Oracle / SQL Questions

Q1. What is PL/SQL ?
A1. A programming language available in Oracle. It is a way of wrapping SQL with 3GL constructs such as IF..THEN..ELSE, WHILE etc.
Q2. What is locking and what is it used for ?
A2 Locking is a mechanism to restrict access to data. It prevents one user updating data whilst another user is looking at it.
Q3. What types of locking are available with Oracle?
A3. Row locking and table locking.
Q4. What happens if a tablespace clause is left off of a primary key constraint clause?
A4. This results in the index that is automatically generated being placed in the users default tablespace. Since this will usually be the same tablespace as the table is being created in, this can cause serious performance problems.
Q5. What packages (if any) has Oracle provided for use by developers?
Q6. When should more than one DB writer process be used? How many should be used?

Q1. Explain the use of the WHERE clause.
A1. It directs SQL to extract data from rows where the value of the column is the same as the current value of the WHERE clause variable.
Q2. What technique is used to retrieve data from more than one table in a single SQL statement?
A2. The Join statement combines data from more that two tables
Q3. What is a foreign key?
A3. It identifies a related row in another table and establishes a logical relationship between rows in two tables.
Q4. What are the reasons for adding an index to a table ?
A4. To increase lookup performance. For a unique key to guarantee the uniqueness of the values for a column on a table.
Q5. What is a primary key on a table used for ?
A5. Guaranteeing the uniqueness of a column on a table.
Q6. What is the purpose of a view?
A6. Views can be used to join and display data from multiple tables and to limit the number of columns and/or rows that are selected and displayed.

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Almost Salinas was filmed exclusively on location in Central California. A 1950s diner and gas station were constructed for the film in Bitterwater Valley, 42 miles east of Paso Robles, a crossroads that doubled for the remote town of Cholame where actor James Dean met his untimely death. At the end of each day just before sunset, a herd of cows belonging to the local rancher whose land we were on, came out of the hills to graze in the pastures below. You couldn’t hope for a more idyllic setting to make a movie.


Caister Academic Press

Microbial Ecology

Metagenomics: Current Advances and Emerging Concepts
Edited by: Diana Marco
Cutting-edge and emerging conceptual and methodological tools used in metagenomics
A review of current research, methods and applications in Microbial Ecology adapted from Environmental Microbiology and Metagenomics.

Microbial Ecology

Adapted from Environmental Molecular Microbiology and Metagenomics: Theory, Methods and Applications

Microbial Diversity and Phylogeny

The small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rRNA) has been the cornerstone of microbial ecology studies over the last 15 years, and has provided much of what we know about Bacterial and Archaeal diversity and community structure, and has greatly aided microbial taxonomy. Genomics is aiding our understanding of the relationships among closely related organisms, and ultimately of natural populations.
In a recent study the available 16S rRNA genes from species type strains were examined. The most distant sequences in the median genus and family were about 4.4% and 14% different, respectively. The largest dissimilarity between a sequence and its closest relative in the same taxa (similar to single-linkage clustering distance) was 3.5% and 10% for the median genus and family. The ratio of the two values averaged less than 1.5 for all ranks, indicating that most taxa are not elongated, but are fairly spherical. When the near-full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences in the public databases were clustered into groups at proxy distances for species, genus, family and order, the number of clusters with time increased exponentially for all ranks documenting the enormous diversity of the microbial world. (Recommended reading: The Archaea)

Genomics and Metagenomics

The extensive suite of molecular-based approaches developed over the past decade has enabled the field of metagenomics, the study of uncultured microorganisms. Paramont to metagenomic analysis is use of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies, which with the advent of low cost next-generation methods is transforming metagenomics. The application of metagenomics, to both global environments and microbes associated with a living host, has facilitated study of the functional ecology of environmental microorganisms. Novel functional genes and environmental functional signatures can be retrieved using metagenomics, and these can form the basis of hypothesis driven analyses of uncultured microorganisms. A with any technology, the daunting task is to understand and apply the growing number of metagenomic sequences in the context of microbial ecology and evolution.

Microbial ecology is currently experiencing a renaissance spurred by the rapid development of molecular techniques and "omics" technologies in particular. As never before, these tools have allowed researchers in the field to produce a massive amount of information through in situ measurements and analysis of natural microbial communities, both vital approaches to the goal of unraveling the interactions of microbes with their environment and with one another. While genomics can provide information regarding the genetic potential of microbes, proteomics characterizes the primary end-stage product, proteins, thus conveying functional information concerning microbial activity. Advances in mass spectrometry instrumentation and methodologies, along with bioinformatics approaches, have brought this analytic chemistry technique to relevance in the biological realm due to its powerful applications in proteomics. Mass spectrometry-enabled proteomics, including "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches, is capable of supplying a wealth of biologically-relevant information, from simple protein cataloging of the proteome of a microbial community to identifying post-translational modifications of individual proteins.

