2.5 – Tables

The table type implements associative arrays. An associative array is an array that can be indexed not only with numbers, but also with strings or any other value of the language, except nil. Moreover, tables have no fixed size; you can add as many elements as you want to a table dynamically. Tables are the main (in fact, the only) data structuring mechanism in Lua, and a powerful one. We use tables to represent ordinary arrays, symbol tables, sets, records, queues, and other data structures, in a simple, uniform, and efficient way. Lua uses tables to represent packages as well. When we write, we mean "the read entry from the io package". For Lua, that means "index the table io using the string "read" as the key".

Tables in Lua are neither values nor variables; they are objects. If you are familiar with arrays in Java or Scheme, then you have a fair idea of what we mean. However, if your idea of an array comes from C or Pascal, you have to open your mind a bit. You may think of a table as a dynamically allocated object; your program only manipulates references (or pointers) to them. There are no hidden copies or creation of new tables behind the scenes. Moreover, you do not have to declare a table in Lua; in fact, there is no way to declare one. You create tables by means of a constructor expression, which in its simplest form is written as {}:

    a = {}     -- create a table and store its reference in `a'
    k = "x"
    a[k] = 10        -- new entry, with key="x" and value=10
    a[20] = "great"  -- new entry, with key=20 and value="great"
    print(a["x"])    --> 10
    k = 20
    print(a[k])      --> "great"
    a["x"] = a["x"] + 1     -- increments entry "x"
    print(a["x"])    --> 11
A table is always anonymous. There is no fixed relationship between a variable that holds a table and the table itself:
    a = {}
    a["x"] = 10
    b = a      -- `b' refers to the same table as `a'
    print(b["x"])  --> 10
    b["x"] = 20
    print(a["x"])  --> 20
    a = nil    -- now only `b' still refers to the table
    b = nil    -- now there are no references left to the table
When a program has no references to a table left, Lua memory management will eventually delete the table and reuse its memory.

Each table may store values with different types of indices and it grows as it needs to accommodate new entries:

    a = {}     -- empty table
    -- create 1000 new entries
    for i=1,1000 do a[i] = i*2 end
    print(a[9])    --> 18
    a["x"] = 10
    print(a["y"])  --> nil
Notice the last line: Like global variables, table fields evaluate to nil if they are not initialized. Also like global variables, you can assign nil to a table field to delete it. That is not a coincidence: Lua stores global variables in ordinary tables. More about this subject in Chapter 14.

To represent records, you use the field name as an index. Lua supports this representation by providing as syntactic sugar for a["name"]. So, we could write the last lines of the previous example in a cleanlier manner as

    a.x = 10                    -- same as a["x"] = 10
    print(a.x)                  -- same as print(a["x"])
    print(a.y)                  -- same as print(a["y"])
For Lua, the two forms are equivalent and can be intermixed freely; but for a human reader, each form may signal a different intention.

A common mistake for beginners is to confuse a.x with a[x]. The first form represents a["x"], that is, a table indexed by the string "x". The second form is a table indexed by the value of the variable x. See the difference:

    a = {}
    x = "y"
    a[x] = 10                 -- put 10 in field "y"
    print(a[x])   --> 10      -- value of field "y"
    print(a.x)    --> nil     -- value of field "x" (undefined)
    print(a.y)    --> 10      -- value of field "y"

To represent a conventional array, you simply use a table with integer keys. There is no way to declare its size; you just initialize the elements you need:

    -- read 10 lines storing them in a table
    a = {}
    for i=1,10 do
      a[i] =
When you iterate over the elements of the array, the first non-initialized index will result in nil; you can use this value as a sentinel to represent the end of the array. For instance, you could print the lines read in the last example with the following code:
    -- print the lines
    for i,line in ipairs(a) do
The basic Lua library provides ipairs, a handy function that allows you to iterate over the elements of an array, following the convention that the array ends at its first nil element.

Since you can index a table with any value, you can start the indices of an array with any number that pleases you. However, it is customary in Lua to start arrays with one (and not with zero, as in C) and the standard libraries stick to this convention.

Because we can index a table with any type, when indexing a table we have the same subtleties that arise in equality. Although we can index a table both with the number 0 and with the string "0", these two values are different (according to equality) and therefore denote different positions in a table. By the same token, the strings "+1", "01", and "1" all denote different positions. When in doubt about the actual types of your indices, use an explicit conversion to be sure:

    i = 10; j = "10"; k = "+10"
    a = {}
    a[i] = "one value"
    a[j] = "another value"
    a[k] = "yet another value"
    print(a[j])            --> another value
    print(a[k])            --> yet another value
    print(a[tonumber(j)])  --> one value
    print(a[tonumber(k)])  --> one value
You can introduce subtle bugs in your program if you do not pay attention to this point.


Animal Crossing: City Folk Tips

Grow a tree in a day
To grow a tree in a day just go outside and plant any kind of tree. After that save and quit, then change the date more then 4 days ago. Start and play the game. Do that again but change the date to the regular date. There you go a tree in a day.


Part 2: Trapped: Andy Warhol's Amiga Experiments

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Trapped: Andy Warhol's Amiga Experiments

Late in the evening on Wednesday April 23, 2014, the news of the Warhol Amiga recovery project was leaked a few hours early, and spread like wildfire over Twitter and then quickly across the blogosphere. I awoke the next morning to a string of text messages from the museum’s press officer Jonathan Gaugler with requests for comments and interviews. The response was so overwhelming that at a certain point a pounding migraine tuned everything out and I lost a few hours. I knew the Warhol images would spark some interest, but I never foresaw the deluge it unleashed out into the world.

The Warhol Amiga recovery project was a testament to the possibilities of local collaboration in a place like Pittsburgh. Three institutions pitched in, including The Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Mellon University (including notably the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and the Carnegie Mellon Computer Club), and…


Homemade Photovoltaic Solar Cells

Getting your energy requirements from your very own solar power system is a great way of cutting utility bills and protecting the environment. If you’re a technical person, then installing your solar panels can also be a wonderful and productive adventure in itself. There are many guides available on the Internet on how to set up and make an appropriate solar power system for your home, and following any of these guides can be a very a rewarding project.

Homemade Photovoltaic Solar Cells

It is not difficult to create your own solar panel if you know the main components necessary to build it. High quality solar or photovoltaic cells, sturdy aluminum frames of about ? inch thick, and a ¼ inch dark glass are all you need to create your own solar panel. But how do you go about it if you want to build even the photovoltaic cells yourself?

Solar or photovoltaic cells are solid state electrical devices that convert light energy into electricity. Arrays of photovoltaic cells are used to build solar panels. Most solar or photovoltaic cells that are used in solar power systems for households are those available from various electrical supply traders and are made of processed silicon. These photovoltaic cells are commonly manufactured in large plants that are capable of producing and controlling high temperatures and vacuums. Compared with homemade solar cells, these products are highly efficient in terms of generating electricity from the light energy they capture from the sun.

If you wish to build your own solar cells, you need to accept the resulting downgrade in terms of efficiency. You’ll also need to visit your neighborhood hardware store to purchase the required components and raw materials. Building your own photovoltaic cell should be a breeze for a technical person like you and should take only about an hour to complete. Once at the hardware store, secure the following materials: a sheet of copper flashing of about 1 sq ft, two alligator clip leads, a reliable multimeter to check and measure electrical current produced by the solar cell, an electric stove, a plastic water bottle, table salt, sand paper or wire bush, and metal shears for cutting your copper sheet. You will also need tap water.

