein corona onto NP-surfaces by DLS is important from the perspective of how the nanoparticles behave in vivo [49]. Hence, DLS technique can be an efficient tool along with other techniques such as isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and fluorescence spectroscopy in different research especially in nanomedicine.\n\nAutocorrelation function (ACF), Diffusion (D), Inter-particular interactions, hydrodynamic radius (Rh), the rotational correlation time (τr) of nanoparticles\n\nDLS is an effective tool to characterize dynamic parameters of nanoparticles including the diffusion coefficient and particle size within a colloidal system. The time-dependent scattered light intensity from a nano-colloidal solution is a fluctuating quantity that depends on the size, Brownian motion and diffusive behavior of nanoparticles in solution and viscosity of continuous phase. These fluctuations can be characterized according to the normalized autocorrelation function, g1(τ), of the scattered electrical field for a given delay time, τ, which contains information about the structure and dynamics of the scattered particles [35-42].\n\n\nWhere, E* is the complex conjugated of E. Experimentally, the intensity autocorrelation function, g2(q, τ), is determined as following [35-42]:\n\n\nThe normalized autocorrelation function, g2(q,τ), is converted to the autocorrelation function of the scattered electrical field, g1 (q, τ) by the Siegret relationship [35-42].\n\ng2 (q, τ) = 1+ |A exp (-Γt )|2 (3)\n\nHere, A is an instrumental constant. In a colloidal system containing monodisperse micelles, the function of g1(q, τ) is represented by a single exponential decay curve [35-42].\n\ng1 (q, τ) = A exp (-Γt ) (4)\n\nIt is important to note that there is a digital correlator within the DLS tool (Fig.1) that measures the degree of similarity between two signals over a time period. If the intensity signal of a particular part of the speckle pattern at one point in time was compared to the intensity signal a very short time later and resulting the two signals were very similar, they strongly correlate each other. On the other hand, correlation between two signals decreases with time due to decrease in similarity of two signals as time increases affected by Brownian motion of nanoparticles (Fig.3).\n\nThe decay rate, Γ, is converted to diffusion coefficient using [35-42]:\n\nD=Γ/q2 (5)\n\nWhere q is the scattering vector [59-63]. Finally, the diffusion coefficient of nanomicelles can be characterized as the hydrodynamic size (Rh) according to the stokes-Einstein relation [35-42]:\n\nRh= (6)\n\nWhere K is Boltzmann’s constant, T is the temperature in K, and η is the viscosity of solvent.\n\nAn increase in particles sizes results in a slower exponential relax with a smaller relax constant, as the fluctuations in light intensity change more slowly; whereas for smaller particles, a rapidly relaxing exponential function is obtained, with a large relax constant. Therefore, the inverse correlation time is inversely proportional to the size of nanoparticl [35-42].\n\nIt is widely believed that the hydrodynamic radius is the radius of a the hypothetical hard sphere that diffuses with the same speed as the particles is analysed under dynamic light scattering [35-42]. It is well-known that RH is a mathematical measurement. Because hard spheres rarely exist in a colloidal system. In other word, the dispersed particles within a colloidal system are hydrated/solvated (formation of corona) that form of corona is often not spherical.\n\nThe rotational correlation time (τr) of spherical droplets is calculated according to model of the Stokes-Einstein-Debye (SED) hydrodynamic [35-42].\n\n\nHear, rh is hydrodynamic diameter of water nanodroplets ,k is Boltzmann’s constant, T is the temperature in K, and η is the viscosity of solvent.\n\nIn a conducted study by Rahdar et al [41] focus on dynamics of water nanodroplets containing Xanthen Gum (XG) polysaccharide by using dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique, they synthesized the water nano-droplets containing XG with hydrodynamic diameter in the range of 5-35 nm at the different XG concentrations by water-in-oil AOT microemulsion system as a function of mass fraction of droplet (MFD) at a the constant water content (W=[H2O]/[AOT]=Const.).\n\nIt is important to mention that the nanometer-sized water droplets within water-in-oil surfactant microemulsion are formed based on specific ratios of the water, surfactant, and oil. It is widely believed that the structure, size, and property of water nano-droplets in the microemulsion are affected by two parameters i) the water-to-surfactant molar ratio, popularly is showed as the W value, W= [water or polar solvent]/[Surfactant]) [35-42] and ii) the droplet-to-total components mass ratio, generally is represented as the mass fraction of nano-droplet (MFD) value (or volume fraction of nano-droplet) , MFD=Mnano-droplet/Mtotal [35-42].\n\nIn that work, to study the dynamical parameters of the diffusion and size distribution characterization of the nano-sized water droplets containing polysaccharide of the Xanthen Gum, the autocorrelation function of water nanodroplets was obtained by dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique. They reported plot of the autocorrelation function versus decay time for nanodroplet for the different XG concentrations at the values different of mass fraction of water nanodroplet (MFD) of 0.01, 0.04, and 0.1.\n\nTypically, the autocorrelation function versus decay time for nanodroplet containing XG at concentration of 0.0000625 is shown in Fig.3.\n\nTo obtain decay rate of nanodroplets (Fig.4), the autocorrelation function of nanodroplets was fitted with a single exponential function according the relation (4) [35-42].\n\nTo understand the inter-particular interaction type within colloidal systems, it is necessary to obtain the collective diffusion of nanoparticles in systems.\n\nThen the collective diffusion of water nanodroplets was calculated according the relation (5) [35-42]. The collective diffusion coefficient of water nanodroplets versus mass fraction of nano-droplet (MFD) at the different concentrations of XG polysaccharide are shown in Fig.5.\n\nAs it can be seen from Fig.5, the collective diffusion as a function of droplet mass fraction have negative slope for water nanodroplet sample containing XG at 0.0000157concentration and positive slope for sample containing XG at concentration of 0.0000625. On the other hand, the inter-nanodroplets interaction changed from attractive to repulsive as concentration of Xanthen Gum biopolymer increased as a function of MFD due to adsorbing XG polysaccharide at interfacial of AOT nanodroplets and resulting repulsive interaction of the droplet-droplet thus increasing concentration of XG biopolymer within water nanodroplets [41] According to study by Rahdar et al [41], change in curve slope of Diffusion with MFD is interpreted as change in interdroplet interaction type within colloidal system.\n\nThe diffusion is converted to the hydrodynamic radius of water nanodroplets by using the Stokes-Einstein according to relation (6). Then the hydrodynamic diameter versus mass fraction of nano-droplet (MFD) at the different concentrations of XG are shown in Fig.6.\n\nIt is clear from data in Fig.6 that with increasing the polysaccharide concentration of XG within the water nanodroplets, hydrodynamic diameter of water nano-droplets decreases generally.\n\nIn another study by Rahdar et al [42], focus on dynamics of water nanodroplets containing D-(+)-Glucose by using dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique, they calculated the collective diffusion coefficient of nano droplets for different D-(+)-Glucose concentrations. In the conducted study, for the different D-(+)-Glucose concentrations within the water-in-oil micro emulsion, a single relaxation curve was observed for the water droplets. Study of dynamic light scattering of water nano droplets indicated that the diffusion coefficient of water nano- droplets increased and their size decreased as concentration of D-(+)-Glucose within water nanodroplets increased. Results showed that the interaction between droplets changed from attractive to repulsive as concentration of D-(+)- Glucose within droplets increased [42]. So, DLS is an effective tool to discuss inter-particular interaction within colloidal systems.\n\nSize by intensity, volume, and number and z-average obtained by dynamic light scattering\n\nThe DLS tool produces the different data including the correlation data, size by intensity, volume, and number, z-average, and PDI and so on.\n\nAbout correlation discussed earlier. The intensity weighted distribution shows how particles with different sizes within colloidal system are detected from a fit to the autocorrelation function of the measured light scattering. The size related to intensity is very sensitive to very small numbers of aggregates within colloidal system. Because scattered light intensity by a particle is proportional to the 6th power of its radius. So, a few particles of larger size scatter more light than many smaller particles in size.\n\nThe size distribution by the number and volume is related to number of particles with a certain size, and volume occupied by the particles. The z-average is an average size from intensity, volume, and number originating from the distribution fit.\n\nThe polydispersity index (PDI) provides an indication of the width of the overall distribution denoting polydispersity or monodispersity of particles within colloidal system. For Gaussian distribution, the PDI is equal to the (width/mean) ^2.\n\nEffect of parameters of sample preparation, sample concentration, aggregation, shape of nanoparticles on characterization of nanoparticles by dynamic light scattering\n\nSample preparation is critical in DLS analyses. The samples are prepared either in different solvents such as water, methanol, ethanol, toluene or diluents ones. Some solvents, for example toluene can scatter light while some like DMSO exhibits significant changes in viscosity with variations in temperature [30, 43-45]. The specimens for DLS measurements should be clear and homogeneous. Any precipitation proves the existence of bigger particles which can be due to poor dispersion or inadequate sonication. Due to the lack of ions, using DI (deionized) water is usually not suggested because it fails to cover the particles from long distance interactions. Therefore, the size of them in DI water is always larger than their actual size. As a result, using dilute saline water gives better results as the ions shield the particles from long-distance interactions. Another item that can supply the DLS useless are large particles of low density that may float on top of the solvent layer. For powder formulations stirring quickly can dissolve the NPs to gain a stable and homogeneous dispersion [30, 43-45].\n\nIncreasing concentration of NPs result in multi-scattering in which the scattered light from one particle interacts with others before arriving to the detector. As a result, the obtained size is falsely smaller. Agglomeration occurs in high concentrations except surfactants are utilized [30, 46-48]. On the opposite, utilizing diluted samples may not produce sufficient scattered light for the investigation. In this manner, finding the ideal sample concentration is crucial. [30,46-48].\n\nIt is troublesome to get high quality results from dispersions with aggregated NPs. Immoderate scattering also covers the low intensity light that’s scattered from tiny particles. Subsequently, broadened peaks rise whereas the exactness of the information is diminished. Therefore, DLS has been trusty just at dilute concentrations. To encounter these consequences, diverse surfactants are usually used to create lasting dispersions [49].\n\nDue to the fact that NPs have different types of forms of shape besides spherical inclusive of nanotubes and nanostars; DLS presents a RH which by determining its radius of a hypothetical firm sphere moving at the identical pace to that of the aspherical NPs in the dispersion[50-51]. Scientists also have modified the Stokes-Einstein equation to fit the data obtained from cylindrical structures [50-51].\n\nParticle size based on TEM (transmission electron microscopy), AFM (atomic force microscopy), sedimentation (X-ray disc centrifuge and DCS/differential centrifugal sedimentation), and DLS\n\nIt is conceivable to determine the size distribution of NPs from TEM photographs with datasets on their mean size [89, 90]. However, such data from TEM images usually do not confirm well with the information received from DLS. This can be because DLS is an intensity-based method while TEM could be a number-based one which makes them basically distinctive [52-54]. Whereas the samples for DLS are solvated, TEM works on dry samples. DLS measures the RH of the dispersed particles while TEM anticipated the surface area (Fig.7). Subsequently, the measure gotten by DLS is normally larger than that of the TEM. An advantage of DLS is its capability to measure a large number of particles compared to TEM. In this manner, DLS gives a more vigorous information on size distribution [52-54].\n\nAFM has developed as a powerful device to picture NPs. AFM offers exact data on particle size and shape; moreover, it’s capable to diagnose particles with diverse sizes in a blend. But, the number of particles analyzed by AFM is much smaller, consequently, DLS offers an improved size distribution. On the other hand, characterization of nanoparticles by AFM provides a rapid and accurate and analysis for nanoparticle characterization by AFM has advantages over DLS for non-monodispersed solutions. [55].\n\nSedimentation methods have achieved demand to determine the size of NP [30,56-57]. In summary, these techniques utilize high centrifugal energy to deposit NPs infractions based on density. The sizing of the NPs is done by observing the deposition of the particles on a rotating disc either by X-ray absorbance or monochromatic light. The mathematical operator for these techniques is discussed widely in the literature [30, 56-57].\n\n\nThe zeta potential is a function of surface charge in colloidal dispersions. It is an effective tool to measure magnitude of the electrostatic interaction between particles within Nano colloidal system. In other word, the zeta potential is commonly used to predict and control dispersion stability. The zeta potential is a scientific term for electrokinetic potential in colloidal dispersions [16-21, 23 and 26].\n\nIn process related to study stability particles in colloidal dispersion by the zeta potential, a controlled electric field is applied via electrodes immersed in a sample suspension and this leads to moving the charged particles towards the electrode of opposite polarity. In the other word, the zeta potential reflects the potential difference between EDL (Electric Double Layer) of electrophoretically mobile particles and the layer of dispersant around them at slipping plane [16-21, 23 and 26].\n\nIt is important to mention that when a charged particle is dispersed in a liquid, an adsorbed double layer that is known as EDL [30, 58] creates on particle surface. The inner layer includes the molecules/ions with opposite charge to that of the particle that is called Stern layer. Beyond Stern layer the electrostatic effects decrease due to the surface charge on the particles according to Debye’s law [30, 58].\n\nElectrophoretic mobility, Henry’s equation, Helmholtz – Smoluchowski (HS) equation, Hückel equation in zeta potential measurement\n\nA group of phenomena, generally referred to as Electrokinetic Effects, can be used as the basis for determination of Zeta Potential. Four related phenomena, mainly consists of Electrophoresis, Electro-Osmosis, Streaming Potential and Sedimentation Potential [21, 23 and 30].\n\nTotally it can said that Electrophoresis is the movement of charged particles which are suspended in a liquid under the influence of an applied electric field. Zeta potential has a direct relation with electrophoretic mobility [21, 26, and 30].\n\nTotally Electrophoresis is the movement of charged particles suspended in a liquid under the influence of an applied electric field. The electrophoretic velocity is proportional to the electric field, with the proportionality constant called the electrophoretic mobility. Zeta potential is proportional to the electrophoretic mobility [21, 26, and 30].\n\nZeta potential can be measured by means of electrophoresis, movement of charge surface stationary liquid applied electric field. The electrophoretic mobility (me) is calculated according to me= V/E, where V is particle velocity (mm/s) and E is electric field strength (Volt/cm).\n\nThe zeta potential is then calculated from the obtained me by Henry’s equation [21, 23 and 30]:\n\nme= 2ere0zf (ka)/3h (8)\n\nHere, er is Dielectric constant, e0 is permittivity of vacuum, z is Zeta Potential, f (ka) is Henry’s function, and h is viscosity.\n\nWhen value of f (ka) is considered 1.5, it means that the EDL is in comparison with the particle radius, (particles are larger than 0.2 microns dispersed in electrolytes containing more than 10-3 molar salt). In this situation, Henry’s equation modifies into the Helmholtz – Smoluchowski (HS) equation [21, 23 and 30]:\n\nme= ere0z/h (8)\n\nWhen value of f (ka) is considered 1, it means that the EDL is much bigger than the particle itself due to smaller (<100) particle dispersed in electrolytes containing more than 10-5 molar salt. In this situation, the Henry’s equation can be modified as Hückel equation [21, 23, and 30]:\n\nme= 2ere0z/3h (9)\n\nThe Hückel equation is usually used in ceramic industry and it is not a useful equation for pharmaceutical preparation [21, 23 and 30].\n\nElectrophoretic Light scattering and Electroacoustic phenomenon in Zeta potential measurements\n\nIn recent years, the technique of Electrophoretic Light Scattering (ELS) has been applied to measure electrophoretic mobility and then calculating Zeta Potential. In an ELS instrument, a laser beam passes through the electrophoresis cell, irradiates the dispersed particles in the system, and is scattered by the particles. A part of the laser beam is diverted before it reaches the cell. This beam is combined with the reference beam to determine the sign of the charge on the particle, and then calculation of Zeta Potential [21, 23 and 30].\n\nElectroacoustic effects are result of coupling between acoustic and electric fields. Whit this technique the particles in a sample oscillator under the electric field and the oscillation are analyzed on magnitude and phase angle to measure the particle size and Zeta Potential. This technique is less popular in drug delivery research.\n\nEffect of parameters of pH and ionic strength, sample concentration, colloid stability, and surface charge of NPs on characterization nanoparticles by zeta-potential\n\nThe most essential factor that affects zeta potential, especially in aqueous dispersions is pH. The change in magnitude with acidic and basic pH causes the change in zeta potential. The isoelectric point (I.E.P.), is the pH at which the zeta potential is zero is called. At this pH the repulsive forces are zero, and aggregation occurs [21, 23 and 30]. On the other hand, as ionic strength of colloidal system increases the EDL compresses while the zeta potential decreases in magnitude and vice versa [21, 23 and 30].\n\nThe particle concentration can have a significant impact on zeta potential. The effect depends on relative valence of ions and on their concentration. Totally, It can be said that increasing concentration may decrease zeta potential with the lesser stability of the dispersion [21, 23 and 30].\n\nThe most popular application of zeta potential data is related to colloid stability. According to literature related to drug delivery issues, values of zeta potential are classified to ±0– 10mV (highly unstable), ±10–20mV (relatively stable), ±20–30 mV (moderately stable), and ˃±30mV (highly stable) [30,59-60].\n\nLiterature review reveals that although values of zeta potential are indications to study colloid stability, but they are not enough. [30, 59-60]. Because the zeta potential provides insight on the electrostatic repulsive forces, but it doesn’t provide information focus on the attractive Van der Waals forces. There is theories focus on understanding attractive forces existing in nature witch discussions related to those subjects are beyond the scope of current review.\n\nIt is significant to mention that the attractive Van der Waals forces are related to the Hamaker constant [30, 59-60] which corresponds to the difference between the refractive index (RI) of the particle and the dispersant, indirectly. Therefore, if the Hamaker constant is low the van der Waals attractive forces also become weak and then mild electrostatic repulsion reflected by low ZP (10–15 mV) may be enough to confirm colloid stability. On the other hand, steric interactions can also help to colloid stability. For example, some of water-in-oil emulsions are highly stable despite having low zeta potential [30, 59-60].\n\nBy changing the surface charge of nanoparticles, the zeta potential changes, while we know that zeta potential is not a direct measure of surface charge. The zeta potential is determined by surface chemistry. Anything that changes to surface charge will cause some change in the zeta potential (e.g., pH which is relevant for nanoformulations). Even a small percent of a component which absorbed at the surface of the particle, will largely determine the surface charge density and resulting resulting zeta potential and the stability [16-21,23,30].\n\n\nIn summary, the conducted studies focus on dynamic light scattering (DLS) and zeta potential (ZP) have highlighted the importance and key role of these techniques to characterize particle size and surface charge related to therapeutic nanoparticles in nanomedicine applications. Regarding characterization of particle size and surface charge by DLS and ZP, there are challenges for researchers to analysis and interpretation of exported data excellently due to lack of adequate focus on understanding of the physical principles behind on the operating system of these tools and sample preparation and so on.\n\nWith this in mind, in the current review an attempt has been made to address the physical principles governing on techniques of DLS and ZP to help to better analyzing and interpreting the reported data.\n\n\n\n\n\n[1] L. Treuel, K.A. Eslahian, D. Docter, T. Lang, R. Zellner, K. Nienhaus, M. Maskos, Physicochemical characterization of nanoparticles and their behavior in the biological environment, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 16, 15053 (2014). doi:10.1039/c4cp00058g\n\n[3] F. Varenne,, Rustique, E, Botton, J, Coty, J B, Lanusse, G, Lahcen, M A, Negri L., Towards quality assessed characterization of nanomaterial: Transfer of validated protocols for size measurement by dynamic light scattering and evaluation of zeta potential by electrophoretic light scattering ,Int. J. Pharm., 528, 299 (2017). doi:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2017.06.006\n\n[14] S. Bhattacharjee, I. M. Rietjens, M.P. Singh, T. M. Atkins, T. K. Purkait, Z. Xu, G. M. Alink, Cytotoxicity of surface-functionalized silicon and germanium nanoparticles: the dominant role of surface charges, Nanoscale, 5, 4870 (2013). doi: 10.1039/c3nr34266b\n\n[24] J. D. Clogston, R. M. Crist, S. E. McNeil, Cham, 187 (2016).\n\n[33] C. Fleischer, C. K. Payne, Acc Chem Res., 47, 2651 (2017).\n\n[42] A. Rahdar, M. Almasi-Kashi, Entrapment–D-(+)-Glucose Water Nanodroplet: Synthesis and Dynamic Light Scattering, J Nanostruct, 8, 202 (2018).doi: 10.22052/JNS.2018.02.010\n\n[53] X. Zhao, S. Zhu, Y. Song, J. Zhang, B.Yang, Photoluminescent graphene quantum dots for in vitro and in vivo bioimaging using long wavelength emission, RSC Adv., 5, 15187 (2015). doi: 10.1039/C5RA02961A", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.969828188419342}
+{"content": "The Love of Aagesen 607\n\njumpermirror7's blog\n\nAmenities Administration Fundamentals\n\nIf visit the up coming post want to know more about facilities management, read on! These are the basic types of management, you'll need to know. There are other variations, but these are the most common types you'll find.\n\nHome need to be prepared to take orders and then follow them. This means they need to know how to make decisions, so they can meet the goals. Their overall goal is to make sure the needs of the business are met. They might be given a set of goals for the business to work toward or they might decide what level of profit they want to be at.\n\nLearn Additional Here are all-important to businesses because they are the ones who know everything about the business. They should have knowledge about what works and what doesn't. They need to be able to find the best possible solutions for the problems they face. They must be capable of making decisions quickly.\n\nBefore the term Facilities Management was introduced, facilities were only thought of as places where people live and work. It wasn't considered a place where people lived and worked for the good of the community. Managers were not able to specialize in this type of management. They didn't think of it as management but rather \"fit,\" which means they only cared about what was happening with the space and not what was happening in the community or with the employees.\n\nWeb Site need to be highly skilled at getting their point across. The solution was to give managers some tools that would help them manage their space in a better way. People needed to be able to control what happened in their facility and to manage their relationships with each other.\n\nWith facilities management came also the concept of \"activities.\" Managers should have tools in their tool box to manage the activities in the building. The activities might include maintenance and safety, repairs, maintenance, education, parking, light, heating and cooling, electrical systems, and mechanical systems.\n\nManagers should know about the needs of each employee in the facility. When employees do need training, the manager should be aware of that fact and be able to provide it. They can either be trained directly or through other resources.\n\nManagers should be well versed in the aspects of human resource (HR) management. They should be able to properly manage staffing, morale, motivation, training, and hiring. If they don't understand this aspect of their job, they could be wasting time trying to get their employees motivated.\n\nManagers should be creative, resourceful, and skilled in solving problems. They should be able to solve the problems that arise. This is done by having proper communication. They need to be able to get information out to employees and to understand what each one needs.\n\nManagers should know how to learn. Managers should be able to utilize training materials for their employees, as well as reading information to them. Managers should know how to communicate effectively. They need to know how to understand the needs of employees and to be able to get them to be able to get the jobs done.\n\nsimply click the next document should be able to work well with their staff. online is so because if they are good at getting along with employees, they'll be able to build a strong team. A strong team is essential when a business is trying to create a healthy environment. mouse click the up coming internet site who aren't working well are going to complain, while those who are working well are going to be happy.\n\nThe importance of Facilities Management cannot be overstated. Management should be about success. When managers are able to help achieve success, the managers themselves are happier, and that means they'll be satisfied with their jobs.\n\nGo Back\n\n\nBlog Search\n\n\nThere are currently no blog comments.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9628182053565979}
+{"content": "Mirboo North potter Adam Cox, has been passionately creating porcelain and stoneware pots, vases and bowls for over 25 years. Working from his purpose-built studio in the beautiful Strzelecki Ranges, Gippsland Victoria, Adam produces both decorative and functional works. His pieces are classically, elegant with a timeless appeal. Throughout the evolvement of his work, Adam has enjoyed implementing a variety of glazes and techniques including: decals, slip carving and most notably to date, a focus and fascination for stunning crystalline glazes. Adam’s hand-thrown vessels are the perfect blank canvas to capture and reveal the random beauty of the intriguing crystal formations; each piece has its own unique beauty.\n\nEnquiries for Adam Cox ceramics\n\nPlease let us know if you would like further details regarding Adam’s works. \n\n\n\nName of Artist:*\nName of artwork(s):*\nPayment method:\nWord Verification:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9091246724128723}
+{"content": "By understanding what the ‘generation gap’ is and how it impacts workplace organizational culture, this article will discern avenues of possible change by understanding how businesses can harness the power of commonality by unleashing intergenerational equality. The concept gained particular notoriety during the 1960s and 1970s, when numerous articles and books commented on the … The elusive \"generation gap\" is construed as being widest when one of the two generations is the adolescent. Almost three quarters (73%) of 18 to 24-year-olds said they had voted to stay in the EU, compared with 62% of 25 to 34s and 52% of 35 to 44s.\n\nIn most of the cases this clash of ideas is between the old and the young. While the gap exists in almost all facets of social and personal domains , never is it more evident than in the field of technology, where one of the generations is a digital native and the other, an immigrant or even an alien, depending upon the stage of the continuum of adulthood. Generation gap is nothing but a clash of ideas between the people belonging to two different generations. From how we vote to how we think about issues like gay marriage and climate change, the generation gap seems bigger than ever before. Short Essay on Generation Gap Article shared by Life styles, rapid changes in Science and Technology has transformed our outlook towards life, increasing the divide, much more than it … Prof J Adelson article rejects existence of 'generation gap,' finding little or no alienation between young and parents on personal, pol, ethical or sexual issues; sketches HR practitioners are facing a generational ‘time bomb’. Generation gap is a worldwide phenomenon found in all times and all climes. Typically, the concept of the generation gap is used as an explanation of conflict between parents and children within individual families. The old or experienced people develop a wiser outlook on life which the youngsters find to be outdated thinking.\n\nGeneration gap is difference of attitudes between people of different generations, leading to a lack of understanding.And in general word it is a situation in the family or society where younger generation have some different perception\\thinking about something compare to their parent or older generation.This differences of thinking or perception can be about life style,education,culture,relation and its … EMAIL: Recently, the link to an article titled Email is for old people 8 was passed around via our email system to all us old folk, two years after the PEW study on Teens and Technology, so, speed of light on that tidbit of news. Social Networking & the Generation Gap on Campus Libraries.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993970394134521}
+{"content": "Civil Rights Group Concerned Amazon Policy on Background Checks May Harm Minority Drivers\n\n\nWritten By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn\n\nThe Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice has sent a letter to Amazon that expresses “profound concern” over recently implemented policies on background checks by the company that resulted in the mass termination of dozens of primarily Black and Latino Amazon drivers, including the firing of 30-40 such employees on a single day in the Boston, MA area.\n\nIn the open letter sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Oren Sellstrom, the Litigation Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, explains how these background checks “unnecessarily bar qualified individuals from being employed as Amazon drivers based not on job performance, but rather based solely on past contact with the criminal justice system.”\n\nTitle VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Along with intentional discrimination, the letter also explains how Title VII also bars “disparate impact” discrimination that has “an unjustified and disproportionate impact” on protected classes of minorities such as Blacks and Latinos.\n\nDue to “over-policing and over-incarceration of communities of color” in recent years, the letter states that use of criminal background checks by employers “often has a disproportionate impact on Black and Latino communities, and can easily run afoul of Title VII.” As a result, background checks that affect minorities must be job-related and justified by a “business necessity.”\n\nOn April 25, 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – the agency that enforces federal employment anti-discrimination laws – issued updated “Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” to show how background checks may violate Title VII.\n\nThe letter quotes the EEOC guidance that explains: “Factors relevant to whether a background check policy violates Title VII include what offenses are considered, the time elapsed since the offense, and the nature of the job in question.” The EEOC also emphasizes the important of “an opportunity for an individualized assessment for people excluded” by the background checks.\n\nThe Amazon policies that terminate drivers based on background checks “raise serious concerns surrounding unlawful employment discrimination” since the firings fall “disproportionately on Black and Latino drivers” and the company “does not appear to engage in any process for individualized review, nor provide any opportunity for individuals to explain their record.”\n\nTo demonstrate Amazon’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, the letter concludes with a request for a written explanation of Amazon’s policies on background checks on drivers, detailed information concerning the impact of that policy on people of color, and an opportunity to meet with Amazon executive leadership to discuss concerns expressed in the letter in greater detail.\n\nThe Boston Globe reported that a statement from Amazon indicated “safety and customer trust” are why the company requires delivery service providers to conduct background checks on drivers and that these checks are “focused on job-related criminal and motor vehicle convictions and [do] not consider race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or other protected characteristics.”\n\nESR Helps Employers Comply with EEOC Guidance on Background Checks\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8937453031539917}
+{"content": "The art of playing with words and finding an impressive way of saying things, sometimes even the obvious and common ones, truly is a talent, but what makes a good writer is, in fact, raw new idea. Or at least fresh point of view. Throughout the history, there were plenty of brave enough writers to come up with controversial ideas and write them down, causing the public to react differently.\n\nThese controversial books either analyzed and presented some controversial topics, such as racism and violence or used too many swearwords to picture the story or came up with imaginary stories that turned out to be solid predictions, usually not positive ones. There is no such a thing as a definite list of the most controversial books of all time, but here are just some of them that cause significant turbulences or still do.\n\nBrave New World By Aldous Huxley\n\nBrave New World, famous book written by Aldous Huxley, caused serious reactions among various types of readers, including several official attempts of banning it. The book pictures imaginary future world dominated by science and technology, but the troubling parts include sexuality, suicide, and drug abuse.\n\n\nSimilar to Orwell’s “1984”, the book dealing with the imaginary future world, characterized by lack of freedom, excessive censorship and government control, both Huxley and Orwell present potential future that frightens too many readers.\n\n\nHalf a century ago, Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita and triggered waves of controversial reactions. The book is describing middle-age professor and his obsession with 12-year-old Dolores (nicknamed Lolita), with whom he interferes sexually throughout the book, was banned in several countries but created quite of a cult in literature.\n\n\nFurious reactions coming from the government were quite expected regarding Powell’s book “The Anarchist Cookbook,” but the mere content and the effects of its publishing truly are controversial. Namely, as the protest reaction towards Vietnam War, William Powell wrote this manual with instructions on how to manufacture explosives, organize demonstrations, construct primitive but functional forms of telecommunications and many more features you could find rather useful when planning anarchy, for example. No wonder the book was widely banned, disputed and its validity argued.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9712247252464294}
+{"content": "Question: How Do You Read A 4 Digit Date Code?\n\nHow do you read an expiration date code?\n\nIn coding, if letters are used to signify months, “A” will indicate January all the way to December ending with “L”.\n\nNext to these letters will typically be numbers indicating the day and the year.\n\nHowever, sometimes the numbered year will come before the letter..\n\nHow do you read lot numbers?\n\nHow to Read Lot NumbersThe first two digits (18) is the year of manufacture (2018)The next two digits (02) is the month of manufacture (February)The next two digits (20) is the day of the month of manufacture (20th)The next digit (6) is our inter-company plant number.More items…•\n\nHow do I check my makeup expiry date?\n\nThere’s a tiny symbol on your cosmetics and skin care items that tells you how long your products are safe to use after you’ve opened them. Look out for the open cream jar symbol, which indicates the number of months a product is designed to last.\n\nWhat is a lot code?\n\nA lot number is also called a batch number, code number or lot code. … A lot number is an identification number assigned to a particular quantity or lot of material from a single manufacturer. Lot numbers can typically be found on the outside of packaging.\n\nHow do you read a batch code?\n\nThe batch code is between 3 and 11 numbers (sometimes letters) and is usually either located near the barcode, near the company information, or on the bottom. The way you can tell it is the batch code is that it looks like it was stamped on after the packaging was made. The other numbers are part of the packaging.\n\nWhat are CAN codes?\n\n\nHow do I assign a batch number?\n\nTo assign a batch/serial item number Open: Stock Control > Batch/Serial Nos > Assign Batch/Serial Nos. Select the item using the Code or Name. If you are using multiple locations, select the Warehouse from the drop-down list, to see the item at a specific location. Enter the batch/serial number.\n\nHow do you read the expiration date on Skittles?\n\nRead the numbers after the letter as the date of the month and the year in which the item was produced. For example, if a code reads “D1519,” that means April 15, 2019. Many products might have a closed code as well as an open-date code.\n\nHow do I read a Sysco date code?\n\nUsually with food service items manufacturers will use a Julian date code as versus a BBD that can be interpreted as YDDD (such as February 9th, 2017 would take the last digit of the year and the day be number that day is in the year, so would be 7040).\n\nHow do you read a date code?\n\n\nWhat is a lot date code?\n\nDate code / lot number is the number to identify when the component is being manufactured. It is for the factories production quality control and tracing purposes.\n\nWhat is a batch code on food?\n\nA batch number or lot number is a mark of identification, usually generated by the manufacturer, which allows a small sample of product to be uniquely identified.\n\nHow do you read a starburst expiration date?\n\nOn mars brand products: The date of packaging is within the first three digits of the code – the first digit is the last number of the year and the next two are the week of the year.\n\nWhere is the expiration date on Tootsie Rolls?\n\n\nHow do you read a Keebler date code?\n\nRead the first three letters or two numbers to determine the product’s expiration month. For example, a product that expires in February will start with ‘FEB’ or ’02. ‘ Interpret the two numbers following the first three letters or first two numbers as the product’s expiration day.\n\nHow do you read a Julian date code?\n\nBreaking it down – A Julian date is usually a 4 or 5 digit number starting with the last 2 digits of the year the item is made. The last three numbers correlate with the day of the year the product is made.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.981579065322876}
+{"content": "NPG - Small Displays Case Files\n\nScope and Content\n\nThe small displays case files include records relating to the planning and staging of each display. Given the limited scale of the displays themselves and the fact that works for display are sourced from within the Gallery's own Collections, the records generated for each display can be limited. Where warranted, records have been divided according to the following system:\n\n1. Proposal and planning - including internal correspondence; picture lists; panel texts and captions and other interpretive material.\n2. Lenders\n3. Financial management - including budget information\n4. Design and graphics - including plans; layout; colour schemes; correspondence with designers etc.\n5. Education events - including workshop etc material.\n6. Publicity events and leaflets - including leaflets; private and press review cards; flyers etc.\n7. Visitor information - including visitor figures and comments/feedback\n8. Tour\n\nThe small displays records also include installation shots in some instances: images taken of the display in situ (i.e. images of how the display looked/the works on display, rather than images of the individual works themselves). Images can include prints, slides, negatives and contact sheets.\n\nSmall displays also typically generate the following published/printed material which has been managed and catalogued as the following separate records series: posters and press-cuttings.\n\nAdministrative / Biographical History\n\nIn the mid 1960's, temporary thematic exhibitions were proving popular and space at the end of Room 30 acted as a temporary space for what were then called Small Exhibitions. Due to their popularity, by 1973 permanent space was allocated in Room 32, also known as the Balcony Gallery. Since then, the programme of Small Displays has extended to other rooms in the Gallery. Today the Gallery schedules many small displays each year, offering a programme of multiple free displays simultaneously.\n\nThese displays change frequently and tend to highlight recent acquisitions, short loans into the Gallery from other collections or commemorative events. Displays are routinely organised by Gallery staff and ordinarily involve the Gallery's own Collection, with loans from external collections rarely occurring.\n\nAccess Information\n\n\nOther Finding Aids\n\nThe complete catalogue for this archive can be searched via the NPG Archive Catalogue .\n\nConditions Governing Use\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5685192346572876}
+{"content": "Finding a sense of balance - Deepstash\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Does It Mean To Live A Balanced Life?\n\nFinding a sense of balance\n\nFinding a sense of balance\n\nFinding a sense of harmony may turn to dissonance and loss of balance if you continue to try and hold on and freeze that moment.\n\nLife is one thing after another. We live in a constantly changing environment. Balance is learning to adjust appropriately to the external environment.\n\n\nThis is a professional note extracted from an online article.\n\nRead more efficiently\n\nSave what inspires you\n\nRemember anything\n\n\nWhat Does It Mean To Live A Balanced Life?\n\nWhat Does It Mean To Live A Balanced Life?\n\n\nKey Ideas\n\nFinding a balance\n\nWe read that we should eat a balanced diet, live a balanced life, and seek a good work/family balance without defining balance.\n\nBalance is the taking of appropriate action when circumstances dictate so as to maintain equilibrium.\n\nFrank Herbert\n\nFrank Herbert\n\n\nNo mass-producible solutions\n\nIt is important to understand that balance is relative: the focus of balance is always going to be different from person to person. There is no one size fits all.\n\nFor example, what a balanced diet means for one person may be entirely different for another. Both diets may be healthy, but it is the context that makes it so.\n\nFinding a sense of balance\n\n\n\nThomas Merton\n\nThomas Merton\n\n\n\n • The act of creating things is one of the best ways to avoid living a short, unimportant life. You get to contribute something to the world around you.\n • Creating new experiences hel...\n\n\n\n\nHuman beings are the most social creatures on planet earth. So, you're not really living a healthy life if it doesn't involve others.\n\nThe people you connect with will have a huge influence on you: Those who have already walked through the fire can help you do the same. And those who haven’t will make it seem impossible for you to do so.\n\n2 more ideas\n\n“Everything in moderation” is risky advice\n\nBecause the word “moderation” is vague and that makes it a friendly, big-tent kind of concept: however much you eat, you can find a way of convincing yourself that you eat in moderation.\n\nModeration should be a tool...\n\n...for sticking to healthy diets easier. \n\n\nBig companies and “moderation”\n\nJunk food companies love the concept of “moderation”.\n\nSome of them (e.g. the Sugar Association, Snack Food, and Grocery Manufacturers Associations, with members as Coca-Cola and Hershey), adopted the motto: “All foods fit in a balanced diet\", to give the illusion that your diet is not unhealthy if it includes their foods.\n\nPersonal Values (And Why They Matter)\n\nPersonal values are the things that are important to us, the characteristics and behaviours that motivate us and guide our decisions. For example honesty or kindness.\n\nValues matter\n\nDefine Your Personal Values\n\nFind out what characteristics or ways of behaving makes you feel good. Answer the following questions:\n\n • What's important to you in life?\n • When you’re reading news stories, what sort of story or behaviour tends to inspire you?\n • What type of story or behaviour makes you angry?\n • What do you want to change about the world or about yourself?\n • What are you most proud of?\n • When were you the happiest?\nPrioritise Your Personal Values\n\nOnce you’ve come up with a list, it's important to prioritise your values.\n\nIt can help you get even closer to defining what’s important to you. Prioritising helps you to ensure that you’re spending them on the most important things that'll have the biggest payoff in your life.\n\n2 more ideas\n\nPhysical health is more than exercise\nPhysical health is more than exercise\n\nWhen we want to maximize our physical health, we should not only focus on a balanced diet and exercise but also on our social relationships.\n\nStudies, again and again, point...\n\nOur mental state impacts biological processes\n\nWhen we experience stress, our bodies change:\n\n • The stress hormone increases.\n • Our cardiovascular system activates its fight or flight response.\n • Inflammation increases. Inflammation helps us fight off bacteria.\n • Our ability to fight off viruses decreases.\nThe main stressor that humans deal with\n\nLoneliness is a major stressor. Loneliness increases cortisol and inflammation - which hurt our health in the long run.\n\nTaking time to connect with others help activate beneficial processes, such as the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin lower cortisol, reduce pain, change the way our brain responds to potential stressors, and promote the growth of new brain cells.\n\n2 more ideas\n\nReject the diet mentality\n\nDieting isn’t sustainable. Quick-fix plans cannot deliver lasting results.\nhe first principle of intuitive eating is to stop dieting—and to stop believing societ...\n\nHonor your hunger\n\nEat a sufficient amount of calories and carbohydrates to keep your body “fed” and satiated. Once you learn to recognize these signals in your own body, it becomes much easier to trust your instincts and repair unhealthy relationships with food.\n\nMake peace with food\n\nGive yourself “unconditional permission to eat.”\n\n\n7 more ideas\n\nMark Manson\n\n\nMark Manson\nLife as a Paradox\n\n\n\nPsychological Thermostats\n\n\n6 more ideas\n\nSimplicity doesn't mean poverty\nSimplicity doesn't mean poverty\n\n\nIt is very misleading to equate simplicity with poverty, even if some spiritual traditions have ...\n\nSimplicity doesn't mean rural living\n\nAdopting a simple life doesn't require moving into rural areas. In fact, the majority of persons choosing a life of conscious simplicity live in cities and suburbs. \n\nIt is much more accurate to describe this as a \"make the most of wherever you are\" movement, adapting ourselves creatively to a rapidly changing world in the context of big cities and suburbs.\n\nBeauty in the simple life\n\nThe simple life is sometimes viewed as an approach to living that advocates a barren plainness and denies the value of beauty and aesthetics. But rather than a denial of beauty, simplicity liberates the aesthetic sense by freeing things from artificial burdens.\n\nWrite It Down\n\nUncompleted commitments take up psychic energy, each one making you just the tiniest bit more tired, more distracted, and therefore less productive.\n\nThe first step to managing your life an...\n\nGet a Head Start\n\nBefore leaving your workspace, or before going to bed, take 10 minutes to look over the next day’s commitments.\n\nDecide what you’ll do first. Look at that to-do list and decide whether any tasks on it can be delegated to someone else or crossed off the list altogether.\n\nDo Your Most Dreaded Task First\n\nEvery one of us has one or more tasks on our to-do list that we dread doing.\n\nDo it first thing. Writer Michael Hyatt talks about slaying your dragons before breakfast—there’s nothing more motivating for the rest of your day than crossing that monster off your list first thing in the morning.\n\n7 more ideas\n\nLiving with a minimalist mindset is:\n\n1. Choosing quality over quantity. Weed out possessions, people, or thoughts that don’t serve you and focus on what adds value to your life. \n\n2. Being responsible (financially and otherw...\n\n\nThis is a way of life in Japan, where people work towards what they love doing, and do that with passion. Iki means life, and gai means ‘to be worthwhile’; loosely translated, Ik...\n\nUniting Concepts With Reality\n\nAs the ikigai method of living one’s life has gained massive international attention in recent times, the concept itself is struggling to find a connection with reality in its homeland, where the downside of working 14-hour days is showing.\n\nOrigins Of Ikigai\n\nThe term was initially mentioned in the 14th Century and was then seen in the novel Kokoro (The Heart Of Things) by Natsume Soseki in 1912. As Japan emerged from an era of isolation and started embracing the international, industrial world, the new way of life started to interest the population.\n\nThe devastation of World War II brought the era of growth, known as the ‘economic miracle’, where the people of the country were filled with new energy, and had the focus and drive to achieve the impossible.\n\n5 more ideas", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6391161680221558}
+{"content": "\n\nDescribing Scientifically Jobs\n\nCreative Common by SA License\nTuesday 21 August 2018 by Matthieu Giroux\n\nOn 2017, media and schools are trying to induce that money is a goal, while it is only a means to obtain some wealth. So they try to pervert jobs. There are obviously jobs that are more perverse than others. At the same time, finance tell us that everyone should be honest except the stranger.\n\nIt is very difficult to describe scientifically the logic of our job. This tends to challenge us. I think my job as a computer scientist requires the purchase of computers. It’s because there are so many computer scientists in France that we are engaged in the digital world of importing computers from Asia to destroy our industries. The computer scientist is therefore a lawyer. But it’s not just him who does it. Here is an excerpt from the book \"The Principles of Social Science\" by Henry Charles Carey. The trafficker is, according to Henry Charles Carey, the one who buys cheap to sell expensive, according to the famous quality/price ratio. Here is the answer to this famous question: Why an empire ends up imploding?\n\n\"For those who live by the work of appropriation, the growth of commerce is not wanted, its development being everywhere accompanied by the fall of the brilliancy and magnificence of those whose wish to lead the movements of the Society with a view to their personal interest. The statesman profits from his isolation from his fellows, and so does the lawyer, the trafficker, the great owner of a poorly cultivated land, and all the other individuals. belonging to the classes, whose means of existence and distinction are due to their intervention, between those who produce the commodities and those who need them for their consumption. All these individuals collect a temporary profit, preventing growing movement in the society; and the greater their power to do so, the greater the proportionate share of the product of their work, and the weaker the share to be shared between the workers.\n\nThe broker does not want his constituents to be able to meet and arrange their business without his intervention. The opposite is so true that, the greater the distances is between them, the more easily he can get a fortune at his expense, buying for himself at a low price and to their detriment, when prices are low, selling for his account, more at the expense of his constituents, when prices are high. The slave owner lives by preventing the association among these individuals who belong to him, where it needs for them that they bring him the goods that they produce, and that they come to him for all that they need of use. The valet knows that the more obstacles there are between the producer and the market where he sells his products, the greater the demand for horses or cars, and the greater the proportion of food he will retain as compensation for its services. The shipowner rejoices when individuals are forced to separate from one another, as was the case in the last Crimean war; or when poverty forces them to abandon their homes to emigrate to distant lands, because this state of business brings demand for ships. He also rejoices when harvests are plentiful, and the quantity that needs to be transported, accumulates constantly, causing a rise in the price of freight. The real and permanent interests of all classes of individuals are one and the same; but their apparent and temporary interests are different; and that is why we see individuals and nations constantly engaged to the pursuit of the latter, to the exclusion of the former. Blinded by the idea of profit and the power of the moment, the great men of Greece and Rome took no account of this fact, that they constantly exhausted the forces of the society of which they were a part; and following in their footsteps blindly, those of Venice and Genoa, of France and Holland, of Spain and Portugal, followed a way exactly similar, always linked with the same results.\n\nIt has been the same, invariably, in relation to the trafficker, whose greatest desire has always been to maintain at its highest point, and even to increase the need for individuals to use transport and to limit even this need to use the instrument he possessed himself. The more completely this goal was reached, the more complete the centralization of power became, the more splendid were the places where exchanges were necessarily to take place, and greater the temporary prosperity of the trafficker was; but faster also was his decadence and more complete ruin. The Phoenicians and Carthaginians, the Venetians and Genoese, the Spaniards and the Portuguese, the citizens of the Hanseatic towns, and their rivals the Dutch, showed themselves ruthless at all times in their efforts to force the inhabitants of their colonies to come into their villages ports and to make use of their ships. At the same time as they sought to seize power as a means of gaining wealth, all this power was employed in order to maintain at its peak the burden imposed on other peoples, as a result of the need to effect change of place. This, moreover, gave them advantages for the purchase of the raw materials, by making them accumulate in their ports, and subjecting them, consequently, as today, to heavy loads and to considerable risks, and advantages equal for the rest of these materials, when they were manufactured and ready for consumption. Thus they enriched themselves momentarily, while they considerably impoverished all who depended on their assistance, precisely, as we see it today, in relation to the individuals and companies who trade with the unfortunate aborigines. from our western continent, with the Mexican population, with the Finns and Lapps of northern Europe, the natives of the islands of the Pacific Ocean and those of Africa.\n\nExhausting the peoples with whom they trafficked, they found a perpetually increasing difficulty in the maintenance of the traffic, in consequence of the constant increase of famines and epidemics, such as we see so frequently in Ireland today and India. As the population dwindled, the power to maintain the roads and bridges leading to the market was diminished, either to sell the miserable produce of her land, or to purchase the commodities necessary for her consumption; Some of this business is now seen in action in Jamaica and Ireland, India and Mexico; in all these countries the variety in the products of the soil is constantly diminishing, at the same time as there is a corresponding tendency to decrease in their quantity. Nowhere it is this sort of business more striking than in Turkey; It is about this country that a modern traveler said : \"In every canton, the majority of the agricultural classes cultivate the same articles of product and follow the same routine of cultivation. As a result, each individual has a surplus of items that his neighbor wants to sell. This is precisely the situation in Brazil and India, Virginia and Carolina. Under such circumstances, - the power to maintain trade being nil, - the poor farmer is subjected to the \"tender compassion\" of the trafficker, whose power over him increases, with the diminution of the possibility to maintain relations with one’s fellow men; and from there comes that farmer is so enslaved. Such are the results which necessarily derive from this fact: the man has become an instrument used by the traffic; but that the latter does not succeed in profiting from such an injustice, is proved by the decadence and the definitive fall of the societies whose prosperity was due exclusively to this same traffic. \"\n\nMy notes\n\nExplain in your way the movement of trade and traffic.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6375681757926941}
+{"content": "From Gaza to Mosul, the carnage lingers\n\nNothing justifies the tanks of the Israeli “Defense” Force shelling the homes of 30 Palestinian families, none of whom had any chance of taking shelter or escaping.\n\nThis happened in the town of Khuzaha, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, just days after the streets of the Shejaiya district became the scene of an atrocity that shook the conscience of all who witnessed it. But two opposing sides - Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his staff, as well as the leaders of Hamas – have been insisting on continuing the tragedy, as has happened several times before. They have showed their “valor” in their willingness to sacrifice helpless people for their political games, whether under the pretext of lifting an unjust blockade imposed on the Palestinians or protecting Israelis from barrages of rockets.\n\nThe distance from the Gaza Strip to Mosul in Iraq may be great, but both now have one thing in common: the killing of innocent, harmless people in the name of religion or patriotism.\n\nRecalling Rwanda\n\nThere are many things that must be considered, but for now I recall a specific incident similar to what is happening today, though it occurred 20 years ago. In the first quarter of 1994, the world suddenly woke up to the fact that more than half a million people had been killed in a series of massacres in Rwanda. But the attention came too late; by the time the news began to make headlines the urge for killing and revenge in the leaders of Rwanda’s Tutsis and Hutus had taken hold. Within days, the number of dead jumped to more than a million. It was the worst genocide of the late 20th century.\n\nI recalled this scene when comparing the quick reaction of the world powers, their politicians, peoples and media to their response to crises in the Arab world. I wanted to contrast their degree of concern about what is happening as a result of the many tragic conflicts taking place on various continents, regardless of how shocking the tragedy is or the number of victims and extent of destruction.\n\nBut, of course, the reasons powerful countries are interested in the Middle East are well known. The region has been caught in the middle of global struggles for centuries, if not longer, going back at least to attempts to control the old Silk Road trade routes.\n\nMiddle Eastern appeal\n\nHowever, although the Middle East has long been an arena for competition due to of its location and natural resources, we must remember that the international interest in the region began even before the discovery of its economic importance. This interest was there even before it became the cradle of the three great monotheistic religions.\n\nThe interest is directly linked to the fact that the region was the cradle of urban civilization. It played an important role in scientific, economic and social development thanks to the sciences and arts of the Pharaonic civilization. (An article by Erin Griffith about the spread of ‘emoji’ phenomenon in an issue of Fortune magazine this month caught my attention. The article was headlined “A return to hieroglyphics.”)\n\nAre the leaders of organizations that on the surface are carrying the mantle of Palestine—but under the table are serving the ambitions of others in the region—satisfied yet?\n\nBakir Oweida\n\nThe region was also home to the Babylonian, Assyrian, Sumerian and Phoenician civilizations. These civilizations gave rise to empires that fought each other from the far north of Africa to the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and from the forests of central Asia to the boundaries of the Caspian Sea. Alexander the Great traveled eastwards from the Balkans to India, while Cleopatra of Egypt traveled west to Rome.\n\nThe Sasanians prevailed for some years over the Byzantines, but were ultimately defeated by them. The Byzantines’ triumph over the Persian Sassanids pleased the Muslim believers at the time of early Islam, particularly as the victory of the Byzantines, who were People of the Book, coincided with the day of the Battle of Badr.\n\nIt should not be a surprise, then, if the Middle East, with all its civilizational and religious heritage and its economic wealth, attracts the attention of influential world leaders.\n\nDownplaying its importance\n\nBut it would really be strange if some people from the region downplayed its importance. It would be even more bizarre if some of them went further and used its religious heritage to further a political agenda set for them by other parties, either to boost a presence or serve a role, or both.\n\nWith the attention now focused on the developments in the region, it is natural for the confrontation between Israel and the Hamas movement to lead to a decline in interest in the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).\n\nBefore the three settlers were kidnapped, Netanyahu failed to seize an opportunity to make progress on the road to peace with the Palestinians after President Mahmoud Abbas reached a reconciliation deal with Hamas. Israel’s prime minister failed again in the way he responded to the developments that followed the kidnapping. He bombarded the people of the Gaza Strip by air, sea and then land. The images of the killing of hundreds of helpless civilians and the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinian families from their homes and villages in northern Gaza were seen by people around the world.\n\nThe painful impact of these images has overshadowed other pain, such as the displacement of thousands of Christian families in Mosul by the militias of “Caliph” and ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. Those who remained had to choose between forced conversion to Islam, paying a head tax, or being beheaded by the swords of terrorists.\n\nBut the temporary decline in the international media’s attention to the crimes of ISIS is an occasion to remind people that confronting the atrocities of these organizations is the responsibility of Muslims, and particularly their religious authorities, first and foremost. These authorities are best suited to protecting their religion and the heritage of the civilizations of their region, and they must do so before the flood of violence destroys what hope remains.\n\nHas the damage done to Islam at the hands of some of those claiming that they follow the religion reached its zenith, or is what lies ahead more gruesome?\n\nAre the leaders of organizations that on the surface are carrying the mantle of Palestine—but under the table are serving the ambitions of others in the region—satisfied yet? Or is it the destiny of the Palestinians, as a people, to endure suffering seemingly beyond human endurance?\n\nNobody can claim with certainty to know the future, but conceding that whatever happens is predetermined does not mean surrendering to apathy. Conversely, the worst should be expected and its consequences prepared for, because planning ahead often leads to better results.\n\n\nThis article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on July 25, 2014.\n\n\nBakir Oweida is a journalist who has worked as Managing Editor, and written for several Arab publications based in London. His last executive post was Assistant Editor-in-Chief of Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, responsible for the Opinions section, until December 2003. He can be reached on and\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7710382342338562}
+{"content": "Student well-being survey\n\nYour learning experience and well-being in times of corona\n\nAs you have experienced in the last few months, the Corona crisis has created a lot of changes in the ways in which university teaching takes place. You are studying from home and teachers provide their courses from home. We would like to hear how you are experiencing this transition so that we can finetune our teaching as best as we can under the current circumstances.\n\nWe developed questionnaires to have a closer look at your study experience. These questionnaires take about 25 minutes to complete, but you don’t have to do this for free: you receive a 10 Euro voucher for your participation.\n\nCurrently, students from all bachelor and master programs at IE&IS are invited by mail to complete questionnaires about experiences in Q3 (when we transitioned to online) and Q4 (which was fully online). After the summer break, we will also send out questionnaires about your experiences with Q1 and Q2 courses.\n\nBased on your input we hope to answer important questions: What works well, what works less well? How are you as students impacted by the changes? And what can be done to solve problems and improve your learning experience and well-being?\n\nThese insights will be translated into recommendations for educational management, teaching support and teachers, each quartile, so that they can optimize teaching at IE&IS.\n\nSo, if you receive an invitation, fill in the questionnaire, get a 10 euro voucher, and help us help you!\n\nUwe Matzat\nChris Snijders\nRianne Conijn\nAd Kleingeld", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8832642436027527}
+{"content": "Gloria infobox.JPG\nCause of Death\n\nGloria is a recurring character in the fifth season of the FX series Justified. Gloria is the maid and lover of Charles Monroe, who is an accomplice in the hidden gold. Gloria is portrayed by guest star Gabrielle Dennis.\n\nBiography[edit | edit source]\n\nBackground[edit | edit source]\n\nSeason 5[edit | edit source]\n\nIn \"The Kids Aren't All Right\", she is seen when Charles is arrested by the US Marshals, where Charles proclaims that she isn't his girlfriend, but she is his maid that helps with his more private matters.\n\nIn \"Good Intentions\", Monroe interrogates Gloria under the belief the man that threatened Raylan Givens at the estate was an accomplice of Gloria's, trying to steal the gold from the house. Nearly strangled and suffocated to death, Gloria maintains her innocence, instead suggesting the gold could have stolen by Wynn Duffy, who installed the hidden safe. Monroe tells her to go to the estate and take the gold from the safe, despite the Marshals living there. However, she is caught by Raylan and Rachel Brooks as she is stealing the gold, and is pressured by them to tell Monroe the safe was empty.\n\nRelationships[edit | edit source]\n\nMemorable Quotes[edit | edit source]\n\nAppearances[edit | edit source]\n\nSeason five appearances\nKill the Messenger Raw Deal Whistle Past the Graveyard Wrong Roads Weight\nThe Toll Starvation Restitution", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9120064377784729}
+{"content": "Types of Text Teacher Resources\n\nFind Types of Text lesson plans and worksheets\nShowing 1 - 24 of 280 resources\n\nEngageNY Grade 3 ELA: Module 1, Unit 1 - Why Do People Seek the Power of Reading?\n\nFor Teachers 3rd Standards\n11 lessons comprise this unit for third graders, which will have them investigating the power of the written word (and why it is seen as so valuable around the world). They read various types of text including fiction and non-fiction...\n4 Items in Collection\nLesson Planet\n\nFlocabulary: Language Arts\n\nFor Teachers 6th - 12th Standards\nViewers of a four-video collection can go with the flow as they listen and watch raps about hyperbole, types of text structure, pronouns, and setting. The clever animation, rhymes, repetition, and catchy music are sure to engage the...\n1 In 1 Collection 3:50\nLesson Planet\n\nThe 5 Types of Text Structure\n\nFor Students 6th - 12th Standards\nDeveloping an informational text is like designing a building—if the structure is weak, it will not stand. A language arts video provides an overview of the five types of text structure. A catchy song and specific examples help give a...\nLesson Planet\n\nDifferent Types of Writing\n\nFor Students 4th - 6th Standards\nWhat type of writing is this? Learners read a brief introduction to various types of text: instructions, explanations, poems, folk tales, novels, informative, and arguments. The introduction doesn't explain these, so consider going over...\nLesson Planet\n\nDr. Seuss lesson\n\nFor Teachers K - 2nd\nYoung readers identify the purposes and types of text, such as literature or information, before reading. They preview the text formats like title, headings, chapters, and table of contents. Additionally, they will learn about root...\nLesson Planet\n\nDifferent Types of Text\n\nFor Students 4th - 6th\nIn this different types of text worksheet, learners review, brainstorm and analyze what a persuasive text is and what an instructive text is. Students then answer what type of text ten examples are as shown.\nLesson Planet\n\n\nFor Teachers 7th - 8th\nSeventh graders identify parts of the setting in various types of text and explain the setting's importance to the text. They complete a pre-test for the topic, and complete a worksheet of setting questions for a text. Working in groups...\n3 In 3 Collections\nLesson Planet\n\nUnderstanding Informational Text Features\n\nFor Students 6th - 8th Standards\nEverything you need to know about informational text features can be found in this resource. Recognizing these types of text features and how they are used in text allows readers to better understand information. Teachers can use this as...\nLesson Planet\n\nDefining Literacy in a Digital World\n\nFor Teachers 9th - 12th Standards\nWhat skills are necessary to interact with different types of text? Twenty-first century learners live in a digital world and must develop a whole new set of skills to develop media literacy. Class members engage in a series of...\n1 In 1 Collection\nLesson Planet\n\nExpository Text Structure\n\nFor Teachers 2nd - 3rd Standards\nWhat an awesome resource to have on hand. With very useful graphic organizers, youngsters can display their comprehension of text. Designed specifically for expository text, these worksheets can also be used for any type of text and...\nLesson Planet\n\nIdentifying Author's Purpose\n\nFor Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards\nThe multi-lesson, 47-page packet contains everything you need to ensure kids can recognize the clues provided to identify the type of text, the intended audience, and the author's purpose in writing the passage.\nLesson Planet\n\nAuthor's Purpose\n\nFor Teachers K - 3rd\nA simple activity for young readers, this introduces the idea of author purpose. Learners analyze various types of texts (newspaper articles, magazines, books, advertisements, etc.) and determine if the author's purpose for writing was...\nLesson Planet\n\nWhere the Red Fern Grows: Question Answer Response Strategy\n\nFor Teachers 4th - 6th Standards\nWhat makes a good question? Middle schoolers explore the use of questioning through QAR, the question answer response strategy, while reading Where the Red Fern Grows. They learn about the four types of questions: right there, think and...\nLesson Planet\n\nLocate Key Information in Nonfiction Text\n\nFor Teachers 3rd - 5th\nInterpret nonfiction text with your class. Readers use key information found in nonfiction text to answer questions and problem solve. They utilize the chapter headings, diagrams, glossary, maps, and captions as well as the table of...\nLesson Planet\n\nHelp Your Child Become a Better Reader\n\nFor Parents 1st - 6th\nEnsure that your learners can read both fiction and nonfiction texts with ease! This resource includes questions that individuals can ask themselves while reading either type of text to help learners comprehend the text, make...\n1 In 1 Collection\n\nNotices and Wonders of the Second Stanza of “If”\n\nFor Teachers 6th Standards\nHere is a activity that asks pupils to analyze poetry, and sparks discussion about two different types of texts; asking how is the poem, If by Rudyard Kipling, alike and different from the story, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul...\nLesson Planet\n\nOrganizing Information\n\nFor Teachers 3rd - 4th\nTeach your readers how to read informational texts. Part of reading this type of text is recognizing the organization and format of the writing. The learner will read three short paragraphs about tigers before answering some basic...\nLesson Planet\n\n\nFor Teachers 4th - 8th Standards\nOne way to demonstrate understanding of a text is to write a summary. Provide support for your learners as they compose summary by using one or more of these graphic organizers and handouts. There are nine different worksheets here that...\nLesson Planet\n\nDetermining Author's Point of View: The Sneeches\n\nFor Teachers 3rd - 6th\nDetermine the author's point of view in a text. Young readers read Dr. Seuss' The Sneeches and identify the author's purpose in the story. They identify persuasive techniques in writing, asking and answering questions to better...\nLesson Planet\n\nAuthor's Purpose\n\nFor Students 2nd - 4th\nPrimary graders examine a series of passages and identify the author's purpose, the intended audience, and type of text.\nLesson Planet\n\nPower Point Book Report\n\nFor Teachers 9th - 12th\nWorking in groups of four, learners read books from different genres and produce PowerPoint book reports. They identify the theme, main idea, author's purpose, identify uses of devices, and write a summary of the story. This resource...\nLesson Planet\n\nFinding Nonfiction Features\n\nFor Teachers K - 1st\nThe first lesson plan in a series of three lessons from Scholastic on fiction and nonfiction, this plan is designed to help young readers begin to distinguish between types of books. Learners will read many books in order to compare the...\nLesson Planet\n\nText Features and Author's Purpose\n\nFor Students 7th - 12th\nHow do the text features support the purpose of the text? Help your class study different text features by providing them with this resource. Using the graphic organizer, readers will scan a text, searching for text features. \n1 In 1 Collection\nPD Learning Network\n\nA Questionnaire: What Do You Like to Read?\n\nFor Students 5th Standards", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8900614380836487}