Nucleic-Acid-based Characterization

Nucleic acid-based techniques were first used to characterise natural microbial communities in the early 1990s and are now used routinely. The ability to characterise communities without the requirement for cultivation has led to enormous advances in our ability to describe microbial communities and to determine the factors that influence their structure. New generations of molecular techniques provide even greater descriptive power and can be used to assess the physiological potential and ecosystem function of communities. They also enable microbial ecologists to address fundamental questions in population and community ecology, including investigation of the links between diversity and function. This chapter describes methods currently used to analyse nucleic acids extracted from environmental samples, and shows how they can be used to characterise communities. It also looks ahead to exciting new technologies that are likely to increase greatly our ability to explore and understand the complex functions and interactions of microbial communities in natural environments.

Microarrays in Microbial Ecology

Microarrays have proven to be a useful and high-throughput method to provide targeted DNA sequence information for up to many thousands of specific genetic regions in a single test. A microarray consists of multiple DNA oligonucleotide probes that, under high stringency conditions, hybridize only to specific complementary nucleic acid sequences (targets). A fluorescent signal indicates the presence and, in many cases, the abundance of genetic regions of interest. In this chapter we will look at how microarrays are used in microbial ecology, especially with the recent increase in microbial community DNA sequence data. Of particular interest to microbial ecologists, phylogenetic microarrays are used for the analysis of phylotypes in a community and functional gene arrays are used for the analysis of functional genes, and, by inference, phylotypes in environmental samples. A phylogenetic microarray that has been developed by the Andersen laboratory, the PhyloChip, will be discussed as an example of a microarray that targets the known diversity within the 16S rRNA gene to determine microbial community composition. Using multiple, confirmatory probes to increase the confidence of detection and a mismatch probe for every perfect match probe to minimize the effect of cross-hybridization by non-target regions, the PhyloChip is able to simultaneously identify any of thousands of taxa present in an environmental sample. The PhyloChip is shown to reveal greater diversity within a community than rRNA gene sequencing due to the placement of the entire gene product on the microarray compared with the analysis of up to thousands of individual molecules by traditional sequencing methods. A functional gene array that has been developed by the Zhou laboratory, the GeoChip, will be discussed as an example of a microarray that dynamically identifies functional activities of multiple members within a community. The recent version of GeoChip contains more than 24,000 50mer oligonucleotide probes and covers more than 10,000 gene sequences in 150 gene categories involved in carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus cycling, metal resistance and reduction, and organic contaminant degradation. GeoChip can be used as a generic tool for microbial community analysis, and also link microbial community structure to ecosystem functioning. Examples of the application of both arrays in different environmental samples will be described in the two subsequent sections.

The Soil Environment

Kornelia Smalla and Jan Dirk van Elsas Until fairly recently, the living soil has been considered as a functional black box that is intrinsically too difficult to be unravelled into its core components. However, this concept has changed with the advent of the modern methodologies. The intricacies of microbial life in soil has been impacted by the advanced, mainly molecularly-based, approaches that have been unleashed on the soil habitat in recent years. The application of molecular and other advanced methods (cultivation-independent analyses) has provided exciting new insights into microbial life in soil.

Soil is an extremely diverse and complex habitat containing many microsites and gradients that form a range of different biogeochemical interfaces. Depending on the proportion of sand, silt and clay, the surface area in soil can vary from 11 cm2 up to 8 million cm2 per gram of soil read more.... The aggregates formed by minerals, soil organic matter, fungal hyphae, roots and plant debris offer a range of potential niches for microorganisms with different lifestyles. The architecture of the soil pore network essentially defines the habitat colonized by the microorganisms and the pore space strongly influences the nature and extent of the interactions between the organisms inhabiting the soil. The heterogeneous physical structure of soil affects the spatial distribution of water, oxygen and nutrients, which in turn influences the composition and activity of the microbial communities themselves. As an example, the spatial distribution of bacteria in topsoil and subsoil was found to be different, but lateral variations in spatial distributions are also likely to occur.

In terms of their occurrence in microsites, bacteria can be found in soil as single cells but most often they occur as microcolonies, i.e. small agglomerates of cells that can be regarded as primative soil biofilms read more.... Microorganisms are the major drivers of geochemical and biotransformation processes in soil. In concert with the soil's inorganic and organic constituents, microbes are influential in actively shaping the architecture of the soil matrix by the formation and restructuring of soil aggregates. In addition, the diversity of microbial communities is extremely high in most soils. There are only a few quantitative estimates of the numbers of microbial taxa that can co-exist in just a single gram of soil, but an advanced analysis of nucleic acid-based analyses, based on re-association kinetics, has suggested that prokaryotic diversity can reach 1 million species genomes per g, which by far exceeds the common estimates of bacterial richness in soil obtained from cultivation-based studies read more....

A major driving force that spurs the microbial diversity of soil is the enormous heterogeneity of the soil habitat, allowing the formation of numerous niches. Different factors, such as the presence or absence of water, soil pH, temperature, redox potential and the soil organic matter content do not only influence the types of microbes colonizing the respective microniche but also their activity. All these factors can vary greatly between the different microhabitats and, thus, not only the composition but also the activity and interactions of the microbiota will largely vary due to the spatial and temporal heterogeneity between as well as within the microsites.