With all required materials on hand, proceed with the project by following these steps:

1. Cut a piece of copper sheet. Avoid getting grease or oil on the sheet.
2. Thoroughly wash and sand the copper sheet.
3. Heat the copper sheet until the burner is red hot and the copper sheet is coated with black cupric oxide coating.
4. Turn the burner off after 30 minutes.
5. Clean the copper sheet lightly while avoiding too much cleaning pressure in order to retain the red cuprous oxide layer.
6. Cut another piece of copper similar in size to the first one you prepared.
7. Bend the two copper pieces and place them in the plastic bottle in a way that they fit the bottle but do not touch each other.
8. Attach one alligator clip lead to the copper plate with the cuprous oxide, and the other alligator clip lead to the new copper plate.
9. Connect the alligator lead associated with the new plate to the positive terminal of the multimeter while connecting the alligator lead associated with the cuprous oxide plate to the negative terminal.
10. Mix two tablespoons of salt with tap water. Stir until the salt is dissolved. Pour the solution into the plastic bottle.

Congratulations. You have successfully built your own solar cell! To verify whether your solar cell is working, check the multimeter reading when it is placed in the dark and when it is placed under the sun. A reading of about 33 to 50 microamperes when your solar cell is under the sun should confirm that you have done the job correctly.


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Colonial Virginia Introduction

In A Nutshell

In the hundred years following Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, Virginia became the colony that we now imagine when we think of Virginia. Prior to 1676, Virginia was a profitable but socially crude and politically unstable tobacco factory. But after the rebellion, it matured into the colonial powerhouse that provided much of the political and philosophical leadership for the American Revolution. During these years, Virginia's House of Burgesses expanded its powers and developed its sense of political purpose. The colony's tobacco economy expanded to the west and south, generating enormous wealth for American planters and English merchants. The slave labor force on which this economy depended grew from a few thousand to close to a quarter million. And the social and cultural order that completed these political and economic developments took shape.

By 1776, Virginia looked like Virginia—a colony of small farms and great plantations, its tobacco fields filled with slave laborers, all ruled by a planter elite whose political and social power blended seamlessly together.

Why Should I Care?

Colonial Virginia was many things.

It was Thomas Jefferson sitting on a hilltop thinking deeply about the natural rights of all humankind, and Patrick Henry rising to the floor in the House of Burgesses and declaring that he would rather die than sacrifice his liberty.

But colonial Virginia was also 90,000 people kidnapped in Africa and carried to the colony in the death-filled hold of a slave ship.

Colonial Virginia was the great plantations of Westover and Gunston Hall—enormous testimonies to genteel living nestled among fields of sweet-smelling tobacco.

But it was also planter William Byrd II forcing a young slave to drink a pint of urine because he wet his bed—and Robert "King" Carter cutting off the toes of a slave who resisted other forms of discipline.

Virginia was George Washington painstakingly copying the rules of good behavior into a diary as an adolescent. But it was also cockfights on Saturday and drunken militia marches through the slave quarters on Sundays.

Virginia was genteel and barbaric, all at the same time. Which was the real Virginia? They both were.

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Court Shuns 'Bad Science' Argument in EPA Global Warming Case - DC Circuit

Court Shuns 'Bad Science' Argument in EPA Global Warming Case

Under the Clean Air Act, the federal government can impose rules and regulations governing the emission of greenhouse gases. This authority became more clear after the Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, which essentially stated that greenhouse gases are an “air pollutant.”

The EPA promulgated regulations over emission standards for cars and light trucks (the Tailpipe Rule) and regulation over major stationary sources (such as rendering plants, for example) where certain facilities were obligated to obtain valid permits. Finally, the EPA introduced its Timing and Tailoring Rules which said that the permitting requirements would only initially apply to the largest stationary sources.

As you can imagine, several states and industry groups were up in arms over the new requirements. They took to the courts, claiming that these rules were arbitrary, capricious and based on improper construction of the Clean Air Act.

There were many arguments addressed in the 82-page decision, and we’re not going to go over all of them. But from an overall political (and sociological) standpoint, perhaps the most interesting argument raised by the EPA’s opponents was that science on global warming was wrong.

The three-judge panel shot down any arguments over the reliability of the scientific studies presented by the EPA.

The battle isn’t over yet. This was only a panel opinion and the full court has yet to be petitioned.

Related Resources:


Active Vision System for 3D Product Inspection

Learn how to construct three-dimensional vision applications by reviewing triangulation equations and measurement procedures.

For more articles like this, visit and search on Machine Vision.

The most evident limitation of a two-dimensional vision system is its ability to move and rotate only in the X-Y plane. This has led to a demand for high quality, three-dimensional (3D) processing technology, the use of which is increasing. For engineers exploring the use of 3D inspection, there are now many different technologies available for creating 3D images.

The most important task for engineers to successfully create such an application for industrial use is to achieve a high measurement resolution in all (x, y, z) directions. Depending on the shape and size of the object and the distance between the object and the vision sensor, different methods of three-dimensional measurement, and different types of active vision systems, can be used.

A 3D object model

A 3D object model

3D image acquisition

3D image acquisition

The vision system consists of a set of devices, which convert light and measurement data into information, with spatial and material attributes of the scene. These devices have photosensitive sensors (a camera with a lens which focuses images on a photosensitive element or the eye) and computational mechanisms (a computer) allowing information to be collected from the sensors.

Humans can easily distinguish objects they see and are also able to recognize them in various light conditions and from different frames of reference. However, in the case of vision systems, the proper interpretation of a pixel value is a very difficult task. Additionally, the brightness of pixels (and thus of the image received) depends on several factors:

  • Scene geometry - the shape and position of the object in the field of vision (when the shape or the position is changed, the image changes as well);

  • Lighting and material properties of the object– for example, an apple made of bronze looks different from a real apple; and

  • Dynamics of the environment.

Active vision systems

A typical process of three-dimensional analysis for a vision system requires a well thought out position for the object to be viewed, changes in relative position of the object and the sensor, scanning, saving the collected data in a common coordinate system, and combining numerous pictures into one three-dimensional model.

An active vision system is composed of two devices, a camera and a laser projector. The laser emits a light pattern that is reflected by the object surface then observed and captured by the camera. Using specific light patterns called “structured light,” such as lines, grids or other shapes, one can scan scenes.

The term structured light is defined as the projection of simple or encoded light patterns (e.g., points, line grids or complex shapes) onto the illuminated object. The most important advantage of using structured light is that surface features in the images are defined in detail. As a result, both the detection and extraction of image features are simplified and represented very precisely.

Triangulation with active vision is based on the projection of a light pattern. The light line is directed towards the camera’s field of view of the object. Before measuring, the laser plane must be calibrated. It should be directed so that the light ray on the background surface is parallel to the x-axis and perpendicular to the y-axis.

As shown in the triangulation diagram (right), the lens is located in the center of the coordinate system, at the focal length ( f ) from the image plane (CCD or CMOS sensor). Baseline b is the line between the laser and the camera.

The laser plane forms a known angleθ with the baseline ( b ). The baseline length is calculated for the laser oriented so that the beam reflected from the studied object is positioned in the centre of the X’Y’ matrix.