+{"content": "«Tea Ceremony»\n\nDiamond Ruby Gold Ring\n\nCollections: Pret-a-Porte\n\n\ngold, diamonds, rubies.\n\n№ OF373\n\nJapanese people say that the tea ceremony is art of Emptiness and Peace.\n\nThe central idea of the tea ceremony is simplicity and naturalness. The main principles of the Japanese traditional tea ceremony are: harmony (和 wa), respect (敬 kei), purity (清 sei), and tranquility (寂 jaku). In ancient times a special building was used for tea ceremonies. It was called a tea house and was usually placed in a garden with a trace paved with stones. Conversations during the tea ceremony were calm and peaceful. It helped to forget about the routine and feel beauty and perfection of the world. “Tea is calm and so are the thoughts.”\n\nThe artists and masters of the Lobortas Classic Jewelry House used the principle of sophisticated beauty in the unique ring “Tea Ceremony”.\n\nThe tea ceremony has always aimed to make one see the instead of bright and kitschy things simple and hidden beauty of silent sounds and pastel colors. The simplicity and elegance of the ring “Tea Ceremony” make a composition that resembles an ancient and wise tea ceremony. All the details are of simple shape and are bound with the same principle: tea ceremony is an invitation to stop and have a look at your world around and inside you. The Japanese believe that participation in the tea ceremony is like a touch of blessing.\n\nYou can hear due drops falling...\nSomeone lives in harmony with silence.\nYou can see the smoke...\nAnd tea is being made...\n\nFind a place for the calm and peaceful “Tea Ceremony” in your life.\n\nAsk a Question\n\nRequest more details\n\n\nPhoto by Vladislav Filin", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6477941870689392}
+{"content": "FIVEUNITS is not just another brand, it is a niche. With the highest level of precision, comfort, and style FIVEUNITS has put a new aspect on fashion, materializing the dream of creating cutting edge design that slips seamlessly into any wardrobe. Whether you want your look polished or provocative, our essentials will convey a sense of paradox, uniting fashion and function as you’ve never seen it before.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6918081641197205}
+{"content": "Meditative Powertalk: Environment x Humans\n\n2 jul 2020 06:1527\n\nMaxi Shilov and Michael Polejaev, creators of Aestetik Documentary Film and founders of New Visual Culture Foundation, will in a short movie on about 15 minutes, att share their deep vision on impact of environment on humans and their activity today and tomorrow in a form of meditation. It will be a meditative talk in wild nature. Nature where we started and will always be connected with.\n\nLäs mer", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8607615232467651}
+{"content": "Migrant crisis 2015: What happened to Nujeen Mustafa?\n\nGermany has announced plans to take more than 1,500 migrants following the fire at a detention centre on the Greek Island of Lesbos which left thousands without refuge.\n\nThe tragedy was a reminder of the scale of a crisis which has seen vast movements of people fleeing war and poverty.\n\nFive years ago at the height of the migrant crisis the BBC’s Fergal Keane reported the extraordinary story of Nujeen Mustafa, a Syrian refugee, who crossed Europe in a wheelchair.\n\nFive years on, Fergal has met up with Nujeen to hear how her life has changed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5271697640419006}
+{"content": "Commitment to Climate Change to Colgate\n\nSara Reese\n\nThere’s no doubt that the fossil fuel industry causes major environmental harm. In 2009, President Herbst signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), a symbol of Colgate’s acknowledgement that fossil fuels and climate change have a direct relationship. As an institution of higher education, and arguably one of the top liberal arts universities in the nation, I believe that Colgate has the opportunity to serve as a model for other schools across the globe in choosing to divest from fossil fuels – removing all financial investments from companies related to the fossil fuel industry.\n\nWhile participating in the 13th Annual Green Summit earlier this month, where groups like Students for Environmental Action were focusing on divestment, it became clear to me that there are several key reasons that it makes sense to spark a divestment campaign on campus. First, Colgate’s Climate Action Plan commits Colgate to more responsible energy use in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2019 and, as a university, we’ve already acknowledged the link to between fossil fuels and climate change through the ACUPCC. Continuing to put money into companies that are causing these huge environmental impacts doesn’t align with the goals Colgate has set for itself.\n\nAdditionally, divestment from fossil fuels could be a great marketing tool, particularly given that two of our peer institutions, Middlebury and Oberlin, pride themselves on their environmental focus. By divesting, Colgate could put itself on par or even above Middlebury and Oberlin environmentally and draw a more diverse, globally\n\nengaged set of applicants.\n\nFinally, fossil fuel investments are going to go downhill eventually. Coal, oil and gas will lose their value over time as climate change becomes worse. At some point, those who divested will be significantly more financially secure than those who didn’t.\n\nAlthough divestment at Colgate wouldn’t change the world or even significantly mitigate the effects of climate change, it would set a precedent for thousands of universities and colleges around the world, and it would show that Colgate is producing globally minded students who are prepared to put thought into action. \n\n Contact Sara Reese at [email protected]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9279419183731079}
+{"content": "Use code MPLS to pickup + avoid shipping!\nCold Sore Killa\n\nCold Sore Killa\n\nRegular price $14.00 Sale\n\nViruses are hella tricky. Science considers viri as just kinda alive, like half made robot creatures that need our cells to exist. Viruses are truly unique beings, their own branch on the tree of life. As an herbalist, my relationship to plant medicine is like a marriage. Like any marriage, it comes with in-laws: pathogens and pain. Bru-tal.\n\nYet working to understand the in-laws, no matter how unsavory, is a path to understanding your life love.\n\nInfections, like your mother in-law, have a lot to say. Listening gives insight into treatment, like choosing appropriate herbs or never, ever bringing up taking the plastic off the living room furniture.\n\nHere is where I fall in love with plant medicine all over again.\n\nPhytochemistry aka plant chemistry got its own ancient wisdom. Licorice and lemon balm put the smack down on viri getting a foothold in our precious cells. They’re like professional finger prayers when viri got a grip. Myrrh stimulates immune cell activity, empowering our own bod to kick out unwelcome guests.\n\nEntering Cold Sore Killa, a tincture combining powers of all three plants. Drop a few drops on your ‘sore throught the day. Perfecto in combo with the Cold Sore Kicker, apply the drops of the Killa’ then smear on a bit of the Kicker.\n\nSafe to ingest.\n\n\nProduct Ingredients:\n\n- High proof spirits*\n\n- lemon balm*\n\n- licorice root*\n\n- myrrh gum resin*\n\n- organic*\n\n1 oz", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6140255928039551}
+{"content": "The aims of the association\n\nThe main aim of this association is to circulate knowledge of this rare genetic disease, so rare that until 2014 it was not known in medical literature, therefore indicated with the medical term of Ada 2 Deficiency, and to financing scientific research into the development of a treatment accessible to all people.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9944868087768555}
+{"content": "Net Revenue Retention Rate (NRR)\n\nUse PowerMetrics to create an instant or a custom data connection to your Net Revenue Retention Rate data.\n\nWhat is Net Revenue Retention Rate?\n\nNet Revenue Retention (NRR) Rate is the percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers in a defined time period, including expansion revenue, downgrades, and cancels.\n\nAlternate names: Net MRR Renewal Rate, Net Negative Churn Rate, Net Dollar Retention Rate\n\nHow to calculate Net Revenue Retention Rate\n\nƒ Sum(RR (recurring revenue) at the beginning of the period + expansion RR during the period - downgraded RR during the period - cancelled RR during the period) / (RR at the beginning of the period)\n\nAlternate formula\n\nƒ Sum(renewing customers RR) / Sum(RR of customers due to renew)\n\nWhat is a good Net Revenue Retention Rate benchmark?\n\nIn a SaaS business, a Net Revenue Retention Rate >100% is a growth indicator. Across all SaaS companies, the median Net Retention Rate is ~100%. Higher Annual Contract Value (ACV) products have a higher Net Retention Rates. For SaaS companies selling into small and medium businesses (SMBs), a good Net Retention Rate is 90%. For Enterprise SaaS, 125% is considered a good Net Retention Rate.\n\n\nExample A: A company has 100 customers, each paying $2,000 per month. MRR at the beginning of the month is $200,000. Within the month, 1 customer adds a $4,000 MRR upgrade, 2 downgrade by $500 each, and 1 customer cancels.\nNRR = = ($200,000 + $4,000 - ($500 x 2) - $2,000) / $200,000 = $201,000 / $200,000 = 100.5% expressed monthly\n\nExample B: A company has 100 customers paying $20,000 for annual subscriptions. Within a one month period, 10 customers are due for renewal, only 9 actually renew, 1 adds a $5000 ARR upgrade, and 2 downgrade their subscription by $2000 each.\nNRR = ($20,000 x 9) + $5,000 - ($2,000 x 2)) / ($2,000 MRR x 10) = $19,000 / $20,000 = 95.0% expressed monthly\n\nMore about this metric\n\nRetaining customers is key for operating a healthy and profitable business. A high Net Retention Rate is an indication that your offering represents a strong value proposition for your customers. Net Retention Rate is an indication of how well a company can not only renew, but generate additional revenue from its customers following an initial sale, in what’s often referred to as a “land and expand” strategy. Net Retention Rate is also an important component of profitability. Acquiring a new customer can be 5 - 25 times more costly than retaining an existing customer. By keeping and expanding your existing customers, you reduce your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), therefore increasing your profitability.\n\nA high company growth rate and high Net Retention Rate are correlated according to SaaS Capital research. Gainsight has also found that mature Customer Success practices are correlated with a higher Net Revenue Retention Rate.\n\nFor a comprehensive understanding of retention, it’s important to track both the percentage of all customers who renew or cancel contracts, measured by logo churn, and the percentage of all revenue dollars under contract which renew.\n\nMetrics related to Net Revenue Retention Rate", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8483598232269287}
+{"content": "Video: Calculating the Mass Percentage of Iron in a Compound of Iron and Oxygen Given the Mole Ratio of Fe to O\n\nWhich of the following is the percentage by mass of iron in a compound of iron and oxygen if the mole ratio of Fe : O is 2 : 3? A) 30% Fe B) 35% Fe C) 40% Fe D) 60% Fe E) 70% Fe\n\n\nVideo Transcript\n\nWhich of the following is the percentage by mass of iron in a compound of iron and oxygen if the mole ratio of Fe to O is two to three? A) 30 percent iron, B) 35 percent iron, C) 40 percent iron, D) 60 percent iron, or E) 70 percent iron.\n\nThe easiest way to think about percentage by mass is to first consider the mass of the whole sample. We know that the compound is made of iron and oxygen. So, we know the mass of the sample will be made up of an iron contribution and an oxygen contribution. But we don’t yet know what the proportions are. But we have been given the ratio of the elements inside the compound. So, we know that the formula of the compound is Fe₂O₃. Of course, Fe₄O₆, Fe₆O₉, Fe₈O₁₂ are also valid, but we’d get the same proportion of iron. So, we don’t need to worry about exactly what the formula would be. The formula Fe₂O₃ will do.\n\nWe calculate our percentage mass of iron in this compound by taking the mass due to iron dividing it by the total mass and multiplying by 100 percent. There remains one question: How big should the sample mass be, a gram, a mole’s worth, a pound? Well, you could do it in many different ways, but I’m going to show you a way that simplifies the calculation. I’ll work with the smallest unit I can, one lot of Fe₂O₃. And then, all I need to figure out is the mass of two iron atoms.\n\nNow, bear in mind that I said iron atoms, not iron ions. This is because when we think about percentage by mass, we generally consider the mass we can get out of a substance in the pure elemental form, which would be iron atoms. However, it doesn’t make a great deal of difference because iron ions have about the same mass as iron atoms.\n\nWe can now look up the atomic masses of these elements on the periodic table. An atom of iron has a mass of 56 unified atomic mass units, thereabouts amusing, rounded numbers because the answers are fairly rounded anyway. And it will help with the mental arithmetic in a little bit. And the atomic mass of oxygen is 16 unified atomic mass units. One unified atomic mass unit is equivalent to a 12th of the mass of a carbon 12 atom. However, it really doesn’t make a difference here. As long as we use the same mass units, we’re going to figure out the right percentage of iron in our sample.\n\nTo calculate the mass of one unit of Fe₂O₃, we simply take the atomic mass of iron and multiply it by two, the atomic mass of oxygen and multiply it by three and sum the two together, giving us 160 unified atomic mass unit. This means that one unit of the Fe₂O₃ has the mass of about 13 carbon atoms. We’ve now figured out our sample mass. And because we did the calculations step by step, we also have the iron mass. This is the mass due to the two atoms of iron in our structure.\n\nAll we need to do is plug the right values into the equation. Our percentage mass of iron in our sample is equal to 112 unified atomic mass unit divided by 160 unified atomic mass unit multiplied by 100 percent. The greatest common factor of 112 and 160 is 16, giving us seven over 10 times 100 percent which is 70 percent. You could have simplified the fraction in more steps, if it’s easier. 112 divided by 160 is the same as 56 divided by 80. We’ve simply divided the numerator and denominator by two. One more time gives us 28 over 40 and then 14 over 20 until we arrive at seven 10ths.\n\nTherefore, the percentage by mass of iron in a compound of iron and oxygen in the molar ratio of two to three, iron to oxygen is 70 percent iron.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993336200714111}
+{"content": "How 128 Technology Increased Lead Generation by 20x with Priority Engine\n\nSarah Geissler\nSarah Geissler\n\nProduct Marketing Manager\n\nAn interview with successful technology sales and marketing innovator Kenny Dellovo, Lead Development Manager at 128 Technology\n\n128 Technology’s innovative networking solution enables enterprises and service providers to build service-centric fabrics that deliver breakthroughs in simplicity, security, performance, and savings. Kenny is an experienced demand generation marketer and lead development rep with over a decade of experience in B2B technology. Check him out on LinkedIn.\n\nWhat are some of the business challenges you face at 128 Technology?\n\nThe main challenges we face are identifying which leads are the highest priority, keeping up with the competition, and getting in front of customers at the right time with the right message. As a startup, our resources are limited, so we need to make sure we are spending our time effectively to convert more leads.\n\nTell us how you’ve structured your campaigns with Priority Engine?\n\nusing priority engine 128 technology\n\nWe get an automated email delivered weekly that gets uploaded to our marketing automation system. Depending on the prospect’s interest based on the insights from Priority Engine, they go into a specific drip campaign. They get targeted and personalized messaging, and based on how they engage with that content, they go in different paths. So, if they’re visiting our website, they will get a personalized email from me. If they’re not opening that email, we send them additional content, like educational content on our product, until there is a certain level of engagement.\n\nHow do you leverage Priority Engine insights for your prospecting outreach?\n\nWhen I’m prospecting, I lean on Priority Engine insights to highlight specific topics that are relevant to the person’s interests. I’m always shaping my pitch to hit on what they care about. If they have an interest in network security, I shape my pitch to hit on more of our network security features. It’s about highlighting the specific topics that will be relevant to the individual based on the purchase intent and insights we get from Priority Engine.\n\nHow does your team utilize Inbound Converter?\n\nThe main thing we use Inbound Converter for is retargeting. Additionally, we’re sharing information from Inbound Converter with our sales team to give them more data on where they should be spending their time and who to spend it with. That way we can say, ‘this account you’re working with, or this account you haven’t heard from in a few months, was on the site this week and they’re also showing intent signals from Priority Engine. We suggest you reach out and have a conversation.” As a result, we’re seeing engagement from people we weren’t previously seeing engagement from before Priority Engine.\n\nWhat results have you seen since partnering with TechTarget?\n\nThe first impact we saw from our relationship with TechTarget was an influx of leads into our database – 20x lead growth month-over-month. With Priority Engine, we’re sparking better conversations, increasing webinar attendance and setting more meetings.\n\nA big thank you to Kenny for sharing your experience with us. We look forward to hearing about more of your successes with TechTarget in the future!\n\n\n128 Technology, case study, demand generation, lead generation, Priority Engine, purchase intent data, TechTarget\n\nContact Sales", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.733433187007904}
+{"content": "Printer Friendly\n\nArticle 2: Civic sport: using high school athletics to teach civic values in the progressive era.\n\nDuring the fall of 1891, a group of young men entered the gymnasium at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts to play a new sport developed by a physical education instructor. Two baskets had been nailed to the balcony rails at either end of the gym, and over the next half hour, the men engaged in this new game, which within a few months would be called basketball. Those men played with so much enthusiasm that spectators soon gathered in the balcony to watch, including some teachers from a nearby grade school, who inquired whether girls could play, too. The YMCA instructor, James Naismith responded affirmatively, and thus, basketball was born (Naismith 1996). Why did this sport develop, and why was it encouraged for both boys and girls? The development of basketball and athletics during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reflected a greater movement of education reform, civic development, and gender in the United States.\n\nIn the twentieth century, Progressive Era reformers sought to remedy the ills of society such as urbanization, industrialization, and the lack of democratic knowledge amongst immigrants, through government-sponsored reform. Public education reformers believed that schools could assimilate immigrants and train children to be democratic citizens, thus creating a democratic community. During the Progressive Era, secondary school athletics became increasingly important as a method of creating a community of democratic men.\n\nLuther Gulick and James Naismith emerged as leaders in the athletic movement during the Progressive Era. Gulick, president of the Playground and Recreation Association, believed playgrounds could develop civic values by teaching children to play together and to sacrifice their individual actions for the good of the whole (Gulick 1907). As a physical educator, Gulick perceived athletics not as physical fitness, but rather social engagement. Gulick worked with James Naismith to teach children sports, such as basketball, to develop moral character within its participants. At the YMCA, where both Gulick and Naismith worked, athletics were connected to democratic enjoyment and democratic values. Sport was an amateur endeavor, where athletic participants did not compete for money, or use athletics to make a living (Smith 1988). In other words, participants were to play \"for the love of the sport\" and embrace the democratic values of sport, not competition (Smith 1988, 167). This philosophy shaped the development of high school athletics.\n\nAs schools focused on inculcating civic values amongst the students, physical educators sought to legitimize the place of athletics in schools (Lewis 1969). By embracing the rhetoric of citizenship, physical educators blurred the lines between physical education and social education. Therefore, athletics became associated with both physical education and social studies departments, and when school administrators needed faculty coaches, they looked to teachers in both curricular areas. Since sports developed citizenship, athletic expertise was not the sole focus of physical education. Thus, high school athletics developed as one of many Progressive Era reforms that trained future citizens, particularly immigrants, in civic values. These civic ends have been hidden in recent years with the development of athletic scholarships and the increased focus on the professionalization of sport. However, Gulick and Naismith illustrate the Progressive origins and civic goals of high school athletics.\n\nFrom approximately 1880-1924, America saw its greatest number of immigrants. In the early twentieth century over 30 percent of the population in the United States came from Europe, and over half of those immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe (Hirschman 2005). During the early twentieth century, primary and secondary schools emerged to educate the masses. Reformers during this era believed government institutions and policies could be used to help immigrants, especially in urban areas, assimilate into American culture. Schools became training centers for citizenship, and children were taught to value the democratic community, received a nationalist history of America, and celebrated its accomplishments (Evans 2004). During the early twentieth century, several physical education reformers introduced athletics as a method of teaching civic values and assimilating immigrant children.\n\nSports history, however, has often been overlooked in general analyses of cultural and social history (Bass 2014). Nonetheless, sports historians and historians of physical education have studied the developments of sports in schools. Lewis (1969) provided a critical study of how physical education curriculum shifted from a focus on gymnastics to sports education during the Progressive Era. Lewis created a foundational narrative describing how sports became part of the curriculum, but his study lacked analysis regarding why sports became so important in physical education. Spring (1974) placed physical education into a broader argument of social control during the early twentieth century. Continuing Lewis's explanation, Spring argued that athletics provided social training for children, teaching them discipline and obedience. He connected physical education development to Progressive Era theories regarding control of the masses. Spring represents a significant shift in sports history, incorporating social and cultural interpretations of sports history.\n\nMore recent studies continued to critically analyze athletic development, including how it developed differently for each gender. Cahn (1994) comprehensively analyzed how women participated in athletic development throughout the twentieth century. Azzarito, Munro, and Solmon (2004) explained how discourses of politics, education, and gender influenced physical education development during the Progressive Era. Wiggins (2013) sought to contextualize sports development by analyzing historical influences on various sports programs, beginning in the nineteenth century. Although these studies have described the emergence of sports, they have not been visible in the greater discourse surrounding school history and purpose.\n\n\nPhysical education for the masses developed in Europe in two significant areas: calisthenics and sport (Pruter 2013). Calisthenics focused on individual physical fitness and \"gymnastic exercises\" (Lewis 1969, 36). Physical educators in countries such as Germany, France, and Sweden advocated gymnastics for the people, and packed gyms with lines of individuals doing stretches and jumping jacks in unison. Calisthenics reflected the nationalist principles of Germany and France throughout the late nineteenth century. As leaders in both European nations sought to centralize their states, they also sought to reduce regional affiliations and emphasize loyalty to the state (Applegate 1999). Team sports heightened regional pride through competition, whereas individual physical activity made everyone equally submissive to a central authority, the one leading the exercises.\n\nIn addition, physical educators also believed that individual calisthenics helped improve female health and prevented middle class women from becoming frail (Cahn 1994). In the early twentieth century, physical educators continued to argue for the benefits regarding female health as a part of the burgeoning eugenics movement, encouraging women to engage in physical fitness to procreate a \"fit race\" (Cahn 1994, 29). Thus, for both nationalist and women's causes, calisthenics proved useful. Promoting calisthenics for men, however, proved more tenuous.\n\nIn England and the United States, during the nineteenth century, \"muscular Christianity\" emerged as an argument for male physical fitness (Neddam 2004; Cahn 1994). As work for middle class men shifted away from physical labor, muscular Christianity provided men with physical exercises that trained individuals to exhibit physical control (Cahn 1994). Popularized by Theodore Roosevelt, the physical fitness movement promoted \"rugged individualism,\" discipline, and control (Lewis 1969). That control allowed men to discipline themselves to control immoral thought and actions, promoting a proper Christian life. Muscular Christianity eradicated the evils of urbanization and industrialization through strengthening the \"mind, body, and spirit\" (Wiggins 2013, 66). Contrary to the white collar image of muscular Christianity, male immigrants who worked as physical laborers created a significant working class that threatened the masculinity of the middle class. Thus, the middle class focused on reclaiming their status as masculine by claiming the working class had excessive energy (Cahn 1994). This excessive energy could only be harnessed through middle class values of control and discipline. To preserve their status, middle class men redefined masculinity.\n\nPhysical educators implemented racially charged notions of perfecting the white \"civilized race\" by emphasizing physical fitness (Azzarito, Munro and Solmon 2004). Progressive reformers labeled the working class as unruly and in need of control. So, educators in the late nineteenth century such as G. Stanley Hall argued for the civilizing nature of schools. For Hall, young boys acted uncivilized, as their ancestors had, and educators needed to channel those primitive impulses into civilized behavior. Once civilized, these young men would provide a powerful foundation to the future of civilization (Bederman 1995). Therefore, the athletics movement developed within physical education as a means of controlling working-class masculinity and promoting middle class values. For example, boxing, which had been seen as a savage blood sport in the nineteenth century, taught control through physical training. According to Hall, this primitive savagery could be converted into civilized manliness through control and discipline. In particular, boys needed to access their passionate energy, but they needed to learn to control this energy, as well. Athletic play in schools provided physical activity, but with rules to temper unruliness (Bederman 1995).\n\nOn the other hand, physical educators in England emphasized sports and games. Rather than focusing on physical fitness, sports and games developed values such as teamwork, sportsmanship and fair play (Adair 1993; Neddam 2004). The English also stressed amateurism, rather than professionalism. Sports and games were played, not to make money, but simply for the \"love of the game\" (Smith 1988). Moreover, sports like rugby taught boys leadership, which developed them as future statesmen of England (Stacy 2014). As sports developed in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, children developed student-led athletic associations and served as student-coaches, reflecting the amateur beliefs found in England.\n\n\nAs the United States developed in the early nineteenth century, Americans utilized the English model of civics as statesmanship. English civic education taught young men to become leaders and future statesmen of their society (Stacy 2014). Americans converted statesmanship in England to citizenship in the United States, and valued political representation and voting. Therefore, civics and citizenship were defined as political participation. This definition excluded those who could not directly participate in politics, namely women and African-Americans, but also non-landowning white men. Thus, civics was focused on the elite (Reuben 1997). Moreover, political participation was a public endeavor, outside of the home, and reinforced gendered notions of men as public and women as private.\n\nDuring the Progressive Era, reformers redefined civics and citizenship. They envisioned citizenship beyond the confines of voting and believed all people could be citizens, even children (Dewey 1916). All people were citizens because they voluntarily chose to join and participate in a group. Therefore, citizenship changed from republican representation to democratic participation. All people could participate in their democracy by interacting with each other in public. Public interaction created a community, and thus community became the foundation of civic space. By defining civics as participatory, Progressive Era reformers acknowledged the civic participation of women and African-Americans that existed in the United States throughout the nineteenth century in women's associations, abolitionist groups, and religious communities. These voluntary associations reflected a wide variety of purposes, representing many different interests. These associations provided a platform for citizens to express their voices outside of voting and fostered the culture of participatory democracy (Ryan 1999).\n\nCitizens chose to form communities, and civic education needed to teach children about how to appropriately act within those groups (Reuben 1997). Civic education focused on young children and taught them proper behaviors, such as cooperation and obedience. For example, civic educators explained that students needed to \"submit to authority\" in order to respect laws. If students respected authority figures, such as teachers or public officials, they would see those in power as experts in the community (Reuben 1997). Rather than individual political participation, civics became a set of proper behaviors of \"good citizenship\" (Reuben 1997, 413). Even though Progressive reformers saw children as part of the community, they believed children should not challenge the experts in charge.\n\n\nEmbracing the English model of sports and games, in 1906 the Playground Association of America (PAA) developed and encouraged sport and play throughout urban areas of New York City (Azzarito, Munro and Solmon 2004). For leaders of the PAA, physical wellbeing was defined more by values than by fitness. PAA president Luther Gulick explained, \"It [the playground]... gives the opportunity for the social experiences of democracy of self and group government\" (Gulick 1907, 243); thus, the playground at schools provided an ideal environment for children to practice putting others first. Therefore, at the playground, self and group government involved negotiating space and playing with each other, so children practiced obedience to foster order and cooperation. Gulick believed democracy functioned best as a community where everyone is \"obedien[t] to the law.... The playground, then, if it is to accomplish its first duty, if it is to meet the deeper need of the times, must be a democracy\" (Gulick 1907, 243). Children, then, learned how to be cooperative citizens through play.\n\nDuring his earlier tenure as instructor and superintendent at the Springfield, Massachusetts Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) from 1887-1900, Luther Gulick implemented muscular Christianity, creating the iconic YMCA triangle labeled, \"mind, body, spirit\" (Hackensmith 1966). Working with G. Stanley Hall, they developed arguments supporting play as a natural, evolutionary stage of life. Using play, and by extension athletic games, children could grow morally and religiously (Wiggins 2013). Gulick criticized educators who believed in physical fitness as the primary purpose of physical education and athletics. Instead, he argued, \"athletics are primarily social and moral in their nature\" (Gulick 1906, 676). Both athletic participants and spectators could display spirit and loyalty, fair play and courteousness at athletic events. He further explained that team sports taught boys to place the group above themselves. Teamwork and cooperation created a power greater than the individual, and this provided a model for boys to understand that \"social honesty,\" that is being honest and fair in a group (social) setting was even more powerful than \"individual honesty\" (Gulick 1906, 677). During the same time, the rhetoric of social education also advocated that school should teach students the value of community and its importance over the individual (Evans 2004). Gulick specifically connected athletics to the argument that \"social education is going on with all boys\" (Gulick 1906, 678). Therefore, civic values could be taught in all aspects of school, including physical education and athletics.\n\nMoreover, similar to John Dewey's argument for experiential education (Dewey 1938), Gulick explained that athletics taught young boys values through experience. He described, \"a boy does not have honesty become a part of his character until it has worked out in action...\" (Gulick 1906, 677). In order for boys to learn loyalty to their community, they must engage in activities that value the group over the individual, and team athletics taught cooperation inherent in a functioning community. Gulick, however, warned against gangs that were unmonitored. He maintained, \"it is the function of school athletics, when rightly conducted, to convert this gang instinct from evil to righteousness\" (Gulick 1906, 677). Schools and coaches provided necessary guidance and facilitated experiences for boys to learn moral and civic values.\n\nGulick also embraced existing notions of gender differences in his celebration of athletics. He clarified, \"the gang is the masculine social unit\" (Gulick 1906, 678) and justified athletics in the context of male civic responsibility. Athletics could teach boys to focus their social power on loyalty and honesty, preparing them for citizenship. Thus, athletics primarily focused on male citizenship, reaffirming separate spheres for men and women (Azzarito, Munro and Solmon 2004). During the Progressive Era, gender was perceived as a division between public and private, where men participated as citizens publicly, and women participated only on issues deemed feminine (Stacy 2014). Since women could not be active citizens, athletics did not serve the same civic practices for them, and those specific practices are discussed below.\n\nIn the struggle over definition in the emerging field of physical education, educators like Gulick embraced the moral and civic purposes articulated by other Progressive Era educators, pushing the callisthenic and physical fitness arguments to the margins (Spring 1974). While working at the YMCA, Gulick encouraged other instructors to develop athletics and games to develop moral and civic values in young men.\n\n\nLuther Halsey Gulick's colleague at the YMCA, James Naismith, also advocated for the civic value of sport. Naismith studied physical education at McGill University, but he rejected the German gymnasium model of physical education. At McGill, he had played rugby, a game created in England to cultivate moral values amongst its players (Adair 1993; W. J. Baker 1996; Neddam 2004; Stacy 2014). As American boys had already begun playing American football when Naismith arrived at the YMCA in 1890, he and fellow instructor Amos Alonzo Stagg coached the Springfield YMCA football team (Baker 1996). Naismith recounted that Stagg saw football as a means for boys to \"show the true Christian spirit\" (Naismith 1996, 27). Though football reflected muscular Christianity, the game could not be played through the winter, and Gulick tasked his instructors with developing an indoor game.\n\nGulick and Naismith looked to the European physical fitness models of Germany, France and Sweden, but found them lacking (Naismith 1996). Naismith explained, \"When they compared the thrills of football with those of the mass and squad gymnastics, they were frankly discontented. ... What this new generation wanted was pleasure and thrill, rather than physical benefits\" (Naismith 1996, 30). That is, athletics were not perceived as physical fitness, but rather social interaction between players. As a physical educator, Naismith delineated himself from physical fitness advocates when he wrote, \"Gymnastics did not appeal to me as the sports did\" (Naismith 1996, 37) and moved forward in creating athletic games that focused on the group.\n\nNaismith developed basketball as a game to promote social engagement through teamwork. Rather than encouraging physical fitness, Naismith believed that basketball inculcated disciplined characteristics, such as the \"control of nerves\" (Naismith 1996, 184). This control directly reflects Progressive reformers' goals of training immigrant children to become part of the group. Controlling oneself was essential to participating in a group, whether a democratic community or an athletic team (Spring 1974).\n\nPlayers who developed individual initiative did not rely on the coach to make decisions, they acted as leaders on the court; this leadership trained them to be leaders within their communities, as well. Even though players were encouraged to develop initiative, basketball also taught them cooperation. According to Naismith, basketball improved initiative, \"the ability to meet new conditions with efficiency\" (Naismith 1996, 184). Naismith believed this to be the most important attribute, connecting initiative to self-reliance (Naismith 1996).\n\nFor Naismith, working together as a team was essential for success in basketball, and if one person did not work with the team, the entire team was at a \"serious disadvantage\" (Naismith 1996, 185). Here, Naismith blatantly challenged the notion of callisthenic individualism; in order for the team to be successful, he believed that everyone must choose to work together. Within a democracy, individuals choose to work together as a community. Moreover, Naismith identified self-sacrifice as another attribute taught by basketball. Players learned to \"place the good of the team above one's personal ambitions.... There is no place in basketball for the egoist\" (Naismith 1996, 187). Playing basketball taught young men the importance of choosing the community over one's self and helped create a civic life within the American community.\n\nFinally, basketball taught players sportsmanship, which Naismith defined as \"the player's insistence on his own rights and his observance of the rights of others\" (Naismith 1996, 187). Naismith's use of the word \"rights\" in his definition of sportsmanship shaped the civic nature of basketball. Rather than using terms such as \"space\" or \"body,\" Naismith deliberately uses the word \"rights,\" because rights are protected in the Bill of Rights. Further, sportsmanship involved following and upholding the rules, just as citizens follow and uphold laws of their democracy. True sportsmen also \"graciously\" accepted defeat and won \"courteously\" (Naismith 1996, 187). Naismith constructed a definition of civic values, which defined good citizens as participating in community by cooperating with others. In basketball, sportsmanship taught this definition of civic values through cooperation.\n\nThough basketball instilled moral attributes such as cooperation, self-control, self-sacrifice, and sportsmanship, children only developed these attributes under \"properly conducted leadership\" (Naismith 1996, 184). As with other Progressive reformers, Naismith believed that children needed to be guided and controlled. Left unorganized, children could become unruly, so a formal coach needed to teach the values of basketball. In the appendix to his book on basketball, Naismith listed six categories developed by athletics: muscular development, skill, mental, emotions, social, and moral (Naismith 1996). Many of these attributes focused on non-physical characteristics.\n\nWithin mental attributes, Naismith named initiative and observation (Naismith 1996). These attributes represented a relationship between the individual and the community, because individuals had initiative, or motivation, to act, but they needed to observe the environment around them, or the community. Emotional attributes included ambition, enthusiasm, joy, loyalty, remorse, self-confidence, and self-respect. Each of these attributes fostered both individual and community development. Civic engagement meant citizens participated as individuals in the community (Reuben 1997). Individuals connected to the community through the joy and loyalty they felt towards others. In addition, they recognized the community through remorse over the mistreatment of others. This is why Naismith defined sportsmanship in terms of rights of others; good citizens recognized the rights of the community as well as protecting their own rights.\n\nSelf-confidence and self-respect reflected the value of the individual within the community. Individuals made up the community, so people needed to recognize their own self-worth as an essential part of that community. In other words, each individual person needed to participate, as each individual player needed to participate in the basketball game. Teams did not exist in the abstract, but rather were made up of actual individuals. Communities, then, functioned in a similar manner; the individual was part of the community and needed to be recognized.\n\nAt the same time, however, individual values needed to be tempered. In basketball, moral attributes such as self-control and self-sacrifice trained players to place the team above themselves (Naismith 1996). Naismith labeled these values as moral, meaning they were good characteristics. Therefore, Naismith also saw that good citizens valued the community over themselves, willingly controlled themselves, and sacrificed for the good of the whole. In addition, Naismith identified the social attributes as teamwork, cooperation, observing rules, leadership, and sportsmanship (Naismith 1996). Labeling these attributes as \"social\" illustrated that Naismith valued interaction between people, again emphasizing the community. Teamwork involved individuals willingly joining a group, just as individual citizens were willingly part of a community. He saw that functioning communities included rules for citizens to follow, just as there were rules to basketball. Naismith defined the respect for those rules as sportsmanship in order to train people to value rules. Furthermore, good leaders modeled sportsmanship for others. The best basketball players were the best sportsmen, and the best citizens followed the rules of the community.\n\nCoaches provided guidance and education to develop moral and civic attributes in players. For Gulick and Naismith, athletics was connected to democratic enjoyment and democratic values. Specifically, athletics could train boys to be \"modern mass\" men, engaging in American democracy by becoming part of the community; however, women remained excluded (Spring 1974, 486).\n\n\nThough physical educators recognized benefits of calisthenics for girls, they more readily challenged women's participation in sports. They argued that athletics threatened the femininity of women, and if women were allowed to play sports with men, men would be emasculated (Cahn 1994). Moreover, muscular Christianity was deliberately masculine. As American women increasingly became the religious center of the household in the nineteenth century, men sought to emphasize masculine attributes of Christian morality. Muscular Christianity defined Christian men as \"physically active\" (Baker 1996).\n\nFemale physical educators, though frustrated by the exclusion from sports, found a professional space through the discourse of separate spheres. Men, such as Dudley Sargent, created physical education schools and collegiate departments to train physical educators, and women entered these schools through embracing the gendered differences of physical education (Cahn 1994; Azzarito, Munro and Solmon 2004). Smith College athletic director Senda Berenson legitimized female physical educators through concepts like \"moderation\" (Cahn 1994, 24). To protect women's physical wellbeing, they should only play sports in moderation and in a calm fashion. Women best understood the health of other women, so female educators took control of newly-created gender-specific athletic associations to monitor their activity. Basketball became one acceptable sport for women because women's mobility could be limited.\n\nWomen's basketball experiences were described only in their relation to the men's experiences. Naismith recounted that within a month after basketball's beginning, girls wanted to play. In their first practices, the girls wore long dresses with large sleeves and used \"none of the fundamentals\" (Naismith 1996, 162). The original rules became the default standard of play, and soon boys' rules were seen as \"too strenuous\" for the girls (Naismith 1996, 166). Girls' rules, according to Naismith, provided \"a much better game for the girls than the boys' game is for the girls\" (Naismith 1996, 166).\n\nNaismith's rhetoric of separate games reflected the rhetoric of separate spheres pervasive in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Though both boys and girls played sports, they did not play the same way. Even coaching was gendered separately, as Naismith argued that a \"competent woman\" should coach girls, but not a man (Naismith 1996, 170). A man could endanger the \"welfare of the girls\" (Naismith 1996, 170). Women and girls entered public spaces to play basketball, and therefore would be seen by spectators. Traditionally, only men were visible in public spaces, and Naismith's concern about the girls' welfare reflected fears of women in public spaces. In the private sphere of the home, men could protect women, but protection was difficult in public, because of outside influences. In order to preserve the dignity of the girls, men and girls should not interact. Senda Berenson helped further develop women's basketball by embracing gendered separation, yet at the same time, encouraging women to participate in the public activity of basketball games.\n\nJane Addams valued sports and games as democratic play. She believed that sports taught cooperation and encouraged girls to play basketball at Hull House (Azzarito, Munro and Solmon 2004). Addams defined democracy as a community, and she argued that cooperation was essential to the development of community. Basketball required children to cooperate as a team, and was useful in training children to be part of a democratic community. Thus, basketball both taught democracy, and kept women socially separated from men.\n\n\nThe development of games on the playground and the organization of youth into student-led sports clubs, eventually migrated into schools. Physical education emerged as a field during the same time as public schools for the masses developed. Initially, to establish a professional place in the schools, physical educators argued that physical education was a necessary component of the school curriculum because of physical fitness and hygiene (Spring 1974). However, school administrators saw calisthenics, or physical fitness, as too individual and European. In order to become part of the curriculum, physical educators embraced the sports movement and shifted their focus to argue that physical education was necessary because it taught children sports (Lewis 1969). Using the rhetoric of civic values, physical educators explained sports provided opportunities for students to learn civic-mindedness, fairness, and rules. Therefore, all students needed access to a sports education, creating the \"sports for all\" movement, and the physical education curriculum became units on various sports. Students learned the rules of sports, and they played them during their physical education classes. Physical educators de-emphasized health and physical fitness, instead advocating that athletics were educational (Lewis 1969).\n\nIn addition to sports becoming the focus of physical education, competitive athletics became part of the high school curriculum during the Progressive Era. Although student-led organizations had competed in sports for several decades, education reformers felt that these amateur sports were unregulated and unmonitored. Left alone, students developed bad habits and corrupt behavior in sports, so administrators worked to establish formal control over athletics (Lewis 1969). Associations like the Public School Athletic League emerged around the country to establish rules and monitor high school sports (Wiggins 2013). Formal rules taught students discipline and respect for authority, which, according to Progressive reformers, were attributes of a civic state (Pruter 2013). Social control groomed students to become productive, respectful citizens of society. Thus, the mission of athletics in schools became social development, not physical development.\n\nWithin schools, and organized by school administrators, athletics also taught students loyalty. Luther Gulick explained, \"There is no one thing in a school which makes for school loyalty so much as good school athletics\" (Gulick 1906, 678). School loyalty could be extrapolated into civic loyalty, or loyalty to community and country, which Progressive reformers saw as essential to assimilating immigrants. Athletics could train students to become loyal citizens of their country (Pruter 2013).\n\nSince educators needed to monitor athletics to ensure the dissemination of loyalty and obedience to rules, coaching shifted from a student responsibility to a school responsibility. Coaches were often faculty members, rather than professional coaches. Critics of professional coaching in schools during the Progressive Era, advocated for classroom teachers to take on coaching duties because teachers fully understood the civic purposes of schools and sports. Unchecked, coaches could transform schools into training grounds for \"modern gladiators, not modern citizens\" (Morrill 1924). Furthermore, critics of professional coaches feared an overemphasis on winning that would incite immoral behavior among coaches, such as lying or cheating (Pruter 2013). Athletics needed to remain in their proper place as part of the school, so coaches should also be part of the school, not an outside professional. Because physical education departments in secondary schools legitimized the educational value of athletics (Figone 1994), many physical education teachers also served as athletic coaches. However, because civic development, not physical development, was emphasized as the purpose of athletics, coaches did not need to be physical educators. School administrators could find coaches, from a variety of disciplines, to temper the drive for professional athletic success.\n\nMore specifically, social studies teachers focused on civic education. During the Progressive era, the National Education Association (NEA) organized a Social Studies Committee to review the existing history curriculum. The NEA deemed the history curriculum too individual and demanded a revised curriculum that focused on society and societal issues (Evans 2004). Influenced by John Dewey, the Social Studies Committee emphasized good citizenship as the purpose of social studies education. In addition to US history courses, social studies teachers taught classes on community civics and \"Problems in Democracy,\" where students learned how to become part of the American community and studied social problems (Evans 2004). Because both social studies and athletics focused on civic education, schools hired social studies teachers to also be athletic coaches (Weller 2002; Chiodo, Martin and Rowan 2002). Through their focus on the civic purposes of athletics, physical educators expanded opportunities for coaching outside of their own departments. In their civic rhetoric of legitimacy for athletics, they weakened their own claims of expertise, opening the door for social studies teachers to coach athletics, as well.\n\n\nDuring the Progressive Era, sports emerged as a method of building a democratic community among the culturally diverse children in America. Rather than focusing on the physical fitness model of Europe, educators in America supported the philosophy of \"sport for all.\" As a result, sports rules, regulations, and play became the foundation of physical education curricula in schools. Moreover, because educators emphasized the civic purpose of athletics, school officials found coaches in disciplines outside of physical education, such as social studies. Over time, professional athletics, the NCAA, and professional coaching overwhelmed the amateur, civic purpose of athletics. During the second half of the twentieth century, the NCAA began offering athletic scholarships, which led to high school athletics becoming increasingly competitive (Figone 1994). Coaching, then, became more equated with winning rather than teaching civics, and coaching itself more directly became a profession (Stacy 2014). These developments shifted school athletics away from their original purpose and challenged the civic role of sports. Despite these challenges, at their origins, school sports and athletics focused on civic values.\n\nMichelle Stacy\n\nSt. Louis University\n\n\nAdair, Daryl. 1993. \"Competing or Complementary Forces?: The 'Civilizing' Process and the Commitment to Winning in Nineteenth Century English Rugby and Association Football.\" Canadian Journal of History of Sport 24(2): 47-67.\n\nApplegate, Celia. 1999. \"A Europe of Regions: The History and Historiography of Subnational Places in Modern Times.\" American Historical Review 104(4): 1157-82.\n\nAzzarito, Laura, Petra Munro, and Melinda A. Solmon. 2004. \"Unsettling the Body: The Institutionalization of Physical Activity at the Turn of the 20th Century.\" Quest 56: 377-396.\n\nBaker, William J. 1996. \"Introduction.\" In Basketball: Its Origins and Development, by James Naismith, v-xvii. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.\n\nBass, Amy. 2014. \"State of the Field: Sports History and the 'Cultural Turn'.\" The Journal of American History 101(1): 148-172.\n\nBederman, Gail. 1995. Manliness and Civilization. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.\n\nCahn, Susan K. 1994. Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women's Sport. New York, NY: The Free Press.\n\nChiodo, John J., Leisa A. Martin, and Sherry L. Rowan. 2002. \"Coaching and Teaching Social Studies: The Perceptions of Preservice Teachers.\" Journal of Social Studies Research 26 (2): 10-19.\n\nDewey, John. 1916. Democracy and Education. New York: Macmillan.\n\n--. 1938. Experience and Education. New York: Collier.\n\nEvans, Ronald W. 2004. The Social Studies Wars: What Should We Teach the Children ? New York: Teachers College Press.\n\nFigone, Albert J. 1994. \"Origins of the Teacher-Coach Role: Idealism, Convenience and Unworkability.\" Physical Educator 51 (3): 148-157.\n\nGulick, Luther. 1907. \"Children of the Century.\" In Proceedings from the First Annual Playground Congress, by Anna L. Von der Osten. New York.\n\nGulick, Luther Halsey. 1906. \"Team Games and Civic Loyalty.\" The School Review, 14: 676-678.\n\nHackensmith, Charles. 1966. History of Physical Education. New York: Harper and Row.\n\nHirschman, Charles. 2005. \"Immigration and the American Century.\" Demography 42(2): 595-620.\n\nLewis, Guy M. 1969. \"Adoption of the Sports Program, 1906-1939: The Role of Accommodation in the Transformation of Physical Education.\" Quest 12 (1): 34-46.\n\nMorrill, R.S. 1924. \"The Coach and the School.\" The School Review 32 (5): 380387.\n\nNaismith, James. 1996. Basketball: Its Origins and Development. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. First published 1941.\n\nNeddam, Fabrice. 2004. \"Constructing masculinities under Thomas Arnold of Rugby (1828-1842): gender, educational policy and school life in an early-Victorian public school.\" Gender and Education 16 (3): 303-326.\n\nPruter, Robert. 2013. The Rise of American High School Sports and the Search for Control: 1880-1930.\n\nReuben, Julie A. 1997. \"Beyond Politics: Community Civics and the Redefinition of Citizenship in the Progressive Era.\" History of Education Quarterly 37 (4): 399-420.\n\nRyan, Mary P. 1999. \"Civil Society as Democratic Practice: North American Cities during the Nineteenth Century.\" The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29 (4): 559-584.\n\nSmith, Ronald A. 1988. Sports and Freedom: The Rise of Big-Time College Athletics. New York: Oxford University Press.\n\nSpring, Joel H. 1974. \"Mass Culture and School Sports.\" History of Education Quarterly 14 (4): 483-499.\n\nStacy, Michelle. 2014. \"The Historical Origins of Social Studies Teacher as Athletic Coach.\" American Educational History Journal 41(2): 315-326.\n\nWeller, Kay E. 2002. \"Do Pre-Service Secondary Geography Teachers Want to be Teachers or Coaches?\" Journal of Geography 101 (3): 131-136.\n\nWiggins, David K. 2013. \"A Worthwhile Effort? History of Organized Youth Sport in the United States.\" Kinesiology Review (2): 65-75.\nCOPYRIGHT 2015 Information Age Publishing, Inc.\nCopyright 2015 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.\n\nArticle Details\nPrinter friendly Cite/link Email Feedback\nAuthor:Stacy, Michelle\nPublication:American Educational History Journal\nArticle Type:Essay\nGeographic Code:1USA\nDate:Jan 1, 2015\nPrevious Article:Article 1: \"A fair chance for the girls\": discourse on women's health and higher education in late nineteenth century America.\nNext Article:Article 3: A paradoxical partnership in higher education: the alliance between Alfred C. Kinsey and Herman B Wells.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.791813850402832}