A key determinant of microbial fitness in soil is the ability of microbial cells to fine-tune their cellular metabolism to the abiotic and biotic conditions that prevail locally. In addition, the rate of adaptation of microorganisms to changing environmental conditions might be enhanced by horizontal gene transfer processes read more.... Undoubtedly, the most important prerequisite for microbial life in soil is the availability of water. Next to being indispensable for microbial life, the water in soil carries dissolved gases, ions and nutrients to microorganisms, and, in cases of saturation, may quickly establish anaerobic conditions. For instance, an increase of the moisture content of soil can greatly influence the microbial communities that are locally present, in particular by connecting pore spaces in and among aggregates that were unconnected without water, thus increasing the aggregate connectivity. Predation by protozoa or Bdellovibrio species will therefore be particularly enhanced in relatively wet soils.

Plant Microbial Communities

Marine Microbial Environments

Ocean microbial communities play important roles in global geochemical cycles. From the earliest cultivation experiments to today's metagenomic analyses, most of the major discoveries in this field were driven by applications of novel methods. Molecular ecology had a major impact by revealing the true scope of microbial diversity and providing genetic markers that could be used to track important species, even in cases where cultures were unavailable. In some cases, metagenomics provided insight into the biochemical adaptations of these organisms. A renaissance in culturing technique led to isolates of many abundant ocean microbes that could then be studied in a laboratory setting. Today a consortium of approaches that span scales from molecules to ocean basins are being applied to ocean micobial ecosystems, with the result that marine microbiology is becoming a highly integrated science.

Human Microbial Environment

Applications of recent advances in molecular methods have illuminated the previously hidden diversity of the microbial world that not only inhabits our bodies, but that also lives in a close symbiotic association with us. This human-associated microbiota, or human microbiome, is responsible for many key functions in our bodies. Increasing evidence suggests many important roles of individual members of the human microbiome and their respective influences towards ultimate health and disease of the host. This chapter highlights some of the important functions of the human microbiome, many of which were gleaned using different molecular approaches. The clinical field has thus greatly benefited from the molecular toolbox that was initially developed by microbial ecologists for investigation of other complex ecosystems, such as soil. As the field has progressively moved away from a dependence on cultivation-based approaches towards increasing reliance on molecular approaches, the amount of knowledge about the human microbiome composition and function has greatly expanded. Most recent studies using molecular tools, including various 'omics' approaches, have focused on the intestinal microbiota. Therefore, we have also primarily discussed the gut microbiota in this chapter. In addition, the influence of difference host-related factors, such as genetics, age, birth mode, diet and geographical location are discussed with respect to their impact on the composition and related function of the human microbiome. Some beneficial bacteria, such as probiotic strains, are beneficial whereas others are detrimental to human health. Some of the latter include correlations of microbial compositions to intestinal diseases and cancer. The more information that we have about the key roles of specific members of the human microbiome, the more potential we have for manipulation of the composition of the microbiota to enhance the prevalence of beneficial species and to diminish the amounts of detrimental ones. This is a guiding vision for future research in this area. (Recommended reading: Lactobacillus and Probiotics and Prebiotics)

Wastewater Treatment

Satoshi Okabe and Yoichi Kamagata Of Earth's diverse microbial habitats, wastewater treatment processes are one of the most elaborate anthropogenic niches geared towards one purpose: cleaning up water. Recent application of molecular techniques is unveiling the microbial composition and architecture of the complex communities involved in the treatment processes. It is now recognized that wastewater processes harbor a vast variety of microorganisms most of which are yet-to-be cultured, hence uncharacterized. In this chapter, the latest knowledge on diversity, structure and functions of microbial communities in nitrifying processes, anaerobic ammonia oxidation processes and methane fermenting processes are summarized.

Bacterial Biofilms

Many bacteria can grow and live as biofilms, in which single microbial cells individually interconnect with each other through an extracellular matrix. Biofilm-forming bacteria pose severe problems in the environment, industry and health care sector due to increased bacterial survival competence in the environment and the protective nature of biofilms that prevent effective eradication. Technological progress in microscopy, molecular genetics and genome analysis has significantly advanced our understanding of the structural and molecular aspects of biofilms, especially of extensively studied model organisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Biofilm development can be divided into several key steps including attachment, microcolony formation, biofilm maturation and dispersion; and in each step bacteria may recruit different components and molecules including flagella, type IV pili, DNA and exopolysaccharides. The rapid progress in biofilm research has also unveiled several genetic regulation mechanisms implicated in biofilm regulation such as quorum sensing and the novel secondary messenger cyclic-di-GMP. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of biofilm formation has facilitated the exploration of novel strategies to control bacterial biofilms.

Further reading

Further reading


Scientific computation is an area of research dedicated to the study of adapted numerical methods for solving specific applied problems; it relies heavily on complexity theory and algorithms which are rapidly developing fields of computer science. Topics of interest in scientific computation include matrix computation, continuous methods for ordinary differential equations, interpolants for Runge-Kutta-Nystrom pairs, stability of fluid flows, nondestructive eddy current testing, application of the Fatou-Julia iteration theory in dielectric spectroscopy, high precision polynomial rootfinder by matrix methods, and applications of wavelets in signal and image processing. Heavy use is made of Matlab, Mathematica, Maple, and Fluent.