Baseline b can then be calculated from this equation:

b = z tan θ

This point reflected from the object surface is projected onto the image plane

( x ’, y ’). The 3D point (x, y, z) can now be calculated. Known variables are b , f ,θ, x ’, y ’. The distance between the object and the camera can now be calculated from the following relationships:

Equation 2

Equation 3

With these relationships determined, real-world coordinates be calculated using the following calculations:

Equation 4

Equation 5

Equation 6

Measurement procedure

The first step in this measurement procedure is to set up the 3D camera before capturing 3D images or profiles. The following need to be set in order to retrieve images from the camera:

  • profile triggering and rate;

  • field-of-view (FOV) and resolution along the x-axis;

  • 3D image triggering;

  • length of y-axis; and

  • resolution along the y-axis for 3D images.

In addition, it may be necessary to adjust measurement settings in order to improve the quality of the images.

When these procedures are completed, the size of the image banks can be adjusted to fit the specified FOV (field of view). When settings are executed, the device will start capturing images and construct a 3D model from the data acquired.

During image acquisition, some data are inevitably lost. To help fill these gaps, a “Fill Missing Data” procedure should be implemented and exceeded to improve the 3D model. This procedure removes missing data from a selected part of a 3D image or profile by interpolating the height values from the areas surrounding it. Only the pixels within a defined region of interest are affected in the output, but values outside this region are used for interpolation.

Typically, this procedure is used for preparing 3D images for use with procedures that treat missing data as a height value. Though this procedure is mainly designed to fill small areas of missing data, it can be used effectively for areas of any size.

After a 3D model has been acquired, a profile can be extracted from a 3D image along the line that is specified by the pixel coordinates of the start and end points of the line. The actual location of the last point in the profile may be slightly different from the specified end point due to the sampling distance.

The distance between the last point in the profile and the end point of the line will be at most half the sampling distance. However, if the end point is at the image border, the distance is at most one sampling distance.

After a 3D model has been acquired, a profile can be extracted.

Filtering and analysis

After a profile has been extracted, selected parts of the profile must be filtered to remove the disturbances caused by the changing lighting conditions from the model. The resulting profile is stored in the new image bank for profile measurement and can be used as a mean or a median filter.

With a mean filter, every height value in the resulting profile is a weighted average of the neighboring pixels around the corresponding height value in the original profile. The result of the mean filter is a smoothed profile.

With a median filter, every height value in the resulting bank becomes the median of neighboring pixels around the corresponding height value in the original profile. The result of the median filter is a profile where single outliers or noise are removed but edges are preserved. The size of the neighborhood is defined by the dimension of the filtering matrix.

Region-of-interest profile

The next step is to define a region-of-interest profile that specifies the intervals of the profile where the measurement procedures can be applied without affecting the profile outside the intervals. The region of interest is created by specifying the x-coordinate where it starts (X start pixel), and the region of interest width.

Next, the selected part of the profile is analyzed along with its characteristic points, such as local maxima, minima, and inflection points. The section of the profile to be analyze is specified with a defined region of interest.

It should be noted that the active vision method encounters difficulties with some materials. It performs best for materials with a uniform reflectance. Materials such as glass produce multiple reflections over the surface depth zone, degrading or prohibiting an accurate range measurement. Shiny surfaces are characterized by direct reflections.

Depending on the illumination and observation geometry, dropouts may occur in surface reflections due to their insufficient energy. Multiple reflections from a shiny surface in corner regions can also produce wild measurements. In general, active triangulation-based range cameras are capable of very precise (100

Author Information

Janusz Kowal and Andrzej Sioma, contributors to Control Engineering Polska ( ) are with AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland. Reach them at or .

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Hansford Sensors Ltd. - PRODUCT NEWS

Marine Vibration Monitoring

Considering the cost of putting to sea, it is well worth investing in vibration monitoring equipment that can help engineers to protect and maximise the performance of marine machinery. The challenges facing engineers and advice on how to successfully install and use vibration sensing equipment on marine vessels.

As machinery has become more complex and mankind has demanded greater productivity from each mechanical system, there has been a corresponding growth in the need for sophisticated vibration sensors that can help maximise the performance of many engineering processes. This is especially true at sea, where vibration monitoring is a key tool used by marine engineers to manage the availability and maintenance of a wide range of equipment with rotating shafts, including pumps, motors, fans, gearboxes and engine systems.

The cost of putting an oil tanker or a cruise ship to sea has always justified the cost of monitoring it but in recent times pressure has grown on ship owners to ensure that they meet deadlines. Add to this the fact that much bad publicity can be generated by severe failures, whether caused by the unscheduled docking for repairs of a container ship or the malfunction of ventilation fans in hotels on cruise ships, and the need to apply reliable preventative maintenance techniques becomes ever-more pressing. Thankfully, today’s designers and engineers have succeeded in developing a range of tools and practices to prevent vibration and its consequences, such as alignment tools and automatic lubricators that can be applied during system construction, while components themselves are continually being refined and upgraded to offer greater resistance to vibration. However, vibration can never be entirely banished from rotating machinery and so there has been much development in vibration monitoring technology; in particular, vibration sensors increasingly offer exceptional reliability packaged in a variety of resilient enclosures to enable their use within a wide range of applications.

The adoption of vibration monitoring equipment is vital in marine applications because vibration is one of the main causes of failure in marine propulsion systems and auxiliary equipment. The development of vibration monitoring equipment has naturally involved examining the key causes of vibration, such as poor alignment of rotating shafts in, for example, propulsion systems and turbochargers for main or auxiliary engines.

A good illustration of this is to consider how vessels have coped in recent years without condition monitoring. Take, for example, a tanker that is subject to inspection by a class surveyor, who makes an annual check on the equipment. Without condition monitoring, the only way to analyse equipment is for on-board engineers to take it apart and show the pieces to the surveyor, which naturally consumes much valuable time and manpower and can only be done when the vessel is in dock. On large vessels, the surveyor may not be able to inspect more than, say, 20% of equipment every year, meaning that it might be five years between examinations for some machine parts. That leaves many machine parts unexamined for long periods of time and even those parts that are examined can suffer because taking machinery apart and reassembling can cause its own problems. Many marine engineers have observed that a large percentage of defects are maintenance induced, so the less they have to take things apart and put them back together, the better. In contrast, condition monitoring, such as vibration monitoring on pumps, motors, fans, gearboxes and engine systems, allows marine engineers to maintain equipment far more efficiently with less manpower and maintenance.

The above example explains why vibration monitoring of marine machinery, especially propulsion and manoeuvring systems, engines and turbochargers, is becoming a more widely adopted facet of condition monitoring that, alongside other powerful tool such as oil monitoring and thermal imaging, is protecting profits and enhancing performance. To appreciate how vibration monitoring is bringing these benefits to marine applications, let’s look at the current technology.

There are two main categories: AC accelerometers, which are used with a data collector for monitoring the condition of higher value assets, and 4-20mA accelerometers, which are used with a PLC to measure lower value assets. Both are capable of detecting imbalance, bearing condition and misalignment but AC accelerometers can also identify cavitation, looseness, gear defects and belt problems. Hansford Sensors offers AC and 4-20mA versions of the HS-100 and HS-420 Series, which are intrinsically safe being ATEX and IEC Ex certified. These industrial vibration sensors can be used to monitor vibration levels on pumps, motors, fans and all other types of rotating machinery found in marine applications.