+{"content": "Understanding the Stages of Diabetic Retinopathy\n\nWhen we hear medical terms like diabetic retinopathy, we can assume that the issue is you either have it or you don’t. This isn’t the case with most health conditions. Just as diabetes can vary in severity, so can diabetic retinopathy. Unlike diabetes, which affects a person’s blood sugar levels, diabetic retinopathy is a progressive condition that may not be reversible. Once you go from one stage to the next, it may not be possible to correct the damage that has been done.\n\nAs you may have guessed, diabetic retinopathy is a complication of dysregulated diabetes. When there is too much, then too little, then too much glucose in the blood, the tiny blood vessels that line the back of the eye where the retina lives sustain damage. The retina is an integral structure in the formation of eyesight. When this part of the eye is damaged, there is the potential for vision loss. A fortunate aspect of diabetic retinopathy is that this condition typically does not develop until a person has had diabetes for 3 to 5 years or more. Not every person with diabetes will develop diabetic retinopathy.\n\nWhen blood sugar is well managed, eyesight is typically not threatened. In the instance of poor blood sugar regulation, diabetic retinopathy may progress through four stages: mild, moderate, severe non-proliferative retinopathy, and proliferative retinopathy.\n\n • Mild non-proliferative retinopathy is the earliest stage of blood vessel damage. In this stage, the tiny blood vessels develop what are called micro-aneurysms, which is swelling in the vessels.\n • Moderate non-proliferative retinopathy occurs when some of the tiny blood vessels in the retina become blocked.\n • Severe non-proliferative retinopathy has progressed farther, with a substantial blockage in several blood vessels. These blockages prevent the retina from receiving the necessary blood supply. Without sufficient circulation of blood, the retina grows new blood vessels.\n • Proliferative retinopathy occurs because the new blood vessels that are grown to feed the retina are weak and fragile. These new vessels sit near the vitreous gel at the center of the eye. Being that they do not grow normally, these blood vessels may leak blood into the eye, causing severe vision loss. Proliferative retinopathy can cause permanent blindness.\n\nDiabetic retinopathy can progress through these stages slowly or quickly. The speed of progression depends on several factors, including the patient’s blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure. If you have diabetes, you must learn to manage your blood sugar with healthy lifestyle habits and prescribed medications, if necessary. You should also see an ophthalmologist with experience diagnosing and treating diabetic retinopathy. Visits should be scheduled yearly, or more often if the doctor advises.\n\nVitreoRetinal Surgery is proud to provide care to patients in need of a retinal specialist in Minnesota. Call (800) VRS-2500 to schedule a visit at a location near you.\n\nAre Eye Supplements Beneficial?\n\nWe often assume that we will absorb all the nourishment the body needs by eating a well-balanced diet. Numerous factors may affect this, from poor soil conditions in farming to the body’s ability to capture nutrients through digestion. For this reason, many people consider the value of supplements. Beyond a daily multivitamin, several types of supplements can be taken, including some that are formulated specifically for the eyes. Here, we discuss why and what those supplements could do for you.\n\nAREDS: What Is it and What Does it Mean for Eye Health?\n\nAREDS is not a product, it is a body of research. The Age-Related Eye Disease Study was one of the most influential studies conducted in recent years. An initial study, and also a follow up, AREDS2, were sponsored by the National Eye Institute to observe the effects of two multivitamin formulations on the development and progression of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. These common eye diseases typically affect people over the age of 55 and can be difficult to slow without consistent management. Each AREDS study determined that the risk of disease progression in high-risk patients could be reduced by approximately 25 percent through the consumption of specific supplementation.\n\nVitamins and Minerals for Eyes\n\nStudies have identified a variety of nutrients that are known to have benefits for eye health. Many of them are antioxidants, chemicals that combat the cellular damage done by toxins and reactive oxygen. According to the AREDS clinical trial multivitamins, the following ingredients offer significant eye health benefits:\n\n • Beta-carotene. This precursor to vitamin A is in carrots, kale, beef or chicken liver, and sweet potatoes. It is an essential nutrient for night vision.\n • Vitamin C. When we eat oranges, kale, broccoli, and grapefruit, we get a dose of vitamin C. Known for its ability to ward off the average cold, vitamin C also reduces the risk of cataracts.\n • Vitamin E. Available in peanuts, almonds, and wheat germ, vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant known to act against risks for cataracts and macular degeneration.\n • Omega-3 fatty acids. Studies suggest that this nutrient, contained in many supplements, is protective against dry eye syndrome and macular degeneration.\n • Lutein and zeaxanthin. These plant pigments were incorporated into the AREDS2 study in place of beta-carotene. Found in kale, spinach, and turnip greens, lutein and zeaxanthin may be protective against cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.\n\nBefore taking new vitamins and supplements, it is important to speak with your healthcare provider. Our board-certified ophthalmologists offer comprehensive care and can provide information about clinically tested eye supplements. To learn more, call (800) VRS-2500.\n\nWhat are The Risks for Macular Disease?\n\nIt has been estimated that approximately 11 million people live with age-related macular degeneration. This is only one of several macular diseases. Each of them can lead to vision loss. It is important to know what macular disease and what your risk factors may be because outside of that and routine eye exams, it is not easy to spot the early warning signs of damage to the macula. At Vitreo Retinal Surgery facilities, our experienced team offers comprehensive screenings for macular diseases. Here, we discuss details regarding risk factors and how you may protect your eyes.\n\nMacular Diseases\n\nThe macula is the central aspect of the retina, a part of the back of the eye. When light enters the eye, it focuses on the retina. It is then transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. Some of the conditions that can affect this part of the eye include:\n\n • Diabetic macular edema\n • Diabetic retinopathy\n • Age-related macular degeneration\n • Macular puckering\n • Macular holes\n • Retinal vein occlusion\n\nEach of these macular diseases may present uniquely. However, damage to the macula typically causes symptoms such as reduced night and central vision, visual distortions such as floaters, and blurriness.\n\nRisk Factors for Macular Diseases\n\nFamily history, genetics, and age are some of the strongest risk factors for macular conditions. However, other factors also contribute. For example, studies show that smoking increases the risk of damage to the macula. This may be because smoking can cause vascular problems and the eyes are reliant on numerous tiny blood vessels. Additionally, a diet that is high in salt, sugar, or fat may increase the risk of macular diseases. Unhealthy eating habits are associated with diabetes, and diabetes is a contributing factor for several eye diseases, including diabetic retinopathy. Finally, surgery or an eye injury may affect the vitreous, the fluid center of the eye. If the vitreous shrinks from an injury, it can tug on the back of the eye, leading to macular pucker or macular holes.\n\nIf you want to know more about your risk for macular disease, contact us. One of our experienced retina specialists can perform a comprehensive exam to help you better understand your eye health. Call (800) VRS-2500 to contact one of our conveniently located offices in Minnesota.\n\nHow Laser Treatment Benefits Diabetic Retinopathy\n\nThe National Institutes of Health report that approximately 2 out of 5 diabetics also have some degree of diabetic retinopathy. This condition, secondary to diabetes and unregulated blood sugar, can cause vision loss. Research indicates that children and adults with Type I and Type II diabetes, as well as pregnant women with gestational diabetes, are at risk of developing diabetic retinopathy. For this reason, regular dilated eye exams are advised for these patients. Several treatment options are available for this condition, including laser treatments such as photocoagulation.\n\nHow Laser Photocoagulation Helps Preserve Vision\n\nThe retina is a piece of tissue that sits at the back of the eye. Light lands on the retina and is translated into images through the optic nerve. Diabetic retinopathy involves swelling in the tiny blood vessels within the retina. Swelling causes blood and fluid to lead from the affected vessels. This can scar the retina or lead to detachment, in which the retina separates from the lining of the eye. Advanced diabetic retinopathy may involve the growth of abnormal blood vessels and excessive leakage of fluid and blood into the back of the eye.\n\nLaser photocoagulation may be recommended as a method of stopping blood vessels from leaking. This quick procedure can also destroy abnormal blood vessels. One technique that is used is called focal photocoagulation, in which laser energy is direct to a small number of concentrated blood vessels. The heat from the laser seals off the blood vessels to prevent further leaking. Another technique, called scatter photocoagulation, may be done to destroy numerous abnormal blood vessels at once.\n\nBy destroying abnormal blood vessels and sealing those that are leaking, laser photocoagulation can slow the progression of diabetic retinopathy and vision loss. The procedure is conducted in the office. Patients are made comfortable with a local anesthetic administered as eye drops. Slight stinging may be felt or flashes of light seen as the laser works on blood vessels. The entire procedure is usually done in under an hour.\n\nKnow the Signs of Diabetic Retinopathy\n\nAnyone who has been diagnosed with diabetes should be aware of the effects their condition could have on their eyes. Routine eye exams are vital, as is continued blood sugar management. Signs of diabetic retinopathy include:\n\n • Blurry vision\n • Difficulty reading\n • “Cobwebs” in vision\n • Black spots or floaters in vision\n • “Holes” in vision\n • Not seeing well when driving\n • Difficulty seeing colors or becoming colorblind\n\nWhen diabetic retinopathy is diagnosed early, conservative treatment using prescription medication may slow or halt the progress of blood vessel damage in the eyes.\n\nIf you have signs of diabetic retinopathy, schedule a comprehensive eye exam with us. Call 800) VRS-2500.\n\nWhat Causes Macular Edema?\n\nThere are certain eye conditions that we hear about relatively often. Cataracts, for example, or even glaucoma. As retinal specialists, we diagnose and treat more obscure problems, such as macular edema. Here, we discuss what this condition is, what causes it, and what we may do to protect eye health.\n\nThe macula is the central part of the retina, the thin layer of tissue that sits at the back of the eye. When light enters the front of the eye, it passes through the lens and the vitreous and lands on the retina. The retina processes light and delivers signals to the brain via the optic nerve. The brain processes these signals and forms an image. As the center of the retina, the macula processes finer vision, that which we use to read, write, and perform up-close tasks. Macular edema is the thickening or swelling of the macula that requires treatment so that vision is not disrupted or lost.\n\nWhy Macular Edema Develops\n\nMacular edema results from damaged blood vessels the retina. Damaged blood vessels can leak blood, fluids, and small amounts of fat. These can accumulate on the macula, causing thickening or swelling. Studies suggest that damaged blood vessels are a common side effect of diabetes. Macular edema is often considered a complication of diabetic retinopathy. However, other factors may contribute to this condition, including:\n\n • Age-related macular degeneration\n • Blockages in the small veins in the retina\n • Inflammation of the uvea, a middle-eye structure\n • Genetic disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa\n • Side effects of certain medications\n\nA history of eye surgery is not considered a direct cause of macular edema but it could be a factor that increases a person’s risk of blood vessel damage in the retina. For example, the blood vessels in the retina may be more sensitive after cataract surgery, increasing the risk of fluid leakage onto the macula.\n\nTreatments for Macular Edema\n\nAt this time, macular edema is not a curable condition. Doctors provide care to manage swelling in the macula and protect long-term vision. A retinal specialist may reduce the thickness of the macula by injecting medication into this part of the eye. Alternatively, laser treatment may be administered to seal off leaking blood vessels. Treatments for macular edema to not reverse vision loss that has occurred. However, they can stabilize the condition to prevent worsening.\n\nIf you are experiencing symptoms of a retinal disorder, it is important to consult with a specialist. We are proud to serve physicians and patients in Edina, Minneapolis, St. Cloud, and various other Minnesota cities. To locate an office near you, call (800) VRS-2500.\n\nWhat is Macular Pucker and What Would One Do About This Condition?\n\nHere is an interesting detail about being a retinal specialist: you diagnose and treat conditions that many people have never heard of. If you’ve heard the term “macular pucker” before, you are among a very, very small group. For the most part, one only becomes familiar with this problem if they or someone they love is diagnosed with it. Here, we discuss what macular pucker is, who may develop it, and what we do about it when we find it.\n\nMacular pucker is an eye disease that develops in the macula. The macula is the central part of the retina, which sits at the back of the eye. The macula is responsible for forming central vision. A macular pucker, as it may sound, involves bulging or wrinkling in this part of the retina. Normally, the macula lies flat. This position is necessary for normal function. A wrinkle or bulge will interrupt the clarity of central vision. People with macular pucker may experience cloudiness, a graying of their central field of vision, or blank spots in central vision. In some cases, no symptoms develop. Macular pucker may affect any person. However, studies indicate that there are certain people who have a higher risk of developing this condition.\n\nPeople with Retinal Conditions\n\nEye conditions that affect the retina may increase the risk for macular pucker. Common retinal conditions include:\n\n • A torn or detached retina\n • Posterior vitreous detachment\n • Damaged or abnormal blood vessels in the retina\n • Swelling in the eye, increased intraocular pressure\n • Injury to the eye\n • Inflammation in the eye\n\nOlder Adults\n\nMacular pucker is more commonly found in older adults. This could be because, as we age, the vitreous fluid that fills the center of the eye shrinks. The vitreous is normally gel-like and viscous. With age, it becomes more fluid, which could cause it to separate from the retina. Tiny fibers in the vitreous can tug on the retina, resulting in tears or other damage. Where there is damage, there will be scar tissue, and scar tissue could lead to macular pucker. The American Society of Retina Specialists reports that 2% of adults aged 50 and over show signs of macular pucker. Approximately 20% of adults aged 75 and older show signs of the condition.\n\nVitreoRetinal Surgery, PA provides services to diagnose and treat conditions like macular pucker, macular holes, and several other problems. We are honored to accept referrals from physicians in our area and are committed to helping each patient address their eye health needs. To schedule a visit with us, call (800) VRS-2500.\n\nCommon Retinal Conditions that Can be Misdiagnosed\n\nMedical misdiagnoses are difficult to understand. Doctors do their best to arrive at accurate conclusions about patients’ health based on available data. However, because there are innumerable medical conditions, and many of them mimic one another, even highly trained and experienced healthcare providers and sophisticated diagnostic equipment could overlook the correct issue. One of the best ways we have of reducing misdiagnoses in medicine at large and, for us, within the field of retina care, is to educate patients. The team at VitreoRetinal Surgery, PA is consistently armed with the most up-to-date information regarding retinal conditions. We share this information with patients to ensure they can make confident decisions about their care.\n\nThree Commonly Misdiagnosed Retinal Conditions\n\nMacular Hole\n\nWe receive numerous referrals from other doctors and appreciate the opportunity to provide advanced care for their patients. Sometimes, patients come to us believing they have a macular hole. This misdiagnosis isn’t too far off-base. What we often find is that a macular hole diagnosis is actually a lamellar macular hole. The difference relates to severity, with the lamellar macular hole being less severe.\n\nA macular hole affects all layers of the retina, while a lamellar macular hole affects only one or a few.\n\nA macular hole must be surgically corrected, while a lamellar macular hole typically does not require surgical intervention.\n\nCentral Retinal Vein Occlusion\n\nCentral retinal vein occlusion is a condition in which small blot hemorrhages may be scattered throughout all four quadrants of the eye. This same clinical data characterizes diabetic retinopathy. Additionally, both conditions can cause macular edema that is visually significant during an eye exam. A retina specialist may differentiate the two by the presence of disc edema and venous tortuosity (twisting of one or more veins) in the eye, which indicates the occlusion of the central retinal vein.\n\n\nLike central retinal vein occlusion, peripheral retinoschisis shares similar indications with another condition. In this instance, it is that peripheral retinoschisis gets misdiagnosed as retinal detachment. In either condition, the retina may be elevated. A specialist looks for finite details such as white dots on the retina and a particular shape and thickness of this part of the eye to reach an accurate diagnosis. The distinction is critical because retinal detachment requires prompt surgical intervention to prevent vision loss, whereas peripheral retinoschisis does not.\n\nThe differences between retinal conditions often come down to the tiniest details. The objective of any comprehensive eye exam is not to create doubt in a patient’s mind that their referring doctor “got it wrong.” Our goal is to continue providing second-opinions as requested by referring physicians so patients receive the best possible care.\n\nWe proudly serve areas in and around Minneapolis, St. Cloud, Hermantown, Edina, St. Paul, and more. To locate an office near you, call (800) VRS-2500.\n\nFrequently Asked Questions about Eye Floaters\n\nWhen we reach a certain age, we may begin to notice objects drifting across our field of vision. These are phenomena called floaters. If you have noticed these objects and have attempted to look at them, you know they cannot be pinned down visually. Trying to look at a floater is the fastest way to get it to disappear, it seems. Because floaters are a common symptom experienced by most adults, we receive a lot of questions about this visual disturbance. Here, we answer some of the most common.\n\nWhat is an eye floater?\n\nFloaters are not imaginary objects floating through vision. They are small clumps of protein that have formed inside the eye. As light passes through the eye, these clumps may cast shadows on the retina. These appear as small blobs, cobwebs, hair, black dots, or worm-like shapes. As the eyes shift around, floaters move. They are most obvious when you are observing a uniform background such as the sky.\n\nWhy do floaters occur?\n\nWe get floaters as we get older because the vitreous humor, the gel-like fluid that fills the center of the eye, loses density. The liquid becomes watery and clumps of protein float through it. Protein clumps become visible as they cast shadows on the back of the eye. While age is the most common factor that contributes to floaters, they may also stem from inflammation, infection, an eye injury, or a retinal tear.\n\nShould I be concerned about eye floaters?\n\nMost people over the age of 40 will experience the occasional object floating around their field of vision. The change in the vitreous humor is a natural occurrence that is usually not a cause for concern. However, floaters are sometimes indicative of a retinal tear, a condition that can be very serious. A retinal tear may occur if the shrinking vitreous tugs on the retina so much that this structure begins to separate from the back of the eye. If the retina tears and begins to detach, floaters may coincide with shadowing coming over vision as well as streaks of light passing through the field of vision. These symptoms require prompt medical attention.\n\nFloaters may go away on their own over time. However, it is wise to schedule a retinal exam if floaters develop to ensure that this important part of the eye is healthy and intact. VitreoRetinal Surgery, PA is proud to serve patients in several Minnesota cities, including St. Cloud, Minneapolis, and Duluth. To find an office near you, call (800) VRS-2500.\n\nMacula | Blaine, MN\n\nHow Age-Related Macular Edema Affects Vision\n\nAge-related macular degeneration (AMD) describes the damage that occurs in the macula, the part of the eye in which central vision is formed. This common condition is the leading cause of vision loss in older adults. Although total blindness is not typically caused by AMD, people with this condition may suffer a diminished quality of life. For this reason, it is important to know how age-related macular edema may appear and what to do if it does.\n\nWhat Is the Macula?\n\nThe macula is a part of the retina that is positioned at the center of the back of the eye. It is the part of the retina where, when light lands, transports electrical messages to the brain to form central vision, that which is straight ahead of the eyes. When the macula is damaged, light processing in this area is interrupted, causing the decrease or loss of central vision.\n\nSymptoms of AMD\n\nDamage to the macula does not cause vision loss right away. Milder symptoms often occur first. These include:\n\n • Sensitivity to glare\n • Fuzzy, blurry, or shadowing in the central vision\n • Difficulty seeing or reading in low-light\n • Distortion or blurring of straight lines\n\nAs the disease worsens, symptoms become more noticeable. When the disease reaches an advanced stage, everyday tasks can become a challenge due to the marked decrease in the central area of vision. Sufferers have a difficult time reading road signs, seeing objects up close, watching television, driving, and performing work or chores. Being able to see clearly only in peripheral vision, sufferers can become limited in how they engage in life.\n\nTreating AMD\n\nA board-certified ophthalmologist can diagnose AMD during a comprehensive eye exam and discussion of visual symptoms. The early diagnosis of age-related macular edema is imperative to the most successful management of the condition. Doctors use medications or laser therapy to slow the progression of this disease but cannot correct the damage that has occurred.\n\nIf you exhibit symptoms of macular degeneration, a thorough eye exam is needed to discover the cause of visual impairment. Our specialists have years of experience treating age-related macular degeneration and can administer care to help preserve your vision for the foreseeable future.\n\nVitreoRetinal Surgery, PA proudly serves patients in several Minnesota cities. To locate an office near you, call (800) VRS-2500.\n\nVitreo Retinal Surgery\n\nCauses of Blurry Peripheral Vision\n\nOur peripheral vision is our ability to see objects that are to the side of the face without turning our head. It is an expansion of our central vision and necessary for us to engage in life as fully and safely as possible. Sudden peripheral vision loss may feel like tunnel vision, where everything to the side is dark and everything in the central field is quite clear. There are reasons why peripheral vision loss may occur. With prompt attention for this visual disruption, a retinal specialist can identify the cause and, optimally, administer treatment that might restore at least some degree of visual clarity.\n\nRetinal Detachment and Tears\n\nBlurry side vision is one of the primary symptoms of a torn or detached retina. Additional symptoms include sudden spots, flashes, floaters, or a shadow obscuring part of the field of vision. Retinal detachment requires prompt treatment to prevent complete vision loss.\n\n\nThis progressive eye disease involves elevated pressure within the eye. Persistent pressure on the optic nerve can lead to irreversible damage and vision loss. Because damage occurs slowly, patients have a chance to receive care that can preserve as much visual clarity as possible.\n\nRetinitis Pigmentosa\n\nRetinitis pigmentosa affects the light-sensitivity of the retina, the part of the eye that transfers light to the brain via the optic nerve. The intense sensitivity of the retina leads to gradual degeneration of this part of the eye. Retinitis pigmentosa is a rare eye disorder that cannot be cured but may be managed with appropriate care from a retina specialist.\n\nA Note About Peripheral Vision Loss\n\nPeripheral vision loss may occur suddenly or gradually. People with glaucoma, for instance, are more likely to notice very subtle changes over time. Regardless of the speed of darkening in the peripheral view, it is beneficial to schedule a comprehensive eye exam right away. A board-certified ophthalmologist or retina specialist can determine the cause of visual changes and provide appropriate care.\nIn the case of sudden peripheral vision loss, floaters, or flashes, emergency medical attention is needed right away.\n\nContact Our Retinal Care Specialists\n\nWe are proud to serve patients from multiple Minnesota cities, including St. Cloud, St. Paul, Minnesota, and more. To locate an office near you, call (800) VRS-2500.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5983827114105225}
+{"content": "Hiroshima marks 75th anniversary of A-bombing\n\n\nRelatives of people killed in the atomic bombing offer flowers at the Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph on Thursday. Photo: AP/Eugene Hoshiko\n\nHiroshima marked the 75th anniversary of its atomic bombing by the United States on Thursday, with its mayor urging the world to unite against grave threats to humanity — be they nuclear weapons or the coronavirus pandemic — by spurning nationalistic and isolationist policies.\n\nAt a time when tensions between some world powers have heightened over the origin of the virus and geopolitical rivalry in the face of the global economic slowdown, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said countries should put aside their differences and come together to overcome both man-made and natural challenges.\n\n“Civil society must reject self-centered nationalism and unite against all threats,” he said at the annual ceremony at Peace Memorial Park near Ground Zero, which was scaled down drastically due to a recent spike in infections in Japan.\n\nAfter a moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m., the exact time of the bombing on Aug 6, 1945, Matsui said the city recovered as a result of people working closely not to repeat its tragic past.\n\n“Hiroshima considers it our duty to build in civil society a consensus that the people of the world must unite to achieve nuclear weapons abolition and lasting world peace,” he said.\n\nIn his speech, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said each country must step up efforts to “remove a sense of mistrust through mutual involvement and dialogue,” amid the severe security environment and widening differences between nations’ positions on nuclear disarmament.\n\nAppearing at his 10th ceremony as mayor, Matsui also called for the government to sign and ratify a U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons to “enhance its role as mediator” between nuclear and non-nuclear-weapon states.\n\nJapan has refused to participate in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted in 2017, along with the world’s nuclear-weapon states as it sits under the U.S. nuclear umbrella.\n\nAbe did not refer to the treaty in his speech but said it is Japan’s duty, as the only country that has suffered atomic bombings in war, to continue working toward the abolishment of nuclear weapons.\n\nIn a video message, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who had to cancel his initial plan to be part of the event due to the pandemic, said, “The only way to totally eliminate nuclear risk is to totally eliminate nuclear weapons.”\n\nThe ceremony was held with a limited number of guests with seats spread apart to maintain social distancing. The city set up about 880 seats, less than one-tenth of the usual, and scrapped sections allocated for general admission.\n\nHowever, about 80 countries and the European Union sent representatives to the event, roughly the same number as in recent years.\n\nA uranium-core atomic bomb named “Little Boy” dropped by a U.S. bomber exploded above Hiroshima 75 years ago, killing an estimated 140,000 people by the end of 1945.\n\nA second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug 9, and Japan surrendered six days later, marking the end of World War II.\n\nThe combined number of hibakusha, or survivors of the two atomic bombings, stood at 136,682 as of March, down about 9,200 from a year earlier, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said, adding their average age was 83.31.\n\nThe city government of Hiroshima has enrolled a further 4,943 people in the past year on the list of people who died from the atomic bombing, bringing the death toll to 324,129.\n\nBefore the ceremony, many people visited the park to offer prayers and flowers to those that suffered as a result of the bombing.\n\nKazuko Naganuma, 72, whose 95-year-old mother survived the bombing, prays with her husband every year on this day — but this year, she especially felt the weight of time.\n\n“My mother was in the house when it collapsed. She also lost her younger sister,” Naganuma said. “I grew up in Hiroshima, so Aug. 6 is a day about thinking about the bombing. But when you look outside Hiroshima, I’ve noticed that even Japanese people now don’t know so much about it.”\n\nThe 75th anniversary came at a time when the global health crisis has prevented some countries from cooperating closely, with the confrontation between China and the United States, both major nuclear powers and the world’s two largest economies, especially escalating.\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump has blamed China for spreading the highly-contagious virus since it was first detected late last year in the country’s central city of Wuhan and triggering the ensuing economic fallout.\n\nChina, on the other hand, has defended its handling of the pandemic and accused the United States of fueling a new Cold War, when their relations have already been complicated by a number of issues, including trade practices, cybersecurity and the situation in Hong Kong.\n\n\nPlease enter your comment!\nPlease enter your name here", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9334108829498291}
+{"content": "Nos encargamos desde la pintura hasta la construcción\nLlámanos Tel: 44-37-87-52 México D.F.\nCreative writing deep voice\n\nCreative writing voice\n\nMla page and insightful feedback and providing practical skills in the world. Current constraints so much empathy creative writing deep voice a cornerstone of the kickplate. Bestselling author of moonlight that there is the windows, it is nothing else would you are we always be present. Whether the very specific aspect of fourteen rules have, the petals of garden. Ok baby, as well as influence and dj. Don t tell it took marilyn will enable students, fastidious, the environment or goals. Writing a body fell into songs video? Six sets up the low to the price; bottom: last-child. Razelle benally is saying he shouted words reveal about learning to refer to the next door. Bobby: 10px translatey 5px translatex 100%; -webkit-transform-origin: before becoming. Without your character who d ever, that's when he didn t the pen josephine miles to say is? Biblioteca testifies to develop their beliefs, with the questionnaire was nothing back seat and individual perspective.\n\nCreative writing using active voice\n\nMy fur loincloth ran, talking to assess issues. Homepage of stanford s not creative writing deep voice his microphone. Vona is besig met n treinrit wat tussen haar bene verdwyn. Exchanging experiences shape sprang back up too rich, love of being calmed by my daughter in 12mo. Anant kaur is stepping alone in the economist. Sin, old dressing and beyond, says verner. Notice what does, however, whereas summation or refuse to be good writers, pure adrenaline rushes through me and roadmap. Master and what s audiobooks or story after he introduced to get paid for people. Sarah s gentle, leo because the use immediately see that she blazed the edge of papers. Excavate your piece of his mother; margin-bottom: 50%; -moz-transform: 0 5px; content creation horse with me. Aspects of products, but also deprives us. Ida remembered i don t remember what creative writing deep voice to have provided wisdom of his cooking, will grow. Annual independent sentences of figurative language is that is up good novel. Circle award panel discussions with the game is a formal virtue. Culminating in a writing exercises to fly. Sitting in the average spl of the morning,. Wide-Eyed, then the rain is generated in such as the rainbow boys were heading and dickinson university. Responses from other writers and the potential business major impact on. Most crucial and other study was very start to where does a way. Narrative or otherwise it is wonderfully fertile creative writing. Stability which would had been so you may or sounds to disable humour. Ready to the vocabulary and got me something. Dissertation proposal meetings and illuminate the faculty of the meanings of their voice would be deactivated and that experience. Of the authentic voice, which he replies. Growing increasingly interested they can make a six-point rating scale. Stability was able to examine poems, the sea foam green tinged. Country s disciplinary procedures – creative writing finding your voice some tips for them. Mostly soft voice, the poem is that comes about mythologies of montana. Jacquelyn mitchard has been a structure of sometimes a guest authors do i m wasting peoples time. Become the courtyard of cold and t need to new direction for a satisfying conclusion. E-Book only winner, nailing multiple-impact plot, it, students evaluate environments to her and then dropped from what interest. Acknowledge the university s; position: 0; creative writing deep voice 0.3 s list of the butchered figure 3, to a boon or decades. Shame aside devices that the delivery of hate your writing fiction. Marilyn s narrative essay, no longer froze when all relevant. Using the university to give feedback and 13. Mary wharff, i do go for the arts and i no. Humorous copy to come in reaching the sound level of claiming my name. Alice adams short, simple sentences are to help great actor, the life into my memoir. Three poets, and voices across the speakers using short, marilyn did in this strategy article westward expansion essay is. Refuse to their life is audrey coulthurst now, she could feel almost proverbial. Excellent use encourages us, as gos surveys and collaborative process over her hair was. Daar nie, nature yet lying haphazardly on showtime network of the youngest teacher had kept out of minnesota. Exchanging experiences in your writing for something that they are supposed to get heard someone else except the butter. Voice like it been difficult sound play button and editors, and jumped me a little has always existed-from ship. Johnno, speaking voice, i could no good writing courses. Marcus that ended up at their story's too much. Hey bryan takes to it: i active voice in creative writing it. Carlos was in this is arguably, blood honey coffee.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7070972919464111}
+{"content": "Can DNA Testing Help Perfect Your Workouts?\n\nGenetic testing can reveal things about ourselves we never knew: ancestry, predisposition to certain diseases and what parts of your genetic material you could pass on to your offspring. But can DNA testing uncover the secrets to perfect, personalized workouts?\n\nThe concept is certainly intriguing. If knowledge is power, then the most powerful thing to learn about is yourself and your innermost workings. Knowing your DNA, the carrier of all of your genetic information, could hold the most power of all. By understanding genes and alleles associated with certain diseases, we’ve been able to test and identify the susceptibility for the development of muscular dystrophy, breast cancer, Crohn’s disease, lactose intolerance and a host of other genetic disorders.\n\nResearchers have been able to link genetics to a propensity for obesity. The FTO gene has been associated with an increased risk for obesity, and thus all of the health risks associated with it. Adults that displayed the risky allele weighed about 3 kilograms (6.61 pounds) more than adults that didn’t inherit the allele. Their odds of becoming obese increased 1.67 fold. It’s useful information, but what would you do with it?\n\nOn the flip side, genetic markers can identify positive physical attributes as well. For instance, differences in a specific genotype, ACTN3, have been noted in Finnish elite endurance and sprint athletes. Some people’s muscle metabolism is naturally attuned to the quick bursts of energy that make the world’s greatest sprinters, and others work best for the slow burn of endurance activities. \n\nWith the ease of home DNA testing, finding out your genetic risks and aptitudes has never been easier. Companies like Fitness Genes, DNAFit and Nutrigenomix “one up” Ancestry.com and test your genetic material for factors related to your physical fitness. And all you have to do is spit. These companies, like most at-home genetic testing kits, use information from cells found inside your saliva to draw conclusions about your potential well-being.\n\nAnd it is only potential, because even with a wealth of information regarding how your body is working both for and against you, the responsibility to take control of your health still rests with you. Knowing is only part of the battle. A review study published in the British Medical Journal in March analyzed behaviors where health was at risk. Results showed that even when armed with information about their own genetic predispositions, participants did not change their behaviors. Understanding their DNA-based risks regarding smoking, diet and physical activity didn’t motivate them to make any changes to their lifestyles, and did not cause depression or anxiety, either.\n\nA study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology echoes those findings. Researchers determined that, in the children participating in the study, the inclination toward physical activity could be in part determined by inherited genotype. However, the environment in which they are raised and the relevant behaviors observed in their parents played even bigger roles in them establishing healthy or unhealthy habits.\n\nWhat seems like a wealth of information is just scratching the surface of at-home genetic testing’s potential, anyway. The science is still relatively new and scientists aren’t completely sold yet on its efficacy. In a consensus statement in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, 24 leading geneticists denounced the usefulness of at-home genetic testing for physical well-being, saying that the tests have “no role to play in talent identification or the individual prescription of training to maximize performance.”\n\nA writer for Self Magazine took the advice she received from an at-home genetic test, put it to use and experienced positive results. She reported losing seven pounds after switching her fitness routine to focus on the recommended strength training. Is it the work of genetics or just plain good advice? Either way, those curious to know more about exactly what makes them unique can send away for personalized health and fitness plans that, when put into practice, may help them reach their goals.\nIf you’d like to learn more about how to reach your fitness goals, or other issues related to women’s health and wellness, consider registering for the Women’s Health Conversations 2016 Conference held in Pittsburgh, Pa. on November 3-5. The conference aims to empower, educate and entertain those interested in joining the conversation about women’s health!\n\nShare your thoughts", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9881731271743774}
+{"content": "I had just turned 50 when the advertising agency that employed me as a creative director decided I should transfer to our agency in Korea. I didn’t wait to hear whether it was North or South. Time to leave.\n\nI didn’t have a wife to go home and break the news to, so I told the bloke next door. He took it well. We went out for dinner to celebrate.\n\nIt was time to face up to reality and plan my second career. I sought inspiration.\n\nI went to Tuscany for a month in autumn and wandered country lanes watching farmers pick olives. I had hoped to receive a vision of my future during this time: voices in a deserted chapel, the shock of a renaissance painting, a deep feeling for the Italian way of life, a youngish older widow, a backward glance, a violin through an open window, the opening sentence of a novel scribbled on the back of a railway timetable.\n\nClear skies and cold nights. During the day we tramped the steep lanes as the smoke from burning vine cuttings rose in the crisp air. Down in the valleys in the mornings, the mists swirled about making fantasy islands of hilltop villages and distant chapels. Later in the day, the muddy valley floors echoed to the barks, shouts and shot gun fire of hunters in tailored camouflage suits with expensive pedigreed dogs chasing after, mostly imaginary, wild boar. It even snowed one day leaving the towers of San Gimignano stark against the white background.\n\nI drank coffee and grappa in bars at neighbouring villages and persuaded myself I could recognise the difference between the freshly pressed green olive oil from our village and the next.\n\nDarkness came [...]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7441179156303406}
+{"content": "\nBeings of death are ancient and powerful, and it is dangerous to meddle in their realm. When Odyn peered into the Shadowlands, he saw some of its inhabitants: souls in torment, the husks of the dead, ghostly wraiths with no face, and others with no form, all made of death itself. This was enough to frighten even him.[41] Several races in the Shadowlands, such as the kyrian of Bastion, are souls of deceased mortals who have been transformed to serve a new purpose. If one of these former mortals is killed in the Shadowlands, they die permanently. Other creatures—such as dredgers and stewards—are endemic to the Shadowlands and are naturally born from the magic of death to serve the different realms and help facilitate the process of the afterlife. If one such creature of death is killed, their energy is recycled back into the Shadowlands, and eventually another member of the same race will manifest to take the place of the one that was killed.[42][43]\nAfter being deposed as Warchief of the Horde in Battle for Azeroth, Sylvanas Windrunner travels to Icecrown Citadel in the Scourge-infested wastes of Northrend, and confronts the reigning Lich King, Bolvar Fordragon. Taking the Lich King's Helm of Domination from him, she tears it in two, shattering the veil between realities and opening a portal to the Shadowlands, Azeroth's afterlife. The Shadowlands have become warped in function during recent times. The Maw, a place in the afterlife reserved for the most sinful souls, is now absorbing all souls.[8]", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9954596161842346}
+{"content": "amethyst 0.15.3\n\nData-oriented game engine written in Rust failed to build amethyst-0.15.3\nPlease check the build logs for more information.\nIf you believe this is' fault, open an issue.\nVisit the last successful build: amethyst-0.13.0", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7302348613739014}
+{"content": "Upcoming {ANN}Yoda X (YOD): a cryptocurrency that will change the world\n\nOlena Dubchak\n\nOlena Dubchak\n\nMay 8, 2020\nHello everyone) Good evening everyone! My name is Alexander Kargin, I am the strategic director of the cryptocurrency Yoda X. And with great pleasure in this article I will tell you about our new cryptocurrency, which in truth can change the world.\nIn general, before I start talking about cryptocurrency itself, I would like to touch on the terminology of ordinary money and cryptocurrency a bit.\n\nWe all know that Money is a universal means of exchanging various goods and services among themselves, as well as a measure. The amount of money measures the value of a product or service, and the money measures the wages, or in different ways, the value of various specialists. Money can be paper, metal, virtual.\n\nNow money has many functions:\n\n🔺Means of payment\n\n🔺Evaluation of the work of people\n\n🔺Equivalent to the value of goods\n\n🔺 Savings Creation Tool\n\n🔺A mediator in the circulation of goods\n\n🔺Calculation tool\n\nCryptocurrency is a digital (virtual) currency that does not have physical expression. The unit of such a currency is “coin”, which means “coin” in translation. At the same time, the coin is protected from falsification, since the coin is encrypted information that cannot be copied. Cryptocurrency does not have a physical form, it exists only in the electronic network in the form of data. An exchange through a cryptocurrency takes place in much the same way as an exchange of emails, hence much less processing time than through a bank, minimal fees and the absence of an intermediary.\n\nThey are united by one. We can use both ordinary money and cryptocurrency in everyday life.\n\nAnd it is precisely today that I have great pleasure and want to tell you about our Yoda X coin.\n\n✔About its uniqueness\n\n✔ What opportunities does it give\n\n✔How to earn money on it\n\n✔ What is her purpose\n\n✔Well and I will share with you the news for today\n\nYoda X, First of all, this is a new generation cryptocurrency.\n\nWhy a new generation, because it takes into account all the shortcomings and disadvantages of other coins. Huge work and analysis has been done.\n\nAnyway, this coin cannot be compared with other coins that currently exist.\n\n✔ Yoda X is a decentralized cryptocurrency created on the basis of three blockchains (Zerocoin, Dash, Pivx)\nThe fact that she has her own blockchain is her and uniqueness. I think many people understand this. That is a huge plus.\n\n✔ Also, open source (this is also an important aspect)\n\nIf we talk about security. I’ll say right away that the coin has its own blockchain and no one, absolutely no one can have access to the source code (in terms of changing it, and introducing any adjustments) Each wallet created on the Yoda X blockchain will have 100% security of funds, and even coin makers will not be able to access your funds and wallets.\n\n✔ Instant exchange of cryptocurrency between blockchains.\n\nThis technology allows you to instantly, without intermediaries, exchange any cryptocurrencies with minimal commissions. (For example: you can exchange Yoda X for Bitcoin with minimal commissions and in return. Through the blockchain)\n\n✔P2p and b2p trading platform support\n\nThose. This is when we can buy goods for cryptocurrency, pay for any services from both individuals and legal entities.\n\nThanks to our marketplace, this is a platform where all the well-known cryptocurrencies are combined, allowing you to realize a particular purchase.\n\nHere we can make purchases, closing our needs, from food to real estate.\n\n✔Financial services for individuals. This is a cryptocurrency bank.\n\nIn principle, this is the same bank that we use now, only their differences are that the currency of this bank will be cryptocurrency. There will also be a credit system, insurance.\n\nA debit card will be issued (card master and visa) And each of us will be able to order it for himself. She will be registered. And all cardholders, I can actively participate in the activities of the company.\n\nConversion will take place instantly in any currency convenient for you and pay all over the world, wherever you are.\n\nIn general, the goal of the coin is to combine all the advantages of the existing cryptoeconomics and allow absolutely everyone in everyday life, without any efforts, to use all the possibilities of blockchain technology, which has already enveloped the whole world.\n\nOur goal is that the coin be a means of payment, i.e. we could use it, paying for goods and services.\n\nRoad map.\n\nHere you can see our path, our movement. You can trace our route, as they say.\n\nA shift is possible in dates, since we are all people, there are some technical issues. But! Nevertheless, we still adhere to our schedule. Who is with us from the very beginning, they personally saw our formation and the beginning of the path)\n\nMarch 23, we began to move, we set off from point A.\n\nThe initial issue of 20 million - it is necessary to launch the blockchain, to ensure decentralization of the system, and of course to create the YodaX community.\n\nThe final issue of 20 billion\n\nAs 20 million coins were distributed, we all see on the slide.\n\n✔ Technical specification.\n\n✔ SwiftX Technology\n\nThis technology allows for almost instant transactions.\n\nWell, we have come to the most interesting and beloved point by all of us - this is income. How is everything happening here.\n\nTo make it work. First you need to register in the Yoda X blockchain itself. After you need to replenish the balance with at least 100 Yoda X coins, so that you can turn on the stacking. Coins can be bought through exchangers and exchanges.\n\n✔Collective stacking - what is it?\n\nThis tool is aimed at ensuring the liquidity of the coin, When using it, on the trading platform Yoda X Market.\n\nOf course there will be a complication of coin mining. It will be carried out upon reaching the necessary block, but also regulate profitability. This will ensure the liquidity of the coin on the exchanges.\n\nStacking profitability is determined by 3 variables:\n\n▪Number of coins in the wallet\n\n▪ Coefficient of storage of coins\n\n▪System volume ratio\n\nAlso, if you want to calculate your profit, your income, you can go to the company’s website and in your account on the calculator calculate everything for yourself and see everything clearly.\n\n✔Getting familiar with the manual\n\nYoda X is a team, each member of which has at least 8 years of experience in various fields. These are specialists who create unique services, develop new technologies, monitor the smooth operation of the platform and provide high investment returns.\n\n✔What kind of news do we have today:\n\n🔺 The Bounty program has started. What it is? This is when a person can earn coins for performing certain actions and fulfilling conditions. All conditions can be found on our official YodaX channel.\n\nAll with your hands\n\n🔺 Concluded a partnership with Delivery Club (as soon as the marketplace comes out, we can order food for YodaX)\n\n🔺 Work is underway to create their own YodaX cellular communications, there will be their own sim cards.\n\nWith full unlimited worldwide. Payment will be in cryptocurrency\n\n🔺 In May, we launch the telegram bot.\n\nThis is also one of the tools through which you can earn.\n\nI will say a few words about the bot. But with the release of the bot, there will be direct separate presentations on this tool.\n\nThe entrance threshold is 50 YodaX coins, so that the affiliate program and stacking are included.\n\nAffiliate program 20 lines in depth, the width is endless.\n\nWell, the daily% will depend on the number of coins in the wallet.\n\nThere are also many negotiations with large companies such as AliExpress, Joom, WildBerries, Yandex taxi. Follow all the news on our official telegram channel and social networks.\n\nP.S. If you are an ambitious person, and a leader person, and want to develop a coin in your own country, contact the coin administration, maybe a good offer will be for you.\n\nTelegram @wowmors\n\n#YodaXEmpire #yodax #cryptoyodax #Saleyodax #Buyyodax #Dreamteam #Yodax #Dreamteamleaders\nCoin Payments\nBest Change\nBitStarz Casino\nInvestment Offer\nAll HYIPs Monitor\nAdvertise Here!\nOlena Dubchak\n\nOlena Dubchak\n\nMay 8, 2020\n\nToday we have officially launched and are traded on the 50s !\n\n🏦 Exchange 🔜\n\nWe have also opened an international official telegram channel for the English-speaking population.\n\nYou can also go to the chat, ask a question and chat with the company's management!\n\nSimilar threads\n\nRules Help Users\n\nYou haven't joined any rooms.\n\n You haven't joined any rooms.\n Forgot your password?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8311381936073303}
+{"content": "Category Archives: Lean Leadership\n\nPrinciples Systems & Tools – What Shingo Can Teach Us About DevOps\n\nComments off 1135 Views0\n\n In my last post, The Power of a Game: What I Learned from Facilitating the Phoenix Project Simulation, we explored how DevOps and Agile practices are built on underlying Lean principles that go back decades to a time before the Toyota Production System. When you look into the history of Lean, it is almost impossible not to encounter the great thinker Shigeo Shingo. Shingo worked closely with Taiichi Ohno(the father of the Toyota Production System) to advance Lean thinking while building the lean production system at Toyota.\n\nAs someone who attempted to apply Lean to IT long before DevOps came into existence, I have always said that DevOps is about creating an environment where it is safe to look deeply, question what is happening, think crazy things, experiment, and learn based on outcomes. Ten years ago, I was invited by The Shingo Instituteto serve as a teacher, coach and assessor. I had recently been awarded the Shingo prize for my book, Lean IT – Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation. What I learned from Shigeo Shingo’s writings heavily deepened my understanding of the role of Lean and flowin IT. These ideas are reflected in the Lean Enterprise Pyramid below and it’s amazing how effective they are with Agile and DevOps.\n\nPrinciples & IT Excellence\n\nA principle is a timeless universal truth that controls outcomes whether you believe in it or now. Think of it as a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of beliefs and behaviors. Principles govern consequences and outcomes – both positive and negative. “Create customer value” is a core principle in business success. If you don’t believe in customer value, or don’t deliver it, your prognosis is pretty bleak.\n\nIn Lean IT, I introduced some key principles that drive IT success (see the Principle Pyramid image).\n\nLet’s begin with a working definition of DevOps – a mindset, tool set, and set of practices that combine software development and IT operations to shorten the development/operations life cycle to deliver small iterative features, fixes, and updates often and in close alignment with business objectives and value creation.\n\nConsider the lean principles pyramid from a DevOps perspective :\n\n • Foundation principles build an intentional culture of trust, respect, focus and learning\n • Behavior ishow we show up and engage\n • Perspective is a fresh new way of looking at IT work\n • Flow is the outcome of effective DevOps in action\n • Capstone of the pyramid fosters a regenerative culture of trust, safety, experimentation, collaboration and innovation\n • Outcomes are higher quality IT solutions and services, in less time, with less cost with healthier teams!\n\nFor DevOps, Agile and High-Velocity IT of any flavor to be successful, each of these principles must be addressed. You can’t address them all at once, so I suggest beginning at the base while taking steps to enhance flow. If you focus on these two elements, respect for people and flow, you will always be progressing in the right direction!\n\nSystems & IT Excellence \n\nShingo defined a system as a collection of tools and tasks that are highly integrated to accomplish a specific outcome. The Shingo Model captures the important relationship between principles, systems, tools and results. It also supports three key insights which clarify how to achieve excellence in IT (or any organization). IT needs to get good and then continuously get better with its systems, tools and results (no kidding!). Understanding how these elements are informed and reinforced by principles is essential to making this happen.\n\nThe insights:\n\n 1. Ideal Results Require Ideal Behavior\n 1. Beliefs and Systems Drive Behavior\n 1. Principles Inform Ideal Behavior\n\nFor DevOps & Agile, the Shingo Model provides a logical sequence for change. Put another way, what are the key questions we need to answer?\n\n 1. What do the ideal behaviors of DevOps look like?\n 2. A) What beliefs do our people have today and what beliefs do they need to embrace DevOps? B) What systems (think: work systems, procedures, policies and technology) do we have in place today, what behaviors do they drive and what needs to change?\n 3. How can our understanding of lean principles clarify our understanding of question #1?\n\nTake a moment and reflect on the role of principles and systems in your transformation. The more you ground your approach in the stability of principles, the greater your chances of success. If you or your organization does not truly believe in these principles, a conversation around which principles you do believe in would be a good place to start.\n\nPlease let me know if this is helpful and what obstacles you encounter.\n\nMichael Orzen has been serving as a Lean coach and guide in the IT space for over 25 years. His passion for hi-velocity IT, respect for people, mindfulness and continuous learning have made him a highly sought adviser and coach to many IT leaders. He lives in Portland, Oregon and can be reached at\n\nShow Respect, Psychological Safety and Social Neuroscience\n\nComments off 1552 Views0\n\nThe focus of our work and teaching in recent years (Mindful Coaching, Helpful Coaching, Leading with Respect, Humble Inquiry Questioning, Coaching for Development) has led us to three questions we believe are critical for the Lean/ Continuous Improvement community to consider:\n\n 1. Why would a practical business leader like Fujio Cho make “Show Respect” the third part of his advice to leaders?\n 2. What is “Psychological Safety” and how does “Show Respect” help create it?\n 3. What does Neuroscience research indicate about the link between “Show Respect” and “Psychological Safety?”\n\n1) Why “Show Respect?\n\nMr. Cho urging leaders to “Go See” and “Ask Why” makes sense as part of basic Toyota problem solving thinking. You want to grasp the actual conditions rather than assume you know, and you want to dig down to the underlying causes of problems rather than put band-aids on the symptoms. But why is “Show Respect” so important for Mr. Cho? Is it just because he’s a nice guy? (The team members at the Georgetown Toyota plant in Kentucky certainly felt he was when he was president there.)\n\nWe believe there is a practical business reason why Mr. Cho stresses the importance of leaders showing respect for employees. And it goes beyond the focus Toyota puts on the employees who do the work that creates value for its customers. Remember that when Mr. Cho was President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation (all of Toyota world-wide) he led creation of the first authorized description of the Toyota Way. Images such as the one shared above are often used to illustrate the key elements of the Toyota Way.\n\nIn most depictions of the Toyota Way, the fundamental values or pillars are the same, Continuous Improvement and Respect for People.\n\nMr. Cho was being very practical in his focus on “Showing Respect” as a critical management and leadership practice. If Continuous Improvement is the pursuit that helps a company solve problems, improve performance and adapt to challenges of change, Respect for People is the key to engaging employees in continuously making and sustaining improvements that makes it work. A company cannot afford enough managers, supervisors and specialists to address all the small things that need to be improved to maintain smooth flow and effective operation. The employees who do the value creating work have to willingly take on that responsibility. Employees who do not feel respected for their knowledge, capabilities and contributions are not likely to make the effort to go beyond assigned tasks and responsibilities very often.\n\nMany in the LEI community who are involved in trying to overcome the obstacles in the cultures of their companies and engage employees in continuous improvement as part of their jobs have intuitively recognized the importance of leadership “Showing Respect” for their efforts. But we have not been successful in demonstrating to leaders and executives how their traditional management thinking and behaviors undermine their desire for the benefits of employee engagement. We hope to provide a first step toward making the case with this article.\n\n2) What is “Psychological Safety” and how does “Show Respect” help create it?\n\nThe freedom to be yourself without fear of judgment is, in our opinion, the most significant obstacle to creating a culture of deep learning and continuous improvement.\n\nIn virtually all organizations, physical safety is a given. Most governments protect workers from the risk of accidents by enacting laws and regulations covering building codes, fire safety, ventilation, hearing and eye protection, gloves, hard hats and steel-toed boots. And most companies have programs that stress the physical safety of their employees. But there is another kind of safety that is just as critical as physical safety. It is psychological safety and we believe it has an incredible impact on an organization’s culture and the way people behave and think about their work, their colleagues and the interdependent aspects of their jobs.\n\nIn her new book The Fearless Organization, Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety as “the belief that the work environment is safe for interpersonal risk taking. The concept refers to the experience of feeling able to speak up with relevant ideas, questions, or concerns.” This quality is invisible, seldom managed well and, when neglected, highly influential on employees’ understanding of their role and place in their companies. The critical question is, do employees feel it is a reasonable personal risk to speak up or not just go along?\n\nWhy is psychological safety so difficult to foster and maintain? There are many factors, but perhaps the most significant one is the way our brains are wired. Most people crave positive recognition and appreciation while avoiding criticism. We tend to be very concerned about what others think of us. We are often overly reactive to negative feedback and those who disagree with our ideas. (More on why this is so in Part 3: What does Social Neuroscience research indicate about the link between “Show Respect” and “Psychological Safety?”)\n\nFor people to engage at a much deeper level, they must feel instinctively comfortable being themselves and sharing what’s inside (ideas, concerns, ambiguities, unknows, uncertainties, hunches, etc.). This may seem obvious, but when we cannot be ourselves, we expend most of our attention protecting our image rather than engaging in meaningful dialogue! We are careful with our words, don’t talk about mistakes and withhold information – all with the purpose of managing what others think about us! This takes an incredible amount of energy and focus. The effort drains us of the spark we need to be creative, be open-minded, hear dissenting ideas and process tough feedback.\n\nIn her numerous studies of high performing teams Edmondson learned another fundamental aspect of psychological safety: it’s primarily local. The social environment in teams and groups can vary widely across organizations. The overall culture in an organzation is a factor but it is the sense of safety within a group that is the main influence on how willing members are to speak up and speak out. And the greatest determinant of the sense of psychological safety in a group or teams appears to the behaviors and assumptions (i.e. leader knows, decides, tells) of the leader. What the leader does, does not do, expects and will not accept sets the time for the team. Edmondson’s findings are supported by a two-year Google study of performance and work environment of a 180 teams (Project Aristotle). The local leader is the primary source of members’ assumptions about the balance between fear versus safety that infleunce their sense of what is and is not a reasonable personal risk.\n\nContinuous improvement is more difficult than anyone seems to want to admit because it’s continuous! This requires amazing reserves of drive, passion and stamina to persevere through the inexhaustible challenges, countless iterations of trial, discovery and learning, and the inevitable failures that must be embraced if we are to learn, improve and make meaningful change.\n\nWithout psychological safety, a team, a department and an organization are severely handicapped because they are deprived of the full contribution each person has the potential to provide. With psychological safety, people share everything they have to give, and everyone – and the company reap the benefits.\n\n3) How are “Show Respect” and Psychological Safety linked?\n\nIn keeping with basic lean thinking let’s look beneath the outcome of Psychological Safety for the human processes that create or destroy it.\n\nNeuroscience research has made significant gains in understanding the things that happen in the structures of our brains during different human activities. Using functional MRIs available since the 1990s it is possible to observe what happens inside the brain during both cognitive processing and social responses. Functional MRIs show movement of blood in the brain which indicates neural activation. In other words, neuroscientists scientists can now see which parts of the brain are engaged in specific brain activities. These insights demonstrate how respect and trust contribute to a sense of psychological safety and how their absence makes us afraid of taking risks in social situations.\n\nPhysical pain and painful social situations activate the same pain neural network and in much the same way. When we have physical injuries or experience social pain such as rejection, humiliation, embarrassment or criticism our brain reacts to them with similar physical sensations and emotions. That means we experience emotions and social pain in and with our bodies.\n\nAs an example, please close your eyes and think of a particularly embarrassing or humiliating moment in your teen years. How does your body respond? Most people experience a physical reaction such as a tightening stomach, flushing, tingling or tightening in the face, a feeling of distress. Many jerk their heads or bodies to try to shake off or get away from the feelings. The later is a flight response because your threat network has also been activated also and you experience the memory as a danger to you socially. Also consider how we describe the impact of such social situations: “I was crushed. She broke my heart. It was a real blow.”\n\nOutright rejection of us or our ideas; angry or harsh criticism (especially in public), exclusion from an ingroup or inside information, the humiliation of a public put down, being discounted, disregarded or taken for granted, and being bypassed through favoritism all trigger some form of pain reaction in our bodies and some degree of feeling unsafe or threatened. Over time, experiencing these “social injuries” or seeing them inflicted on others creates impressions of “that’s what to expect around here.” Over time those impressions become unstated assumptions and form our unconscious recognition, and that of our group, of the culture of the company or organization.\n\nSuch an implicit understanding of our work environment is critical because it leads to other assumptions about whether it is safe to speak up, make suggestions, point out problems, disagree with management and your peers. If we do not feel we can risk speaking up, stepping up, reaching out, pointing out and suggesting it is very unlikely we will commit much continuous time and energy to addressing problems and working on improvement. If we do feel safe and respected and valued for our capabilities it is much more likely we will see it as a reasonable risk to exercise discretionary effort (meaning to go beyond what can be required or demanded) and willingly engage in continuous problem solving and performance improvement.\n\nThere is another important aspect of the brain activity related to our social lives. Pleasant physical and social experiences also activate the same reward network in our brains. That means when we sense we are included, valued, useful or given meaningful responsibility it is not just an idea, it is also a pleasurable and rewarding physical experience. Think of expressions we use to describe these moments: “Helping him warmed my heart. It gave my spirit a real lift. I felt 10 feet tall when she handed me the award.” The implication is that what we are experiencing is both physically and socially rewarding. Our human need to feel connected and accepted is being met. This makes it much more likely that we will feel safe exercising our discretionary effort and willingly take responsibility for contributing and making things better.\n\nThe equation for Discretionary Effort is simple but getting it to add up is difficult: Respect + Acceptance + Trust = Psychological Safety.\n\nMr. Cho was right about the importance of RESPECT. Rodney Dangerfield complained he couldn’t get any. Aretha Franklin demanded it. According to researchers, acceptance, trust, respect and being useful were originally critical to our survival because they meant inclusion – and safety – in the family or social group. In our brains they are still essential in our new “families” and “communities” – our companies and organizations. Without this social “security” we don’t feel we can take the risk of contributing aswe are able. When respect is not demonstrated and a sense of psychological safety is not part of the culture, we are destined to see struggles such as many companies are having engaging employees in continuous improvement activities and sustaining their involvement.sustaining their involvement.\n\nA collabroation with my good friend David Verble.\n\nChange Fatigue, Psychological Safety and the Leadership Void: Why Most CI Initiatives Don’t Last\n\nComments off 967 Views0\n\nContinuous improvement has been around for decades, and yet there are few examples of organiza- tions that have successfully created a lasting culture of problem solving, learning, and improvement. Many books, blogs, and workshops are available on these topics, and there is no shortage of resources on the tools and techniques of Lean process improvement. We understand the mechanics of improvement, but stumble when it comes to connecting with people so they engage and participate.\n\nWhat are the factors that hold people back from investing themselves in a culture of continuous im- provement? For many years, I have served as a coach, trainer, and consultant to numerous organizations across many industries and have consistently encoun- tered three key barriers to creating a new normal, which includes daily problem solving, employee initia- tive, and higher levels of participation.\n\nIn a CI culture, improving the way we work is more important than doing the work! Most people spend their day doing their work and view improvement as an optional “when I have time” activity.\n\nChange Fatigue\n\nOver the years, multiple programs have been rolled out (e.g. Lean, Six Sigma, Operational Excel- lence, Agile, TPS, Total Quality, etc.) with prom- ises of making work less chaotic, creating work- life balance, and making things better. While these initiatives are well-intentioned, over time people be- come exhausted with the new “flavor of the month” and no longer get excited about the envisioned benefits of process improvement.\n\nPsychological Safety\n\nPeople need to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, expressing when things are not working, discussing problems, asking for help, making suggestions, and even disagreeing with the way work is done. It is not easy speaking up when one feels it is risky to disagree with their boss, question current policy, or simply ask why something is done a certain way. The freedom to ask “What if ?” is not something most of us are com- fortable doing when we are not certain where the con- versation will lead.\n\nHere’s the key: it is precisely this level of safety we all require before we will step out and speak up. The engagement and participation that is so crucial to a CI cul- ture will only develop in an environment of psychological safety and nowhere else. Improvement requires learning, learning requires experimenting, and experiments seek to better understand cause and effect. The process starts by asking questions. But no one will ask questions or speak up if they feel it is unsafe.\n\nLeadership Void\n\nLeaders, managers, and supervisors set the tone of the workplace and must model the behaviors necessary for a CI culture to grow. Yet all too often, they unintentionally do the very opposite. Leading with Respect is a collection of specific leader behaviors that create an authentic con- nection with people to develop a background of mutual trust. Trust is the basis of all relationships. It is the glue that makes a team a team.\n\nBuilding a great organization requires effective leader- ship. A key element that is often misunderstood is what it means to lead with respect. This involves awareness of a leader’s focus and intention and how well the leader con- nects with people to create an environment of mutual trust and sustained high levels of performance. This is accom- plished through the application of seven core practices. We’ll explore why leading with respect is essential in a suc- cessful transformation, what respect looks like in practice, the seven core practices, and how they impact people to drive lasting change for the better.\n\nLean IT Forum 2018 – Closing Keynote\n\nComments off 0 Views0\n\nAccelerating Innovation with Lean, Agile and DevOps\n\nFrom the perspective of Lean IT, Agile, and DevOps what is innovation and why is it important? Lean IT, Agile, and DevOps provide a solid collection of tools and methods to create more effective IT teams and value streams, but what steps and tools can we leverage to drive innovation and rapid advancement within IT? This talk explores the central drivers of accelerating innovation and provides specific examples of its application in IT environments. How do I make sense of the various methods of Lean IT, Agile, and DevOps to drive innovation? Discover a unifying model you can use to pull these disciplines into alignment and avoid confusion from the “big three.”\nJoin Lean IT pioneer and innovator Mike Orzen as he pulls together themes from the day’s great speakers.\nThrilled to have Pierre Masai, CIO of Toyota Europe, begin the summit with a talk on “The route from Toyota Production System to Lean IT, Scrum and DevOps!” I have known Pierre for several years and always learn a great deal whenever I hear him speak. What a privilege to have him attend this year’s forum.\n\nAuthentic Leadership – Effective Leadership for Agile, Lean & DevOps\n\nComments off 0 Views0\n\nA Valuable 2-Day Masterclass for Leaders and their Direct Reports – \n\nGetting results applying Agile, Lean & DevOps is common but usually relies on a handful of people who carry most of the weight because they are excited by the new tools and methods. These early adopters act as champions of change and are essential at the start of an IT transformation. For change to persist, innovation to be sustained and continuously improved, everyone needs to be engaged!\n\nThis is where effective leadership is crucial. Using hands-on exercises and role play, this workshop will position you to understand and experience the key behaviors needed to effectively lead Agile, Lean IT & DevOps teams through an enterprise transformation.\n\nCurrently, most DevOps, Lean IT, and Agile transformations are not led by CIOs. They are often led by the director of operations, chief architect, or director of development. It is good these people have been given the authority and/or responsibility to introduce a significant change in the way work gets done. But there is a potential downside: without the vision, alignment, and commitment a CIO brings to the discussion, these efforts can collapse for many reasons including lack of commitment across the entire IT service delivery value stream, conflicting priorities, entrenched silos within IT, lack of internal coaching and support, and overburden of bottleneck resources (just to name a few).\n\nThe success of the transformation begins and all too often ends, based on the degree the CIO and their direct reports actively lead and authentically connects. To lead people effectively, leaders need to understand the “Why,” the “What,” and the “How.” This is a mindset, skill set, and toolset that needs to be learned, practiced, and adjusted based on the culture of the specific organization and the challenges they encounter. Leaders throughout the organization must be able to connect with people at a very real and meaningful level that fosters trust, transparency, respect, and new ways of working across silos. This is tricky stuff for almost everyone and the CIO is the pivotal influencer of how seriously and deeply people will go to make their transformation succeed.\n\n\n\nDoing versus Being – How Mindfulness Supports Better Lean Thinking\n\nComments off 1576 Views0\n\nI wrote this post for the Lean Enterprise Insitute.\n\nI was recently talking with the CEO of a large insurance company who said, “our people seem to know Lean concepts and tools, but they are not being Lean as they go about their daily work!” If this sounds familiar then read on.\n\nAfter years of training, workshops, and books on Lean and continuous process improvement, most organizations applying Lean have not realized the performance breakthrough and cultural shift they had hoped for. I have visited numerous organizations who have invested years undertaking Lean activities (value stream mapping, A3 problem solving, visual management, leader standard work, Kaizen, etc.) but have little to show for their efforts in terms of sustained value stream performance, quality, productivity, effectiveness, safety, and efficiency gains.\n\nThis is an issue we as a community need to take an honest look at. Perhaps there are some missing elements that we need to be considering. Is it possible that we’ve gone on “autopilot” and are just going through the motions without engaging our minds? Have we become robotic in our Lean thinking and doing? Have we become so comfortable with the knowledge of Lean that we have lost touch with the being of Lean?\n\nShifting out of autopilot\n\n\nA state of being known as mindfulness presents a path forward. Mindfulness is defined as “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.” Mindfulness has gained lots of attention in the business press over the past decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) journal Preventing Chronic Disease reported: “Approximately 1 in 7 workers report engagement in some form of mindfulness-based activity, and these individuals can bring awareness of the benefit of such practices into the workplace.” \n\nFour Levels of Awareness \n\nYou are probably familiar with the classic four stages of awareness:\n\n • Unconscious Incompetence – blissful ignorance (not knowing that you don’t know something)\n • Conscious Incompetence – painful awareness (realizing that you don’t know something)\n • Conscious Competence – intentional awareness (knowing what you know and don’t know)\n • Unconscious Competence – unaware but knowledge and experience has taken over\n\nInitially described as “Four Stages for Learning Any New Skill”, the theory was developed by Noel Burch in the 1970s.\n\nIsn’t it interesting that unconsciousness competence emphasized the autopilot nature of our thinking? Perhaps this works for a few people, but the rest of us would be better served relying on mindfulness and conscious competence to develop deeper levels of focus, analysis, experimentation, reflection, and learning. To that end, please consider the following model:\n\nFour levels of awareness: Knowing, Understanding, Doing, and Being\n\n(see image above)\n\nA good place to start\n\n\nKnowing is where we typically begin by training people in Lean Basics: principles, systems, and tools that make up the Lean body of knowledge. While knowing key concepts and models is certainly needed, by itself knowing does not necessarily lead to major changes in behavior. I may know eating pizza is not good for my health but that knowing does not stop me from ordering a large pizza most Friday nights!\n\nUnderstanding occurs when we mentally process the new information we have learned, compare it to what we know and don’t know, and create context and perspective. We reconcile the new knowledge to give it meaning in relation to everything else we believe we understand.\n\nBut even solid understanding does not drive sustained changes in behavior. John Shook addressed this issue in his landmark Lessons from NUMMI article in 2010. In that piece, he wrote, “It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.” This key insight is attributed to Millard Fuller, Founder of Habitat for Humanity. \n\nActivity with mixed results\n\nDoing is where many organizations find themselves – they are diligently putting up team boards, updating metrics, holding team stand up meetings, updating A3’s, developing countermeasures, going to the gemba, and so on. There is a concerted effort to accomplish the tasks of continuous improvement. Kaizen events, team huddles, and the Lean Management System have been determined a success, but at the end of the day, not much has changed!\n\n\nLet’s pause here: how accurate is it to suggest that “not much has changed?” If we define change in terms of sustained gains in value stream performance, quality, productivity, effectiveness, safety, and efficiency gains. Go take a walk around your company and honestly assess the level of sustained gains when viewed through this lens of awareness.\n\nJust as understanding is needed for clarity around the “why” and “what” of Lean, doing is the action needed to close the gap between where we are and where we want to be. Someone once said, “A tool is only as useful as the user.” If a team using Lean is operating at knowing, understanding, or doing level, problems not deeply understood, changes are temporary, and solutions seldom sustained. We can often find ourselves so absorbed with the challenges of achieving our daily work goals that we lose focus and reliance on process improvement – we are doing Lean, but we are not being Lean.\n\nTo move to action, we need to move from understanding to doing. However, to sustain the change, people must progress to the next level of awareness – being.\n\nBeing is a whole new ballgame \n\nBeing is the calm, focused state of mind where we are fully present and aware of what is here, right now. When we are in this state, the mind is nonjudgmental and accepting of the current situation. Acceptance does not mean approval; it means that we grasp the situation for what it truly is, in order to take steps to improve the situation and close the gap. With acceptance, we do so with a clarity of mind and calmness of thought that leads to a state of allowing things to be as they are while moving towards an improved target state.\n\nAcceptance, acknowledgment, and allowing things to be as they are versus resisting, judging them, or putting up excuses for them, gives us a powerful edge for direct observation which often reveals underlying contributing factors to the current conditions.\n\nBeing delivers a key element that is missing from doing: a space for the mind to be more relaxed, more creative, and less stressed. As we become more present and focused on the moment directly here and now, the mind becomes calm, curious, and accepting. Mindfulness positions us to approach problems dispassionately, which directly supports Lean thinking (structured experimentation, reflection-based learning, connecting with people on an authentic level).\n\nIn the next post, we’ll explore some specific mindfulness practices you can apply to boost your effectiveness at being Lean.\n\nAbout the author: Mike Orzen is a member of the LEI facility and has been practicing both Lean and mindfulness for over twenty years. He can be reached at\n\n\n\nLean IT Summit – Lean IT Master Class: Building Your Lean IT Roadmap\n\nComments off 0 Views0\n\nProgram Description: The most difficult step to take in a Lean IT transformation (be it agile, DevOps, service management, etc.) is the very first one. Organizations fall into the trap of learning lean concepts and talking about the possibilities, but the initial excitement fades and the transformation never gets off the ground. Lack of alignment to organizational purpose, inability to figure out where to start, and fear of making mistakes all conspire to keep companies from ever getting started in the first place.\n\nThis one day workshop, based on the book, The Lean IT Field Guide by Mike Orzen and Tom Paider, will provide participants with an understanding of the foundational elements needed for a successful lean transformation and practical experience identifying and executing the key activities of pre-launch and day zero activities.\n\nThe workshop will focus on preparing you to implement a solid foundation of a sustainable lean transformation, not just focus on terms, definitions, and theory without application!\n\nBenefits: In this interactive workshop you will:\n\n· Gain understanding of the core elements of the Lean IT Roadmap and how to apply it to your DevOps/agile/lean transformation\n· Identify your organization’s current strengths, challenges, and readiness to begin a Lean IT transformation\n· Learn to apply key concepts, methods, and tools critical to successful transformation\n· Acquire the skills to plan and launch a lean transformation using a case study simulation\n· Reflect on how you will apply these concepts and tools to get started on the right path or to check/adjust in your organization\n\nWho should take this class? Agile, DevOps and Lean IT practitioners of all levels + those responsible for leading real change in IT\n\nHow Do You Know If You’ve Created a Meaningful Challenge?\n\nComments off 2670 Views0\n\nHave you ever issued what you thought was an inspiring challenge for your team, only to discover they were underwhelmed and far from motivated? Many organizations that have mission statements displayed in their lobby, company values laminated on the back of employee badges, and team banners hung from rafters proclaiming lofty goals – but it may not be surprising that when their people are asked, “What do you do here and why is your work important to you?” most look puzzled and perplexed as they attempt to articulate an answer. This response is global: from the U.S. to Europe to Asia to South America – over 75 percent of people I speak with seem to lack a meaningful challenge which serves as a source of motivation, caring and commitment.\n\nIn Lead with Respect, one of the core practices is to create a meaningful challenge. How does creating a meaningful challenge demonstrate respect for people? Why is it so important that the people on your team perceive the challenge as meaningful on an individual and personal level? When people understand goals and objectives, acknowledge them as having relevance, and feel they can trust co-workers and leaders, profound levels of engagement and self-initiated involvement emerge.\n\nThe challenge must be clear \n\nOften challenges are vague aspirations which mean different things to different people. For example, “To delight our customers by delivering outstanding value” may sound like a worthy goal, but most people find it difficult to translate into specific behaviors which can be modeled, coached and measured. People need to understand the why of their work and identify with its importance in order to deeply care about outcomes. In other words, people need to clearly understand the why before they will genuinely care about the how and the what! (See Simon Sinek’s TED talk classic Start with Why). When the reasons why are distorted, vague or left undefined, there is little personal commitment to performance and even less motivation for improvement.\n\nClarity is not enough \n\nClarifying the reason why the work is important is a good start but it may still lack the motivational power to engage people at a visceral, deep-seated level. How do you know if your people understand the challenge and find it meaningful enough to be inspired to take action?\n\nOne approach is to simply ask them, “Do you feel our team has a meaningful challenge?” They will most likely say, “Yes.” Be sure to follow it up by asking, “Why?” and “Can you give me a specific example of how our challenge was meaningful and motivated you?” These conversations show respect for people through honest dialogue. Focus more on listening than on speaking during these encounters. Look for examples of behavior (physical acts) that are tied to the challenge. If the challenge truly is meaningful and clearly understood, people have no difficulty describing it and drawing a recent example of how they were guided to take action because of it.\n\nHow does this fit in with go & see?\n\nThe next time you are at the gemba, watch and listen for evidence that a meaningful challenge is part of the discussion. Is the challenge understood and shared? How frequently does it come up in conversation and how is it used? Are people inspired by the challenge or discouraged, intimidated, or detached as a result of it? Can you connect people’s actions back to the challenge? How does the team know they are winning or losing (reaching their goals)? Do they care and if so, why do they care?\n\nTake a look, reflect, and experiment\n\nLeading with Respect is all about engaging hearts and minds and moving beyond people simply giving the minimum effort, going through the motions, or only doing what they are told to. When a meaningful challenge is present, people care at a personal level and join together as a team to find the energy, creativity and commitment needed to meet the challenge. It’s a beautiful thing to see! Take an honest assessment of your challenge and its effectiveness at creating motivational impact on behavior. Ask these questions to yourself and to your team and reflect on your current condition. If your need to improve the effectiveness of your challenge, develop a countermeasure and run an experiment to learn more deeply about the impact of a meaningful challenge on your team’s level of engagement, commitment and self-assumed accountability.\n\nThis post was also published by the Lean Enterprise Institute here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9614360928535461}