Ongoing research projects include image processing by means of singular value decomposition (SVD) multiresolution analysis, weighted truncated SVD, and neural networks with multiwavelets; audio signal processing and music, solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations by means of wavelets, application of complex zonal polynomials in maximizing the bandwidth of multiple input multiple output (MIM0) signal; Continuous and discrete wavelets are used for pipe system diagonosis and leak detection by unsteady-state tests.

Mise à jour/ update : 2004.05.05


Also found in: Thesaurus, Legal, Encyclopedia.

1. Involving, of the nature of, or being a contradiction: contradictory reports about the vaccine's effectiveness. See Synonyms at opposite.
2. Given to contradicting: The contradictory council members often ended up squabbling.
n. pl. con·tra·dic·to·ries Logic
Either of two propositions related in such a way that it is impossible for both to be true or both to be false.

con′tra·dic′to·ri·ly adv.
con′tra·dic′to·ri·ness n.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.contradictoriness - the relation that exists when opposites cannot coexist
oppositeness, opposition - the relation between opposed entities
incompatibility, inconsistency, mutual exclusiveness, repugnance - the relation between propositions that cannot both be true at the same time
References in classic literature ?
But he was not without contradictoriness and rebellion even towards his own resolve.
See Appendix 1) To the contrary, we emphasized their complexity, variability, and contradictoriness in relationships among key factors, and in more general explanatory and interpretive terms that shape expectations, theory, and policy.
Adamson (1993: 40), in summarizing the changes that took place around what was then Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, concluded: "Although the Florentine avant-garde would, on the whole, deplore this change, it was perhaps indicative of the contradictoriness of their position that the back room of the Giubbe Rosse would later serve as Lacerba's only true editorial office.
Thus, far from being endorsed by the singularity of a complex character distinct from the generally flat characters that surround her, the culture of individualism is exposed in Lady Susan in all of its contradictoriness, beginning indeed with the equality from which individualism springs in the "egalitarian family," which together sanction the competition and conflict that defines family relations in general.
In its various components, identity considered as negotiation involves the capacity to respond to the multiplicity and contradictoriness of the elements of which we are composed at any given moment.
It is as if the opposites of the world, whose contradictoriness and conflict make all our difficulties and troubles were melted into unity.
It is this essential doubleness of pastoral (its historical construction and its receding image of wholeness in memory) that made it an appropriate genre for mapping out the contradictoriness of the Old South, a region that was an offshoot of nineteenth-century international commerce and not an organic development out of a supposed feudal precedent.
Simultaneously, Robert is able to draw on the contradictoriness of those ideals (that masculinity is muscular, but also unassuming) to position himself as normative, and not pathologically lacking in self-acceptance.
In chapter 9 the authors pronounce themselves 'deeply sympathetic to postmodernism in its hospitality to popular genres' and to poststructuralism 'in its stress on heterogeneity, difference, contradictoriness, and indeterminancy; in its drawing attention to fictive elements in scholarly, including historical, writing.
The book is a testament to human complexity and unpredictability, contradictoriness and contrariness, some of what we all partake of, albeit on nowhere near so grand a scale.
The Ancient Mariner and Crispin), individuals that discern that specific behavior and logic do not explain nor mitigate the essential contradictoriness of the real world.


A breach of a contract will likely result in a loss for one or all parties to the contract. The loss in a contract which both parties reasonably foresee at the time they enter into the contract is called consequential loss and is typically limited or excluded from liability in the contract. Australian courts have emphasised that parties should define the consequential loss they seek to exclude in specific terms. Below, we explain the court’s position and the importance of careful drafting.

Consequential Loss

A party who suffers loss as a result of the breach of contract can claim damages. Damages are awarded to put the party affected by the breach in the same financial position as if the breach had not occurred. That is, the same financial position had the other party performed their obligations under the contract. Damages are the principal remedy available for breach of contract.

Courts awarded damages primarily for two different kinds of loss. That is, damages for:

  • Direct loss; and
  • Consequential (or Indirect) loss.

These two types of loss are known as the two limbs of Hadley v Baxendale [1854] EWHC J70. This case concerns the late delivery of a new crankshaft for a steam engine in nineteenth-century England. In this case, the Court held that for cases of breach of contract, there existed two distinct types of damages. These were damages for loss arising naturally from the breach according to the usual order of things (direct loss) and damages for losses that were within the reasonable contemplation of the parties when they contracted as the probable result of breach (consequential loss).

Australia’s Position

Until recently, the judgement in Hadley v Baxendale provided the definition for consequential loss in Australian contract law. It was the loss that a party suffered on account of breach of contract that was reasonably contemplated by the parties when they made their agreement. It typically included losses such as loss of revenue, profit or opportunity on account of the breach. It could also encompass other losses that were the subject of discussion between the parties at the time they executed their agreement.