Accelerometers contain a piezoelectric crystal element bonded to a mass. When the sensor is subject to an accelerative force, the mass compresses the crystal, causing it to produce an electrical signal that is proportional to the level of force applied. The signal is then amplified and conditioned using inbuilt electronics that create an output signal, which is suitable for use by higher level data acquisition or control systems. Output data from accelerometers mounted in key locations can either be read periodically using sophisticated hand-held data collectors for immediate analysis or subsequent downloading to a PC, or routed via switch boxes to a centralised or higher level system for continuous monitoring.

The challenges of condition monitoring at sea are great - for example, readings taken in port will almost certainly be different from those taken when the vessel is at sea, and heavy weather will only amplify any such differences - so it is in everyone’s interest to specify the best accelerometers and apply the best practice in managing their performance.

To correctly specify an accelerometer, engineers need to consider the vibration level and frequency range that is to be measured, as well as environmental conditions, such as the temperature and whether there are any corrosive chemicals present. A series of further considerations follow on from there; for example, is the atmosphere combustible? Are there weight constraints? In marine applications, there is no earth, which presents a further challenge but this and other difficulties have been addressed by the designers and engineers of accelerometers and the right research and training, or consultation with a market leader that has experience in a wide range of sectors, can swiftly enable the right decisions to be made.

Once the most appropriate sensors have been selected it is important that advice is followed and care is taken during installation to ensure the maximum level of performance. For example, accelerometers should be located as close as possible to the source of vibration. Also, devices should be mounted onto a flat, smooth, unpainted surface, larger than the base of the accelerometer itself and this surface should be made free from grease and oil. Condition monitoring depends on stability and readings from a poorly mounted accelerometer may relate not only to a change in conditions but also to the instability of the sensor itself.

Once data has been collected in the most appropriate and efficient manner, machine reliability data must be analysed and interpreted, either by on-board engineers or by a remote monitoring centre, building a picture of machine condition and helping to create a future maintenance schedule. With an efficient vibration monitoring system now in place, marine engineers find they have progressed to a new level of efficiency and, with systems well protected by accelerometers and associated machinery to monitor vibration, can move on to identify areas for further improvement in terms of machine performance, energy efficiency or output. Vibration monitoring thus becomes an increasingly powerful tool and a vital one at a time when the effects of vibration in marine propulsion and auxiliary systems are potentially more costly than ever.

July 2013


 Tanya Ekanayaka - 'Concert' Pianist / Composer / Improviser / Musicologist / Linguist

Tanya Ekanayaka

1 2 3 4 5 6

Concert Pianist-Composer . Improviser . Musicologist . Linguist

“The tenderest of melodies resides within you: it is the caress-fragranced, kaleidoscopic voice of your child-heart, as it was, is and will be...”.

Tanya Ekanayaka - Scotland, 02/2012.

“Tanya Ekanayaka is a musician of rare accomplishment. Her pianism is fresh and powerful, technically assured and emotionally persuasive. As a composer she has the ability to synthesise her inter-cultural experience to create music that is original and compelling. In an age when the composer-pianist seems like a moment from the past, Tanya Ekanayaka shows us the potential of such a complete musicianship.”

Professor Peter Nelson Department of Music, University of Edinburgh, UK.

“Tanya Ekanayaka's music is subtle, beautiful and surprising. Whereas many Asian composers like, say, Takemitsu or Tan Dun, have arrived in European concert halls through a combination of international modernism and carefully crafted encounters with Asian folk and classical music, Tanya has travelled in precisely the opposite direction. Her starting point is in her experience as a pianist playing music of Western serious music tradition, and in particular the mid-Romantic repertoire. It is after a long journey through the rich language of mature Western tonality that she eventually reaches, along a purely instinctive and intuitive path, the popular melodies and hymns of her native Sri Lanka. It is through the arpeggios, embellishments and filigree of the language of Chopin and Liszt that she approaches the graceful ornamentation of her cultural tradition: the circles and slender pillars of the Polonnaruwa vatadage; the colourful costumes, movements and rhythms of Ves or Naiyandi dances.”

Professor Nigel Osborne MBE, FRCM Department of Music, University of Edinburgh, UK

NAXOS (Grand Piano Label) recording artiste and composer, Dr. Tanya Ekanayaka (PhD, MSc, FTCL, LRSM, LGSMD-PPD, BA-Honours) is one of Sri Lanka's foremost, award winning and internationally acclaimed composer-pianists. Classically trained and with a background in popular and South Asian musics, she is also an improviser and musicologist in addition to being a highly qualified linguist. Although trained as a pianist, her compositional skills are the result of a purely intuitive and natural development. She began studying the piano when she was just five years old, made her debut public recital appearance at the age of twelve and has since given solo recitals at renowned international concert venues in Asia, Europe and the United States.

What characterizes Tanya Ekanayaka as a recitalist is her quintessential recital style. Her recitals incorporate her own compositions representing a new and exciting musical genre as well as works from the established classical repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary works. Her compositions comprise the integration of unusual adaptations of melodies belonging to Sri Lankan indigenous and popular musics (many of which have not been adapted for the piano or harmonised), with musical motifs inspired by the tonal centres of the other compositions that form a given recital programme she is performing. In this sense, each of Tanya Ekanayaka’s compositions may be seen as re-presenting her indigenous culture while seeking to highlight connectivity between the different works of a concert programme in which one of her works might be incorporated. Overall, her recitals become a discourse where the merging of genres (such as, genres of classical music with popular and folk musics), as well as eras is facilitated. Tanya Ekanayaka’s compositions evolve spontaneously often as a whole when she is at the piano.

Tanya Ekanayaka has been contracted with NAXOS (Grand Piano Label), the world's second largest classical music record label since August 2014. On 30th March 2015, this label began launching worldwide, her debut album of compositions for solo piano composed and performed by her, titled 'REINVENTIONS: RHAPSODIES FOR PIANO'.

This album introduces the musical genre developed by Tanya Ekanayaka and also represents the first album of compositions entirely by a Sri Lankan composer to ever be launched globally by a major record label.

Her compositions have been featured on international media such as BBC World Radio and BBC World News Television as part of exclusive interviews.

Tanya Ekanayaka is on the teaching faculty of Edinburgh University in Scotland where she has taught part-time in both its Departments of Linguistics and Music since 2007.

Since 2012, Tanya Ekanayaka has also been developing a pioneering and so far highly successful music composition project on a purely voluntary basis aimed at empowering traumatised as well as underprivileged Sri Lankan children and youth recovering from the civil war that ravaged the nation for over thirty years.

Recent interview on BBC World Global News Television:


Chang-Gyu Hwang

Hwang Chang-Gyu.jpg

As president and chief executive officer of the Semiconductor Business of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Dr. Chang-Gyu Hwang has been the driving force in establishing Samsung as a leading global developer and supplier of random access memory, including dynamic (DRAM), and non-volatile memories, NAND flash memory choices.

Dr. Hwang’s leadership was critical to Samsung’s creation of the first 256M, 1G and 4G DRAMs. He had a key role in developing NAND flash memory chips now commonly used in memory cards, USB flash drives, MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile telephones.

In 2002, he predicted that memory consumption and high-density memory use in mobile handsets and other consumer applications would grow faster with the advent of nanotechnology,based on keen insight on the vast potential of NAND flash memory.

