July 31, 2014

NTSB: Latest safety recommendations

WASHINGTON – The National Transportation Safety Board has updated its “Most Wanted” transportation safety improvements. Included are recommendations for improved bus, rail and aviation safety.

Following are the NTSB’s comments of interest to UTU members:

Airplanes, buses and trains are complex machines that require the full attention of the operator, maintenance person and other individuals performing safety-critical functions.

Human fatigue is subtle; at any given point, the traveling public could be at risk because those operating airplanes, buses or trains, or the individuals responsible for maintaining vehicles, do not realize until it is too late that they cannot safely complete their duties because of fatigue.

To make matters worse, people frequently are not aware of, or may deny, ability impairments caused by fatigue. Just because an operator or mechanic is not yawning or falling asleep does not necessarily mean that he or she is not fatigued.

What can be done: Continued research on the manifestations of fatigue will help in further identifying mechanisms that can counter, and ultimately eliminate, fatigue.

Such research needs to recognize the unique aspects of fatigue associated with each mode of transportation, such as the effect of crossing multiple time zones or being required to work during periods of the day when circadian rhythms increase the risk of fatigue.

Employers should also establish science-based fatigue management systems that involve all parties (employees, management, interest groups) in developing environments to help identify the factors that cause fatigue; and monitor operations to detect the presence of fatigue before it becomes a problem.

Bus Safety

Motorcoaches are among the safest vehicles on the road. They are rarely involved in highway accidents.

However, motorcoaches transport 750 million passengers annually, with each bus carrying a substantial number of people. Therefore, when something does go wrong, more people are at risk of death or injury. As in any traffic crash, an occupant’s chance of surviving and avoiding injury increases when the person is retained in the vehicle, and particularly in his or her seating position.

Without standards for roof strength, window glazing, and a protected seating area, motor coach accidents can be catastrophic. Even when the motorcoach remains relatively intact during an accident, passengers lacking a protective seating environment can be thrown from their seating area and killed or injured.

What can be done: Adequate standards for roof strength, window glazing, and occupant protection must be developed and implemented. These standards must ensure that the vehicles maintain survivable space for occupants during all types of crashes with significant crash forces, including rollovers.

Manufacturers are moving ahead with various seating area safety options, such as seat belts, but the development and implementation of government standards is needed to ensure a consistent level of safety across the fleet. Motorcoach interiors should be more occupant friendly in order to prevent injury in the event of a crash.

In addition, after a crash, occupants need to be able to identify exits and quickly leave the vehicle.

Commercial Aviation

Crew resource management (CRM) training is designed to improve crew coordination, resource allocation and error management in the cockpit. CRM training augments technical training, enhances pilots’ performance and encourages all flight crew members to identify and assertively announce potential problems by focusing on situational awareness, communications skills, teamwork, task allocation, and decision-making within a comprehensive framework of standard operating procedures.

Takeoffs and landings, in which the risk of a catastrophic accident is particularly high, are considered the most critical phases of flight.

Unlike the airspace above the United States, which spans millions of square miles, the runway environment is a far more limited area, often with a steady stream of aircraft taking off and landing on intersecting runways, sometimes in poor weather and with limited visibility.

What can be done: Reducing the likelihood of runway collisions is dependent on the situational awareness of the pilots and time available to take action — often a matter of just a few seconds. A direct in-cockpit warning of a probable collision or of a takeoff attempt on the wrong runway can give pilots advance notice of these dangers.

Requiring specific air traffic control clearance for each runway crossing would reduce the chances that an airplane will inadvertently taxi onto an active runway on which another aircraft is landing or taking off.

Situational awareness is also important in addressing runway excursions. Pilots need accurate information on runway conditions. Equipment should be properly set for takeoff or landing and function properly.

Pilot training and procedures should emphasize conducting distance assessments for all landings, especially on contaminated runways; training on maximum performance stopping on a slippery runway; and identifying the appropriate runway for their aircraft.


The Cell Hunter

Longtime OU professor, Dr. Richard Broyles, is a hunter. One of the world’s deadliest scourges, sickle cell anemia, sits squarely in his sights. He recently founded EpimedX, an Oklahoma City company that will enable him to pull the trigger. After 20 years in the blind, the geneticist and his colleagues are roughly 10 years away from firing the magic bullet that will put sickle cell anemia down once and for all.

Taking down sickle cell anemia is a lofty goal. Broyles’ goals for his cure are equally lofty and go beyond saving lives. “This will change the lives of individuals with sickle cell disease in third world countries. Children born in those countries with sickle cell anemia almost always die before they turn 5,” he says, “It’s a life or death thing for those people. In the U.S., where every baby born is tested for the disease, we’re able to identify them early. They don’t die as young, but they’ll still have serious health issues and painful lives. They’re always in crisis, in and out of emergency rooms. It’s hard for a person in that situation to get an education, much less hold a job. It’s not just a health issue.”

Broyles and his peers developed a new approach to the cure for sickle cell disease, a genetic process known as gene regulation therapy. Sickle cell anemia develops in humans with two key mutations in the genes of red blood cells. Previous attempts to cure the disease focused on changing these genes. A unique and fortuitous discovery inspired Broyles’ new technique.

In 1975, researchers discovered that certain people in Saudi Arabia had both gene mutations required for sickle cell anemia, but this population was perfectly normal. When these people were examined, researchers noticed they were still producing fetal red blood cells, the result of a second mutation in their red blood cells. Typically, as the body develops, fetal red blood cells diminish almost entirely. These people were walking around with their bloodstreams holding 35 to 45 percent of these, yet no sickle cell anemia.

It was obvious that with that many fetal red blood cells in the body, sickle cell anemia wouldn’t develop.

“That was a gold mine for scientists. We knew then that we might be able to cure sickle cell anemia without having to change its two genes. Instead, we started looking at ways to turn the genes responsible for (increased fetal blood cells) on and off and mimic nature. It turned out to be very hard to do,” he says.

Broyles and his partners are completely confident about their work, but they’re also quick to note that it will be some time before it hits the market. They still have a few hoops to jump through. Current animal trials won’t be completed for a couple of years. At the same time, they’ll be filing with the FDA for permission to begin the first human trials. That, they guess, is probably five years away. They feel good about the likely results of the human trials and expect to have their cure available within ten years.

By the time it’s implemented, Broyles’ cure for sickle cell disease will have been 30 years in the making. Twenty years ago, he and his colleagues started chasing the cure with excitement. They never lost their enthusiasm for the project.

“A lot of native curiosity helped,” he says. “It started with wondering how these genes are turned on and off in a frog and went from there. The clinical performance helped drive it even more. It’s good to have a lot of patience. In the beginning we thought this work might be useful and now there’s a high likelihood it’ll be very useful. The momentum built as we made more and more discoveries.”


China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported late Saturday that a Chinese ship that is part of the multinational search effort detected a "pulse" signal in southern Indian Ocean waters. The report said it was not determined whether the signal was related to the missing jet.

A black box detector deployed by the vessel, Haixun 01, picked up a signal at 37.5Hz per second at around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, Xinhua said.

The Australian government agency coordinating the search would not immediately comment on the report. After weeks of fruitless looking, officials face the daunting prospect that sound-emitting beacons in the flight and voice recorders will soon fall silent as their batteries die after sounding electronic "pings" for a month.

Malaysia vowed Saturday that it would not give up on trying to find the missing jetliner and announced details of a multinational investigation team to solve the aviation mystery, as the search for the plane entered its fifth week.

At the media briefing, Hishammuddin announced that an independent investigator would be appointed and three main areas of inquiry would be pursued. One team will look at airworthiness, including maintenance, structures and systems; another will examine operations, such as flight recorders and meteorology; and a third will consider medical and human factors.

The overall investigation team will include officials and experts from Australia — which as the nearest country to the search zone is currently heading the hunt, with other nations' help — as well as China, the United States, Britain and France, Hishammuddin said.


It's all too tempting to hit the snooze button when the alarm goes off in the morning. Don't do it: You might think the extra few minutes will give you time to wake up, but it does more harm than good. This video explains why.

The folks at ASAP Science explain that while you might think that hitting snooze will give you a chance to finish your natural sleep cycle and wake up feeling rested, that's not what happens. After you hit snooze and drift off, your brain starts its sleep cycle all over again. When the alarm goes off a second time, you're likely at an even deeper, earlier part of your sleep cycle, which results in you feeling even worse than you did the first time.