Following the Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal’s decision in Environmental Systems Pty Ltd v Peerless Holdings Pty Ltd VSCA [2008] 26, the meaning of “consequential loss” has become more ambiguous. Here, Judge Nettle casted doubt on the idea that the second limb in Hadley v Baxendale limits consequential loss. The Court noted that “ordinary reasonable business persons” would naturally understand the term consequential loss to include “everything beyond the normal measure of damages, such as profits lost or expenses incurred through breach”.

The Court blurred traditional distinctions between direct and consequential loss. Subsequent decisions on this point in different states suggest that the exact meaning of consequential loss is unclear and depends on, to a significant degree, context. That is, according to the unique facts and agreement that characterise a dispute rather than any orthodoxy.

Key Takeaways

This ambiguity in the meaning of consequential loss suggests that when parties draft their final agreement, they expressly define what types of loss are or are not recoverable in the event of a breach. Parties to a contract should avoid references to consequential loss in a generic sense. If you have any questions or need assistance drafting your agreement to reflect any exclusions or limitations, get in touch with our contract lawyers on 1300 544 755.

Carole Hemingway

Ask Carole a Question


Life Coaching is all about YOU

Yes, YOU!  Do you feel your life has no direction, are you feeling a bit lost and don’t seem to fit anywhere, maybe feel invisible, feeling getting up every day is like a chore, a hassle, not feeling heard or loved. Feeling sad, depressed, anxiety creating major distractions for your life, maybe asking yourself one of the questions below :-

imagesWhat I am supposed to do with my life?
Why am I here?
Am I in an abusive relationship, he/she doesn’t think I do anything right?
I am sure I am worth more than this, I just don’t know how to make the change?
I hate school but what alternatives are there for me?
Why can’t I find a great partner, someone who will love me unconditionally?
How come I always attract the wrong people to my life?
Why do I not feel heard, why do I feel like I am walked over all the time?
Should I change my career?
I just want to fit in and don’t know how?
I don’t want to be sad anymore, but I feel stuck?

I will help you one on one to work through letting go of what no longer serves you, finding what is really important in your life and how to achieve your goals.

To book your exclusive one hour session/s:-

  1. Please contact me by phone call or text on 0426 218869 or email Mel at [email protected] to organise:-
  2. Date and time (I suggest having a few options);
  3. l will provide you with payment options;
  4. Fee Schedule below (advise which option you choose);
  5. Payment should be made prior to appointment unless otherwise discussed;
  6. Please read Cancellation Policy;
  7. We can hold the session in person (I am located in Caloundra) or via Phone/Skype/Messenger (agreed service confirmed prior to appointment time).

The way this works best is the following:-
I work with you one on one,
I will get in the trenches with YOU,
I will help you work through letting go of what no longer serves you, and provide you with the tools you need to live a wonderful life,
I won’t give up on you and I will believe in you,
I will be completely honest with you always,
I will motivate you when you feel you have nothing left to give,
I will encourage you when you just don’t get it, to see a different perspective,

You are not alone, you have a confident you can rely on
BUT I AM NOT THE ONE who does the hard work, you ARE

As you take the journey with me, your life coach, you will feel empowered and motivated to assess situations yourself. You will be reminded of your strengths, helping you to feel better about yourself and receive valuable honest feedback on your thoughts and behaviours, with the main aim to coaching into your wonderful life.

I understand the first step is the hardest step to take, but don’t hesitate, if you feel lost and confused and need direction to starting your personal journey to relationship success and happiness, call or email Mel now.

Fee Schedule*

One on one Relationship Therapy session

Relationship Resolutions fees are only $150.00 per hour session. (NOTE: a standard industry fee is as of 2015 is $238.00)

If you are referred by your doctor and do not hold a Health Care Card – out of pocket fee for an hour session is only $80.00.

If you hold a hold a Health Care Card – please contact Mel to discuss a further discounted fee option.

A package of 6 sessions, paid in full up front, for only $750.00 (saving $150.00)

A package of 10 sessions, paid in full upfront for only $1,100.00 (saving $400.00)

Let me help you. You don't have to take this journey alone


Fringe Benefits

16 10 2009

Last night I watched the first episode of the US TV series Fringe. It came out in 2008 having been created by J.J. Abrams and a few others. J.J. Abrams was the guy who created Lost so let’s just say I am approaching this series with care. Who wants to waste their life on something where you never get an answer?!fringe_ink_aith

Fringe features a motley crew made up of a female FBI agent, an elderly male mad professor and Pacey off Dawson’s Creek as they investigate ‘fringe science’. It is very clearly inspired by The X-Files although  the lead female can’t quite match up to Scully. It was also quite unnecessary that in the first episode they had a completely gratuitous scene with her in her underwear. However, her voice is pleasant which is a nice change from the usual squeaky accents they seem to go for in lead females. Joshua Jackson is doing his best to create a bit of chemistry between them but so far she’s just too sanitized to give anything back.