Dr. Hwang has co-authored more than 50 technical papers for journals and conferences and speaks frequently on industry trends before many academic and industry groups.


Uber as an Example of the Perils of Technological Expansion

By on June 26, 2014

Uber isn’t the problem; taxi regulations are: This column for the Boston Globe (by John Sununu, of all people?) pulls no punches, and explains one of the problems faced by technological advancements in any field: they threaten the established status quo which someone is making money from.

Indeed, what’s the argument against Uber?  That it’s somehow worse than a traditional taxi?  Or just that it’s unfair?  If it’s unfair, do we need more regulation or less?


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      Investigation into deadly shooting outside Churchill HS complete

      EUGENE, Ore. - The investigation into a police traffic stop that turned deadly near a local high school last month is complete.

      District Attorney Alex Gardner planned a 2 p.m. press conference Tuesday on the police shooting Nov. 20 outside Churchill High School. The press conference was postponed due to the weather.

      In Oregon, an Interagency Deadly Force Investigation Team is required by law to review any use of potentially deadly force by law enforcement officers.

      It's the district attorney's job to review the investigation and determine whether or not an officer was justified in using deadly force.

      Police identified the deceased in the Nov. 20 shooting as Christopher Lee Koziatek, 44, of Eugene.


Democratizing states began in the 1980s to hold individuals, including past heads of state, accountable for human rights violations. The 1984 Argentine truth commission report (Nunca Más) and the 1985 trials of the juntas helped to initiate this trend. Argentina also developed other justice-seeking mechanisms, including the first groups of mothers and grandmothers of the disappeared, the first human rights forensic anthropology team, and the first truth trials. Argentines helped to define the very term forced disappearance and to develop regional and international instruments to end the practice. Argentina thus illustrates the potential for global human rights protagonism and diffusion of ideas from a country outside the wealthy North. This article surveys Argentina's innovations and proposes possible explanations, drawing on theoretical studies from transitional justice, social movements, and norms cascades in international relations.


Logging moratorium `a
must' to save Riau forests

The NGO Riau Forest Rescue Working Network (Jikalahari) is urging the central government to reform forestry policies and end land disputes to slow the pace of deforestation in the province.

"Deforestation in Riau is due to the paper industry and oil palm plantations' conversion activities," Susanto Kurniawan, the organization's coordinator, said Thursday at a seminar on the logging moratorium to help save the Semenanjung Kampar area.

"The most jaw-dropping fact is that *the area stipulated in* land use permits issued by the government for those two *business* sectors have actually exceeded Riau's total area. This means that many licenses are overlapping each other, and this can be settled only by a moratorium."

He said deforestation was the main cause of the increasingly intense floods, landslides and hazes that occurred in Riau every year.

According to Susanto, deforestation has destroyed 3.7 million hectares of the province's forests in the past 20 years (or on average 160,000 hectares per year), leaving only 2.45 million hectares or 22 percent of total forest areas in the province.

He said the 682,511-hectare Semenanjung Kampar area, straddling the two regencies of Siak and Pelalawan, was one of Riau's forest blocks that needed an immediate moratorium.

That area is seriously threatened with extinction as the Forestry Ministry has issued forest concessions that total 284,880 hectares in industrial forestry areas (HTI) and 245,120 hectares in natural forest concession areas (HPH) for three firms.

"Semenanjung Kampar is a peat marsh forest with more than 10-meter-deep peat soil and has the largest potential amount of carbon in Indonesia. Those carbon *compounds* will be released if the peat forest is converted," Susanto said.

A 1999 presidential decree on the management of protected areas categorizes peat lands are more than 3 meters deep as protected areas.

With increased deforestation, the Riau administration also shared the losses on "ecological disasters that have rubbed down around 70 percent of its budget".

Riau Islamic University rector Hasan Basri Djumin added deforestation had also damaged biodiversity.

"*Deforestation* has also *indirectly* affected communities. Now farmers are finding it hard to predict the planting season because of climate change, which is *partly* due to the destruction of the forest."

The campaigner of another environmental NGO, Greenpeace for Southeast Asia, Zulfahmi, and a board member of the Riau Community Leader Communication Forum, Edyanus Herman Halim, also said a moratorium was the only way to help mitigate the climate change caused by global warming.

"Global warming will worsen if the carbon contained in Semenanjung Kampar and other peat lands is released due to land conversion."

Edyanus added the Riau provincial administration had been unable to carry out a moratorium because it was trapped in a circle of interests that prioritized economic aspects, instead of environmental ones, while environmental policies "should have been based on a holistic perspective".

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Top 8 Greatest Books

A great book whisks readers away to a different time and place, immersing them in a fantastical landscape, and allowing them to engage with the characters. While there are countless books available, catering to every taste, there are some that stand out among the crowd, for their ground-breaking storylines, their themes and symbolism, or their way of capturing the audience. Every great book has a strong plot and some, such as " Gulliver's Travels" have stood the test of time. Whether consumers want a contemporary, real world novel, or prefer a fantasy or science fiction genre, these are great books to fill them with wonder and amazement.
1 Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies

<Lord of the Flies is the seminal work of William Golding, an author and recipient of a Nobel Prize. This novel is a dark piece, examining the human condition, and the depths to which humankind may sink in the absence of structure and authority. Join the boys, stranded on an island, as their society dissolves into animalistic chaos and depravity. Some boys succumb almost immediately while others struggle to hold on to themselves and their sense of normality. "Lord of the Flies" is a dark and engaging book, with a strong plot and strong symbolism.

2 Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights

<Wuthering Heights tells the dark and tragic tale of Cathy and Heathcliff, set amidst the bleak and barren Yorkshire Moors. The only published novel of Emily Bronte, "Wuthering Heights" is a hugely popular novel, prized for its compelling and tragic plot, engaging characters, and stunning imagery. Follow the story of Cathy and Heathcliff, desperately in love, yet unable to be together.

3 Harry Potter
Harry Potter

The "<Harry Potter&" series is a contemporary fiction great. With six books in this epic series, consumers can immerse themselves in the fantastical world of Hogwarts, following the characters through laughter, tears, joy, and mortal danger. "Harry Potter" delights children and adults alike, with clever plots and believable and lovable characters, as well as engaging twists and thoroughly despicable villains.

4 Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Rings

The seminal works of J.R.R Tolkien, the "Lord of the Rings&" trilogy is a fantasy masterpiece, much-adored by fans of classic literature and fantasy alike. Readers can immerse themselves in the enchanting world of Middle Earth as they follow the hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, as well as Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli as they journey from the tranquility of the Shire to Rivendell and Moria, and eventually to the fiery chasms of Mount Doom where they must destroy the One Ring to save the world from the evil power of Sauron.

5 The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby

<The Great Gatsby is an iconic novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, set on Long Island in 1922. The story provides a portrayal of life in the Jazz Age, or the Roaring Twenties, when an influx of people with "new money" lead to the creation of a secondary upper class, who were prone to garish displays of wealth and opulence, considered very uncouth by "old money". "The Great Gatsby" provides a look at the social history of the period.

6 Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels is a truly iconic epic work by Jonathan Swift, following Gulliver, as he experiences four entirely unique adventures. Join him as he visits the Country of the Houyhnhnms, the intelligent horses, where humans are unevolved, repugnant creatures. Consumers can immerse themselves in this engaging adventure story as Gulliver travels to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Laputa. This amazing piece of literature was written in 1726 and has never been out of print.