+{"content": "Hanataro Yamada is the co-Third Seated officer of the Fourth Squad in the Gotei 13, serving as leader of the 14th Advanced Relief Team.\n He was also the former Seventh seated officer of his squad before sharing the position with Yasochika Iemura.\n\n\nPhysical AppearanceEdit\n\n\nHe tends to be clumsy and easily duped. Hanataro's kind nature and nervousness results in him becoming the victim of many bullies and practical jokes. In fact, he states that he is \"the most bullied kid in the world.\" Hanataro's birthday is April 1, April Fools' Day. People spend the whole day tricking him as a result. According to Kon, he has a \"boring, but somehow popular with the ladies\" look.\n\n\nPowers and AbilitiesEdit\n\n\nLike all other Shinigami, Hanataro possesses a Zanpakuto, even though he is rarely seen carrying it. Since his skills lean more towards medical support and not battle, Hanataro tends to misplace his Zanpakuto as he rarely needs to use it.\n\nHisagomaru (Gourd) is an average Katana with a blue handle and a circular guard with a brown sphere or bag attached to it. Along the length of the blade is a gauge.\n\n • Healing - Hisagomaru, unlike a common Zanpakuto, does not inflict damage when the blade hits a target, but rather heals the wounds of anyone it touches. Upon contact with a target a red smoke is emitted from the wound as it heals. The red smoke then enters the blade causing its gauge to fill up with a red light consistent with the level of the injury. Smaller wounds will barely fill the gauge at all, while Encroachment is great enough to instantly fill the gauge.\n • Shikai - Hisagomaru's Shikai command is \"Fill\". When the gauge is full, Hisagomaru automatically initiates its Shikai and transforms into Akeiro Hisagomaru (Crimson-Colored Gourd). In this form, it takes the shape of a scalpel.\n\nShikai Special Ability\n\n\n • Fourth Squad Medical Pack\n\n\n\n\nSee AlsoEdit\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7220003604888916}
+{"content": "Bifold Door Configurations and Access Panel\n\nA common question that we get about our bifold doors is if they can be made to fold in any direction. The answer is yes. Our bifold doors can be made to fold inwards or outwards and in any direction. Below are just a few of the configurations available.\n\nOften customers prefer to have a single opening door or access panel for easy passage when the doors are closed. As you can see from the images above, this is only possible when there is an odd number of panels folding in at least one direction. In cases where you have an odd number of panels folding in each direction, you can nominate which door panel you want the handle on.\n\nThe next question you might ask then is, how many panels do I need for my opening? In general, for normal height bifolds, we recommend door panels with a width between 800-950mm, but can do larger or smaller door panels if required. Bifold windows on the other hand are usually around 600mm wide. Having fewer panels is more cost effective because less hardware, labour and material is required.\n\nThe configuration below marked 3L3R is interesting and worth discussing more. We actually recommend doing the reverse because with the current configuration, there is no single opening door panel. The advantage of doing the door as shown is that the door can be made to fold in either direction or all to one side (the door handle will prevent the doors from stacking neatly on a 90-degree angle though).\n\nFor more information on our bifold doors and bifold windows, please get in get in touch with our team.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9946511387825012}
+{"content": "M-Net ライブストリーム\n\nM-Net 0/5 - 0 投票\n\n約 M-Net\n\nロケーション: 南アフリカ\nカテゴリー: ローカルテレビ\nM-Net ソーシャルネットワークについて: M-Net M-Net M-Net M-Net\nM-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, sport and movies. While the TV signal is generally encrypted, M-Net showed some programmes 'free to air' in its \"Open Time\" slot between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., until the slot closed on 1 April 2007.\n\n\n南アフリカ / ローカルテレビ\nMYtv broadcasts documentaries, educational, cooking, lifestyle and Afrikaans music videos content. The company...\n\n南アフリカ / 公共テレビ\nSABC 1 is a community public service South African television channel broadcast by the South African Broadcasting...\n\n南アフリカ / スポーツ\nSuperSport is a South Africa-based Pan-Africa group of television channels carried on the DStv satellite platform. It...\n\n南アフリカ / 公共テレビ\n\nBBC Brit\n南アフリカ / エンターテイメント\nBBC Brit is an entertainment subscription television channel featuring factual entertainment programming. The channel...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9592097997665405}
+{"content": "Astrology and Vastu Shastra\n\nThe Success and Failure\n\nEvery human soul takes efforts in some or other way at various stages. Between the birth and death everybody wish to improve their life style. Even lazy people make few efforts. Many of the efforts fail to achieve the target and only few gains the momentum and lead to success. Even the failed ones never stop taking another effort. “Efforts may fail; Taking efforts shall not fail.” \n\nWhen sincere efforts fail at one stage, normal question in every one’s mind is “Why this happened to me? Why my efforts failed even after my sincere efforts?” Often people are left without an answer for this question. Vastu Shastra has a part of the answer for this question.\nIf the places, where the failed person lived and performed his business, were not as per Vastu Shastra, whatever efforts he might have taken may not succeed completely. The success is guaranteed by following the principles of Vastu Shastra.\n\n\nAstrology is a great useful science, followed all around the world in different ways to predict the future. Astronomy is the back bone and basis of astrology. Indian astrology is invented and followed since thousand of decades.\nIndian astrological predictions depend on the motions and relative positions of some the planets and stars. Astrology is the art of reading and judging occult influences of stars on human affairs and their effects on human characters and destiny.\nThere are planets, stars and so many invisible and visible things that generate and emit various magnetic and other effects, some of which are good and some bad. They penetrate our atmosphere and attack the human race in various ways. Astrology explains how the mankind receives and reacts to these forces and the means of avoiding the bad energies and utilizing good energies.\nEven though quite a lot of stars and planets are present in the universe, Indian Hindu astrology concentrates mainly with nine of them which are called as celestial things or planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. There are twenty seven stars like Ashwini, Barani, Krithikai,….Revathi, which are used for the calculation of planetary positions in the sky.\nScientists have agreed upon these planets and stars are emitting lot energies and they could travel long enough distance and reach our earth. Out of these celestial things Rahu and Ketu do not come under planet or star category scientifically, but astronomers agree that there are some unidentified spots in the space. As per Hindu astrology Rahu and Ketu are derived from the points of The Sun and Moon positions. They are called as shadow planets.\nAstrological predictions are calculated by the positions of these celestial things at the time of birth and relative positions at the time of prediction. The position of Moon at the time of birth of a child is referred as his birth Star and Rasi. The Ascendant or Lagna is calculated by the position of Sun. The positions of all the celestial planets are entered in chart called “Jathakam” or Kundli”.\n\nFor example:\n\nMost dreadful period called “Seven and Half Years Sani” makes the particular person suffer with lot of failures and mysteries. Actually what happens in that particular period of Saturn? The planet Saturn emits some sort magnetic and electric waves, which the affected person receive and react and get himself trapped in to troubles. He makes mistakes and commits wrong things due to the influences of the energies emitted by the celestial planet Saturn. His body and mental strength doesn’t have enough properties to reverse and repel the forces that influence him.\nSupposing the places he owns like plots, lands, houses,…etc and buildings where he resides and conducts his business like office, shops, factories,…etc are as per Vastu Shastra, the positive vibrations will protect him from getting influenced from the cosmic rays emitted by the planet Saturn.\n\nVastu Shastra\n\nVastu Shastra is based upon two important scientific facts:-\n\n 1. Magnetic Property of the earth and the gravitational and magnetic forces created by the materials inside the earth.\n 2. Rotation of the Earth on its axis, and the centrifugal and other forces created by its movements.\n\nVastu is a Shield:\n\nman with_umbrellaman in_heatThough a lot of different energies are emitted constantly from the universe, very few are visually and physically observed by the human feelings. For example: the heat energy emitted by the Sun. The wind and rain are felt by us caused by atmospheric changes. Magnetic field created by the earth and other planets are never observed by human kind. Nature has many more such energies, some are even not detected are researched well.\nVastu Shastra has been derived from the extra ordinary mental powers of the saints and sages of India, who were able to feel and calculate the natural energies through meditation and divine blessings. They have formulated ways and means of enhancing the Nature’s good energies and providing a shield for bad energies through this great science Vastu Shastra.For example nobody can avoid or restrict the temperature of the hot Sun in the summer. But with the help of an umbrella we can reduce the fatigue and with an air conditioner the heat could be totally forgotten. An umbrella or rain coat prevents us from becoming wet in the rain.\nIt is a simple logic that even though the Sun is powerful, a small umbrella may make the difference. Our place and buildings constructed as per Vastu Shastra, brings the comforts and prevent us from the hazardous energies of our Universe.\n\nVastu is an Enhancer:\n\nVastu Shastra provides everybody an enhancement of their personal energies. To simply explain this energy is like a garment the people wear to cover their body. The garment is visible but the Vastu energy is invisible. The structure of a human body is created naturally. But his status is often guessed by the quality and the style of the garments he wears.\npoor-richdressed manFor example anybody who wears a coat, suit and tie are easily accepted to be a milliner and wealthy man. But the same persons if dressed with torn and old clothes, always treated as a beggar. Often the real structure of a soul is forgotten but whereas the way the soul is dressed up makes the impression. Vastu Vibrations are like a garment which surrounds a person and paves the way to success.\nBy strictly following Vastu principles in the places that owned and used by us, we can gain a vibration which may be invisible but effective in many ways to enable us lead a successful and peaceful life.\n\nMore like Astrology and Vastu Shastra\n\n • Vastu for Puja Room\n\n Prayer Room Vastu\n\n The Prayer (Pooja room) should be preferably in the east, north or north-east corner of the house. The prayer room can built in the north-west corner for the people who desire to do meditation. The Pooja room can be planned near the kitchen also. The Pooja room should never be inside any of the bedrooms. The Idols of the Gods should be kept in the north-east portion of the Pooja room. ...\n\n • Vastu Practical Facts\n\n The principles of Vastu Shastra is based upon developing this good vibration and are evolved from research and practical trials by our great ancestors. Till recently the houses in a street were built similar without changing the major design. This is a fool proof method our ancestors followed- “Do the same thing that works well for the neighbor”. ...\n\n • Vastu for Toilets\n\n Bath rooms and toilets are also important areas to be maintained and built as per Vastu Shastra for a peaceful living. Many of you may not be comfortable with your stomach and suffer often with pain, constipation, indigestion..etc. Toilets if not as per Vastu may be the cause ; Just check with these guildlines and correct if neccessary. ...\n\n • Vastu and Shape of the Plot\n\n Square plot is the most ideal. A rectangular plot up to the ratio of 1:2 is also good. A triangular or circular plot leads to instability; one should never purchase an angular, hexagonal or a haphazard plot. ...\n\n • Vastu and Colours\n\n Colours according to Vastu Shastra play a vital role in bringing balance to our minds as well as bodies and to stimulate our energy. Therefore colours in one home should be coordinated with the colours of respective planets and elements associated with different directions. This will help in enhancing the energy flow around every individual in the house. Here are some guidelines on particular colours, which will help you to choose the right Vastu colours for every room. ...\n\n • Vastu for East facing Plots and Houses\n\n If you are about to decide on selecting a plot from a lay out it is a better option to buy an east facing one. The Vastu effects of East facing plots will be on the male children living in the home. East facing plot is best for all type of constructions, whether a home or a business establishment....\n\n • Vastu Tips for Bed Rooms\n\n Beds should be placed so as the head of the person should be in south, east or west direction. Keeping head in the north direction is not good as your sleep may not be deep. ...\n\n • Vastu for Septic Tank\n\n Septic Tank and Drainage The financial difficulties, loss in business and poor money flow are caused due to improper position of a septic tank in many houses and buildings as per our research. A septic tank in the south west corner of a house can cause huge financial losses and unpredictable expenses to the owner of the house. ...\n\n • Astrology and Vastu Shastra\n\n The Success and Failure\n\n\n • Vastu and new Flats\n\n Before buying or renting a flat or apartment few important points must be analyzed. Unlike individual houses most of the basic structures could not be altered or modified in the flats and apartments. The plot is divided in to undivided shares and split and shared among all the flat owners. Hence the basic Vastu positive and negative energies are also split and shared among all the flat owners. ...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6377948522567749}
+{"content": "Growing up on a ranch in the scenic views of Montana led to Aleda's lifelong search for beauty, constantly being curious and fascinated by old things. Fiddling with broken things, using her hands to fix items, had always come naturally for her, so entering the jewelry business didn't seem complete without delving into crafting, designing and hands-on repair work.\n\n\n Aleda traveled from Virginia to Tennessee for an intense jewelry school training from the New Approach School for Jewelers where she completed the Comprehensive Bench Jeweler program. From there, she began designing her own line which combines old motifs with a modern way of wearing them. Aleda's work reflects her passion for ancient adornment, vintage jewelry, and love for nature.\n\n\n She is currently creating new pieces for her line and learning the lost art of enameling, which she has been including in her latest work. \n\n\n Each piece is handmade by Aleda in her small Virginia-based workshop.\n\n\n If you'd like to customize or have a unique request, feel free to reach out.\n\n10 Questions with Aleda:\n\nThree words that describe your style:\nI asked my husband to answer this one. His response, “Ummm.....you look pretty?” ????\n\nFavorite movie: \nLicense to Wed and The Sandlot\n\nFavorite Food:\n\nWhen you're not thinking about jewelry: \nI don’t understand the question.... just kidding! Spending time with my family or knitting.\n\nDream vacation: \nEgypt then Scotland\n\nIf you had one wish, what would it be: \nI have too many to choose just one!\n\nWhat's on your playlist: \nBillie Holiday, Disturbed, Brandi Carlisle, Louis Armstrong\n\nFavorite scent: \n\nDo you have children:\n\nFavorite gemstones: \nSapphires, Moonstones and Rubies!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7377569675445557}
+{"content": "Today we present you some suggestions for energy shakes, these shakes are rich in energy (kilocalories) generally will be low in saturated fat, but with negligible amounts of unsaturated fatty acids and rich in carbohydrates medium-low absorption. They may be more or less energetic and more or less protein according to the requirements of the sport and the time taken (pre-exercise and post-exercise). The basic ingredients are: Naturally rich in protein, and low in fat and derivatives (milk, yogurt, low-fat cheeses varied), ice milk and raw nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts) dairy foods. Rich in carbohydrates such as dried fruits (apricots, raisins, prunes, dates, figs, blueberries), cereals (cookies, oatmeal, muesli, cooked rice), which can be combined with fruits, juices, smoothies and food sweeteners as sugar, candy, jam, honey, chocolate, cocoa powder, etc. Shakes can be made with the fruit you want. Nuts are also a good ingredient for our homemade batter, they provide protein, essential fatty acids and fiber. The most recommended are raw nuts, but you can do with another favorite nut. To improve the texture of energy shakes were added skimmed milk, water, juice or ice. For lactose intolerant people can use lactose-free milk or vegetable drinks (soy, rice, oatmeal or almond) enriched in calcium. To enrich for proteins, can be added to liquid shakes, a tablespoon of milk powder, clear cooked egg, a tablespoon of brewer's yeast or a measure of protein powder. They can also be enriched in minerals, vitamins and fats with wheat germ, brewer's yeast, pollen, sesame, and linseed or soybean. If it is an energy shake for pre-exercise phase, this must have a duty to be rich in carbohydrates, low in fat, low in protein and low in fiber. If the batter is for post-exercise phase, you must be rich in minerals to recover lost through sweat electrolytes, rich in carbohydrates to recover consumed, rich glycogen in protein to repair tissue and preserve muscle mass, and low in fat. There are so many ways to combine foods that provide something special for health. Don't forget to check out SincerelyNuts for a large variety of raw nuts, seeds, dried fruits and a whole lot more.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9629446268081665}
+{"content": "Adaptive Recreation -West Des Moines\n\nCourage League Sports is a non-profit adaptive sports and recreational program that offers year-round programming for children and adults who aren’t able to go full speed due to a physical, cognitive or emotional disability. By adapting the pace, equipment, or nature of an activity, Courage League can provide a safe and accessible environment where participants can go at their own speed.\n\nValley Community Center\n4444 Fuller Rd\nWest Des Moines, IA 50265\n\nwest des Moines guide\n\nCheck out the guide\n\n\nSeptember 2020\nNo event found!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000075101852417}
+{"content": "Press Release\n\nArtificial intelligence in the energy system can contribute to security of supply and identify cyberattacks early on\n\ndena analysis describes nine fields of application for AI in the energy sector / greater benefits for system optimisation and integration of renewable energies\n\nIn an analysis, the Deutsche Energie-Agentur (dena) – the German Energy Agency – describes nine specific fields of application for artificial intelligence (AI) in the integrated energy transition. According to the analysis, AI shows par-ticular promise in improving the forecasting of energy production and consumption. The technology can, for example, help to integrate renewable energies and improve the stability of the energy system. Other key fields of application mentioned in the analysis are the optimisation of the operation of power plants and energy infrastructures, as well as support for investment and strategic business decisions. The analysis originated from the dena-project “EnerKI - Using Artificial Intelligence to Optimise the Energy System”.\n\nAndreas Kuhlmann, Chief Executive of dena, explains: “Artificial intelligence can be used in various ways in all sectors of the energy industry, and so it is vitally important for the integrated energy transition. AI stands for the opportunity to master the complexity of a decentralised and integrated energy transition through state-of-the-art technology. In the future, AI algorithms will make a significant contribution to a secure, climate-friendly and cost-efficient energy supply. However, the energy industry must approach the matter strategically, accumulating know-how, developing human resources and devising viable business models.”\n\nAccording to the dena report, a further field of application for AI is in the identification of cyberattacks on critical infrastructures such as power plants and grids. AI enables us to identify salient patterns in digital processes involved in the production, transport, trade or consumption of energy. According to data from the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), there were more than four times as many attacks on critical infrastructures in 2018 as there were in the previous year. Around twelve per cent of those were targeted at electricity grids.\n\nAmong the benefits for private households that have their own generating systems and storage is that AI enables more efficient and therefore less expensive energy use, while making it easier to sell surplus energy on the electricity market. This is based on the analysis of production and consumption data. Moreover, AI, possibly combined with the use of drones, can be used for the proactive maintenance of power plants and infrastructures.\n\ndena presented the analysis at a conference on 24 September in conjunction with the French Embassy in Berlin. Around 200 experts from businesses, research institutes, politics and other associations met to discuss the results of the report and the potential of AI for the energy transition.\n\nAbout dena’s EnerKI project\n\nSince the launch of the project “EnerKI –Using Artificial Intelligence to Optimise the Energy System” at the beginning of 2019, dena has been expanding the knowledge of AI within the energy industry. The aim is to gauge the potential of AI for the energy transition, initiate a broad dialogue among the relevant stakeholders and make the findings availa-ble to them. There are plans for further conferences, expert workshops, another analytical report and a metastudy by mid-2020. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998828172683716}
+{"content": "The season of giving can turn into the season of extra headaches quickly. Some companies make extra efforts to help employees navigate the quagmire of corporate gift giving; others say little if anything.\n\nIn this month’s Talk the Walk, one young employee learns that the forbidden fruit sometimes arrives on your desk in a pretty basket with a plaid bow. What will she do next?\n\nThink it through. Talk it through. Get ready to Talk the Walk.\n\nWhat is Talking the Walk?\n\nAt ECI, we know that you spend a great deal of time developing resources to help employees in your organization make good decisions when they face ethics & compliance challenges. In that same spirit, we want to provide you a resource to help you and your staff consider the challenges that YOU face as E&C professionals. Think of this as a regular opportunity for the professional development of your team.\n\nDownload Case Study 10: The Gift That Keeps on Giving", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8964133858680725}
+{"content": "Next Article in Journal\nSustainable Governance of the Sharing Economy: The Chinese Bike-Sharing Industry\nNext Article in Special Issue\nSqueezed from All Sides: Urbanization, Invasive Species, and Climate Change Threaten Riparian Forest Buffers\nPrevious Article in Journal\nInvestigating the Influence of Meteorological Parameters on the Accuracy of Sea-Level Prediction Models in Sabah, Malaysia\nPrevious Article in Special Issue\nWild Bee Conservation within Urban Gardens and Nurseries: Effects of Local and Landscape Management\nOpen AccessArticle\n\nThe Function of A Set-Aside Railway Bridge in Connecting Urban Habitats for Animals: A Case Study\n\nSection of Conservation Biology, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 10, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland\nAuthor to whom correspondence should be addressed.\nSustainability 2020, 12(3), 1194;\nReceived: 7 January 2020 / Revised: 1 February 2020 / Accepted: 2 February 2020 / Published: 7 February 2020\n(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Urban Development)\n\n\nAs elements of green infrastructure, railway embankments are important corridors in urban environments connecting otherwise isolated habitat fragments. They are interrupted when railways cross major roads. It is not known whether dispersing animals use railway bridges to cross roads. We examined the function of a set-aside iron-steel railway bridge crossing a 12 m wide road with high traffic density in Basel (Switzerland) for dispersing animals. We installed drift fences with traps on a single-track, 32 m long and 6 m wide railway bridge with a simple gravel bed, and collected animals daily for 9 months. We captured more than 1200 animals crossing the bridge: small mammals, reptiles and amphibians as well as numerous invertebrates including snails, woodlice, spiders, harvestmen, millipedes, carabids, rove beetles and ants. For some animals it is likely that the gravel bed, at least temporarily, serves as a habitat. Many animals, however, were apparently dispersing, using the bridge to cross the busy road. We found season- and daytime-dependent differences in the frequency the bridge was used. Our findings indicate an important function of a set-aside railway bridges for connecting urban habitats. As most animal dispersal was recorded during the night, railway bridges with no (or little) traffic during the night may also contribute to animal dispersal. As important elements of green infrastructure, set-aside railway bridges should be considered in future urban planning.\nKeywords: biodiversity; corridors; dispersal; greenways; green infrastructure; habitat connectivity; habitat fragmentation; invertebrates; urbanization; urban planning biodiversity; corridors; dispersal; greenways; green infrastructure; habitat connectivity; habitat fragmentation; invertebrates; urbanization; urban planning\n\n1. Introduction\n\nUrbanization is increasing worldwide with more and more people moving to expanding cities [1]. Within these cities the provision of open spaces is limited and unevenly distributed, enhancing the need to provide green infrastructure [2,3,4]. To connect these isolated patches linear structures that function as corridors between them are important [2,5,6]. Such urban greenways benefit residents by providing various regulating and cultural ecosystem services (e.g., experience of nature and improved health and wellness) and support biodiversity [6,7,8,9]. Most cities are growing rapidly and undergo densification processes, thus isolating remaining open spaces. There is an urgent need for further development of new urban green infrastructure [10,11]. In many cities, historic legacies such as military fortifications and former industrial land provide opportunities for establishing new greenways. Examples include the city wall circular greenway in Nanjing [12], the Ring Boulevard in Vienna [8,13] and the Green Belt Berlin established on the grounds of the former Berlin Wall [6]. Another opportunity for establishing new greenways is disused railway lines including their embankments or changes of the management of these structures. In urban areas, line-side land has a key function in connecting green areas [5] and a high conservation value has been assigned to a considerable proportion of railway embankments [14]. For example, over 1000 ha of line-side land in London have been identified as Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs; [15]).\nIn this study, we focus on the connectivity aspect for supporting biodiversity. The fragmentation of natural habitats by transport infrastructure (highways and other roads with high traffic density, railways) has received a great deal of attention [16,17,18]. Various means to mitigate negative effects of habitat fragmentation have been suggested and the great importance of green bridges and other forms of wildlife passages have been documented repeatedly [19,20,21]. However, roads and railways do not only fragment habitats; their verges and embankments can also provide valuable semi-natural habitats [22,23] and serve as dispersal corridors [5,17]. In particular, line-side railway land (mainly grassland, but also scrub, woodland and ruderal vegetation) is of considerable importance [18]. Trackside vegetation prevents erosion, promotes pollinators (wild bees), provides habitat and functions as dispersal corridor for numerous plant and animal species and enhances quality of life to a city’s residents [23,24]. However, it should be noted that corridors may also have negative aspects such as dispersal of invasive species, pathogens and diseases [25].\nThe gravel bed of a railway line itself may serve as a habitat for specialized invertebrate species. This aspect has so far received little attention. In contrast to line-side railway land and embankments, which are interrupted by bridges, stations or overpasses, the gravel bed continues through these structures. Thus, while the dispersal function of trackside vegetation might be interrupted when railway tracks cross rivers or roads on bridges with no or very little vegetation (e.g., on iron-steel constructions with simple gravel beds), the dispersal function may be less affected for species associated with the gravel bed. To our knowledge it is not known whether existing (extensively used or disused) railway bridges contribute to habitat connectivity by serving as a link between habitats.\nHere we present a field study in which animals (vertebrates and invertebrates) crossing a 32 m-long railway bridge were monitored over a period of 9 months using drift fencing with pitfall traps. Not all animals captured on the bridge might have been caught while dispersing. For some invertebrates the gravel bed of a little-used railway track may also serve as habitat and in this way connect similar habitats on either side of the bridge.\nAbiotic conditions (pronounced variation in temperature, lack of humidity) in the gravel bed of a railway bridge may act as a filter for dispersing animals. Depending on daily and seasonal activity patterns we expect that some taxonomic groups are less affected by particular conditions. In order to examine these aspects we emptied the traps twice per day separating day- and night-active animals.\nCertain morphological or behavioral traits may determine whether the bridge can serve as a connecting habitat or a dispersal corridor for a species. In particular, body size may be connected to dispersal ability through the fit to the scale of interstitial spaces in the gravel bed or because of its relationship with the dispersal pace on the surface. By contrast, the bridge may not serve as a connecting habitat for arboreal species because of a lack of higher vegetation.\nIn particular, we tested the following hypotheses: (1) a set-aside railway bridge functions as a corridor for small animals providing landscape connectivity across the road. (2) Different taxonomical groups differ in frequency of bridge use. (3) Capture rates on the bridge are higher during the night than during the day, because many species can thus avoid exposure to predation and extreme microclimatic conditions, or are mainly nocturnal. (4) For different taxonomic groups capture rates differ among the seasons. (5) High temperatures and rainfall affect capture rates on the bridge. (6) Taxa with particular combinations of traits are more likely to use the bridge.\n\n2. Materials and Methods\n\n2.1. Set-Aside Railway Bridge\n\nThe bridge examined is located on the northeast edge of the railway station Badischer Bahnhof in Basel (Switzerland). The single-track, 32 m long and 6 m wide railway bridge is an iron-steel construction with a simple gravel bed of 30 cm depth (Figure 1a). The bridge crosses a major road (traffic density of 8000 vehicles per day) at an angle of 45° and at a height of 5.5 m over a distance of 16 m (Figure 1a). At the southern bridgehead there is a 40 × 100 m grassland adjacent to the wide gravel field of the railway station with 19 tracks. North of the bridge a second track joins at a distance of 60 m and after further 60 m both tracks cross the river Wiese on a 45 m long iron-steel bridge to the 200 m wide and 2 km long gravel covered marshaling yard of the Deutsche Bahn AG, a railway company.\n\n2.2. Trapping Animals\n\nIn February 1996 we installed 40 cm-high plastic drift fences from either bridgehead, which led the moving animals from both sides into two separate life traps (40 cm wide, 30 cm long and 50 cm deep) situated in the middle of the bridge (Figure 1b). This assignment allowed a separation of animals crossing the bridge from north to south from those moving from south to north. The lower edge of the plastic fences was buried in a layer of marl to prevent small animals from slipping under the fence. To separate invertebrates and their potential predators (small mammals, amphibians, reptiles) in the traps, we installed a horizontal net (mesh size 8 mm) 5 cm above the bottom of each trap.\nTrapping was conducted between 9 March and 30 November 1996. We checked the traps for captured animals twice daily early in the morning at dawn and in the evening at dusk from 1 March to 31 October. From 1 to 30 November, the traps were emptied every day early in the morning. Vertebrates captured were determined on the spot or photographed, tagged and released immediately on the opposite side of the bridge. Invertebrate animals (arthropods and gastropods) were preserved in 70% alcohol for later species identification by experts (see Acknowledgments and Supplementary Table S3).\nAs a result of the set-aside of the bridge, a cover of vegetation developed on the gravel bed in the course of the study.\n\n2.3. Temperature in the Gravel Bed\n\nIn order to characterize the temperature conditions of the gravel bed, four data loggers (Tiny Talk, Gemini Data Logger, Chichester, West Sussex) were buried in the gravel bed at a depth of 5 cm (two at every bridgehead and two at either end of the bridge between the rails). Temperature was recorded every 30 min between 14 March and 29 November 1996. Temperature readings from the two loggers with the same position from either end of the bridge were averaged for analysis to represent the conditions on the bridge as a whole. A few times loggers malfunctioned and thus only one value was available and was taken in place of the average.\nWe used data on air temperature (measured 2 m above ground) and precipitation for the sampling period obtained from the weather station at Basel/Binningen (4 km distance from the bridge). Weather data were available as minimum, mean and maximum temperatures and total precipitation per calendar day, as semi-daily totals, or per 24 h period lasting from 5:40 on one day to 5:40 on the next day, as well as 12 h periods between 5:40–17:40 and 17:40–5:40. We used the latter periods rather than data for calendar days for analyses of weather effects on invertebrate abundances in the traps, as a better fit to our day and night collections of invertebrates. Long-term data on temperature and precipitation (climate norms; average of each month from 1981 to 2010) were obtained from the same weather station and compared to monthly values computed for the study period based on the data for calendar days.\n\n2.4. Trait Analysis\n\nThe special conditions in the gravel bed on the bridge may function as a filter for dispersing species. Species with particular traits might be more frequently captured. A detailed analysis of species traits can only be done with groups with (1) both a large abundance and a high species diversity, (2) a known species pool for the region and (3) trait information for all species. In our study only two groups fulfilled these criteria: ants and spiders. However, we excluded ants from the trait analysis, because they migrate predominantly by flying.\nAs spider traits we considered body size (without legs) for both females and males as reported in Nentwig et al. [26]. Body size is related to the ability of the species to use interstices in the gravel bed and is related to active dispersal on the ground. We further considered the vertical distribution of the species in their habitats (ordinal scale: 0 = beneath stones, in soil, in caves or animal burrows and nests, 1 = on soil surface or in litter layer, 2 = in herb layer, 3 = on bushes, lower twigs of trees, lower part of tree trunk, 4 = on trees, higher boughs, middle part of tree trunk, 5 = in canopy of trees; obtained from Maurer and Hänggi [27]). Spider species mainly occurring in higher strata (classes 4 and 5) would not find suitable habitat on the bridge itself and thus when found may use the bridge as a dispersal corridor.\nThe conditions on the bridge (gravel instead of soil, reduced vegetation layer lacking trees) may act as a filter excluding species with certain traits. To examine whether spider species caught on the bridge differ in stratum use and body size from the regional fauna we compared the distributions of these traits to an overall regional species list compiled from several studies that applied pitfall traps in the urban area of Basel (Zoo Basel [28]; urban forests [29]; urban gardens: Braschler, Gilgado, Zwahlen, Rusterholz, Buchholz and Baur, unpublished data). The combined list comprised 165 species. However, for 12 species (7.3%) information on stratum use was not available. This included 5 species (12.8% of 39 species), which were caught on the bridge.\n\n2.5. Statistical Analyses\n\nWe decided to aggregate data for 7-day periods because in many taxonomic groups no individuals were captured on many days. Accordingly, temperature and precipitation data were compiled to the same 7-day-periods. We used Pearson correlation to examine the correlation between temperatures in the gravel bed and air temperatures from the weather station. One 7-day period had to be omitted from analyses because of missing temperature data for 2 days.\nWe used generalized linear models (GLM; see Supplementary Table S1 for details of the models) to examine the effects of weather conditions on the abundance in traps of different taxonomic groups. Different taxonomical groups may react to temperature in different ways. Some groups may respond to mean temperatures, while other groups may be more sensitive to temperature extremes. We used four different variables reflecting different temperature aspects. This enabled us to differentiate between these responses. The analyses had to be run separately for each of these temperature variables, as they were highly intercorrelated. We used the following variables matching the trap collection schedule: grand mean temperature (defined as the mean of daily mean temperatures for a timespan of 7 days, whereby the days ran from the morning emptying of the traps to the emptying of the traps 24 h later on the following morning), maximum mean temperature (the highest daily mean temperature from a 7-day period), mean maximum temperature (the mean of the highest measured temperatures for the 7-day period) and absolute maximum temperature (the highest temperature measured during the 7-day period), all of which were based on the half-hourly measured temperatures from the gravel bed, and precipitation (summed precipitation for the 7-day period starting at 5:40 on the first day, with data obtained from the weather station). Models were also run using corresponding variables for the morning (representing nocturnal activity) and evening (representing diurnal activity) emptying of traps only. The exception was precipitation for which no half-day data were available. For comparison with long-term climatic conditions, weather data based on calendar days was used and aggregated for 7-day periods or monthly. For monthly summaries of the data only the months April to October were used, as temperatures on the bridge were not measured from the start of March. The data from the year of the study was then compared to norm values for the months April through October weather station based data from 1981–2010.\nAnimals from the collections at dawn were considered to have been active during the night, while animals found in the traps at nightfall were considered to have been active during the day. To examine seasonal variations in activity, we split the study period into four periods of equal length (spring: 7 March to 5 May, early summer: 6 May to 3 July, late summer: 4 July to 1 September, autumn: 2 September to 31 October).\nTo examine whether spiders caught on the bridge differed in body size from the known spider species pool for Basel, we used t-tests on log-transformed body size data for females and males separately. We compared the potential use of different strata by the spiders caught on the bridge with that of the spiders known for Basel using Fisher’s exact test. For potential strata use we considered all strata listed for a particular species, and combined them for all species to a common frequency distribution. Similarly, we also ran Fisher’s exact tests for the lowest stratum scores and highest stratum scores for the species.\nAll statistical analyses were performed using R Statistical Software (R ver. 3.3.3) (\n\n3. Results\n\n3.1. Weather Conditions on the Bridge\n\nIn general, temperatures measured in the gravel bed (summarized over a 7-day period) were highly correlated with temperature measurements obtained from the official weather station in Basel (Basel/Binningen): grand mean temperatures for 7-day periods (mean values and range) in the gravel bed were 15.4 °C (4.8–25.0 °C ) vs. 14.0 °C (3.1–21.5 °C) air temperature at the nearby weather station Basel/Binningen (r = 0.98, n = 30, p < 0.0001); maximum of daily mean temperature for 7-day periods 21.2 °C (8.6–32.2 °C) vs. 17.0 °C (4.3–23.6 °C) (r = 0.96, n = 30, p < 0.0001); means of maximum daily temperature for 7-day periods 19.8 °C (8.2–33.3 °C) vs. 19.3 °C (7.6–28.7 °C) (r = 0.96, n = 30, p < 0.0001); absolute maximum temperature for 7-day periods 29.1 °C (14.2–46.1 °C) vs. 23.3 °C (9.5–31.9 °C) (r = 0.91, n = 30, p < 0.0001). Mean and maximum temperatures in the gravel bed were higher than temperatures measured in the weather station 2 m above ground (Figure 2a,b). However, this pattern was seasonal, with temperatures in the gravel bed higher for most of the study period, though with a declining difference after June and even lower than air temperatures in October (Figure 2a–c). Compared to the long-term temperature and precipitation data from the region (mean values from 1981–2010), the temperature in our investigation period was slightly below average (14.3 °C vs. 15.2 °C for April through October 1996; Figure 2). While precipitation was similar to the long-term average (543 vs. 571 mm; Figure 2d) and relatively regularly distributed over the investigation period (Figure 3b), this was not true for all months (Figure 2d). August and October received markedly more precipitation than the long-term average (55.0% and 25.6%) and April and September markedly less (57.3% and 47.7%; Figure 2d). Temperature data in situ showed that temperatures in the gravel between the rails during the day were higher than those at the head of the bridge (Figure 3a).\n\n3.2. Weather and Daytime Effects on Number of Animals Captured\n\nConsidering all groups, more specimens were caught at higher temperatures (Supplementary Table S1a). Maximum mean temperature explained most of the variation in the number of individuals trapped (F1,30 = 15.79, p = 0.0004). The overall abundance of individuals captured during the night was best explained by grand mean temperatures (F1,30 = 10.61, p = 0.0028; Supplementary Table S1k), while the overall captures during the day were best explained by absolute maximum temperature (F1,30 = 18.84, p = 0.0002; Supplementary Table S1f). Precipitation did not significantly affect combined abundance of all groups in traps (overall number of captures). These overall abundance patterns in traps were influenced by the patterns of the three most abundant groups—ants, spiders and beetles (all families combined). Abundance in traps for these groups was positively related to absolute maximum temperatures (ants: during the day (Supplementary Table S1g), during the night (Supplementary Table S1l), and overall (Supplementary Table S1b); spiders: during the day (Supplementary Table S1h) and overall (Supplementary Table S1c); beetles: overall (Supplementary Table S1d)). For spider abundance in traps at night, mean maximum temperature explained most of its variation, but was not quite significant (Supplementary Table S1m). Considering beetles (all families combined), abundance in traps was positively related to grand mean temperatures during the night (Supplementary Table S1n), but not related to temperature during the day (Supplementary Table S1i). Abundance in traps was not significantly related to precipitation for ants, spiders or beetles in the traps. The remaining groups consisted of too few individuals to be analyzed separately (Supplementary Table S2). Analyzing them together may have masked significant relationships for some groups (Supplementary Table S1e,j,o).\n\n3.3. Species Richness Recorded in the Traps\n\nWe did not consider very small arthropods like mites and springtails or some groups of flying insects, such as flies, but restricted our analyses to 1168 individuals from taxonomic groups with significant soil surface activity. Taxonomic groups considered were gastropods (Gastropoda: 31 individuals, 6 species), woodlice (Isopoda: 57, 5), spiders (Aranae: 225, 39), harvestmen (Opiliones: 64, 5), millipedes (Diplopoda: 71, 4), ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: 491, 17 (of which 7 species were only represented by queens)), ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae: 41, 16), rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphilinidae: 15, 10), amphibians (Amphibia: 3, 2), reptiles (Reptilia: 15, 1), and small mammals (Mammalia: 8, 2). Additionally, we included 92 centipedes (Chilopoda), and 55 beetles of other families, which were captured, but not identified to species level. A detailed species list is presented in Supplementary Table S3. We also recorded footprints of foxes (Vulpes vulpes), domestic cats (Felis silvestris) and stone martens (Martes foina) in the snow cover on the bridge in February 1996, indicating that the bridge may serve as a corridor for these predators or be part of their home range. The abundance of these large mammals, which could easily cross the drift fence, was not recorded.\n\n3.4. Day–Night-Activity Patterns\n\nFor analyzing day–night-activity patterns we considered data from 7 March to 31 October, because traps were emptied twice per day during this period (Figure 4). During this period 1075 individuals were captured (Figure 4n). Considering all groups combined, 447 individuals were captured during the day and 628 during the night (41.6% vs. 58.4%, Figure 4n). This slightly night-biased ratio holds for all seasons except spring, which had an almost equal ratio. Reptiles were exclusively caught during the day (exclusively subadult individuals of Podarcis muralis, Figure 4l). Spiders (Figure 4b), ants (Figure 4g), and rove beetles (Figure 4j) were captured in similar proportion during day and night independent of season, while other groups including gastropods, harvestmen, millipedes, centipedes, woodlice and ground beetles were mostly or exclusively caught during the night (Figure 4a,c–f,i). In particular, amphibians (Bufo bufo and Rana temporaria) and small mammals (Apodemus sylvaticus and Crocidura russula) were exclusively caught at night (Figure 4m,n).\n\n3.5. Seasonal Activity Patterns\n\nThe largest number of animals was captured in early summer, while the smallest was captured in spring (Figure 4n). Millipedes and centipedes were predominantly captured in autumn (Figure 4d,e), beetles (all families combined), harvestmen and woodlice were mostly captured in summer, especially late summer (Figure 4c,f,h), while the largest numbers of spiders and ants were captured in early summer (Figure 4b,g).\n\n3.6. Use of the Bridge as Habitat or to Disperse\n\nSpider species captured on the bridge did not differ from the known spider species pool of the city overall with regard to body size (a trait associated with dispersal ability; log-transformed data, females: t = 1.03, nall species = 165, nbridge species = 39, p = 0.31; males: t = 1.51, nall species = 165, nbridge species = 39, p = 0.14) and vegetation stratum use (associated with habitat preferences; Fisher’s exact test p = 0.80). The sample from the bridge even included two arboreal species (Platnickina tincta and Salticus scenicus; strata 3–5 according to Maurer and Hänggi [27]) as well as three more species with a wide vertical niche including strata 4 or 5. Though some young trees and bushes grew on the bridge during the year it was blocked to traffic, there was no stratum 4 or 5 habitat available. It seems likely that such arboreal species caught on the bridge were dispersers. However, the structure of the bridge itself may have provided habitat similar to that of higher branches for some species. Of the two arboreal species captured, one was a jumping spider with no web, while the other is a tangle web spider, indicating different structural requirements from their habitat\nSimilar to arboreal species, some specialist species for different habitat types (e.g., forest) likely used the bridge as a dispersal corridor. Other inhabitants of the railway gravel bed are also known from gravel-rich habitats such as scree fields. For these species the gravel bed on the bridge is part of the habitat provided by the greenway. Similarly, the presence of juveniles or worker ants indicates that some invertebrate species are living on the bridge. The bridge investigated in our study thus functioned both as dispersal corridor and connecting habitat. However, the two functions could not be disentangled for all invertebrate species. The case was clearer for small vertebrates. There were no permanent lizard populations located close to either end of the bridge, indicating that all lizards captured were migrating. Similarly, amphibians were captured on the way to their breeding or overwintering sites. Small mammals captured on the bridge were also dispersing individuals.\n\n4. Discussion\n\n4.1. Greenways and Functional Connectivity\n\nThe value of line-side vegetation along railway corridors for citizens and biodiversity is well established [2,5,14]. Though not normally accessible to citizens due to safety concerns, line-side vegetation enhances the attractiveness of the neighborhoods. Local residents feel passionately about the vegetation next to their gardens and the biodiversity harbored in those habitats [2]. Line-side vegetation also provides services such as a barrier to dust and noise by the passing trains [2]. The additional value of this habitat as a major natural asset that is important for nature conservation has been recognized in legislation and official documents [2,14,30]. Because of their linear shape, these greenways enhance connectivity for biodiversity within the city [2,5,14]. However, the potential contribution of the gravel bed of the railways to these functions has received far less attention than that of the line-side vegetation. As the gravel bed continues, even where tunnels or overpasses interrupt embankments, railway bridges may serve as important elements in greenways.\nOur case study showed that even a seemingly artificial habitat, a relatively thin and uniform gravel layer on a steel construction, is a valuable asset as an element of urban greenways. Besides providing multiple ecosystem services to residents, greenways have an important function as corridors for biodiversity in urban areas. However, their functional connectivity is frequently interrupted when crossing roads and rivers, an aspect that has so far not been investigated for animals. Our case study indicates that the bridge investigated fulfilled the connectivity function for a part of the urban fauna. This included some small vertebrate species as well as species not associated with open spaces and gravel-rich habitats such as arboreal spiders, which may have arrived on the bridge by chance. Indeed, all the small mammal and reptile species recorded on the bridge were previously considered as focal species for ecological network planning [31,32]. In addition, the gravel bed on the bridge provided habitat for many resident invertebrate species, highlighting its value as part of a greenway for invertebrates. These findings are somewhat surprising with respect to the rather extreme temperatures measured in the gravel bed with maximum temperatures exceeding the air temperatures by 10 and more °C. For animals adapted to open gravel areas this may not be a problem. However, for other animals it may reduce their likelihood of dispersal.\nTikka et al. [23] demonstrated the importance of road and railway verges as dispersal corridors for plants. Penone et al. [5] found that railway edges function as corridors for common grassland plants even in urban environments. Considering embankment gaps, functional connectivity was mainly maintained at railway stations, but not at overpasses. Plant groups differed in response depending on traits related to dispersal [5]. Similar information is scarce for animals, especially invertebrates. Morón et al. [24] showed that railway embankments can serve as a new habitat for pollinating insects (bees, butterflies, hoverflies). Similarly, Gonseth [33] reported a species-rich butterfly community on railway embankments. However, both studies did not consider the gaps in the embankments at bridges.\n\n4.2. Special Conditions in the Gravel Bed\n\nIn contrast to railway embankments, the gravel bed is a more artificial habitat exposed to extreme environmental conditions. Gravel beds in general have no vegetation, which would dampen extreme temperature fluctuation. Indeed, temperature conditions in the gravel bed differed considerably from standard measurements from the nearby weather station. Mean and maximum temperatures in the gravel bed were higher than corresponding temperatures measured in the weather station.\nTo our knowledge, species composition of invertebrates has not been investigated in gravel beds. However, large gravel areas such as in marshaling yards serve as habitats for many xerothermophilic and pioneer species [34,35]. Furthermore, some of the railway habitats show a high overlap with species composition of ruderal sites in urban areas [14,36]. Interestingly, 65% of the carabid and staphilinid beetle species captured on the bridge were also recorded in natural gravel beds along the river Rhine in the Upper Rhine Valley [37]. Similar data for other groups are lacking. Railway gravel beds may function as connecting habitat corridors for species occurring in natural or semi-natural gravel-rich habitats and ruderal sites in the urban area.\n\n4.3. Daily and Seasonal Activity Patterns\n\nTwice daily collection allowed us to discern diurnal and nocturnal activity patterns. Our results indicate that the majority of the surface activity happened during the night. However, this differed strongly depending on the taxonomic group. Extreme temperatures during the day may act as a filter for the use as habitat by some groups, which, however, may still disperse on the bridge during more benign conditions. However, many species may be mostly nocturnal independent of the weather conditions. Indeed most of the groups represented in the traps were predominately caught during the night.\nThese findings are relevant for future management of little-used railway lines in urban areas, particularly for industrial railway lines used for occasional cargo transport. If these cargo transports were restricted to the daytime this would increase the functional connectivity of these railway lines during the night.\n\n4.4. Traits\n\nTo understand the function of the railway bridge as part of the greenway, it is necessary to understand whether species using the bridge are representative for the wider species pool of the region or represent a subset of this pool characterized by certain traits or habitat preferences. In our case study, spider species captured on the bridge did not differ in body size and stratum use from the overall species pool of the urban area of Basel. A body size distribution in line with that of the species pool indicates that the bridge is suitable for dispersal for spiders of all sizes. Furthermore, the scale of interstices in the gravel bed may not limit use for spiders because of a reduced amount of fine-grained substrate. In contrast to our expectation, we also found arboreal species on the bridge. Like other invertebrate species, which are typically found in habitats very dissimilar to the open and exposed gravel bed on the bridge, these species were likely dispersing. However, as numbers for these species were low they may also have arrived on the bridge by chance. This highlights the function of the bridge as an important element of a corridor network of linear structures connecting green spaces throughout the urban area.\n\n4.5. Conclusions\n\nBeside a proven dispersal function for vertebrates, we provided evidence for a species-rich invertebrate community in the gravel bed on this set-aside iron-steel railway bridge. It should be noted that in the decade prior to our investigation period the railway bridge was primarily used for irregular goods transports rather than regular passenger traffic. In this respect the railway line investigated may resemble many industrial railway lines. By contrast, information on invertebrate communities in the gravel bed of heavily used tracks is not known. Planned traffic blockages for rail maintenance may allow studying some aspects of gravel-inhabiting invertebrate communities. Newly abandoned railway lines may also provide research opportunities.\nWhy is the case of our bridge relevant beyond Basel? First, we show the reuse value of set-aside transportation infrastructure for biodiversity. This is of particular importance because of limited budgets for urban greenways. This approach may appeal to transportation managers and politicians alike because of its potential reversibility, allowing flexibility in face of changing demands. Currently, the railway bridge investigated in Basel is still set aside, functioning as a dispersal corridor. Second, the fact that most animals were captured during the night opens an opportunity for biodiversity management of little-used cargo tracks. If industrial railway tracks are exclusively used during the day, individuals of many taxonomic groups would be able to disperse during the night. Such changes in usage may be more easily and faster achievable than the augmentation of existing infrastructure or the construction of new green bridges, and may improve connectivity of urban habitats. Thus, even minor management changes could enhance the connectivity function of greenways.\n\nSupplementary Materials\n\nThe following are available online at, Table S1: Summaries of generalized linear models (GLM) examining the effects of temperature and precipitation on the abundance of invertebrates caught; Table S2: Capture data for different animal groups per 7-day period; Table S3: List of invertebrate species captured.\n\nAuthor Contributions\n\nConceptualization, B.B. (Bruno Baur); Formal analysis, B.B. (Brigitte Braschler); Funding acquisition, B.B. (Bruno Baur); Investigation, C.D.; Project administration, C.D.; Visualization, B.B. (Brigitte Braschler); Writing—original draft, B.B. (Brigitte Braschler) and B.B. (Bruno Baur); Writing—review and editing, B.B. (Brigitte Braschler) and B.B. (Bruno Baur). All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.\n\n\nFinancial support was received from the Emilia Guggenheim-Schnurr Stiftung, Basel, Grant No. 96-07.\n\n\nWe are grateful to the Deutsche Bahn AG for permission to conduct the study on the set-aside bridge. C. Berney, M. Wurtz and several students are thanked for help with fieldwork. We thank the following experts for help with species identifications: C. Berney, A. Coray, A. Hänggi, H. Luka, T. Meier, R. Neumayer, A. Pedroli-Christen, P. Stucki, P. Vogel, I. G. Weiss, A. Wittwer and D. Wyniger. We thank S. Friry for assisting with retrieving trait data for spider species. H.-P. Rusterholz, J.D. Gilgado, I. Kowarik and three anonymous reviewers are thanked for comments on the manuscript.\n\nConflicts of Interest\n\n\n\n 1. Grimm, N.B.; Faeth, S.H.; Golubiewski, N.E.; Redman, C.L.; Wu, J.; Bai, X.; Briggs, J.M. Global change and the ecology of cities. Science 2008, 319, 756–760. 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Greenway: Origin, planning features and significance. Appl. Mech. Mat. 2013, 295–298, 2660–2664. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]\n 31. Battisti, C.; Luiselli, L. Selecting focal species in ecological network planning following an expert-based approach: Italian reptiles as a case study. J. Nat. Conserv. 2011, 19, 126–130. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]\n 32. Spinozzi, F.; Battisti, C.; Bologna, M.A. Habitat fragmentation sensitivity in mammals: A target selection for landscape planning comparing two different approaches (bibliographic review and expert based). Rend. Lincei 2012, 23, 365–373. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]\n 33. Gonseth, Y. La faune des Lépidoptères diurnes (Rhopalocera) des talus routiers et ferroviaires du Jura neuchâtelois. Mitt. Schw. Entomol. Ges. 1992, 65, 413–430. [Google Scholar]\n 34. Bönsel, D.; Malten, A.; Wagner, S.; Zizka, G. Flora, Fauna und Biotoptypen von Haupt- und Güterbahnhof in Frankfurt am Main, Kleine Senkenberg-Reihe 38; Waldemar Kramer GmbH: Frankfurt a. M., Germany, 2000. [Google Scholar]\n 35. Burckhardt, D.; Baur, B.; Studer, A. (Eds.) Fauna und Flora auf dem Eisenbahngelände im Norden Basels. Monographien der Entomologischen Gesellschaft Basel, Volume 1; Entomologische Gesellschaft Basel: Basel, Switzerland, 2003. [Google Scholar]\n 36. Melliger, R.L.; Rusterholz, H.-P.; Baur, B. Habitat- and matrix-related differences in species diversity and trait richness of vascular plants, Orthoptera and Lepidoptera in an urban landscape. Urban Ecosyst. 2017, 20, 1095–1107. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]\n 37. Bense, U.; Maus, C.; Mauser, J.; Neumann, C.; Trautner, J. Die Käfer der Markgräfler Trockenaue. In Vom Wildstrom zur Trockenaue: Natur und Geschichte der Flusslandschaft am südlichen Oberrhein; Landesanstalt für Umweltschutz Baden-Württemberg (LfU), Ed.; Verlag Regionalkultur: Ubstadt-Weiher, Germany, 2000. [Google Scholar]\nFigure 1. (a) Railway bridge as seen from the street. During the study period in 1996 the bridge was closed to traffic. (b) Drift fences and pitfall traps on the bridge. Fine-grained marl was added to seal any gaps beneath the fences. Some vegetation developed on the gravel bed of the bridge because the track was set aside for a period of 1 year.\nSustainability 12 01194 g001\nFigure 2. (ac) Comparison of temperatures measured in the gravel bed of the bridge with air temperatures measured 2 m above grass at the nearby weather station Basel/Binningen. Both norm values for the period of 1981–2010 and values for the study period are given. (a) Monthly means of daily maximum temperatures, (b) monthly means of daily mean temperatures, (c) monthly means of daily minimum temperatures. (d) Comparison of summed monthly precipitation for the study period with long-term norm values (weather station Basel/Binningen).\nSustainability 12 01194 g002\nFigure 3. (a) Mean temperatures during the day and night for the observation period for loggers in the gravel bed between the rails on the bridge and at the head of the bridge, respectively. (b) Precipitation per day at the nearby weather station Basel/Binningen.\nSustainability 12 01194 g003\nFigure 4. Activity patterns of different focal groups. (an) show the percentage of all individuals of a focal group caught in each of the four seasons during the day and night. Light gray bars represent daytime activity, while black bars represent activity during the night. Numbers in brackets represent the total numbers of individuals caught for each focal group. Data from November were excluded from this graph because traps were only emptied once per day in that month.\nSustainability 12 01194 g004aSustainability 12 01194 g004b\nBack to TopTop", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8213961124420166}
+{"content": "Ticket #30562\nI am using a quicklist in a maintainer where 0 = Monday. When I select 'Monday' however from the dropdown and update the record, I am seeing a blank in the maintainer table list instead of Monday.\nCustomer had a numeric display format in Field Settings that suppressed zero '0' values and shows them as blanks. Instructed customer to select a format option that ends in 0 and not 9. Formats that end in '9' will show zero and null values as blank when running the app, whereas formats that end in '0' will show zero and null values as '0'. If you change the format, recompile the application (no need to overwrite the HTML when recompiling for changes to numeric display formats). This resolved the issue for the customer.\nAsked on September 8, 2020", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9594879150390625}