The first episode of Fringe was gripping and imaginative. The acting was of a reasonable standard although the person who really makes the show is John Noble as the mad professor. The best bit of the episode was him talking about how profound Sponge Bob Squarepants is whilst being nuzzled by a cow. The episodes are longer than standard meaning that it feels almost like watching a film and I would say that it’s one flaw was that they tried to pack too much into the first episode. Why can’t more TV series emulate The Wire and go for being realistically slow?

My overall verdict is that Fringe was clever, funny and keep up the good work John Noble! However, I am well aware that it could go downhill from here.


Why did it take America so long to declare independence?

Expert Answers
larrygates eNotes educator| Certified Educator

The primary reason it took Americans a long time to declare independence is that most of them considered themselves Englishmen, and as such, the King's good and loyal servants. Although independence was perhaps inevitable at some point, the primary cause was that Americans considered themselves entitled to all the rights of Englishmen; that this included their right to be taxed only by their duly elected representatives, rights which they believed had been denied to them. Even after the Battle of Lexingon and Concord, the members of the Second Continental Congress attempted reconciliation with Britain, maintaining their loyalty as the Kings servants, and asking only that they be treated as were their fellow subjects on the far side of the Atlantic:

 We ask but for peace, liberty, and safety. We wish not a diminution of the prerogative, nor do we solicit the grant of any newright in our favor. Your royal authority over us, and our connection with Great Britain, we shall always carefully and zealously endeavor to support and maintain.

 Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence similarly stated that Independence was not a matter lightly regarded:

Accordingly, Americans were reluctant to declare Independence not so much from fear of the power of the Empire, but because in many respects they hoped to remain a part of that Empire. It was only when reconciliation seemed impossible that they turned to war to free themselves.

pohnpei397 eNotes educator| Certified Educator

What you have to remember when thinking about this is what a tremendously big step it was to declare independence.  Britain was arguably the most powerful country in the world at the time.  It was the richest and the most democratic.  It would not have been obvious that it was a good idea to break away from such a country.  Partly due to these factors, many Americans were reluctant to try to become independent.  Even after the revolution started, something like one-third of colonists are believed to have been pro-British with another third or so relatively uncommitted to either side.

It would have been very scary to declare independence from the UK when being attached to it carried benefits and when the UK might well have been able to defeat your rebellion and punish the rebels.  So it really is no wonder it took so long to declare independence.


Patentees Back Themselves Into a Corner at PTAB

Both patentees and challengers alike were displeased with inter partes patent reexamination prior to the America Invents Act (AIA). Inter partes patent reexamination was too slow to serve as a true alternative to litigation for patent challengers, and patentees argued the system was biased against them. In formulating the AIA Congress fashioned a replacement, Inter Partes Review (IPR).  The IPR statutes, not surprisingly, mandate speed, and include mechanisms directed to the perceived lack of fairness of the old reexamination model.

Patentees argued that inter partes patent reexamination procedure favored patent challengers since: (1) Declarants in reexamination were not subject to cross-examination; and (2) a patentee was unable to respond to a request for reexamination before it was ordered by the USPTO. Specifically, patentees urged that had they an opportunity to respond to the reexamination request before the USPTO made a decision, years of harassing/expensive reexamination and appeal proceedings could be avoided.  Further, they argued the ability to cross-examine a challenger 's declarants would also help expose baseless expert theories assailing their patented claims. For this reason, the IPR statutes provides for cross-examination of declarants as well as a "preliminary response" from patentees.

Yet, even with the added IPR mechanisms, patentees are not faring much better as compared to the days of inter partes patent reexamination. As a result, patentees have lobbied for further changes. These changes, some of which are now proposed as formal rule changes by Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) may only make matters worse for some patentees.

Over the first few years of IPR, patentees were quick to point out that the preliminary response does not truly level the playing field since new expert testimony is prohibited. That is, since the petitioner request may include testimonial evidence, but a preliminary response may not respond in kind, patentees argue that it is not surprising that trials are being instituted at a high rate.

Of course, if this patentee criticism were valid, far more trials would conclude favorably to patentees once such evidence is entered (it is permitted later, during trial). Nevertheless, responsive to this criticism, the PTAB now proposes to eliminate the prohibition against evidence in the preliminary response.

§ 42.107 Preliminary response to petition. (a) The patent owner may file a preliminary response to the petition. The response may set forth the reasons why no inter partes review should be instituted under 35 U.S.C. 314 and can include supporting evidence. The preliminary response is subject to the word count under § 42.24.

Given the lack of controversy over this proposal, it will almost certainly become a final rule in the months ahead.  But, will it make a difference?

Probably not much, at least not for IPRs in the predictable arts.

As alluded to above, if patentee evidence were as game-changing as urged, far more trials would conclude in favor of patentees once all evidence is considered. The statistics do not show a wide variation between institution rates and final cancellation rates. (Note: Some official statistics may be hard to follow in this regard since settled cases, requests for adverse judgment, and disclaimed claims are considered as findings of patentability)

Keep in mind that the vast majority (70-80%) of IPRs are in the predictable arts. Expert testimony, before an expert agency of engineers and scientists is nowhere near as critical as the same testimony in a district court.  Remember that thousands of decisions come out of the ex parte appeal section of the Board every year with no testimonial evidence of any kind. Simply stated, the Board doesn't need the technology explained to them. They are not, in most cases, picking a "winning expert." Instead, more often than not, judges are deciding technical issues based on their own experience and training in the predictable arts.