7 Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell's iconic novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four&", was written in 1949 and, despite its age, is still much-loved as a literary classic and a cult masterpiece. This science fiction novel was ahead of its time, depicting life in 1984, in the aftermath of an atomic war. Orwell described a different and controversial society, predicting the use of Big Brother, with every single person under continuous surveillance. From the disturbed yet brilliant mind of George Orwell comes the dark and dystopian "Nineteen Eighty-Four".

8 The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye

<The Catcher in the Rye is a literary classic by J.D Salinger. This controversial novel is a coming-of-age piece, with disturbing themes encountered by the teenage protagonist. "The Catcher in the Rye" is an engaging, yet dark tale of a teenage coming of age journey that deals with death, sexuality, relationships, and religion.

How to Buy Great Books on eBay

Buy great books on eBay by performing a simple search. Browse by genre, author, or book title to find books that make it to your own top ten greatest books list. Ensuring the seller has good feedback before you buy, confirms you get your books in top condition and in a timely manner. Travel to Hogwarts and fight the good fight alongside Harry and his companions, or witness the dissolution of society in the absence of authority with " Lord of the Flies". Whatever your taste and genre preferences, eBay has great books to suit every reader.
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Total Time
Prep 15 mins
Cook 10 mins

Tangy chicken served on a stick

Ingredients Nutrition

  3. Continue whisking while boiling for 1 minute, remove from heat.
  4. Place broccoli florets medium glass bowl; cover and microwave 4 minutes.
  5. Heat broiler.
  6. Line a baking pan with foil. Place chicken, broccoli, tomatoes, and pineapple chunks on skewers, if using wooden make sure you soak in water for 30 minutes.
  7. Brush with sauce.
  8. Broil 4 to 5 minutes, until heated through and browned.


US jobless claims tick higher

First-time claims for US unemployment benefits climbed last week but the overall trend continued to head slowly downward, government data released Thursday showed.

Initial jobless claims, a sign of the pace of layoffs, totaled a seasonally adjusted 320,000 in the week ending March 15, up from the prior week's 315,000, the Labor Department said.

Most analysts had forecast a larger rise to 330,000 claims.

But the downward trend was visible as the post-recession labor market gradually recovers. The four-week moving average, which helps to smooth out week-over-week volatility, fell by 3,500 to 327,000 claims. A year ago the average stood at 340,750 claims.

"Prior to the last couple weeks, the initial claims level -- absent unexpected seasonal biases -- was bounded between 330,000 and 340,000. The latest data show a slight downward move from that range. This could be the start of another stage in the improvement in labor market conditions," said in a research note.

In February, the US unemployment rate was 6.7 percent and the economy added 175,000 jobs, picking up the pace of job growth.


NIDIAG Workshop, Bamako, Mali

A Workshop dedicated to the Guideline Development for Persistent Digestive Disorders is being held in Bamako, Mali (November 2015 12th and 13rd).

September 2015: Consortium meeting in Basel, Switzerland

The Year 5 Consortium meeting has been held in Basel, Switzerland, on September 2015 the 5th. This meeting gathered together all NIDIAG Partners and they presented and discussed the progresses made in NIDIAG during the last 15 months, under the coordination of the Institute of Tropical Medicines (Antwerpen, Belgium).

Neglected Infectious Diseases (NID) such as trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis receive less than 5% of the global investment for tropical diseases research. Clinical praxis in disease-endemic countries is rarely evidence based and does not make use of the latest innovations in diagnostic technology. NID–related research on diagnostics is particularly underfunded, and diagnostic tools are lacking for a number of NID. The aim of this project is to bridge the gap between existing technological innovation in diagnostics and clinical care practice for NID in resource-poor settings. The specific objectives are to develop simple, cost-effective diagnosis-treatment algorithms for three NID-related clinical syndromes: the persistent fever, the neurological and the digestive syndromes. Evidence-based algorithms for the primary care level will be designed with a patient-centred approach, following guidance from disease-endemic countries stakeholders and making the best possible use of existing assays and treatments. Relevant innovative technology will be introduced when required and comprehensive diagnostic platforms will be developed according to the specific epidemiological contexts in Africa and South-Asia.

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NIDIAG Allo Docteur

 Part1 & Part2

Neglected infectious diseases

They include a range of chronic disabling infections, such as Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, cysticercosis, dracunculiasis, endemic treponematoses, Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trachoma, food-borne trematodiasis but also more acute infections such as brucellosis, enteric fever, melioidosis, cholera, dengue and rabies.

Three major clinical presentations of NIDs are persistent fever, intestinal and neurological syndromes.

Diagnosis and treatment

Treatment options for neglected infectious diseases are generally few and the problem is exacerbated by a critical lack of appropriate diagnostic tools to guide therapeutic decision-making.


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Since 1965, our program has had a significant impact on the cultural and artistic landscape. Notable graduates include directors Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas) and Chris Columbus (Night at the Museum), editor Sally Menke (Pulp Fiction), independent filmmakers Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and Joel Cohen (Fargo), directors of photography Reed Morano (Frozen River) and Ernest Dickerson (Do the Right Thing), TV writer/producers Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Emily Whitesell (Homicide: Life on the Street), documentarians Nanette Burstein (American Teen) and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), experimental filmmaker George Von Steiner and Pixar Studios animation artists Alex Woo and Andrew Coats.

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Evan Kelman

Class of 2015, His film 'Bandito' premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.


Liberation: An Interview with Mukti by Margaret Brownlie

Landscape by MuktiThis article was originally published by The Sentient Times of Ashland, OR.

If you are reading this article, most likely there is something in you seeking Liberation. Recently, I had the opportunity to meet and spend some time talking with Mukti, a teacher of the non-dual path to Awakening, whose name itself means Liberation. Like most, I knew her primarily as Adyashanti’s wife. I was inspired. I found true beauty, abiding gentleness, deep, deep kindness, authentic humbleness, wide-openness, easy humor, depthful clarity, and gentle authority—the kind that comes from Knowing. She has only been formally teaching for a few years, she has published no books, yet she is also not just the new kid on the spiritual circuit. She has spent her life studying the work of Christ, Paramahansa Yogananda, and the Zen non-dual teachings of Adyashanti, following her own path to Liberation, and ripening that for its own sake, until her teaching is instantly recognizable as a true compass for others.

Your teaching is growing really rapidly right now, but to many you’re a new name and a new face. What can you tell us about your teaching about how you came to it?

I find the teaching to be fairly simple, in the sense that the same underlying message seems to come through over and over: that it’s possible to live without a sense of inner division when one’s willing to be willing, and to be curious, and question what is true, what is real, what is living this life. This attitude of receptivity can be facilitated by letting the familiar positions and knowings of the thinking mind rest and relax out of the center, and by sensing into a knowing of a greater order. So, this is the message I come back to over and over again, because many people experience this sense of inner division as conflicting parts of themselves, or they have feelings about how they view things on the inside and then how life is presenting on the outside, and things not jiving with something deep in them that has a love of wholeness and harmony. This sense of division, or lack of harmony, can cause great suffering. There’s a tremendous opportunity that I’ve discovered in my own experience: to really come to know what wholeness is or harmony is, or what intelligence is when not divided.

And how did you come to that?