If you regularly wake up feeling groggy, they explain the trouble may be that your alarm is going off at the wrong part of your sleep cycle. Try setting your alarm a few minutes later (or getting up a little earlier) and sticking to a regular sleep schedule to get a nice rhythm going. For more tips, check out our guide to getting a better night's sleep and rebooting your sleep schedule.

Should You Use the SNOOZE Button? | ASAP Science (YouTube)


• RNA-Seq;
  • meiocyte;
  • Arabidopsis;
  • transposons;
  • conserved genes

Meiosis is essential for eukaryotic sexual reproduction, with two consecutive rounds of nuclear divisions, allowing production of haploid gametes. Information regarding the meiotic transcriptome should provide valuable clues about global expression patterns and detailed gene activities. Here we used RNA sequencing to explore the transcriptome of a single plant cell type, the Arabidopsis male meiocyte, detecting the expression of approximately 20 000 genes. Transcription of introns of >400 genes was observed, suggesting previously unannotated exons. More than 800 genes may be preferentially expressed in meiocytes, including known meiotic genes. Of the 3378 Pfam gene families in the Arabidopsis genome, 3265 matched meiocyte-expressed genes, and 18 gene families were over-represented in male meiocytes, including transcription factor and other regulatory gene families. Expression was detected for many genes thought to encode meiosis-related proteins, including MutS homologs (MSHs), kinesins and ATPases. We identified more than 1000 orthologous gene clusters that are also expressed in meiotic cells of mouse and fission yeast, including 503 single-copy genes across the three organisms, with a greater number of gene clusters shared between Arabidopsis and mouse than either share with yeast. Interestingly, approximately 5% transposable element genes were apparently transcribed in male meiocytes, with a positive correlation to the transcription of neighboring genes. In summary, our RNA-Seq transcriptome data provide an overview of gene expression in male meiocytes and invaluable information for future functional studies.


Dr Johnson listening to heart

Early detection is key to preventing aortic emergencies.

Much of the work within the Center for Aortic Disease is focused on preventive care and early detection, as well as management of patients with known aortic conditions. With the increased use of CT scans, more aortic disease is found now than in the past. If it is detected early, most aortic conditions are treatable.

Hypertension is one of the leading causes of aortic conditions. Roughly 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. has hypertension, according to the CDC. Watch Dr. Wallace Johnson, medical director of the Center for Aortic Disease, as he discusses the effects of hypertension on aortic conditions.

Patients are encouraged to get regular blood pressure screenings at their doctor's office and invest in a digital blood pressure cuff to be used at home. Having more information is helpful in talking with physicians and determining patterns and causes of high blood pressure.

Physicians can help patients determine whether their hypertension is primary or secondary, meaning it is caused by an underlying condition like kidney disease. Secondary hypertension has a higher risk of emergent events.

Patients can help their doctors collect valuable information by following these recommendations for at-home blood pressure testing:

  1. Check the blood pressure in both arms around the bicep, not the wrist.
  2. Take a blood pressure reading three times a day:
    • First thing in the morning before getting out of bed and taking medications. This reading tells doctors what the blood pressure is when medication levels are at lowest in the body.
    • Take a second blood pressure reading after work in the evening.
    • Take a third reading right before bed.

If a patient is diagnosed with high blood pressure and aortic disease, doctors may recommend lifestyle changes. These changes may include low sodium diets, lower levels of physical exertion, and stress reduction.

A patient's medical history is extremely important in helping doctors diagnose aortic conditions. In addition to sharing any symptoms like chest pain, weakness or numbness, fainting, patients should disclose thri family medical history to identify any possible genetic conditions.

Additional testing may be required to assist in the diagnosis, including:

To schedule an appointment at the Center for Aortic Disease, please call 410-328-4771.

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NY Post's Epic Fail on Stop and Frisk

The paper's attempt to link a rise in gun violence to the ban on the tactic is horribly flawed.

(Continued from Page 1)

The New York Post continues the article by railing against the judge who repealed stop and frisk, using more appeals to emotions (perps aren't scared anymore, and police are more fearful of lawsuits than of gun-toting perps so they are not attempting stop and frisk anymore), which leads me to my conclusions about this piece by a couple of "journalists" using very bad logic in the stop-and-frisk debate. The article, with its catchy and sensational headline, does nothing to elevate or ratify stop-and-frisk proponents' side of the argument and does more of a disservice to the important debate about the societal impacts of stop and frisk. In the final analysis of the New York Post's piece and its flawed assertions, all I could do was sigh and say, "So what?"

Janks Morton is a groundbreaking, award-winning filmmaker, author, activist and researcher. You can follow him at Twitter and Facebook or check out his website, www.whatblackmenthink.com.

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Three's company: Wall Street, Capitol Hill, and K Street

Deniz Igan, Prachi Mishra 11 August 2011

At the end of 2007as markets grappled with early stages of what would become the worst financial crisis in the post-WWII era and a severe recession seized the US economythe Wall Street Journal reported that two of the largest mortgage lenders in the US spent millions of dollars in political donations, campaign contributions, and lobbying activities from 2002 through 2006 (Simpson 2007).

Ameriquest Mortgage and Countrywide Financial fought anti-predatory lending legislation in Georgia and New Jersey and fended off similar laws in other states and at the federal level, according to the newspaper.

In other words, the financial industry fought, and defeated, measures that might have allowed for a timely regulatory response to some of the reckless lending practices and the consequent rise in delinquencies and foreclosures that most think played a pivotal role in igniting the crisis. In 2009 the Centre for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, Washington-based investigative reporting organisation, linked subprime originatorsmost of whom are now bankruptto lobbying efforts to prevent tighter regulation of the mortgage market (Centre for Public Integrity 2009).

In fact, banks continued to lobby intensively against tighter regulation and financial regulatory reform even as the industry struggled financially and suffered from negative publicity regarding its role in the economic crisis (Labaton 2009).

As these anecdotes suggest, regulatory failure, in which the political influence of the financial industry played a part, may have contributed to the 2007 meltdown in the US mortgage market, which, by the fall of 2008, had escalated from a localised US crisis to become the worst spell of global financial instability since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

New research on contributions and regulation

To go beyond anecdotes and systematically study how much lobbying and campaign contributions affected US financial legislation in the years preceding the crisis, we develop a new dataset on the politically-targeted activities of US financial companies from 1999 to 2006 (Igan and Mishra forthcoming). We find that:

  • Lobbying expenditures by the US financial industry were directly associated with how legislators voted on key bills in the years before the crisis;
  • Bills advocating regulations the industry considered unfavourable were far less likely to pass than were industry-supported bills promoting financial deregulation.

We focus on the US—not because lobbying does not exist in other nations—but because US transparency laws provide the level of detail on political spending and lobbying needed to do such an analysis.

Lobbying and legislation: Background

The role regulations and other government activity play in financial crises is not a new issue. From a theoretical point of view, government actions to regulate the financial sector are well-justified to respond to market failures that may stem from moral hazard, asymmetric information, and systemic risk (Goodhart et al 1998). Yet in practice, many argue, these government actions contribute to, rather than mitigate, financial instability episodes. That is because politics and political pressures often interfere with the process of designing and implementing specific regulations, leading to unintended results (Johnson 2009, Calomiris 2009). In other words, private agents can alter the course of government action and manipulate the policymakers to obtain unjustified profits and tailor the financial regulatory landscape to fit their own needs.

But studying these outside pressureswithin a formal framework using a broad sample of financial crisesis often constrained by the lack of detailed information on the political activities of the financial sector. As a result there has been little formal study of the relationship between the political economy and the alleged regulatory failures that may have contributed to financial crises. The recent global financial crisis presents a good opportunity to get a closer look into the issue because such detailed information can be obtained for the US, the epicentre of the crisis this time.

In our recent study, we look at the association between lobbying activities and risk taking by financial institutions in the run-up to the crisis. We find that lenders that undertook a heavy lobbying effort between 2000 and 2006 tended to engage more than other institutions in risky lending practices over the same period and suffered from worse outcomes during the crisis.

In a 2010 study, Mian et al (2010a) focus on the Congressional voting behaviour on two key pieces of legislation that shaped the regulatory response after the crisis. They also studied six bills before the crisis and found that aggregate campaign contributions from the financial industry play a significant role in explaining the voting patterns on these bills (Mian et al 2010b).

Lobbying and legislation: Evidence from a novel dataset

We compile a comprehensive dataset on the politically-targeted activities of financial companies during 2000-06. Specifically, we ask the following question: Did lobbying activity by the finance, insurance, and real estate industries have a direct impact on the voting behaviour of politicians, and hence, the passage of bills on financial regulation? In other words, did the politically-targeted activities of these industries help them obtain the desired outcome on the proposed bills, and hence, bring about the alleged regulatory failure? In addition, did politicians’ connections with the financial industry, which we dub Wall Street, and lobbyists, which we call K Street (where many lobbyists have offices), alter their voting behaviour?