In the unpredictable arts, different story.  In those IPRs the new preliminary response option will have obvious benefits. While the Board is also technically skilled in the unpredictable arts, unpredictability lends itself more to outside guidance of experts in many niche technologies (Bio/Parma fields in particular).

But, what about the argument "ok, but it certainly can't hurt to have a more robust option in the predictable arts to present your case prior to institution."

Actually, this change can hurt, here's why. First, if you have presented arguments and evidence in your preliminary response, and the trial is instituted anyway, that institution decision (ID) now has more weight behind it.  In other words, within 6 months of filing, a panel of three technically trained judges, after hearing arguments and evidence from both sides, still finds the claims unpatentable—quite a sobering development for a patentee. Sure, the trial is still to come, but the argument that procedure has somehow unfairly colored the ID outcome will be lost to patentees.

The ability to argue the asymmetry in evidence has been of value to patentees also in co-pending litigation (which is most cases).  When facing a stay pending IPR in the district court, the argument that the ID is without the benefit of patentee evidence will be gone. The argument to the district court judge that the preliminary decision is wrong, and will change at trial, would seem less forceful. Moreover, given the ID weighs both sides evidence, isn't the argument to stay the case upon mere filing of an IPR now stronger?  Why not wait the short six months for this newly improved and balanced feedback of the expert agency?


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Let there be light of any frequency.
And man learned to control light, and it was good.

As featured on New Scientist:

The've figgured out how to take any frequency of light and changed it to any other frequency of light with near 100 percent efficency.

That means they can take green light, and make it red, or red light, and make it green. Or blue. Or any frequency they desire.

From the article: If the effect can be harnessed, it will revolutionise a range of fields � turning heat into light, for example, or prized terahertz rays.

Right now the way we typicaly deal with light and colors is we use white light and pass it through a filter, or gel, which blocks certian frequencies of light and passes others. Thus a white light can be turned green via a green gel. But going back the other way (green to white) "involves sending an extremely intense light pulse �with a power of many megawatts or even gigawatts �along next to it. This interacts with the first beam and alters its frequency, but the technique is expensive, requires high-power equipment, and is generally pretty inefficient."

Now they've discovered a way to use something called a photonic crystal to accomplish the trick. "They are used to steer light through circuits in the same way that electronic circuits direct electric current. From computer simulations, the team found that shock waves passing through a crystal alter its properties as they compress it. For example, a crystal that normally allows red light through but reflects green light might become transparent to green light and reflect red light instead.

The researchers worked out that if a photonic crystal is designed in a certain way, incoming light can get trapped at the shock wave boundary, bouncing back and forth between the compressed part of the crystal and the uncompressed part, in a "hall of mirrors" effect.

Because the shock wave is moving through the crystal, the light gets Doppler shifted each time it bounces off it. If the shock wave is travelling in the opposite direction to the light, the light's frequency will get higher with each bounce, while if it travelling in the same direction, the frequency drops."

Talk about facinating research!!! The implications of this changes everything about how we deal with light. The article gives one example of a fiber cable with many frequencies of light being bounced down it. "If a particular frequency is being used to capacity, then optical switches could shift light beams to a frequency where there is still capacity to spare."

I also thought it was interesting that right now they're doing their research by generating a shockwave by shooting a bullet(!) at the crystal. This destroys the crystal, but not before the effects can be observed.