From as early as I can remember, I had this great desire for people to be kind to one another. I had this sense, somehow, that there was the capacity within us to have a sense of what brotherhood or sisterhood or living in harmony could be. As a little child, I remember watching people and they would do unkind things to other people. I could see that they themselves were in pain and something in me felt that there’s just got to be a more loving way. Later, when I was exposed through my family to Christianity, it really took the form of desiring to know the path of Christ in Christianity. He seemed to be this exemplary person who was able to unite people and to heal, not only physically, but more to heal a sense of ignorance of not knowing their Godliness or their Divinity. And then I think it matured. Through my exposure to Zen or non-dual teachings, I came to an interest in knowing what is Undivided, what is Unmoving, what is Stillness, what is Constancy. So, I would say, those were the main factors that propelled me along. And there was this deep knowing that I wouldn’t be satisfied until I gave everything to This that my heart longed to know and to see.

You mentioned that Christ was one of the influences on your path, what others still influence where you come from now?

In my formative years I was very drawn to the life of Christ and stories of Christ and I went to Catholic schools from grade school all the way through university so it was an influence. At the same time I had a parent, and later both parents, who became very interested in eastern teachings, and particularly the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. So, while I was attending Catholic schools, I was also attending services where I began to be introduced to eastern thought and to meditation. I think that’s where I very first heard about self-realization or realization, and that it was possible.

I had exemplary teachers in Yogananda’s lineage that lived that realization, and I found that incredibly inspiring. I saw that it wasn’t all about Christ being the only son of God but that there’s all of these great beings who lived that Christ Consciousness or God Realization. That began to open up this window, and even got me to think more on a global stage, of how, all over the world, there were people like me who were seeking these deep truths, and seeking ways to open to the best within them. I saw, “Oh, it’s not just limited to one path. These great traditions are happening everywhere.” As a young person that was rather revolutionary I was exposed to different forms of meditation in that practice, and also Hatha Yoga. I began to have more of a relationship with sitting still and quietness and letting the mind settle to some degree or another. I can’t say I was great at it. But also, through Hatha Yoga I was able to let my energies be more redirected to the body and its wisdom. Those were tremendous influences on me. Studying Chinese medicine also began to open my mind and to restructure the way I perceived the world in a way that was far less linear and much more holistic. And the other greatest influence in my life was Adyashanti. His non-dual teachings and the flavor of his Zen background has deeply fed me in the last decade or more.

You have been influenced by body practices in your own life, yoga and acupuncture. When you speak of loving both the form and the formless, how does that relate for you?

The most intimate form we have, that we’re most intimately connected with, is our own body, and if one has the eyes to really see, it’s constantly teaching us and showing us. It’s a great meter of what’s true, what begets Wholeness, or what feels harmonious. Often it’s overridden by the thinking mind, but with practices in which one is willing to set the thinking mind aside for a while and devote time to nurturing one’s body, one can develop a tremendous relationship with that wisdom that the body so affectively and directly communicates.

How does that relate to the Formless?

I don’t see Form and Formlessness as two different things. Formlessness is the greatest mystery that we can encounter and this mystery moves into expression and form as everything that our senses can perceive. It’s not so much that they relate to one another but that they really are one and the same. The One as form is registered in the senses and the One as formlessness can only be known through consciously being the mystery that we are. This is not a knowing of thought but a knowing through conscious being.

I notice that, when I speak of you and Adyashanti, sometimes, there’s a wariness of a western teacher having a non-western name. How did you come to go by Mukti?

Originally I was given the name by Adyashanti. He had an inspiration one day, early on, to come to the group that he was teaching and give everybody a name. This is so typical of the spontaneous nature of Adya. So, he came with names for about ten people, some of which were Sanskrit and some of them were not. I can’t speak to his reasoning, if any, but I do know that for many people I’ve talked to who’ve been given a name, they sit with the meaning of it, and often they have a curiosity to realize the meaning of that name. Let’s say, the meaning might be the name for a quality or an aspect of the Divine. They sit with that name, almost like a koan, to actualize it within themselves.

When he gave me the name Mukti, which is often translated as Liberation, or The Great Release, it was very much a gift for me, and I was very private with it. I just held it in my heart. Very few people knew that I was ever given a name, and I didn’t have any desire to use it publicly. For eight years or so, I did not. Probably the reason I didn’t is because I didn’t want to create any barrier with people who I would meet who may feel like it was strange or foreign, or unfamiliar, or off-putting or something. Being a person I mentioned earlier who very much had an appetite for harmony, I didn’t want anything that might cause division. However, when Adya asked me to teach, it just came to me in an instant, “You will go by the name Mukti.” I had no resistance. And I know well enough from different life experiences that when that type of knowing comes, with that type of nonnegotiable, factual, this-is-the-way-it-is feeling, that there is nothing within me that has any desire to do anything otherwise. I had no story about whether I should or shouldn’t do that. It was just a given.

This Liberation that is your namesake, it seems that’s what we all really want. What does that mean, and how do we get it?

What does liberation really mean? This is the golden question and this is a tremendous inquiry for anyone who truly wants to know that. I don’t know that everyone wants liberation. A lot of people want their idea of what it is. Perhaps, they view it as a state that will feel great all the time, or like a “get-out-of-jail-free card,” as Adya says. But liberation—it doesn’t answer to our desire to feel better. There’s this overwhelming tendency for people to assert what it is that they want and in that assertion they are denying what is already here, what is already present. There is no being free of what is. One might even say liberation, by its nature, affirms reality as it is.

And you ask, “How do you get it?” The best way I know how to point the Way is to invite or even challenge people to cease those efforts to deny what is present and to withdraw the energies that feed this sense of “me” that has this incredible, desirous appetite to seek. By reinvesting one’s energy, by seeing what is present already, what is here already, what is actually living this life, one can come to realize the true nature of Self, the true nature of reality.

How do we cease those efforts? Well, ultimately there is no “how” to ceasing; ceasing is the result of no longer striving and seeking. People strive and seek because they believe that they will be fulfilled by what they are seeking. Very few people consider that fulfillment, often brief, comes when things are attained because for that moment, seeking ceases. So, first one must see how seeking itself can cause suffering. Once that is seen clearly, one loses the appetite to seek. For some time, seeking may continue to varying degrees, but eventually the energy for it runs out. Seeking can take different forms. For example, it can manifest as accumulation of possessions or as accumulation of beliefs and concepts that one identifies with. The beliefs and concepts that cause great suffering are those which divide up experience and argue with reality. For example, “This is right, and this is wrong,” or “This shouldn’t be” are concepts that we cannot know to be true outside a thought that says they are. Few people question the real truth of these judgments, opinions, and beliefs or consider what their experience is when such positions are suspended or dropped.

You spoke about reinvesting your energy. We often think of this kind of shift we call Liberation as something that takes place in seclusion or on retreat, but is awakening in any way different for a contemporary person in a mainstream culture? Does it require withdrawing?

Awakening is awakening, regardless of time. If one finds within him or herself an impulse toward liberation, toward knowing and being what is real, that person will experience that movement of Consciousness and have the opportunity to stop and be consumed by that, regardless of what society or historical age they live in. Perhaps one’s path prior to awakening is different for a contemporary person. We do have some interesting factors in this age with all the worldwide communications, and the scope of what the contemporary person has being input into their consciousness.