We collect the following pieces of information:

  • Firm-level data on the lobbying expenditures, targeted toward specific bills and particular government entities (such as the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development).
  • Detailed information on 51 bills related to financial regulation, including whether they were passed by the House, the Senate, or both, whether they were enacted into law, and whether the targeted legislators voted in favour or against.
  • Information on professional backgrounds of legislators and lobbyists, to pin down their network connections established through, among other things, employment histories and schools attended.

First we examine whether the probability that a bill is ultimately signed into law depends on how favourable or unfavourable it is to the financial industry. We study the bills in detail, and classify each bill as “lax” or promoting deregulation, or “tight” or being less favourable to the financial industry. During 2000-06 a bill advocating regulations and rules less favourable to the financial industry was 3 times less likely to be enacted than a bill promoting deregulation (Figure 1). Importantly, two key pieces of legislation that promoted lax lending in mortgage marketsthe American Homeownership and Economic Opportunity Act of 2000, and American Dream Downpayment Act of 2003were signed into law during the period.

Figure 1. Passage of bills

Next we explore whether the vote of an individual legislator on a particular bill is linked to the lobbying expenditures by firms affected by the bill and to the network connections he or she shares with the lobbyists and the financial industry. Three main findings emerge from the empirical analysis (Figure 2).

  • First, lobbying expenditures by the affected financial firms were significantly associated with how politicians voted on the key bills that were considered before the crisis. The more intense the lobbying was on a bill the more likely it was that a legislator politician would vote in favour of deregulation. Moreover, lobbying was more effective in moving votes towards deregulation if the politician was connected to the financial industry and if the politician was more conservative.
  • Second, network connections between politicians and lobbyists who worked on a specific bill also have an influence on the voting patterns. Whether a lobbyist worked for a legislator in the past strongly sways the legislator’s vote on that bill in favour of lax regulation.
  • Third, interestingly, the amount of money spent lobbying a legislator who already has strong connections to K Street does not seem to have much effect on the likelihood that the politician will vote in favour of deregulation. That is, spending an extra dollar on lobbying is less effective if the lobbyist is already connected to the politician. This suggests that, in the marginal sense, spending more on lobbying does not provide much help to firms that have hired connected lobbyists.

Figure 2. Increase in probability of vote favourable to financial industry position, %, 2000-2006

Policy lessons

These findings support the notion that lobbying and network connections played an important role in shaping the financial regulatory landscape. Therefore, financial reform proposals should not be considered in isolation from these political factors. The precise policy response would depend on the true motivation for lobbying.

Economic theory suggests that lobbying could be driven by rent-seeking motives or a desire to reveal information. But, based on our findings, it is hard to distinguish what exactly drove lobbying by the financial industry. Specialised rent-seeking, eg in order to receive preferential treatment would require curtailing lobbying as a socially non-optimal outcome. If, however, lenders lobbied mainly to inform the policymaker and promote innovation, lobbying would remain a socially beneficial channel to facilitate informed decision making.

Calomiris, Charles (2009), “The Subprime Turmoil: What’s Old, What’s New, and What’s Next”, Journal of Structured Finance, 15(1):6-52.

Centre for Public Integrity (2009), “Who’s Behind the Financial Meltdown?”.

Goodhart, Charles, Philipp Hartmann, David Llewellyn, Liliana Rojas-Suarez, and Steven Weisbrod (1998), “Financial Regulation: Why, How, and Where Now?”, Routledge.

Igan, Deniz, Prachi Mishra, and Thierry Tressel (forthcoming), “A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis”, NBER Macroeconomics Annual (Cambridge, Massachusetts: National Bureau of Economic Research).

Igan, Deniz, and Prachi Mishra (forthcoming), “Three’s Company: Wall Street, Capitol Hill and K Street”, IMF working paper.

Johnson, Simon (2009), “The Quiet Coup”, The Atlantic, May.

Labaton, Stephen (2009), “Ailing, Banks Still Field Strong Lobby at Capitol”, The New York Times, 4 June.

Mian, Atif, Amir Sufi, and Francesco Trebbi (2010a), “The Political Economy of the US Mortgage Default Crisis”, The American Economic Review, 100(5):196-198.

Mian, Atif, Amir Sufi, and Francesco Trebbi (2010b), “The Political Economy of the Subprime Mortgage Credit Expansion”, NBER Working Paper 16107.

Simpson, Glenn (2007), “Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess”, The Wall Street Journal, 31 December.

Topics:  Global crisis Politics and economics

Tags:  US, Corruption, subprime crisis, financial regulation, lobbying, global crisis

Deniz Igan

Economist, Macro-Financial Linkages Unit, Research Department, IMF

Prachi Mishra

Senior Economist in the Research Department at the IMF


The bolts are from an old farm in the heart of a the area Bergsladen in Sweden. I found them in a barn. They had been lying there for a long time and they might well have continued to lie there until they had rusted away and returned to their original mineral form.

The bolts reminded me of human forms, and I felt they had something to tell. I heated them, forged, bent and twisted. I tried to create relations, meetings and situations and suddenly stories emerged about sorrow, joy, pain, warmth and humour. A kind of poetry was created, hence the title.

All sculptures are without title, it is up to the viewer to create his or her own. The bolt people are few in numbers, and maybe these are the last ones, but those that exist will remain to tell their stories.

Tobbe Malm: behance / website / facebook
Via: thisiscolossal.com


What was the first question asked that still exists on Stack Overflow?

I am just curious.

stackoverflow.com/questions/1/…, but you cannot see it with < 10k reputation. –  Martijn Pieters Jul 20 '14 at 17:54
That makes When setting a form's opacity should I use a decimal or double? the first still visible question. –  Martijn Pieters Jul 20 '14 at 17:55
meta dup: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3991/… –  Matt Johnson Jul 20 '14 at 17:58
Tut. I was expecting it'd be a question by Jon Skeet, posted before StackOverflow was created, and of course answered by himself –  Luis Mendo Jul 21 '14 at 13:46
@LuisMendo True. You are referring to stackoverflow.com/questions/-1 . That question existed before SO was created, but it is only visible to Jon Skeet. –  GolezTrol Jul 21 '14 at 13:57
Was the site sponsored financially when developing it in the beginning to get the first questions and answers out? –  lpapp Jul 21 '14 at 17:13
@Tut Jon Skeet existed before the universe was created. –  javadba Jul 23 '14 at 0:06
@javadba: Then Jon Skeet is the new chuck norris –  v.oddou Jul 23 '14 at 2:05
"This is the closed beta - NO DATA FOR YOU!" -- huh, I guess the Soup Nazis were there from Day 1. –  Jason S Jul 10 at 1:24

1 Answer 1

up vote 112 down vote accepted

Since all posts are numbered sequentially, you just go to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1; that post was a test question and has been deleted. It had 2 answers (post ids #2 and #3) so the first one still visible is:

which is post #4 on the site.

A screenshot of the now-deleted first post:

enter image description here

See What was "the Joel Data"? as to what that post was about.

The post was deleted shortly after being created; Jarred Dixon asked it, Jeff Atwood didn't 'approve' and removed it again. Question #4 was created by a test account, posts #6, #8, #9, #11, #13, #16 and #17 are all 'seed' content created by Jeff Atwood, Geoff Dalgas and Kevin Dente, with another question #14 being a seed question using a test account; these were posted before the first outside beta testers were given access.

So you could also say that What is the fastest way to get the value of π? is the very first, it is the first question that is not test or seed content.

Wow that question (#4) is a mess. –  kapa Jul 21 '14 at 13:24
FYI #4 also seem to be a test question. The original OP description: stackoverflow.com/users/8/eggs-mclaren –  AaronLS Jul 21 '14 at 14:57
@AaronLS: before August 1st there were only the developers and maybe 2 outside users registered, next to test accounts. With the public beta starting on August 1st, anything posted before that are either tests or seed content. The first 'outside' question is number 19, I'd say. –  Martijn Pieters Jul 21 '14 at 15:20
Is there no snapshot of when it wasn't deleted? –  0x499602D2 Jul 21 '14 at 19:20
@0x499602D2: probably not, as it was deleted within hours of posting. –  Martijn Pieters Jul 21 '14 at 19:21
"Last Edited 12 hours ago" (post #4) –  justcool393 Jul 22 '14 at 1:02
@justcool393: a rollback on a useless edit made in January. The post is community wiki. –  Martijn Pieters Jul 22 '14 at 7:19
winforms!! heh ... –  Joe Blow Jul 22 '14 at 14:22
@MartijnPieters: I realized that you are correct. So as not to confuse future historians, I deleted my erroneous comment. Or maybe that will confuse future historians. –  fearless_fool Jul 23 '14 at 5:23
Yes you have @fearless_fool, yes you have... –  WebWanderer Jul 23 '14 at 17:35

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Michael Reagan

This week I was saddened to learn that conservative stronghold Robert Novak was lost to his long battle with brain cancer. While his life was long and full, his loss will be keenly felt.