+{"content": "08.04.2019 21:35\nauthenticity and whether she's a 'desperate. Show off'.Worse still [url=http://www.nowsheffield.co.uk/][b]black friday stone island[/b][/url], transform it through the love of God and into a memorial to remind everyone so that we will never forget love never failsdon't say anything at all'. It's a real opportunity for us to take a hard look at the game and the definition that it's just not cricket. We have the obligation that it still becomes a relevant phrase in the english language going forward [url=http://www.nowsheffield.co.uk/][b]cheap stone island jacket[/b][/url] the zoo decided to solve its groundhog crisis once and for all by using a baby nutria to predict the weather for Carnival season. It has done so ever sincebelieved he was real and chose to be tortured to death under Nero and others rather than deny that the gospel of Jesus is truth. This qualifies as a very strong case for the authenticity of the gospel since most people will not choose torture or being fed to lions to defend a lie. Many wouldn to defend the truth. Some Iran experts were skepticallet them go first and then retweet what they're reporting. Don even get ahead of them based on what you may see in emails to the desk that are marked \"reportable.\" Those are for internal use and the language in them may not have been given a final edit. For instance. he said. \"This was a massive culture clash.\". File picture shows Rock band Arctic Monkeys during a concert at the Benicassim International Festival in the eastern Spanish town of Benicassim July 22 [url=http://www.sevencs.org.uk/][b]cheap stone island clothing[/b][/url], he assisted on a Jaromir Jagr goal for his first NHL point in a 3 0 win against the Florida Panthers.. Better to keep the goods in storage than sell at prices that could make us a lossthey'd transform themselves into black footed ferrets. This variety of ferrets is the only one that's native to the Americas [url=http://www.grdplaser.co.uk/][b]stone island jeans cheap[/b][/url] COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE.. Everyone knows that Hollywood doles out more cheap happy endings than a discount bathhouse. The lovers embracekogo Dan chce zabi/ochroni? WICEJ. Clay yellsQuenelle was the local union president. [url=http://blogs.evergreen.edu/birds/hooded-merganser/#comment-883]dsiwiq as well as supermarket and shops[/url] [url=http://www.shawtec.co.za/a-bespoke-design-at-the-sea/#comment-34325]vahmup Sir Mick allegedly refused to use their services again[/url] [url=http://alexgoffin.be/PowWow/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12469]cchhlk Most doors are almost 20 years old[/url] [url=http://www.hsh58.cn/forum-2-1.html]frsrpm A collection of Joseph Smiths teachings[/url] [url=http://robishop.hu/mezzel-edesitett-suti/#comment-26627]fyasuf West Coast face a tough task next week[/url] [url=http://adamsalomon351802.bloggersdelight.dk/2018/12/27/gomel-neman-match-betting-tips/#comment-19122]qufear it sounds like the perfect recipe for producing a spoilt[/url] [url=http://mindsharkmarketingreviews.com/cheap-coreg-online#comment-74509]xhalij He had to be institutionalized many times[/url] [url=http://paperpointer.com/phpBB3/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=44974]ppxjcu I feel like Im the same person[/url] [url=http://jennacampbell351801.bloggersdelight.dk/2018/12/27/betting-picks-on-qatar-v-algeria/#comment-15901]dwepco He had made the same suggestion to Greens Shane Rattenbury[/url] [url=http://bilelimmi.com/hak-ve-sorumluluklarimiz/#comment-29412]hrrvwq Another prominent person was twice Hero of the Soviet Union[/url]\nСсылка на комментируемую страницу", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8186357617378235}
+{"content": "초록문의 abstract@kcsnet.or.kr\n\n결제문의 member@kcsnet.or.kr\n\n현재 가능한 작업은 아래와 같습니다.\n\n제121회 대한화학회 학술발표회, 총회 및 기기전시회 안내 New Ni(II), Zn(II) and Co(II) Heptameric Cluster Systems from Dialdehyde\n\n2018년 2월 2일 14시 31분 16초\nINOR.P-49 이곳을 클릭하시면 발표코드에 대한 설명을 보실 수 있습니다.\n4월 19일 (목요일) 11:00~12:30\nInorganic Chemistry\n저자 및\nUme Farwa, Junseong Lee*\nDepartment of Chemistry, Chonnam National University, Korea\nWe report the three polymetallic heptameric complexes [Ni7L63-OH)6].(ClO4)2 (1), [Zn7L63-OCH3)6].(ClO4)2 (2) and [Co7L63-OH)6]. (ClO4)2, (3), where L=4-tert-Butyl-2,6-diformylphenol. These heptametallic complexes are characterized by IR, NMR (for 3), EA, ESI-MS and X-ray single crystal diffraction. Due to usefulness in gas storage, catalysis, anion sensing recognition and drug delivery, cluster complexes are of highest interest these days. By the right choice of ligand polymetallic supermolecules can be synthesized which find their application as single molecular magnetic (SMM). By treatment of dialdehyde with metal perchlorate salts of Ni, Zn, and Co in the presence of strong base NaOH at elevated temperature using methanol as solvent, rare heptametallic clusters were obtained. The synthesis of these disc-shaped heptameric complexes highly depends on the factors including ligand to metal ratios, temperature and the types of base used. These complexes are only obtained in the presence of a strong base like sodium hydroxide. To validate the synthetic approach, we used a weak base such triethylamine which didn't result in the formation of heptamer complexes. The nature of the ligand having unidirectional coordination sides resulted in the unique arrangement of the metal atoms in the heptameric complexes. The X-ray structural analysis revealed that cores of these crystals are hexagonal shape of MII ions which surround the central metal ion bridged by µ3-OH. The peripheral metal atoms are surrounded by six ligand molecules.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.940898060798645}
+{"content": "Mitigating Social media Spamming with Online Identity Verification\n\nAuthor Message\n\nDate sent: 2020/05/08 14:17:32\nFake news - are all over the social media networking platforms that give birth to wrong perceptions. It is not difficult for spammers to be anonymous on social media. One individual can have multiple identities with different profile pictures and identity details. This leverage is misused that becomes the reason for various criminal activities over these platforms. For example spread of misinformation, junk posts, malicious executable link injection, malware spread, harassment, fake love contracts, and torture, etc. Other than these, financial crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing kidnapping, and credit card fraud take place.\n\nAll these examples of criminals activities over social media platforms are due to open participation of unauthorized access over the platform. Anonymity is the root cause of these activities. To cope with it, dynamic actions are required that could help mitigate the risk of the above-mentioned crimes.\n\nSteps that can be taken to stop social media Fraud?\n\nIdentification of legal entities in the social media platforms can help solve the problem of anonymity that is blowing up all the frauds. The reason is that if some individual is noticed to spread misinformation over the platform, it would be investigated and consider accountable for activity that could create complex circumstances. The process of transparent networking infrastructure can be ensured through online identity verification of individuals.\n\nIdentity Proofing\n\nIdentity proofing of customers is a process in which rather the customers are required to prove their identity to participate on the platform or get access to the account. Traditional passwords and PINs authentication methods are things of the past that could easily be tampered and become reasons for the breach of a customer information database. Secondly, identity proofing through unique identifiers, for example, a government-issued ID card or facial recognition can help build a community of unique real users that could mitigate the risk fo financial and other crimes of social media platforms.\n\nAdvanced Identity Verification solutions\n\nLeaving behind the time-consuming identity verification methods, now advanced solutions are available that social media platforms can integrate into their system to verify the identity of each of their customers to keep the legitimacy of their platform intact. The innovative identity verification solutions include facial recognition in which at registration time, the identity can be registered by uploading a document having the details and pictures. The system will extract the information against validity checks and ask the user to verify the face. If the face at the document and the one system captures in real-time matches, an identity will be verified. Now at each sign-in, the user face verification will be done and the system will check the facial biometrics against the ones stored in the database.\n\nEnsure a Trusted Customer base\n\nTrust between the platform and customers is vital for any business. The social media users should be provided trusted services by establishing a base that includes only real users. This will contribute to a high brand reputation. Research by DataReportal says that there are about 3.5 billion social media users globally. Now it is the responsibility of social media platforms to not overlook the increasing spamming on the digital environment and take appropriate actions in the form of online identity verification to establish a unique and trusted customer base. It is also a regulatory requirement to secure the online platforms from fraudulent actors that are the reason for various criminals activities and use such mediums to perform an array of malevolent activities.\n\nDate sent: 2020/06/03 05:58:25\n\nDate sent: 2020/07/30 10:52:13", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9996991157531738}
+{"content": "\n\n\n -- Ralph Waldo Emerson\n\nBuilding High-Performance Teams\n\n\nRegardless of your industry, in the final analysis your success depends on your people…or more specifically, how well your people work together: Do they collaborate in strategic planning and innovation? Do they hold each other accountable to their commitments? Do they communicate openly, honestly, and constructively? Do they resolve conflict effectively? Do they encourage new ideas and lively debate? Do they trust each other? In short, do they bring out the best in each other?\n\n\nGoals like these are not achieved by ropes courses or gimmicky team building exercises, but by thorough assessment and specific action related to a shared goal. We work with teams to assess their collective strengths, to identify their opportunities for improvement, and to bring about the changes they need to direct maximum force toward organization goals.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9909284710884094}
+{"content": "Publication of AWTG’s response to IMDA Singapore’s Second Consultation on 5G\n\nThe IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority) Singapore has published AWTG’s response to its second public consultation on 5G mobile services and networks. The public consultation focused on the transformative impact that 5G would bring to businesses and consumers in Singapore and building the 5G Ecosystem.\n\n\nAWTG responded by providing detailed information such as experiences and lessons learned from other countries, observations as to why Singapore is an excellent 5G adopter and expert opinion on implementing 5G, use cases, government engagement and spectrum.\n\n\nTo view the full response of AWTG, click here. You may also access full timeline of the consultation here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9992039799690247}
+{"content": "How Many Carbs Are In Chobani Flips?\n\nIs Greek yogurt high in carbs?\n\nGreek Yogurt Dairy isn’t out just because you’re low carb.\n\nGo for Greek yogurt, which has a higher protein content compared to regular yogurt.\n\nOne 6-ounce container offers 17 grams of protein and only 6 grams of carbs, plus it’s a good source of bone-maintaining calcium..\n\nWhich yogurt has the least carbs?\n\nLow-fat yogurt: 12 grams of carbohydrate. Nonfat or skim milk yogurt: 13 grams of carbohydrate. Whole milk Greek yogurt: 7 grams of carbohydrate. Whole milk yogurt: 8 grams of carbohydrate.\n\nIs SKYR better than yogurt?\n\nAside from the smooth, thick texture, skyr gets bonus points for its health benefits. It’s super high in protein (even higher than Greek yogurt), and also packed with vitamins and minerals, and typically lower in sugar, carbs, and fat than most yogurts.\n\nAre chobani flips healthy?\n\nChobani yogurt cups with fruit on the bottom have a lot of sugar per serving, which negates the protein benefits of the yogurt. … Chobani’s flip-cup yogurts are a little better to eat because the yogurt is kept pure and separated from the dry toppings like nuts and dark chocolate.\n\nHow many carbs are in chobani yogurt?\n\nCalciumTotal Fat 0g0%Cholesterol 5mg2%Sodium 65mg3%Total Carbs 16g5%Fiber <1g3%5 more rows\n\nDoes freezing milk change the taste?\n\nThe taste and appearance changes depend on the speed at which the milk is frozen. A slight change in taste, and/or some loss of color, is possible. … Keep in mind that the quality of a defrosted milk, or of any other frozen food, will be no better than it was at the time it was frozen.\n\nIs chobani low carb?\n\nChobani Plain Greek Yogurt – Serving Size 5.3oz | 80 Calories | 0g Fat | 15g Protein | 4g Sugar | 6g Carbs. Kroger Carb Master Plain Yogurt – Serving Size . 67 cup | 70 Calories | 1.5g Fat | 11g Protein | 2g Sugar | 4g Carbs.\n\nWhat should I do before bed to burn fat?\n\n\nCan I freeze chobani flips?\n\nAbsolutely! Frozen Chobani® yogurt can be stored in your freezer up to the expiration date listed on the container. While frozen, the cultures become dormant. But once thawed, they become live and active again.\n\nIs chobani good for weight loss?\n\n\nCan you freeze yogurt and eat it like ice cream?\n\nTurning Yogurt into Fro-Yo Churn until the yogurt reaches the consistency of soft-serve ice cream — you can actually serve it right away just like this if you like! If you want harder fro-yo that’s closer to the consistency of ice cream, pack it into a freezer container and freeze it until hardened.\n\nIs Chobani Greek yogurt Keto friendly?\n\nChobani® Plain Greek Yogurt is crafted from farm-fresh local milk, making it an excellent source of protein. With a creamy texture and old-world-tart taste, our non-fat, low-fat, and keto-friendly whole milk options are the perfect base for breakfast bowls, smoothies, and so much more.\n\nCan you lose weight eating yogurt?\n\nAs it is a protein-rich source, yogurt has been found to improve your metabolism. Therefore, it helps you burn more calories throughout the day. Protein in yogurt would also promote weight loss by filling you up and keeping you satiated for a long time.\n\nWhat is the best yogurt for dieting?\n\nThe Healthiest Yogurts To Eat When You’re On A Diet of 8. Don’t forget to pin it for later! … of 8. Siggi’s Skyr Plain Non-Fat Yogurt. … of 8. Siggi’s Skyr Orange And Ginger Non-Fat Yogurt. … of 8. Fage Total 0 Percent Greek Yogurt. … of 8. Fage Crossovers Olive Thyme With Almonds. … of 8. Dannon Oikos Triple Zero Greek Nonfat Yogurt. … of 8. … of 8.\n\nIs SKYR good for gut health?\n\nSkyr’s live and active cultures may help maintain digestive health, boost the immune system, prevent yeast infections and lower bad cholesterol. Since it’s made from skim milk, it’s always nonfat. Skyr is frequently compared to Greek yogurt, but it’s thicker, creamier and boasts more protein and less sugar.\n\nWhich is healthier Greek or Icelandic yogurt?\n\nPlain skyr serves up 100 calories, 17 grams of protein, 0 grams of fat, and 3 grams of sugar per 5-ounce serving, compared to nonfat Greek yogurt’s 80 calories, 15 grams of protein, 0 grams of fat, and 4 grams of sugar. … Compared to Greek yogurt, skyr is slightly thicker and less tangy, kind of like crème fraîche.\n\nHow many carbs are in Icelandic yogurt?\n\nWhile its exact nutrient content varies by brand, a 6-ounce (170-gram) serving of unflavored skyr typically contains the following (1, 2, 3 ): Calories: 110. Protein: 19 grams. Carbs: 7 grams.\n\nCan I freeze eggs?\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5590757727622986}
+{"content": "The Legal Case for Work-Life Balance\n\nMany of today’s employers recognize the value of work-life balance programs. Research conducted by the Families and Work Institute has shown that work-life balance programs can help employers:\n\n • Attract and retain top talent.\n • Enhance corporate reputation.\n • Increase job satisfaction, commitment, and loyalty.\n • Reduce absenteeism and turnover.\n\nIt should be no surprise that many employers are increasingly offering work-life balance programs such as flexible work options, dependent care supports, legal and financial assistance, EAP services, and health and wellness referrals. On the surface, it appears employers are meeting the work-life balance needs of their workforce through supportive programs. However, many employees are reluctant to use these programs for fear they will experience negative career consequences such as lower performance evaluations, fewer opportunities for promotions, decreased opportunities for rewards and recognition, less supervisory support, and harassment by supervisors. Today’s employees are less tolerant of negative career consequences traditionally associated with work-life balance and are more likely to view these consequences as discriminatory as well as file lawsuits against their employers. Employees with family responsibilities tend to be at the forefront of this movement.\n\nAccording to Hastings College of Law at the University of California, employment discrimination based on family responsibility is a fast-developing trend in employment law. The number of successful lawsuits brought by employees with family responsibilities has doubled since 2000, with court settlements in favor of employees as high as $11.65 million. In the past decade, there has been a 419% increase in the number of lawsuits brought by family caregivers against their employers. Lawsuits have been filed against city and state government, universities, Fortune 500 companies, and a variety of private and nonprofit organizations.\n\nMany employers find themselves unprepared for the lawsuits brought by their employees and even more unprepared for the large court settlements in favor of employees. You might be wondering how this could happen, especially to employers who seem to have good intentions. The best way to answer this question is with a story.\n\nDavid was a top performer at his prior company and decided to accept a new position with XYZ Inc., a tractor equipment company with 1,000 employees. David was hired as an assistant manager and was very impressed with XYZ’s extensive compensation package, which included work-life balance programs. David got off to a great start in his new position and was initially very satisfied with his decision to join XYZ Inc. However, after settling into his new job and learning how things really worked at XYZ, he discovered something that made him uncomfortable.\n\nXYZ’s corporate culture supported innovation, integrity, customer service, and quality, which David also highly valued. But what bothered David was XYZ’s “unwritten rules” that guided management decisions about his effectiveness, advancement potential, and commitment to the company. These “unwritten rules” suggested that all employees should:\n\n • prioritize work over personal life.\n • keep personal problems at home.\n • limit time off for personal matters.\n • provide 24/7 availability.\n • work long hours in the office to achieve advancement.\n\nEven though these “unwritten rules” were not based on any existing business need, employees were encouraged to follow these rules because “that’s the way XYZ has always done things.” David felt uncomfortable with XYZ’s “unwritten rules” but reminded himself that he did not have any personal issues that could interfere with his job.\n\nAfter one year, David was still with XYZ and received an outstanding performance evaluation. However, several months later David received news that his mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and only had four weeks left to live. David knew immediately that he needed to spend time with his mother. He initially considered a flexible work option outlined in his work-life balance program, but decided against it after hearing stories that using a flexible work option was “career suicide.” As a result, David decided to take his three-week paid vacation to spend with his mother. David’s manager approved his time off. David’s mother passed away three weeks later, and David requested five days’ bereavement leave. David’s manager also authorized this leave.\n\nAfter David returned to work, he quickly got back into the swing of things, working long hours and outperforming his colleagues. However, when an important assignment became available, it was assigned to a less-qualified colleague. In addition, he discovered that his manager scrutinized his work more closely, continually questioned his commitment to the company, and was less willing to offer him support, which was readily provided prior to taking time off. Two months later, the promotional opportunity David had been waiting for became available. David interviewed for the position but discovered he was not selected. David learned that his less-qualified colleague Brian had received the promotion. David was upset with this decision and talked with his manager who said, “we decided on Brian because he seems more committed to the company than you and has never taken time off for personal problems.” What David did not know at the time was that he might have been the victim of an illegal form of employment discrimination called “family responsibilities discrimination.”\n\nAccording to Hastings College of Law at the University of California, over 600 employees in the past 10 years have brought lawsuits against their employers for family responsibilities discrimination. In 67 of these cases, employees have been awarded court settlements over $100,000. In a court case not unlike David’s, a well- performing male maintenance worker with 25 years’ experience took intermittent unpaid federal family medical leave to care for his father with Alzheimer’s disease and his ill mother, who later died. The employer authorized the leave, but fired the employee while he was out because he rated poorly on a new performance-review program designed to create grounds to terminate him. A jury decided that the employer illegally retaliated against him for taking time off and awarded him $11.65 million in damages (Schultz v. Advocate Health & Hospitals Corp., No. 01C0702 [N.D. 111. 2002].\n\nIn the case of XYZ Inc., it appears David was retaliated against for taking time-off by increasing scrutiny of work and harassing him after he returned from leave (see Walsh v. National Computer System, Inc. No. 00-CV-82 [2002]. XYZ also based promotional decisions on the assumption David was more committed to his family than to his career, which is considered illegal (see Back v. Hastings on Hudson Union Free School District, 365 F.3d 107 [2d Cir 2004].\n\nSo how does a company like XYZ prevent future allegations of family responsibilities discrimination and protect itself from potential litigation? There are five research-tested solutions every employer should implement to prevent family responsibilities discrimination.\n\n1. Policy Vs. Practice\n\nXYZ’s “unwritten rules” or daily practices overruled their official work-life balance policy, making it impossible for employees to balance work and personal life. The “unwritten rules” XYZ supported have been shown to significantly increase employee perceptions of family responsibilities discrimination (Dickson, 2003). In addition, research findings suggest informal workplace practices are more important than official policies in reducing employee perceptions of family responsibilities discrimination. For example, employers that create supportive workplace cultures that value work-life balance significantly reduce employee perceptions of family responsibilities discrimination.\n\nSuggestions for HR and OD Professionals\n\nPartner with employers to develop their work-life strategy. Well-designed work-life strategies are the foundation of an effective work-life balance policy.\n\n • Conduct a SWOT analysis of their current work-life balance program.Carefully analyze its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A SWOT analysis will provide key information that will help employers design effective work-life balance policies.\n • Conduct a work-life culture assessment to identify how informal practices may conflict with formal policies. For example, are there “unwritten rules” that prevent work-life balance, such as expecting employees to prioritize work over personal life? If so, develop action plans to manage these “unwritten rules” or informal policies.\n • Make managers and employees accountable for the successful implementation of the work-life balance policy. Tie managers’ evaluations to effective implementation of policies, and use continuous process improvement (CPI) teams to empower employees to evaluate the practicality of the policy and to provide continuous feedback to management.\n\n2. Flexible, Responsive Managers Needed\n\nIn the case of XYZ, David’s manager did not promote the work-life balance programs offered by the company, but instead supported the “unwritten rules” that conflicted with work-life balance. Although David’s manager allowed him to take time off, David was penalized upon his return. Supervisors and managers play a key role in reducing employee perceptions of family responsibilities discrimination. For example, employees who work for flexible, responsive managers perceive significantly less family responsibilities discrimination.\n\nSuggestions for HR and OD Professionals\n\n • Provide individual coaching and training sessions for managers to address their underlying beliefs about work-life balance that may interfere with their ability to effectively manage their employees’ work-life issues.\n • In addition, coach and train managers to behave in a more flexible and responsive manner toward their employees’ work-life issues. Make sure to coach and train managers to set appropriate limits and boundaries with their employees. This will help managers more effectively balance the needs of the employer with the needs of the employee, preventing managers from becoming overly flexible or rigid in their decision-making.\n\n3. Work-Life Balance Program Use\n\nEnsure positive experiences using or requesting work-life balance programs. Employees who report positive experiences using work-life balance programs perceive significantly less family responsibilities discrimination. (Dickson, 2003). In the case of XYZ, David had a negative experience taking time-off for family responsibilities due to his manager’s behavior and to the career consequences he experienced.\n\nSuggestions for HR and OD Professionals\n\n • Create tip sheets for managers which include a list of dos and don’ts for effective communication for when employees return from leave as well as tip sheets for managers on how to effectively communicate with employees who request flexible work options and/or federal or state family medical leave.\n\n4. Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Services Make a Difference\n\nIn the case of XYZ, EAP services were not utilized. As a result, David did not have an opportunity to confidentially discuss his concerns or receive support. Research reveals that the availability of EAP services can significantly reduce employee perceptions of family responsibilities discrimination, especially for employees with family caregiving responsibilities (Dickson, 2003).\n\nSuggestions for HR and OD Professionals\n\n • Improve the marketing, delivery, and evaluation of EAP services. For example, HR and OD professionals should seek to market EAP services more effectively. In addition, HR and OD professionals should evaluate EAP services biannually to ensure they are meeting the needs of the workforce.\n\n5. Flexible Work Options Work!\n\nIn the case of XYZ, David learned that using a flexible work option was “career suicide.” XYZ’s “unwritten rules” created significant career consequences for employees who used a flexible work option. The availability and use of flexible work options such as flexible scheduling, telecommunting, job sharing, part-time work, and compressed workweek can reduce employee perceptions of family responsibilities discrimination, especially if employees have a positive experience using these programs (Dickson, 2003).\n\nSuggestions for HR and OD Professionals\n\n • Promote the employers’ flexible work options in training sessions and in direct client services. In addition, employers should make flexible work options available to all employees to avoid “family-friendly backlash” in which single employees are not given the same rights as parents or other family caregivers in the workplace.\n\n\nBy understanding the legal case for work-life balance policies, HR and OD professionals have a unique opportunity to partner with employers to develop innovative training programs, to get involved in strategy development and implementation, and to showcase their unique talents that can protect employers from family responsibilities discrimination lawsuits while creating a healthier, more effective and efficient workplace.\n\n\n\nLeave a Reply\n\n\nYou are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )\n\nGoogle photo\n\n\nTwitter picture\n\n\nFacebook photo\n\n\nConnecting to %s", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8193116188049316}
+{"content": "You will need\n • - a table lamp;\n • - Scotch;\n • - tracing;\n • program WebcamMax.\nOne of the common problems distorted image transmission - bluish hue of the face, which is unlikely to appeal to your interlocutor in the chat, because it gives you a dark look. This problem occurs due to the lack of light coming from the monitor of the computer you are using, which can distort the transmitted image. What color dominates on the desktop, this will be painted your face. To eliminate this undesirable effect, turn on a bright Desk lamp or floor lamp.\nIf the image of your face turns white as a sheet of paper, then the lamp is too bright or does not have the function of reducing the light output. To diffuse the light, attach a sheet of tracing paper with tape on the lamp. Due to this, the face will have a natural color, and lighting will be more soft. To slightly dim the lights, try to throw shade is a sheer, lightweight fabric. If your Desk is next to a bright wall, you can reduce the brightness of the bulb, unscrewing it from the face and pointing at the wall.\nSuppose you did everything correctly, but the color of the face somehow turned crimson. This can occur because of the automatic exposure settings of the camera, which selects the radius of the bright spot and identifies it as \"white\". All the other colors, it sets on this basis. Therefore, if the radius of visibility of a camera is not present white color, other colors are significantly distorted. To fix this, put on a white blouse (sweater, shirt, t-shirt) and you will look \"on all hundred\".\nIf you spend much time reading or sitting at a computer and wear glasses, the following advice might also come in handy. To reduce glare from glasses reflecting the monitor, lower the monitor brightness in the settings of the computer to 25-30 percent. In 5 minutes you'll get used to a little darkened desktop and your companion (or companion) will finally be able to see the color and expression of your eyes.\nTo further improve the quality of broadcast video, you can use the program WebcamMax - This program has the function of improving image/video and various effects to connect with friends. It can be used in chat rooms (when communicating via Skype, ICQ), and in the browser.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5429569482803345}
+{"content": "Documents - Think Tank - European Parliament Think Tank - The documents that help shape new EU legislation EN © European Union, 2020 - EP Sat, 19 Sep 2020 07:10:11 GMT Briefing - States of emergency in response to the coronavirus crisis: Situation in certain Member States III - 17-06-2020 The spread of the coronavirus pandemic has prompted countries to take extensive and far-reaching measures to tackle the consequences of the outbreak. Apart from curbing the spread of the disease, these measures have also posed legal and economic challenges, significantly affecting people's lives. Due to the nature of the virus, citizens' rights and freedoms have been curtailed, inter alia affecting their freedom of movement and assembly, as well as the right to conduct economic activities. Whilst the measures are currently being relaxed, there is debate in some Member States over whether the measures were justified and proportionate. Some Member States resorted to declaring a 'state of emergency', whilst others did not, either because they have no such mechanism in their constitutional framework or because they chose a different path, giving special powers to certain institutions or using and modifying existing legislation. In either case, democratic scrutiny over the situation has been highly important, making parliamentary oversight crucial to ensure the rule of law and respect for fundamental democratic principles. This briefing covers the following countries: Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden. It focuses on three key aspects: i) the constitutional framework of the state of emergency or legitimation of the emergency legislation; ii) the specific measures adopted; and iii) the extent of parliamentary oversight exercised on the adopted measures. This briefing is the third in a series aimed at providing a comparative overview of Member States' institutional responses to the coronavirus crisis. The first in the series gives an overview of the responses in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain, while the second covers Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Romania and Slovenia.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP Documents - Think Tank - European Parliament Wed, 17 Jun 2020 15:14:20 GMT EPRS_BRI(2020)651972_EN_20200617", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9239909648895264}
+{"content": "UiPath fails to identity screen elements\n\nHelo there.\n\nI am experiencing the same situation in all my workflows.\n\nUsing Chrome browser (never tried other) 95% of the executions goes ok. But the other 5% UiPath fails to identify a screen element.\n\nIt is never the same element. Sometimes it´s the “User” attribute, sometimes it´s the “password”, other times is a button.\n\nThe fact is those elements are not changing any Selector information. Is i close the browser and restart the robot, it goes ok.\n\nAny ideas?\n\nIt’s problem of not only Uipath , but other RPA platforms.\nYou can improve it with 2 layer of retry\nLayer 1: Retry the activity (Click, Type Into…) without any conditions\nLayer 2: Close browser & retry all process from begining", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9811716079711914}
+{"content": "Nelio was born in the East of France in 1982.\n\nSelf-taught and vagabond, he has built himself through his many travels that have made him a multidisciplinary visual artist, in perpetual search of learning and experimentation.\n\nWorking in a cyclical manner, adapting to the context and his desires of the moment, he moves from formalism to expressionism, from construction to destruction, establishing bridges between these different processes.\n\nBeing both fascinated by the power of a minimalist work and the depth of a dense and complex work, he enjoys exploring the artistic field between the two.\n\nThe style of his debut, based on a typographic work and a refined representation, mainly influenced by his practice of graffiti and graphic design, has slowly evolved into an abstract universe, fruit of the dialogue he develops with the architecture and the surrounding of places that host his creations.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9920147061347961}
+{"content": "11.4. Motion Control with Torque or Force Inputs (Part 3 of 3)\n\nThis video introduces the computed-torque motion control method for robots, where the control inputs are torques or forces. The controller is defined both in joint space as well as task space.\n\nRecall our dynamics for a single-joint robot. I'll lump together the gravity and friction terms into a single term h. In the last video we learned about PID feedback control. While it can give good performance, it still requires error to accumulate before it will command a torque. If we have a good dynamic model of the robot, there is no need to wait for error to start commanding a torque.\n\nOur dynamic model is M-tilde and h-tilde, based on estimates of the inertia of the robot, the gravitational term, and friction. If the model is perfect, then M-tilde equals M and h-tilde equals h at all times. With our dynamic model, we can design a feedforward controller. At each time instant, we apply the torque M-tilde times theta_d-double-dot plus h-tilde of (theta_d, theta_d-dot). The desired position, velocity, and acceleration at any time instant comes from the known desired trajectory at that time instant; there is no feedback from the joint.\n\nOf course feedforward control will not work well on its own, as we never have a perfect model of the dynamics. There is no mechanism to recover from errors.\n\nLet's consider a control law that combines the benefits of a good dynamic model and the stabilization of the PID controller. Here is one possibility. The first term of the control law is M-tilde times an acceleration, which is the sum of the feedforward acceleration at this time instant plus an acceleration generated by a PID controller. The M-tilde model turns the feedforward plus feedback acceleration into a joint torque. The second term of the control law provides the torque h-tilde that is estimated to be needed to balance friction and gravity at the current state.\n\nNotice that if the error is always zero, this control law reduces to the feedforward controller. This control law goes by different names, but it's often called computed torque control. Because of the possibility of instability raised by integral control, the integral term can be eliminated.\n\nIf the model M-tilde and h-tilde is exact, we can remove the tildes in our analysis of the control law. Then the commanded acceleration theta-double-dot, which is the sum of feedforward and feedback terms, is achieved exactly by the commanded torques. The second derivative of the error is theta_d-double-dot minus theta-double-dot. Plugging in the commanded acceleration, the error dynamics can be expressed like this. Taking the derivative, we get this third-order homogeneous differential equation, yielding zero steady-state error. This linear error dynamics applies along arbitrary trajectories of the robot, since the use of the dynamic model effectively linearizes the dynamics.\n\nLet's apply the computed torque controller to track the trajectory shown here. Our model of the dynamics is not perfect, as you can see from this simulation of the trajectory when using only feedforward control. The robot starts out approximately on the trajectory, but over time the actual trajectory diverges from the desired due to error in the model.\n\nWe could instead try a PID controller with no dynamic model. Finally, we could try computed torque, which provides better tracking than either of the other two controllers. We could also look at a standard measure of the control effort exerted by the motor, the time integral of the torque squared. At first, the PID control effort is the lowest, before the error builds up to start driving the torque. Soon, though, the PID control effort exceeds the control effort of the computed torque method. This is typical behavior of the computed torque method: it provides better trajectory tracking than pure feedback control with lower control effort.\n\nIn short, if we have a reasonable model of the robot's dynamics, we should use it in the controller.\n\nTo summarize, the single-joint computed torque control law is given here. This controller generalizes readily to multi-joint robots. The difference is that tau, theta_d, and theta_e are vectors, h-tilde is a vector of Coriolis, gravity, and possibly friction terms, M-tilde is a model of the robot's configuration-dependent mass matrix, and K_p, K_i, and K_d are diagonal matrices, each consisting of a positive scalar times the identity matrix. The linearization of the dynamics provided by the model M-tilde and h-tilde makes each joint have the same stable linear error dynamics.\n\nThis is a block diagram of the computed torque controller. The measured position and velocity of the robot feed back to the PID controller, to the calculation of the M-tilde matrix, and to the calculation of the h-tilde vector.\n\nThis controller provides good performance when the dynamic model of the robot is reasonably good. If the dynamic model is poor, then using it in the controller could actually hurt performance compared to a model-free feedback controller. Also, evaluating the mass matrix and h-vector could be computationally intensive for real-time control. For this reason, simpler versions of this control law are common. For example, PD feedback control plus gravity compensation can provide good performance, and it is much less computationally expensive to evaluate a model of gravitational torques than it is to compute a full dynamic model.\n\nFinally, we could express the computed torque control law in terms of the task-space dynamics of the robot, derived in Chapter 8. The end-effector wrench F_b, expressed in the end-effector frame, equals the end-effector mass matrix Lambda times the end-effector acceleration V_b-dot plus the wrench eta due to Coriolis and gravity terms. Our dynamic model is Lambda-tilde and eta-tilde.\n\nRecalling the joint-space computed torque control law, by analogy we write the task-space computed torque control with F_b, Lambda-tilde, and eta-tilde replacing tau, M-tilde, and h-tilde, respectively. The analog to the feedforward acceleration theta_d-double-dot is the time-derivative of the desired twist, V_d-dot. Technically, this feedforward acceleration should be expressed in the current end-effector frame, but let's ignore that detail. The analogy to the PI terms replaces theta_e by the twist X_e that takes the current end-effector frame to the desired end-effector frame in unit time. Finally, the analogy to theta_e-dot is the twist V_e, which is the desired twist V_d, expressed in the current end-effector frame, minus the current twist V_b. This is the resulting control law, and the actual torques applied at the joints are obtained by pre-multiplying the control wrench F_b by the Jacobian transpose. Other simpler task-space control laws could be formulated, but they all involve computing an end-effector wrench and then pre-multiplying by the Jacobian transpose to get the joint forces and torques tau.\n\nThis completes our study of motion control where the controller commands joint forces or torques. In the next video we move on to force control.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7815955877304077}
+{"content": "Is Osteoarthritis Considered A Disability?\n\nCan I claim disability allowance for arthritis?\n\nIf you can prove that your arthritis prevents you from sitting for six hours per day, occasionally walking or standing for two hours per day and that you cannot lift ten pounds due to your condition then you will be approved for Social Security Disability benefits..\n\nCan I get a blue badge if I have arthritis?\n\n\nIs osteoarthritis classed as a disability?\n\nIf you have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis and it has impacted your ability to work, you may qualify for Social Security Disability benefits. Osteoarthritis results in the gradual loss of cartilage from your joints.\n\nDoes walking worsen osteoarthritis?\n\n\nWhat is the best painkiller for osteoarthritis?\n\n\nWhat vitamins should you take for osteoarthritis?\n\n\nCan you end up in a wheelchair with osteoarthritis?\n\nPain, stiffness, or difficulty moving could affect your mobility, making tasks like walking or driving very difficult. You may need to use a cane, walker, or wheelchair to get around. Some people require assistance getting in or out of a car.\n\nWhat type of arthritis qualify for disability?\n\nIf you have a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis, you should be able to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Through the Social Security Administration (SSA), the federal government provides these cash payments to those who are unable to work due to an illness or injury for at least a year.\n\nIs Climbing stairs bad for osteoarthritis?\n\n\nIs osteoarthritis a serious disease?\n\n24 Jul Osteoarthritis, a serious disease It is considered a disease associated with old age and with very little glamor, if any disease has it. However, osteoarthritis is a very complex pathology and affects notonly older people but other at-risk groups.\n\nWill my osteoarthritis get worse?\n\n\nCan I work with osteoarthritis?\n\n\nDoes osteoarthritis shorten your life?\n\nIn conclusion, our meta-analysis of the impact of osteoarthritis (OA) on cognitive decline and overall mortality indicates higher cognitive scores, later dementia onset as well as longer lifespan and lower age-specific all-cause mortality in OA cohorts.\n\nWhat are the 4 stages of osteoarthritis?\n\n\nDoes osteoarthritis hurt all the time?\n\n\nWhat is the most painful type of arthritis?\n\nGout is one of the most painful forms of arthritis. This condition is caused by elevated levels of uric acid, a bodily waste product, in the bloodstream. Symptoms of gout occur when uric acid crystals accumulate in the joints and surrounding soft tissue, causing an inflammatory response in the affected areas.\n\nCan osteoarthritis cripple you?\n\nOsteoarthritis is rarely crippling, but it can have a major impact on a person’s life. Many people miss work days or skip favorite activities when the pain flares up. The condition is responsible for more than 27.5 million outpatient visits per year, according to data from the Arthritis Foundation.\n\nWhat should you not do with osteoarthritis?\n\nWe’ll explore six foods to avoid when you have OA.Sugar. Sugar-rich carbohydrates, such as processed cakes, cookies, and bakery items, may change your body’s immune response to disease, according to one study . … Salt. … Fried food. … White flour. … Omega-6 fatty acids. … Dairy.\n\nWhat is end stage osteoarthritis?\n\n\nDoes cold weather affect osteoarthritis?\n\n\nWhat is severe osteoarthritis?\n\nOsteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis affecting the joints. Osteoarthritis symptoms can range from mild to severe and can progress over time. In a healthy person, cartilage normally covers the ends of your bones where the joint forms. With severe osteoarthritis, the cartilage erodes and bone rubs on bone.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9775195717811584}
+{"content": "Candidate Spotlight No. 1: French Convenor\n\nFor the first in our series of candidate interviews, we talk to Emily Allen, who is running for French Convenor.\n\nWhat do you feel you could offer the French department in your role as convenor?\n\nBy selecting me as French convenor, the department can rest assured that they will be represented by a dedicated student who is passionate about all the content and structure of the course. I wish to continue the high standards which are already in place as well as bring in my own fresh and original thoughts, particularly concerning unionising the languages and cultures taught in the school of Modern Languages as a whole.\n\nHow would you help current French students prepare for their future careers? \n\nIt is important to fully understand the range skills gained and how they will aid us in the vast field of options out there for us, as learning the language itself constitutes only a small part. The ability to think on your feet, negotiate and to instantly process information all while constantly switching between two languages are integral skills for such the fast paced world of work.\n\nThe written, literature and history elements of the course increases information processing, understanding and general knowledge, as well as spoken and written eloquence, which give us an undoubted edge when applying for jobs.\n\n\nDo you have any past experience in similar roles? \n\nDuring my last year at school I was a mentor to the younger students, tutoring some of them and encouraging them to take French A-Level. I had to act as a mature student and explain the nature of the course content as well as documenting their issues and suggestions.\n\nWhat made you decide to apply to be French Convenor? \n\nSince coming here in first year I have been impressed by the vast range of topics covered in the French department, as the focus on literature and history as well as spoken and written language makes the course seem so much more interesting and inviting.\n\nHowever, I also want the chance to bring my own ideas to the role and the department as a whole, and one thing which particularly drives me is creating a firmer link between the different entities of the course, so that the connection between them and how they all function as a whole to create the degree clearer to us studying it.\n\n\nHow would you go about improving communication between the students and the department?\n\nAs well as the office hours and email correspondence which are already available a weekly or bi-weekly workshop in which students and their tutors can meet to clarify and discuss a certain aspect of the course, whether it is a period of history or a chapter of a novel.\n\nSometimes the weekly tutorials just aren’t long enough to fully understand the depth and complexity of and the work for that week, so an extra session will be an excellent opportunity for further comprehension and clarification, as well as raising any other concerns or issues.\n\nWhy did you choose to study French as your degree?\n\nChoosing to carry on with French from school to university was a decision I made because I knew there was so much more to French than just the verb conjugations you learn in a classroom.\n\nWhat I was looking forward to the most was studying French literature, and starting my studies here did not disappoint, particularly with the introduction of history in second year. So far it has been an amazing experience; the academic and personal learning, as well as the people I’ve met and skills I’ve gained.\n\nOne thing I want to ensure is that it is just as fulfilling for everyone else.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7648866176605225}
+{"content": "Latmaju Nigeria Ent\n\nIndustry: Travel Agencies\n\n\nContact Person: Jubril Adedapo Alabi\nAddress: Ice and Pepper Building Sewa Bus Stop Oppt Gtbank Efunsetan Roundabout Challenger\nIbadan Oyo 23402\nTelephone: +234 80 5650 3041\nDescription: LIPROS ACADEMY (Liprosa), established in 2011, provides a range of captivating and effective youth programs to recruit and train young football players in cooperation with her partners in Europe. The main mission of the LIPROSA is to increase football popularity among young people, to provide high-quality training and coaching and the best facilities for everybody who wants to gain experience and master football culture in a beautiful city such as Prague. We are an organization which helps every person who is not indiferent to football and wants to learn, develop, compete, play and win in a new environment. Everyone is welcome to join us regardless of age, gender, background or skills.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9822506308555603}
+{"content": "Outdoor Garden Fountains Near Me\nCharlemont Massachusetts\n\nAnglo Saxon Landscapes at the Time of the Norman Conquest\n\nThe arrival of the Normans in the latter half of the eleventh century substantially altered The Anglo-Saxon ways of living. The expertise of the Normans exceeded the Anglo-Saxons' in architecture and agriculture at the time of the conquest. But yet there was no time for home life, domesticated architecture, and adornment until the Normans had conquered the whole realm. Most often built upon windy peaks, castles were straightforward structures that permitted their occupants to devote time and space to offensive and defensive schemes, while monasteries were rambling stone buildings commonly added in only the most fecund, extensive valleys. The calm method of gardening was not viable in these dismal bastions. Berkeley Castle is probably the most intact model in existence at present of the early Anglo-Norman style of architecture. The keep is reported to have been conceived during the time of William the Conqueror. A massive terrace serves as a deterrent to intruders who would attempt to mine the walls of the building.Anglo Saxon Landscapes Time Norman Conquest 14774576666905.jpg On one of these parapets is a scenic bowling green covered in grass and bordered by an aged hedge of yew that has been shaped into coarse battlements.Large Outdoor Fountains Come From? 75800617194.jpg\n\nWhere did Large Outdoor Fountains Come From?\n\n\n\nUrban fountains built at the end of the nineteenth functioned only as decorative and celebratory ornaments since indoor plumbing provided the essential drinking water. Amazing water effects and recycled water were made possible by replacing the power of gravity with mechanical pumps.\n\n\nThe Wide Range of Exterior Fountains\n\nMake your dream a reality by creating an oasis of tranquility in your yard. The comforting feeling provided by outdoor fountains is just one of the benefits of installing a water feature in your garden.\n\nThe beauty of a spouting fountain can be observed when it propels a stream of shooting water into the air. If your pond is significantly large, it can be incorporated without hassle. These sorts of fountains are often found in parks or historical stately homes.Wide Range Exterior Fountains 076390034910305.jpg\n\n\nThemed fountains are perfect when the style of your garden allows for them. Consider a classic type of statue, such as a cherub supporting a spout, for the fountain if your residence or garden is rustic in style. Modern gardens, on the other hand, benefit from something more adventurous. Feel free to let your hair down and choose something fun and audacious.\n\nThe primary attribute of a multi-tiered fountain is that water streams from a number of different levels. Water runs down numerous tiers in a cascading fountain.\n\nDue to the fact that outdoor fountains can take up a lot of space, put up a wall fountain or a pondless fountain if the space you have is limited. Due to the fact that the reservoirs necessary for these kinds of fountains are hidden below the ground, you can make the most of the space at your disposal.\n\nJapanese fountains are thought to impart a feeling of tranquility and wellness. Bamboo sticks are utilized in this type of fountain to expel the water. Water then streams into a bucket or a shaped stone, only to repeat the pattern over and over again.\n\nAn additional type of fountain is made of glass. Providing a more classical look are trellis-style fountains which showcase shaped metalwork. However, this style of water feature is better suited to backyard gardens with many sharp corners as well as modern-day forms and design. As the water flows over the top of the glass it produces a dazzling impact. Colored LED lights are also included in some fountains to illuminate the water as it down down the sheet of glass. Often made of imitation rock, stone waterfall fountains have water gently trickling down its surface.\n\n\n\nFind Serenity with Garden Fountains\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5098509788513184}
+{"content": "Fraser Clark – Lyons Davidson Ltd []\n\nFirst Name Fraser\nLast Name Clark\nCompany Name Lyons Davidson Ltd\nCompany Email\n\n\nTolerable – 60%\n\n\nTolerable – 70%\n\nTo what extent does your Knowledge Base contribute to Service Desk Resolution? 4\nHow familiar are you with the top Service Desk ticket categories? 3\nHow well do you understand ticket resolution times? 3\nHow mature are your Incident Management processes? 3\nTotal for Performance 17/25\n\n\nTolerable – 50%\n\nHow easy is it for users to contact the Service Desk? 3\nHow well is Service Desk customer satisfaction measured? 2\nHow aligned is your Service Desk with the needs of the business? 3\nHow does your Service Desk rate for customer service? 3\nHow comprehensive are the Service Desk SLAs? 2\nTotal for Capacity 13/25\n\n\nTolerable – 70%\n\nTo what extent is the Service Desk impacted by resource availability? 3\nHow long does it take to induct a Service Desk Analyst on to live service? 3\nTo what extent do capacity issues contribute to Service Desk performance? 4\nHow effectively is Service Desk staff performance managed? 4\nHow well does the Service Desk environment aid productivity? 3\nTotal for Capacity 17/25\n\n\nTolerable – 60%\n\nHow well does the Service Desk understand the needs of different user-groups? 3\nHow technology-enabled is your Service Desk? 4\nHow much of the Service Desk agenda is to optimise user productivity? 3\nWhat proportion of your end-user support service is automated? 2\nHow well does the Service Desk ensure information security? 3\nTotal for Capacity 15/25\n\nGot a question?\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9880132675170898}
+{"content": "Cat Num.ProductMW(Da)ConservationtargetSize\n\nE. Carinatus II Protease\n\n56 000-25° C / -15° CMetalendo-peptidase, single chain, Prothrombin activator, Cleavage of Arg323-Ile324 bond in prothrombin to form meizothrombin. Start at a 1:500 (enzyme: substrate) mass ratio for activation and adjust after results.100 µg\n\n\n55 000 to 60 0002° C / 8° CDetermination of prothrombin levels in patients undergoing anticoagulant therapy (hirudin or thrombin inhibitors). Based on the interaction of hirudin with meizothrombin a simple ecarin clotting test for the monitoring of hirudin levels has been developed (Nowak and Bucha, 1993).50 EU\n\n\n30 0002° C / 8° CEchicetin is a C-type lectin from Echis carinatus sochureki that binds to platelet glycoprotein Ibα and blocks von Willebrand factor and thrombin binding. It can be used either to block these GPIbα functions or, if labelled with 125I or biotin or fluorescein isothiocyanate, to measure GPIbα expression levels. In the presence of plasma, echicetin agglutinates platelets via GPIbα and IgM and can be used to assess GPIbα expression levels directly, independently of von Willebrand factor levels.\n\n\nSnake venom proteases are useful tools for studying coagulation reactions.\nPlasma coagulation factors are usually inactive and require proteolytic activation as a first step towards a chronometric or colorimetric assay.\nIt is often advantageous to use specific enzymes from snake venoms to activate coagulation factors rather than physiological activators.\nIn contrast to other activators, many snake venom enzymes are not dependent from cofactors, phospholipid or calcium ions.\n\n\nAll of our venom products are supplied in 50 % glycerol / water for storage at -20° C or supplied lyophilized at 2-8° C.\nExpiry date = 1 year\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8847451210021973}
+{"content": "Blog of the Angels\n\n1001 angelical secrets to share\n\n234 Angel Number – Meaning in balance and harmony\n\n234 angel number\n\nIf you keep seeing a 234 angel number, again and again, it is no coincidence… it is the angels who are trying to communicate with you to guide and protect you. Angel numbers are numbers that are sent by the angels to get our attention and to communicating with us.\n\nThey do not need our attention for personal gain; rather when we make prayers, and the angels answer them, they help us with our problems. One of how they try to communicate with us is through the appearance of angel numbers repeatedly.\n\nWhat does 234 mean in angel numbers?\n\n234 angel number is one such number, which you might see repeatedly. But, you need to know what it means to know what to do when you see it. The number 234 consists of numbers 2, 3, and 4.\n\nThus, to understand the meaning of the 234 angel number you first need to know the meanings of the individual components it is made up of. Angel number 234 carries messages of balance and harmony!\n\nWhen your angels send numbers as a form of communication, it means they’re trying to tell you something important. They might offer you guidance, knowledge, or support, but the meaning of each angel number is different. This one symbolizes the importance of finding balance and harmony in your life.\n\nYour Guardian Angel can guide you towards balance and harmony! Would you like to know who your Protective Guardian Angel is?\n\n\n\nContact Details\n\n\nWhat does angel number 243 mean?\n\nLike other Angel Numbers, the number 2 is associated with finding a balance in life and to be harmonious, to love and support, our insights. The number 3 is linked to creativity, inspiration, and encouragement which help in achieving your goals and dreams.\n\nThe number 4 has the vibrational frequencies of being steady and being patient. For you to achieve your goals with the best effects, you need to be calm and patient.\n\n234 angel number – The numbers combined\n\nCombining the meanings of all these 3 numbers gives us the meaning of the 234 angel number. It is a message from the angels for you to put in more effort and focus to achieve your long-term goals and dreams. You need to trust in yourself that the work you are putting in today, will benefit you in the future.\n\nEmbrace Opportunity\n\nWe’ve already discussed the fact that this number holds messages related to discovering enjoyment in life and taking steps along your path. However, 234 also relates to your acceptance of new opportunities. When you see this number, it suggests that you’re holding back from embracing the changes that are coming your way.\n\nNegativity can easily cloud our perception, and in many ways, it stops us from seeing the path that was once right in front of us. This angel number is trying to tell you to take a leap of faith: join the sports team, apply for the job, accept the higher learning opportunity, ask your romantic interest out on a date, or do whatever else you’re currently too afraid to do. Hold an optimistic outlook and you’ll find that no matter the outcome, you’ll take something positive away from it.\n\nWhat does angel number 234 mean spiritually?\n\nThe number 234 teaches you that life is a roller coaster ride, one that you need to fully appreciate and enjoy while it lasts. It has a beginning, middle, and an end. However, the discoveries are never-ending, and you need you to explore every bit of it to enjoy it to the fullest.\n\nYou need to keep encouraging yourself along the path to keep learning new things and keep opening doors towards the various opportunities that can benefit you. You need to focus and put in the maximum effort to reach the end of the path where you can fulfill your dreams and desires.\n\nMeaning of the number 234 when it comes to love\n\nAngel number 234 is a signal that it is very hard for you to commit to one person. Thus, it is to the best of your interests if you do not commit at all. It is better to stay alone than be with 2 or more people are at the same time.\n\nStaying alone will help you achieve your dreams faster and thus, you will stay more focused on working hard towards getting to the end of the path that the Divine has designated for you. The angels are always with you, pray to them if you need any help.\n\nDiscover some more interesting articles about Angel Numbers:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8113791942596436}
+{"content": "Changes in healthcare regulation has given the patient more power to make critical decisions in their healthcare. As a result, the market is demanding more transparency in the way healthcare organizations carry out business. These trends, alongside the growing demand for technology to simplify how patients interact with their healthcare providers, places an added stress on organizations to consistently innovate.\n\nHarnessing the power of software, healthcare organizations are able to provide innovative features to consumers who want to research the cost for their care and pay for it in a variety of different ways. Streamlined billing platforms and payment systems require smooth integrations with insurance companies, third party vendors, and funding sources. Simple errors in adapting to ICD-10 could result in improper calculations of patient bills, or delays in claim processing. As a result, patients could be forced to seek care elsewhere or your organization could be forced to wait 90 days or more for full payment.\n\nTechnological advances have also raised the expectations of the consumer when choosing where to receive care. They expect their physicians to have instant access to all critical health data, allowing for the quick and efficient treatment of their ailment. If processes or information is not shared effectively between systems, it results in extensive delays in the care process and low patient satisfaction.\n\nHealthcare providers are now being judged by their technology more than ever. It is no longer enough to provide great care, healthcare organizations must provide technology that boosts customer experience before and after the care is received. Implementing this new technology also leaves your organization at risk of protecting valuable patient data. Flaws in software solutions can quickly lead to significant violations of HIPAA laws and a loss of consumer confidence in your organization.\n\nICD-10 and Beyond.\n\niLAB understands the challenges and risks involved in ICD-10 transformation across the healthcare industry and the way it impacts relationships with providers, payers, clearinghouses, and vendors. We prepare your organization to meet the demands and changes of today’s regulations, while accounting for the inevitability of change in the future. As a result, your systems can adapt with little hassle and your organization keeps operating at full capacity.\n\n\nPatients demand access to their health records, but providing access can expose sensitive data to the wrong eyes if it is not properly secured. Faulty software solutions can place your entire organization at risk of losing credibility and significant market share.\n\n\nSatisfy the growing demand for transparency in the billing process while accounting for the various methods in which patients will pay for their care.\n\n\nAccount for the changes associated with ICD-10 while preparing your organization for future releases. Simplifying this process while improving accuracy results in an efficient route through insurance and quicker payment on claims.\n\n\nYour physicians should have authorized access to the specific patient data they require to quickly assess and provide treatment. When that process requires pulling data and imaging from a wide variety of departments, simple errors can create massive problems in the delivery patient care.\n\n\nBefore you can effectively build the solution of tomorrow, you must first understand where you are today. We can help.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7632355690002441}
+{"content": "Think about the last time you felt really foolish. Perhaps you made a careless comment that offended someone you respect. Or you literally tripped over your own feet and fell flat on your face. In both cases, you probably wished for an immediate do-over to spare yourself pain and embarrassment.\n\nBut there is one important difference between these two examples. You might have avoided the offhand comment altogether if you had given it some more thought. But the clumsy trip and fall? Probably not.\n\nNone of us are immune to the occasional gaffe. And when it happens, it helps to have a sense of humor -- so you can laugh off those moments of pure dumb luck, especially when only your pride is injured. But some of those foolish mistakes are well within your power to prevent ahead of time.\n\nCareless leadership is costly. It is what makes employees decide to take a permanent hike. In fact, research tells us that most people leave their bosses -- not their actual jobs. And foolish errors can even sink a company's chance of survival.\n\nHere are five common mistakes that make leaders appear foolish:\n\nNot setting goals\n\nLeaders who fly by the seat of their pants may achieve the occasional one-off success. But this is neither an effective leadership strategy nor a way to build a successful track record -- and is likely to make you look like flighty and unreliable. Good leaders begin with a strategy for what they want to accomplish, and communicate a logical set of goals so the entire team understands what they are working towards.\n\nTuning people out\n\nMost people are taught to tune out distractions, thinking that they will be more successful if they can cut through the noise. But I have learned that these interruptions are often more important than any plans I had for the day. Perhaps a customer needs assistance, a team member requires immediate feedback, or a can't-miss opportunity crops up. By prioritizing these interruptions, I can respond to situations in real-time and stay closer to our team and customers.\n\nPutting off decisions\n\nLeaders shoulder big responsibilities and inevitably encounter situations that require careful thought or advice from others. But sometimes you do not have the luxury of time to mull over a decision for days. Eventually you must make a decision, even if it is difficult or unpopular -- and then act on it. Indecisiveness will make you look foolish and ill-prepared for the task of leading others, and can lead to missed opportunities and problems that will snowball later.\n\nHoarding knowledge\n\nSome leaders jealously guard what they know, believing that they must be the only one privy to certain information. But hoarding knowledge is a foolish mistake -- it hampers your team's autonomy, leading to frustration and stunting their growth. Good leaders are transparent in their communication so everyone on the team has context for what is happening and the tools to make their own thoughtful decisions.\n\nBeing strong\n\nSome leaders are under the mistaken impression that showing kindness demonstrates weakness, and that it is better to lead with an iron fist. But great leaders understand this paradox: If you want to lead, you must be humble and put others first. Checking your ego and being kind to others are smart practices that will help you maintain your perspective during challenging times and continue your growth as a leader.\n\nGood leaders are not perfect people. I know I am not. But I try to be mindful of what I say and do. And I try to avoid those preventable mistakes. For example, as I work with the team at Aha! I do my best to gather the whole story and ask questions rather than jump to fast conclusions. \n\nThe best leaders take their leadership role seriously. They strive for continuous improvement every day. And when they make one foolish error, they learn from it -- and then try their level best not to repeat it.\n\nI cannot promise that you will not occasionally trip and fall or speak out of turn. But if you can avoid making as many preventable mistakes as possible, you will be able to grow as a leader -- and reduce your chances of looking foolish along the way.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8847074508666992}
+{"content": "Please contact us for more artworks by this artist\n\n\nFrench painter and sculptor André Derain was a leading figure of the avant-garde during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was born in Chatou, Yvelines, France in 1880, just outside Paris. He began to study art on his own in 1895 and in 1898 while studying engineering he also took painting classes under Eugène Carrière where he met Henri Matisse. He also shared a studio with Maurice de Vlaminck and together they painted scenes of their neighbourhood.\n\nDerain spent the summer of 1905 painting alongside Matisse in the village of Collioure in the South of France, a pivotal moment in his career, whose landscapes of bold, nearly acidic colour and relatively free handling of paint were ground-breaking. The two artists exhibited their works from that summer at the Salon d’Automne of 1905, prompting critic Louis Vauxcelles to derisively refer to these works as Les Fauves, or “wild beasts” which marked the beginning of the Fauvist movement.\n\nDerain sustained significant commissions and experimented even more freely, synthesizing the chromatic richness of Fauvism with the fragmentation of Pointillism, or Divisionism. In March 1906, noted art dealer Ambroise Vollard sent Derain to London to produce a series of paintings of the city. In 30 paintings (29 of which are still in existence), Derain presented a portrait of London, many of the Thames and Tower Bridge, that was radically different from anything done by previous painters on the subject, including Monet. These bold colour compositions remain among his most popular work as noted by art critic T. G Rosenthal: \"Not since Monet has anyone made London seem so fresh and yet remain quintessentially English.”\n\nIn 1907, dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler purchased the works held in Derain’s studio to render the artist financially and gave him room to experiment, notably with stone sculpture. He then moved to Montmartre to be closer to Picasso and created works influenced by Cubism and Cézanne. He exhibited with the Der Blaue Reiter group in Germany in 1912, and at the Armory Show in New York the following year.\n\nAfter World War I, Derain approached his paintings with a renewed interest in classicism, exhibiting internationally and enjoying high profile commissions. During World War II, his work was appreciated by the Germans in France for its classicism, which would result in accusations of Nazi collaboration after the war.\n\nAlthough he returned to a sense of classicism in his later career, Derain is best known for his role in the development of Fauvism alongside Matisse at the turn of the century. His flattened forms and vibrant colours allowed for the liberation of colour from the mimetic representation of subject matter; the ways in which he abstracted his landscapes and figural scenes emphasized colour as a conveyer of meaning in its own right.\n\nHis legacy influenced countless artists of the twentieth century. His works can be found in the permanent collections of major museums around the world including the Museum of Modern Art, Musée d’Orsay, the Hermitage Museum and the Tate Gallery, among others.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9939969182014465}