There’s a lot of news and things that are understandably disturbing that people might fixate on or become identified with in ways that create tremendous suffering. This might be quite different than a life of a monastic up in the high mountains where the scope of input that they receive is of a whole different scale, lesser scale. Most contemporary persons don’t have the support of, let’s say a monastery. And yet, monastics have their own challenges—different societies, different challenges, just different sets of parameters. Somebody in a different age and time may have searched or walked or traveled across countries to find someone who could point the way. Now they can just Google and get to know teachers on the web. So it’s a different ball game, same ball. As to being in seclusion, awakening doesn’t require physically withdrawing, but it does require a willingness to live a life that’s not centered around grasping for what one wants and pushing away what one doesn’t want. That push-pull movement of desire draws us into illusion and is what obscures our true nature.

And your own Liberation, how did that unfold?

I suppose there are infinite factors but my story has some themes. From very early on I made choices at different junctures that were informed by this great sense of wanting to know that which is Whole or Harmonious, Without Judgment, that which is Undivided. So, when I look back over my life, continually, through different relationships or different jobs, I would choose over and over again by following something deep within me that I could just sense was steering me towards the discovery of that. At different times I might have called it my Inner Guru or my Deepest Knowing. And so, that’s an overall theme. And then also, just a sense of deep listening: truly wanting to know the way, and listening deeply to that inner wisdom and my body wisdom to show me more and more how to act in the world, how to be in the world as a person, but also how to come to know myself more deeply. I can’t even say that I can take credit for those things. It was just something moving me to be that way. Ultimately I think it was a willingness to stop, to stop even the searching, to stop thinking I knew anything and just being willing to get in the back seat.

More specifically, on the day when I had the most significant identity shift I was listening to Adya speak about Stillness and that inner knowing that was seeking to know itself lit up, like a heat seeking missile, with this question that didn’t come from my mind but was deep within me: “What is Stillness?” I sat in meditation to really open myself up to discovering what Stillness might be. It wasn’t an answer to be offered to the mind, but the question delivered me to direct experience of what always is, what is ever present, what is unmoving. In the days to follow, that flowered into that which is forever unchanging and unmoving expressing itself as everything that changes and moves and births itself as form. Since then, there’s been ever more seeing of how that comes into form, and how it forgets itself. There’s been more and more welcoming into remembrance of all of that which has forgotten its True Nature, and in that remembering there’s been a welcoming of all those parts of myself, and in turn of others, that feel separate due to a forgetting that they are the Whole.

There’s stillness that comes from you speaking about all that, and then there is life. On your web site there’s this wonderful picture of you and Adya at Disneyland and you both look like you’re having so much fun. When I first saw that it was such a contrast to most ‘spiritual’ web sites—it was a delight. Is this where Liberation leads? To that joy?

Liberation leads to far less and far more than people can imagine. It can be very ordinary, and yet in that ordinariness it has an exquisite beauty, and it includes everything. So, it includes the joyous times. It includes the bitter-sweet times. It includes the difficult times, and there is an overwhelming sense that none of it is to be missed, that you wouldn’t miss any of it for the world. So in that sense, there’s very much a dearness to things—which might bubble up as joy or may be very quiet. There’s no longer a sense of someone who needs to have a say in that. It’s all an expression of our True Nature. The knowing is that what you are is enough in and of itself—that no experience, joyous or not, can add to or take away from what you are. You are quite enough as you are.


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hillary schneider at epona rise retreat centre

Your ability to show up in the world and help people is deeply dependent on how well you know yourself and recognize and embrace your talents.

Have you ever worked with a client or taught a class and felt a nagging sense of insecurity about your work?

Maybe your enthusiasm for your work has wilted and you wonder if you're on the right path.

Or you have a client more stuck than you anticipated.

Times of growth are normal. How you handle it creates your future.

Are you ready to step into yourself?

Many of us are good at helping others navigate soul storms. We're so skilled, we know our way around them and can subconsciously hide the deepest truths from ourselves and our colleagues. This is why a coach can work with another coach and not be able to access soul stirring insights that would lead to true clarity and alignment.

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"I had amazing breakthroughs after my sessions with Hillary. She provided a beautiful container for me to work through my blocks. She is able to see your potential and gently, but firmly, nudge you to move forward. I will forever be grateful for her guidance!"

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Working with Hillary has helped me get clear, set effective intentions, and manifest what I desire. Most importantly, I have learned how to master my inner world so I can stay in alignment, keep my vibration high, and step into my light.  It takes practice and commitment to do this work - but it's absolutely possible and Hillary shows you how! Hillary is a guide with such clarity, humility, and beauty. It has been an honour working with her. If there is a voice within that says to reach out to Hillary, you owe it to yourself and the world to do so.  We truly are the masters of our inner world, the source of our own power, and the creator of our dreams. Welcome to a fascinating journey!

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She has an innate ability to read and react to your energy.

When you see what's really going on in your energy, your awareness is instantly awakened.

Your transformation begins with awareness.

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Kamille Hottinger


Buyer Beware

Recently, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a decision that highlighted the fact that companies cannot assume that the forms and agreements of a prior company will provide the same protections for a successor company. In Acordia of Ohio, L.L.C. v. Fishel, Slip Opinion No. 2012-Ohio-2297 (May 24, 2012), Acordia, a successor company, attempted to stand in the shoes of its predecessors and enforce noncompetition agreements entered into between the predecessors and some acquired employees who left and began to work for a direct competitor. Acordia lost 19 customers and $1 million as a result of the employees’ defection to the competitor.

The court held that although the agreements transferred as a matter of law by the merger between the two companies, they were enforceable only according to their specific terms. The agreements at issue lacked any assignment language and defined the parties as only the employee and the specific predecessor company executing the agreement with the employee. As a result, Acordia (as the successor) was not permitted to step into the shoes of the predecessor companies. The court found that under merger law the predecessor companies ceased to exist after the series of mergers that culminated in the merger with Acordia. Thus, the mergers terminated the employees’ employment with the predecessors and triggered the two-year noncompete periods. Because the employees left Acordia more than two years after any of the relevant mergers triggered the employees’ respective noncompete periods, Acordia could not enforce the agreements against any of them.

What Employers Can Learn from This Decision

There are specific lessons to be learned from this decision:

  1. First, when conducting due diligence for corporate mergers and acquisitions, employers should review the terms of the restrictive covenants for any employees being acquired to ensure that the agreements can be assigned to the successor entity.
  2. Second, there may be different noncompete versions for employees hired at different points in time. An acquisition provides an excellent opportunity to create uniformity among the multiple variations. In Acordia, the court noted that during one acquisition the acquired employees executed several new-hire documents (e.g., applications, background check authorizations, etc.). This would have been the time to ask the employees to execute new noncompete agreements to secure an enforceable agreement if the employee left the new company.
  3. Third, company growth or market changes should prompt review of noncompete agreements to ensure any time or geographic restrictions within the agreements have not become unreasonable thereby invalidating the agreements.
  4. Fourth, new employee agreements should anticipate and plan for corporate mergers and acquisitions by including a provision stating that the agreement is between the employee and the present company, including its successors, heirs, and assigns.
  5. Finally, the potential value of enforceable restrictive covenants should not be underestimated. Here, the ruling that the noncompete restrictions of the agreements at issue were not enforceable by the entity seeking to enforce them cost that entity at least $1 million.

Michelle R. Arendt is a shareholder in the Cleveland office of Ogletree Deakins. LerVal M. Elva is an associate in the Cleveland office of Ogletree Deakins.

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