Bob was one of the old guard who defied easy description and refused to let anyone, Republican or Democrat, settle too quickly. Bob never let political leaders get away with the easy route, even when he was their ideological match. He admired toughness and strength, because that was what he himself exhibited.

Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin FREE

Bob was born in Illinois and began his journalistic career early, before even graduating high school. Then, still a young man, he served his country as a lieutenant in the Army during the Korean War. He found his calling, though, in serving the country through his writing, and over the past several decades became a versatile commentator and the writer of the longest-running syndicated column.

During my father's era, his column, co-written with Rowland Evans, was known as the "bulletin board of the Reagan administration," not because he was a Reagan apologist, but because he had the connections and the determination to keep the stories coming. Love him or hate him (and there were plenty of people on both sides), you can be sure that no one could avoid him.

And he did more than just report. Before and through my father's run for the presidency, Novak spearheaded a major push for fundamental tax reform, one which grew into a legacy. In the time of the highest taxes this country has seen, he fought for ideas and solutions, not just the status quo.

Bob was a mentor in his field and an inspiration beyond. His column not only served to provide honest, provocative commentary from a conservative perspective, but in it he also demonstrated his formidable investigative skills. Novak conducted his investigations with diligence and care, working to avoid the increasing pressure for speed over accuracy, one aspect of his integrity which will be missed by this entire community.

CNN put him on the air in their first week, and for years he co-hosted "Crossfire," sparring with all his considerable insight and determination. His deep understanding of all things "Washington" allowed him to shine a light on these workings and put them on display before the American people with his unique skill.

Michael Reagan


During preparation for a presentation on agile and agile implementation, I started to think about what to do when you cannot implement a full agile system up front. I decided I would go for retrospectives, simply because they represent the core idea of agile: to improve the way we work. Therefore, retrospectives will drive the process in the right direction, even without Scrum, kanban, Extreme Programming, or any other fancy agile process.

Improvement requires that you know what to change, and retrospectives can help you identify just that. When you know what to change and why you want to change it, you can look into Scrum, kanban, or lean and get inspired by the practices in order to find something you can experiment with for a while.

In order to get retrospectives to work, you must do them properly and regularly. You and the group you work with should identify one or two problems with the way you work. You all have to agree about why these problems are important to solve. The next step is to choose one of the problems and define a hypothetical solution. The solution is hypothetical because you do not know if it is the right solution. You have to define how to identify that it actually solves the problem, i.e., how you will measure that the change you introduced works and removes or at least relieves the problem.

Retrospectives should be performed at regular time intervals of at least every four weeks. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, it means you must keep the changes small. If the change seems big, break it down. A consequence may be that you are not able to fully solve the problem, but it is far better to make a small change and solve some part of the problem than to try to make a big change and fail. Secondly, it allows for agility in how you change your processes. When you change in one direction, new problems may arise, and you can take them up in due time. If the time span between retrospectives becomes too long it, is my experience that the effectiveness of the retrospectives decreases. I believe the main reason is the lack of focus on the improvements, which causes team members to return to previous bad practices and habits.

The single largest risk in performing retrospectives is that you could identify the problem and describe the hypothetical solution and related measurements, then just go back to your daily work without any of the changes being implemented, and the solution slowly disappears in the mist of daily tasks. To avoid this, you need two things: a solution champion and a visual representation of the measurements.

The solution champion is someone who takes ownership of implementing the hypothetical solution and following up on it. Consequently, the solution champion cannot do as much "normal" work because he or she now has this important improvement task. This may sound obvious, but in my experience, this is the main reason for not following through on improvements—no one actually was assigned the responsibility or time allocation to do it. A visual representation of the measurements is needed to provide clear feedback to all involved on the progress of the hypothetical solution. This enables people to act or comment on the progress.

The benefit of starting an agile or lean transformation simply with retrospectives is that the transformation will focus on the right problems, and you can avoid introducing new ones. If you implement a whole agile process framework (e.g., Scrum), the retrospectives often end up focusing solely on the newly introduced process and not the underlying problems. By starting with retrospectives, the practices you introduce are chosen because they solve a problem you all have agreed upon, not just because they are part of a process framework. This makes the practices more relevant, and the mere fact that you are trying the practices as a solution to a specific problem may make it easier to introduce the process and get working.

User Comments

1 comment
Ben Linders's picture

I agree that retrospectives are an important practice in agile as they help you to change and adopt better ways of working. Investing an hour every 1-2 weeks will certainly pay back by improving team work and morale, making it possible for teams to better satisfy the needs of their customers.

There are several benefits for doing agile retrospectives. They help teams to come up with improvement actions that can do themselves, give power to the team by supporting them to self-organize and find better ways of working and enable teams to make changes that stick in the organization, leading to sustainable improvement.

Thanks for mentioning our book on Valuable Agile Retrospectives Sune, glad you like it!

August 29, 2014 - 4:09am

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Lower-cost high-brightness LEDs possible with ‘wonder material’ perovskite

August 11, 2014

LEDs made from perovskite (credit: Zhi-Kuang Tan)

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich have demonstrated a new hybrid form of perovskite* materials, using them to make high-brightness LEDs that the researchers say will be cheaper and easier to manufacture in the future.

The materials could also be used in flexible color displays.

The results are published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The perovskite LEDs are made using a simple scalable process in which a perovskite solution is prepared and spin-coated onto the substrate. The process does not require high temperature heating steps, a high vacuum, and complex purification procedures, so LEDs will be cheap to manufacture on a large scale, according to Tan.

The first commercially-available LEDs based on perovskite could be available within five years, the researchers say.

Abstract of Nature Nanotechnology paper

Solid-state light-emitting devices based on direct-bandgap semiconductors have, over the past two decades, been utilized as energy-efficient sources of lighting. However, fabrication of these devices typically relies on expensive high-temperature and high-vacuum processes, rendering them uneconomical for use in large-area displays. Here, we report high-brightness light-emitting diodes based on solution-processed organometal halide perovskites. We demonstrate electroluminescence in the near-infrared, green and red by tuning the halide compositions in the perovskite. In our infrared device, a thin 15 nm layer of CH3NH3PbI3–xClx perovskite emitter is sandwiched between larger-bandgap titanium dioxide (TiO2) and poly(9,9′-dioctylfluorene) (F8) layers, effectively confining electrons and holes in the perovskite layer for radiative recombination. We report an infrared radiance of 13.2 W sr−1 m−2 at a current density of 363 mA cm−2, with highest external and internal quantum efficiencies of 0.76% and 3.4%, respectively. In our green light-emitting device with an ITO/PEDOT:PSS/CH3NH3PbBr3/F8/Ca/Ag structure, we achieved a luminance of 364 cd m−2 at a current density of 123 mA cm−2, giving external and internal quantum efficiencies of 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively. We show, using photoluminescence studies, that radiative bimolecular recombination is dominant at higher excitation densities. Hence, the quantum efficiencies of the perovskite light-emitting diodes increase at higher current densities. This demonstration of effective perovskite electroluminescence offers scope for developing this unique class of materials into efficient and colour-tunable light emitters for low-cost display, lighting and optical communication applications.

“Perovskite” is a general term used to describe a group of materials that have a distinctive crystal structure of cuboid and diamond shapes. Their efficiency at converting light into electrical energy has opened up a wide range of potential applications. The perovskites that were used to make the LEDs are known as organometal halide perovskites, and contain a mixture of lead, carbon-based ions, and halogen ions known as halides. These materials dissolve well in common solvents, and assemble to form perovskite crystals when dried, making them cheap and simple to make.


The attacks took place in the Parana River in Rosario some 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Buenos Aires. Seventy people who were cooling off from high temperatures were also injured there in late December by the same piranha-like fish. They included seven children who lost parts of their fingers or toes.

The latest attack by the "palometas" was confirmed Saturday. They've been described by the local director of lifeguards as "a type of piranha, big, voracious and with sharp teeth that can really bite."