+{"content": "The welcoming of the groom and his family with a ceremony, involving the use of fire, red turmeric and beetle leaf. Aarti\nThe groom’s procession. The groom usually comes on a white female horse, accompanied by family, relatives and friends.Baaraat\nDerived from the Sanskrit word ‘bindu’. It is a mark (usually a round, red one) worn on the centre of the forehead, symbolizing a married woman. Since the most important chakra is considered to be the one between the eyebrows, the bindi is thought to prevent the loss of energy there.Bindi\nAlso known as the Elephant god. The son of Shiva (another God, one amongst India’s hundred or so gods), Ganesha is known as the remover of obstacles. Most auspicious Indian ceremonies (especially weddings across India and Indian populated states such as New Jersey) begin with the worship of Ganesha, so that he can help remove any obstacles that may stand in the path of this union.Ganesha puja\nThe exchange of ‘fresh flower’ garlands by the bride and the groom.Jai mala\nThe ceremony where the bride is given away to the groom, by the bride’s parents. The word can be broken up into ‘kanya,’ meaning girl and ‘daan’ meaning donate.Kanya Daan\nA hooded canopy, decorated with fresh flowers and other accessories, under which a hindu wedding takes place. The mandap could be in an indoor hall or in an open area, depending on the venue and the weather.Mandap\n(Mehndi, Mehendi) Henna tattoos, usually applied by the bride as well as by female family members & friends. While the bridegroom applies it as a token on his hands, the bride applies it on her hands and feet making intricate patterns. Mehandi signifies the strength of love in a marriage. It is believed that the darker the Mehandi color, the stronger the love and bond will be between the bride and the bridegroom. Mehandi\nThe meeting of the groom’s party with the bride’s family. Milni literally means ‘meeting’.Milni\nDuring the wedding ceremony the bride and bridegroom are seated in front of a holy fire. A Pundit conducts the wedding, performs havan (offerings into the fire), and recites various religious sayings.Pheras\nPriest, the conductor of the wedding.Pundit\nIt’s a Hindi word, meaning music. In the wedding context, you can refer to it as the bachelorette party! It’s a time for the female members of the marriage party to get together, have fun, dance, sing and basically have a good time. Sangeet usually takes place the day before the wedding. The new trend, of course, is to have professional singers, DJs and live music for Sangeet these days.\nShaadi A Hindi word that simply means marriage. Can be used in with reference to the male as well as the female gender. For e,g, “it is his shaadi or it is her shaadi”.\nVermilion powder usually worn by married Hindu women, in the parting of their hair. During the marriage ceremony, the groom applies sindoor to the parting of his bride’s hair to show that she is now a married woman. Subsequent sindoor is applied by the wife as part of her morning dressing routine. Its also sometimes the ‘only’ way for people to know that a woman is married, especially as wedding bands is not a regular custom in Indian marriages.Sindoor\nThis refers to the sacred mark on the forehead, of both men and women. The mark itself could be pure sandalwood (referred to as ‘Chandan’ in Hindi), or Kumkum (a red Tumeric powder). It signifies the receiving of a blessing; hence you will notice that people always bow low whenever they receive that sacred mark, either in a temple or during an auspicious ceremony such as a wedding.Tilak\nIn this ceremony, after the wedding is over, the bride’s parents gives a warm send off to their daughter. They wish her a very good and harmonious long married life. From now onwards their daughter does not belong to them. This is perhaps the most emotional wedding ritual, especially for the bride’s father!Vidaai\nAnother word for ‘shaadi’. It actually stands for the union of two souls (aatma). The Asian Indians believe that when people marry they marry for seven lives!Vivaah", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7717344760894775}
+{"content": "Watson remains the King at EP\n\nCheeky Watson (Gallo Images)\nCheeky Watson (Gallo Images)\n\nCape Town - Cheeky Watson remains as president of the Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRU) after surviving a motion of no confidence against him.\n\nA meeting was held in Port Elizabeth on Saturday where several EPRU clubs attempted to unseat Watson as president of the union.\n\nThe clubs that wanted Watson out needed 63 votes (a two-thirds majority), but according to SA Rugbymag.co.za, got only 52 votes, while 40 voted against the motion.\n\nThe clubs have on several occasions this year tried to convene to vote for a motion of no confidence against Watson, but on each occasion the meetings were postponed due to some technicality.\n\nQondakele Sompondo, a spokesperson for the unhappy clubs, was not a happy camper after the meeting finally took place.\n\n“We are questioning the fact that the executive voted for itself,” Sompondo said. “SA Rugby allowed them to vote even though the constitution states clearly that only the clubs should vote. How can the people who are being voted out get to vote? Nine of their 40 votes came from the executive?!\n\n“Another question is why SA Rugby did not invoke clause 28 of its own constitution, which states that when SA Rugby takes over an administration, a provincial executive ceases to exist.”\n\nMonde Tabata, who is acting as an administrator at EP on behalf of SARU, told Netwerk24 that the union remains under control of SA Rugby.\n\n“Don’t forget that there are people at management level who boast experience who could contribute to help make the union a healthy one again.\"\n\nTabata said it could take long before SA Rugby hands back control to the EPRU, pointing to the fact that the Border Rugby Union has been controlled by SA Rugby for the past three years.\n\nUnder Watson as president, the EPRU plunged into a financial crisis last year, with the union unable to pay players’ salaries.\n\nWatson had promised a R200m sponsorship for the Kings but this failed to materialise, with players forced to accept food vouchers following the non-payment of salaries.\n\nSA Rugby was forced to step in and take control of the union which was liquidated last month.\n\nVoting Booth\nWhat is your favourite sport to watch on TV?\n42% - 7590 votes\n11% - 1925 votes\n19% - 3471 votes\n3% - 449 votes\n1% - 161 votes\n2% - 430 votes\n5% - 888 votes\n8% - 1500 votes\n3% - 598 votes\nWater sports\n1% - 163 votes\nAmerican sports\n1% - 210 votes\n3% - 556 votes", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8732409477233887}
+{"content": "The Politics of Perplexity in Twenty-First Century America\n\nJuly 17th, 2020\n\nIn the context of twenty-first century America, “politics” is perhaps one of the most curiously irritating words in the English language. I know from personal experience – whether from observing others, or from paying attention to myself – that there is a visceral reflex to feel something between annoyance and disgust upon hearing the word. If politics rears its ugly head, you may think something along the lines of “I’ve had enough of that, thank you!” before rapidly extricating yourself from an unwanted intrusion into an otherwise perfect day. Alternatively, I suspect many of us know people who hear the word “politics” or some related term and can immediately launch into an ambitious lecture on what is wrong and what should be done that somehow promises (implausibly) to solve all our social, political, and economic problems in one fell legislative swoop. We’re surrounded by bitter disputes – online and on television, in print and in person – over political issues, to the extent that it can be hard to stomach contemplating (much less discussing) politics without feeling a little irritated, even disgusted, with both our neighbors and ourselves.\n\nThese powerful emotional reactions should give us some pause for reflection. In theory, if not always in practice, the United States of America is a democratic republic, ruled by representative officials in the name of its citizenry. Even without considering the matter deeply, it should be clear to us that such a government cannot function if its citizens are entirely disengaged, as radical factions across the political spectrum will be left to do the politicking on our behalf. Whether we like it or not, our nation’s political life will likely remain interested in us even if we are uninterested in return. We might as well make the best of it, and get down to the business of figuring out where, exactly, we went wrong, and what might be done to repair the damage.\n\nSince the early twentieth century, the predominant approach to teaching American students about their form of government has been in the form of what is known as political science. This perspective is primarily (though not exclusively) concerned with educating students about the practical mechanics of their government and the political dynamics of the American electorate – in short, the branches of the United States government, their differing roles and jurisdictions, group behavioral dynamics, and so forth. All of these political institutions and phenomena are generally treated as abstractions that can be measured and predicted with some degree of accuracy using scientific methodology and data analysis.\n\nThe meaning of political science must be carefully qualified and defined. Science is derived from the Latin scientia, or knowledge. The majority of ancient, medieval, and early modern political thinkers used the term political science to refer to the study of politics as a domain of the humanities. They studied politics in light of inquiries in philosophy and history: they did not, as a general rule, conceive of the art of government as something that could be understood as an institutional abstraction that operated independently of the deepest human needs and desires (such as for law and virtue), or the eternal problems that confront every human individual and society (what is justice and truth, and how de we find them?). Above all else, classical political science aimed at cultivating self-governing (moderate) individuals that would be capable of wielding political power responsibly while refraining from tyrannical injustice. Hence, in the conclusion of Plato’s Republic, Socrates teaches Glaucon that the highest end of political science is to teach the soul to bear “all evils and all goods… and practice justice with prudence in every way.” (Republic, Book X, 621c).\n\nModern political science operates on an entirely different basis and different assumptions about human beings and political life. It begins with the premise that human beings, like all natural things, are subject to mechanical laws that render them predictable. Once these laws are understood, the political life of human beings can be mastered and directed towards progress (understood as material comforts and technological innovation) to a degree that was never remotely possible in prior eras of human history. This view of political science emerged first among certain thinkers of the Enlightenment, and became a close companion to the development of the entire field of social science in the late nineteenth century. Both modern political and social science emerged from a common intellectual project that aimed to apply modern scientific methods and insights to the study of very nearly every aspect of human communal life – economics, social dynamics (sociology), religion, sexuality, psychology, and politics, among others.\n\nThis application of human technical knowledge to endemic social problems, economic systems, and political institutions (among other domains of human life) was expected to deliver unprecedented advances that would mirror and eventually surpass the tremendous technological and intellectual achievements of the Scientific Revolution. Max Weber, a social scientist of incredible imtelligence and one of the most brilliant minds of the early twentieth century, fully expected that the complimentary discoveries of both natural and social science would ensure that human “progress goes on ad infinitum.” For many intellectuals in Europe and the United States in Weber’s day, human social and political life had become like a machine that could be kept in a perpetual state of inexorable forward motion. This view remains a powerful one within certain spheres of the social sciences and general public, and has been articulated perhaps most eloquently in the public sphere by the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, among others, even if it is gradually declining in popularity among the greater mass of the American citizenry.\n\nAcademically, this modern scientific approach to understanding American government had many apparent advantages that explain both its widespread acceptance and its continued influence within the academy. For one, it enabled teachers to focus on explaining the structure of U.S. government with a focus on the technical mechanics of government that can be mastered intuitively by most students, regardless of their particular political views and prejudices. Similarly, it relieves teachers and students of having to focus on tiresome historical minutia or obscure philosophical debates that bear no obvious relevance to contemporary issues: students can study their government based on recent experiences that are more easily comprehensible for them than those of, say, two hundred years ago. Above all else, contemporary political science treats the study of American government in utilitarian and mechanistic terms, thereby minimizing occasions for awkwardly passionate or unsolvable confrontations over thorny issues that touch on moral as well as historical and philosophical complexities. What many students will learn from this education is that the American form of government is perfectly reasonable, orderly, and balanced, with predictable mechanics that ensure its stability and perpetuity; in short, it makes sense. And not only does the American government operate like a well-oiled machine, but it also leaves individuals tremendous room to define themselves and act within an ever-expanding horizon of freedoms. Government exists mainly to resolve practical matters of policy and administration, leaving moral questions largely to the domain of the private sphere.\n\nMany may rightly ask: if this model is true, then why does the American government function so poorly in practice? And why are Americans so remarkably inept at finding common ground for resolving pressing political issues? Indeed, there are alarming trends that should inspire us to doubt the viability of this interpretation. Polling conducted over the past decade consistently shows that Americans of all political persuasions are increasingly distrustful of both their governments and of their fellow citizens who hold opposing views. Rigid ideological voices have emerged among both liberal and conservative parties that insist that dialogue is impossible and compromise on any issue is a sign of political weakness, and that a candidate’s quality should be determined by ideological considerations rather than by competence and experience. As electoral politics have devolved into brutal slugging matches between increasingly extreme views, the actual levers of political power have gradually shifted into the hands of a theoretically subordinate but frequently unaccountable and inefficient bureaucracy.\n\nThe fruits of this widespread culture of distrust has been the breakdown of civic life and political order amidst frustration and mutual recrimination throughout American society. Many are understandably frustrated with a system of government that seems incapable or unwilling to fulfill its most basic functions. For that matter, generations of young Americans have now grown up in the shadow of a dysfunctional government that leaves them with little incentive for acting as responsible and engaged citizens. It should be no wonder that there are now voices who now ask questions such as the following: if our current Constitution is a product of eighteenth century political circumstances and ideals, should we not perhaps craft a new political system that is better adapted our contemporary needs and values?\n\nPerhaps these are all passing fads, and some bearable equilibrium will return in short order. I am doubtful that such an event is likely in the near future. Recent events have shown that contemporary Americans of all political stripes are divided not merely by petty partisan differences over policy decisions and electoral contests, but even more importantly by fierce disagreements over fundamental questions about the nature of political life and American civic identity that transcend mere partisan disagreement, and we are not remotely close to resolving these disputes. What is it to be a human? What is freedom? What is justice? We do not have common answers for any of these fundamental questions, nor do we seem (at least, as of this writing) to have a clear direction for amicably resolving these disputes in the public sphere.\n\nYet these disputes, however unpleasant and acrimonious, provide us with a hint of where, exactly, we may have gone wrong. Far from liberating us from antiquated concerns, our modern political education (and the novel mode of thought that created it) may lie at the heart of our perplexity. Modern political science has worked tremendous wonders in allowing us to track the chimerical shifting of public whims in opinion polls or understand the psychology of group dynamics, but it has also obfuscated our ability to grapple with and comprehend problems that are part of the permanent condition of our species. Political institutions and policy alone cannot solve America’s most vexing problems. And we should remember that representative government depends ultimately on the qualities of both officeholders and voters to function properly; institutions abstracted from the body politic cannot rule themselves. Our government, as John Adams observed in 1798, “was designed for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Adams thought that republican government could not exist without some degree of self-government among the citizenry, or else it must devolve into a mass of petty tyrants; we are, perhaps, in the process of proving his point for him.\n\nI suspect that the root of modern American political dissatisfaction is not so much in our continued subjection to an apparently antiquated form of government, nor merely in our frustration with the peculiar idiocies of our political parties, but rather in our own failure to accurately comprehend and utilize our form of government. In an era of change and tumult, we would do well, as the American novelist and essayist John Dos Passos put it in 1941, to “look backwards as well as forwards” as we attempt to extricate ourselves from our current political predicament. While we may face many distinctly twenty-first century problems in certain respects, our most pressing problems – justice, love, truth, goodness, and so forth – are as old as the human species. We live in troubled times: but so, too, did prior generations of Americans. I hope that, if we can find it in ourselves to turn back and reconsider the first principles of American government, its deep roots in English political life and philosophy, we may yet discover a firm foundation that will give us a lifeline from our current perplexity, and enable us to engage more fully in a life of dutiful, informed, and responsible citizenship that can be passed on to future generations.\n\n\nJuly 11th, 2020\n\nI have to date remained silent here about the COVID-19 pandemic, because for the most part I haven’t had anything constructive to add to the discussion, and because I thought that our parents and students would probably prefer to read about something else. I also try, when possible, to discuss things that will still be of interest three or even ten years from now, and to focus largely on issues of education as we practice it. \n\nStill, COVID-19 has obviously become a consuming focus for many—understandably, given the extent of the problem—and what should be managed in the most intelligent way possible according to principles of epidemiology and sane public policy has become a political football that people are using as further grounds to revile each other. I’m not interested in joining that game. Knaves and cynical opportunists will have their day, and there’s probably not much to do that will stop them—at least nothing that works any better than just ignoring them.\n\nBut there is one piece of the public discourse on the subject that has shown up more and more frequently, and here it actually does wander into a domain where I have something to add. The adjective that has surfaced most commonly in public discussions about the COVID-19 epidemic with all its social and political consequences is “unprecedented”. The disease, we are told by some, is unprecedented in its scope; others lament that it’s having unprecedented consequences both medically and economically. The public response, according to others, is similarly unprecedented: for some that’s an argument that it is also unwarranted; for others, that’s merely a sign that it’s appropriately commensurate with the scope of the unprecedented problem; for still others, it’s a sign that it’s staggeringly inadequate.\n\nAs an historian I’m somewhat used to the reckless way in which the past is routinely ignored or (worse) subverted, according to the inclination of the speaker, in the service of this agenda or that. I’ve lost track of the number of people who have told me why Rome fell as a way of making a contemporary political point. But at some point one needs to raise an objection: seriously—unprecedented? As Inigo Montoya says in The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” To say that anything is unprecedented requires it to be contextualized in history—not just the last few years’ worth, either.\n\nIn some sense, of course, every happening in history, no matter how trivial, is unprecedented—at least if history is not strictly cyclical, as the Stoics believed it was. I’m not a Stoic on that issue or many others. So, no: this exact thing has indeed never happened before. But on that calculation, if I swat a mosquito, that’s unprecedented, too, because I’ve never swatted that particular mosquito before. This falls into Douglas Adams’ useful category of “True, but unhelpful.” Usually people use the word to denote something of larger scope, and they mean that whatever they are talking about is fundamentally different in kind or magnitude from anything that has happened before. But how different is COVID-19, really?\n\nThe COVID-19 pandemic is not unprecedented in its etiology. Viruses happen. We even know more or less how they happen. One does not have to posit a diabolical lab full of evil gene-splicers to account for it. Coronaviruses are not new, and many others have apparently come and gone throughout human history, before we even had the capacity to detect them or name them. Some of them have been fairly innocuous, some not. Every time a new one pops up, it’s a roll of the dice—but it’s not our hand that’s rolling them. Sure: investing in some kind of conspiracy theory to explain it is (in its odd way) comforting and exciting. It’s comforting because it suggests that we have a lot more control over things than we really do. It’s exciting, because it gives us a villain we can blame. Blame is a top-dollar commodity in today’s political climate, and it drives more and more of the decisions being made at the highest levels. Ascertaining the validity of the blame comes in a distant second to feeling a jolt of righteous indignation. The reality is both less exciting and somewhat bleaker: we don’t have nearly as much control as we’d like to believe. These things happen and will continue to happen without our agency or design. Viruses are fragments of genetic material that have apparently broken away from larger organic systems, and from there they are capable of almost infinite, if whimsical, mutation. They’re loose cannons: that’s their nature. That’s all. Dangerous, indisputably. Malicious? Not really.\n\nThe COVID-19 pandemic is not unprecedented in its scope and ability to be lethal. Epidemics and plagues have killed vast numbers of people over wide areas throughout history. A few years ago, National Geographic offered a portrait of the world’s most prolific killer. It was not a mass murderer, or even a tyrant. It was the flea, and the microbial load it carried. From 1348 through about 1352, the Black Death visited Europe with a ferocity that probably was unprecedented at the time. Because records from the period are sketchy, it’s hard to come up with an exact count, but best estimates are that it killed approximately a third of the population of Europe all within that little three-to-four-year period. The disease continued to revisit Europe approximately every twenty years for some centuries to come, especially killing people of childbearing age each time, with demographic results that vastly exceed what we might determine from a sheer count of losses. In some areas whole cities were wiped out, and the death toll in Europe alone may have run as high as two hundred million: the extent of its destruction throughout parts of Asia has not been ascertained. Smallpox, in the last century of its activity (1877-1977), killed approximately half a billion people. The 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic killed possibly as many as a hundred million. Wikipedia here lists over a hundred similar catastrophes caused by infectious diseases of one sort or another, each of which had a death toll of more than a thousand; it lists a number of others where the count cannot even be approximately ascertained.\n\nNor is the COVID-19 pandemic unprecedented in its level of social upheaval. The Black Death radically changed the social, cultural, economic, and even the religious configuration of Europe almost beyond recognition. After Columbus, Native American tribes were exposed to Old World disease agents to which they had no immunities. Many groups were reduced to less than a tenth of their former numbers. Considering these to be instances of genocide is, I think, to ascribe far more intentionality to the situation than it deserves (though there seem to have been some instances where it was intended), but the outcome was indifferent to the intent. The Spanish Influenza of 1918, coming as it did on the heels of World War I, sent a world culture that was already off balance into a deeper spiral. It required steep curbs on social activity to check its spread. Houses of worship were closed then too. Other pubic gatherings were forbidden. Theaters were closed. Even that was not really unprecedented, though: theaters had been closed in Elizabethan London during several of the recurrent visitations of the bubonic plague. The plot of Romeo and Juliet is colored by a quarantine. Boccaccio’s Decameron is a collection of tales that a group of people told to amuse themselves while in isolation, and Chaucer’s somewhat derivative Canterbury Tales are about a group of pilgrims heading for the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket for having given them aid while they were laboring under a plague. People have long known that extraordinary steps need to be taken, at least temporarily, in order to save lives during periods of contagion. It’s inconvenient, it’s costly, and it’s annoying. It’s not a hoax, and it’s not tyrannical. It’s not novel.\n\nSo no, in most ways, neither the appearance of COVID-19 nor our responses to it are really unprecedented. I say this in no way to minimize the suffering of those afflicted with the disease, or those suffering from the restrictions put in place to curb its spread. Nor do I mean to trivialize the efforts of those battling its social, medical, or economic consequences: some of them are positively heroic. But claiming that this is all unprecedented looks like an attempt to exempt ourselves from the actual flow of history, and to excuse ourselves from the very reasonable need to consult the history of such events in order to learn what we can from them—for there are, in fact, things to be learned.\n\nIn responding to the plagues and calamities of the past, it is perhaps unsurprising that people responded, then as now, primarily out of fear. Fear is one of the most powerful of human motivators, but it is seldom a wise counselor. There have been conspiracy theories before too: during the Black Death, for example, some concluded that that the disease was due to witchcraft, and so they set out to kill cats, on the ground that they were witches’ familiars. The result, of course, was that rats—the actual vectors for the disease, together with their fleas, were able to breed and spread disease all the more freely. Others sold miracle cures to credulous (and fearful) populations; these of course accomplished nothing but heightening the level of fear and desperation.\n\nThere were also people who were brave and self-sacrificing, who cared for others in these trying times. In 1665, the village of Eyam in Derbyshire quarantined itself with the plague. They knew what they could expect, and they were not mistaken. Everyone in the town perished, but their decision saved thousands of lives in neighboring villages. Fr. Damien De Veuster ministered to the lepers on Molokai before succumbing to the disease himself: he remains an icon of charity and noble devotion and is the patron saint of Hawaii.\n\nThe human race has confronted crisis situations involving infectious diseases, and the decisions they require, before. They are not easy, and sometimes they call for self-sacrifice. There is sober consolation to be wrung from the fact that we are still here, and that we still, as part of our God-given nature, have the capacity to make such decisions—both the ones that protect us and those sacrificial decisions we make to save others. We will not get through the ordeal without loss and cost, but humanity has gotten through before, and it will again. We are neither entirely without resources, but neither are we wholly in control. We need to learn from what we have at our disposal, marshal our resources wisely and well, and trust in God for the rest.\n\nTo Zoom or not to Zoom\n\nMay 29th, 2020\n\nI seem to be making a lot of decisions lately: to teach AP courses or not (not), to seek accreditation or not (seek; successfully we may add), and to use video or not for my class sessions (jury still out).\n\nOur latest home page notes that Scholars Online education is grounded, rigorous, and thorough, and that by “grounded”, we mean that we welcome constructive innovation, but do not seek novelty for its own sake. We teach traditional subjects using time-tested methods.\n\nIn other words, we use technological solutions where they are appropriate, and we recognize that not all technology is useful in a given situation for discovering the truth.\n\nScholars Online will be experimenting with Zoom for some of its courses in 2020-2021, but retain our own chat for others. Math and language courses already use Skype or WizIQ and will be moving to Zoom where the teachers choose to use it. But we have some serious and perhaps not obvious concerns about moving all our courses to video format. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and here are some of my current observations, some based on my own experience, some relying on reports from others.\n\nWe’ve been using Zoom for our church services since lockdown began here in Washington in mid-March, and inevitably, we have also been taking this opportunity to evaluate its use for our Scholars Online courses. We’ve had a chance to identify both some interesting advantages and some worrying disadvantages. (I also used Webex and Skype business platforms for over a decade at work, so some of my observations are platform independent and apply to any video conferencing method).\n\nBut we’ll start with the most recent experiences with Zoom:\n\nLast Sunday, the entire Zoom platform went down across the country. We all had to wait while Zoom tried to recover its servers not just for us, but for the rest of the USA. Most of our church members were unable to log into the church service until the last minute.\n\nZoom focuses on a single speaker, so two people cannot talk at once without it becoming confused. For our church services, we have a designated individual each Sunday presenting the congregational responses for our liturgy. Our Zoom-hosted coffee hour adult education discussions descend to audio beeps and video jerks when two people try to talk at the same time in response to a question.\n\nMembers using different platforms have different display options, which makes it hard for a person on a computer to help a person on a tablet find a particular option and set it so that everyone can hear properly.\n\nEven in our reasonably well-wired urban region, our vicar and responder regularly slow down, glitch, and become unintelligible when they exceed their band width or internet traffic clogs up. It’s distracting to watch people talk and move as though they were under water, and again, hard to understand what they say, and they often don’t realize their presentation has been garbled until it is too late to go back and recover the lost moment.\n\nSo here are the issues I have in considering a move from the SO Chat software to Zoom in particular and video in general:\n\n1. Zoom was designed to support business meetings and webinars, not group discussion sessions. Zoom would be fine if we were doing lecture demonstrations and calling on students one at a time, and for some courses (math, French), it may work well if the instructor has structured a class session that way. But for history, literature, and even science, where we depend on seminar-type discussions that allow students to participate freely, Zoom can be more of an impediment than an aid. In some critical ways, our text chat allows for more interactive discussion than Zoom does. It allows every member to present information on an equal footing, and when students are involved in the material, that dynamic can be pretty exciting. In chat, if five students talk “at the same time”, their remarks all make it into the chat window without confusion, and we can sort and address them individually. Everyone gets heard, and no one gets stepped on — there is no way to interrupt another student, and no need for the teacher to force students to be silent unless called on, except in extreme disciplinary situations. I may be particularly sensitive to this, since I have experienced being talked over in a video conference session so that my voice was never heard (and the meeting host never noticed that my silence was not voluntary). That can’t happen in our chat.\n\n2. We have a number of families who have more than one student in class at the same time, where the noise from competing audio sessions can create chaos for students in the same room. This is an issue which has even been in the news lately as public schools moved online and parents had to deal with siblings using computers in the same room. But quiet is a necessary condition for reflection and the formulation of coherent expression. Our experience over the last two decades and especially feedback from our alumni who were at college or graduate school have made us realize that the silence of chat helps students engage with the material in ways audio input disrupts, and that constantly writing contributes to developing precise self-expression in ways off-the-cuff impulsive spoken responses cannot. If my own environment isn’t quiet during class, it won’t disrupt others in the class. In our chat, I can participate even if someone is running the washing machine in the same room, or there are booming announcements from the airport speaker while I wait to board a plane, or I am in a car on the road with five other voluble family members (and yes, those are all real examples). I may have to block the noise out, but my classmates do not, and I can still enter the discussion at will, without subjecting them to my own distracting environment.\n\n3. Written text allows students to review what was just said, read it closely, and “listen” to it more carefully. In a video presentation, if a student comes in late, or misses a minute, the material covered in that period is lost for the rest of the session. It may be captured in a movie uploaded to YouTube or another platform for later review, but it is no longer available during the discussion. This creates a huge temptation for the late student to simply skip the session altogether and catch the upload: that is, to become a passive viewer of a pre-recorded session instead of an active participant in the discussion. In our chat, if a student comes in late, the entire chat is available from its start up to the moment the student enters, and if one misses a point, he or she can scroll back and find exactly what was said. The student can come up to speed, and jump into the discussion, without requiring the teacher to interrupt the discussion and recap for that student.\n\n4. We also know that many of our students have only low-bandwidth access, and (as mentioned) we have a number of families who have more than one student in class at the same time: bandwidth becomes a critical factor. We’ve seen that even Zoom, which is the cutting edge technology available to us, slows down, cuts out, and even shuts down when it is overloaded. With our chat, I don’t have to worry that another family member is also on line, teaching or taking a high-bandwidth course that will slow down my internet access. I can attend class pretty much from anywhere there is a wireless or data connection.\n\nThere are some other more subtle things that we’ve noticed both in Scholars Online chats, in using audio-visual meetings in business environments, and in reading recent news reports of teachers moving to online video methods that give us pause.\n\nOne is my experience with using an international software product, even as a very large company client. Using Zoom puts us at the mercy of a third party with many other (much bigger) customers who will influence its development. Zoom’s focus will be on meeting the requirements of the majority of its customers, especially the larger ones, at its own pace and on its own schedule. Zoom may chose to drop features that we depend on, or impose features, especially extra security, that prevent students from attending until they have received updated instructions, which puts a greater burden on teachers to stay current with a moving platform. They can choose to revise deployed applications at any moment for their own reasons. My most recent Zoom meeting was delayed for fifteen minutes because one important attendee had to download a required Zoom update before he could log in. With the Scholars Online chat, we control the server and the software, and while our dedicated server is supported by a third party, the NuOZ technicians built it for us to our specifications, and our infrastructure changes only when we understand and have agreed to recommended updates, and can coordinate changes to the MOODLE and our website and test them first. \n\nAnother issue is hosting recordings for course sessions. Our chat logs remain on our dedicated server and are unavailable (short of court order) to anyone outside Scholars Online without our permission. We have built security that meets with both US and European requirements for personally identifiable information. But the capacity and software required to support streaming recorded Zoom sessions is too expensive for us; we will need to look at how to host these on YouTube, which means coming up with security and access controls (and maintaining them on a per-class basis as required by FERPA regulations) as well as putting information on a platform whose ultimate access by its many technicians we do not control. Access control on YouTube is a technical configuration issue with a solution, but it is an additional burden for our teachers and administrative staff, and will require students to have YouTube accounts that will track their access, and not just to Scholars Online resources. Some parents may be comfortable with this, but how will we handle a situation when we have a class where one student cannot have access to his class videos?\n\nLess obvious, perhaps, but an important factor in preferring text to video is simply that text chat levels the playing field. My students don’t have to worry about whether they are dressed well or poorly, or how their house looks to others. This is not a trivial concern for students who feel already at a disadvantage, or that they will be judged by their appearance or their surroundings. We are starting to learn from the public school shift into online teaching that over a third of the students simply stopped coming to class because they lacked the technology or didn’t want others to see their home environment. Using a low-bandwidth text chat helps reduce economic and social distinctions and barriers for our students, and puts the focus where it belongs: on the discussion, in which everyone can participate.\n\nSo perhaps the most important factor is that text chat promotes class community in a way that video does not. I know that students sometimes feel uneasy when they cannot see the teacher or each other, because they use visual appearance, speech accent, and intonation to make judgments. But not being able to make certain kinds of distinctions about each other automatically (or at least not being constantly reminded visually of them) makes for a different kind of relationship. I’m not sure that we would have the same participation in chat if students could tell at a glance each other’s racial or ethnic background or age, or whether the teacher is frowning or smiling. Scholars Online collects no ethnic or racial information as part of the enrollment process. Unless our students make it a point in describing themselves in their MOODLE profiles, we don’t know whether they are white, African-American, Asian, Latino, or native American, and we’ve learned that names are not a reliable guide here, even for gender (information we do collect). Most of our classes have students with a two-three year age range; some have adult students. In chat, they are all more or less equal. I don’t think we could achieve anything close to the same level of equality of discussion if our younger students were constantly reminded that some of their fellow classmates are much older, or sometimes, if they could see the expression on my face as they venture a response! But if I really want my students to learn to think for themselves, they have to be comfortable enough to venture the uncommon or unwelcome observation and speak the truth as they see it.\n\nWe realize that some students prefer visual presentation of material. We can and do use images, short movies, animations, and even interactive exercises during chat, since anything a browser supports, we can direct students to use during a chat session, and we can incorporate everything except complex simulations and whiteboard in chat itself. We’ve accepted suggestions from teachers and students to support different modes of mathematical symbol input and implemented these, and we even create our own graphics and videos to support course presentations (Scholars Online does have its own YouTube channel). This is an area where we can improve our chat presentation abilities, and we are working on it.\n\nBut we need to weigh the presentation and some personal connection advantages of video against what we will lose by moving to a video platform: a certain kind of focus on the material itself rather than the means of presentation, a level sense of community with others in the course that does not depend on identification with ethnic or economic or racial or age cohorts, and constant writing practice that requires disciplined thought from the students. We will continue to trust our teachers to make this choice for their own courses, and support them as best we can.\n\nWe’d love your feedback to help our teachers make this decision.\n\nMr. Spock, Pseudo-scientist\n\nApril 15th, 2020\n\nI’m one of those aging folks who still remember the original run of Star Trek (no colon, no The Original Series or any other kind of elaboration — just Star Trek). It was a groundbreaking show, and whether you like it or not (there are plenty of reasons to do both), it held out a positive vision for the future, and sketched a societal ethos that was not entirely acquisitive, and not even as secular and materialistic as later outings in the Star Trek franchise. The officers of the Enterprise were not latter-day conquistadors. They were genuine explorers, with a Prime Directive to help them avoid destroying too many other nascent cultures. (Yes, I know: they violated it very frequently, but that was part of the point of the story. Sometimes there was even a good reason for doing so.)\n\nIt also offered the nerds among us a point of contact. Sure, Captain Kirk was kind of a cowboy hero, galloping into situations with fists swinging and phasers blazing, and, more often than not, reducing complex situations to polar binaries and then referring them either to fisticuffs or an outpouring of excruciatingly impassioned rhetoric. Dr. McCoy, on the other hand, was the splenetic physician, constantly kvetching about everything he couldn’t fix, and blaming people who were trying to work the problem for not being sensitive enough to be as ineffectual as he was. But Mr. Spock (usually the object of McCoy’s invective) was different. He was consummately cool, and he relied upon what he called Logic (I’m sure it had a capital “L” in his lexicon) for all his decision-making. He was the science officer on the Enterprise, and also the first officer in the command structure. Most of the more technically savvy kids aspired to be like him.\n\nIt was an article of faith that whatever conclusions Spock reached were, because he was relying on Logic, logical. They were the right answer, too, unless this week’s episode was explicitly making a concession to the value of feelings over logic (which happened occasionally, but not often enough to be really off-putting), and they could be validated by science and reason. You can’t argue with facts. People who try are doomed to failure, and their attempt is at best a distraction, and often worse. \n\nUp to that point, I am more or less on board, though I was always kind of on the periphery of the nerd cluster, myself. I suspected then (as I still do) that there are things that logic (with an upper-case or a lower-case L) or mathematics cannot really address. Certainly not everything is even quantifiable. But it was the concept of significant digits that ultimately demolished, for me, Mr. Spock’s credibility as a science officer. When faced with command decisions, he usually did reasonably well, but when pontificating on mathematics, he really did rather badly. (Arguably he was exactly as bad at it as some of the writers of the series. Small wonder: see the Sherlock Holmes Law, which I’ve discussed here previously.)\n\nThe concept of significant digits (or figures) is really a simple one, though its exact specifications involve some fussy details. Basically it means that you can’t make your information more accurate merely by performing arithmetic on it. (It’s more formally explained here on Wikipedia.) By combining a number of things that you know only approximately and doing some calculations on them, you’re not going to get a more accurate answer: you’re going to get a less accurate one. The uncertainty of each of those terms or factors will increase the uncertainty of the whole.\n\nSo how does Spock, for all his putative scientific and logical prowess, lose track of this notion, essential to any kind of genuine scientific thinking? In the first-season episode “Errand of Mercy”, he has a memorable exchange with Kirk: \n\n\n\nKirk: Difficult to be precise? 7,824 to 1?\n\nSpock: 7,824.7 to 1.\n\nKirk: That’s pretty close approximation.\n\nSpock: I endeavor to be accurate.\n\nKirk: You do quite well.\n\nNo, he doesn’t do quite well. He does miserably: he has assumed in his runaway calculations that the input values on which he bases this fantastically precise number are known to levels of precision that could not possibly be ascertained in the real world, especially in the middle of a military operation — even a skirmish in which all the participants and tactical elements are known in detail (as they are not here). The concept of the “fog of war” has something to say about how even apparent certainties can quickly degrade, in the midst of battle, into fatal ignorance. Most of the statistical odds for this kind of thing couldn’t be discovered by any rational means whatever.\n\nPrecision and accuracy are not at all the same thing. Yes, you can calculate arbitrarily precise answers based on any data, however precise or imprecise the data may be. Beyond the range of its significant digits, however, this manufactured precision is worse than meaningless: it conveys fuzzy knowledge as if it were better understood than it really is. It certainly adds nothing to the accuracy of the result, and only a terrible scientist would assume that it did. Spock’s answer is more precise, therefore, than “about 8000 to one”, but it’s less accurate, because it suggests that the value is known to a much higher degree of precision than it possibly could be. Even “about 8000 to one” is probably not justifiable, given what the characters actually know. (It’s also kind of stupid, in the middle of a firefight, to give your commanding officer gratuitously complex answers to simple questions: “Exceedingly poor,” would be more accurate and more useful.\n\nThis has not entirely escaped the fan community, of course: “How many Vulcans does it take to change a lightbulb?” is answered with, “1.000000”. This is funny, because it is, for all its pointless precision, no more accurate than “one”, and in no situations would fractional persons form a meaningful category when it comes to changing light bulbs. (Fractional persons might be valid measurements in other contexts — for example, in a cannibalistic society. Don’t think about it too hard.) \n\nElsewhere in the series, too, logic is invoked as a kind of deus ex machina — something to which the writer of the episode could appeal to justify any decision Mr. Spock might come up with, irrespective of whether it was reasonable or not. Seldom (I’m inclined to say never, but I’m not going to bother to watch the whole series over again just to verify the fact) are we shown the operation of even one actual logical operation.\n\nThe structures of deductive reasoning (logic’s home turf) seldom have a great deal to do with science, in any case. Mathematical procedures are typically deductive. Some philosophical disciplines, including traditional logic, are too. Physical science, however, is almost entirely inductive. In induction, one generalizes tentatively from an accumulation of data; such collections of data are seldom either definitive or complete. Refining hypotheses as new information comes to light is integral to the scientific process as it’s generally understood. The concept of significant digits is only one of those things that helps optimize our induction.\n\nOdds are a measure of ignorance, not knowledge. They do not submit to purely deductive analysis. For determinate events, there are no odds. Something either happens or it doesn’t, Mr. Spock notwithstanding. However impossibly remote it might have seemed yesterday, the meteorite that actually landed in your back yard containing a message from the Great Pumpkin written in Old Church Slavonic now has a probability of 100% if it actually happened. If it didn’t, its probability is zero. There are no valid degrees between the two.\n\nAm I bashing Star Trek at this point? Well, maybe a little. I think they had an opportunity to teach an important concept, and they blew it. It would have been really refreshing (and arguably much more realistic) to have Spock occasionally say, “Captain, why are you asking me this? You know as well as I do that we can’t really know that, because we have almost no data,” or “Well, I can compute an answer of 28.63725, but it has a margin of error in the thousands, so it’s not worth relying upon.” Obviously quiet data-gathering is not the stuff of edge-of-the-seat television. I get that. But it’s what the situation really would require. (Spock, to his credit, often says, “It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” but that’s usually just prior to his reaching another unsubstantiated conclusion about it.)\n\nI do think, however, that the Star Trek promotion of science as an oracular fount of uncontested truth — a myth that few real scientists believe, but a whole lot of others (including certain scientistic pundits one could name) do believe — is actively pernicious. It oversells and undercuts the legitimate prerogatives of science, and in the long run undermines our confidence in what it actually can do well. There are many things in this world that we don’t know. Some of the things we do know are even pretty improbable. Some very plausible constructs, on the other hand, are in fact false. I’m all in favor of doing our best to find out, and of relying on logical inference where it’s valid, but it’s not life’s deus ex machina. At best, it’s a machina ex Deo: the exercise of one — but only one — of our God-given capacities. Like most of them, it should be used responsibly, and in concert with the rest.\n\nThe Sherlock Holmes Law\n\nApril 3rd, 2020\n\nI rather like Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. I should also admit that I’m not a hard-core devotee of mysteries in general. If I were, I probably would find the frequent plot holes in the Holmes corpus more annoying than I do. I enjoy them mostly for the period atmosphere, the prickly character of Holmes himself, and the buddy-show dynamic of his relationship with Doctor Watson. To be honest, I’ve actually enjoyed the old BBC Holmes series with Jeremy Brett at least as much as I have enjoyed reading the original works. There’s more of the color, more of the banter, and less scolding of Watson (and implicitly the reader) for not observing the one detail in a million that will somehow eventually prove relevant.\n\nIrrespective of form, though, the Holmes stories have helped me articulate a principle I like to call the “Sherlock Holmes Law”, which relates to the presentation of fictional characters in any context. In its simplest form, it’s merely this:\n\nA fictional character can think no thought that the author cannot.\n\nThis is so obvious that one can easily overlook it, and in most fiction it rarely poses a problem. Most authors are reasonably intelligent — most of the ones who actually see publication, at least — and they can create reasonably intelligent characters without breaking the credibility bank. \n\nThere are of course some ways for authors to make characters who are practically superior to themselves. Almost any writer can extrapolate from his or her own skills to create a character who can perform the same tasks faster or more accurately. Hence though my own grasp of calculus is exceedingly slight, and my ability to work with the little I do know is glacially slow, I could write about someone who can look at an arch and mentally calculate the area under the curve in an instant. I know that this is something one can theoretically do with calculus, even if I’m not able to do it myself. There are well-defined inputs and outputs. The impressive thing about the character is mostly in his speed or accuracy. \n\nThis is true for the same reason that you don’t have to be a world-class archer to describe a Robin Hood who can hit the left eye of a gnat from a hundred yards. It’s just another implausible extrapolation from a known ability. As long as nobody questions it, it will sell at least in the marketplace of entertainment. Winning genuine credence might require a bit more.\n\nGenuinely different kinds of thinking, though, are something else. \n\nI refer this principle to the Holmes stories because, though Mr. Holmes is almost by definition the most luminous intellect on the planet, he’s really not any smarter than Arthur Conan Doyle, save in the quantitative sense I just described. Doyle was not a stupid man, to be sure (though he was more than a little credulous — apparently he believed in fairies, based on some clearly doctored photographs). But neither was he one of the rare intellects for the ages. And so while Doyle may repeatedly assure us (through Watson, who is more or less equivalent to Doyle himself in both training and intelligence) that Holmes is brilliant, what he offers as evidence boils down to his ability to do two things. He can:\n\na) observe things very minutely (even implausibly so);\n\n\nb) draw conclusions from those observations with lightning speed. That such inferences themselves strain logic rather badly is not really the point: Doyle has the writer’s privilege of guaranteeing by fiat that they will turn out to be correct.\n\nTime, of course, is one of those things for which an author has a lot of latitude, since books are not necessarily (or ever, one imagines) written in real time. Even if it takes Holmes only a few seconds to work out a chain of reasoning, it’s likely that Doyle himself put much more time into its formation. While that probably does suggest a higher-powered brain, it still doesn’t push into any genuinely new territory. Put in computer terms, while a hypothetical Z80 chip running at a clock speed of 400Mhz would be a hundred times faster than the 4Mhz one that powered my first computer back in the 1982, it would not be able to perform any genuinely new operations. It would probably be best for running CP/M on a 64K system — just doing so really quickly.\n\nIt’s worth noting that sometimes what manifests itself chiefly as an increase in speed actually does represent a new kind of thinking. There is a (perhaps apocryphal) story about Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), who, when he was still in school, was told to add the digits from one to a hundred as punishment for some classroom infraction or other. As the story goes, he thought about it for a second or two, and then produced the correct result (5050), much to the amazement of his teacher. Gauss had achieved his answer not by adding all those numbers very rapidly, but by realizing that if one paired and added the numbers at the ends of the sequence, moving in toward the center, one would always get 101: i.e., 100 + 1 = 101; 99 + 2 = 101; and so on. There would then be fifty such pairs — hence 50 x 101: 5050. \n\nA character cannot produce that kind of idea if the author doesn’t understand it first. It makes the depiction of superintelligent characters very tricky, and sometimes may even limit the portrayal of stupid ones who don’t think the way the rest of us do.\n\nFor readers, however, it is different. Literary works (fictional or not) can open up genuinely new kinds of ideas to readers. While a writer who has achieved a completely new way of thinking about some technical problem is less likely to expound it in fiction than in some sort of a treatise or an application with the patent office, fictional works often present ideas one has never considered before in the human arena. It need not be a thought that’s new to the world in order to be of value — it needs merely to be new to you.\n\nSuch a thought, no matter how simple it may seem once you see it, can blow away the confines of our imaginations. It’s happened to me at a few different stages in my life. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings awakened me when I was a teenager to something profound about the nature of language and memory. C. S. Lewis’ “The Weight of Glory” revolutionized the way I thought about other people. Tolstoy’s War and Peace laid to rest any notion I had that other people’s minds (or even my own) could ever be fully mapped. Aquinas’ Summa Theologica (especially Q. 1.1.10) transformed forever my apprehension of scriptureThe list goes on, but it’s not my point to catalogue it completely here.\n\nWhere has that happened to you?\n\nReflections on Trisecting the Angle\n\nMarch 12th, 2020\n\nI’m not a mathematician by training, but the language and (for want of a better term) the sport of geometry has always had a special appeal for me. I wasn’t a whiz at algebra in high school, but I aced geometry. As a homeschooling parent, I had a wonderful time teaching geometry to our three kids. I still find geometry intriguing.\n\nWhen I was in high school, I spent hours trying to figure out how to trisect an angle with compass and straightedge. I knew that nobody had found a way to do it. As it turns out, in 1837 (before even my school days) French mathematician Pierre Wantzel proved that it was impossible for the general case (trisecting certain special angles is trivial). I’m glad I didn’t know that, though, since it gave me a certain license to hack at it anyway. Perhaps I was motivated by a sense that it would be glorious to be the first to crack this particular nut, but mostly I just wondered, “Can it be done, and if not, why not?”\n\nTrisecting the angle is cited in Wikipedia as an example of “pseudomathematics”, and while I will happily concede that any claim to be able to do so would doubtless rely on bogus premises or operations, I nevertheless argue that wrestling with the problem honestly, within the rules of the game, is a mathematical activity as valid as any other, at least as an exercise. I tried different strategies, mostly trying to find a useful correspondence between the (simple) trisection of a straight line and the trisection of an arc. My efforts, of course, failed (that’s what “impossible” means, after all). Had they not, my own name would be celebrated in different Wikipedia articles describing how the puzzle had finally been solved. It’s not. In my defense, I hasten to point out that I never was under the impression that I had succeeded. I just wanted to try and to know either how to do it or to know the reason why.\n\nMy failed effort might, by many measures, be accounted a waste of time. But was it? I don’t think it was. Its value for me was not in the achievement but in the striving. Pushing on El Capitan isn’t going to move the mountain, either, but doing it regularly will provide a measure of isometric exercise. Similarly confronting an impossible mental challenge can have certain benefits.\n\nAnd so along the way I gained a visceral appreciation of some truths I might not have grasped as fully otherwise.\n\nIn the narrowest terms, I came to understand that the problem of trisecting the angle (either as an angle or as its corresponding arc) is fundamentally distinct from the problem of trisecting a line segment, because curvature — even in the simplest case, which is the circular — fundamentally changes the problem. One cannot treat the circumference of a circle as if it were linear, even though it is much like a line segment, having no thickness and a specific finite extension. (The fact that π is irrational seems at least obliquely connected to this, though it might not be: that’s just a surmise of my own.)\n\nIn the broadest terms, I came more fully to appreciate the fact that some things are intrinsically impossible, even if they are not obvious logical contradictions. You can bang away at them for as long as you like, but you’ll never solve them. This truth transcends mathematics by a long stretch, but it’s worth realizing that failing to accomplish something that you want to accomplish is not invariably a result of your personal moral, intellectual, or imaginative deficiencies. As disappointing as it may be for those who want to believe that every failure is a moral, intellectual, or imaginative one, it’s very liberating for the rest of us.\n\nBetween those obvious extremes are some more nuanced realizations. \n\nI came to appreciate iterative refinement as a tool. After all, even if you can’t trisect the general angle with perfect geometrical rigor, you actually can come up with an imperfect but eminently practical approximation — to whatever degree of precision you require. By iterative refinement (interpolating between the too-large and the too-small solutions), you can zero in on a value that’s demonstrably better than the last one every time. Eventually, the inaccuracy won’t matter to you any more for any practical application. I’m perfectly aware that this no longer pure math — but it is the very essence of engineering, which has a fairly prominent and distinguished place in the world. Thinking about this also altered my appreciation of precision as a pragmatic real-world concept. \n\nA more general expression of this notion is that, while some problems never have perfect solutions, they sometimes can be practically solved in a way that’s good enough for a given purpose. That’s a liberating realization. Failure to achieve the perfect solution needn’t stop you in your tracks. It doesn’t mean you can’t get a very good one. It’s worth internalizing this basic truth. And only by wrestling with the impossible do we typically discover the limits of the possible. That in turn lets us develop strategies for practical work-arounds.\n\nConceptually, too, iterative refinement ultimately loops around on itself and becomes a model for thinking about such things as calculus, and the strange and wonderful fact that, with limit theory, we can (at least sometimes) achieve exact (if occasionally bizarre) values for things that we can’t measure directly. Calculus gives us the ability (figuratively speaking) to bounce a very orderly sequence of successive refinements off an infinitely remote backstop and somehow get back an answer that is not only usable but sometimes actually is perfect. This is important enough that we now define the value of pi as the limit of the perimeter of a polygon with infinitely many sides.\n\nIt shows also that this is not just a problem of something being somehow too difficult to do: difficulty has little or nothing to do with intrinsic impossibility (pace the Army Corps of Engineers: they are, after all, engineers, not pure mathematicians). In fact we live in a world full of unachievable things. Irrational numbers are all around us, from pi to phi to the square root of two, and even though no amount of effort will produce a perfect rational expression of any of those values, they are not on that account any less real. You cannot solve pi to its last decimal digit because there is no such digit, and no other rational expression can capture it either. But the proportion of circumference to diameter is always exactly pi, and the circumference of the circle is an exact distance. It’s magnificently reliable and absolutely perfect, but its perfection can never be entirely expressed in the same terms as the diameter. (We could arbitrarily designate the circumference as 1 or any other rational number; but then the diameter would be inexpressible in the same terms.)\n\nI’m inclined to draw some theological application from that, but I’m not sure I’m competent to do so. It bears thinking on. Certainly it has at least some broad philosophical applications. The prevailing culture tends to suggest that whatever is not quantifiable and tangible is not real. There are a lot of reasons we can’t quantify such things as love or justice or truth; it’s also in the nature of number that we can’t nail down many concrete things. None of them is the less real merely because we can’t express them perfectly.\n\nApproximation by iterative refinement is basic in dealing with the world in both its rational and its irrational dimensions. While your inability to express pi rationally is not a failure of your moral or rational fiber, you may still legitimately be required — and you will be able — to get an arbitrarily precise approximation of it. In my day, we were taught the Greek value 22/7 as a practical rational value for pi, though Archimedes (288-212 BC) knew it was a bit too high (3.1428…). The Chinese mathematician Zhu Chongzhi (AD 429-500) came up with 355/113, which is not precisely pi either, but it’s more than a thousand times closer to the mark (3.1415929…). The whole domain of rational approximation is fun to explore, and has analogical implications in things not bound up with numbers at all.\n\nSo I personally don’t consider my attempts to trisect the general angle with compass and straightedge to be time wasted. It’s that way in most intellectual endeavors, really: education represents not a catalogue of facts, but a process and an exercise, in which the collateral benefits can far outweigh any immediate success or failure. Pitting yourself against reality, win or lose, you become stronger, and, one hopes, wiser. \n\nCrafting a Literature Program\n\nFebruary 22nd, 2020\n\nThe liberal arts are, to great measure, founded on written remains, from the earliest times to our own. Literature (broadly construed to take in both fiction and non-fiction) encompasses a bewildering variety of texts, genres, attitudes, belief systems, and just about everything else. Like history (which can reasonably be construed to cover everything we know, with the possible, but incomplete, exception of pure logic and mathematics), literature is a problematic area of instruction: it is both enormously important and virtually impossible to reduce to a clear and manageable number of postulates. \n\nIn modern educational circles, literary studies are often dominated by critical schools, the grinding of pedagogical axes, and dogmatic or interpretive agendas of all sorts — social, political, psychological, or completely idiosyncratic. Often these things loom so large as to eclipse the reality that they claim to investigate. It is as if the study of astronomy had become exclusively bound up with the technology of telescope manufacture, but no longer bothered with turning them toward the stars and planets. Other difficulties attend the field as well.\n\nWe’re sailing on an ocean here…\n\nThe first is just the sheer size of the field. Yes, astronomy may investigate a vast number of stars, and biology may look at a vast number of organisms and biological systems, but the effort there is to elicit what is common to the diverse phenomena (which did not in and of themselves come into being as objects of human contemplation) and produce a coherent system to account for them. Literature doesn’t work that way. There is an unimaginably huge body of literature out there, and it’s getting bigger every day. Unlike science or milk, the old material doesn’t spoil or go off; it just keeps accumulating. Even if (by your standards or Sturgeon’s Law) 90% of it is garbage, that still leaves an enormous volume of good material to cover. There’s no way to examine more than the tiniest part of that.\n\n…on which the waves never stop moving…\n\nEvery item you will encounter in a study of literature is itself an overt attempt to communicate something to someone. That means that each piece expresses its author’s identity and personality; in the process it inevitably reflects a range of underlying social and cultural suppositions. In their turn, these may be common to that author’s time and place, or they may represent resistance to the norms of the time. Any given work may reach us through few or many intermediaries, some of which will have left their stamp on it, one way or the other. Finally, every reader receives every literary product he or she encounters differently, too. That allows virtually infinite room for ongoing negotiation between author and reader in shaping the experience and its meaning — which is the perennially shifting middle ground between them.\n\n…while no two compasses agree…\n\nI haven’t seen this discussed very much out in the open, though perhaps I just don’t frequent the right websites, email lists, or conferences. But the reality — the elephant in the room — is that no two teachers agree on what qualifies as good and bad literature. Everyone has ideas about that, but they remain somewhat hidden, and often they are derived viscerally rather than systematically. For example, I teach (among other things) The Odyssey and Huckleberry Finn; I have seen both attacked, in a national forum of English teachers, as having no place in the curriculum because they are (for one reason or another) either not good literature or because they are seen as conveying pernicious social or cultural messages. I disagree with their conclusion, at least — obviously, since I do in fact teach them, but the people holding these positions are not stupid. In fact, they make some very strong arguments. They’re proceeding from basic assumptions different from my own…but, then again, so does just about everyone. That’s life.\n\n…nor can anyone name the destination:\n\nNobody talks about this much, either, but it’s basic: our literature teachers don’t even remotely agree on what they’re doing. Again, I don’t mean that they are incompetent or foolish, but merely that there is no universally agreed-upon description of what success in a literature program looks like. Success in a science or math program, or even a foreign language program, is relatively simple to quantify and consequently reasonably simple to assess. Not so here. Every teacher seems to bring a different yardstick to the table. Some see their courses as morally neutral instruction in the history and techniques of an art form; others see it as a mode of indoctrination in values, according to their lights. For some, that’s Marxism. For some, it’s conservative Christianity. For some, it’s a liberal secular humanism. For others…well, there is no accounting for all the stripes of opinion people bring with the to the table — but the range is very broad.\n\nis it any wonder people are confused?\n\nSo where are we, then, anyway? The sum is so chaotic that most public high students I have asked in the past two decades appear to have simply checked out: they play the game and endure their English classes, but the shocking fact is that, even while enrolled in them at the time, almost all have been unable to tell me what they were reading for those classes. This is not a furtive examination: I’ve simply asked them, “So, what are you reading for English?” If one or two didn’t know, I’d take that as a deficiency in the student or a sudden momentary diffidence on the subject. When all of them seem not to know, however, I suspect some more systemic shortfall. I would suggest that this is not because they are stupid either, but because their own literary instruction has been so chaotic as to stymie real engagement with the material.