Dover Book

Text Box with description of Book

    The title to this one is a bit misleading. I thought I was going to be reading a book about the lives of elves, fauns and fairies, or at least about beliefs and folklore concerning these entities. There is a little of that here, but most of the book is about seers, or people with "second-sight" in the Scottish-Irish lands. In fact, if fauns or elves were even mentioned it was in passing. Local labels are used, such as siths, or sleagh maith (the good people) called so because the Irish bless what they fear. The collective term used for them is "Subterranean Inhabitants."
    The book is kind of a hodge-podge of tales, stories, sightings, experiences and the like, collected by a minister of the church at Aberfoyle, Robert Kirk, who, like many Irish-Scottish peoples believed in the spirit world along with their Christian religion. Supposedly it was first published in 1691, then later in 1815, but there is no surviving published copy from the earlier date; only the original manuscript remains. The Dover edition is a reprint of the 1933 publications, with the introduction by R. B. Cunninghame Graham, and comments by Andrew Lang, both from an 1893 edition. The commentary by Lang takes up nearly half the book (44 pages). Incidentally, the language is a bit archaic, not to mention steeped with local dialect and terms, which makes comprehension a little more of a challenge. Therefore, I will report, to the best of my ability, my perceptions of the book. A second reading at sometime, combined with additional research would certainly clarify some of the confusion.
    Having gotten that bit out of the way, there was much in this book to marvel, especially a person as myself, who always finds it fascinating to read books that communicate and authenticate actual metaphysical experiences people have had. I have said this on many occasions, but I will say it again. We in the "modern" world (which does not necessarily imply progress, in fact, I see our current situation on this planet as catastrophically regressed and getting worse), have lost touch with anything that we can't see, hear, smell, taste, or touch. In other words, people such as myself who easily travel back and forth between physical and non-physical worlds are viewed as a nutter, and had I lived during Kirk's time, may have been burned as a witch. Possibly. In Ireland and Scotland, communing with the spirit world was a little more accepted as part of society. This book not only quotes biblical passages concerning metaphysics, but goes back to the ancients. Cornelius Agrippa is mentioned more than once. Born in 1486, he was known as a practitioner of the occult, an astrologer, and magician. Of course, he was the damning influence in the life of Victor Frankenstein. Even more ancient personalities mentioned include Plato, Pythagoras, and Socrates. My point in this is that early civilization did not find it abnormal to commune with non-physical entities, but modern culture, with all its distractions has lost contact with other, very real worlds, mocking what it does not understand because the modern mind has become numbed by texting and television and a whole realm of useless and destructive technology.
    And that is why I appreciate books such as this, because they confirm that what I know to be true, was once an acceptable part of society.
    What the book mostly contains is recorded incidents of intrusions from the spirit world into the lives of mortals, sometimes with deadly results. There are as many incidents of premonitions and other paranormal experiences, and visions by seers, which, the argument is made, may be the result of intercepting beings from the fairy world. Or not. As I said, there is a hodge-podge here, mostly for the purpose of having a written account of unearthly occurrences.
    So, what I will present with the remainder of the this review is simply some examples from the book.
    Read them for entertainment or curiosity, or look a little deeper. . .
    And one other short commentary: this edition contains some lovely fairy artworks, that looks as if they may be woodcuts or engravings. Unfortunately none are labeled, nor cited anywhere.

    As was mentioned earlier, Kirk collected these stories, and believed them. In fact the story goes that when he died, or in place of death, he was taken by the fairies, and was not able to be rescued, though he requested help. (For all we know, he may still be living in fairyland!) He made the argument that those humans who were able to accomplish extraordinary feats were being aided by fairies or a ghost, and often were burned as a witch. One case is Alison Pearson, who cured Archbishop Adamson of his disease:

"The Bischope keipit his castle lyk a tod in his holl, seik of a disease of grait fetiditie, and oftymes under the cure of a woman suspected of witchcraft, namelie, ane wha confessit hir to haiff learnit medecin of ane callit Mr. Wilyeam Simsone, that apeired divers tymes to hir efter his dead, and gaiff hir a buik. . ."

    And, no, the whole book is NOT written in Scottish!
    As far as concerning the habits of fairies, it was said they migrated to a new place quarterly, at which time the locals stayed off the roads and went to church, to avoid "terrifying encounters." "Their chameleon-like bodies swim in the air near the earth with bag and baggage." Supposedly they also appear at funerals to help carry the coffin, and eat, too, so there are people who will not touch the food served at funerals for fear of poisoning.
    Quite a bit was mentioned of the concept of the co-walker or double—a copy of a person that exists in the spirit world. This is nothing new, and certainly not limited to the Scottish Highlands. In Germany, it is called "doppelganger" and to see oneself peripherally (not as a reflection) was often a harbinger of doom. To Christians, this developed into the concept of a guardian angel, or Socrates' Daemon, who was a guide from the spirit world. In Philip Pullman's modern trilogy His Dark Materials, (source for the movie The Golden Compass), the characters lived in a parallel universe to our earth, and each had an animal daemon which stayed with them through life. When the person died, so did the animal.
    The interactions between the fairy world and humanity could range from mischievous to fatal. Brownies were known to enter one's kitchen during the night and tidy up. But sometimes fairies kidnapped a mother who had given birth to suckle their own young, while the shell of the bedded woman shriveled and died. In one case, however, it is claimed, after a couple years a "dead" mother did return, fully alive. Possessions frequently occurred, and often the victims were children. It was thought that putting cold iron in the bed with a potential target would ward off fairy intruders.
    It is believed that the fairy people dress in local habits, and cannot be harmed by our weapons, though they may hurt humans. In many cases, however, it is noted that when even heavy objects were hurled at a person, they became light as a feather as they struck, so as not to harm. Fairies, live very long, and have no religion. There are also certain female varieties "of this aerial order which do often tryst with lascivious young men in the quality of succubi or Lightsome paramours and strumpets." One particular man foretold his own death after a romp in the woods with one of these.
    I found very interesting the idea that battles and wars are first played out in the aerial world, to portend victory in the physical world. Anyone who is deeply involved in metaphysics, and the current endgame battle between humanity and The Controllers knows that the battle is, in fact, being played out in the physical and non-physical world.
    In any case, this book contains some mighty interesting information to those who are practitioners or participants in paranormal, metaphysical, and psychic phenomena. Do give it a read for some fascinating accounts.

Wood Elves Hiding and Watching a Lady

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