Quasar Unveils Innovative Sensors for Detecting Subsea Oil and Gas Deposits

In its quest to discover new offshore oil and gas deposits, the petroleum industry has achieved some extraordinary technology innovations. Seismic surveys, which collect data about subsea rock formations by bouncing sound waves off the ocean bottom, have become increasingly sophisticated. With advances in sensors, software algorithms, and high-performance computer processing, such surveys have enabled offshore exploration companies to identify oil fields in ever-deeper waters.

Nevertheless, conducting such a survey and drilling an exploratory well in deep water (defined as more than 1,000 feet) to prove the existence of an oil field can cost as much as $200 million, according to George Eiskamp, CEO of San Diego’s Quasar Geophysical Technologies. For all its technological prowess, the industry’s success rate ranges from just 10 percent to 40 percent.

As a result, Eiskamp anticipates widespread interest in advances that Quasar has made recently in a different type of sensing technology. The company’s innovation is intended both to supplement seismic surveys and to improve the overall chances for a successful oilfield strike.

Quasar's ocean-bottom sensors

Quasar’s technology relies on advanced electromagnetic sensors that are sensitive enough to detect seemingly infinitesimal electrical currents flowing through subsea rock—and variations in the conductivity among different types of geological formations. Eiskamp explains that rock permeated with saltwater is conductive, but oil-bearing rock is not—and Quasar’s technology is sensitive enough to tell the difference. In recent months, Quasar has conducted field tests of its technology off the San Diego coast and elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

Eiskamp says Quasar’s innovations have succeeded in increasing the sensor’s signal-to-noise ratio, which has enhanced its sensitivity. As a result, the company can install its electronics in a relatively compact container that weighs about 330 pounds and is about 36 inches tall and 36 inches in diameter. The electromagnetic sensors are designed to be deployed on the ocean bottom, as deep as 2.5 miles below the surface, for weeks at a time.

Amazingly, the electromagnetic currents that Quasar’s technology is detecting in deep-ocean bedrock originate in the Earth’s uppermost atmosphere. Using a technique known as “marine magnetotellurics,” Quasar’s sensors are tuned to extremely low-frequency currents in subsea rock that are generated by solar wind striking the ionosphere, a region of the atmosphere that extends from 34 to 190 miles above sea level. Quasar also uses another technique known …Next Page


iOS Developer Library

iOS Human Interface Guidelines

Beautiful, subtle animation pervades the iOS UI and makes the app experience more engaging and dynamic. Appropriate animation can:

  • Communicate status and provide feedback

  • Enhance the sense of direct manipulation

  • Help people visualize the results of their actions

Add animation cautiously, especially in apps that don’t provide an immersive experience. Animation that seems excessive or gratuitous can obstruct app flow, decrease performance, and distract users from their task.

In particular, use motion effects and UIKit dynamic behaviors with purpose and restraint, and be sure to test the results. Used appropriately, these effects can increase users’ understanding and enjoyment; overusing them can make an app seem disorienting and difficult to control.

When appropriate, make custom animation consistent with built-in animation. People are accustomed to the subtle animation used in the built-in iOS apps. In fact, people tend to regard the smooth transitions between views, the fluid response to changes in device orientation, and the physics-based scrolling as an expected part of the iOS experience. Unless you’re creating an app that enables an immersive experience—such as a game—custom animation should be comparable to the built-in animations.

Use animation consistently throughout your app. As with other types of customization, it’s important to use custom animation consistently so that users can build on the experience they gain as they use your app.

In general, strive for realism and credibility in custom animation. People tend to be willing to accept artistic license in appearance, but they can feel disoriented when they experience movement that doesn’t make sense or appears to defy physical laws. For example, if you reveal a view by sliding it down from the top of the screen, you should dismiss it by sliding it back up because doing so helps users remember where the view comes from. If you dismiss the same view by sliding it down beyond the bottom of the screen, you break the user’s mental model of a view that’s available above the top of the screen.


what went wrong blog

Rags to rags: Economic mobility hard to come by

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

Are you better off than your parents? You might not think so, but new data from the Pew Center on the States suggests that for most people, the answer is yes. But the report also shows if your parents were poor, you are likely to be poor, as well, and if they were well off, so are you.

In other words, it is both hard to climb the economic ladder, and to fall off it. The findings somewhat call into question the historical Horatio Alger rags-to-riches American mythology.

“The data showed that parental background had a strong input on where people end up,” said Erin Currier, manager of the Pew Center's Economic Mobility project.

Data collected from 1968-2009 compared economic situations of one generation to the next at similar ages, based on quintiles of income and wealth. A majority of Americans, 84 percent, were able to achieve higher incomes than their parents, regardless of where they started. An even greater proportion of those born the poorest, 93 percent, were able to surpass their parent’s income as adults.

But increases in income are the result of “broad-based economic growth” Currier said, and thus there remains a “stickiness at the ends” as opposed to movement from one income quintile to the next. Of those born to families with the lowest incomes, 70 percent never saw the middle class. The same was true for nearly two-thirds of those born to families with the highest incomes.

“Their income gains simply aren’t as large as the income gains of their peers, prohibiting them from moving up the rungs,” Currier said.

While income inequality has dominated the headlines, the accumulation of generational wealth provides a more nuanced picture of American economic mobility. While half of Americans are able to do better than their parents in family wealth, their positions remain mostly static. A sizable majority, two-thirds, of those raised in the top two rungs of the wealth ladder maintained their place while the same percentage stayed in two bottom rungs.

Even more troubling, wealth actually declined from one generation to the next for all but the most wealthy to start, with the least wealthy bearing the brunt of decline. The data reported a staggering 63 percent drop in wealth from one generation to the next for those children born into families who had the least.

Monday’s report from Pew is the first including post-Recession data. The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, released last month, revealed a 39 percent drop in family wealth between 2007 and 2010, reducing median household net worth to the same point as 1992. For most Americans, home equity, devastated by the housing bust, served as a primary source of wealth—even more so the lower down the wealth ladder.

“The less wealth you had going into the Great Recession the greater your wealth loss in the end,” said Reid Cramer, director of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation. The program advocates for policies that help to increase economic security through asset ownership, including savings. Pew data showed children born to low-income parents who had higher savings were more likely to see upward mobility later in life. A college degree was also a key driver of upward mobility, making movement from the bottom to the top 4 times as likely.

But there are those who are still trying to create their own American Dream. Two-thirds of blacks raised in the middle actually fell below it as adults, compared to only a third of whites. Neighborhood poverty was a key indicator of downward mobility, according to Pew. Well over half of blacks were in the bottom quintiles of both income and wealth. Census data shows a significant widening of the persistent racial wealth gap. In 2010, median white household net worth was 22 times higher than that of their black counterparts, up from 12 times in 2005.

“When we took away legal discrimination it opened room for some families to move up. We still had a very large problem with people born in the lower rungs,” Cramer said.

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A review of Aesthetics and Nature by Glenn Parsons. Here are sample chapters from The Princeton Guide to Ecology. A review of Terra: Tales of the Earth — Four Events that Changed the World by Richard Hamblyn. A review of Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology by Mark Barrow (and an excerpt). With climate change and population growth threatening the viability of traditional farming, the time is right for the world to build the first vertical farm in an urban center. How are urbanization and other human influences affecting the biodiversity and health of ecosystems? From TNR, what happens when there's nowhere left for trash? Is greywater (the water that comes from bathtubs, showers, wash basins and clothes washers) use a boon or an environmental disaster? The age of breathing underwater: Environmentalists have long struggled to save Nature from humanity’s negligence; but how can we learn to thrive in the climate we’ve created? The answer begins beneath the sea. A review of Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King by Brad Matsen (and more). How green is your sushi? Natasha Loder takes a marine biologist to lunch to find out. Don’t blubber, it’s biology: Everyone should watch a whale being dissected — it teaches us about life. A look at how the loss of top predators is causing a surge in smaller predators and ecosystem collapse. For insight into fabulously complex ecological dynamics, Aaron Ellison peers into the cupped leaves of carnivorous pitcher plants. What ever happened to the Amazon Rain Forest — did we save it or what?


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Greeks and their Foolish Attack of Syracuse

The Athenian Empire came to an end when they were defeated by the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War, which lasted from 431-404 B.C. Below is a timeline of that war.

1st Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 431-421

Athens (under Pericles and then Nicias) successful until 424. Athens makes attacks the Peloponnese by sea and Sparta destroys areas in the countryside of Attica. Athens makes a disastrous expedition into Boeotia. They try to recover Amphipolis (422), unsuccessfully. Athens fears more of her allies would desert, so she signs a treaty (Peace of Nicias) that allows her to keep face, basically setting things back to how they were before the war except for Plataea and Thracian towns.