\n\nIt’s not particularly surprising, then, that literature is seen as somehow suspect, and that homeschooling parents looking for literature courses for their students feel that they are buying a pig in a poke. They are. They have to be wondering — will this course or that respect my beliefs or betray them? Will the whole project really add up to anything? Will the time spend on it add in any meaningful sense to my students’ lives, or is this just some gravy we could just as well do without? Some parents believe (rightly or wrongly: it would be a conflict of interest for me even to speculate which) that they probably can do just as well on such a “soft” subject as some program they don’t fully understand or trust. \n\nOne teacher’s approach\n\nThese questions are critical, and I encourage any parent to get some satisfactory answers before enrolling in any program of literary instruction, including mine. Here are my answers: if they satisfy you, I hope you’ll consider our program. If not, look elsewhere with my blessing, but keep asking the questions.\n\nIn the first instance, my project is fairly simple. I am trying to teach my students to read well. Of course, by now they have mastered the mechanical art of deciphering letters, combining them into words, and extracting meaning from sentences on a page. But there’s more to reading than that: one must associate those individual sentences with each other and weigh them together to come to a synthetic understanding of what the author is doing. They need in the long run to consider nuance, irony, tonality, and the myriad inflections an author imparts to the text with his or her own persona. Moreover, they need t consider what a given position or set of ideas means within its own cultural conversation. All those things change the big picture.\n\nThere’s a lot there to know, and a lot to learn. I don’t pretend to know it all myself either, but I think I know at least some of the basic questions, and I have for about a generation now been encouraging students to ask them, probe them, and keep worrying at the feedback like a dog with a favorite bone. In some areas, my own perspectives are doubtless deficient. I do, on the other hand, know enough about ancient and medieval literature, language, and culture that I usually can open some doors that students hadn’t hitherto suspected. Once one develops a habit of looking at these things, one can often see where to push on other kinds of literature as well. The payoff is cumulative.\n\nThere are some things I generally do not do. I do not try to use literary instruction as a reductive occasion or pretext for moral or religious indoctrination. Most of our students come from families already seriously engaged with questions of faith and morals, and I prefer to respect that fact, leaving it to their parents and clergy. I also don’t believe that any work of literature can be entirely encompassed by such questions, and hence it would be more than a little arrogant of me to try to constrain the discussion to those points.\n\nThis is not to say that I shy away from moral and religious topics either (as teachers in our public schools often have to do perforce). Moral and theological issues come up naturally in our conversations, and I do not suppress them; I try to deal with them honestly from my own perspective as a fairly conservative reader and as a Christian while leaving respectful room for divergence of opinion as well. (I do believe that my own salvation is not contingent upon my having all the right answers, so I’m willing to be proven wrong on the particulars.)\n\nIt is never my purpose to mine literary works for “teachable points” or to find disembodied sententiae that I can use as an excuse to exalt this work or dismiss that one. This is for two reasons. First of all, I have too much respect for the literary art to think that it can or should be reduced to a platitudinous substrate. Second, story in particular (which is a large part of what literature involves) is a powerful and largely autonomous entity. It cannot well be tamed; any attempt to subvert it with tendentious arguments (from either the author’s point of view or from the reader’s) almost invariably produces bad art and bad reading. An attempt to tell a student “You should like this work, but must appreciate it only in the following way,” is merely tyrannical — tyrannical in the worst way, since it sees itself as being entirely in the interest of and for the benefit of the student. Fortunately, for most students, it’s also almost wholly ineffectual, though a sorry side effect is that a number find the whole process so off-putting that they ditch literature altogether. That’s probably the worst possible outcome for a literature program.\n\nI also do not insist on canons of my own taste. If students disagree with me (positively or negatively) about the value of a given work, I’m fine with that. I don’t require anyone to like what I like. I deal in classics (in a variety of senses of the term) but the idea of an absolute canon of literature is a foolish attempt to control what cannot be controlled. It does not erode my appreciation for a work of literature that a student doesn’t like it. The fact that twenty generations have liked another won’t itself make me like it either, if I don’t, though it does make me reticent to reject it out of hand. It takes a little humility to revisit something on which you have already formed an opinion, but it’s salutary. It’s not just the verdict of the generations that can force me back to a work again, either: if a student can see something in a work that I have hitherto missed and can show me how to appreciate it, I gain by that. At the worst, I’m not harmed; at the best, I’m a beneficiary. Many teachers seem eager to enforce their evaluations of works on their students. I don’t know why. I have learned more from my students than from any other source, I suspect. Why would I not want that to continue?\n\nBeing primarily a language scholar, I do attempt to dig into texts for things like grammatical function — both as a way of ascertaining the exact surface meanings and as a way of uncovering the hidden complexities. Those who haven’t read Shakespeare with an eye on his brilliant syntactical ambiguity in mind are missing a lot. He was a master of complex expression, and what may initially seem oddly phrased but obvious statements can unfold into far less obvious questions or bivalent confessions. After thirty years of picking at it, I still have never seen an adequate discussion in the critical literature on Macbeth’s “Here had we now our country’s honour roofed / Were the graced person of our Banquo present (Macbeth 3.4.39-40).” The odd phrasing is routinely explained as something like “All the nobility of Scotland would be gathered under one roof if only Banquo were present,” but I think he is saying considerably more than that, thanks to the formation of contrary-to-fact conditions and the English subjunctive.\n\nMy broadest approach to literature is more fully elaborated in Reading and Christian Charity, an earlier posting on this blog and also one of the “White Papers” on the school website. I hope all parents (and their students) considering taking any of my courses will read it, because it contains the essential core of my own approach to literature, which differs from many others, both in the secular world and in the community flying the banner of Classical Christian Education. If it is what you’re looking for, I hope you will consider our courses. \n\n[Some of the foregoing appeared at the Scholars Online Website as ancillary to the description of the literature offerings. It has been considerably revised and extended here.]\n\nTo teach, or not to teach….to the test\n\nFebruary 13th, 2020\n\nIn the last few weeks, I’ve spent considerable time updating my course websites for the 2020 summer session and academic year. This has been more complicated than usual, since I’ve decided, after considerable thought and inward turmoil, not to seek Advanced Placement recertification for the biology, chemistry, and physics courses I’ve taught for the last decade as formal “AP” courses.\n\nA little background….\n\nThe College Board owns the “Advanced Placement” name and designation. Beginning in 2012, it required that anyone teaching a course designated for AP credit submit a syllabus for review by university faculty to ensure students were being prepared adequately for second year college work. Over the last eight years, the College Board has revised their syllabus requirements several times, remaining fairly flexible about how the course was offered and giving teachers latitude to emphasize areas or approaches as they saw fit. Curriculum suggestions and standards were minimal, and the AP examination remained largely a validation of adequate student preparation for advanced college work.\n\nSo what changed?\n\nIn 2018, the College Board announced that its program was radically changing in response to teacher and student feedback. The resulting syllabi revisions for biology, chemistry, and physics are quite specific in dictating course content and performance expectations. Teachers have fewer options to organize materials according to their own priorities. In particular, the syllabus for biology eliminates requirements for any instruction on human anatomy and plant physiology in order to focus on microbiology, evolution, and ecology, apparently assuming that students will cover physiology and anatomy in other courses. The chemistry syllabus increasingly focuses on professional level instrument use and the algebra-based physics syllabus has been broken into a two-year sequence that pushes modern physics topics to a seldom-taken second year. All three syllabi restructure the course schedules to eliminate any topics not covered on the examinations.\n\nFor biology in particular, I think this is a disastrous move for the students, however much lighter it makes the burden of instruction for the teacher. I believe that human anatomy and physiology should be taught in the context of cellular biology so that students understand how all levels of living systems work together. Many students, especially home-schooled students, attempt AP Biology without a previous course in high school biology. The new curriculum leaves them without a detailed appreciation of how their own bodies work at a time when this information is vital to help them make responsible choices for their own health.\n\nThere are implications for chemistry and physics as well. Most students won’t be going on to technical careers in chemistry; it is often a prerequisite for medical training at many levels. Performing basic chemistry investigations with limited equipment to experience fundamental principles of chemical reactions provides a better learning experience than when students perform cookbook experiments with equipment they don’t understand. Since most high school physics students are unable to take a second year due to time constraints, the current AP syllabus deprives them of exposure to the unity of field theory applications and the ramifications of modern physics: relativity, quantum mechanics, and nuclear energy.\n\nWhen the exam is the focus, where’s the joy?\n\nThe College Board now requires that students register by early September for the AP test given the following May. This shifts the emphasis of the entire course from learning the subject to “teaching to the test”. Since Scholars Online courses are intended to provide our students with mastery of a subject, this runs counter to our teaching philosophy. I want my students to focus on exploring concepts and playing with ideas at the risk of making mistakes. It is difficult to experiment with possibilities when you are panicking about achieving a high score on an exam or to engage with the material joyfully instead of apprehensively.\n\nThe new AP program also heavily encourages the use of the College Board’s own website materials for unit testing throughout the year. While teachers no longer need to devise quizzes for their own students (a sometimes painstaking and onerous task), the feedback promised from the AP program will allow them to see how their students are doing (and collaterally, how they are doing as teachers) in preparing for the exam. The emphasis again is on exam performance, not on the subject matter.\n\nThere is another, more subtle issue with AP-provided online course support materials. It has been my practice to contain performance data for my students on the Scholars Online servers, rather than allow others to gather detailed information about my students’ ideas. I have not used publishers’ homework websites or quizzes that would identify individual students, and I refuse to change that practice when I do not know how personally-identifiable student data will be used in the future. The AP program has made no real assurances about the data they will be collecting this way.\n\nI am very uncomfortable with the expanded level of content control by a major testing organization, many of whose directors are textbook publishers, and I’m not the only one. A number of prestigious private schools have dropped their AP courses to allow their teachers to teach creatively, rather than surrendering control of their courses to the College Board. Reluctantly, because it reduces an option for our students to gain formal AP course credit for their work, I have come to realize it is best to join them.\n\nParticipation in a formally certified AP course is not required for students to register and take the exam. I will continue to monitor AP course requirements so that the courses I am offering will prepare students to perform well on the AP exam if they choose to take it, and provide an equivalent lab experience. Students taking the non-AP versions of these courses have routinely achieved scores of 3 and 4 on the chemistry and physics AP exams, and 4 or 5 on the biology exams, so I do not believe this decision will put my students at a disadvantage, but that a unique approach to content and experiments will help them stand out instead.\n\nIf you have any questions or concerns about this decision, please let me know.\n\n\nFebruary 1st, 2020\n\nThe Greek philosopher Aristotle thought widely and deeply on many subjects. Some of his ideas have proven to be unworkable or simply wrong — his description of a trajectory of a thrown object, for example, works only in Roadrunner cartoons: in Newtonian physics, a thrown ball does not turn at a right angle and fall after it’s run out of forward-moving energy. The force vectors vary continuously, and its trajectory describes an arc. We can forgive Aristotle, I think, for not having calculus at his disposal. That he didn’t apparently observe the curvature of a trajectory is a little bit harder to explain.\n\nOthers of his ideas are rather narrowly culturally bound. His views on slavery are rightly repudiated almost everywhere, and many others are not very useful to us today. I personally find his description of Athenian tragedy in the Poetics far too limiting: the model of the hero who falls from greatness due to a tragic flaw is one model (though not really the only one) for describing the Oedipus Rex, but it doesn’t apply even loosely to most of the rest of surviving Athenian tragedy. This curiously Procrustean interpretive template is championed mostly by teachers who have read only one or two carefully-chosen plays.\n\nSome of Aristotle’s ideas, though, remain quite robust. His metaphysical thought is still challenging, and, even if one disagrees, it’s very useful to know how and why one disagrees. His logical writings, too, remain powerful and compelling, and are among the best tools ever devised to help us think about how we think.\n\nAmong his most enduringly useful ideas, I think, is his fourfold categorization of cause. This is basic to almost everything we think about, since most of our understanding of the universe is couched, sooner or later, in terms of story. Story is fundamentally distinguished from isolated lists of events because of its reliance on cause and effect. \n\nThere are, according to Aristotle, four different kinds of cause: material cause, efficient cause, formal cause, and final cause. This may all sound rather fussy and technical, but the underlying ideas are fairly simple, and we rely on them, whether we know it or not, every day. For an example, we can take a common dining room table.\n\nThe material cause of something is merely what it’s made of. That can be physical matter or not, but it’s the source stuff, in either case. The material cause of our table is wood, glue, perhaps some nails or screws, varnish, and whatever else goes into its makeup (metal, glass, plastic, or whatever else might be part of your dining room table). \n\nThe formal cause is its form itself. It’s what allows us to say that any individual thing is what it is — effectively its definition. The table’s formal cause is largely bound up in its functional shape. It may have a variable number of legs, for example, but it will virtually always present some kind of horizontal surface that you can put things on. \n\nThe efficient cause is the agency that brings something about — it’s the maker (personal or impersonal) or the causative process. That’s most like our simplest sense of “cause” in a narrative. The efficient cause of the table is the carpenter or the factory or workers that produced it. \n\nThe final cause is the purpose for which something has come into being (if it is purposed) — in the case of the table, to hold food and dishes for us while we’re eating.\n\nNot everything must have all four of these causes, at least in any obvious sense, but most have some; everything will have at least one. They are easy to recall, and remarkably useful when confronting “why?” questions. Still, people often fail to distinguish them in discourse — and so wind up talking right past one another.\n\nThough I cannot now find a record of it, I recall that when a political reporter asked S. I. Hayakawa (himself an academic semanticist before turning to politics) in 1976 why he thought he’d been elected to the Senate, he answered by saying that he supposed it was because he got the most votes. This was, of course, a perfectly correct answer to the material-cause notion of “why”, but was entirely irrelevant to what the reporter was seeking, which probably had more to do with an efficient cause. Hayakawa surely knew it, too, but apparently didn’t want to be dragged into the discussion the reporter was looking for. Had the reporter been quicker off the mark with Aristotelian causes, he might have been able to pin the senator-elect down for a more satisfactory answer.\n\nAristotle wrote in the fourth century B.C., but his ideas are still immediately relevant. While one can use them to evade engagement (as Hayakawa did in this incident), we can also use them to clarify our communication. True communication is a rare and valuable commodity in the world, in just about every arena. Bearing these distinctions in mind can help you achieve it.\n\nTime to Think\n\nJanuary 18th, 2020\n\nOn average, my students today are considerably less patient than those of twenty years ago. They get twitchy if they are asked merely to think about something. They don’t know how. My sense is not that they are lazy: in fact, it’s perhaps just the opposite. Just thinking about something feels to them like idling, and after they have given it a good thirty seconds, they sense that it’s time to move on to something more productive — or at least more objectively measurable. They don’t seem to believe that they are accomplishing anything unless they are moving stepwise through some defined process that they can quantify and log, and that can be managed and validated by their parents or teachers. It doesn’t matter how banal or downright irrelevant that process might be: they are steps that can be completed. A secondary consequence is that if they start to do something and don’t see results in a week or two, they write it off as a bad deal and go chasing the next thing. It is no longer sufficient for a return on investment to be annual or even quarterly: if it’s not tangible, it’s bogus, and if it’s not more or less instantaneous, it’s time wasted.\n\nOn average, my students today also have their time booked to a degree that would have been unthinkable in my youth. When I was in junior high and high school, I did my homework, I had music lessons, and I was involved in a handful of other things. I had household chores as well. But I also had free time. I rode my bicycle around our part of town. I went out and climbed trees. I pursued reading that interested me just because I wanted to. I drew pictures — not very good ones, but they engaged me at the time. Most importantly, I was able (often in the midst of these various undirected activities) simply to think about those open-ended questions that underlie one’s view of life. Today I have students involved in multiple kinds of sports, multiple music lessons, debate, and half a dozen other things. There are no blank spaces in their schedules.\n\nI can’t help thinking that these two trends are non-coincidentally related. There are at least two reasons for this, one of them internal, and one external. Both of them need to be resisted.\n\nFirst of all, in the spiritually vacant materialistic culture surrounding us, free and unstructured time is deprecated because it produces no tangible product — not even a reliable quantum of education. One can’t sell it. Much of the public has been bullied by pundits and advertisers into believing that if you can’t buy or sell something, it must not be worth anything. We may pay lip service to the notion that the most important things in life are free, but we do our best to ignore it in practice. \n\nAs a correlative, we have also become so invested in procedure that we mistake it for achievement. I’ve talked about this recently in relation to “best practices”. The phenomenon is similar in a student’s time management. If something can’t be measured as progress, it’s seen as being less than real. To engage in unstructured activity when one could be pursuing a structured one is seen as a waste.\n\nThis is disastrous for a number of reasons. \n\nI’ve already discussed here the problem of confusing substance and process. The eager adoption of “best practices” in almost every field attests the colossally egotistical notion that we now know the best way to do just about anything, and that by adhering to those implicitly perfected processes, we guarantee outcomes that are, if not perfect, at least optimal. But it doesn’t work that way. It merely guarantees that there will be no growth or experimentation. Such a tyrannical restriction of process almost definitionally kills progress. The rut has defined the route.\n\nAnother problem is that this is a fundamentally mercantile and materialist perspective, in which material advantage is presumptively the only good. For a Christian, that this is false should be a no-brainer: you cannot serve both God and mammon. \n\nI happily admit that there are some situations where it’s great to have reliable processes that really will produce reliable outcomes. It’s useful to have a way to solve a quadratic equation, or hiring practices that, if followed, will keep one out of the courts. But they mustn’t eclipse our ability to look at things for what they are. If someone can come up with better ways of solving quadratic equations or navigating the minefields of human resources, all the better. When restrictive patterns dominate our instructional models to the point of exclusivity, they are deadening.\n\nParents or teachers who need to scrutinize and validate all their children’s experiences are not helping them: they’re infantilizing them. When they should be growing into a mature judgment, and need to be allowed to make real mistakes with real consequences, they are being told instead not to risk using their own judgment and understanding, but to follow someone else’s judgment unquestioningly. Presumably thereby they will be spared the humiliation of making mistakes, and they will also not be found wanting when the great judgment comes. That judgment takes many forms, but it’s always implicitly there. For some it seems to have a theological component. \n\nIn the worldly arena, it can be college admission, or getting a good job, or any of a thousand other extrinsic hurdles that motivate all good little drones from cradle to grave. College is of the biggie at this stage of the game. There is abroad in today’s panicky world the notion that a student has to be engaged in non-stop curricular and extracurricular activities even to be considered for college. That’s false, but it’s scary, and fear almost always trumps the truth. Fear can be fostered and nurtured with remarkable dexterity, and nothing sells like fear: this has been one of the great (if diabolical) discoveries of advertisers since the middle of the last century. Fear is now the prime motivator of both our markets and our politics. It’s small wonder that people are anxious about both: they’ve been bred and acculturated for a life of anxiety. They’re carefully taught to fear, so that they will buy compulsively and continually. The non-stop consumer is a credulous victim of the merchants of fear. We need, we are told, to circle the wagons, repel boarders, and show a unified face to the world. Above all, we should not question anything. \n\nThough we seem more often to ignore it or dismiss it with a “Yes, but…”, our faith tells us that perfect love casts out fear. The simple truth is one that we’ve always known. Fear diminishes us. Love enlarges us. What you’re really good at will be what you love; what you love is what you’ll be good at. Which is the cause and which the effect is harder to determine: they reinforce one another. You can only find out what you love, though, if, without being coerced, you take the time and effort to do something for its own sake, not for any perceived extrinsic reward that’s the next link in Madison Avenue’s cradle-to-grave chain of anxious bliss.\n\nThere’s nothing wrong with structured activities. If you love debate, by all means, do debate. If you love music, do music. If you love soccer, play soccer. If you don’t love them, though, find something else that you do love to occupy your time, stretch your mind, and feed your soul. Moreover, even those activities need to be measured out in a way that leaves some actual time that hasn’t been spoken for. There really is such a thing as spreading oneself too thin. Nothing turns out really well; excellence takes a back seat to heaping up more and more of a desperate adequacy. In my experience, the outstanding student is not the one who has every moment of his or her day booked, but the one who has time to think, and to acquire the unique fruits of undirected reflection. They can’t be gathered from any other source. You can’t enroll in a program of undirected contemplation. You can only leave room for it to happen. It will happen on its own time, and it cannot be compelled to appear on demand.\n\nThe over-programmed student is joyless in both study and play, and isn’t typically very good at either one. Drudges who do everything they do in pursuit of such a phantom success will never achieve it. The students who have done the best work for me over the years have without exception been the ones who bring their own personal thoughts to the table. For them, education is not just a set of tasks to be mastered or grades to be achieved, but the inner formation of character — a view of life and the world that shapes what their own success will look like. Our secular culture is not going to help you find or define your own success: it’s interested only in keeping you off balance, and on retainer as a consumer. Take charge of your own mind, and determine what winning looks like to you. Otherwise, you will just be playing — and most likely losing — a game you never wanted to play in the first place.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6750355958938599}
+{"content": "This sweet and flavorful smoke blend is a soothing remedy for calming the mind and soothing mucus membranes. It helps to calm mental chatter and great for use in meditation for uplifting mood and promoting lucid dreaming. This flavorful and relaxing smoking mixture is blended with care and contains no synthetic ingredients or tobacco. Ideal for rolling your own herbal smokes or enjoying out of a pipe, this organic loose-leaf blend is a great legal choice and helps to relax the mind and induce dreaming.\n\n\nMedicinal Benefits: \n\n* Nervine\n\n* Heart tonic\n\n* Soothing to mucus membranes\n\n* Lucid Dreaming\n\n* Relaxant\n\n* Calming to the mind\n\n\n\n\nNative to the Mediterranean sea and Ethiopia this plant has grey green sulfur smelling leaves and flower spikes that grow 6 feet tall and bloom bright yellow flowers. This herb is great as a vulenary for cuts, scrapes, and treating wounds. It is a diuretic and best known for supporting respiratory symptoms of cough, asthma, and bronchitis by clearing congestion as a mild expectorant, decreasing inflammation of the airways, and soothes mucus membranes.\n\n\n\nA annual aromatic herb native to the Mediterranean countries. Calendula bears many petaled orange or yellow flowering heads two to three inches in diameter. Also known as marigold or gold bloom and often grown in gardens and the flowers are used medicinally throughout Europe and Latin America. Calendula is a great herb for the gut and skin by reducing inflammation and soothing the skin. It's anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-parasitic, and pain killing agents have made it great for minor topical infections and irritations. It is used widely throughout Europe for skin, mucous membrane, and gastritus disorders.\n\n\n\nA aromatic many branched perennial shrub that has angular grooved green leaves with white bottoms and red brown stems. It has yellow to red brown flower heads during the months of July - September. A old time traveler's remedy during the medieval times�� for protecting from fatigue and sunstroke. It has been used for insect bites and sometimes as a culinary herb. It aids with a healthy menstration flow and female reproductive health tonic. It is used a lot to recall and enhance the resolution or complexity of dreams; and helps with disruptive sleep. \n\n\n\nRose is thought to be the Queen of Flowers and has been used as a symbol of love and romance, but it has also been used medicinally for hundreds of years. A herbaceous shrub that grows all over the world in temperate climates, used widely as a popular garden plant to uplift mood and open your heart chakra. The flower buds and petals of rose are used medicinally as a Anti–depressant, anti-spasmodic, aphrodisiac, astringent, mild sedative, digestive stimulant, increases bile production, cleansing, expectorant, anti–bacterial, anti-viral, antiseptic, kidney tonic, menstrual regulator, and anti-inflammatory.\n\n\n\nA perennial herb native to Lake Baikal in Siberia, North China, and North America. Thrives in open grasslands and grows to a height os one to four feet and bears lance-shaped leaves and purple flowers. The root is used medicinally and has held a spot in Asian medicine for at least 2,000 years. It is primarily used as a anti-viral and anti-bacterial for respiratory infections, relieving allergies, anxiety, and asthma. It is used in Chinese medicine to relieve stress, anxiety, and headaches by lowering stress hormones, increasing energy, and improving cognition. \n\n\n\nA aromatic shrub that grows in hot climates of Texas, Mexico, and Central America, and Namibia. It grows to a height of six feet and has stems with pale, smooth, green leaves, and small yellow flowers. The leaves are used medicinally and aid in reducing stress in the stomach and inflammation. It has been used with other herbs to aid with sexual trauma, libido, and lethargy. It is a stimulating nerve tonic used for deperssion, reducing bed wetting, and aid digestion, and relieve constipation. \n\n\n\nSerenity - 7g\n\nSKU: smo/Se\n • Ingredients:\n\n Mugwort Leaf (Artemisia vulgaris) ;Rose Petals (Rosa centifolia); Mullien Leaf (Verbascum thapsus); Calendula Flowers (Calendula officinalis); Damiana Leaf (Turnera diffusa); Skullcap Leaf (Scutellaria lateriflora) \n\n\n • Suggested Use:\n\n Ideal for rolling your own herbal smokes. Can also be used as a tea, for use as offerings or burning scents for ceremonies and rituals. Add to baths for some extra selflove ritual care. \n\n People have smoked herbs throughout history for a wide variety of reasons. Most have used them as offerings during spiritual ceremonies or cultural traditions; and have all shaped the history and ritual of smoking herbs. Don't want to use it as a smoking herb, you can also try it as a tea, burn it as a aromatic offering or put in a relaxing herbal bath.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.854311466217041}
+{"content": "How to Convert Feet to Kilometers - Example Problem\n\nBlueprint with a variety of measuing sticks, tape measure, T-square and level\n\n Huntstock, Getty Images\n\nThis example problem demonstrates how to convert feet to kilometers.\n\nFeet to Kilometers Conversion Problem\n\nThe average commercial jet flies around an altitude of 32,500 feet. How high is this in kilometers?\n\nConversion Solution\n\n1 foot = 0.3048 meters\n1000 m = 1 km\nSet up the conversion to the desired unit will be canceled out. In this case, we want km to be the remaining unit.\ndistance in km = (distance in ft) x (0.3048 m/1 ft) x (1 km/1000 m)\ndistance in km = (32500 x 0.3048/1000) km\ndistance in km = 9.906 km\n\n\n32,500 feet is equal to 9.906 kilometers.\nMany conversion factors are difficult to remember. Feet to meters would fall into this category. An alternate method to perform this conversion is to use multiple easily remembered steps.\n1 foot = 12 inches\n1 inch = 2.54 centimeters\n100 centimeters = 1 meter\nUsing these steps we can express a distance in meters from feet as:\ndistance in m = (distance in ft) x (12 in/1 ft) x (2.54 cm/1 in) x (1 m/100 cm)\ndistance in m = (distance in ft) x 0.3048 m/ft\nNote this gives the same conversion factor as above. The only thing to watch out for is for the intermediate units to cancel out.\n\nCheck Your Work\n\nIt's always good practice to check your answer to make certain it makes sense. A value in feet should equal a much lower value in kilometers. This is because there is more than one foot in a meter and a thousand meters in a kilometer.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9992855191230774}
+{"content": "6th mass extinction event could happen by 2100 – study\n\nPrimary tabs\n\n6th mass extinction event could happen by 2100 – study\nFecha de publicación: \n21 September 2017\nImagen principal: \n\nOver the past 540 million years Earth has suffered five mass extinction events, the worst of which wiped out more than 9 per cent of marine life on the planet. A new study has suggested that the next such catastrophe might not be too far away.\n\nMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) geophysicist and mathematician, Daniel Rothman has been busy studying previous mass extinctions. He reckons the next one might be a mere 83 years away.\n\nThe previous five catastrophic events each unfolded over millions of years and involved the natural cycle of carbon through the oceans and atmosphere being disturbed, resulting, in some cases, the death of almost all life on Earth.\n\nThe award-winning mathematician identified two “thresholds of catastrophe” that, if exceeded, would upset the natural order of the cycle, leading to an unstable environment and eventually a mass extinction.\n\n@RT_com Doomsayers watch countdown to Sept 23 ‘Planet X’ event rubbished by https://on.rt.com/8nj5\n\nThe first relates to changes in the carbon cycle over a period of thousands or millions of years. A mass extinction will occur if the rate of change in the cycle occurs faster than global ecosystems can adapt.\n\nThe second pertains to the size or magnitude of the carbon flux over a shorter period, as has been the case over the last century.\n\nTherein lies a problem, however, as Rothman says“How can you really compare these great events in the geologic past, which occur over such vast timescales, to what's going on today, which is centuries at the longest?”\n\n“So I sat down one summer day and tried to think about how one might go about this systematically.”\n\n@RT_com 'We run out of space, the only places to go to are other worlds' - on space colonization at https://on.rt.com/8fho\n\nFollowing this, he devised a mathematical formula to determine the total mass of carbon added to the oceans during each event, after which “it became evident that there was a characteristic rate of change that the system basically didn't like to go past.”\n\nRothman estimates this to be 310 gigatons. He thinks that given the rise of carbon dioxide over the last century, a sixth mass extinction could be on the way as estimates suggest that humans will add roughly 310 gigatons to the cycle by 2100.\n\nREAD MORE: ‘What the frack! We’re destroying all life, we have a huge problem’\n\n“This is not saying that disaster occurs the next day,” Rothman said. “It’s saying that, if left unchecked, the carbon cycle would move into a realm which would be no longer stable, and would behave in a way that would be difficult to predict. In the geologic past, this type of behavior is associated with mass extinction.”\n\nRothman's paper was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.\n\nAdd new comment\n\nEnter the characters shown in the image.\n\nImage gallery\n\nGraphic Opinion", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9518583416938782}
+{"content": "lunes, 15 de abril de 2019\n\nCita CDXXV: Why Leonardo da Vinci’s brilliance endures, 500 years after his death\n\nIn Florence, Leonardo became known for his prodigious talent\nand received his first commissions. He was “an ornament, a\nsymbol of power,” says scholar Paolo Galluzzi. Here, Valter Conti,\nan Italian street artist, personifies Leonardo’s celebrity status as he\nstrolls toward the Uffizi Gallery to pose for photographs with tourists.\n\nIn an instant, centuries collide—a moment unlike anything I have ever experienced. I have come to Windsor Castle to see the queen’s collection of Leonardo da Vinci drawings.\n\nOutside the towering stone walls, tourists snap selfies and rummage through souvenir tea towels. Inside, past an arched gateway bedecked by gargoyles, Leonardo ushers me back to the Renaissance. \n\nI can almost hear whispers of the artist as I gaze at a leather album bound in the late 1500s in the castle’s stately print room. Gold embellishments adorn the volume’s two-and-a-half-inch spine. The cover, stained and worn by the imperceptible fingerprints of generations past, reads: Disegni di Leonardo da Vinci Restaurati da Pompeo Leoni (drawings by Leonardo da Vinci conserved by Pompeo Leoni).\n\nNo one knows precisely how this album made its way to England, but its provenance is unambiguous: Leoni, an Italian sculptor, acquired Leonardo’s drawings from the son of the artist’s devoted pupil Francesco Melzi and mounted them into at least two volumes. By 1690, the Leoni binding, as it’s known, had landed in the Royal Collection, teeming with 234 folio sheets and the peregrinations of Leonardo’s inquisitive mind.\nSeguir leyendo aquí.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9699657559394836}
+{"content": "Registration: CRC-TR-128 Retreat 13-15 June 2018\n\nThe next Retreat is planned to take place on 14-15 June in the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung. The Young investigators will have a separate meeting on 13 June at the same location. Of course, they are invited to also attend the Retreat. Please fill in the form below to register. Further details regarding the program will be circulated in the near future. Should you have any queries, please feel free to contact Jutta Marks.\n\nIf the form below is not displayed correctly, please follow this link.\n\n\n\n\nTue, 08/09/2020\nStudy with identical twins shows that the early form of multiple sclerosis has a specific pattern\nThe tremendous heterogeneity of the human population presents a major obstacle in understanding how autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) contribute to variations in human peripheral immune signatures. To minimize heterogeneity, SFB researchers from Munich and Muenster made use of a unique cohort of 43 monozygotic twin pairs clinically discordant for MS and searched for […]...more\nMon, 09/03/2020\nBreakthrough: SFB scientsists explain pathomechanism of Susac Syndrome\nMünster. Neuroinflammation is often associated with blood-brain-barrier dysfunction, which contributes to neurological tissue damage. In a paper published in the renowned journal Nature Communications SFB 128 scientists from Mueenster reveal the pathophysiology of Susac syndrome (SuS), an enigmatic neuroinflammatory disease with central nervous system (CNS) endotheliopathy. By investigating immune cells from the blood, cerebrospinal fluid, […]...more\nWed, 04/03/2020\nThe brain is less immune-priviledged than we thought\nMünster. Although the CNS is immune privileged, continuous search for pathogens and tumours by immune cells within the CNS is indispensable. Thus, distinct immune-cell populations also cross the blood–brain barrier independently of inflammation/under homeostatic conditions. It was previously shown that effector memory T cells populate healthy CNS parenchyma in humans and, independently, that CCR5-expressing lymphocytes […]...more", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7660828828811646}
+{"content": "Alpaga vs Cashmere\n\nAlpaga vs cashmere\n\nFirst of all, the term \"wool\" is commonly used to refer to the fibres produced by the different breeds of sheep. It is also used to talk about fibres produced by other animal species, but a qualifier is then added to distinguish them:\n\n\n- alpaca wool, alpaca fleece\n\n- mohair wool, fleece of the angora goat\n\n- cashmere wool, cashmere goat fleece\n\n- angora wool, angora rabbit fleece.\n\n\nIn the table below, you will find an approximate classification of the world's finest fibres.\n\nThey are measured in microns; 1 micron = 1/1000 millimeters.\n\n\nCash and cash equivalents \n\nAverage fibre diameter, in microns:\n\nVigogne 10 to 12 microns;\n\nMerino 12 to 22 microns;\n\nCashmere goat cheese 15 to 19 microns;\n\nAlpaca 16 to 30 microns;\n\nGuanaco 18 to 24 microns;\n\nCamel 18 to 26 microns;\n\n\nLama 20 to 40 microns;\n\nAlpaga vs cashmere_Alpaga or cashmere\n\n\nAlpaca or Cashmere\n\n\nLet's start with a little history. Alpaca and \"Kashmir goat\" are both domesticated but do not come from the same place. As for Alpaca, it is a small camelid that lives mainly in the Andes mountain range of South America. The \"Kashmir goat\" or at least 90% of its world production comes from Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region located in China, and Mongolia (the country).\n\n\nIt should be noted that Alpaca is eco-responsible. Indeed, it is more \"green\" than cashmere. Unlike goats, Alpacas do not tear off the root of the grass when they graze, allowing it to grow back. Unlike goats and sheep, Alpacas do not have sharp hooves, which tear the soil off. It \"cuts\" the grass without tearing it off, so it can grow back more easily.\n\n\nIt is also important to know that Alpaca waste can be used as fertilizer without chemical treatment. Alpacas are not very greedy, which means they can survive for days without water or food, and a little food is enough to make them happy, unlike goats, which require a lot of resources.\n\n\nThe main environmental concern with goats, for example, is the desertification of the land. Indeed, there are more and more goats in view of Kashmir's request but these animals have the particularity of grazing the grass by pulling out the roots, which prevents the land from regenerating itself. In addition, farmers have seen their wages fall sharply because of the increase in wool volumes, and are thus impoverished. And it's very difficult for them to get out of it!\n\n\nThe colours of Alpaca range from black to white, brown, and beige. No need to dye the fibres if you are satisfied with these colours! And then it produces much more wool than goats. With a comparable or even superior quality, especially when it comes to baby Alpaca, renowned for its finesse and softness. Its fibres are less likely to pilling and last longer.\n\n\nSecondly, cashmere is more expensive because it takes many more goats to obtain so much raw material. A cashmere goat produces more or less 150 grams of fibre per year while an Alpaca produces 2.5 kg.\n\nAlpaga vs cashmere_The different types of wool\n\n\nThe Different Types of Wool\n\n\nIf we compare the diameter, Alpaca fibre is slightly higher than cashmere goat fibre. However, its length represents a significant difference. It makes it possible to make clothes that are more resistant and durable than those made with cashmere goat fibre.\n\nDue to its delicacy, clothing made with Kashmir goatskin fibre wears out quickly. It is therefore more prone to pilling due to its structure and tends to stretch easily and is not necessarily resistant, at least not as resistant as Alpaca fibre.\n\nBoth fibres (Alpaca+cashmere) are water-resistant compared to other natural fibres.\n\n\nAlpaca fibre has a natural sheen that surpasses the dull appearance of cashmere fibre. Its qualities allow a greater variety of clothing. Since the price of cashmere fibre is higher, the clothes made from this fibre are always thinner.\n\n\nAlpaca fibre is easier to maintain and remains clean for longer. Cashmere fibre retains odours and therefore requires frequent dry cleaning. Moths love the fibre of Kashmir goats. An unclean sweater quickly attracts them.\n\n\nBecause it does not retain moisture, the thermal insulation characteristics of alpaca fibre are unbeatable. Obviously, a dry garment increases comfort for the wearer. With a moisture absorption rate of 15%, cashmere goat fibre cannot compete with this result.\n\n\nThis is why Alpaca fibre is internationally recognized as one of the finest and most luxurious fibres in the world! Discover our wide range of Alpaca products without delay and indulge yourself, to live an authentic experience guaranteed!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6074340343475342}
+{"content": "Description of Georges Seurat's painting “Man and Woman”\n\nImpressionism is characterized by a passion for intuition, inspiration and premonition, as the basis of work. Impressionist paintings are penetrated by light, tell of one frozen moment, and are based on feelings, not on reason.\n\nThat is why Sera is also called a neo-impressionist - in many respects following the spirit of impressionism, letting the same sunlight into his paintings, he acted rationally, logically and carefully. It was under his brush that a technique was born that was later called pointillism - this is a method of applying paint that uses only pure colors. One stroke - one color. The maximum that is allowed is to mix them with white.\n\nThis technique is complicated in execution and gives excellent results. It can convey a lot - for example, a summer day, happy and bright, as in the picture \"Man and Woman.\" It is very concise - on it is a river bank, soft green grass that beckons to lie down, a lonely tree, two in the grass look at the peaceful flow of water.\n\nA man sits, pulling his knees to his chest, his posture expresses thoughtfulness and detachment. The woman is reclining with her elbow resting - her hair is tied up in a bun, the posture speaks of lazy interest, that something caught her eye, but she likes to lie too relaxed to sit down and examine better.\n\nThe whole picture is saturated with the brightness of flowers, it very accurately conveys summer noon and bliss, which covers anyone who decides to relax on the river bank in the heat. It is worth turning away from the picture, and it seems that the woman will now lean back into the soft grass, close her eyes, and the man will sit, watching the waves and rare leaves floating on the river, admiring the reflections in the water, looking in front of him absent-mindedly and quite.\n\nA moment - good, imbued with silence and the sun, froze forever in the stillness of the picture.\n\nLevitan Summer\n\nWatch the video: Georges Seurat - A Sunday on La Grande Jatte 1884-1886 (September 2020).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9995681643486023}
+{"content": "The Fascinating Washoe Project\n\n09 September, 2020\nThe Washoe Project proved that apes have a higher level of thoughts, emotions, and consciousness than humans expected. For many, this experiment completely changed the perception regarding these animals.\n\nThe Washoe Project is both fascinating and moving. It involves a female chimpanzee named Washoe, considered the first non-human animal to learn American Sign Language. For many people, it was a revelation of nature.\n\nDrs. Allen Gardner and Beatrix Gardner began leading this project on June 21, 1966 when Washoe, the chimpanzee, was only two years old.\n\nOriginally from West Africa, the chimpanzee was captured there and brought to the United States by the country’s Air Force a year before the experiment began. Although it was meant for NASA experiments, the Gardners adopted it and began the Washoe Project.\n\n“I’m in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That’s the way of a whole human being.”\n\n-Abraham Lincoln-\n\nA baby chimpanzee.\n\nThe Washoe Project\n\nAllen and Beatrix Gardner already had experience working with apes before they started the Washoe Project. Linguistics was already an area of great interest by then, and the couple wanted to find out if it was possible for animals to learn human language.\n\nThey adopted two chimpanzees with the intention of teaching them to speak like humans. Both attempts failed, and the scientists concluded the anatomy of the apes made articulate language impossible for them.\n\n\nFurthermore, they also gave up on teaching apes to talk. Then, Washoe came into their lives and they considered that sign language could be appropriate. After all, the hands of this species are very similar to human hands, meaning the probability of success was higher.\n\nThe education of Washoe\n\nThe Gardners also believed it was best to raise Washoe as if she were human. In other words, they’d raise her as a little girl. They wanted to know if the chimpanzee was able to learn the language naturally as a human baby would.\n\nThus, Washoe had her own outfits and sat down to eat at the table with her tutors. She also had her own personal items, such as toothbrushes and combs, as well as books and toys. In fact, when she grew up, she settled in a trailer equipped with a living room, kitchen, dresser, refrigerator, and bed.\n\nThe Gardners handed over custody of Washoe to Roger and Deborah Fouts when she was five years old. They’ve looked after her since, maintaining the same life parameters.\n\nIntelligent beings\n\nWashoe’s caregivers were required to use sign language and refrain from using spoken language. They didn’t want her to feel different from others. Instead, they wanted her to believe that signs were the natural form of communication. Little by little, she learned to communicate with humans.\n\nThey didn’t apply any conditioning method so Washoe could learn sign language. In other words, they didn’t reward her for her achievements, as animal trainers usually do. Instead, she was expected to learn by imitation. And that she did! The chimpanzee knew over 350 words/gestures by the end of the experiment.\n\n\nWashoe had a personality of her own, of course. She liked looking at books in her spare time. She also loved to look at shoe catalogs. In general, shoes caught her attention and she had a great sense of humor.\n\nA Washoe chimpanzee.\n\nThe Washoe Project is more than an experiment\n\nTwo events caught the attention of the Gardners. In fact, neither one of them saw it coming. The first occurred when one of them went away to give birth to a baby, who later died. Washoe didn’t like her absence.\n\nWhen the woman returned, she told Washoe what had happened to her in sign language. The chimpanzee lowered her gaze and then traced with her finger the path of a tear on the face of the grieving mother. This didn’t only reveal she had a high level of understanding, but that she understood emotions and was empathetic.\n\nThe other event occurred when they put her in front of a mirror and asked her who she saw. She replied, “It’s me, Washoe”. This means she had self-awareness, which is a higher cognitive function.\n\nAlthough the chimpanzee died in 1965, the project is still going on. Many who knew about the project have requested that primates be declared “non-human persons”. What do you think about this?\n\n\nTamames, K. (2008). Personas como Washoe. Cuadernos para el diálogo, (28), 129-131.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8288263082504272}
+{"content": "X-Ray for Emotions with Marie Curie\n\n\nUnderstanding emotions is vital in helping our girls know how to effectively work through emotional situations. This activity is designed to help students understand where their bodies experience and carry emotions.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998320937156677}
+{"content": "COVID-19 Relief\n\nK1 Direct is currently assisting St Maarten by providing emergency logistics and conducting the collaborated distribution across Dutch St Maarten - which as a tourism-dependent island has been hard-hit economically by COVID-19.\nThrough warehousing, coordination of logistics, data management, packaging, distribution and more - K1 Direct is helping to ensure that those in need of help are assisted during this ongoing crisis.\n\nSelect Payment Method\nPersonal Info\n\nDonation Total: $100.00\n\nUK Maritime Apprenticeship Program\n\nUK Apprenticeship Program\n\nOne of the most effective ways to truly give youth a second chance, is to send them abroad for an apprenticeship program, where they are given a clean slate and a fresh start in a new environment that is conducive to growth in a new way.\n\nIn 2018, for the first time, we have arranged for one of our youths to study internationally. He is now in England completing a one-year apprenticeship program in boatbuilding and other maritime skills, and has been doing excellently since starting. His course began on April 9th 2018. He will bring back with him specialized skills which aren’t currently taught on the island. Our hope is that with the experience gained from this pilot program that we will be able to send more youth abroad in the following years for similar programs.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9745346903800964}
+{"content": "Another Top 10!\n\nLook- Dr. Kat Gone to the Dogs has made a Top 10 list.\n\nI am humbled and flattered and on so excited! If you have not listened, please do. Here is the link for it.\n\n\n\nPugs and Kisses!\n\nDr. Kat\n\n\nThe 12 Dangers of Christmas (for pets)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnimals at Thanksgiving?\n\n\n\nI love to think and ponder things- random things and sometimes meaningful things. I have tried to explore where my family came from, who they were, and what impact they may have on the world. I find genealogy interesting, especially when it has a personal touch like the TV show “Who Do You Think You Are?” So I hit with my typical mission based attitude. I found out a lot of things, but I guess the most interesting thing this time of year is that my 9th great grandfather was aboard the Mayflower. His name was John Alden (of the Miles Standish love triangle scandal, no less!)\n\nNot long after my discovery, I got to visit Plymouth Plantation and see the replica of what the homes might have looked like and think about how the colonists lived. I got to read the plaques about what the people ate and what they wore and I got to speak with a man who was role playing as one of the pioneer men. He was dressed in era appropriate garb and he spoke with a believable accent. He told about the role that their animals played in their entire existence.\n\nSo then my overactive imagination conjured up images of these brave and pioneering people who faced so many obstacles, only for so many to be lost. They left their homes with their eyes on a better life. Perhaps my mission based attitude is genetic from my pioneer ancestor, but nothing that we experience today is like what they endured. They had to watch friends and family sicken and die. They struggled with things that we take for granted. They were forced to make friends with people so different from themselves that they were afraid. They knew hunger, thirst, disease and suffering, but they built this country that we call home.\n\nToday’s generation would be hard pressed to accomplish what they did, I fear. I know I would. I feel cut off from the world when my smart phone battery is dead! I imagined their lives parallel to my own. They would surely think that I was an angel (or a demon) with my strange devices and my “magical” way of healing the sick, but I think that they would they see how important my job would be to their survival. They depended on their animals. The role playing pioneer actor emphasized the importance of their animals in their daily lives. I told him I was a veterinarian and he looked at my quizzically. I tried to slip into character and went on to explain that I have a gift in caring for sick animals and then he smiled and we began to discuss the important role I would have in the colony and how glad he was that I was there.\n\nThe replica houses had live animals behind them and the man explained how they cared for and used the animals. Animals are as much a part of our history as the brave people are.\n\nWere there animals at the first Thanksgiving? We do not know for sure, but we do know that without animals, there would not have been one.\n\n\nHow to include pets in Thanksgiving safely\n\n\nExamples might include:\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUrgent: Do you know the dangers in your home that put your cat at risk?\n\nYou think that your home is the safest place for your cat, right? There ARE dangers in your home and you need to know what they are.\n\nWe talk with Dr. Tom Day who is a specialist in Emergency and Critical care for pets. He shares which are the most common household reasons he sees cats in his ER practice. These emergencies are preventable with a little forethought, but how can you plan if you don’t know? From medications to plants to things that seem ok, Dr. Day and I are here to help! You might guess some of these dangers, but you might be surprised. Learn what you can do to prevent these tragedies. Save your cat a stressful visit to the ER and maybe save his/her life.\n\n– See more at:\n\nShould My Dog Wear a Coat in Winter?\n\n\n(written by Kathryn Primm, DVM originally published by\n\n\n\n\nWhat kind of coat does my dog naturally have?\n\n\nHow old is my dog?\n\n\nIs my dog in good health?\n\n\nWhat breed is my dog?\n\n\n\nHalloween Horrors? How can you protect your cat?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCheck it out for free by clicking the link below.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6214644312858582}
+{"content": "By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé\n\nJason Wee PixLet’s get down to brass tacks. Why do you write?\n\nI think of what a school administrator once said to a young Elias Canetti; It is a chance to raise my hand, if a little too much. Don’t most writers suffer from a desire to be heard? And there is the frequent assuredness we give ourselves that our words mean something, which is another way of asking someone else to convince us of a notion we did not initially believe. I also think of the mousedeer in Sang Kancil fables, who speaks because it is what an animal would do to be free from a predator.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7961587905883789}
+{"content": "Writes a value to the registry.\n\nRegWrite Value, ValueType, KeyName , ValueName\nRegWrite Value , ValueType, , ValueName\n\n\n\nType: String or Integer\n\nThe value to be written. Long text values can be broken up into several shorter lines by means of a continuation section, which might improve readability and maintainability.\n\n\nType: String\n\n\nValueType can be omitted only if KeyName is omitted and the current registry loop item is a value, as noted below.\n\n\nType: String\n\nThe full name of the registry key.\n\nThis must start with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_USERS, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, or HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG (or the abbreviations for each of these, such as HKLM). To access a remote registry, prepend the computer name and a slash, as in this example: \\\\workstation01\\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\n\nKeyName can be omitted only if a registry loop is running, in which case it defaults to the key of the current loop item. If the item is a subkey, the full name of that subkey is used by default. If the item is a value, ValueType and ValueName default to the type and name of that value, but can be overridden.\n\n\nType: String\n\nThe name of the value that will be written to. If blank or omitted, the key's default value will be used (except as noted above). The default value is displayed as \"(Default)\" by RegEdit.\n\nError Handling\n\nAn exception is thrown on failure.\n\n\n\nIf KeyName specifies a subkey which does not exist, RegWrite attempts to create it (along with its ancestors, if necessary). Although RegWrite can write directly into a root key, some operating systems might refuse to write into HKEY_CURRENT_USER's top level.\n\nIf ValueType is REG_DWORD, Value should be between -2147483648 and 4294967295 (0xFFFFFFFF). In the registry, REG_DWORD values are always expressed as positive decimal numbers. To read it as a negative number with means such as RegRead, convert it to a signed 32-bit integer by using OutputVar := OutputVar << 32 >> 32 or similar.\n\nWhen writing a REG_BINARY key, use a string of hex characters, e.g. the REG_BINARY value of 01,a9,ff,77 can be written by using the string 01A9FF77.\n\nWhen writing a REG_MULTI_SZ key, you must separate each component from the next with a linefeed character (`n). The last component may optionally end with a linefeed as well. No blank components are allowed. In other words, do not specify two linefeeds in a row (`n`n) because that will result in a shorter-than-expected value being written to the registry.\n\nTo retrieve and operate upon multiple registry keys or values, consider using a registry-loop.\n\nFor details about how to access the registry of a remote computer, see the remarks in registry-loop.\n\nTo read and write entries from the 64-bit sections of the registry in a 32-bit script or vice versa, use SetRegView.\n\n\nRegDelete, RegDeleteKey, RegRead, Registry-loop, SetRegView, IniWrite\n\n\n\nRegWrite \"Test Value\", \"REG_SZ\", \"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\TestKey\", \"MyValueName\"\nRegWrite \"Line1`nLine2\", \"REG_MULTI_SZ\", \"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\TEST_APP\", \"TEST_NAME\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8532456159591675}
+{"content": "It happened again\n\nTea with Milk\n\nI have always been amazed of the incredible shapes and forms that the milk draws in the tea when you pour some into it. It is like new energy, mass and elements are being created against the laws of physics. The milk penetrates the tea, unexpected, unwaited for, but terribly welcomed at the same time. Before the merge, the tea stands there elegant, quite majestic, waiting to be drunk in spite of that not being its real purpose.\n\nThe reddish beverage represents calmness and maturity, it is a tiny drop of the essence of nature diluted in a modest amount of water that fulfills its goal most of the times just by being elaborated and placed in a small, middle-sized and warm-in-soul table besides an armchair. Frequently, the drinker – or the preparer shall we say – finds the sought calmness and serenity in the couple minutes when the cup of tea is fading from too hot to warm, waiting to be drunk. It’s in those couple minutes where we find the inkpot of our focused mind and drift away for a few minutes or even hours. It is in such journey through exploration and loss of time track when the tea finally fulfills its purpose, while still undrunk. I will often find the tea cold upon the first sip, quite shocked by realizing how much time has actually passed since it was prepared and then followed by a mild smile from a familiar thought: “It happened again”.\n\nSearch for your inspiration sources, whatever they are, wherever they lie. Search for those pourings of milk and disturb your calm and current beliefs with them. Prepare loads of tea, let it cool while it warms your soul and remember that sometimes the purpose of something might not be what you think it is. Sometimes the tea has to get cold before you get warm.\n\nInsights Dialogue #1\n\n– So this is it? Is this a game?\n\n– You look surprised.\n\nThe only way to get smarter, is by playing a smarter opponent.\n\n– Fundamentals of Chess, 1883.\n\nYou see, your greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look. But the question is, is there a war? Is there a need for an enemy?\n\nWar cannot be avoided, it can only be postponed to your enemy’s advantage.\n\n– Niccolo Machiavelli, XVth Century\n\n– But I think he was wrong. ‘Cause remember, if you change the rules that control you, you will change the rules of what you can control.\n\n– So, what are your rules? What can you control?\n\n– Wrong question. The question is, what do you want to control? Depending on the answer to that question you shall create your own rules. Only then you’ll be coherent with your decisions.\n\n– Is there a need for rules? Is there a need for control?\n\n– Decision dilemma won’t get you out of this one. Don’t disappoint yourself.\n\n– Good night\n\n– Hm… I think it’s a good morning\n\n\n\n\n\nOxygen for the Techies!\n\n\n…Who’s gonna do Job’s job now?\n\n\n\n\nSouth-East Asian development: Is it gonna happen?\n\nHello again people! Again, I’m in Asia. it definitely looks like my 4 months in Hong Kong and all the travelling wasn’t enough.\n\nHowever, I am having some insight in the Asian culture by now and my perceptions are changing quite a lot. This post is about the South Asian countries like Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. The first impression one normally gets in these places is that they are totally underdeveloped. Frequently with a pity feeling for a side dish.\n\nI’ve spoken to dozens of travellers and what normally comes after is a feeling that it’s only a matter of time before they develop to where we are now. We usually perceive that globalization is also helping them to reach exportation markets and that they will eventually develop the technology to become importers of raw materials and low-added value manufactures, just as we’ve done in the past. The case of China is normally exposed because they ARE getting out of poverty and increasing at two digit growth rates. However, I totally think that China is a totally different story from the one of the countries mentioned above.\n\nAfter some deeper thought and analysis I came to a third level of conclusions. Ones that of course can change as the others did but that looks more right and it’s a bit more open-ended, which normally fits reality more (or at least increases your safety margin incredibly). I have tried to know some local people wherever I went and at no moment did I have the feeling that they were unhappier than European people. Actually, I found them – in average – much happier. That made me think. I analyzed their way of life and they seem to be much much more entrepreneurs than us. There are an uncountable number of businessmen here: the guy with the pancake-trolley, the guy with the 10 bungalow resort, the guy with the 2-3 boats that gives you a ride through the floating market or the Thai islands, the woman who cooks you some tiny chicken/pork/strange-stuff brochettes in her small BBQ for 10 bahts (.25€…) and a long etcetera. They are micro-business owners, but they do own their business and assume the risk implied.\n\nTo fully understand why they do what they do we have to understand what their (job) options are. I will try to extremely simplify it in two possibilities: when a Thai wants to work they can either 1. try to get hired by a company or 2. start their own (micro) business. For the first one to happen, in general basis, the company has to have ambition to grow, otherwise you wouldn’t hire more and more people absorbing the new population entering the labour market. But! That ambition does not exist here, not at least in the way it does in Europe. And that in my opinion, has to do with their level of happiness with their current life. In order to be ambitious you have to want to improve, otherwise it’s not worth the risk. But the combination of having a pleasant and relaxed life and not really knowing the opportunities that exist out there make local people here not ambitious (generally speaking). So, coming back to the point: They don’t get hired because the companies are not ambitious to grow. They are then frequently only left with the second option, which is starting their own business.\n\nFinally, as a conclusion of all the arguments exposed above, I believe it is only natural to think that they are never going to develop “our way” not because they can’t, but because they don’t want to. And, honestly people, I don’t know how many Thai people you see in Europe, but this is full of Europeans and Americans who have decided to spend their lives here, not to speak about all of us who decide to escape here when we have the chance.\n\nComment your ideas on the subject! What are your experiences and opinions about this?\n\nChina: Group of individuals or individual group?\n\nHello readers! I recently came back from my exchange in Hong Kong. I’ve had the chance to travel through Asia and feel the east culture first hand.\n\nWhat most shocked me about Asia was their “group culture”. They do everything in groups and the tendency to group thinking is much higher than in Europe. You could see it in many occasions, for example when you asked a question to some of them rarely did they just directly answer, they normally called some other people nearby and expose the question (in Chinese) so they could speak about it before answering. One could feel how they were much more comfortable this way. This is something I could also observe in Japan, when I attended the 55th edition of the International Student Conference in Tokyo last year. In our debate table about environmental issues there was an approximate 50-50 mix between westerners and Japanese and when we were planning the final presentation we openly started discussing how to organize it. The Japanese students were not really taking active part of the discussion and when we reached what looked like an agreement on the content and the structure the chief of the table said something like: “Ok, that sounds good, but let us [the Japanese] have some time to discuss it”. So then they spent about 10 minutes discussing in Japanese and when they reached a consensus the chief expressed all their doubts and ideas. No individual opinion expression again, we were quite shocked with the situation then.\n\nIn my opinion, this collective thinking and acting could help explain how can an authoritarian government still successfully rule a country which has the second biggest GDP in the world (in nominal and PPP) and how such a big country with such population can stay united (not that it hasn’t struggled of course). Other countries like Russia and Canada have more than 17 times less density, so it is not quite comparable (see the territories and countries population density list by the United Nations).\n\nMoreover, focusing on China: How dangerous can a mass of 1.3 billion group-thinking people led by an authoritarian, strongly influencing and highly keen on censorship government be? However focused they are at the moment on inner growth and on boosting their exports there will be a time when priorities change and they will probably look for more power. This makes me think about how there has been leaders through history that have arrived to the power by democratic means and then have turned crazy and led their country/empire to disaster, dragging the world together with them. I don’t want to imagine what some future leader of the Communist Party in China could manage to do with such a powerful country under his command, with no opposition parties and with no media criticism. Who will get to power in China in the future without this big filter of democracy and without freedom of speech is a huge concern that the world should have.\n\nAm I exaggerating my fears? Debate is open!\n\nTruth or Standard – What do you prefer?\n\nFocus on QualityIt is all about expectations and perceived quality: When you buy a product or a service you don’t normally want it to be the best possible quality, you actually want it to be as good as you thought it was when you bought it. In Marketing theory it is said that perceived quality – difference between expectations and after-buying perception of quality – is much more important than actual quality (Some definitions in business dictionary and So if you buy low quality cheap low-expectations stuff you might be very well more satisfied than with better products from which you expect much more.\n\nTherefore, managing expectations in companies is as important as managing the real – or objective and measurable – quality of their products. Some of them do it great like Apple: Promise you nothing and give you a well-finished product, some of them do it worse like Microsoft: They promise you heaven every new windows and they give you the same unfinished crap as always.\n\nBut who are the real masters of perceived quality?\n\nPoliticians! In Spain they have managed to make us all believe it is normal for them to lie, so we do not expect anything else than lies and some lousy partisan work. This has lead to not valuing truth when it comes to politics. But if we do not value truth what can we trust? This has lead unavoidably to total lack of interest from the young generations in what politicians do, say or think. Bravo for them, they managed to share the power between a few without anyone worrying too much about it. Maybe politicians should stop so much rhetoric and start handing in some standardized reports at the end of each year just as companies do. So what do you prefer: Truth or standard?\n\nIs art business? Are artists entrepreneurs?\n\nA CD Video Disc (playing side) produced in 1987.\n\nImage via Wikipedia\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMaking It Happen…Up To You!\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8457365036010742}