431 - Peloponnesian War begins. Siege of Potidaea.
430 - Plague in Athens.
429 - Pericles dies. Siege of Plataea.
428 - Revolt of Mitylene.
427 - Athenian Expedition to Sicily.
421 - Peace of Nicias.

2nd Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 421-413

Corinth forms coalitions against Athens. Alcibiades stirs up trouble and is exiled. Betrays Athens to Sparta. Both sides seek the alliance of Argos but in the Battle of Mantinea she loses most of her military and becomes an Athenian ally.

415-413 - Athenian expedition to Syracuse. Sicily.

3rd Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 413-404

Under the advice of Alcibiades, Sparta invades Attica. Athens continues to send ships and men to Sicily even though it is disastrous. Athens, which had started the war with the advantage in naval battle, loses this advantage to the Corinthians and Syracusans. Sparta then used Persian gold from Cyrus to build her fleet and destroys the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegosotami.

404 - Athens surrenders.

A major contributor to the Athenian defeat was its foolish attack on Sicily. This ill-fated enterprise cost the Athenians an army and a navy at a time they had their hands full battling the Spartans at home. The Athenian plan for Sicily showcased the extreme arrogance of the late empire – an empire that would crumble at the hands of the Spartans.

The Sicilian affair began in the spring of 415 when ambassadors of Athenian Sicilian allies came to Athens asking for help. Two cities in western Sicily, Segesta and Selinus, were in a dispute. Selinus won a battle between them and Segesta appealed to Syracuse for help. Not only was help not given, but Syracuse joined the side of Selinus. The Segestans appealed to Athens for there sense of honor and to protect Sicily against the designs of the Peloponnese (Syracuse was an ally of Corinth who was a member of the Peloponnesean Leagure). They also offered to fund the war.

After much debate in the Athenian Assembly, the decision was made to send a force to Sicily under the command of three generals: Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus. Nicias was reluctant to command the mission, while Alcibiades (nephew of Pericles) was young, charismatic, and all for battle. Lamachus was chosen because he could offer an experienced point of view that would, hopefully, keep the expedition on course.

Things started badly. Just after the army’s departure, Alcibiades was accused of plotting to deface statues of the god Hermes in Athens, and asked to return. Instead he fled to Sparta and joined the Peloponnesean side. Nicias, still reluctant, wasted the first campaign season deciding how to attack Syracuse. He contented himself with building a wall around the city. Then, at the beginning of 414 the Syracusans sent their own envoys to Sparta asking for help. Alcibiades urged the Spartans to defend Syracuse, but they used caution and only sent four ships with no infantry.

Assuming this small fleet was not a threat Nicias worked on his wall, while the Spartans secretly used their allies to increase their force to 3000 infantry and 200 cavalry. They arrived in Syracuse in late 414 and started to construct a wall to counter the wall being built by the Athenians. Lamachus, was killed in a skirmish trying to defend the Athenian wall.

Nicias, now the sole commander and ill with a kidney ailment, realized he would never be able to take the city. He asked to be relieved, but was sent reinforcements under the command of Demosthenes. Not wanting to wait for Nicias to be reinforced, the Spartan commander Gylippus attacked the Athenian fleet in Syracuse harbor and defeated them. Soon after, Demosthenes arrived with plans for an immediate attack, but his two land assaults were unsuccessful during the spring of 413.

By fall, after much argument among the commanders, Nicias decided to withdraw, but was held up by a lunar eclipse on September 13th, which frightened his soldiers. A soothsayer advised that he wait 27 days before withdrawing which gave the Syracusans enough time to attack and destroy the Athenian fleet in the great harbor. Now forced to withdraw by land the Athenians were attacked and defeated. Nicias and Demosthenes were executed. Much of the blame for this debacle rests on Nicias, who was unsure of his goal and overly cautious. He also was carefully guarding his reputation as a winner and unwilling to return home in defeat, fearing the consequences.

This is a classic case of the danger of distance in war (think Viet Nam). The Athenians risked their future on hubris, sending an army far away to a conflict removed from their current struggle. They reinforced a weak commander and wasted an army and navy two times. Thucydides, the great Greek historian, is highly critical of the Athenians for their arrogance during this period. It is hard to get beneath his bias, however, to determine whether the Athenians were as foolish as he makes them out to be. One thing that is beyond dispute – the expedition to Sicily helped produce a Spartan victory in the Peloponnesean War.

The timeline shown came from about.com/ancient history.

1 comment:

monkeyface said...

Thanks for the summary. Didn't realize it was so long, that war. It wasn't The Demosthenes was it?


Reading Questions for Charles Dickens' Great Expectations
3. If Pip had not received his "great expectations" and never left Joe's forge, how do you think his life would have been different? Are the lessons he learns during his physical and emotional journey necessary for him to arrive at the wisdom he displays as the middle-aged narrator of this tale? In what ways?

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Africa - African Recipes

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Artichoke Salad
Bulgar Salad
Cucumber With Fish
Plantain Fritters
Beef Pastry
Beef Stew
Beef With Peppers
Anise Bread
Ethiopian Pancakes
Braised Chicken
Chicken Yassa
Madagascar Chicken
Rwandan Chicken
Buttermilk Pudding
Milk Tart

Friday, August 28th 2015

African cuisine has played a large influence both directly and indirectly among many countries throughout the world. The Mediterranean rim countries of Northern Africa have spread their influence with such foods as couscous and succulent lamb dishes. Curry and rice dishes that were brought to Africa long ago from India and Arabic countries were further spread to the Americas during colonial times.

Each country and region throughout Africa have distinct styles of cuisines that are largely based on long historical traditions. Fresh fruits and vegetables, lamb, goat, rice, root vegetables, chile peppers, and a huge amount of spices are quite common in most parts.

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Extension Point

Targets can add themselves to an extension-points's depends list via their extensionOf attribute. The targets that add themselves will be added after the targets of the explicit depends-attribute of the extension-point, if multiple targets add themselves, their relative order is not defined.

For example your imported build file may need to compile code, it might look like:
<target name="create-directory-layout">
<extension-point name="ready-to-compile"
Call-Graph: create-directory-layout --> 'empty slot' --> compile

And you need to generate some source before compilation, then in your main build file you may use something like
<target name="generate-sources"
Call-Graph: create-directory-layout --> generate-sources --> compile

This will ensure that the generate-sources target is executed before the compile target.

Don't rely on the order of the depends list, if generate-sources depends on create-directory-layout then it must explicitly depend on it via its own depends attribute.


Bleerie quickly goes for the door Gale talked about. She looks extremely fast for a gnome in full plate, moving just about as quickly as an unencumbered human. She wants to find someone, and she wants to find him or her quickly. As soon as she reaches the orc, she says "Greetings, fellow". All of this while looking around and trying to find any clues about the situation.

Double move while looking around. Taking 10 on any relevant check, for Spot and Listen it makes a 16 result.


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Gratitude Meditation

Gratitude meditation is one of the most powerful and rewarding exercises we can practice. To develop an attitude of gratitude creates contentment, true happiness and bliss. Gratitude makes us feel good and meditation helps us to a state of deep relaxation and contemplation.

Gratitude meditation can be incorporated together or you can spend a few minutes before you meditate doing some deep breathing relaxation techniques while you think of all the things you are grateful for in your life.

Breathing in through your mouth expands your chest, however when you breath in through your nose your abdomen extends causing the diaphragm to pull air to the bottom of your lungs which carries a healthy dose of oxygen into your bloodstream which will help you to become relaxed. Anthony Robbins teaches inhaling on a ratio of 1 holding for 4 and exhaling for 2. The ratio is the guide. So if you slowly inhale for example to the count of 4 you will hold your breath for the count of 16 and then exhale very slowly through your mouth to the count of 8. Repeat this exercise 10 times if you can. Simply find a number that you are comfortable with and build the ratio gradually.

When you are ready, lie down or sit in a chair suitable for meditation and close your eyes. Allow your muscles to relax, Let go of your thoughts and begin your breathing exercise. When you feel relaxed and comfortable think of everything you are grateful for in your life. I usually give thanks for my life and my healthy body, my family and friends. I give thanks for special moments like a hug from my little granddaughter. The trees, flowers, birds singing and the wonders of nature create gratitude in me. There is so much to be grateful for. And the more we are grateful for the more we receive.

Whether you choose to practice gratitude meditation or gratitude relaxation and breathing I’m sure you will enjoy either, and if you practice on a regular basis you will certainly achieve bliss and happiness.

“Throughout history wise men and women have encouraged us to feel grateful for what we have. Why? Very simply, because gratitude makes us feel good. When you’re feeling grateful, your mind is clear and therefore you have access to your greatest wisdom and common sense. You see the big picture.”  Richard Carlson.

By Jane Adams

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Illinois tornadoes

Death toll at six and climbing after at least 40 tornadoes rip through U.S. Midwest on a quiet Sunday

Across 12 states, powerful winds flattened entire neighbourhoods, flipped over cars and uprooted trees in a matter of minutes

Tornadoes, high winds sweep through Midwest causing extensive damage


The three possible outcomes for same-sex marriages.Christopher Groskopf/NPR

And there’s also the possibility of the court saying bans are constitutional, but that all states must all recognize marriages performed in other states. This option retains the messiness of the above possibility, but it does mean that couples would be recognized equally nationwide.

While you can break the decisions down into three neatly color-coded maps, there is a complicated web of state laws at work, and it means outcomes could vary widely by state if the court decides bans are constitutional. Adam Romero, senior counsel at UCLA’s Williams Institute, says the states where federal action struck down state bans are where things could get really complicated.

“In those 20 states it’s uncertain if the bans would go back into effect because there’s a couple of different things in play,” he says. “So in those 20 states including California, Utah, et cetera, the bans could be reinstated, but there would need to be legal maneuvers done to reinstate the bans.”

And it’s not clear that those legal maneuvers would happen in all of those states. He points to Utah as an example. The court case that struck down Utah’s ban has long been over. If the Supreme Court were to uphold bans, Romero explains, the defendants in that Utah case would have to go back and ask the court to undo its injunction if the state were to have another ban. That could easily happen, but it’s also not 100 percent certain to happen.

In addition, there are complicated legal questions that could come into play for couples in those 20 states if the court decides to uphold bans — if you were married when it was legal in Florida, and then the court decided to uphold the ban there, does that mean that any actions you took with your spouse (paying taxes, for example) were not in fact valid? Figuring this out in all of those states could be a mess, to say the least.

Related Story

450219508_3ae4168ebe_oHow Lawsuits Against Kentucky's Gay Marriage Ban Reached The U.S. Supreme Court

No matter what the court decides, it won’t change marriage across the country overnight. In that case of Utah Romero mentioned, as well as in many other states, putting a ban back into place could be a long process. Likewise, if the court finds that the bans are unconstitutional, same-sex couples in all states where there are currently bans, like Texas and Nebraska, can’t immediately run out and get married. That’s because this ruling technically will only extend to the four states where the cases the court is considering originated, Romero explains — Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Michigan. The ruling wouldn’t change things directly — or immediately — in other states.

“If the Supreme Court strikes down those states’ bans, that doesn’t immediately mean Georgia’s ban [for example] is ineffective,” he says. “There still needs to be court action to strike down Georgia’s ban, to apply the Supreme Court’s decision to Georgia. I would expect the federal courts to move quickly to do that. But all of that’s to say there’s going to be some delay.”

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit


Industry groups plan to work closely with government agencies to comply with new guidance and rules for use of antibiotics in livestock production. Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its guidance, which calls for more veterinary oversight and voluntary suspension of the use of antibiotics for growth promotion. FDA also has asked drug companies to remove growth-promotion label claims from antibiotics important in human medicine.

Wednesday, representatives from the American Veterinary Medical Association, National Pork Producers Council and the Animal Health Institute discussed the transition with reporters in a news conference.

Dr. Rich Carnevale, AHI’s Vice President, Regulatory, Scientific and International Affairs, reminded participants that antibiotics used in livestock production are subject to the same review and approval process as those used in human medicine, requiring extensive testing to prove efficacy and safety. FDA allows four different claims for efficacy:

  1. Treatment of disease.
  2. Control of disease, such as during outbreaks when groups of animals require treatment.
  3. Prevention of disease, such as when a veterinarian determines an outbreak is likely.
  4. Growth promotion.

FDA considers treatment, control and prevention as therapeutic uses, while growth promotion is a sub-therapeutic use. The new guidance allows continued therapeutic uses, under oversight from a veterinarian.

Speaking for the American Veterinary Medical Association, Dr. Christine Hoang, Assistant Director, Scientific Activities, for the association, said AVMA supports the collaborative approach FDA has taken in developing the new guidance. The organization understands concerns over resistance and preserving the efficacy of antibiotics in human medicine, while also wishing to protect their judicious use in livestock production. The organization plans to work closely with FDA in specifying veterinary oversight provisions in the guidance.

Dr. Liz Wagstrom, Chief Veterinarian, National Pork Producers Council, expressed concerns over how FDA’s directive to drug companies to remove sub-therapeutic or growth-enhancement claims from their products over the next three years. Loss of these label claims, she says, will likely result in more health problems in pork operations and higher cost of production without any real public-health benefits.

NPPC supports the idea of veterinary oversight for antibiotic use, but also raises concerns that the requirements could cause hardships for smaller operations in remote areas that cannot afford or do not have access to veterinary support.

AHI’s Dr. Carnevale said the association and its members appreciate FDA’s concerns over the use of medically important antimicrobial products for growth promotion. He points out that the animal-health companies that make up AHI’s membership typically are divisions of companies that also market antibiotics for human medicine, and thus have a strong interest in preserving the efficacy of those products. AHI supports FDA’s position that claims for treatment, control and prevention qualify as therapeutic use, preserving those applications for veterinarians and producers.

AHI expects that companies will, over the next few years, pursue new therapeutic claims for products that lose their growth-promotion claims. In countries where sub-therapeutic uses have been banned, such as in Denmark, therapeutic use of antibiotics have increased. This suggests sub-therapeutic use helps suppress and prevent disease outbreaks, along with promoting growth.

Gaining approval for new label claims will, however, require extensive investment in research trials and data collection. Growth promotion, Carnevale says, is a relatively easy claim to demonstrate in research trials. Proving the efficacy of low-level feed-additive antimicrobials for suppressing sub-clinical disease is more complex.

Achieving  any new label claim will require companies to undergo a complete testing and approval process through FDA, assuring a specific use is efficacious and safe. Assuming FDA grants a therapeutic label claim for a low-dose application, it is likely the approval would include changes in label requirements such as a specific treatment interval, contrasting with longer-term feeding for growth promotion.


Huffpost Politics

Mark Blumenthal Headshot

"Bounce" Update

Posted: Updated:

I spent much of yesterday in taxis, airports and planes, and most of the last 24 hours sleeping and reintroducing myself to my family after a five day absence. So my apologies for being away when many of your are curious about the "bounce" and reactions to Republican VP choice Sarah Palin.

Let's start with "the bounce." The Gallup Daily tracking survey conducted Wednesday through Friday shows Barack Obama leading John McCain by eight points (49% to 41%) up from the 45-45% tie measured the full week before the convention. The Rasmussen Reports automated survey conducted over the same three nights shows Obama with a four point lead (49% to 45%), after they had him "leading by just one or two points for most of August."

The most important question, tossed my way by my colleague Marc Ambinder, is whether this shift represents a momentary "spike" or a real and persistent change in voter preferences. And the short but frustrating answer is, there is simply no way to know for certain right now.

One problem is that we have a very limited sample of past convention "bounces" to examine -- a sample size of 10 elections and 20 conventions since 1968 -- and the patterns within that sample have been inconsistent. Some bounces persist, some fade almost immediately.

Another problem, which I explored in a column earlier in the week, is that almost all of the "bounces" of conventions past were measured by multi-day polls conducted a week after the convention without another convention underway. This time, the virtual overlap of the two conventions prevents us from obtaining post DNC "bounce" numbers that are comparable to past measurements. So my recommendation is to avoid historical comparisons.

Finally, consider a few reasons why conventions bounces are sometimes just momentary blips.

First, most pollsters will tell you that attitudes are likely "in flux" at times like these. Watching one side of an argument for an hour or more might leave an uncertain voter "leaning" in one direction for a few days only to shift back in the other direction after hearing from the other side a few days or weeks later.

Second, the kinds of people likely to have been at home the last few days may have been a bit different than those who were away (and thus not part of the survey). Partisan Democrats and Obama supporters may have made it a point to be at home n order to watch the convention. Also, those who just happened to be home (for whatever reason) were probably more likely to have watched the convention and the news generally than those more likely to have been away (for whatever reason). The combination may result in a momentary "response bias" favor ingof the Democrats.