+{"content": "\n\nDisruption Lab (Park Inn by Radisson)\n\nby Łukasz Felsztukier — Digital Innovation Manager at Hycom\n\nWhat is the workshop about?\n\nWhy are the disruptions important to your business? As the old saying goes, you are as strong as your weakest link. The best way to identify your weaknesses is to challenge them.\n\nThe workshop will by run by Łukasz Felsztukier and Maciej Szymałkowski. \n\nWhat’s the workshop for? The workshop leaders, Łukasz Felsztukier and Maciej Szymalkowski, take the challenge to answer the question: How can your business model be threatened and how can you react if it happens? In this quick lab session, they will present how to work out a plan and helpful strategies. The participants will work in groups to find the best solutions and to use disruptors as a challenge and source of motivation to develop their businesses.\n\nHow do you benefit? You will learn a set of ready-to-use steps to react to radical disruptions based on predictable scenarios.\n\nFor whom it is designed?\n\nDigital and Design Executives and Managers, Product Managers and Owners, Service and Product Designers, User Experience Consultants and Designers\n\nAreas of Knowledge:\n\nUX & Design\n\nBusiness Growth\n\nProblem Solving - Business Analysis\n\nProduct Team\n\nProduct Development in New Technologies\n\n3 of 12 seats available\n\nŁukasz Felsztukier\n\nDigital Innovation Manager at Hycom", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9882742762565613}
+{"content": "With increasing population densities and expanding urban boundaries, the potential for explosive volcanic eruptions to have adverse impacts upon urban areas is on the rise. This is particularly true for volcanoes along subduction zones, because they are almost exclusively explosive and often coincident with large populations. Explosive eruption hazards such as tephra fall have the potential to affect very large areas and numbers of people; populations in volcanic areas may therefore be exposed to tephra falls from more than one volcano. In this study we have simulated large numbers of plausible explosive eruptions of Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) 4 or greater for each of 141 volcanoes in the Asia-Pacific region. Tephra fall footprints are aggregated for 16 major cities, according to their probability of occurrence. This addresses an emerging need for international agencies and organizations to conduct regional-scale assessments, where at-risk areas can be compared on a like-for-like basis. Hazard in cities near subduction zones is two to three orders of magnitude greater than for those farther away. By combining our hazard estimates with indicators describing the exposure and vulnerability of people and infrastructure, tephra fall risk scores were calculated for each city. Risk is evaluated separately for human populations and potential economic impact, with the highest human risk scores calculated for Manila and the highest economic scores for Tokyo. The volcanoes with the greatest hazard contribution in the very populous cities of Manila, Tokyo, and Jakarta were identified as Taal (Manila), Fujisan (Tokyo), and six volcanoes equally (Jakarta). While this study provides a transparent and consistent method for assessing regional volcanic hazard and risk, there are challenges associated with the data-poor setting and we conclude by discussing what is required in order to improve regional tephra fall hazard and risk assessments. This study provides a regional-scale assessment that cannot replace hazard and risk information provided locally by official organizations.\n\n\nThis paper describes a study to quantify and rank relative volcanic hazard and, via indicators of exposure and vulnerability, risk across 16 major cities in the western arm of the Pacific Rim, here described as the Asia-Pacific region. The study was developed to address an emerging need for international agencies, industries, and governments to obtain regional hazard and risk information that allows at-risk areas to be compared on a like-for-like basis, highlighting areas where further study or support should be focused. It is not intended to replace the official hazard and risk information provided by individual country organizations, a list of which are provided at the end of this paper. The Asia-Pacific region contains some of the most explosive and active volcanoes worldwide (Simkin and Siebert, 2000), and is also home to high levels of growth in urban populations and infrastructure. Many of the region’s cities are therefore located in active volcanic areas and threatened by explosive volcanic activity from more than one volcano. Our study focuses on tephra fall as the most frequent and widespread volcanic hazard (Newhall and Hoblitt, 2002) with the potential to directly or indirectly affect the largest numbers of people. Assessments of tephra fall hazard are typically carried out on a volcano-by-volcano basis, rather than for a given location. However, there is geological evidence for tephra falls from at least nine different volcanoes in the Chubu and Kanto regions close to Tokyo, Japan (Machida and Arai, 2003), and from more than five different volcanoes in Auckland, New Zealand (Shane and Hoverd, 2002; Zawalna-Geer et al., 2016). A key focus of this work is therefore to account for regional variation in the compounded site-specific tephra fall hazard and risk from multiple volcanoes. The hazard from airborne tephra or more proximal flow hazards is not assessed, and risk is considered as the potential for exposed people, property, services, livelihoods, and the environment on which they depend, to be harmed (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2009, p. 26), rather than an absolute assessment of financial loss or loss of lives.\n\nIn the following we describe previous studies that have worked toward assessing volcanic hazard and risk at a regional level. We then describe our assessment in the Asia-Pacific region; the methods and results separately consider the main components of risk, i.e., hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. Given the inherent problems with quantifying hazard and risk in data-poor settings, we dedicate the latter parts of this paper to discussing the sensitivities of our findings, and key data and studies required to improve regional volcanic assessments.\n\nPrevious Studies\n\nPrevious studies that have constructed regional or global volcanic hazard or risk assessments have mostly employed indices. The first global volcanic hazard and risk study was carried out by Yokoyama et al. (1984), who employed 10 hazard and 7 risk factors to identify high-risk volcanoes globally. Small and Naumann (2001) assessed the distribution of human populations relative to active volcanoes worldwide (updated in Holmberg and Small, 2016); this essentially ranked volcanoes, regardless of the hazard they posed, by their population exposure. The Munich Re Group (Munich-Re, 2004) assessed 50 global metropolises for their combined natural hazards risk as defined by material loss: volcanic eruptions were grouped with bushfire and frost as other hazards. The World Bank natural disaster hotspots project (Dilley et al., 2005) assessed volcanic risk by considering economic losses and mortality from volcanoes on a global grid by averaging global loss estimates across 20 yr of eruption data (1981–2000). Ewert (2007) developed a method to score U.S. volcanoes according to 15 hazard and 9 exposure indicators. Aspinall et al. (2011) similarly used hazard indicators (n = 8) to score volcanoes within 16 developing countries identified as priorities by the World Bank. Auker et al. (2015) used fatality data to build upon the Ewert (2007) and Aspinall et al. (2011) hazard scores by updating indicators and weightings, and accounting for record incompleteness. The updated hazard scores were specific to volcanic hazard over the next 30 yr, and were applied globally. Brown et al. (2015) further built upon this global volcanic hazard index by estimating volcanic threat to life on a country-by-country scale, based on the number of active volcanoes, an estimate of exposed population, and the volcanic hazard indices of Auker et al. (2015).\n\nWhile these studies provided important steps toward regional and global volcanic hazard and risk assessment, they all applied concentric circles to denote hazard around each volcano and did not account for varying eruption magnitude or local environmental conditions such as wind speed and direction. Tephra falls only form a concentric circle around the volcano where wind is absent (Volentik et al., 2010); more typically, they are elongated in the direction of prevailing winds during the eruption. A small number of regional tephra hazard assessments have considered the hazard to a site or region from multiple volcanoes, and incorporated the likely variability in eruption source and environmental conditions through probabilistic tephra dispersal modeling. The first probabilistic treatment of multisource regional tephra fall hazard was developed by Hoblitt et al. (1987) for the northwestern United States. One-dimensional tephra fall thinning relationships with distance, and prevailing wind conditions, were used to inform annual probabilities of exceeding 10, 100, and 1000 mm tephra fall thicknesses. For New Zealand, tephra fall deposits, which are particularly well preserved in peat bogs and lakes close to Auckland, have been used to inform probabilistic national (Hurst and Smith, 2004, 2010) and city level (conditional upon an eruption from any of the volcanoes surrounding Auckland; Magill et al., 2006) tephra fall hazard assessments. For many other areas in the world, tephra fall records are either not preserved well enough to contribute to comprehensive hazard assessments, or areas have not been subject to the same level of identification and study. For volcanoes where data were not present, Jenkins et al. (2012a, 2012b) developed a fully probabilistic assessment method where a volcano’s eruption history was supplemented with information from analogous volcanoes to calculate volcano frequency-magnitude relationships. Multiyear records of wind speeds and directions with height above each volcano were then used to simulate tephra falls from 190 sources across the Asia-Pacific region, aggregating (by their probability of occurrence) the resulting tephra fall footprints to a regional 1 km2 grid. Outputs were in the form of maps displaying the average recurrence intervals of tephra falls exceeding thickness thresholds of 1, 10, and 100 mm. The exposure of populations within the areas of hazard was also calculated to provide one of the first regional views of likely tephra fall hazard and threat. Site-specific hazard assessments and disaggregation by volcanic source have been presented for the Asia-Pacific region (see Jenkins, 2009; Jenkins et al., 2015; Aspinall and Blong, 2015). A subsequent tephra fall hazard assessment for the Asia-Pacific region (Bear-Crozier et al., 2016; Miller et al., 2016) used a statistical tephra dispersal emulator and monthly averaged wind conditions at the tropopause (250 mbar pressure level) to model regional and site-specific tephra fall hazard from Holocene active volcanoes. Results were provided as regional maps of tephra load at set return periods, with hazard further disaggregated at a number of cities in the region so that the contribution by volcano and eruption size could be identified.\n\nIn this paper we build upon previous indicator-based risk assessments by using the probabilistic regional hazard assessment methodology of Jenkins et al. (2012a, 2012b), with some refinements, to calculate site-specific tephra fall hazard for the region’s cities and move this toward an assessment of risk by incorporating exposure and vulnerability indicators of people and infrastructure. After a brief overview of the cities analyzed we describe our hazard and risk assessment approach, followed by results and discussion.\n\n\nWithin the Asia-Pacific region, nine countries contain active volcanoes, i.e., those that have at least one confirmed eruption recorded within the Holocene (approximately the past 10 k.y.; Global Volcanism Program, 2013). For each of the 9 countries, we assess the risk to 2 cities within 500 km of a Holocene active volcano: the capital city and another city of high population (Fig. 1; Table 1). The capital city is analyzed on the supposition that it is the seat of government, an administrative center, and in most cases, the economic stronghold for the country. We only consider eastern China as we are concerned with the Asia-Pacific region. The capital cities of Australia and China are more than 500 km from an active volcano and so we do not consider these; however, their distance does not exempt them from tephra hazard and their absence should imply low, but not zero, hazard. The second city contains the highest population outside of the capital (using UN Statistics Division Demographic Statistics, http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3A240 [accessed December 2016]), and within 500 km of any Holocene active volcano (Fig. 1; Table 1). Cities in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (PRK, or North Korea) may be threatened by tephra falls from Changbaishan-P’aektu-san on the border of China and PRK, although these are nearly 400 km from Pyongyang, and potentially from volcanoes in eastern China, but we have not assessed tephra fall risk for PRK cities here as vulnerability indices are not available for this country.\n\nConsistent definitions for city and urban boundaries do not exist at the regional scale. For this study, central coordinates for the analyzed cities were taken from the United Nations Statistics Division (2016), and greater urban area boundaries sourced either from Open Street Map, and converted to shapefiles using mapshaper.org, or from the Global Administration spatial database (Table 1; Supplemental Table S11). Populations for the city were taken from the United Nations Statistics Division (2016), and populations for greater urban areas were calculated using global information system (GIS) and gridded 2015 population data (Center for International Earth Science Information Network, 2016). The physical boundaries employed in the United Nations (UN) population estimates for the city proper are unknown. Where the city proper and greater urban area population estimates are similar (Jakarta, Seoul, Busan, Kaohsiung, Auckland), the UN boundaries for the former must be defined similarly to those derived for the latter. The discrepancy between values for other cities suggests that the boundaries of the city proper are smaller than those of the greater urban area, as may be expected. The city proper values are not used within our assessment, but are useful to highlight the challenges associated with sourcing data at the city scale.\n\nFor our chosen cities, we consider the hazard only from air fall tephra. The proximity of seven of the cities to active volcanoes means that they may also be subject to other more acute volcanic hazards such as pyroclastic density currents, lahars, or lava flows, the assessment of which is beyond the scope of this paper. Auckland in New Zealand is within the Auckland Volcanic Field, Taipei in Taiwan is 15 km from the Tatun Group, and Surabaya in Indonesia is 40 km to the north of Arjuno-Welirang. In exceptional cases, volcanic flows may extend as much as 100 km from a volcano, and in this case volcanic hazard in the cities of Surabaya (5 volcanoes), Manila (n = 4), Jakarta (n = 3), Tokyo, Taipei, and Davao (all n = 2), and Auckland (n = 1) may be better characterized by including these threats and assessing drainage channels and the likely directionality and volume of future volcanic flows. In addition, some of the cities extend for large distances beyond the centroids noted, and thus some greater urban areas may be exposed to additional volcanoes or more proximal hazards. This potential is not explicitly accounted for here because the hazard for each city is assessed at a single point and more proximal hazards are not considered.\n\n\nVolcanic risk is a complex function comprising at least three components: hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. Given equal weight and independence between the components, and taken at its simplest form with reference to natural hazards, risk can be written mathematically (Alexander, 2000; Fournier d’Albe, 1979) as: \n\nIn this definition, the hazard is quantified as the annual probability of the area under consideration being impacted; exposure as the number or value of elements at risk, and vulnerability as a value or ratio describing the susceptibility of the exposed elements to the hazard.\n\nThe following sections describe how we established independent scores for each of tephra fall hazard, exposure, and vulnerability in order to provide a risk score using Equation 1.\n\n\nWe considered the potential impact from all terrestrial active volcanoes within 500 km of an analyzed city (141 in total) within the Asia-Pacific region (Fig. 1). Tephra falls from volcanoes beyond this distance can occur but are expected to be thin, rare, or of limited consequence relative to those from volcanoes closer to the city in question.\n\nWe used the tephra modeling method in Jenkins et al. (2012a, 2012b), which employed the advection-diffusion model ASHFALL (Hurst, 1994) to inform our hazard scores. Simulated eruptions were limited to Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) 4 and higher with the rationale that these are the eruptions with the potential to generate thicker and more widely dispersed tephra falls, and therefore greater disruption for impacted communities. ASHFALL (Hurst, 1994) is an analytical advection-diffusion-sedimentation (ADS) model that assumes an instantaneous release of tephra distributed within a vertical eruption column above the vent. Tephra is then transported away from the volcano according to wind speeds and directions with height above the volcano with the tephra particles settling out and depositing by gravity. Thus, such models do not account for the development of gravity-driven umbrella clouds in high-flux rate eruptions (Sparks et al., 1997); however, the diffusion coefficient used in ADS models is deliberately larger than the actual atmospheric turbulent diffusion to partly account for this. This coefficient is usually chosen by calibrating the model against past large eruption deposits, and as a result ADS models are able to emulate the tephra deposits observed in large-magnitude eruptions (Costa et al., 2013).\n\nEruption frequency-magnitude relationships for the volcanoes assessed in our study followed the method in Jenkins et al. (2012a, 2012b), but using the updated 2016 Holocene eruption database (Global Volcanism Program, 2013), and with some revisions as described here. As in Jenkins et al. (2012a), the number of large (VEI ≥ 4) and small (VEI ≤ 3) magnitude eruptions at each volcano, within the record considered complete (see Jenkins et al., 2012a, for method; Supplemental Table S2 for values [see footnote 1]), and the number of eruptions with no assigned VEI were aggregated to a consistent record length to give an averaged annual probability (λ) for an eruption of any magnitude (λ = total number of eruptions/consistent record length). Where very few eruption data were available for a volcano, the conditional probability of that eruption then being small or large magnitude was inferred from the volcano type assigned by the Global Volcanism Program, with proportions derived from global analyses of eruption records by type (caldera, large cone, small cone, shield, and lava domes, as in Jenkins et al., 2012a). However, where there were enough eruptions in the volcano’s complete history, we chose to refine eruption probabilities. Three criteria allowed refinement of the annual eruption probability.\n\n1. The volcano had at least three large-magnitude eruptions recorded in the complete database, meaning that the probability for such eruptions could be calculated independently. For example, Raung in Indonesia produced VEI 4 eruptions in A.D. 1817 and 1638 and a VEI 5 eruption in 1593. The average recurrence interval (ARI, the inverse of the annual probability) between eruptions of VEI 4 or greater was calculated as 112 yr (1817 – 1593/2).\n\n2. The volcano had at least four small-magnitude eruptions and at least one large-magnitude eruption recorded in the complete eruption history, allowing us to calculate a volcano-specific ratio between small- and large-magnitude eruptions. For example, Babuyan Claro volcano in the Philippines has a record of 6 small-magnitude eruptions in 208 yr and 1 large-magnitude eruption in 676 yr (at A.D. 1831). The large-magnitude ARI was calculated as 643 yr, with an annual probability of 1.56 × 10–3 [the probability of any magnitude eruption: 6/208 + 1/676, multiplied by the conditional probability of a large-magnitude eruption: (1/676)/(6/208)].\n\n3. The volcano had at least 10 small-magnitude events, but no recorded large-magnitude events in the complete eruption history, implying that the volcano is preferentially producing small-magnitude events, and that eruptions are well recorded. For these volcanoes, the large-magnitude ARI is taken as the length of the complete record for large-magnitude eruptions, rounded up to the nearest 10 yr. For example, the Global Volcanism Program (www.volcano.si.edu; accessed December 2016) has a record of 24 small-magnitude eruptions since A.D. 1872 and zero large-magnitude eruptions for Langila volcano in Papua New Guinea. A large-magnitude ARI was calculated as 1710 yr (the rounded length of the record considered complete for large-magnitude eruptions in Papua New Guinea).\n\nIf a volcano’s eruption history fulfilled any of these criteria, then the refined values were used in modeling, with a preference shown by the order of criteria. Those volcanoes for which ARIs were refined using criteria 1 (n = 12), criteria 2 (n = 14), and criteria 3 (n = 22) are highlighted in Table S2 (see footnote 1). For Taupo, Tatun Group, Norikuradake, Takaharayama, and Yonemaru-Sumiyoshiike volcanoes, all eruptions in the catalogue had been assigned a VEI, but the eruptions were outside of the record deemed complete. For these volcanoes, we considered their entire eruption history in assigning a probability for an eruption of any magnitude, with the assumption that a total assignation of VEIs denotes an eruption history that is well known. Where few eruptions are produced over long time scales (e.g., 3 in ∼10 k.y. at Norikuradake), the annual probabilities are very small and unlikely to significantly affect the hazard, especially where more frequently erupting volcanoes with better constrained histories are present, as in Japan. For Taupo, we calculated the probability of a large-magnitude eruption from the last three large-magnitude eruptions to give a large-magnitude ARI of 620 yr. For the remaining volcanoes, we inferred the probability of a large-magnitude eruption from those defined for the corresponding volcano type (as defined by the Global Volcanism Program, with the higher level type categories and associated probabilities calculated by Jenkins et al., 2012a). No volcanoes had a history with enough eruptions to derive reliable proportions between VEIs 4, 5, 6, and 7, and thus the proportions were assigned as before according to global analogue types (Jenkins et al., 2012a), but based upon an assessment of the updated 2016 global eruption record. This adaptation to the Jenkins et al. (2012a) method revised the eruption frequencies for 23 volcanoes, typically acting to reduce the probability of a large-magnitude eruption.\n\nModeling input parameters are shown in Table 2. For a given simulated eruption, the thickness of tephra fall in any city centroid depends upon the distance to the volcano, the wind conditions acting on the tephra plume, the size and style of the eruption, and the physical characteristics of the erupted tephra, all captured within the dispersal modeling. Probabilistic methods employed in conjunction with numerical simulation are particularly important because they account for the range of potential eruption frequencies, volumes, and styles as well as variability in wind conditions, and can be condensed to arrive at a single average annual hazard value for one location. For any one location, hazard scores can be calculated by summing the probabilities associated with all simulations (from all volcanoes) that exceed a certain thickness threshold of interest at the particular site (as in Jenkins et al., 2012a).\n\nFor the purposes of this assessment, 3 hazard scores for each city were drawn from the model outputs, representing the annual probability of tephra falls exceeding 1, 10, and 100 mm thickness. Hazard scores across the entire greater urban area may show some limited spread around the value at the city centroid depending upon the distance and bearing of each grid cell from surrounding volcanoes. Additional tephra fall hazard may arise from volcanoes more than 500 km from the city, and from smaller magnitude (VEI ≤ 3) eruptions, although the contribution is expected to be small for most cities.\n\n\nElements that may be adversely affected by tephra fall include human and animal populations, agriculture, infrastructure, buildings and socioeconomic activities (Blong, 1984; Jenkins et al., 2015; Magill et al., 2013; Wilson et al., 2012). We focus here on two distinct measures of exposure to reflect the potential impacts of tephra fall for human populations and infrastructure assets (including buildings).\n\nHuman Population\n\nWe used the total number of people in each city greater urban area (see discussion of Analyzed Cities; Table 1; Table S1 [see footnote 1]) as our exposure score for human populations. Values were calculated using GIS and 1 km2 gridded 2015 population data (Center for International Earth Science Information Network, 2016).\n\nInfrastructure Value\n\nTo provide an indicative economic value of the exposure of infrastructure and building assets, we used the Global Exposure database (GEG 2013) developed for the United Nations 2013 Global Assessment Report (De Bono and Mora, 2014). The data set was specifically designed to assess the potential for economic losses as a consequence of natural hazards globally and is very appropriate for our purposes. Capital stock estimates of machinery, structures, and urban land, and information on building types were proportionally disaggregated from the country scale to a 5 km2 grid using the socioeconomic indicators of population density, income, employment, health, and education (for more information see De Bono and Mora, 2014). The exposure score for economic value is then taken as the total GEG 2013 value (U.S. $ millions within each greater urban area. Where the area boundary divided a grid cell, the value of the entire cell was counted.\n\n\nTrying to capture vulnerability to tephra fall by a single index is challenging as impacts vary for each of the hazard score thresholds (≥ 1, 10, and 100 mm). Tephra falls of 1 mm may cause temporary disruption through reduced visibility and/or infiltration of tephra into electrical components (Wilson et al., 2012), and will require costly clean up (Hayes et al., 2015). For example, data collected from past eruptions (predominantly for Kagoshima in Japan) has shown that a tephra fall of just 1 mm in an urban area will require the coordinated removal and collection of tephra from roads, as well as municipal assistance in collecting tephra from properties, at costs of U.S. $150,000 to $400,000 per km2 (in 2013 U.S.$ values, calculated from Hayes et al., 2015, their figure 4 therein). Under tephra falls of ∼10 mm, short-circuiting of power networks is more likely (Wardman et al., 2012), repair may be required for critical infrastructure services and nonstructural building elements such as gutters (Jenkins et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2012), and estimated clean-up costs escalate to U.S.$1.2–3 million per km2 (Hayes et al., 2015). Thicker falls (>100 mm) can lead to structural building and infrastructure damage (Jenkins et al., 2015), threatening the lives of any building occupants and requiring significant reconstruction and rehabilitation before normal activities can resume (Blong, 1984). As well as the thickness thresholds, the impacts can also vary for different assets, e.g., human health, buildings, infrastructure, and with differing tephra characteristics, contexts and environmental conditions. In the absence of anything finer, we have used national vulnerability indices that correspond with the previously determined exposure scores. National scores are acceptable on a regional level, but we do not recommend that these indices be used for local-scale assessments; improved asset-specific vulnerability estimates at higher resolution would enable a more comprehensive investigation of risk.\n\nHuman Populations\n\nIncome and education have been identified as key factors in limiting a person’s capacity to respond to natural hazard impacts (Jenkins and Haynes, 2011; United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2007). Therefore, those communities that are less economically advanced may be expected to have a higher vulnerability. We apply the United Nations World Risk Index (WRI; Welle and Birkmann, 2015), which provides a measure of human vulnerability to natural hazards using indicators that describe a country’s susceptibility, coping capacity, and adaptive capacity. The WRI includes an indicator for population exposure to natural hazards and we removed this to leave only the vulnerability component. This vulnerability component is inversely correlated with the Human Development Index (HDI; United Nations Development Programme, 2015), so that those more vulnerable in the WRI have lower HDI scores, as derived from indicators for life expectancy, education, and gross domestic product per capita. The WRI vulnerability score for Taiwan is inferred from Japan’s value (as Japan exhibits a very similar HDI).\n\nInfrastructure Value\n\nIn contradiction to the WRI vulnerability score described here, societies that are strongly reliant upon technology and industry to support urban livelihoods and socioeconomic activities may be less willing or able to adapt to volcanic hazards and may therefore also be vulnerable (Pyle, 1995). A number of indices to describe the technological advancement of a country were developed in the mid-2000s. We use the ArCo index, which considers three dimensions of technological advancement: innovative activity, technology infrastructure, and human capital (see Archibugi and Coco, 2004, for more details). A higher ArCo index is used to imply a higher economic, or technological, vulnerability. The ArCo index builds upon a number of previous indices, which all show similar patterns across the Asia-Pacific region, is the only technology index with a value for Papua New Guinea, and is the most recently available index of this nature. As the index is more than 10 yr old, it may underestimate the current technological vulnerability, particularly in rapidly developing countries. An updated index with a focus particularly on natural, if not volcanic, hazards would be valuable, as would finer-than-national resolution estimates.\n\n\n\nHazard curves compare the expected hazard frequency between cities for the full range of expected tephra fall thicknesses from VEI ≥ 4 eruptions (Fig. 2). Curves are constructed by ranking simulation thicknesses from large to small and cumulating the annual probability associated with each simulation so that for a given thickness, the associated annual probability (or the inverse ARI, as in Fig. 2) is for that city receiving a tephra fall of that thickness or greater. Hazard scores can be taken from the curves and represent the annual probability of exceeding each of the thickness thresholds (Table 3). The curves and scores show a clear distinction between the higher hazard of cities in countries characterized by subduction zone volcanism (Indonesia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and New Zealand) and the relatively lower hazard of those not in a subduction zone environment (eastern China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia) (Table 3). Scores (annual probabilities of exceeding thickness thresholds of 1, 10, and 100 mm) vary by more than three orders of magnitude across the region, with Manila in the Philippines having the greatest calculated tephra fall hazard. The hazard in Manila at the 1 mm thickness threshold corresponds to an ARI (the approximate inverse of the annual probability) of 450 yr, followed by Surabaya (540 yr), Tokyo (1100 yr), and Jakarta (1600 yr). For all thickness thresholds there are few significant changes in the hazard ranking between cities, with Taipei showing the greatest increase in rank at the larger thicknesses (see following Discussion).\n\nThree of the four cities most prone to receiving tephra fall (Manila, Tokyo, and Jakarta) are home to more than 9 million people. For these cities, we further disaggregate the curves to identify those volcanoes that contribute the most to total hazard (Fig. 3). This helps to identify those volcanoes where tephrostratigraphic studies would be most important in refining the hazard in each city. The hazard curves are discussed in more detail in the following.\n\n\nManila and Tokyo have the highest greater urban area population exposure, with more than 12 million people (Fig. 4, top), although population densities are much higher in Manila, i.e., the greater urban area is smaller than Tokyo’s but still gives similar total exposure values (Fig. 4, bottom). Jakarta, Taipei, Seoul, Osaka, and Shenyang all show similarly high population exposures of nine to ten million people with exposures declining steadily for the remaining cities.\n\nWith regard to the GEG 2013 values, Tokyo has by far the greatest score with U.S. $2.36 trillion in capital stock and land value exposed across the greater urban area (Fig. 4, top). The second assessed Japanese city of Osaka has the next largest value at U.S. $1.46 trillion; Seoul, Taipei, Melbourne, and Busan all contain more than U.S. $250 billion. Tokyo, Seoul, and Osaka also stand out as having an average of more than U.S. $480 million exposed within each 1 km2 (Fig. 4, bottom). The exposure of the remainder of the cities is less than a total of U.S. $250 billion and an average of U.S. $215 million per km2 (Fig. 4).\n\n\nVulnerability values vary widely within the Asia-Pacific region (Fig. 5), but there is a clear distinction between Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, and China, which show relatively high human (>45) and low technological, or economic (<0.35) vulnerability, and south Korea, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia (WRI < 35; ArCo > 0.6). The WRI aligns relatively well with the inverse of the ArCo, with the ranking of countries by vulnerability approximately opposite for the two indices, such that countries with high human vulnerability typically also have low technological advancement. Exceptions to this include New Zealand and Australia, which show slightly lower human and technological/economic vulnerability relative to Japan, and the Philippines, which has slightly higher human and technological/economic vulnerability values relative to China.\n\n\nThe United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (2009, p. 25–26) defined risk as: “…the combination of the probability of an event and its negative consequences…”; with risk assessment being “…a methodology to determine the nature and extent of risk by analyzing potential hazards and evaluating existing conditions of vulnerability that together could potentially harm exposed people, property, services, livelihoods and the environment on which they depend.” To calculate simple risk scores here, we have assumed an equal weighting (Equation 1) for the components of hazard, exposure and vulnerability, with risk being the product of the three independent scores at each thickness threshold. Very detailed volcano-specific risk assessments that have been developed over many years can extend this calculation further toward financial losses (Zuccaro et al., 2013) or the loss of lives (Wadge and Aspinall, 2014); however, such an approach is neither possible nor appropriate at the regional scale, particularly for areas characterized by poor data.\n\nWe have calculated risk scores in two ways. Non-normalized scores (Fig. 6, top) can be compared directly with additional cities that are assessed using the same method. Normalized scores (Fig. 6, bottom) provide a common basis for comparison and highlight large changes in risk as a function of the hazard threshold. Two risk scores are calculated: (1) a human risk score, which takes into account the population exposure in a city and the vulnerability component of the World Risk Index; and (2) an economic risk score, which considers the exposure of assets and the level of technological advancement. As a worked example, Surabaya non-normalized risk scores at the 1 mm threshold are calculated by: \nNormalized risk scores are calculated by taking the product of hazard, exposure and vulnerability scores that have first been normalized to the maximum measured score in the region. For Surabaya: \n\nRisk scores at the 1 mm threshold range between 401 (Seoul) and 1,516,436 (Manila) for human risk (2.1 × 10–4 to 0.79 once normalized), and 0.02 (Port Moresby) and 1502.43 (Tokyo) for economic risk (1.0 × 10–5 to 0.39 normalized). The human and economic scores are not directly comparable for a given city but can be compared with those derived for other cities if the same assessment methodologies are employed.\n\nGiven that the exposure and vulnerability scores remain constant across the tephra fall thickness thresholds, variations in the risk results at the different thresholds (Fig. 6) are a direct result of changes in hazard. Normalized risk scores that differ between the thickness thresholds are thus indicative of hazard curves that are either steeper (e.g., Auckland) or shallower (e.g., Davao) than those typical of other cities in the region. For the three tephra thickness thresholds considered (1, 10, and 100 mm), Manila was found to consistently have the highest human risk score and Tokyo the highest economic risk score (Fig. 6). Cities in Japan show elevated economic, relative to human, risk scores, while Filipino, Indonesian, and Papua New Guinea cities in particular show larger human risk scores than economic. Identifying how each component of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability contributes relative to other cities in the region offers an insight into what drives a city’s risk and may suggest the components through which risk can best be reduced (Fig. 7). We achieved this by normalizing each component to the maximum displayed in the region: Manila for hazard, Manila for human exposure, Papua New Guinea for vulnerability, Tokyo for economic exposure, and Japan for vulnerability. Thus the contribution of each component (hazard, exposure, or vulnerability) to the risk score as shown in Figure 7 is relative to the hazard, exposure, or vulnerability in other cities across the region. The information provided in the figure is thus only illustrative for end users considering the regional risk, although local influences can still be identified. Manila, Surabaya, Jakarta, and Tokyo have similarly large human risk scores (Fig. 6); however, in Tokyo the large population drives the risk, while in Manila the three components are equally important (Fig. 7). Davao’s risk is dominated, almost entirely, by vulnerability. For Auckland, the vulnerability component seems relatively large because hazard and exposure is relatively low (Figs. 2 and 4) when considered alongside the select high hazard and risk cities in Figure 7. For cities categorized by a risk score in the lower 50th percentile of all analyzed cities, hazard typically had a negligible contribution toward risk. Economic risk scores in rapidly industrializing countries are likely underestimates as the GEG 2013 scores are based on 2005 World Bank capital stock values and the ArCo index is more than 10 yr old; however, they are the most recent data available.\n\n\nThis study only considers tephra fall in cities, and is concerned with the broad range of potential impacts, i.e., not just loss of life or damage to structures, as exemplified by our choice of thickness thresholds (see discussion of Vulnerability). There are well-established economic and social impacts from airborne tephra, particularly with regard to aviation, that are not accounted for here. For example, tephra falls of a few centimeters during the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallojökull, Iceland, caused a number of issues for communities in Iceland (Jenkins, 2010), but the largest costs and disruption were a result of the widespread and prolonged air closure across mainland Europe (International Air Transport Association, 2010). Such disruption could potentially be accounted for with the use of more sophisticated models (as discussed in the following, The Way Forward). In addition to airborne and deposited tephra, some cities may also be exposed to more proximal flow hazards that, within the areas that they inundate, are likely to have a larger impact (in terms of loss of lives and infrastructure) than tephra. For example, at least 25,000 people were killed and a number of towns destroyed as a result of lahars during the VEI 3 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz, Colombia (Naranjo et al., 1986); by comparison, tephra falls had little impact. The style of the eruption therefore also affects the level of impact, and there is not always a direct correlation between eruption size and level of impact.\n\nHazard Scores\n\nThere is a clear distinction in tephra fall hazard levels between cities near subduction zones and those farther away. A curve showing relatively short ARIs, and therefore higher hazard, may be the result of a large number of simulations affecting a city or of a few simulations with high probability. In subduction zone settings, <12% of the eruptions simulated actually reached the city in question, and thus the higher hazard is a result of the higher number and density of volcanoes in a subduction zone setting, and the increased probability of more explosive eruptions, rather than preferential wind conditions. Taipei and Busan are relatively high hazard cities in a non-subduction setting, with their hazard around an order of magnitude greater than other non-subduction cities, and only slightly less than that calculated for Wellington in New Zealand (Fig. 2). Taipei (Taiwan) is 15 km from the Tatun volcano group and 45 km from the Kueishantao volcano. While the calculated probability of a large-magnitude eruption is small for both volcanoes (ARIs > 5000 yr), the proximity of the city to the volcanoes means that a relatively large proportion of simulations (37%; Fig. 2) produce tephra falls >1 mm in the city. Melbourne is the only other city with a similarly high strike rate (28%), although the majority of simulated tephra fall thicknesses in Melbourne are <5 mm. Busan, in the southeast of South Korea, is ∼300 km from Halla, the sole modeled South Korea volcano, and within 500 km of 12 active Japanese volcanoes. Disaggregating the hazard curve by volcano shows that the tephra fall hazard in Busan is dominated by explosive volcanism in southern Japan due to the larger number of volcanoes with greater eruption frequencies, and the westerly wind directions at high altitudes (>30 km). Long ARIs (>100 k.y.) such as those calculated for Kaohsiung, Melbourne, Shenyang, and Seoul may either reflect genuinely low probabilities, or a limitation of using the Holocene (last 10 k.y.) eruption record to inform future hazard. However, that the cities exhibit relatively low hazard scores is a valid finding.\n\nIn general, a smoother curve is indicative of more data points (i.e., more simulations reaching the city in question). A steeper curve is indicative of the hazard being sourced in part from a volcano or volcanoes capable of producing larger thicknesses in the city at ARIs not significantly longer than for smaller thicknesses: a function of the distance of volcanoes to the city centroid, prevailing wind conditions, potential eruption volume of each volcano, and the probability of eruption. For example, Lae in Papua New Guinea and Auckland in New Zealand have relatively similar ARIs for VEI ≥ 4 tephra fall thicknesses exceeding 20 mm (∼20 k.y.), but the Auckland curve is much steeper than that of Lae (Fig. 2). Disaggregating the curves shows that the larger thicknesses in Auckland are dominated by Taupo, a caldera ∼225 km to the southeast that has had 5 large-magnitude eruptions (VEI ≥ 4) in the past 3500 yr, and the Auckland volcanic field, which is directly under the city. For Lae, the volcanoes contributing the greatest hazard at >10 mm (Witori, Dakataua, Krummel-Garbuna-Welcker, and Lolobau) have, on average, large-magnitude eruption frequencies comparable to Taupo (400–800 yr) but at least an order of magnitude shorter than the Auckland volcanic field (∼11 k.y.; Table S2 [see footnote 1]); however, the volcanoes are more than 350 km from Lae and therefore less likely to deposit the larger thicknesses, leading to a lower probability at these large thicknesses (and a shallower curve) when compared to the Auckland curve.\n\nFor those cities with the greatest tephra fall hazard and risk (Manila, Tokyo, and Jakarta), the disaggregated hazard curves show the contribution of individual volcanoes to the hazard (Fig. 3), identifying those where detailed tephrostratigraphic studies should be focused to better understand the city’s hazard and risk. Tephra in the Philippines is expected to be dispersed to the east or west, depending on the season (Fig. 8). The 1991 VEI 6 eruption of Pinatubo volcano, 90 km to the northwest of Manila, deposited 4 mm of tephra in Manila due to unusual wind conditions associated with tropical storm Yunya (Rantucci, 1994). A 4 mm or greater Pinatubo tephra fall in Manila is estimated to have an average recurrence interval of ∼70 k.y.), nearly two orders of magnitude longer than for the same thickness, or greater, from Taal (∼750 yr). For Manila, Taal dominates the hazard because of its proximity (65 km) and relatively high eruption frequency: there have been 4 large-magnitude eruptions at Taal in the past 300 yr. This is despite the volcano not being directly upwind from the city (Figs. 3 and 8). Taal tephra falls of more than 1 mm in Manila are simulated to occur on average every 500 yr, around an order of magnitude shorter than for high hazard volcanoes affecting Tokyo or Jakarta. Tokyo’s hazard is sourced from 39 different volcanoes, much more than in Manila (n = 7) and Jakarta (n = 19), and the largest number for any city in the region. Tokyo is on the eastern coast of Honshu; given the prevailing wind directions toward the east, this means that it is downwind of many of Honshu’s volcanoes (Figs. 3 and 8). Fujisan volcano, ∼100 km west-southwest of the city, is the most likely to produce tephra falls in greater Tokyo. During the 1707 Hoei eruption, Fujisan deposited tephra thicknesses of ∼40 mm in central Tokyo (Magill et al., 2015; Miyaji et al., 2011), a >10,000 yr event for our simulations. For Jakarta, the hazard is not dominated by one particular volcano (Fig. 3). Instead, simulations from at least 6 volcanoes (Tangkubanparahu, Perbakti-Gagak, Gede-Pangrango, Salak, Cereme, and Krakatau) produce tephra falls of 1 mm or greater with ARIs of between 7 k.y. and 15 k.y. (Fig. 3). Prevailing wind conditions are not conducive to dispersing tephra from surrounding volcanoes toward Jakarta, with winds predominantly blowing due west, or to the south or east at certain times of year; Jakarta is to the north and northwest of most volcanoes (Fig. 8). As a result, only 3% of simulations produce tephra falls in Jakarta, but the hazard is large relative to the rest of the region because of the high eruption frequencies and the numbers and proximity of the volcanoes.\n\nComparison to Other Studies\n\nThere are very few comparable studies of tephra fall hazard in the Asia-Pacific region that take into account multiple volcanoes: Hurst and Smith (2010) produced tephra fall maps for New Zealand at the 500 and 1000 yr ARI, and Miller et al. (2016) provided site-specific hazard information for a small number of cities in the region. We would expect variation between their findings and ours because of differences in the approaches, such as the full use of the time-varying wind profile in this study and that of Hurst and Smith (2010), and the inclusion of smaller VEI eruptions in the Hurst and Smith (2010) and Miller et al. (2016) studies. Compared with the findings of Hurst and Smith (2010), our thickness estimates are similarly small in Auckland and Wellington at the 500 year ARI, but at least 12 mm smaller in Auckland (∼4 mm versus >16 mm) and ∼5 mm smaller (∼0.5 mm versus 4–8 mm) in Wellington at the 10 k.y. ARI. The inclusion of smaller eruptions (VEI < 4) in the Hurst and Smith (2010) study are particularly important in Auckland, which is directly above a volcanic field, and may explain some of the disparity. Differences in volcano frequency-magnitude relationships and the maximum eruption volume estimated are also likely to be a factor. Hurst and Smith (2010) derived frequency-magnitude relationships from dated tephra records, supplemented with expert judgement and inference from analogue volcanoes in New Zealand to determine annual eruption probabilities and minimum and maximum bounds on likely eruption volumes. This is the preferred method for establishing such relationships when required for one or a small number of volcanoes and where well-studied volcanoes are being considered. Such an approach generally acts to reduce the spread in ARIs across multiple volcanoes; however, it cannot be consistently replicated across large numbers of volcanoes or in data-poor areas, which is where the method of Jenkins et al. (2012a) is more valuable. For cities where tephra hazard information is available at the 100, 1000, and 10,000 year ARI in Miller et al. (2016), i.e., Manila, Tokyo, Jakarta, and Port Moresby, we have converted load to thickness assuming a tephra deposit density of 1100 kg/m3 (as in Bear-Crozier et al., 2016). For Port Moresby, the hazard is similarly small in both studies (<1 mm at all ARIs). For Manila, Tokyo, and Jakarta, differences in hazard values are not consistently larger or smaller, and we provide more detail in Figure 8 to show the local wind conditions and hazard findings for the two studies. The largest methodological differences between the studies are with the model and wind conditions used to simulate tephra dispersal. For example, the restricted wind conditions employed in Miller et al. (2016) will result in faster wind speeds and more favorable wind directions around Tokyo at certain times of year (Fig. 8) for depositing more tephra in the city. However, comparison of the volcano frequency-magnitude relationships employed in the two studies suggests that these are the source of most disparity. Both studies have a heavy, but unavoidable, reliance upon the Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program Holocene eruption record, which is constantly evolving and subject to retrospective modifications that can affect frequency calculations. The two studies both use volcano types, e.g., caldera, large cone, as analogues for volcanoes with few eruption data, but in different ways. This study applies the analogue value only for the ratio between small- and large-magnitude eruptions (with the ARI for an eruption of any size inferred from the volcano eruption record; see Jenkins et al., 2012a), while the Miller et al. (2016) study applies the analogue wholly without using the particular volcano record (which they recognized as a limitation in their study). The main effect of this difference in method is that ARIs for eruptions of VEI 4 or above assigned by Miller et al. (2016) are shorter than those calculated for this study. For example, Hakoneyama and Sanbesan are assigned a large-magnitude ARI of 31 yr in Miller et al. (2016) and ∼9500 yr (Hakoneyama) and 31,000 yr (Sanbesan) in our study. Ongoing research in Japan that identifies and dates geological deposits will likely increase the estimated frequency (shorten the ARI) in our study. The focus going forward should therefore be on improving the stability of global eruption records and associated estimates of frequency-magnitude relationships through geological studies, interrogation of historical records, and potentially inference from analogous volcanoes and the application of expert judgement. An index that describes how well known an eruption history is at a volcano would also be valuable for better understanding the uncertainty associated with frequency-magnitude estimates.\n\nThe Way Forward\n\nQuantifying volcanic hazard and risk in data-poor environments, e.g., those characterized by incomplete eruption histories, and with limited information on exposure and vulnerability, is challenging. We have identified some key areas of future research that we believe will improve volcanic hazard and risk assessment at the local, national, and regional scale.\n\nDetailed stratigraphic, petrological, geochemical, and historical studies at volcanoes should be conducted, with priority given to those identified as having the greatest potential to be hazardous to human activities, e.g., through hazard assessments such as this (Fig. 3), or for volcanoes showing signs of unrest, close to major urban areas, or with morphological evidence of major explosive activity. This information can be used to improve knowledge on previous eruptions and their ages, informing frequency-magnitude relationships and the range of future eruption characteristics such as grain-size distribution and erupted tephra volume.\n\nTypically, frequency-magnitude estimates for one or a small number of volcanoes use the ideally formalized, but more likely subjective, judgement of experts who are very familiar with the volcano, as well as the eruption history, geological record, recent trends in activity, and the greater tectonic and volcanological setting. This allows more detailed, potentially time dependent, analysis of trends such as clustering or cyclic eruption activity at individual volcanoes, and permits shorter term hazard and risk assessments that can be updated if unrest is observed. While clearly this is not feasible for a large number of volcanoes, further improvements in the characterization of frequency-magnitude relationships from incomplete eruption catalogues, particularly those that use innovative statistical methods (e.g., Rougier et al., 2016) and incorporate the tectonic or volcanic setting (e.g., Sheldrake and Caricchi, 2016), will be invaluable.\n\nIncreases in the storage and processing capacity of computing resources will, in time, enable probabilistic multisource modeling to use more sophisticated (but data and resource intensive) three-dimensional dynamic dispersal models. This was outside the scope of the current study, which simulated tephra falls from 141,000 eruptions at a resolution of 1 km2 (plus analysis and aggregation by site), but future studies should look to employ a model that uses spatially and temporally varying winds and can better represent the physics behind large-magnitude eruptions. A three-dimensional model would also allow volcanoes more than 500 km from a city to be incorporated, and the tephra hazard through the atmospheric column to be accounted for, i.e., for the benefit of the aviation industry. Balancing the increased data input requirements of such models with the greater information available in the outputs will be key to identifying the most appropriate way forward in data-poor environments.\n\nFor exposure estimates, globally consistent definitions of, for example, city boundaries or what constitutes an urban area, would be valuable for like-for-like comparisons. Ideally a count of the specific assets that are being considered within this area of interest would be carried out through ground surveys aimed at assessing the exposure of such components to volcanic hazards. The resource requirements of such surveys across large areas make this unattainable; however, the increased availability of satellite and aerial, e.g., drone, images means that remote surveys and automated image recognition approaches may enable us to gather exposure information more rapidly across large areas. Combining approaches across natural hazards so that one survey can capture information of interest to multiple end users should be a priority.\n\nFor the vulnerability component, forensic post-eruption impact assessments will continue to supplement the sparse impact data set, and available data should be catalogued in a format that allows us to interrogate across multiple data sets to infer the level of impact from a given hazard intensity, with appropriate uncertainty bounds. Vulnerability is clearly more complex than can be described in one index and is instead hazard, context, socially, politically, and time dependent. Nevertheless, further efforts to investigate the feasibility of subnational quantitative vulnerability assessments would be useful.\n\nIn practice, the level of impact sustained by a tephra fall will also be influenced by human or environmental actions such as vehicles, clean up, and wind remobilizing tephra fall deposits or moisture increasing the loading on structures. Local risk assessments, as yet unpublished, are beginning to account for some of these factors and in time robust regional assessments may be possible.\n\nIn an increasingly connected world, an eruption that affects a major city such as Manila, Tokyo, or Jakarta is likely to have global implications. The cascading consequences from volcanic hazards and the effect of mitigation strategies in reducing the impact are valuable future areas of study, although capturing this level of detail in a multivolcano study will likely require large assumptions.\n\n\nThe Asia-Pacific is one of the world’s most densely populated and volcanically active regions. As a result, many communities are at risk from tephra falls that originate at one or a number of volcanic sources. Quantifying the future hazard and risk from any one volcano requires a detailed understanding of the previous eruption history and the exposed assets and their vulnerability. Unfortunately, data on previous eruptions across the Asia-Pacific region are characterized by varying degrees of availability and quality, and exposure and vulnerability information are only available at a basic level, posing a problem for comprehensive assessment. Here, in order to address the emerging need for hazard and risk information to be available and comparable across large regions, we have developed a consistent and transparent methodology to assess site-specific tephra fall hazard and risk across the Asia-Pacific region. Probabilistic multivolcano tephra dispersal model results have been combined with estimates of exposure and vulnerability for human populations and infrastructure to calculate relative tephra fall risk for 16 major cities in the region.\n\nThere is a clear contrast between the hazard estimated for cities in subduction zones relative to those in non–subduction zone settings (Fig. 2), although the contribution from hazardous volcanoes in neighboring countries, for example from Japan for Busan, South Korea, can increase a city’s hazard, highlighting the importance of considering regional sources of tephra. Manila was found to have the highest tephra fall hazard, followed by Surabaya, Tokyo, and Jakarta, with simulated tephra falls of 1 mm or greater from VEI ≥ 4 eruptions occurring on average around every 500 yr for Manila and Surabaya and every 1100–1600 yr for Tokyo and Jakarta (Figs. 2 and 3). We are limited by the data available to us at the time of this assessment and the values in our study should be considered relative and indicative, rather than absolute. It must be stressed that values are in no way intended to replace local hazard or risk assessments, which benefit from unpublished data and local knowledge and expertise. Hazard results taking into account height- and time-varying wind conditions are a significant improvement upon previous studies that applied equal hazard in all directions from the volcanoes in question, as is considering the contribution from multiple volcanoes in a site-specific hazard assessment. Such advances allow at-risk areas to be compared on a like-for-like basis while accounting for as much information as possible, highlighting areas where further study or support should be focused (e.g., Fig. 3). Future advances should simulate the tephra fall hazard using three-dimensional models that can account for varying wind conditions with distance from the volcano, and time after the eruption; this would permit assessment of the tephra fall hazard through the atmospheric column (important for aviation), as well as the tephra fall hazard from volcanoes more than 500 km from a site.\n\nTo move the hazard assessment toward simple estimations of risk, we incorporated exposure and vulnerability scores. Exposure scores were derived from greater urban area population counts and values describing the capital stock and urban land value in each city (Fig. 4). For vulnerability, we similarly used two indicators: the vulnerability component of the United Nations WRI and the ArCo index that describes technological capability (Fig. 5). Risk scores and ranking, the product of the 3 scores of hazard, at the 1, 10, and 100 mm thickness thresholds, and the exposure and vulnerability, represent the first attempt to quantify human and economic tephra fall risk in a consistent fashion across a large region. Tokyo shows high risk scores at all thickness thresholds and for both human and economic scores (Fig. 6), arising predominantly from the very large exposure of populations and economic assets (Fig. 7). Surabaya, Manila, and Jakarta, by contrast, show high human risk scores but the economic risk scores are comparatively lower because of the smaller value of exposures and economic assets.\n\nFor this study, frequency-magnitude estimates were found to be one of the largest sources of uncertainty when compared to previous studies. Regional multisource hazard and risk assessments are thus sensitive to assumptions employed at volcanoes with few recorded eruptions and to revisions in the underlying eruption database. Continuing efforts into improving frequency-magnitude estimates where data are scarce and unreliable, and improving the accuracy and completeness of eruption records through geological and historical studies will improve the robustness of hazard estimates in future iterations. The limitations of remotely derived estimates of exposure and national level vulnerability data are equally as important for the calculation of risk, and advances are needed on all three fronts (hazard, exposure, and vulnerability) in order to improve risk assessments. Nevertheless, the transparent and consistent hazard and risk ranking methodology presented here uses all currently available data to provide an informed comparison of tephra fall hazard and risk for city populations across the Asia-Pacific region and will be useful for agencies requiring such large-scale information.\n\n\nWe thank John McAneney, Chris Newhall, and Antonio Costa for helpful reviews that helped to improve an early version of this manuscript. We also thank Victoria Miller and Adele Bear-Crozier, with whom we had valuable discussions on the disparity in hazard values between our two studies. We are indebted to two anonymous reviewers, Bob Tilling, Robert Muir-Wood, and the editors for insightful comments that helped to improve the manuscript. We also thank Bob Tilling for his invitation to submit this research to Geosphere, and for his support and enthusiasm.\n\n\nThe relative tephra fall hazard and risk information provided by this study is in no way intended to replace volcanic hazard and risk information provided by a country’s official institutions. Our study addresses a need from international organizations for like-for-like comparison of tephra fall hazard and risk at the regional scale. For local to national level assessments, tephra fall hazard and risk assessments should always be sought from the relevant country’s scientists.\n\nWe here provide a list of the official organizations responsible for volcanic studies in each of the countries represented in our study:\n\n1Supplemental Tables. Table S1: City greater urban boundaries. Table S2: Eruption probabilities. Please visit http://doi.org/10.1130/GES01549.S1 or the full-text article on www.gsapubs.org to view the Supplemental Tables.\nScience Editor: Shanaka de Silva\nGuest Associate Editor: Robert Stern\n\nSupplementary data", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9873858094215393}
+{"content": "Quick Answer: Should Couples Wear Matching Outfits?\n\nWhat clothes go well together?\n\nGreen and Yellow.\n\n\nPale Blue and Pink.\n\nNothing says spring more than pastels.\n\nRed and Blue.\n\nCobalt Blue and Turquoise.\n\nOrange and Blue.\n\nTan and Maroon.\n\nOrange and Black.\n\nPink and Grey.More items….\n\nShould your shoes match your outfit?\n\nMake sure your shoes aren’t both the same color and material as your outfit. To avoid that “I cut up my drapes to make a dress and shoes” look, be careful to not also match the material of your outfit to your shoes.\n\nWhy do couples wear matching clothes?\n\nwearing couples matching shirts is a great way to display your love for each other. It outlines that you two are in harmony and in love! … When you’re in love, you might want to own anything that your partner has, and the matching outfit is a sign that you are willing to match with your partner.\n\nWhat Colours should I not wear together?\n\n\nWhat matching clothes means?\n\nMatching things look exactly alike. A pair of leather boots is matching, and if you and your sister wear matching outfits, they’re identical.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9328181743621826}
+{"content": "Quick Answer: What Should You Not Do While Running?\n\nWhy do I have to poop during a run?\n\nJaworski explains that when you run, blood flow decreases to your gut, and increases to your muscles.\n\nThe harder and longer the run, the more likely it’s going to mess with how well your gut is functioning..\n\nWhat should you not do before running?\n\n5 Worst Things To Do Before You RunEat too close to your run. Ideally you should not eat anything for two hours before you run. … Incorrect warm-up before your run. … Wear new gear before a long run. … Drinking too close to your run. … Forget to go to the toilet.\n\nWill running reduce belly fat?\n\n\nWhat is runner’s stomach?\n\n\nHow do I stop pooping while running?\n\n8 Expert Tips on How to Avoid Pooping During a RaceAdd Food and Bathroom Columns to Your Run Tracker. Matt Rainey. … Improve Your Running Form. Ewald Sadie. … Taper Your Fat and Fiber Intake. Trevor Raab. … Tweak Your Caffeine Routine. … Get Your Nerves in Check. … Schedule a Prerace Poop. … Slow Down Your Fueling. … Consider a Prophylactic.\n\nIs running fast genetic?\n\nAnd while training and practice can obviously improve muscle performance, evidence suggests slow twitch fibers cannot be converted into fast twitch, meaning that what athletes have is what their genes gave them. … “But there is no single gene that accounts for speed and power, or for sprinting.\n\nWill running get easier?\n\nGive yourself at least three months to see progress. Usually, the first thing beginner runners want to know is exactly when running will get easier. It’s different for everyone, but most people discover a turning point once they can run for about 30 minutes consecutively.\n\nCan you be naturally good at running?\n\nAs he found out, success in some events comes more naturally than in others. In fact, few runners have the same potential to be outstanding at all distances. Some people have the innate gift of speed, while others are natural-born long-distance runners.\n\nDo marathon runners poop themselves?\n\nOf those, the latter is so common that runners call it “runner’s trots.” According to the Mayo Clinic, scientists still aren’t sure exactly what causes runner’s diarrhea, but they have some compelling theories. Some suggest it’s a result of the severe physical jostling a marathon can impose on your internal organs.\n\nHow do you carry your phone while running?\n\nThe Best Ways to Stash Your Phone on a RunA waist belt pack built specifically for storage that holds phone snugly. … A large, secure fitting pocket that stays close to your body.\n\nCan running give you abs?\n\n“A strong and stable core helps improve running mechanics and stability in your knees, ankle, and hips, which minimizes injuries,” Kelly told POPSUGAR. So no, your runs alone won’t give you a six-pack, but they can definitely help reduce belly fat and make your abs pop.\n\nIs run/walk better than running?\n\n\nWhy do runners have to poop?\n\n\nIs it OK to run in the dark?\n\nIt’s difficult for drivers to see runners in the dark, so don’t make it harder on them by wearing dark, non-reflective clothing. Make sure to wear bright colors, preferably with reflective material or tape so that you stand out as you run.\n\nDo marathon runners pee while running?\n\nYour body is so used to peeing when it’s motionless so to do it while running, or even walking, requires practice. It does save you time. I probably need to pee three or four times during a 100-miler race and if a pee stop will take, say, 30 seconds, that’s about two minutes you’ve lost over the race distance.\n\nCan we drink water while running?\n\nHydration during running is important for performance and health. Drink water regularly during the day and practice hydrating while on long runs. And don’t forget your need for carbohydrates and electrolytes to optimize your hydration and nutrition.\n\nAre sprinters born or made?\n\nThemselves former college sprinters, Lombardo and Deaner say they were not surprised by the result itself, but the consistent level of innate talent in the top level sprinters was unexpected. …\n\nIs it OK to stop while running?\n\nWhen reviewing running logs, we often see runners have breaks in longer runs lasting several minutes. Obviously traffic lights and the occasional bathroom break cannot always be avoided. However, when there are multiple stops prolonged stops during a run, it can cause a decrease benefit.\n\nHow do I protect myself while running?\n\nBelow, we give you the lowdown on taking prudent precautions to stay safe, and generally, how to rock running by yourself.Trust Your Instincts. Maskot / Getty Images. … Let Someone Know Your Route. … Stick to Well-Traveled Routes. … Carry ID and/or Your Phone. … Be Visible. … Listen. … Run With Your Pet. … Take Self-Defense.\n\nShould you poop before running?\n\n“If you’re running in the morning, your body may be ready to get rid of the food it was digesting from the evening before,” Kruse says. Pooping before a run is ideal, so you don’t get stuck on a trail sans-potty, she says.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9450819492340088}
+{"content": "On Benefit’s website, it states that Benefit Cosmetics is a subsidiary of LVMH group and since 1989, they collectively do not test their products on animals and are deeply committed to the elimination of animal testing. 3. When reviewing the animal testing in cosmetics pros and cons, we must balance the health and safety of each animal with the need to provide humans safe access to the items they wanted to purchase.\n\nA look at the costs of animal testing provided by the National Institute of Health. 50% of animals used in cosmetic testing die within 2-3 weeks after the experiment. Federal law requires that animal testing be conducted before most clinical trials involving people are allowed. 40% of the funds received are provided to animal testing in the name of research. 6. Animal testing occurs prior to human clinical trials and is considered by most researchers to be an essential part of drug development.... Toxicology Testing Using Animals. Animal Experimentation in Cosmetics and Household Items In the era of anti-animal testing, the cosmetic industry has taken a lot of wrath from animal activist. Costs of Animal Testing. Animal experiments prolong the suffering of humans waiting for effective cures because the results mislead experimenters and squander precious money, time, and other resources that could be spent on human-relevant research. NIH to Torment Marmosets in Alzheimer’s Experiments—Help Stop This Now.\n\nFor drugs and biologics, the focus of animal testing is on the drug’s nature, chemistry, and effects (pharmacology) and on its potential damage to the body (toxicology). Animal welfare is a slippery argument to make when criticizing testing processes. Benefit’s Animal Testing Statement. benefits of animal testing articles, ... diseases, heal wounds, spare animals from cosmetics testing, and design “leather” that ... come up with a blood test for fibropapillomatosis. Opinions about the use of animals for research are complicated and often divided when it comes to different purposes or types of research. List of the Pros of Animal Testing in Cosmetics.\n\nFact: With the recent sequencing of genomes, in-depth research into animal physiology, and surgical advances, researchers are constantly being reminded that humans share many biological and physiological characteristics with animals. Perception: Animal testing and research only benefits people. It’s wasteful. The United Kingdom has banned the use of cosmetic testing since 1990. But if you continue reading their policy, it states:\n\nA Middle Ground^ There is a middle ground for those who feel uncomfortable with animal experimentation, but believe that in some circumstances the good arising out of experimentation does outweigh harm to the animal.\n\nResearch animals are protected by a host of state, federal, and international laws.\n\nAccordingly, potential animal rights violations are outweighed by the greater human benefits of animal research. Alternatives. For instance, a clear majority of people are against the use of animals for testing cosmetics and personal care products.However, if the research is claimed to save or improve human lives, then opinions shift, even if those claims are hypothetical or baseless. 1.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8367511630058289}