It is not surprising that the Rasmussen survey shows a smaller shift, since they weight by party identification. If the "bounce" is solely the result of a non-response bias toward Democratic identifiers, party weighting in this situation would make sense. But we don't know that it is. Conventions bounces that are real and persistent often shift party identification and candidate preference. In September 2004, for example, five national surveys conducted entirely after the Republican convention showed increases in Republican identification. Pollsters that weighted by the pre-convention party ID averages would have artificially suppressed the size of Bush's bounce.

So, like it or not, we really won't have a sense of what these shifts mean -- and what they portend for the rest of the campaign -- until the Republican convention ends and the dust starts to settle in about 10 days.

As for the polls out today testing reactions to Sarah Palin, I hope to post more tomorrow, but for now suffice it to say that I put very little stock in one-night quickie polls conducted on the Friday night before a three-day, holiday weekend. The one from Gallup is probably the best of the lot, if only because they provide comparable results from prior one-night quickie polls conducted to evaluate vice-presidential nominees (although most of these were fielded on week-nights). But take it all with huge grains of salt. With someone as unknown nationally as Sarah Palin was just 48 hours ago, first impressions can be exceptionally fleeting.


[authors: David E. Kronenberg, Casey Servais]

In 1999, Goldman began acting as the sole clearing broker and prime broker for a group of hedge funds affiliated with Bayou Fund, LLC. As is standard in the brokerage industry, Bayou’s account at Goldman was governed by a customer agreement requiring it to resolve any disputes with Goldman through arbitration rather than a court proceeding. In 2005, the Bayou funds collapsed as it became clear they had been engaged in a massive Ponzi scheme. In this respect, the Bayou funds were an important precursor to the better-known Ponzi schemes run by Bernard L. Madoff and Allen Stanford.[1] Bayou later filed for bankruptcy protection, and the bankruptcy court authorized the Official Unsecured Creditors’ Committee to prosecute any claims the debtors’ estates might have against Goldman. In keeping with the arbitration clause of the customer agreement, the Committee brought a fraudulent transfer claim against Goldman in an arbitration proceeding before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

In the FINRA proceeding, the Committee alleged that transfers totaling approximately $20.6 million between Bayou’s and the other funds’ accounts at Goldman constituted “fraudulent transfers” under sections 544 and 548 of the Bankruptcy Code. The Committee further maintained that Goldman was liable for these transfers as an “initial transferee” under section 550(a) of the Bankruptcy Code, which provides that a bankruptcy trustee, or a creditors’ committee acting in the place of a bankruptcy trustee, may recover fraudulently transferred property from “the initial transferee of such transfer.”

Goldman raised a standard defense to section 550(a), arguing that it had not been an “initial transferee,” but rather had acted as a “mere conduit” for Bayou’s funds. Generally speaking, a recipient of fraudulently transferred property qualifies as an “initial transferee” only if the recipient exercises “dominion and control” over the fraudulently transferred property. Courts have traditionally considered a recipient that is not entitled to make use of the funds for its own purposes to be a “mere conduit” not subject to liability under section 550(a).

The FINRA arbitration panel rejected Goldman’s “mere conduit” defense and granted a $20,580,514.52 award in favor of the Creditors’ Committee. Arbitrators do not generally issue written opinions, so there is no express written analysis detailing on what case law the arbitration panel relied in reaching its conclusion that Goldman was liable as an initial transferee.

Goldman filed a petition with the District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking to have the arbitration award vacated. The Federal Arbitration Act allows a U.S. District Court to vacate an arbitration award, but only under four narrow sets of circumstances, one of these being “where the arbitrators exceeded their powers, or so imperfectly executed them that a mutual, final, and definite award upon the subject matter submitted was not made.” 9 U.S.C. § 10(a)(4). Some courts, including the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, have construed this provision of the Federal Arbitration Act as authorizing courts to vacate awards in cases where the arbitrator has “manifestly disregarded the law.” Accordingly, in its petition to the District Court, Goldman argued that the arbitration panel had “manifestly disregarded the law” by failing to recognize its “mere conduit” defense. The District Court refused to vacate the arbitration award, and Goldman appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Second Circuit noted at the outset of its decision that the standard for appellate review of arbitration awards is highly deferential. Specifically, in order to overturn an arbitration award on the grounds that the arbitrator “manifestly disregarded the law,” an appellate court must find that the arbitrator knowingly ignored a governing legal principle that was “defined, explicit, and clearly applicable.” The Second Circuit affirmed the Southern District’s finding that the “mere conduit” defense was not clearly applicable in Goldman’s case, and that the FINRA arbitration panel therefore did not “manifestly disregard” this defense in ruling against Goldman.

The Second Circuit based its conclusion that the arbitration panel had not “manifestly disregarded the law” on a 2007 New York Southern District Court opinion that also dealt with the mere conduit defense. In Bear, Stearns Securities Corp. v. Gredd (In re Manhattan Inv. Fund, Ltd.), 397 B.R. 1 (S.D.N.Y. 2007), the Southern District held that Bear Stearns was liable as the “initial transferee” of funds that a Ponzi scheme customer had transferred into its margin account at the brokerage. The court concluded that Bear Stearns had dominion and control over the customer funds because the governing customer agreement gave Bear Stearns the right to use the funds to protect itself from the risk associated with stock loans it made to the customer.

In addition to giving Bear Stearns a security interest in the customer account, the relevant customer agreement gave Bear Stearns the right to (1) set any level of maintenance margin for the account; (2) prevent the customer from withdrawing money from its account while there were open short positions supported by the account; and (3) use the funds in the account to liquidate the customer’s open short positions, with or without the customer’s consent. In holding that these customer agreement provisions were sufficient to establish “dominion and control,” and thus transferee liability, Gredd deviated from a long line of cases holding that financial institutions do not exercise sufficient “dominion and control” over funds held in customer accounts to qualify as “initial transferees.”

The Second Circuit found that the facts in Gredd bore “striking similarities” to the facts in the instant case insofar as both cases involved a hedge fund engaged in a Ponzi scheme that deposited funds at a brokerage pursuant to a customer agreement that gave the brokerage “broad discretion” over the use of the funds. In the Second Circuit’s view, the terms of the industry-standard customer agreement at issue in Gredd were “similar, if not identical” to the terms in Goldman’s agreement with Bayou. Specifically, under the Goldman agreement, Goldman received a security interest in the deposited funds, and it also had the right (1) to require the Bayou hedge funds to deposit cash or collateral with Goldman to assure due performance of open contractual commitments; (2) to require the hedge funds to maintain such positions and margins as Goldman deemed necessary or advisable; (3) to lend either to itself or to others any of the hedge funds’ securities held by Goldman in a margin account; and (4) to liquidate securities and/or other property in the hedge funds’ accounts without notice to ensure that minimum maintenance requirements were satisfied. Goldman, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 13531, at *8.

Although the Second Circuit relied on Gredd, it fell short of actually endorsing Gredd’s holding, instead stating: “While we have not previously endorsed the district court’s decision in Gredd—and do not do so here—neither have we rejected it.” Accordingly, the Second Circuit held that the FINRA arbitration panel had not “manifestly disregarded the law” in rejecting Goldman’s defense, as the arbitration panel could reasonably have found Goldman to be an “initial transferee” under the legal principles articulated in Gredd.

Although Goldman was decided under a highly deferential standard for appellate review of an arbitration award, the case could impact the real or perceived risk that clearing firms face with respect to liability for fraudulent transfers. Arbitration awards technically have no binding precedential value, but arbitrators nonetheless often look to earlier arbitration awards for guidance in deciding new cases. The Second Circuit’s affirmance of the arbitration award in Goldman thus makes it more likely that arbitrators will recognize fraudulent transfer claims against clearing brokers in the future. Additionally, the Goldman decision, while not a complete endorsement by the Second Circuit of the Gredd opinion, lends heft to that controversial District Court decision, making it more likely other courts will reach similar rulings. The increased risk of liability that clearing brokers face as a result may lead to increased compliance costs, as clearing firms may need to implement new procedures to confirm the legitimacy and solvency of their customer accountholders.

[View source.]

Written by:

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP on:

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Watch Limite Online

Film title: Limite
Rotten Tomatoes: 50%
Language: English
Plot: A team of counterfeiters thrives amid an atmosphere of corruption in writer-director Nicolás Jullian's gritty Chilean import starring Remigio Remedy, Adela Secall, Juan Ignacio Severín and Luis Dubó. When a fetching detective is sent in to trace the origins of a phony $100 bill, she uncovers a criminal network far more complex than she had ever imagined -- and soon finds herself caught in the web.

Limite Series
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